william.scherk

More Julia Davis' 'Russian Media Monitor' results, with her customary spin. Presentiment: two days ago, Putin declared that Russian had lost nothing in Ukraine. There's nothing and then there's nothing, one might say. You will see some likely sobering moments for state TV watchers -- the context being today's reported rapid advances of Ukrainian forces towards a major rail transit/supply hub near Kharkiv. The offensive came as a relative surprise to the RF forces and leaders, it seems to me. It was not telegraphed, in any case -- even if imagineered as part of advance war-planning. But see map below from the Institute for the Study of War for the scope and proportions of the offensive. Interdicting troop and armament supplies by rail -- railways being the main Russian force-carrier -- and potentially trapping brigades-worth of forces in a pocket is serious. Such an encirclement removes supply and refresh options and could result in an out of the ordinary amount of RF casualties and captives. It could also impact the ability of Russia to supply fresh troops to counter the Kherson mini-offense on the southern from Russian-language war channels on Telegram are going crazy right now with rumours and reports of a rout for their side. The angriest are angry at sclerotic leadership, brittle command structure -- the deadly results of 'upper deck' decisions made far from the fronts. Ukraine's units are semi-autonomous and nimble in comparison. As a morale-enhancer for the Ukraine side, the counter-offensive is hard to beat. These areas have been under Russian control for six solid months.

Everthing moves fast on Judge Cannon's docket, I say. Just up, a joint submission by Plaintiff and the Government, responding to the judge's earlier demand and deadline. Apparently not without drama, the parties came together in time, just: https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.flsd.618763/gov.uscourts.flsd.618763.83.0.pdf

Some updates on filings and orders from Federal district court in West Palm Beach, Florida. The DOJ's notice of appeal (to the 11th Circuit) : https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.flsd.618763/gov.uscourts.flsd.618763.64.0_2.pdf The DOJ's motion for a partial stay, pending appeal: https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.flsd.618763/gov.uscourts.flsd.618763.69.0_2.pdf Two entries from the docket by Judge Cannon, from yesterday: Of note is that part one demands a response from Trump by this coming Monday. Also of note is that the government said it had halted the ODNI processing (with respect to "classified materials"). A spokesperson for the Office of the Director of National Intelligence confirmed the pause in a statement to POLITICO: “In consultation with the Department of Justice, ODNI temporarily paused the classification review of relevant materials and assessment of the potential risk to national security that would result from the disclosure of the relevant documents.” Underscoring its case for allowing the intelligence and law enforcement components of the probe to work together, DOJ contended that it was urgent the FBI be permitted to help investigate dozens of empty folders found at Mar-a-Lago with classification markings to determine what they once held and whether their contents “may have been lost or compromised” [Link] Curveball: There is only one court that is allowed to hear cases involving the Archivist (almost spelled that Antichrist ...) and Trump's privileges as a (former) President. This footnote from Labor Day's ruling: Today is the day both parties were odered submit names and outline processes for Special Master ... Judge Cannon is a quick moving force, to my eyes. From one point of view she is 'bending over backwards' to make sure the plaintiff's full concerns are heard. From another distinct point of view she is necessarily corrupt and beholden to the man who appointed her -- and to the Federalist Society. Another POV: giving such weight to the concerns of a former president can help to assure a fair outcome for all parties. Among the judge's concerns as expressed in her Labor Day order: “Plaintiff faces an unquantifiable potential harm by way of improper disclosure of sensitive information to the public” Another odd note I saw raised here and there in Predatorlandia is that there may be so-called "presidential records" that pertain to confidential matters about Trump himself: tax filings and medical records from the White House physician, for example. The odd note may be compleat speculation. "Improper disclosure of sensitive information to the public" is a big worry of the Trump side? Perhaps, perhaps not. (an hour or two exploring the concept of "equity jurisdiction") If readers here want to see what "Dems" in the shape of Luciferian Arguments sound like, a lot of people hang on this woman's analyses. Emptywheel.net. Among them who are spittin' mad about Judge Cannon's work but who rage in discrete, bounded episodes. I want to flag something that I think will be contentious going forward: Classified documents involving White House Counsel. In its description of why all classified documents should be exempted from Judge Cannon’s injunction, DOJ noted that classified records cannot belong to Trump, and so he has no basis to make a Rule 41(g) motion. But their explanation of why such records would be excluded from any attorney-client privilege determination is more telling. It only extends to Trump’s personal lawyers. DOJ is right that any classified documents obviously belong to the government. But Trump’s lawyers don’t even want to cede that point. They refused the motion for a stay with respect to classified documents (which is not surprising, because in the hearing Jim Trusty said they could just make copies of all the classified records). But there are known government documents in which the White House Counsel were involved that are likely among the ones Trump would most like to withhold: starting with discussions about materials (including a mention of Burisma) excised by the White House Counsel’s office from the transcript of the call between Trump and Volodymyr Zelenskyy. The particular language used here — specifying that attorney-client privilege only extends to stuff involving Trump’s “personal” or “private” attorneys — suggests there are materials at issue involving Trump’s non-private attorneys, which could be DOJ but is most likely the White House Counsel. Oh, yeah -- Trump lost round one of his big-ass RICO suit against Clinton et al. “We vehemently disagree with the opinion issued by the Court today. Not only is it rife with erroneous applications of the law, it disregards the numerous independent governmental investigations which substantiate our claim that the defendants conspired to falsely implicate our client and undermine the 2016 Presidential election,” Trump lawyer Alina Habba said in a statement. “We will immediately move to appeal this decision.” Fetish word of today: contentious. Breaking news of more filings. This will need some verification and review. These could be the craziest filings of all the DOJ's crazy filings in Judge Cannon's case. "Will not respond." WTF? All I got right now is that Trump as Plaintiff is invited to agree or dispute that the ~100 documents are/were classified. Meanwhile, of interest to Dinesh fans ... Dinesh's book publisher recalled its pre-delivered copies of his upcoming book. They said "errors," conspiracy theorists say "lAwSuIT bAiT" and we may never know, though a Dinesh D'Souza 'hater' Tom Driesbach managed to track down a copy of the recalled book and tried to squeeze scandal out of it.

