Excerpts from NBC News:

"Richard Immerman, a historian and an assistant deputy director of national intelligence in the Obama administration, said that, while the president has the authority to declassify documents, there’s a formal process for doing so, and there's no indication Trump used it.

"I’ve seen thousands of declassified documents. They’re all marked ‘declassified’ with the date they were declassified,” Immerman said.

That does not appear to have been the case with some of the documents that were returned to the National Archives from Mar-a-Lago this year. Archivist David S. Ferriero, an Obama appointee, said in a letter to the House Committee on Oversight and Reform in February that his agency had "identified items marked as classified national security information within the boxes” from Mar-a-Lago.

"A source who had discussed the matter with Trump but was not authorized to reveal those conversations said the former president wasn't concerned with formal protocol.

"We’ve told him there’s a process and not following it could be a problem but he didn’t care because he thinks this stuff is dumb,” the source said. “His attitude is that he is the president. He is in charge of the country and therefore national security. So he decides.”

Bradley Moss, a lawyer who specializes in national security issues, said, "That's not how it works."

"Trump could say we're declassifying this until he's blue in the face, but no one is allowed to touch those records until the markings are addressed," said Moss, a frequent Trump critic on Twitter.

"In the current dispute, the apparent lack of a paper trail showing that Trump declassified the documents before he left office could be a problem for the former president, said Stephen Vladeck, a University of Texas School of Law professor who specializes in national security."

For the whole article: https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/donald-trump/trump-allies-say-declassified-mar-lago-documents-experts-say-unclear-w-rcna42311

Now he's telling the FBI to return the documents.

And the FBI will say, "Oh, okay. Sorry, here you go."

(Eyeroll.)

@George-K said in Mar-a-Lago raided:

Simply looking at what the rights of the accused are

As much as it sickens me to say so, I agree his rights must be safeguarded. But his rights as important as they are, are not as vital as the main thing: namely, those documents. They cannot be left out of federal custody, especially when their contents are not known.

Knowing Trump, they could be anything. It would not be surprising if they turned out to be of no importance. Boy, what fodder that would be for Trump, eh?

Why in hell did he even take them with him, anyway? Could it be for the purpose of embarrassing the feds and feeding his base's frenzy? At no cost to him?

@George-K said in Mar-a-Lago raided:

Yeah, IF they belong in federal custody. That's the allegation by the DOJ.

Oh geez. Didn't this whole megillah start because of NORA's claim that they do? Are we really going there?

@George-K

Is he fishing? There are documents out of federal custody that shouldn't be. The feds want them back.

If these are documents that do not belong to Trump once he has left office, then how would attorney-client privilege even apply?

Getting kinda tired of the so-faddish weaponize and weaponization. What words did we use before?

@George-K

I used to know that! I did! But I've forgotten.

The Bullet Ant

The bullet ant (Paraponera clavata) is a tropical rainforest ant named for its powerfully painful sting, which is said to be comparable to being shot with a bullet.

Entomologist Dr. Justin Schmidt describes the sting from this venomous ant as ‘pure, intense, brilliant pain. Like walking over a flaming charcoal with a 3-inch nail embedded in your heel.’

When one ant stings, it releases chemicals that signal other ants in the vicinity to sting repeatedly. The bullet ant has the most painful sting of any insect, according to the Schmidt Pain Index. The pain is described as blinding, electric pain, comparable to being shot with a gun. Bullet ant stings produce waves of agony that last 12 to 24 hours.

Habitat: Tropical forests of Central and South America.

Nerdy Stuff: The primary toxin in bullet ant venom is poneratoxin. Poneratoxin is a small neurotoxic peptide that inactivates voltage-gated sodium ion channels in skeletal muscle to block synapse transmission in the central nervous system. In addition to excruciating pain, the venom produces temporary paralysis and uncontrollable shaking. Other symptoms include nausea, vomiting, fever, and cardiac arrhythmia.

The Sateré-Mawé people of Brazil use ant stings as part of a traditional rite of passage. To complete the initiation rite, boys first gather the ants. The ants are sedated by immersion in an herbal preparation and placed into gloves woven of leaves with all their stingers facing inward. The boy must wear the mitt a total of 20 times before he is considered to be a warrior.

Oh, that is outstanding!

Though it makes me miss the Muppets and Swazye, both. <sniff>

@Renauda said in Tulsi Time:

Then there’s Tulsi and Sanders….but that’s another story.

Tulsi/Sanders vs Trump/Carlson. How's that for a Cocky Horror Show?
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