It's official. Elon Musk has closed his $44 billion purchase of Twitter. He started by firing some of the company's chief honchos. I don't think it's a good investment. Technology will leave Twitter in the dust someday, to be buried with blackberries, palm pilots, and VCRs.

I read fewer and fewer Twitter accounts, especially those written in this country. I don't like seeing other people's "likes" show up on my page, or most retweets, not to mention the increasing number of ads. On the other hand, it's still pretty good for some international things like the Middle East. I actually like Turkish President Erdogan's feed, he's always talking about accomplishments rather than problems (after all, he's running for re-election.) I also like that he's doing the exact opposite of the rest of the world to fight inflation and stop the hemorraging of the Lira --He's lowering interest rates instead of raising them. Other countries thinks he's nuts, but I don't. (Then again, I know nothing about the economy. I only know about crime and the hype over it is too depressing to write about right now). [More...]

Chris Cuomo returns to our televisions every weeknight, at 8pm ET and again at 11 pm ET, on News Nation. Here's how to watch without cable.

I completely stopped watching cable news when his show went off the air. Taking his job away for defending his brother just seemed really unfair to me.

Who else has shows on News Nation? Legal analyst and now media scion Dan Abrams (who I suspect may own the channel, or a big chunk of it) and Ashley Banfield (whose reporting I have always liked since she was with MSNBC.)

I wish them all well and I intend to make time to watch.

Also on a media note, I'm sending good thoughts to Katie Couric, who recently announced she finished radiation treatment for breast cancer. (She's going to be fine).

I'm no longer counting, but it's my birthday.

If you'd like to donate some appreciation, it would be more than welcome. Here is the link.(link fixed)

It has been more than a few years since I last asked readers for donations, mostly because my posting activity decreased during COVID. But I'd like to keep writing. I also intend to continue rejecting ads on the site. That said, the site does cost a significant amount to maintain, and help is always welcome. (And of course, no one should feel compelled to contribute).

This is an open thread, all topics welcome.

At 1:05 pm ET, NBC posted this photo:

Two hours ago, the National Weather Service had this map:

The latest forecast: [More...]

Tampa and Fort Myers seem to be in the cross-hairs of Hurricane Ian, which is headed their way. According to the 1:00 pm statement by the National Hurricane Center, there is also a Tropical Storm Warning for the upper Florida Keys and a Tropical Storm Watch for the Middle and Lower Florida Keys.

Florida has set up "Know Your Zone" so Floridians know when they should evacuaate their homes. The Zones are from A to L with A being most likely to get an evacuation call and it is unlikely that Zones E or after will be called.

That's only half of it. The website says Floridans must also "know their homes".

If an evacuation order is not issued for your area, you may consider sheltering in place. Not all evacuations zones are always ordered. If you shelter in place, it’s important to Know Your Home and its ability to withstand strong winds and heavy rain.[More...]

The Jewish high holy days begin at sundown (about now, Denver) with Rosh Hashanah. Temple Emanuel in Denver, like many other temples and synagogues, is streaming its service live. For many congregations, it is the first High Holy Day service inside the sanctuary since 2019 due to COVID-19.

At Temple Emanuel, a Reform congregation, you no longer need a prayerbook to follow along, although they are available. The words are up on the screen, in English (and Hebrew, and Hebrew-alliterative English). It is heavy on music -- there is a cantor, a guitarist, a pianist, a cello, a violin, and a choir. They play some prayers like a folk song, others to a modern beat, and still others alternating with the cantor's classical voice. This is not the service of your grandparents. It's much better. [More...]

DOJ has responded to citizen Donald Trump's request (available here) that a special master review the documents seized from Mar-a-Lago during the execution of the search warrant. Among other reasons, he says this is necessary to determine whether the documents contain matters that are subject to executive privilege.

You can read DOJ's response and view the attached exhibits here.

Don't miss the exhibits, especially Exhibit "F".

I'm still shaking my head at the first paragraph of Trump's motion, link above, which identifies him as "President" and claims he is the "clear frontrunner" for the Republican party nomination in 2024, and should he decide to run, the clear frontrunner in the 2024 general election.

I don't think the Mar-a-Lago search and Trump's withholding of classified documents is Trump's biggest nightmare. I think Georgia's investigation into election fraud is what should keep him up at night.

