October 4, 2023

Wednesday, October 4, 2023. Annette’s News Roundup.

I think the Roundup makes people feel not so alone.

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Joe is always busy.

Touch 👇 to watch the President speak on the ADA and the Rehabilitation Act.

Touch 👇 to watch the President on reducing the price of drugs for Seniors. The Biden admin announced, in an historic first, major drug companies including Johnson & Johnson, Merck and Bristol Myers Squibb have committed to participate in Medicare drug price negotiations with the federal government.

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Kamala is always busy.

Laphonza Butler was sworn in as Senator from California. 👇

https://x.com/senatedems/status/1709295015753626073?s=61&t=I_Od53CbnPTsbLcD0baXPg

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For the first time in our country’s history, a Speaker of the House was removed.

The Chaos Caucus got rid of Kevin McCarthy. What’s next?

Watch 👇 the acting Speaker. OMG.

As one of his first acts as the acting speaker, Rep. Patrick McHenry ordered former Speaker Nancy Pelosi to vacate her Capitol hideaway office by Wednesday.

“Please vacate the space tomorrow, the room will be re-keyed.”

He and all in the Congress know that the Speaker Emerita is in San Francisco for the memorial service for the late Senator Dianne Feinstein.

GOP. So classy.

From Speaker Pelosi.

From Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries.

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Keeping tabs on truth at Trump’s New York Civil Trial for Fraud.

Touch 👇 to watch Trump lying.

It appears that Donald Trump didn’t get a jury trial in his $250 million New York civil fraud case because his lawyers forgot to check a box.

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Trump continues to foment violence.

Trump Said Shoplifters Should Be Shot, Part of a String of Violent Remarks.

Former President Donald J. Trump had a lot to say on the first day of the fraud trial against him and his company. Speaking to reporters at a Manhattan courthouse on Monday, he dismissed the judge as a “rogue” justice and said he did not “think the people of this country are going to stand for it.” And he focused on the official who filed the lawsuit against him, New York’s attorney general, Letitia James.

“This is a disgrace,” he said, “and you ought to go after this attorney general.”

The remark urging people to “go after” a top elected official in New York, by a former president whose invective has become a familiar backdrop of American life, was part of a pattern of increasingly sharp language from Mr. Trump.

Days earlier, he told hundreds of Republican activists in California that shoplifters should be shot. Not long before that, he insinuated that the military general he personally appointed as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff should be executed for treason.

Since he first became a political candidate in the 2016 presidential race, Mr. Trump has glorified violence, suggesting he wanted to hit a protester and offering to pay the legal fees if his supporters struck protesters at his rallies. But as Mr. Trump has been indicted four times in four jurisdictions in the last five months, and now faces a civil fraud trial in New York, his violent speech has escalated.

Mr. Trump’s public remarks, whether online, in interviews or at rallies, have always had the potential for incendiary effects. A number of defendants prosecuted over the attack on the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, said they believed they were acting on Mr. Trump’s orders.

Part of what has changed is that his violent remarks now come at a time when the indictments have already stoked anger among his supporters and when attacks against institutions, judges and prosecutors around the country have increased. The special counsel, Jack Smith, has asked the federal judge overseeing the case in which Mr. Trump was charged with trying to subvert the democratic process in 2020 for a limited gag orderbecause of his threatening statements against witnesses, prosecutors and others.

In a statement, Mr. Trump’s spokesman, Steven Cheung, was unapologetic, saying, “President Trump is a truth teller and calls it like he sees it. He has laid out the most transparent policy proposal of any campaign and voters will know who they are voting for — someone who will Make America Great Again!”

Mr. Trump also talked about mass shoplifting incidents at stores in major cities. Republicans have focused on the shoplifting sprees as examples of lawlessness, saying the punishment should be severe.

Very simply, if you rob a store, you can fully expect to be shot as you are leaving that store,” Mr. Trump told the crowd at a hotel ballroom in Anaheim. The audience cheered wildly. “Shot!” he added for emphasis.

The moment was Mr. Trump’s biggest applause line of the day. Attendees rose to their feet and chanted: “Trump! Trump! Trump!”

Mr. Trump voices most of his anger these days in a far less visible forum: Truth Social, the social media website he started in early February 2022, just over a year after he was barred from X, formerly known as Twitter. His X account was reinstated by the new owner, Elon Musk, but he has used it only once: to post the mug shot that officials took when he was arrested in Fulton County, Ga., in connection with his efforts to overturn his 2020 election loss in the state.

