Oh, shit

Will there be riots?

"Now it will be up to our thoughtful museums, informed by the people of Virginia, to determine the future of these artifacts, including the base of the Lee Monument which has taken on special significance as protest art."

The museum will partner with The Valentine, the city's oldest museum, to get input from the community on how the statues should be displayed. Before any of that can happen, however, the plan still needs approval from the city council.

[...]

In Charlottesville, Va., the city council recently decided its statue of Lee — the proposed removal of which helped spark the deadly Unite the Right rally in 2017 — will be melted down and turned into a public art piece, a project that will be led by the Jefferson School African American Heritage Center in town.

  NPR

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

McConnell polls poorly

That's about 32% more than should be. I'd be interested to see how he polls in his own state of Kentucky.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Assholes

Taxpayers in 5 states are forced to double down their support of people who refuse to get vaccinated. Support them financially, give up hospital beds to them, and risk their own and their children's health and lives.

Seems fair.

These people did not "lose" their jobs.  They QUIT their jobs.

Be there

The [House committee investigating the Jan. 6 Capitol attack] plans to hold public hearings next year before it releases a report detailing all the events of the riot from start to finish.

A committee aide also confirmed to CNN that the House plans to release its initial findings by summer, and a final report by fall 2022, just in time for midterm elections.

  Yahoo

Is that because they planned it that way or because that's just how the timing works out?

The committee hopes to get the information out before November’s election, which could see the probe shut down if Republicans win back the House.

[...]

A senior committee aide told The Washington Post that part of the investigation will include how former President Donald Trump was able to convince so many of his supporters the election was stolen despite zero evidence to the claim.

[...]

“How do you get that many people screwed up that deeply? And continue to screw them up? Right? And what do we do about that?”

Start researching alternative countries for residence?

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

It's not quite Sunday

MAGA evangelicals are going to be up in arms again.  A bible was found in the base of a RE Lee statue removed in Virginia.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Harry Reid has died

The man who warned of Trump campaign Russian ties passed away today.

Read the letter Reid wrote to James Comey in August of 2016.  It concludes:

Indeed, the recent staff changes within the Trump campaign have made clear that the Trump campaign has employed a number of individuals with significant and disturbing ties to Russia and the Kremlin.

The foregoing – and more – has led me to believe that this matter should be fully investigated and the investigation made public.

  Trump File

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

(Which is what Reid may as well have appended to his letter to Comey.)

They're still writing incriminating books

A former Trump White House official says he and right-wing provocateur Steve Bannon were actually behind the last-ditch coordinated effort by rogue Republicans in Congress to halt certification of the 2020 election results and keep President Donald Trump in power earlier this year, in a plan dubbed the “Green Bay Sweep.”

In his recently published memoir, Peter Navarro, then-President Donald Trump’s trade adviser, details how he stayed in close contact with Bannon as they put the Green Bay Sweep in motion with help from members of Congress loyal to the cause.

But in an interview last week with The Daily Beast, Navarro shed additional light on his role in the operation and their coordination with politicians like Rep. Paul Gosar (R-AZ) and Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX).

“We spent a lot of time lining up over 100 congressmen, including some senators. It started out perfectly. At 1 p.m., Gosar and Cruz did exactly what was expected of them,” Navarro told The Daily Beast. “It was a perfect plan. And it all predicated on peace and calm on Capitol Hill. We didn’t even need any protestors, because we had over 100 congressmen committed to it.”

  Daily Beast

Continue reading.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Awwww

[According to a plea deal filed in August and unsealed last week], Bisignano “shall cooperate fully, truthfully, completely and forthrightly” with federal, state, and local investigations into Jan. 6. This may include answering questions, providing sworn written statements, taking polygraph tests, and “participating in covert law enforcement activities.”

  Law & Crime

She's going to have to open a new salon in another state, isn't she?

Multiple members of the extremist “Oath Keepers” militia group pleaded guilty in July and agreed to cooperate with investigators, and a member of the far-right “Proud Boys” has also agreed to cooperate as part of a plea deal, perhaps even against other members of the group, according to a New York Times report.

[...]

Although Bisignano has apparently been cooperating with the government since at least August, she has not always been cooperative with court orders, as Nichols noted in a Dec. 14 minute order after Bisignano failed to appear.

“In light of Defense Counsel’s tardiness and the Defendant’s nonappearance in the Status Conference held earlier today on December 14, 2021 at 10:00am, it is ORDERED that the Status Conference is rescheduled for December 21, 2021 at 1:00pm,” Nichols wrote in a minute order. “This is not the first time timely attendance has been a problem in this case. Defense Counsel and Defendant are admonished that additional failures to appear timely will be looked upon even more unfavorably.”

