CDC data shows that in 37 states, as of week ending August 19th, COVID-19 admissions are increasing with half of states reporting a “substantial” jump – as new virus strains circulate nationwide…
https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/science/forecasting/hospitalizations-forecasts.html
Let’s me make something clear: NO criminal defendant or convicted inmate should have to endure conditions such as those at the notoriously overcrowded and violent Fulton County Jail in Atlanta.
Yep, that even goes for Doanld John Trump, who last week had to surrender at the jail, along with his 18 co-defendants, ALL charged with trying to overturn the ’20 vote in Georgia. They were ALL booked, photographed and released after paying bail, except for one.
But…
I confess to feeling a touch of schadenfreude that a “law-and-order” president got a glimpse of the life he faces if convicted, only because the “tough-on-crime” consensus among politicians like Trump is arguably responsible for creating a place as brutal and neglected as the Fulton County Jail.
Over the last seventy-two hours, as Donald John Trump and his 18 co-defendants in the Georgia election interference case turned themselves in one by one at an Atlanta jail, their lawyers began working to change how the case will play out.
Federal officials charged with state crimes can move their cases to federal court if they can convince a judge that they are being charged for actions connected to their official duties, among other things.
They are ALREADY odds over when they will have their day in court, but also, crucially, where. Should enough of them succeed, the case could split into several smaller cases, perhaps overseen by different judges in different courtrooms, running on different timelines.
Five defendants have ALREADY sought to move the state case to federal court, citing their ties to the federal government. The first one to file – Mark Meadows, Trump’s chief of staff during the ’20 election – will make the argument for removal this coming Monday, the 28th, in a hearing before a federal judge in Atlanta.
In the Georgia case, the question of whether to change the venue – a legal maneuver known as removal – matters because it would affect the composition of a jury.
If the case stays in Fulton County, Georgia, the jury will come from a bastion of Democratic politics where Trump was trounced in ’20. If the case is removed to federal court, the jury will be drawn from a 10-county region of Georgia that is more suburban and rural – and somewhat more Trump-friendly. Because it takes only one NOT-guilty vote to hang a jury, this modest advantage could prove to be a very big deal.
Get your ticket punched, boys and girls!!!!!!!!!
Jerome Powell, the chair of the Federal Reserve, used a closely watched speech to make clear that the central bank does NOT yet think it has gotten “inflation” fully under control and stands ready to raise interest rates further if needed.
Powell, who was delivering a this morning at the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City’s annual Jackson Hole conference in Wyoming, said that the Fed would “proceed carefully” as it decided whether to make further policy adjustments after a year and a half in which it had pushed interest rates up sharply.
While acknowledging that progress has been made, the central bank leader said inflation is still above where policymakers feel comfortable. He noted that the Fed will remain flexible as it contemplates further moves, but gave little indication that it’s ready to start easing up anytime soon.
Powell indicated it’s too soon to declare victory, even with data this summer running largely in the Fed’s favor. June and July both saw easing in the pace of price increases.
Central bankers have lifted interest rates to a range of 5.25 to 5.5%, up from near-zero as recently as March 2022, in a bid to cool the economy and wrestle inflation lower. They have been keeping the door open to the possibility of one more rate increase, and have been clear that they expect to leave interest rates elevated for some time.
The Orange Despot, with the strawberry locks, surrendered for booking last night before the deadline set by the district attorney prosecuting him in the alleged plot to overturn the ’20 presidential election result in Georgia.
Donald John Trump’s moments inside the jail’s booking center were supposed to be marked by their ordinariness. County officials strove to treat “the former guy” and his alleged co-conspirators like other defendants subject to the less than dignified procedure.
He is now subject to a detailed set of conditions in return for the continued privilege of staying out of the county’s notoriously decrepit jail.
In addition to posting $200,000 bail, Trump must NOT intimidate any co-defendant or witness in the case “or otherwise obstruct the administration of justice.” And the court included another condition tailored to Trump by specifying that the communication restrictions apply to social media.
Trump’s agreement to these conditions – and Fulton County Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee’s duty to protect!!! court personnel and witnesses from intimidation and the jury from bias – provide ample authority to muzzle and punish Boy Orange should he continue engaging in incendiary rhetoric about the case.
But…
Trump’s track record provides every reason for concern that he will ignore his obligations and essentially dare!!! the court to impose a gag order, hold him in contempt and put him in jail.
NO one in the system wants that…
The question, however, is whether Trump will leave the judge any choice. He may be determined to flout the order, concluding that he will be celebrated as a rebel for defying the authorities and a martyr if they bring him to heel. The showdown will only reinforce his claims that the Deep State is coming for him and by extension his supporters.
The ugly fact is that, as on January 6, 2021, Trump may unleash violent forces he won’t be able to control.
There are reasons to believe the Fulton County case is unlikely to be completed!!! before the November ’24 election. But it won’t be going away either. For Trump, conviction and incarceration in Georgia remain among the most frightening perils in the legal minefield awaiting him…and us.
A picture worth a thousand words!!!!!!!!!!!