On Truth Social, he criticizes the prosecutors, reposts videos and memes attacking his critics and rivals, and blasts out clips from his own speeches. In one recent clip of a speech he gave in Michigan, he complained that if he hadn’t run for president, he “would have had the nicest softest life” but that “instead, I have to beat these lunatics up all day long.”

It was on Truth Social where Mr. Trump made the comment about the former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Mark A. Milley. The general was increasingly critical of Mr. Trump as his role came to an end, an extraordinary rebuke of a former president by a senior military leader.

In a Truth Social post, Mr. Trump wrote of the general’s calls with his Chinese counterpart, “This is an act so egregious that, in times gone by, the punishment would have been DEATH!”

At a ceremony honoring his departure, General Milley said, “We don’t take an oath to a country, we don’t take an oath to a tribe, we don’t take an oath to a religion, we don’t take an oath to a king or a queen, or to a tyrant or a dictator, and we don’t take an oath to a wannabe dictator.”

On Tuesday, Mr. Trump was given a gag order in the New York case, after sending around a campaign email with lengthy attacks on Justice Arthur F. Engoron, who is presiding over the civil fraud trial, as well as a post on his own social-media website attacking the judge’s clerk. The judge told the courtroom he ordered Mr. Trump to delete the post, and Mr. Trump did.

Any gag orders will be legally constraining for Mr. Trump in a way he has rarely experienced. But in the political realm, where he is increasingly trying to focus attention on the cases, gag orders may only increase Mr. Trump’s appeal with his supporters: The former president, who claims to be a victim of political persecution, is finding a receptive audience for his increasingly menacing language at campaign appearances. Mr. Trump has always leavened his sharpest words with humor, which can have a softening effect, a pattern that has continued with his recent appearances.(New York Times).

Judge issues gag order and rebukes Trump after social media post attacking his clerk.

(CNN) — Judge Arthur Engoron rebuked Donald Trump after the former president attacked his clerk in a social media post on Tuesday and forbade the parties from making any future comments about his staff.

“This morning one of the defendants posted on (a) social media account a disparaging untrue and personally identifying post about a member of my staff. Although I have since ordered the post deleted and apparently it was, it was also emailed out to millions of other recipients,” the judge said in court.

“Personal attacks of any member of my court staff are unacceptable, inappropriate and I will not tolerate them,” the judge said.

Trump looked straight ahead at the judge as he issued the order.

The judge then said all parties must not speak publicly about any members of the court staff.

“Consider this statement an order forbidding all parties from posting, emailing or speaking publicly about any members of my staff,” Engoron said. “Failure to abide by this … will result in serious sanctions.”

Trump posted on Truth Social Tuesday attacking Engoron’s clerk, claiming she was a “girlfriend” to Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, a New York Democrat, and showing a picture of the two of them together.

How disgraceful!” Trump wrote. “This case should be dismissed immediately.”

It was not immediately clear there was a connection between Engoron’s clerk and Schumer beyond taking a photo. CNN has reached out to Schumer’s office for comment.

During the lunch break before the judge’s admonishment, there was unusual activity outside the court room, and Trump went in and out during the break. There also was a short delay before court convened for the afternoon session.

For the past two days, Trump has voluntarily attended the New York civil trial, where the New York Attorney General Letitia James has brought a $250 million lawsuit accusing Trump and co-defendants of committing repeated fraud by inflating assets to get better terms on commercial real estate loans and insurance policies. (CNN).

Trump says he’ll testify.

Trump said he will testify at his civil trial, while speaking just outside the court room during a break in proceedings.

“Yes, I will. At the appropriate time I will be” testifying, he responded when asked.

Trump is expected to testify later in the trial, and he is on the witness list for both the state and his own legal team. Trump’s lawyer has previously said the former president is eager to testify in his own defense. (CNN).

One more thing.

Hmmm.

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Trump Chief of Staff John Kelly confirmed Trump’s comments about the military.

John Kelly goes on the record to confirm several disturbing stories about Trump.

From Sunday’s interview with Jake Tapper.

(CNN) — John Kelly, the longest-serving White House chief of staff for Donald Trump, offered his harshest criticism yet of the former president in an exclusive statement to CNN.

Kelly set the record straight with on-the-record confirmation of a number of damning stories about statements Trump made behind closed doors attacking US service members and veterans, listing a number of objectionable comments Kelly witnessed Trump make firsthand.

