August 23 was a day of violence: a plane was deliberately blown up, killing the leaders of the Russia’s Wagner mercenary fighters; Deposed Donald Trump (DDT) covertly called for a civil war to put him back into the White House; and second-in-line GOP presidential candidate to DDT, Ron DeSantis, declared he would commit an act of war against Mexico on “Day One.” DeSantis’ immediate follower Vivek Ramaswamy—or maybe ahead of the Florida governor—wants to give power to Russia. Candidates want to kill people by denying climate change and blocking abortions for health reasons. Only Haley said that laws about abortions should be cautious.
Plane Crash Kills Wagner Leader in Russia:
The plane that crashed 185 miles northwest of Moscow on its way to St. Petersburg has left questions. The manifest listed Yevgeny Prigozhin, head of the Wagner mercenaries, and Dmitry Utkin, a leading commander of the group. U.S. intelligence has ruled out a missile attack but determined it was an explosion, possibly by a bomb, another device, or adulterated fuel. The Baza outlet reported that one or two bombs may have been planted on board. Residents in a nearby village reported a “metallic bang” before the jet fell to the ground with no problems in the preceding 30 seconds. It is assumed that Prigozhin was one of seven passengers, but his death is not confirmed among the ten bodies including three crew members. Prigozhin had doubles, disguises, and fake passports found at his home in a raid after his uprising against Putin because Russia didn’t give the Wagner group ammunition and military gear for their fighting against Ukraine.
Much to the world’s surprise, Putin gave Prigozhin a slap on the wrist after Prigozhin marched against Moscow with his followers, merely sending him to exile in Belarus. Yet intelligence and military officials have predicted for weeks that Mr. Putin would retaliate, just waiting, like the old saying, “revenge is a dish best served cold.” One Moscow businessman spoke for Russian elites about Prigozhin’s death:
“Anyone who displays disloyalty will be seen by the state as an enemy that needs to be liquidated. Everyone will believe that this was carried out on the orders of the czar. We may never know whether this is true or not. But it has frightened everyone.”
A Russian billionaire said that no one “wants to speak out against the war after this,” calling the risks “gigantic.” In Bulwark, Russian-American journalistCathy Young gave an excellent overview of Prigozhin and his mercenaries.
Prigozhin is a Russian oligarch who began his career by selling hot dogs on the street before a close relationship with Putin. His second in command, Dmitry Utkin, is a former special forces officer and lieutenant colonel in the Russian military’s foreign intelligence agency, the GRU.
Indictment Processing in Fulton County (GA) RICO Case Continues:
In Atlanta (GA), the 19 defendants in Fulton County’s (GA) RICO indictments are rolling in for their processing—no arraignment—at the jail, complete with mug shots appearing on the internet, with noon on August 25 the deadline. Both former chief of staff Mark Meadows and AG wanna-be Jeffrey Clark failed in their attempt to squirm out of processing by whining that they had immunity. A federal judge declined their emergency requests. Clark had also failed when he said that all arrests for these 19 defendants not turning themselves in this week should be put on hold.
One defendant, Harrison William Floyd III, has already thrown DDT under the bus by claiming that DDT had urged him to harass an election worker. Earlier this year, Floyd had allegedly attacked an FBI agent investigating the DOJ probe to overturn the 2020 election results.
(Left: a possible presidential candidate in 2024)
DDT arrived in Atlanta shortly after 7:00 pm, TV prime time, and drove through the city in empty streets that had been cleared for his processing. Although processing for ordinary people can take several hours, DDT’s experience, in a usual two-tiered justice system, required 20 minutes. More two-tiered justice? DDT’s weight was listed at 175 pounds. His visit to Atlanta was under two hours. Again making news, he changed members of his legal team, firing the leader Drew Findling and hiring criminal defense attorney Steven Sadlow. More two-tiered justice? DDT’s weight was listed at a self-reported 215 pounds.
Twelve of the 19 defendants had surrendered by the evening of August 24.