Steve Bannon was charged (but never convicted) of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and money laundering in federal court in August 2000. The charges stemmed from the "We Build the Wall" campaign. The indictment said that Bannon and co-defendants unlawfully siphoned off money from donors to the campaign. When then-President Trump granted Bannon a pardon (on January 19 2021), the federal case against him was terminated. Notably, two the three men charged with Bannon in federal court subsequently pleaded guilty: Now Steve Bannon is indicted once again and will go to trial in New York state court. He faces five to fifteen years in prison if convicted. If the "stunt" of prosecuting Bannon's alleged fraud -- which given Kolfage and Badolato's guilty pleas, might seem like a slam dunk -- proceeds, he will head to trial this fall and justice may well be eventrually served. Who will be the face of War Room if Bannon gets sent to the pokey?

Re 'ranked choice voting' .... bear in mind that in Alaska, Independent voters and unaffiliated voters make up a large proportion of the electorate. The British system is more or less the same as the Canadian system for elections to the House of Commons. Each district is a single race for a single seat, one ballot is given to the voter, and the voter can select only one candidate to vote for. We call it "first past the post." Ranked-choice voting in Australia has been used since 1918; it's also called "preferential voting." Another way of looking at ranked-choice voting is as an "instant run-off" ... Sarah Palin is not universally popular in Alaska, so she may not be totally surprised at the outcome -- especially given that the winner used the SCOTUS abortion ruling to her benefit. Quick explainer from the Alaska Division of Elections:

Trading up the chain ... ? Since January's shocking Richard Hirschman interview, a skeptical question may well have been raised: How could one possibly verify (or disconfirm) an alleged link between "strange clots" and a COVID-19 vaccine?

Why would a former President save and want documentation? Aha! He planned on writing a memoir! Wagging the dog ...

Surprise, surprise. An order issued by Judge Aileen Cannon authorizes the appointment of a Special Master and freezes the criminal investigation. https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.flsd.618763/gov.uscourts.flsd.618763.64.0_2.pdf Let the gnashing of teeth commence!