Not the brightest star on the Christmas tree. It's the Mark Meadows syndrome: damage yourself with a poor decision and then damage yourself further by defying authority in a misguided attempt to redeem yourself for that decision.

No worries, Gina, Trump Bear will be inviting you to Mar-A-Lago soon.  But checking you for a wire.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Duuuuhhh

So very many American politicians have been such fuckwits looking for power and money and sex, that I wouldn't want to even try to make a bet as to how many of them Russia has kompromat on, and how many of them are unwittingly passing on national secrets to Russian agents, and what the Venn diagram on that looks like.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Long Covid

Data from a new study suggests that the coronavirus that causes COVID-19 can persist in different parts of the body for months after infection, including the heart and brain.

Scientists at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) found the virus can spread widely from the respiratory tract to almost every other organ in the body and linger for months.

The researchers described the study as the "most comprehensive analysis to date" of the virus's persistence throughout the body and brain. They performed autopsies on 44 patients who died either from or with COVID-19 to map and quantify virus distribution across the body.

Daniel Chertow, principal investigator in the NIH’s emerging pathogens section, said along with his colleagues that RNA from the virus was found in patients up to 230 days after symptom onset.

  The Hill

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Meanwhile...

No one is above the law in this country

Exceptions may apply.

A third of the 700 people arrested by the Justice Department for attacking the U.S. Capitol building have been hit with a peculiar federal “witness tampering” law, according to researchers at George Washington University’s Program on Extremism. Those 240 insurrectionists have been charged with corruptly obstructing an official proceeding, a never-before-seen tactic by prosecutors for an equally unprecedented event.

So far, 13 have pleaded guilty, and three of those have already been sentenced. But if hundreds of people face prison time for interrupting Congress while it was certifying the 2020 election results, what happens to the president who ordered them to march there?

  Daily Beast

And, let's not forget, told them he would be going with them, which of course he did not do.

“The DOJ and the [special House Jan. 6] committee are building a pyramid of guilt to get to the top. The more people who plead guilty, the more the top of the pyramid begins to take shape,” said Joshua E. Kastenberg, a professor at University of New Mexico’s law school.

[...]

[T]he committee can’t, on its own, charge anyone with a crime. But its findings can certainly result in Congress asking the Justice Department to pursue a case against the former president.

[...]

It might seem odd for a federal law against witness tampering to be used this way, but the statute includes a provision that makes it a crime for anyone who “corruptly… obstructs, influences, or impedes any official proceeding,” or tries to do so.

As insurrection cases make their way through federal courts in the District of Columbia, judges are increasingly allowing prosecutors to use it.

Ronald Sandlin and Nathaniel DeGrave, accused rioters who were caught in Las Vegas, recently tried to stop the DOJ from using it against them. That effort was promptly cut short by U.S. District Court Judge Dabney L. Friedrich, a Trump appointee, when she issued an opinion on Dec. 10 that noted how Sandlin recorded a livestream shortly before the attack in which he said, “freedom is paid for with blood” and “there is going to be violence.”

[...]

“One of the most commonly used defenses by January 6 defense attorneys is that their client could not have been intentionally obstructing the proceeding because they had no idea it was an official proceeding,” Lewis said.

But that defense has an obvious weakness: rioters were expressly there to “stop the steal” by preventing Congress from certifying the 2020 election results.

“They were there to interfere with the process. They may not have been there to commit acts of violence or commit an insurrection. But they were absolutely there to do exactly what this statute covers,” Kastenberg told The Daily Beast.

The more defendants plead guilty to this charge, the more they establish it as the norm.

[...]

“This is how you prosecute the mob. You don’t start at the top,” said Vermont Law School professor Jared Carter.

This was certainly a mob, and they certainly had their mob boss. But don't expect him to be charged with anything.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Activist judges

A New York trial court judge has upheld his order preventing The New York Times from publishing documents prepared by a lawyer for the conservative group Project Veritas, in a move that alarmed First Amendment advocates concerned about judicial intrusion into journalistic practices.

In a ruling made public on Friday, the judge, Justice Charles D. Wood of State Supreme Court in Westchester County, went further: He ordered The Times to immediately turn over any physical copies of the Project Veritas documents in question, and to destroy any electronic copies in the newspaper’s possession.

The Times said it would seek a stay of the ruling and was planning to appeal it.

