…it’s clearly going to be one of “those” days

MPs voted down all 10 amendments made by peers over the past few weeks to return the bill to the form in which it was initially passed by the Commons in January, giving a much-needed boost to the beleaguered prime minister.

The safety of Rwanda (asylum and immigration) bill, which is designed to overcome the supreme court’s objections to the plan, will return to the Lords later this week. Peers will then have to decide whether to reinsert their amendments and slow down the bill’s passage once more.
[…]
The rejection of the amendments provides some welcome relief for the prime minister after a difficult few weeks that culminated over the weekend in speculation that Penny Mordaunt, the Commons leader, could be lining up a bid to replace him before the election.

Sunak has urged his party to keep faith with his leadership, promising on Monday that 2024 “will be the year Britain bounces back”.

He is hoping that a combination of falling inflation, accelerating growth and the long-awaited start to his Rwanda plan will help boost the Tories’ flagging poll ratings later in the year.

…I mean…this is the thing where the man who just in that last few days said he wasn’t looking to “go to the country” with a general election on the same day as the local ones coming up at the beginning of may…because he thinks he can improve on his likely verdict in one of those if he can move some needles first…is trying to move a big performative one by sticking a couple of hundred refugees on a plane to rwanda the way texas likes to bus people from the mexican border to martha’s vineyard or wherever…which currently involves a lot of people making stentorian pronouncements about “the sovereignty of parliament”…which in this instance means more or less explicitly parliament’s right to enact legislation in contravention to existing law produced by other governing bodies…like…say…institutions who wouldn’t agree to decreeing that it is a “safe” country for the purposes of punting refugees over there…while being capable of representing a deterrent on the basis that “if you try to come here we’ll make sure you get sent there so you’re better off forgetting about the whole idea”…but…fuck…it’s like they got a MAGA consultant to write the shit up…it is…bad…it’s just badly conceived & the way they composed it is even worse

Among the 10 amendments peers have made to the bill in recent weeks was one that would have forced ministers to abide by domestic and international law. Others included preventing the government from declaring Rwanda a safe country until Kigali implements a series of safeguards it has promised, and exempting those who have worked with the British armed forces abroad from being deported to the African country.

…& that’s not even getting into the part where they worded it so that once they deemed it “safe” it would…stay that way…until they made a new law to say that by law it wasn’t…it’s…basically fucking insane…I mean…the tory party is basically the only one voting for this thing…& bits of even that bloc think it’s bonkers…& they killed an amendment that required obeying the fucking law…how is that not the quiet part with access to a fucking bullhorn?

Opening the debate on Monday afternoon, Michael Tomlinson, the minister for illegal migration, told the Commons: “This bill is an essential element of our wider strategy to protect our borders and to stop the boats, to prevent the tragic loss of lives at sea caused by dangerous, illegal and unnecessary crossings across the Channel.”

…uh huh

He added: “I don’t accept that the provisions of the bill undermine the rule of law, and the government takes its responsibilities and its international obligations incredibly seriously. There’s nothing in the bill that requires any act or omission which conflicts with our international obligations.”

…sure…& israeli spokespeople don’t accept that anyone other than hamas bears responsibility for the deaths of tens of thousands of civilians & a state of incipient famine throughout gaza…saying some shit don’t mean it has even a tenuous connection to reality…I mean…what reading of your international obligations lets you claim that contravening international law is in keeping with those…for a start?

Officials say that if the Lords chooses to add in more amendments, it is unlikely to pass until Easter. Even then, however, they believe they will still hit the spring deadline.

A Downing Street official said: “The timeline remains unchanged, whether the bill is passed before or after Easter.”