Fortunately, the story included a link to the CDC report from which it dredged quotes. COVID-19 mRNA Vaccine Safety Among Children Aged 6 months to... WWW.CDC.GOV Discussion Approximately, one million young children have received an mRNA COVID-19 vaccine. The findings in this report are consistent with those from safety data from preauthorization clinical trials for young children (3,4). Trial participants aged 6 months–4 years who received Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine and 6 months–5 years who received Moderna vaccine most frequently reported mild or moderate local and systemic reactions; no serious adverse events judged to be related to vaccination were reported in the trial data (3,4). Initial postauthorization safety monitoring of 19 serious reports identified one report of febrile seizure plausibly associated with vaccination. Systemic reactions were more frequently reported after COVID-19 vaccination for children aged 6 months–2 years than for children aged 3–5 years. The most frequent reactions reported to v-safe for children aged 6 months–2 years included irritability or crying, sleepiness, and loss of appetite. These reactions are consistent with the clinical trial findings (3,4) and are common after childhood vaccination (7). Among VAERS reports for Pfizer-BioNTech recipients aged 6 months–4 years and Moderna recipients aged 6 months–5 years, 98% or more were nonserious. Vaccination errors were among the most common events reported to VAERS in this age group. No adverse event was associated with vaccination errors in 92% of these reports. Children in these age groups are authorized to receive a smaller amount of mRNA COVID-19 vaccine than are older children (8); incorrect dosing by vaccine administrators in different childhood age groups might lead to vaccination errors. Continued education of vaccine providers might help reduce administration errors, including incorrect dosing, among children. Of the eight seizures reported to VAERS, only one was associated with a fever (39.3°C [102.7°F] ) occurring after COVID-19 vaccination and two were in children with structural brain abnormalities. Myocarditis is a rare adverse event that has been associated with mRNA COVID-19 vaccines; the risk appears highest among adolescents and decreases with decreasing age in childhood (6). No events of myocarditis were reported to VAERS after vaccination in children aged 6 months–5 years. The findings in this report are subject to at least four limitations. First, v-safe is a voluntary program; as a result, v-safe data might not be representative of the vaccinated population. For example, although more doses of Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine than Moderna vaccine were administered to young children in the United States during the surveillance period of this report, more v-safe reports were received for children who received Moderna vaccine. Second, VAERS is a passive reporting system and is subject to reporting biases and underreporting, especially of nonserious events (5). Third, Pfizer-BioNTech dose 3 data were not available at the time of this analysis. Finally, these data are limited by the short surveillance period and might change as safety monitoring continues and more doses are administered to children aged 6 months–5 years. The Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices recommends that all persons aged ≥6 months receive a COVID-19 vaccine (8). Initial vaccine safety monitoring in children aged 6 months–5 years are usually similar to those described in clinical trials, and no unexpected safety concerns were detected (3,4). Health care providers and parents of young children should be advised that local and systemic reactions are expected after vaccination with COVID-19 mRNA vaccines, and serious adverse events are rare. CDC and FDA will continue to monitor vaccine safety and will provide updates as needed to guide COVID-19 vaccination recommendations.

There is nothing intrinsically wrong with Woo-Woo. The greatest spiritual traditions on Earth, of which some provide great comfort and community, from an atheist perspective could seem firmly grounded in woo, from the Holy Ghost to the Resurrection. Crazy is a pejorative, but warnings in hand ... Is this appreciably different from "Sovereign Citizen" belief and practice? In Canada we go whole hog with woo-woo at times. Who is not a fan of a citizen of Canada so sovereign in her citizenship that she styles herself Queen of Canada? All hail Romana Didulo.

The Amazon.com page for Ayn Rand and the Russian Intelligentsia has the trusty "Look Inside" feature enabled -- for the front matter and part of the introduction. Here's a passage from the intro: I will be looking out for a commentary or review from Chris Sciabarra.