“This ruling should raise alarms not just for advocates of press freedoms but for anyone concerned about the dangers of government overreach into what the public can and cannot know,” the publisher of The Times, A.G. Sulzberger, said in a statement on Friday. “In defiance of law settled in the Pentagon Papers case, this judge has barred The Times from publishing information about a prominent and influential organization that was obtained legally in the ordinary course of reporting.”

  

Well, MY alarms have been raised. This is indeed frightening.

The judge’s order came about as part of a libel lawsuit filed in 2020 by Project Veritas, which is led by the provocateur James O’Keefe, that accused The Times of defamation.

The Justice Department is investigating Project Veritas for its possible role in the theft of a diary that belonged to Ashley Biden, President Biden’s daughter. The Times, in reporting on the investigation, published an article in November that quoted memos prepared by a lawyer for Project Veritas, which expounded on strategies that would allow the group to engage in deceptive reporting practices without breaking federal law.

[...]

“The Times is perfectly free to investigate, uncover, research, interview, photograph, record, report, publish, opine, expose or ignore whatever aspects of Project Veritas its editors in their sole discretion deem newsworthy, without utilizing Project Veritas’s attorney-client privileged memoranda,” the judge wrote.

Theodore J. Boutrous Jr., a lawyer who represents media outlets including CNN, said in an interview on Friday that the judge’s ruling was “way off base and dangerous.”

“It’s an egregious, unprecedented intrusion on news gathering and the news gathering process,” Mr. Boutrous said. “The special danger is it allows a party suing a news organization for defamation to then get a gag order against the news organization banning any additional reporting. It’s the ultimate chilling effect.”

[...]

In his new ruling, Justice Wood rejected the argument by The Times that the memos prepared by Project Veritas’s lawyer — which advised the conservative group on how to legally carry out deceptive reporting methods — were a matter of public concern.

What the everloving fuck? Of COURSE it's a matter of public concern. It concerns deceiving the public!

[L]awyers for The Times wrote on Dec. 3 that the memos had been obtained through traditional reporting, not as part of formal litigation, and therefore could not be prevented from being published. The paper argued that any attempt to prevent it from publishing its journalism was “an unconstitutional prior restraint” that is prohibited by decades of established First Amendment law. “This is not, as Project Veritas suggests, a run-of-the-mill discovery dispute,” The Times wrote in a brief. “The information published by The Times was obtained outside discovery by reporters doing their jobs. Project Veritas simply seeks to use this litigation to suppress unfavorable news coverage of its activities. That it cannot do.”

Apparently Judge Wood thinks it can.

Glad tidings of great joy

Whhhhhaaaaaaaat?

Donald Trump Jr. is both intensely unappealing and uninteresting. He combines in his person corruption, ineptitude, and banality. He is perpetually aggrieved; obsessed with trolling the left; a crude, one-dimensional figure who has done a remarkably good job of keeping from public view any redeeming qualities he might have.

  The Atlantic

In other words, a chip off the old block.

Don Jr. has been his father’s chief emissary to MAGA world; he’s one of the most popular figures in the Republican Party; and he’s influential with Republicans in positions of power.

[...]

[At a Turning Point USA gathering on December 19, Trump Jr. said,] "I’d love not to have to participate in cancel culture. I’d love that it didn’t exist. But as long as it does, folks, we better be playing the same game. Okay? We’ve been playing T-ball for half a century while they’re playing hardball and cheating. Right? We’ve turned the other cheek, and I understand, sort of, the biblical reference—I understand the mentality—but it’s gotten us nothing. Okay? It’s gotten us nothing while we’ve ceded ground in every major institution in our country.”

Throughout his speech, Don Jr. painted a scenario in which Trump supporters—Americans living in red America—are under relentless attack from a wicked and brutal enemy. He portrayed it as an existential battle between good and evil. One side must prevail; the other must be crushed. This in turn justifies any necessary means to win. And the former president’s son has a message for the tens of millions of evangelicals who form the energized base of the GOP: the scriptures are essentially a manual for suckers. The teachings of Jesus have “gotten us nothing.”

[...]

Decency is for suckers.

[...]

He believes, as his father does, that politics should be practiced ruthlessly, mercilessly, and vengefully. The ends justify the means. Norms and guardrails need to be smashed. Morality and lawfulness must always be subordinated to the pursuit of power and self-interest. That is the Trumpian ethic.

[...]

Donald Trump and his oldest son have become evangelists of a different kind.

Their approach hasn’t been embraced by Republicans, of course.

[...]