Yevgeny Prigozhin, the founder of the Wagner mercenary group who staged a brief mutiny against Russia’s military leadership in June, was listed as a passenger on a plane that crashed yesterday, killing ALL 10 people aboard, according to Russian aviation authorities.
As is so often the case with atrocities in Putin’s Russia, the plane crash was probably exactly what it appeared to be: the assassination of a nettlesome rival by the ruthless ruler.
Putin played the aftermath of the aforementioned mutiny with the same cunning that has kept him in power for more than 20 years, allowing the warlord to leave for Belarus, dropping formal charges against him, inviting him to a reported three-hour chat at the Kremlin, then leaving him free to move about Russia.
The racketeer-turned-caterer-turned-warlord-and-Putin crony NEVER stood a chance against Vlad The Bad!!!
As the old Lobsterman watched last night’s first Republican presidential debate, one thing, repeatedly, flashed in-and-out of my mind: the clown car will NEVER be short of occupants…EVER!
Roughly, at the halfway point of the two-hour debate, the eight candidates were asked to raise their hands if they would support Donald John Trump as the ’24 Republican nominee even if he’d been convicted of a felony, up shot DeSantis’s arm. Haley’s, too. NO hesitation. NO concern about which of Trump’s 91 felony counts!!!!!!!! might be under discussion. NO insistence that they’d have to see how strong the evidence turned out to be. Just fealty.
It’s what 40%, at the moment, of the Republican electorate seems to insist on, so it’s what ALL eight candidates onstage in Milwaukee except Chris Christie and Asa Hutchinson pledged.
Profiles in Courage…
The party is NOT turning away from Trump, and that was the distinction of an event at which Trump was physically absent but spiritually present, an oppressive orange specter manifest in the bits and pieces of him that the candidates other than Christie and Hutchinson reassembled into their own political identities – and in their unwillingness to do what most needed doing and tell their party the full truth about Trump’s lies.
The winner of the debate, who was in control of the stage, that shifted every discussion was the AUDIENCE. They behaved and sounded like a RABBLE, but they were undoubtedly in control…Trump’s minions.
NOTHING was surprising last night from the party that unflinchingly supports Trump regardless of the nature and number of his transgressions. The party that labels the sickening events of 1/6 as “legitimate political discourse.”
Gina Raimondo, the secretary of commerce, will travel to Beijing and Shanghai for a series of meetings next week.
Raimondo will meet with senior Chinese officials and American business leaders between August 27th and the 30th, the Department of Commerce said in an announcement in the last hour. The department said that Raimondo was looking forward to “constructive discussions on issues relating to the US-China commercial relationship, challenges faced by US businesses, and areas for potential cooperation.”
The visit comes during a period of tensions between Washington and Beijing, and amid extreme volatility in the Chinese economy, which is struggling with stagnate growth and serious real estate problems.
Since June, Secretary of State Tony Blinken, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and presidential climate guru Johnny Kerry, have made trips to meet with counterparts in China.
Their meetings could potentially pave the way for a visit by China’s leader, Xi Jinping, to the United States this Fall.
As the cabinet official most responsible for promoting the interests of American businesses abroad, Raimondo is likely to try to expand some commercial relations, and express concerns about a recent crackdown on firms with foreign ties in China.
Of specific interest to the old Lobsterman will be how Raimondo plans to touch on the technology restrictions that Raimondo’s department oversees, which have prohibited companies in fields like artificial intelligence and quantum computing from sharing their most advanced technology with China. China has strongly objected!!! to those restrictions.
h/t: CNBC and Financial Times.
The news continues to be tragic, at every turn.
Local officials had released plan after plan acknowledging that wildfire was ALL but certain.
It was the event that wildfire experts and residents on Maui had warned about for years – a blaze fueled by hurricane winds roaring through untamed grasses and into a coastal town with few ways in or out.
Thus, when the nightmare fire erupted across Lahaina on August 8th, killing at least 114 people and possibly scores more, systems that had been put in place to sound the alarm and bring people to safety collapsed, residents and experts said.
Cellphone sites were burned and lost power, leaving people unable to communicate or receive emergency alerts. Two main roads providing escape routes out of town were closed because of flames and downed power lines, funneling evacuees into an inferno of gridlock along a coastal road where many burned inside their cars. Powerful emergency sirens NEVER made a sound. Fire hoses almost ran dry.
The state of Hawaii’s own guide on how people should respond to hurricanes, tsunamis and other disasters does NOT include any direction on what to do in a wildfire.
Hawaii’s wildfire risk has been growing after years of underinvestment in fire departments and fire prevention. There were NOT enough access roads for firefighters or evacuation routes in subdivisions, and that landowners were NOT REQUIRED to manage the invasive grasses that become tinder for fires.
Tragically, there’s NO political profit in fire prevention, or fire fighting. So, it doesn’t get funding, resources, and/or set as a priority.
As a result, people die from preventable disasters like this one.
INDIVIDUAL RESPONSIBLITY counts for much as well!!!
Lobster on the Prairie 