A transcript of Thursday's hearing before Judge Aileen Cannon: https://s3.documentcloud.org/documents/22274704/trumphearingtranscript.pdf -- I won't try to summarize, save to say that Judge Cannon seems to be giving the Plaintiff lawyers a good opportunity to plead their case of harm against him. Here's who the various lawyers are in this proceeding. -- a particularly interesting question from Judge Cannon:

From Russian sources, in translations, some reporting on humanitarian challenges in Russian-occupied areas of Ukraine. The main website is WarTranslated.com. Russian source: Occupied territories of Ukraine are facing humanitarian catastrophe Ex-Ukrainian politician, defector Dimitriyev, responding to videos featuring hunger strikes in Mariupol, believes the occupied territories of Ukraine, the Donbass region specifically is facing a serious humanitarian crisis in the nearest future. The message was posted in his Telegram channel. As I told you from the very beginning (and even before the operation) – Russian managers are simply not able to establish a normal life in the new territories. Not because they are fools (although most often they are), but because the entire management system is designed not for facing challenges and implementation of new projects, but for stability and control. That is, to support life in the Russian region – yes, bread is baked there, but to arrange the delivery of bread to Mariupol – no, because this is beyond the limits of competence and usual powers. Plus, the law enforcement system is set up so that anything going beyond the limits of authority is stopped and the initiator is punished. Therefore, I think that the new territories will become a zone of humanitarian catastrophe in winter. Restoration of heating and water supply in many affected settlements does not occur. Restoration of housing stock for the most part takes place in the form of window dressing – beautiful houses will be erected on the main streets. There is a hidden struggle for budget contracts – patronage regions, LDNR, Chechens. In addition, people simply have nothing to get by for. Payments to state employees from Ukraine have ended, and those from Russia are difficult to kickstart, even Putin’s 10,000 [rubles], for the most part, have evaporated somewhere. Small business could rectify the situation, but in the Russian system of coordinates it is seen more as a problem. So, for example, in Melitopol, the first thing they banned was street trading, and in Kherson they took away goods for “illegal trading activities.” Therefore, when you fantasise that Ukraine will die of cold and hunger in winter, you must understand that it will not be the first victim of winter. In the fall, a new wave of refugees may pour in from the occupied territories, and no one even understands where to take them. It is especially strange that the stake in the campaign before the referendum in the territories has been put on historical unity. [...] The show is a live feed in Russian with two talking heads who discuss military facts and rumours and purported intelligence. While exposure to Russian media on Telegram and through intercepted calls helps shape their OSINT, their flawless fluency in Russian does not mask partisan stripe. You can watch the videos with English subtitles (by choosing Russian subtitles and then selecting auto-translation) or follow along the brief translated notes. Day 185, August 28. Summary of Arestovych and Feygin daily broadcast. • WarTranslated WARTRANSLATED.COM Summary of the daily livestream with Aleksey Arestovych, kindly brought to you by Stepan: https://twitter.com/childsacrifice1 Front line update (east): Southeast of Chuhiv the Russians attempted to... From my windows into the Russian world, this is Constantin's latest sober and sad video, upon his visit to Moscow from family home in Rostov-on-Don.

Unsealed inventory! https://int.nyt.com/data/documenttools/expanded-mar-a-lago-inventory/ddd2634e93cbc431/full.pdf U.S. court unseals more documents stemming from FBI search of Trump's home GROUND.NEWS A federal court in West Palm Beach on Friday unsealed more documents tied to the FBI's unprecedented Aug. 8 search of former President Donald Trump's Florida home, after media outlets asked for the...

Do you know who else would not be shocked at a Trump indictment, Marc? This guy, Andrew Napolitano, former FoxNews legal personality (I forget if he was canned or flounced off -- or as with Lou Dobbs's departure from Fox, there one day, next day not, no goodbyes). In the Washington Times opinion piece Napolitano starts off with "It gives me no joy to write this piece" ... that part may be bumf, while the rest of his argument could be of interest, if only for the invocation of a Murray Rothbard percept. Why Donald Trump will soon be indicted What will his defense be? I think there is a real reluctance (and policy prescription) that "politically-charged" proceedings do not drop bombshells like an indictment of former president, at least not before the November 8 elections. Napolitano may have been infected with the basic malady that leads to full, alarming syndromal behaviour. He's not all the way there yet. In the back of my mind is a vision that Biden will proffer a pardon to Trump between now and then, secretly and with conditions. If you think back to the number of criminal proceedings and jail time derived from the Watergate scandal, and that Gerald Ford, for better or worse, removed any future criminal sanction for his former boss with the Nixon pardon, it could be argued that Biden pre-emptively pardoning his predecessor would be better for the nation's mental and maybe physical health. Of course, my musing doesn't extend to figuring out what the secret deal would be. "I and We give you pardon. You and you give us _______" ... -- in other news of the present scandal of Mar-a-Lago raid, Judge Aileen Bannon's heard arguments today from the Movant's side and from the government's side. Nothing of bombshell material was decided, although there is some confusion about a more detailed inventory being unsealed and/or delivered to the Movant's attorneys. No date set on when she might put out a ruling, and no real intel from reporters in the courtroom on what may be decided It's interesting to see Alina Habba do the rounds of media appearances yesterday and today. It's almost as if she is not in consultations or coordination with the other Trump lawyers in court today. They have not claimed that he had declassified anything at issue. President Trump did two interviews today, both notable for the feisty and upbeat message. John Fredericks and Wendy Bell were the hosts. [Links to come]