Liz Cheney voted with President Trump more than 90 percent of the time but is now persona non grata in the GOP because she is willing to defend the Constitution and the rule of law and stand against a violent assault on the Capitol and an effort to overturn a free and fair election. When Liz Cheney is more despised in the party than the crazed Marjorie Taylor Greene, Paul Gosar, Lauren Boebert, Jim Jordan, Madison Cawthorn, or Donald Trump Jr., you know that the GOP has lost its moral bearings.

I understand that many Americans, including some number of Republicans I know, would rather we move on from the Trump family. But the Trump family and MAGA world won’t let us. And they’re playing for keeps.

And some things never change

It's Sunday

It's Sunday

Ha! She would refuse to believe it was him.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Budgeting

We're all waiting to see how this goes

Trump moved for an emergency injunction to block a ruling of the U.S. Court of Appeals for Washington D.C. earlier this month, which sharply rejected Trump’s bid to prevent the committee from obtaining his files. He also filed a petition for full consideration by the court.

Banking on "his" court, isn't he?

The National Archives, which holds Trump’s papers, has indicated that it intends to turn over records from top Trump aides Mark Meadows, Stephen Miller, Kayleigh McEnany and others unless the court intervenes. Those records include speech drafts, strategy memos and logs of calls and visits.

[...]

In a reply Thursday afternoon, the House asked the Supreme Court to expedite consideration of the case. House Counsel Doug Letter said he’s prepared to file a full response on Dec. 30 and would seek the court’s consideration by Jan. 14.

“Delay would inflict serious injury on the Select Committee and on the public,” he wrote, saying the committee needed the documents as part of “securing the safety and soundness of our democratic processes and institutions.”

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Hmmmmmm

Bernie Kerik, the former New York City police chief who aided Rudy Giuliani’s effort to discredit the results of the 2020 election, is inching closer to compliance with a subpoena from the Jan. 6 select committee for his testimony and documents.

In a Thursday letter to Chair Bennie Thompson, obtained by POLITICO, Kerik’s attorney Timothy Parlatore indicated that Kerik intends to share documents he believes are “not privileged” with the panel by the end of next week and produce a log of other documents he believes should be withheld due to various privileges.

Kerik, raising concerns that his documents could be released selectively or without context, indicated that he planned to post them on a public website. Parlatore also indicated that Kerik would appear for a Jan. 13 deposition, as the panel has demanded, but intended to raise objections to the validity of the committee’s subpoena.

  Politico

I have a feeling that "not privileged" documents will not include anything of import to the committee.

[Committee Chair Bennie] Thompson [...] rejected Kerik’s request for a public hearing in lieu of a deposition. But he did say the committee would take the request “under advisement” and consider for a future hearing after Kerik appeared for his deposition.

Wise choice. I imagine these dicks just want to have a public platform to act out on behalf of Trump.  Keep the circus going.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

How Proud?

Not proud enough to hold out against the Feds.

A Proud Boys member who federal prosecutors said "played a substantial role in the breach of the Capitol" on Jan. 6 pleaded guilty Wednesday to felony conspiracy and obstruction charges.

The man, Matthew Greene, of Syracuse, New York, admitted to plotting with other members of the far-right group to stop Congress from certifying Joe Biden as the winner of the 2020 presidential election. As part of his plea, Greene, an Army National Guard veteran, agreed to cooperate with prosecutors.

He is the first member of the extremist group, which describes itself as a "pro-Western fraternal organization for men who refuse to apologize for creating the modern world," to plead guilty and cooperate in a Jan. 6-related case.

[...]

He also told another Proud Boys member in the days after the attack that they needed to be prepared to "do uncomfortable things."

  NBC

Like squealing?

Greene is scheduled to be sentenced March 10. Under federal sentencing guidelines, he is likely to face over four years in prison, but prosecutors could ask for less time depending on his level of cooperation.

Hope he is arranging protection for himself.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

DENIED

A federal judge in Florida on Wednesday denied Michael Flynn’s request for a temporary restraining order to block subpoenas from the House Jan. 6 committee compelling him to testify and to produce scores of documents.

The judge took action the day after Flynn filed his motion in federal court in Florida, where he lives.

U.S. District Judge Mary Scriven of Tampa said Flynn’s motion, which was filed Tuesday, failed for two reasons, including a lack of urgency.

[...]

Scriven said Flynn's lawyers also failed to follow the correct procedure for such requests. Federal rules require someone seeking a temporary restraining order to notify the other party or parties — in this case, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and the Jan. 6 committee — or say why the notice shouldn’t be required. Flynn’s lawyers failed to do either, an omission that the judge said was fatal to his motion.

  NBC

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Losing our democracy

State Republicans spent 2021 hunting for the widespread voter fraud that former President Donald Trump told his supporters cost him the election.