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2024/mar/18/mps-vote-to-throw-out-amendments-to-rwanda-deportation-bill

…as far as I can tell…the way the timeline remains unchanged even if the bill gets further delayed…is that they want the first plane to take off before they open the polling booths for that general election…which has to happen before the end of jan ’25…because they’ve missed their window for a slot in the queue for a runway on a serial basis for a year or more already…so…we seem to have reached the stage of just saying words with no regard for their meaning & then trying to look like you think everything’s going your way without resembling the dog from the “this is fine” meme…not that that’s hard…because mostly it seems like people couldn’t give a fuck…they’re too busy speculating about the royal family & whether if you look different without professional makeup & amateur photoshop…you’re a body double

Kate Middleton Is Expected to Soft Launch Herself During an Easter Walk [Cosmopolitan (yesterday, by the looks of it)]

EXCLUSIVE: Inside top secret plan for Kate Middleton’s return to public life as aides work around clock [Daily Mirror (probably just “Mirror” now but not in my head)]

…then the sun ran some story with a still from a video clip that then popped up I-dunno-where-or-why-I-should-care & she…doesn’t look like she usually does…so…everyone’s been very responsible & restrained

Here’s Why Kate Middleton and Prince William Divorce Rumors Are Spreading and Where They Came From [Cosmopolitan…uhhhh…also yesterday?]

…so…yeah…that’s how it’s going…there’s case studies

Linda Wenhold absorbed Patriot Academy’s message that America is falling apart as it drifts from its biblical roots. Then she won a seat on her local Pennsylvania school board. [WaPo]

…the rocket’s red glare is looking increasingly like an emergency distress flare

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/mar/16/arizona-election-denial-consequences

…while here & there poster boys for megalomania show ’em how it’s done

Observers say Russian leader’s election numbers approaching 90% mark final break with western conventions [Guardian]

…they squarin’ circles everyplace you look, seems like

Judge rules Reddit and YouTube must face lawsuits claiming they enabled Buffalo grocery mass shooter [NBC]

…uh huh…the people who made & sold the guns & ammo, though…nah?

Experts war-gamed what might happen if deepfakes disrupt the 2024 election. Things went sideways fast. [NBC]

…really? …I’m fucking shocked…there just weren’t any any…whatchamacallits…warning signs

From an investor standpoint, the Tesla and SpaceX CEO said, “if there is something I’m taking, I should keep taking it.” [NBC]

…he means ketamine, apparently…which he can’t be taking much of or he’d finally shut the fuck up as it separated his brain from its sensory inputs & his mouth & his fingers wouldn’t work for a period I’d probably refer to as “blessed relief”…but…we could do worse than have a vet put him out of our misery…just sayin’…anyway…back to arguing black is white until you’re blue in the face

Trump says Jews who vote for Democrats ‘hate’ Israel and ‘their religion’ [NBC]

…if you are either dumb enough to swallow that…or you’ve been under a rock for a few years & are unaware of the heaping helping of flack biden’s taking for being way too onside with israel & incomprehensibly don’t know any better…frankly it’s irresponsible to go around voting & you should go read a few banned books & take a history class before attempting to interact with this millenium…but…well…that’s probably not going to happen, either

Trump’s mixed-up, invented and false account of his first impeachment [WaPo]

…not that that’s a problem when you can just say it did…allegedly…this shit is no joke

In an interview with Donald Trump that aired over the weekend, Fox News host Howard Kurtz presented Trump with a not-exactly-novel theory: that Trump uses “over the top, sometimes inflammatory language” to draw attention.

…a joke is all it should be…but nothing about this is funny

“Now, if I don’t get elected,” he continued, “it’s going to be a bloodbath for the whole — that’s going to be the least of it. It’s going to be a bloodbath for the country.”

Here’s what we can say: Trump might indeed have been speaking metaphorically in this case. But the broader context here is vital. And that context is that Trump has repeatedly invoked the prospect of actual violence by his supporters while speaking about similar circumstances — his losing or facing criminal accountability, for example. We also saw a pronounced example of his supporters seizing on his rhetoric when they stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
[…]
Regardless, a focus on the one word misses the point. It’s not that this isolated comment is particularly egregious; it’s that it is merely the latest example of this kind of rhetoric. And the rhetoric is often more direct:

• Trump in 2016 said that if he were denied the presidential nomination at the GOP convention, “I think you’d have riots.”
• Trump in November 2020 responded to an adverse ruling by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court by saying it would “induce violence in the streets.” (Trump later expanded, saying, “Bad things will happen, and bad things lead to other type things. It’s a very dangerous thing for our country.”)
• Trump warned last March of “potential death & destruction” if he were charged by the Manhattan district attorney. He also mocked those who urged his supporters to stay peaceful, saying, “OUR COUNTRY IS BEING DESTROYED, AS THEY TELL US TO BE PEACEFUL!”
• Trump warned in August, after the search of his Mar-a-Lago estate, that “terrible things are going to happen.” He later promoted a comment from Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) that there would be “riots in the streets” if Trump were charged.
• Trump in January warned of “bedlam in the country” if the criminal charges against him succeeded. Days earlier, he targeted efforts to remove him from the ballot using the 14th Amendment, saying: “Because if we don’t [get treated fairly], our country’s in big, big trouble. Does everybody understand what I’m saying? I think so.”

And this doesn’t even account for the many, many examples of his alluding more suggestively to righteous violence by his supporters. He does this a lot. Sometimes it’s direct; sometimes it’s veiled and carries with it the plausible deniability that he craves.

…fucker thinks he’s michael corleone…when he’s vlad’s fredo…it’s…sad…& one sorry fucking picture

[…there was more to this a moment ago…but then wordpress logged me out…the laptop seized up & then announced it needed to reboot for some sort of obligatory update & I ended up finding what remains of this post on my phone to push it live while I figure out if I have time to rebuild it…or remember what I typed the first time…or which tunes I picked…which…not currently but maybe after more coffee?]

At a 2020 presidential debate, Trump was asked to repudiate violence by white supremacists and the Proud Boys, a far-right group. Trump responded by telling the Proud Boys not to “stand down,” as had been suggested, but to “stand back and stand by.” That set off a fuss similar to the one we see today, with Trump allies and media critics asserting that this was much ado about nothing — just some awkward phrasing! For days, Trump and his White House resisted calls to clarify.

Months later, the Proud Boys — who in real time appeared to interpret Trump’s comments as a call to action — played a central role in the Capitol insurrection.

Also interpreting Trump’s various comments as a call to action, according to their legal defenses: many other Jan. 6 defendants.

With that kind of history, it’s certainly a choice for Trump to keep talking like this. And there was even a time when Republicans worried about what Trump might be fomenting.
[…]
You can argue that one comment is being blown out of proportion. But the track record here is clear.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2024/03/18/bloodbath-aside-trumps-violent-rhetoric-is-unambiguous/

…you don’t have to be a pasty old dude to spout shite for a living

The judge overseeing Donald Trump’s classified-documents case issued an unusual order late Monday regarding jury instructions at the end of the trial — even though she has not yet ruled on when the trial will be held, or a host of other issues.

U.S. District Court Judge Aileen M. Cannon instructed lawyers to file proposed jury instructions by April 2 on two topics that are related to defense motions to have the indictment dismissed outright.
[…]
In that hearing, she sounded skeptical that Trump’s attack on the Espionage Act, or his embrace of the Presidential Records Act, were strong enough to save the former president and likely 2024 Republican White House nominee from a criminal trial. At the same time, she suggested that aspects of Trump’s arguments might be valid enough to come into play during jury instructions.

…it can’t take the weight of forming part of proceedings but it’s good enough for government work? …incoherent much?

Juries are instructed on how to weigh the evidence just before they begin deliberating, so Cannon’s focus on this topic suggests she is not only thinking ahead to a trial of the former president, but already zeroing in on the end, rather than the beginning, of such a proceeding.

Her two-page order, however, also suggests an openness to some of the defense’s claims that the Presidential Records Act allows Trump or other presidents to declare highly classified documents to be their own personal property. National security law experts say that is not what the law says, or how it has been interpreted over decades by the courts, particularly given the other laws that govern national security secrets.

…in a lot of contexts we call that “making shit up as you go along”

Cannon asked the prosecutors and defense attorneys to consider two different hypothetical situations, writing: “the parties must engage with the following competing scenarios and offer alternative draft text that assumes each scenario to be a correct formulation of the law.”

