Good morning. It is September 16th. Clouds have spread over New York City this morning, but the temperature remains pleasant. And this is your Indignity Morning Podcast. I'm your host, Tom Scocca, taking a look at the day and the news. 

The president has killed again. Donald Trump yesterday posted what he said was video of another airstrike against a boat in international waters. This one he said killed three people, where the previous one had killed 11. As before, Trump claimed that the targets were drug traffickers, which in no way gave him any legal authority to kill them. The Times has this one below the fold on page one, on the right-hand side. “U.S. Announces Another Attack On a Sea Vessel. The U.S. military struck a boat for the second time this month. President Trump said on Monday, as his administration continued its deadly campaign against Venezuelan drug cartels that it has accused of bringing fentanyl into the United States.” The Times is slipping here, in a few important respects, on what had been pretty good coverage of the first boat massacre. This story quotes a retired judge advocate general and rear admiral saying, “Trump is normalizing what I consider to be an unlawful strike.” But the Times itself is taking certain steps in that same direction. There's a picture of Trump above the fold, but the headline and story are below it, which is a demotion from where the ongoing coverage of the earlier attack had been running. And the lead ignores the Times' own reporting to let some of Trump's premises go unchallenged. The administration may have accused Venezuelan cartels of bringing fentanyl into the United States, but the New York Times has reported that Venezuela plays essentially no role in the fentanyl trade. The story does return to the fact that there is no legal basis for these killings, but it mostly slides past the fact that the extralegal basis doesn't hold up either. Mostly though, the question is when an unrepentant killer racks up new victims, does that make the overall story smaller or bigger? Is the Times here to tell us the story of an out-of-control killing spree or the story of business as usual? 

An independent commission of inquiry convened by the United Nations Human Rights Council released a report today concluding that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza. The New York Times writes, “the report details the deaths of civilians killed during intense Israeli bombing of densely populated areas, the destruction of hospitals and clinics, including Gaza's main fertility clinic, and the destruction of educational, religious, and cultural sites. The consequence, it's said, is the erasure of Palestinian identity.” The Times goes on to write, “Israeli authorities were aware, the Commission said, of the high probability that their military operations, the imposition of a total siege, including the blocking of humanitarian aid into Gaza, and the destruction of housing and of health systems and facilities would lead to the physical destruction of Palestinians, in whole or in part, in Gaza. The panel also said that Israel's relentless military strategy, pursued in flagrant defiance of orders issued by the court,” that's the International Court of Justice, “and warnings from humanitarian agencies, was among the most compelling factors in its conclusion that genocidal intent was the only reasonable inference to be drawn.” 

The Israeli foreign ministry called the report fake. Meanwhile, Israel launched its ground invasion of Gaza City. NBC quotes the Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz as saying, “Gaza is burning. We will not relent or turn back until the mission is complete.” The AP writes, “vehicles strapped with mattresses and other belongings that clogged a coastal road, as thousands of Palestinians fled, but hundreds of thousands more remain.” The AP goes on to write, “One woman, Saud al-Sakani, said her daughter, son-in-law and their children were killed in a strike that flattened their home with about 40 people inside. ‘An entire family!’ she cried, weeping over their bodies at Shifa Hospital’s morgue. ‘Many are still under the rubble.’” Overall, the AP reports at least 69 people are dead. “Shifa received the bodies of 49 people, including 22 children, according to Dr. Rami Mhanna, a hospital official, who said dozens of wounded had also come into the facility. Al-Ahli Hospital received 17 bodies and Al-Quds three.” 

President Trump has filed a lawsuit in federal court in Florida, accusing the New York Times of a decades-long pattern of intentional and malicious defamation against him. Random House is also targeted for publishing a book by Times reporters, which was, in the president's words, “filled with repugnant distortions and fabrications, aiming to falsely and maliciously tear down President Trump's worldwide reputation for success.” This and much, much, much, much, much more in the president's aggrieved recounting are supposed to add up to defamation for which he is demanding an award of 15 billion dollars.

Robert Redford died at his home in Utah at the age of 89, wrapping up one of the healthier careers anyone ever put together, out of being a heartthrob movie star.