They never found it. Still, the year was characterized by a wave of GOP-led voting restrictions fueled by Trump’s lie — and more election changes are on the horizon next year.

[...]

So far, Republican legislators in four states — Arizona, Missouri, New Hampshire and South Carolina — have prefiled at least 13 bills that the organization says would make it harder to vote. Nine other states will carry over 88 restrictive bills from the last legislative session. Legislators in five states — Florida, Missouri, New Hampshire, South Carolina and Tennessee — have also filed six bills to initiate or allow partisan ballot reviews. Four would initiate such reviews for the 2020 election results, according to the Brennan Center.

  NBC

That should help

Nothing like wasting time on essential matters

And in the meantime....

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Richest country on earth

At Christmastime.

Hunger is rising this holiday season with the U.S. Census Bureau estimating more than 21 million Americans didn't have enough to eat in early December as pandemic relief payments run out and grocery prices rise.

[...]

Grocery prices in the U.S. are up 6.4% from a year earlier. Food banks are also seeing a rise in demand, and clinics meant to help malnourished and underfed children have seen an increase in patients.

[...]

Low-income families may soon face more pressure with monthly child tax credit payments ending and the Senate deadlocked on legislation to extend the program backed by President Joe Biden.

[...]

The last of the scheduled payments for the expanded child tax credit were sent out on Dec. 15. The Build Back Better Act includes language that would extend payments through 2022. The bill’s status is up in the air, however, after Senator Joe Manchin, a Democrat from West Virginia, on Sunday said that he would not vote for it.

  Bloomberg

We need to start presenting Scrooge as Manchin.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

UPDATE 12/24:

And there it is...

January 6 coup sentences

Judges across the US have been handing down stiff sentences and hard words in recent weeks for extremist supporters of Donald Trump who took part in the 6 January insurrection at the US Capitol.

  Guardian

As they should.

Since the riots, federal prosecutors have brought cases against 727 individuals over their involvement in the deadly riots.

[...]

The longest sentence so far was handed down to a Florida man who threw a wooden plank and fire extinguisher at police officers during the riots. On 17 December, Judge Tanya Chutkan sentenced Robert Palmer to 63 months of jail time.

[...]

On Tuesday, a Washington state man was sentenced to 46 months of prison time for assaulting police officers with a speaker and a metal baton during the riots. According to court documents, Devlyn Thompson helped move police shields up against a line of rioters in a tunnel, as well as hit police officers.

[...]

Thompson is the second rioter, after Palmer, to be sentenced for the felony of assaulting a police officer with a dangerous weapon. More than 140 other rioters face the same charge.
[...]

[A] federal judge sentenced Jacob Chansley, the US Capitol rioter nicknamed the “QAnon shaman” for his horned headdress, to 41 months in prison last month

[...]

[US District Judge Royce] Lamberth also sentenced an 81-year-old Army veteran on the same day to three years of probation for illegally breaching the Capitol.

[...]

On Tuesday, a Pennsylvania man was also sentenced over his involvement in the riots after his wife accidentally implicated him in a Facebook status. US District Judge James Boasberg sentenced Gary Edwards to one year of probation, 200 hours of community service, as well as a $2,500 fine and $500 in damage fees.

[...]

Gary Wickersham, one of the oldest of more than 700 rioters facing charges, was sentenced to 90 days of home detention, and will also have to pay a $2,000 fine and $500 for building damage.

Not enough. They were attempting to overthrow the government, FFS. They should all get some jail time.

During his hearing, Wickersham asked for “mercy” from Lamberth and explained that he went to the Capitol because “you get bored” sitting at home.

I repeat, FFS.  Maybe he'd be less bored in prison.

On 22 November, US District Judge Royce Lamberth sentenced Capitol rioter Frank Scavo to 60 days in prison, one of the strictest sentences handed down to a misdemeanor defendant and more than four times the prosecutor’s recommendation of two weeks.

Scavo, a Trump supporter from Pennsylvania and former school board official, was found guilty of chartering buses to transport approximately 200 residents from Pennsylvania to the Capitol on 6 January.

Yes.

Joe doesn't care about actual coal miners

His money is in abandoned coal mines.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Some people are actually maggots

In Sen. Joe Manchin III’s hilly West Virginia home county, his family’s business has made millions by taking waste coal from long-abandoned mines and selling it to a power plant that emits air pollution at a higher rate than any other plant in the state.

That enterprise could have taken a hit under a key part of President Biden’s climate agenda, a $150 billion plan to push coal plants toward cleaner energy. One lawmaker, though, played a central role in killing that proposal: Manchin, who has earned hundreds of thousands of dollars annually from the family coal company while using his role as a Democratic swing vote in a 50-50 Senate to dictate Biden’s policies.