…don’t let “conflicts with the law in the sense of being diametrically opposed” fool you…this is how I already decided this will go so you’d better be ready…is kinda…batshit crazy shit for a judge to up & say on the record

In the first scenario, Cannon said, the jury would be allowed to review a former president’s possession of a record and make a factual finding whether “it is personal or presidential using the definitions set forth in the Presidential Records Act,” also known as the PRA.

Confusingly, she added in a footnote that any “separation of powers or immunity concerns shall be included in this discussion if relevant.” Immunity is a topic for judges to decide, not juries, so it was not immediately clear what that language in Cannon’s order meant.

The second scenario Cannon describes is one in which a president “has sole authority under the PRA to categorize records as personal or presidential during his/her presidency. Neither a court nor a jury is permitted to make or review such a categorization decision.”

That second hypothetical would appear to be one in which Trump seemingly could not be convicted under almost any set of facts of improperly possessing classified documents. It was not immediately clear how Cannon envisions a trial potentially based on that premise.

…presumably she envisions continuing to hurl the jurisprudential equivalent of excrement at every wall in sight & hoping some of it sticks when it gets appealed up the chain to what marcy wheeler seems to have taken to referring to as R-SCOTUS…damned if anything else makes any kind of “sense”?

After the hearing last week, Cannon issued a short order saying that while some of Trump’s arguments about the Espionage Act warrant “serious consideration,” she thought it was too early to dismiss charges based on disagreements over the definition of some terms in the World War I-era law.

At the same time, she suggested Trump could raise the issue later “in connection with jury-instruction briefing and/or other appropriate motions,” an invitation that appears to have led to Monday’s order. Trump had argued in his motion that the Espionage Act, which has been used for decades to convict others of improperly possessing classified documents, was too vaguely worded to be used in his indictment.

…even when he wants slack she can’t give him there she is going out of her way not to take strings off his bow

It is one of four criminal trials Trump is facing, and his lawyers have fought to try to delay them all until after the election. Cannon originally scheduled the Florida trial to begin the week of May 20, but she has made clear more time is needed to sort through pretrial issues having to do with using classified documents as evidence. She held a hearing to discuss a new trial date on March 1 but has not yet ruled.

Trump and his Florida co-defendants also have filed a number of other motions seeking to dismiss the case, including a claim by Trump that he is the target of a vindictive, politically motivated prosecution.

While those motions were not the topic of Cannon’s hearing on Thursday, Trump’s lawyers referred several times during their arguments to other public officials who were not charged after classified documents were found at their homes — including the recent decision by special counsel Robert K. Hur not to charge President Biden.

Those cases, the lawyers argued, show the charges against their client were unjustified and politically motivated.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2024/03/18/trump-judge-cannon-jury-instructions-pra/

…they’re literally out here arguing that since their version of this sort of prosecution is unjustified & politically motivated…it’s equally an unjustifiable act of political motivation to pursue a genuinely guilty party…with zero semblance of having any consciousness of irony…& mostly enough people couldn’t care less for that to be viable

Trump calls for Liz Cheney to be jailed for investigating him over Capitol attack [Guardian]

…in a sane world that shit I just said would be irresponsible hyperbole…but…that new remix on his favorite chorus of “lock her up”…says what I said is slap in the middle of the overton window where we’re supposed to be able to tell ourselves we can’t be looking at an extreme

Like a lot of other people, I don’t use my X account much anymore. I prefer to post on Threads, because X (formerly Twitter) has become such a cesspool of hate speech and conspiracy-mongering. The problem became especially acute following Hamas’s Oct. 7 attack on Israel when the platform was flooded with antisemitic and anti-Muslim misinformation. It’s like watching a once-nice neighborhood go to seed, with well-maintained houses turning into ramshackle drug dens.

What galls me is that, as a taxpayer, I wind up subsidizing X’s megalomaniacal and capricious owner, Elon Musk. His privately held company SpaceX is a major contractor — to the tune of many billions of dollars — for the Defense Department, NASA and the U.S. intelligence community. He is also chief executive of Tesla, which benefits from generous government subsidies and tax credits to the electric-vehicle industry.