Eight GOP Primary Presidential Candidates Meet for Debate:
On August 23, eight GOP presidential candidates for 2024—three-fourths of them current or former governors, one U.S. senator, and one businessman who never held political office—met in Milwaukee for the first debate of the primary season. A UK publication has the best headline: “Republican Candidates Fight among Themselves in the Extremism Olympics.” This overview of the candidates’ statements, highlighting the zings, is well worth reading as it describes a “firehose of lies, Trump pandering, and a competition as to who could be the most authoritarian.”
Author Ahmed Baba pointed out the debate’s “dark depiction of America,” that “America is in decline,” according to DeSantis. Candidates’ depiction of the economic disaster omitted “the fact inflation is easing, unemployment remains historically low, and job growth remains strong.” A bizarre statement from several candidates is that Democrats want abortion “up to the point of birth,” one of their standard lies. Under 1 percent of abortions occur after the 20-week time period, and these aren’t at “birth,” illegal because of laws against infanticide.
Also ridiculous was also DeSantis’ claim that he was “proud” to sign the abortion ban after six weeks, an unannounced signing at midnight. In some of the few statistics to back up candidates’ claims, Mike Pence said that 70 percent of people support his proposal of a federal law blocking abortions after 15 weeks. The highest percentage has been in the 40s, with only 20 percent who “strongly support” the law.
Several candidates criticized Democrats for being opposed to “law and order” and wanting to “defund” the police, but three-fourths of them said they would support a convicted felon for president. Only Chris Christie and Asa Hutchinson didn’t support that vote, and some of the candidates want to eliminate the FBI. The audience booed Christie when he said conviction is below the presidency.
Vivek Ramaswamy made his name by interrupting other candidates, talking over them, making himself a mini-DDT, and stealing sound bites such as Christie trying to become an MSNBC contributor which came from DeSantis PAC. Or using Barack Obama’s words from almost two decades by calling himself “a skinny guy with a funny last name.”
The debate had no vision, no vision, no stature, no energy except for the anger that candidates expressed toward each other. All of them except Haley and Ramaswamy tried to play it safe. It appeared to be an audition for several of them. Moderators lost control of both the audience and candidates as they yelled, interrupted, and refused to quit at the timing bell.
Only Haley had substance to her statements. About the national debt:
“The truth is that Biden didn’t do this to us. Our Republicans did this to us when they passed that $2.2 trillion covid stimulus bill. Donald Trump added $8 trillion to our debt, and our kids are never going to forgive us for this.”
About Ramaswamy’s foreign policy, providing no assistance for Ukraine, Haley said:
“You are choosing a murderer over a pro-American country.
“The problem that Vivek doesn’t understand is that he wants to hand Ukraine to Russia. He wants to let China eat Taiwan. He wants to go and stop funding Israel. You don’t do that to friends. What you do instead is you have the backs of your friends.”
“You have no foreign policy experience, and it shows,” she said to Ramaswamy. While wanting to defund Israel, he said he loved the country, that stole land from Palestine, for its “border policy.” Haley’s zings which brought loud applause but won’t get her elected in the primaries.
Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC) was the most invisible person there. Some people didn’t even bother to consider him in the ratings. He stuck to safe topics about deaths from fentanyl, building the southern border wall for $15 billion and his intention to “break the backs of the teacher unions.” Drug deaths appeared among other candidates, but they didn’t mention that last year saw 244,000 Covid deaths while they opposed vaccines, masks, and other preventions.
Charlie Sykes was at his best with writing about “the Vivek and Nikki Show.”
The Washington Post reported that Republicans, “including those who watched the debate,” picked DeSantis and Ramaswamy for winners of the debate, followed by Haley. Debate-watchers picked DeSantis for their vote by 67 percent, over 61 percent for DDT and 46 percent for Ramaswamy, up from his pre-debate 40 percent. DDT was down five points. The media picked Haley and Pence as winners and Fox as one of the losers. Pence, however, claims that “consensus is the opposite of leadership,” negating democracy and the constitution.
Despite the Fox debate audience reaction, the majority of voters oppose GOP policies: cutting Social Security and Medicare funding (86 percent); concealed gun carry without a permit (66 percent); mandate for Ukraine to give up its land (59 percent); restriction to abortion medication (59 percent); and deadly force against migrants at the southern border (55 percent). Even restriction to transgender medical care has only 39 percent approval.
Nel's New Day 
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