[...]

When pressed about whether he has a conflict of interest, Manchin bristles. “I have been in a blind trust for 20 years. I have no idea what they’re doing,” the senator told reporters in September, referring to his family’s coal firm. “You got a problem?”

  WaPo

As a matter of fact, I do.

Manchin’s latest financial disclosure report says that the West Virginia family coal business that he helped found and run, Enersystems, paid him $492,000 in interest, dividends and other income in 2020, and that his share of the firm is worth between $1 million and $5 million. He signed a sworn statement saying he is aware of these earnings, underscoring that he is not blind to them.

[...]

Manchin set up a blind trust with $350,000 in cash in 2012. In his latest financial disclosure report, the senator reported that the Joseph Manchin III Qualified Blind Trust earned no more than $15,000 last year and is worth between $500,000 and $1 million. By design, it is not possible to know precisely what’s in the blind trust. But the financial disclosure records show that it doesn’t include all of Manchin’s income from Enersystems.

Well, what a surprise.

[I]t calls into question the impartiality of a senator who in October forced Biden to drop the plan in his Build Back Better bill to phase out the same kinds of coal plants that are key to his family company’s profitability.

[...]

“The question I would ask him would be, when he says it’s in a blind trust, ‘Well, your public financial disclosure report that you sign and swear is true does not have Enersystems in the blind trust,’ ” Fox said. “And if the blind trust is truly blind, how do you know what’s in it?”

[...]

It is legal for Manchin to make millions of dollars from his coal interests even as he chairs the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee and legislates on matters affecting the industry. That is because members of Congress are not required to divest their assets to avoid a potential industry conflict.

[...]

Between 2011 and 2020, Manchin earned $4.8 million from Enersystems, according to a tally by the Center for Responsive Politics. His net worth as of 2020 was between $4.4 million and $12.8 million, the center said.

[...]

Compared with ordinary coal plants, power plants that burn waste coal, or what the industry calls “gob,” are dirtier and don’t generate as much electricity. The Grant Town plant emits more greenhouse gases and the main components of acid rain — nitrogen oxides and sulfur dioxide — into the air per megawatt-hour of electricity produced than any other power plant in West Virginia, according to the Environmental Protection Agency’s most recent data. Only a handful of waste-coal-burning plants still operate nationally. They are such heavy polluters that the Trump administration created a separate category for them, weakening the air pollution standards they had to meet.

[...]

Holman said Manchin’s financial position is one of the most conflicted of any member of Congress he has studied because so much of the senator’s financial stake is in the coal industry while he is playing a key role on climate policies. Nonetheless, he said, “what Manchin is doing is not illegal. The conflict of interest code for Congress is just way too weak.”

What say we fix that? No wonder they haven't wanted to press Trump for all his shady self-dealing.

West Virginia’s embrace of coal power over less expensive alternatives like gas, wind and solar has contributed to a decade of rising electricity bills. According to Van Nostrand’s analysis, between 2010 and 2019 West Virginians’ electricity costs increased about five times more than the national average.

Jesus Christ. Not just polluting West Virginians, but shafting them as well.

Around the time Manchin helped kill the clean electricity provision, he was asked during a walk with reporters on Capitol Hill about whether he has a conflict of interest and was pressed on the fact that his son runs the family coal company. Manchin responded, “I’m very proud of my son. He does a good job. You’d do best to change the subject now.”

And West Virginians would do best to recall their senator.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

UPDATE:  

Exactly.

MAGA world is beyond the pale

Kyle Rittenhouse was quizzed about his previously stated support of the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement at an event popular with conservatives, before security personnel removed the journalist asking the questions on Monday.

  MSN

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

UPDATE:

Technically true

After the last speech he got booed for saying people should get vaccinated, I'm actually quite surprised he even mentioned it again.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Wheeeeeeeeee

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

UPDATE:

Ahead for the Senate

Revised how?  Not up, I'm sure.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Joe Manchin is actually a Republican

Here's proof:

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Suspect identified

A spokesman for Perry told CNN that the former Energy Secretary denies being the author of the text. Multiple people who know Rick Perry confirmed to CNN that the phone number the committee has associated with that text message is Perry's number.

The cell phone number the text was sent from, obtained from a source knowledgeable about the investigation, appears in databases as being registered to a James Richard Perry of Texas, the former governor's full name.

The number is also associated in a second database as registered to a Department of Energy email address associated with Perry when he was secretary. When told of these facts, the spokesman had no explanation.