Musk needs to decide whether he wants to be the next Donald Trump Jr. (i.e., a major MAGA influencer) or the next James D. Taiclet (the little-known CEO of Lockheed Martin, the country’s largest defense contractor). Currently, Musk is trying to do both, and that’s not sustainable. He is presiding over a fire hose of falsehoods on X about familiar right-wing targets, from undocumented immigrants to “the woke mind virus” to President Biden … while reaping billions from Biden’s administration!

The Center for Countering Digital Hate reported a surge of extremist content on X since Musk took over in 2022 and fired most of the platform’s content moderators. The center found tweets decrying “race mixing,” denying the Holocaust and praising Adolf Hitler. The thin-skinned tech mogul responded by filing suit; early indications are that the federal judge hearing the case is skeptical of X’s claims.

Musk is unlikely to have any more success with his lawsuit against Media Matters for America, a nonprofit that documented pro-Nazi posts on X alongside ads for major companies, leading to an exodus of advertisers. Indeed, Musk, who styles himself as a “free speech absolutist,” appears to be using legal action simply to intimidate critics into silence.

Musk’s claims that his platform isn’t spewing hate speech and conspiracy theories are undermined by the fact that he is one of the chief spewers. On his X account, which has 176 million followers, Musk has boosted the Pizzagate conspiracy theory, which holds that prominent Democrats are child molesters. He has endorsed a tweet suggesting that graduates of historically black colleges have low IQs and therefore U.S. airlines are risking disaster by recruiting them as pilots. (“It will take an airplane crashing and killing hundreds of people for them to change this crazy policy of DIE,” Musk wrote in January, referring to diversity, equity and inclusion programs, usually abbreviated as DEI.) He has echoed Donald Trump’s unfounded assertions that the electoral system is riddled with fraud; for instance, Musk claimed that “illegals are not prevented from voting in federal elections.” In fact, only U.S. citizens can vote in federal elections and there is no evidence of widespread fraud.

Musk’s modus operandi, like Trump’s, is not to retract or apologize for false statements but, instead, to insult his critics; he memorably told advertisers who have left X to “go f— yourself.” One of the few times Musk has expressed any remorse was after he endorsed an antisemitic screed in November. An X user accused “Jewish communities” of promoting “hatred against whites” and added gleefully that “western Jewish populations” were “coming to the disturbing realization that those hordes of minorities … flooding their country don’t exactly like them too much.” Musk’s response: “You have said the actual truth.” After advertisers fled and the White House condemned “this abhorrent promotion of antisemitic and racist hate,” Musk said, “I handed a loaded gun to those who hate me and to those who are antisemitic and for that I am quite sorry.”

Musk is a MAGA megaphone and a federal contractor. That’s a problem. [WaPo]

…I’d…call it something else

“I challenge you, Elon, to watch the whole interview and tell the world why this isn’t what you claim you want on X,” Lemon said before introducing the interview, which was posted Monday on X and YouTube.

The Don Lemon Show episode 1: Elon Musk

TIMESTAMPS:
(02:23) News on X
(10:07) Donald Trump and Endorsing a Candidate
(13:04) The New Tesla Roadster
(16:46) Relaxation and Video Games
(17:54) Tweeting and Drug Use
(23:19) The Great Replacement Theory
(30:03) Content Moderation… pic.twitter.com/bLRae4DhyO

— Don Lemon (@donlemon) March 18, 2024

“I think we have a responsibility to adhere to the law,” Musk said, adding that if a post is illegal, “we’re going to take it down.” To remove posts that didn’t break the law would mean “we’re putting our thumb on the scale or being censors,” he argued.

When Lemon questioned whether X has become a breeding ground for conservative conspiracy theories, Musk responded that “old Twitter was fundamentally a tool of the far left.” But when it came to questions about his own posts — which have recently tilted to the right — Musk said that he often reposts things he doesn’t entirely agree with but thinks “that people should consider.”