Has Dick Cheney weighed in on Trump and the classified documents since his daughter lost the primary? (The graphic is from a post about AUSA Patrick Fitzgerald alleging in a pleading in the Scooter Libby case that Cheney, acting with the approval of former President Bush, had authorized Libby to disclose portions of the classified National Intelligence Estimate on Iraq to rebut some of the claims made by Valerie Plame's husband, Joseph Wilson. The government subpoenaed documents from Cheney and included in the response was a copy of Wilson's infamous Op-Ed with Cheney's handwritten notes asking if they had sent Wilson on a junket).

The Wall Street Journal has an "explainer" (free link through my subscription, courtesy of WSJ) on the different categories of classified documents. The Mar-a-Lago Affidavit is here. [More.]

And just like that, she's gone.

Republican Liz Cheney, who has seemed to be the dominant force behind the House committee hearings over the January 6 violent melee by Trump supporters lost by a landslide in the Wyoming Republican primary yesterday and has conceded.

She gets no sympathy from me. That she recently released a campaign commercial starring her father, who in my opinion, was the most horrid and ignoble VP in history, says it all.

Democrats praising her for doing what any rational human being would do remind me of those Democrats who praised the Lincoln Project, overlooking the fact that Steve Schmidt and George Conway were among its founders/leaders. Who is Steve Schmidt? John McCain's former campaign manager who was largely responsible for McCain choosing Sarah Palin as his running mate. George Conway, may be a slightly more familiar name than Schmidt, but he is also comes across to me as a less likable, somewhat shifty human being who happens to be the conservative lawyer-husband of Ms. Most Unimportant Person in the World (the mother of the beleagured teen Claudia Conway who took to Tik-Tok to promote her request for emancipation from what she alleged to be parental abuse).

[More...]

I've been reading about the "Coastal Grandmother" trend since April.

You know the Coastal Grandmother. She wakes up early in her white linen-covered bed, seaside sunlight streaming in. “Siri, play ‘The Big Chill’ soundtrack,” she commands, listening to it in her marble bathroom while applying Vintner’s Daughter face oil.

Eager to get to the farmer’s market—it’s peony season, after all—she puts on a crisp light-blue button-up shirt, white jeans and a straw hat. Oversized, the shirt qualifies as a “shent,” .... With a Provençal market basket, Coastal Grandmother is good to go. She hops into her vintage Range Rover and heads out to begin her satisfying, Sancerre-punctuated day.

I haven't played music from "The Big Chill" since the year it was released, But Diane Keaton (and her beach house in the Hamptons) made "Something's Gotta Give" one of my all-time favorite movies.

The New York Times doubles down on the Coastal Grandmother trend today in its review of the new film starring (who else?) Diane Keaton, called Mack and Rita, with a headline proclaiming "Boomers Are All the Rage".

I'm not so sure that's true, but I've definitely been adapting some Coastal Grandmother habits lately. And I can't wait to see Mack and Rita.

This is an open thread, all topics welcome.

The New York Times reports that Robert Costello, one of Rudy Giuliani's attorneys, has told the media that he has been informed that Giuliani is a target (not a witness or a subject) of the grand jury investigation into Trump and his advisors and lawyers attempts to overturn the Georgia election results in 2016.

One of Mr. Giuliani’s lawyers, Robert Costello, said in an interview that he was notified on Monday that his client was a target. Being so identified does not guarantee that a person will be indicted; rather, it usually means that prosecutors believe an indictment is possible, based on evidence they have seen up to that point.

How does Rudy get out of an indictment? He can testify (and risk a perjuryor obstruction of justice charge if they have evidence he lied to the grand jury). It worked for Karl Rove (who had a great lawyer in Robert Luskin). Rove testified four times before the grand jury investigating the leak of the identity of CIA Agent Valerie Plame. [More...]

Attorney General Merrick Garland gave a two minute press conference today on the search warrant that was issued and executed at Mar-a-Lago last week.

The transcript of his remarks is here.

This is not a historic disclosure. DOJ's filing a motion to unseal the warrant (but not the affidavit with the sworn facts supporting it) and the receipt for the property taken, copies of which were left at Mar-a-Lago at the time of the search, are unlikely to disclose anything that hasn't already been in the public arena.

It's the affidavit that bakes the cake (or causes its center to sink). And that's not being released.