  CNN

"My phone has been hacked," probably.

The text to Meadows suggests a willingness to force a constitutional crisis to undermine the election even before all the legal votes had been counted. The final results from Pennsylvania and Georgia didn't come for days; Trump ultimately won North Carolina.

Boston College professor and historian Heather Cox Richardson found the text striking in that its author "wanted Republican-dominated state legislatures not even to wait to see who had won the election—none of those states had been called by November 4—but simply to ignore the will of the voters, choose their own electors, and hope that the Supreme Court would hand the election to Trump as he had been saying for weeks it would."

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

UPDATE 12/21:

What are the odds anything will come of it?

Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-Ill.) on Sunday said the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol is looking into whether then-President Trump acted criminally in connection to the Capitol riots.

Asked by co-anchor Jake Tapper on CNN’s “State of the Union” if the congressional panel is examining whether Trump violated a criminal statute with regard to Jan. 6, Kinzinger said “yes, we’re looking.”

He would not, however, say if he believes the former president committed a crime.

“I'm not ready to go there yet. But I sure tell you I have a lot of questions about what the president was up to,” Kinzinger said.

[...]

"And I think we will, by the end of our investigation and by the time our report is out, have a pretty good idea,” Kinzinger said.

[...]

In his question, Tapper referenced a clip of Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.), the vice chair of the panel and the second Republican member of the group, who appeared to reference the language of a criminal statute.

“Whoever corruptly obstructs, influences or impedes any official proceeding or attempts to do so shall be fined or imprisoned, not more than 20 years, or both,” Cheney said in the clip.

[...]

“Nobody, Jake, is above the law. Nobody, not the president. He's not a king. Not former presidents. They aren't former kings. Nobody is above the law. And if the president knowingly allowed what happened on January 6 to happen, and, in fact, was giddy about it, and that violates a criminal statute, he needs to be held accountable for that,” [Kinzinger] said.

  The Hill

This country has never held a president accountable for anything.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Covic cruises back in business

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

West Virginians need to pay a visit to their senator on Christmas

White House press secretary Jen Psaki said Sen. Joe Manchin’s (D-W.Va.) opposition to President Biden's social spending package was "a breach of his commitments" calling his reversal on the bill "inexplicable."

“Senator Manchin’s comments this morning on FOX are at odds with his discussions this week with the President, with White House staff, and with his own public utterances,” Psaki said in a statement on Sunday shortly after Manchin told Fox's Brett Baier that he was a "no" on the legislation.

It was the first time Manchin said firmly where he stood on the bill after months of wrangling with lawmakers and the White House to come up with an agreeable framework.

[...]

Manchin announced on “Fox News Sunday” that he would not vote for Biden’s climate and social spending bill, confirming “this is a no on this legislation.” He cited concerns with inflation, the $29 trillion federal debt and a surge in new infections caused by the omicron COVID-19 variant as reasons for his position.

Psaki said the White House will continue to press Manchin on the bill and see if he will “reverse his position yet again” and “be true to his word.”

  The Hill

Yeah, good luck with that.

As Manchin said, if you want more progressive policies, elect more progressive Democrats.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

UPDATE:

UPDATE:

There are better reasons to reject the Democratic Party.  The problem is, with our current system, there's only one other party capable of holding power - and that's the New Fascist Party, aka GOP.

UPDATE:

Progressives are hated only slightly less by "moderate" Democrats ("Beltway" Democrats) than by Republicans.

White House statement on Manchin:

More here

UPDATE:

Projecting much, Joe?

It's Sunday

Some years ago, I had a premonition that we were going to have to repeat the Hitler era, and I thought: we'd better get it right this time.  I'm not at all sure we will.  At the time, I thought it would happen sooner, but here we are now.  It's coming.  We already have proof that Trump world is violent, now I think we'll see just how anti-Semitic it is.

The chief executive of the Anti-Defamation League led condemnation of Donald Trump after the former president used antisemitic tropes in remarks about American Jews and Israel.

“Insinuating that Israel or the Jews control Congress or the media is antisemitic, plain and simple,” Jonathan Greenblatt said. “Unfortunately, this is not the first time he has made these offensive remarks.”

Trump was speaking to the journalist Barak Ravid, author of a book on Trump and the Middle East. Parts of the interview aired on Friday on a podcast, Unholy: Two Jews on the News.

“It’s a very dangerous thing that’s happening,” Trump said. “There’s people in this country that are Jewish and no longer love Israel. I’ll tell you, the evangelical Christians love Israel more than the Jews in this country.”