…not done with this one

…he’s not a free speech absolutist…he’s an exponent of…call it anti-censorship in the sense of matter:antimatter…look at this shit

A far-right Austrian who received donations from and communicated with the Christchurch terrorist before the 2019 attack has had his X account restored, with X owner Elon Musk replying to one of his tweets.

The founder of the so-called Identitarian Movement, Martin Sellner, who preaches the superiority of European ethnic groups, was banned from Twitter in 2020 under the former management along with dozens of other accounts linked to the movement amid criticism over the platform’s handling of extremist content.

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2024/mar/19/elon-musk-replies-x-twitter-martin-sellner-far-right-identitarian-movement-christchurch-terrorist-attack

…the world’s most irresponsible edgelord with another deep cut, folks…he doesn’t think he can have a thumb on the scales…because…I dunno…someone told him they were opposable digits & he won’t hold for opposition so he cut his off the way van gogh lopped off an ear…it wouldn’t make any less sense to me, any road…anyway…where had I got to?

When Lemon asked about Musk’s recently reported encounter with Donald Trump, Musk said that it happened by chance while he was having breakfast at friend’s home in Florida. (The New York Times reported that wealthy Republican donors were among other attendees.) When Lemon pressed for details about what was discussed, Musk seemed flustered and waited a few moments to respond. “Let’s just say, he did most of the talking,” Musk said.

He declined to specify what they spoke about, except to deny that Trump asked him to contribute to his presidential campaign or to help pay his legal bills. Musk said that he does not plan to donate to any candidate’s campaign.

“I don’t want to put a thumb on the scale monetarily,” Musk said.

…pull the other one…it’s got bells on…you fucking soup-brained arrested development cliché of a failure to launch…the fuck do you call the unbelievable bath you took on buying your virtual bullhorn you tiresome fucking lickspittle?

In response to questions about his resistance to diversity, equity and inclusion policies (which Musk has decried as racist), Musk argued that the country should “move on” and not make racism “a constant subject.”

Of late, Musk has been retweeting posts that promote misinformation about the intelligence of racial minorities, Mother Jones has reported. He’s also been posting frequently about the Biden administration’s immigration polices, repeatedly claiming Democrats want to maximize the number of undocumented immigrants in the country to help win the election.

“We are all descended from slaves,” Musk said during the interview with Lemon.

…for fuck’s actual sake…he…scion of an apartheid-era emerald fortune…& one of the wealthiest white men the world has ever borne the brunt of…said that shit to a black man in america…&…he. doesn’t. get. why. that’s. a. red. flag. the. size. of. fucking. texas.

The most tense exchange in the interview arose when Lemon brought up Musk’s previous statement that X advertisers could “kill” the platform with a boycott. (Several advertisers left the platform over concerns their ads were appearing alongside antisemitic content and other hate speech.)

When Lemon suggested that the companies’ suspension of their advertising was a form of free speech, and that Musk might bear responsibility if X fails, he grew frustrated.

“You said, ‘If they kill the company, it’s them,’ but doesn’t the buck stop with you?” Lemon asked.

Musk appeared rattled.

“Don, I have to say, choose your questions carefully,” he responded. “There’s five minutes left.”

https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2024/03/18/elon-musk-don-lemon-interview/

…you know…what with feeling like it might make me happy if the “five minutes left” referred to an oxygen supply somewhere elon was going to be for…let’s just say, “longer”…I may not be in with a shot at the good place…but…I’m getting increasingly tempted to start believing in some sort of god because sub-deity levels of vengeful retributive suffering on an infinite timescale just don’t seem like enough consequences for some particular examples of the possibly failed experiment that is humanity

…if anyone knows “the fat lady”…let her know I’m down if she wants to start singing…because quite frankly the number of things that have gone on too long & gone way too far in the process is itself now a list too long to contend with & some…or…fuck…I dunno…maybe all of it…needs to be over, already…that we haven’t brought about armageddon is not the same as things being sustainable…& we are way beyond things being beyond a joke?

[…eh…it’s not quite what it ended up being the first time…but…close enough…damned if I can remember the tune selection, though…so…that part might take me a moment]