A New York state judge threw out the state charges against Luigi Mangione for murder in the first degree and murder in the second degree as a crime of terrorism, while upholding his other charges, including regular intentional second-degree murder. On the terrorism counts, the judge ruled that the state had not met the particular requirements for a terrorism charge as defined by New York State. The judge wrote, “there is no indication in the statute that a murder committed for ideological reasons. In this case, the defendant's apparent desire to draw attention to what he perceived as inequities or greed within the American healthcare system, fits within the definition of terrorism without establishing the necessary element of an intent to intimidate or coerce.” The judge went on to write, “while the defendant was clearly expressing an animus toward United Healthcare and the healthcare industry generally, it does not follow that his goal was to intimidate and coerce a civilian population. And indeed there was no evidence presented of such a goal.” Among the precedents involved is a case about a defendant accused of throwing a Molotov cocktail during the 2020 protests, where the courts concluded that his hostility toward law enforcement did not amount to a demand for a particular set of policy changes toward law enforcement. A real lesson here for the scolds who always say that rioters don't have an intelligible agenda. Apparently in New York state, having an agenda is what can get you life without parole. 

Returning to the front of the print edition of the Times, the lead story, getting two columns, is an investigative piece. “2 Big Deals Intertwine: Latest Chips for U.A.E., Crypto Gain for Trumps / Lucrative Transactions Raise Questions. This summer,” the Times writes, “Steve Witkoff, President Trump's Middle East envoy, paid a visit to the coast of Sardinia, a stretch of the Mediterranean Sea crowded with super yachts. On one of those extravagant vessels, Mr. Witkoff sat down with a member of the ultra-rich ruling family of the United Arab Emirates. He was meeting Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed Al Nahyan, a trim figure in dark glasses who controls $1.5 trillion of the Emirati's sovereign wealth.” 

The story goes on to say “over the past few months, Mr. Witkoff and Sheikh Tahnoon had become both diplomatic allies and business partners, testing the limits of ethics rules while enriching the president, his family, and his inner circle, according to an investigation by the New York Times. At the heart of their relationship are two multi-billion dollar deals. One involved a crypto company founded by the Witkoff and the Trump families that benefited both financially. The other involved a sale of valuable computer chips that benefited the Emirates economically. While there is no evidence that one deal was explicitly offered in return for the other, the confluence of the two agreements is itself extraordinary. Taken together, they blurred the lines between personal and government business and raised questions about whether U.S. interests were served.” 

The story goes on to rope in David Sacks, the Silicon Valley venture capitalist who is, the story notes, “the administration's AI and crypto czar and who actively brokered the chips deal.” Jensen Huang of Nvidia, who had the chips to sell if security objections to letting the UAE have them could be overcome, and even Laura Loomer, who turned her influence against administration opponents of the deal. 

The rest of the top of the front page is a picture of people fleeing Gaza City. 

Below that, the headline is “White House Threatens Crackdown on ‘Far Left’ / In Wake of Kirk Death, Claiming a Network Is Behind Violence. President Trump and his top advisors,” the Times writes, “threatened on Monday to unleash the power of the federal government to punish what they alleged was a left-wing network that funds and incites violence, seizing on Charlie Kirk's killing to make broad and unsubstantiated claims about their political opponents.” The story goes on to say “Mr. Trump and his top allies suggested that the suspect was part of a coordinated movement that was fomenting violence against conservatives, without presenting evidence that such a network existed.” The overlap here with the justification for murdering the people on the Venezuelan boats is a little bit hard to miss. “Mr. Trump,” the Times writes, “who has played down violence from right-wing or other supporters,” well, played it down when not expressly encouraging it or joking about it, “said that he would like to designate a variety of groups, including the loosely affiliated group of far-left anti-fascism activists known as Antifa, as domestic terrorists and bring racketeering cases against people funding protests.”

The frothing from the administration is at such a level that Vice President JD Vance's performance on the Charlie Kirk show doesn't even make it into the story until after the jump. “From his office at the White House,” the Times writes, “Mr. Vance invited other senior members of the administration to praise Mr. Kirk and decry the far left. The show was broadcast on the television screens in the White House briefing room and in several West Wing offices. And while he acknowledged that ‘our side of the aisle certainly has its crazies,’ Mr. Vance placed the blame for most political violence on ‘proud members of the far left. We can thank God that most Democrats don't share these attitudes. And I do, while acknowledging that something has gone very wrong with a lunatic fringe, a minority, but a growing and powerful minority on the far left,’  he said.

That is the news. Thank you for listening. The indignity morning podcast is edited by Joe MacLeod. The theme song is composed and performed by Mack Scocca-Ho. 

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