From the Daily Press linked story: Under a voter-approved elections process being used for the first time in Alaska elections this year, party primaries have been scrapped and ranked choice voting is being used in general elections. The top four vote-getters in a primary race, regardless of party affiliation, are to advance to the general election. From a page at Alaska's Anchorage Daily News, that explains the circumstances of this special election and the November 8 balloting; simply put, the winner declared tonight gets to serve until next swearing-in day after the November elections; emphases added: Democrat Mary Peltola wins special U.S. House election, will be first Alaska Native elected to Congress [...] Democrat Mary Peltola was the apparent winner of Alaska’s special U.S. House race and is set to become the first Alaska Native in Congress, after votes were tabulated Wednesday in the state’s first ranked choice election. Peltola topped Republican former Gov. Sarah Palin after ballots were tallied and after votes for third-place GOP candidate Nick Begich III were redistributed to his supporters’ second choices. Peltola, a Yup’ik former state lawmaker who calls Bethel home, is now slated to be the first woman to hold Alaska’s lone U.S. House seat. If results are confirmed as expected by the state review board later this week, she will succeed U.S. Rep. Don Young, the Republican who held the office for nearly five decades — since before Peltola was born. The special election was triggered by Young’s death in March. “I feel like I need to catch my breath for a minute,” Peltola said in the moment after results were announced in a live video by state election officials in Juneau. Peltola was surrounded by family and campaign staff at an Anchorage office. “What’s most important is that I’m an Alaskan being sent to represent all Alaskans. Yes, being Alaska Native is part of my ethnicity, but I’m much more than my ethnicity,” she said. [...] It is an outcome largely seen as an upset. Peltola would be the first Democrat to join Alaska’s three-person congressional delegation since U.S. Sen. Mark Begich lost reelection in 2014. And she defeated two Republicans to do so. Combined, Palin and Nick Begich III, nephew of Mark Begich and grandson of former U.S. Rep. Nick Begich, commanded nearly 60% of first-place votes. The special election, held Aug. 16 with mail-in ballots counted over the past two weeks and the ranked choice standings announced Wednesday, determines who will serve out the remainder of Young’s term, which ends in about four months. Another election in November will determine who holds the seat for the full two-year term that begins in January.

Trump has responded in a 19-page motion. Basically, ignore all of the meretricious nonsense in the DOJ brief and make a special master do what I suggest. Via the Washington Examiner.

A timely spanking from Styx, via Rumble: If you have a high-resolution image of the evidence photo, you can look closely at the TIME magazine cover off to the right. It depicts various figures massed outside the office windows, with Trump on the phone in the foreground. Some mouthpieces, former honchos and not -- along with calm and rational voices from Trump World have their own soundbites doing the round today. You can catch Kash Patell on the Benny Johnson show spitting fire. #Stagegate?

I'd be shocked if Trump is charged with a crime before the mid-term elections. Meanwhile, the Department of Justice has submitted a motion to Judge Cannon opposing the Special Master request made by Donald Trump. The DOJ claims that they seized items that do not belong to Donald Trump, to put it briefly. Eg,

I truly love the memoir-like pieces and vignettes you've provided over the years; the fluency you've gained as a writer shines through in those kinds of storytelling. So, as a sucker for a good memoir, I hope you keep that passion alive. Not a full-fledged autobiography, but telling moments and hinges in the arc of a life. Muses on!

Trump's True Truth Social account re-Truths a definition of Trump Derangement Syndrome:

Fresh from the Bannon War Room today.