  Guardian

And with those words, they've just been given the exoneration to start seriously attacking Jews, people they've always harbored disdain for - after all, the Jews killed Jesus.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

UPDATE 12/20:

Congress sucks

They're not doing what's best for america; they're making deals with each other for their own political benefit. 

The Senate will vote next month on legislation from Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) to impose Nord Stream 2 pipeline sanctions as part of a deal that allowed Democrats to clear dozens of President Biden's nominees.

Under the agreement, locked in during a rare all-night session, the Senate will vote on Cruz's legislation on sanctions related to the construction of the pipeline, which allows Russia to deliver natural gas to Germany, by Jan. 14, where it will need 60 votes to ultimately pass.

The deal comes after days of negotiations between Cruz and Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.).

[...]

A hold by a senator doesn't prevent the nominees from being confirmed if they have the support of 50 senators, but it does require leadership to eat up floor time in order to get a final vote.

Cruz, even while largely maintaining his holds, has also let some nominees be cleared easily including former Sens. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.) and Tom Udall (D-N.M.), who were confirmed to be the ambassador to Turkey and New Zealand, respectively.

But the stalemate on dozens of Biden nominees, which frustrated Democrats, administration officials and even some Republicans, took on more urgency as the Senate headed toward the end of its work year. Absent an agreement with Republicans, Democrats would have to send nominees back to the White House at the end of the year and force Biden to renominate them.

  The Hill

Ted Cruz is a disgrace both as a senator and as a human being.

Also...from yesterday...

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

More coup lawsuits attempting to hold Trump accountable

Three civil lawsuits from lawmakers and Capitol Police officers that seek to hold Donald Trump and his closest advisers accountable for the US Capitol riot are moving forward after months of inaction.

Judge Amit Mehta of the DC District Court has set oral arguments on whether the cases -- which are separate from the congressional or criminal investigations -- should be dismissed for January 10.

[...]

In one complaint that Mehta will consider, former House impeachment manager Rep. Eric Swalwell sued Trump, his son Donald Trump Jr., Rudy Giuliani and Republican Rep. Mo Brooks, claiming their speeches on January 6 incited the riot and inflicted emotional distress on members of Congress.

[...]

In another, two US Capitol Police officers sued Trump, claiming he directed his followers to assault them.

In the third lawsuit, Rep. Bennie Thompson and other lawmakers accused Trump and Rudy Giuliani of conspiring with the far-right groups Proud Boys and Oath Keepers to incite the January 6 insurrection. Thompson withdrew from the lawsuit when he became part of the House Select Committee investigating January 6.

  CNN

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Roger Stone appeared before the Jan 6 Investigation Committee

I hope Judge Chutkan has bodyguards

A Florida man was sentenced Friday to just over five years in prison for assaulting police officers during the Jan. 6 riot at the Capitol.

[...]

Robert Palmer, 54, of Tampa, was charged with repeatedly assaulting police officers on the Capitol's Lower West Terrace.

Prosecutors said he threw a wooden plank the police, then picked up a fire extinguisher and sprayed its contents at a line of officers, throwing the canister at them after it was empty.

A few minutes later, prosecutors said, he picked up the fire extinguisher and threw it at them a second time and assaulted another group of officers with a metal pole, throwing it like a spear. He stopped the attack when an officer shot him in the abdomen with a rubber bullet.

[...]

The sentence, of 63 months, was the longest one yet imposed among the more than 150 defendants who have pleaded guilty to taking part in the siege.

[...]

Those officers were so brave standing there, just taking all the stuff that people were giving them, all the taunts, all the jeers and everything," Palmer told the judge before he was sentenced.

"I am so ashamed I was part of that. Very, very ashamed," he said.

[...]

But prosecutors said he showed a lack of remorse in a misleading social media posting that solicited support after he pleaded guilty.

The posting said he acted in self-defense — that he threw fire extinguisher only after he was shot with the non-lethal round. Palmer admitted during Friday's hearing that his claim of self-defense was false.

[...]

"It has to be made clear that trying to violently overthrow the government, trying to stop the peaceful transition of power, and assaulting law enforcement officers in that effort is going to be met with absolutely certain punishment," said U.S. District Judge Tanya S. Chutkan.

[...]

The longest sentence imposed previously in a Capitol riot case was 41 months, given separately to two defendants. One was Jacob Chansley, known as the QAnon shaman, who pleaded guilty to obstructing the presidential vote count. The other was Scott Fairlamb, who pleaded guilty to hitting a police officer's face shield. Both are pursuing appeals.

  NBC

So will this guy, no doubt.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Suckers

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Make America Russia in the 40s

This is some scary shit, people.