“What can I add that has not already been said?” Kelly said, when asked if he wanted to weigh in on his former boss in light of recent comments made by other former Trump officials. “A person that thinks those who defend their country in uniform, or are shot down or seriously wounded in combat, or spend years being tortured as POWs are all ‘suckers’ because ‘there is nothing in it for them.’ A person that did not want to be seen in the presence of military amputees because ‘it doesn’t look good for me.’ A person who demonstrated open contempt for a Gold Star family – for all Gold Star families – on TV during the 2016 campaign, and rants that our most precious heroes who gave their lives in America’s defense are ‘losers’ and wouldn’t visit their graves in France.

“A person who is not truthful regarding his position on the protection of unborn life, on women, on minorities, on evangelical Christians, on Jews, on working men and women,” Kelly continued. “A person that has no idea what America stands for and has no idea what America is all about. A person who cavalierly suggests that a selfless warrior who has served his country for 40 years in peacetime and war should lose his life for treason – in expectation that someone will take action. A person who admires autocrats and murderous dictators. A person that has nothing but contempt for our democratic institutions, our Constitution, and the rule of law.

“There is nothing more that can be said,” Kelly concluded. “God help us.“

In the statement, Kelly is confirming, on the record, a number of details in a 2020 story in The Atlantic by editor-in-chief Jeffrey Goldberg, including Trump turning to Kelly on Memorial Day 2017, as they stood among those killed in Afghanistan and Iraq in Section 60 at Arlington National Cemetery, and saying, “I don’t get it. What was in it for them?”

In the statement, Kelly is confirming, on the record, a number of details in a 2020 story in The Atlantic by editor-in-chief Jeffrey Goldberg, including Trump turning to Kelly on Memorial Day 2017, as they stood among those killed in Afghanistan and Iraq in Section 60 at Arlington National Cemetery, and saying, “I don’t get it. What was in it for them?”

The story squares with another recent story from Goldberg in The Atlantic, a profile of retired Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Mark Milley, in which Trump does not react well to seeing severely wounded Army Captain Luis Avila singing “God Bless America” at a welcome event for the new chairman. “Why do you bring people like that here? No one wants to see that, the wounded.”

No other presidential candidate in history has had so many detractors from his inner circle. His former secretary of defense, Mark Esper, told CNN in November 2022, “I think he’s unfit for office. … He puts himself before country. His actions are all about him and not about the country. And then, of course, I believe he has integrity and character issues as well.”

Trump’s former attorney general, Bill Barr, told CBS in June that “he is a consummate narcissist. And he constantly engages in reckless conduct. … He will always put his own interests, and gratifying his own ego, ahead of everything else, including the country’s interests. Our country can’t, you know, can’t be a therapy session for you know, a troubled man like this.” (Jake Tapper, CNN).

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Those folks at Mattel design another Barbie hit.

Stevie Nicks, Fleetwood Mac icon, now has her own mini-me Barbie.

The Stevie Nicks Barbie wears a dress based on the one Nicks wore on the cover of the Fleetwood Mac’s “Rumours” album.

(CNN) — The likeness of Stevie Nicks, former member of rock band Fleetwood Mac, has been immortalized in a new Barbie doll – and the singer-songwriter is made up.

The 75-year-old presented her Barbie doll to fans at her Madison Square Garden show in New York City on Sunday, calling it “Stevie Barbie,” a video posted on Instagram on Monday by entertainment company Live Nation showed.

Toy company Mattel, which owns the Barbie brand, made the doll available for preorder for $55 on Monday, but it has already sold out.

The doll, which forms part of Mattel’s Barbie Music Series, has smoky eyes and bangs and holds Nicks’ signature ribboned tambourine. She wears Nicks’ signature platform boots and golden moon necklace, and is clad in a flowing black dress inspired by the one the artist wore on the cover of her band’s legendary 1977 album “Rumours.”

The 75-year-old presented her “Stevie Barbie” to fans at her show at Madison Square Garden in New York City on Sunday.

“We wanted to wish Stevie Nicks a happy 75th birthday in the best way possible. So we created a Barbie doll to capture her iconic style,” Mattel said in a statement on Monday. Nicks’ birthday was in May.

“Stevie Nicks actually loaned us her signature black dress and boots for us to use as reference for the doll,” designer Bill Greening added.

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