Fuck that guy

Don't buy Bill Barr's tell-all.

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

Anonymous is back

And taking on Russia.

Anonymous Twitter

President Zelensky Twitter

Follow the money

Bingo

Dare they?

Russia targeting Chernobyl plant and Kiev airport

Courts still holding the line on redistricting

If he has proof...

...also, who at the White House knew?

If you haven't been crying for Texas, time to start

LOLOL

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

There goes Lindsey's career

Republicans eat their own.

That's the problem with supporting and encouraging ravenous rats...they'll turn on you.

Sheesh

This morning's Guardian online

These numbers should be higher

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

Jesus Fuck

Yes, children, we are trapped in Hell.

The two prosecutors leading the Manhattan district attorney’s investigation into former President Donald J. Trump and his business practices abruptly resigned on Wednesday amid a monthlong pause in their presentation of evidence to a grand jury, according to people with knowledge of the matter. The stunning development comes not long after the high-stakes inquiry appeared to be gaining momentum, and throws its future into serious doubt.

The prosecutors, Carey R. Dunne and Mark F. Pomerantz, submitted their resignations after the new Manhattan district attorney, Alvin Bragg, indicated to them that he had doubts about moving forward with a case against Mr. Trump, the people said.

[...]

They have not questioned any witnesses in front of the grand jury for more than a month, essentially pausing their investigation into whether Mr. Trump inflated the value of his assets to obtain favorable loan terms from banks.

[...]

In a statement responding to the resignations of the prosecutors, a spokeswoman for Mr. Bragg said that he was “grateful for their service” and that the investigation was ongoing.

  NYT

What the fuck for? And what's Bragg's problem? Was Trump calling the New York cases racist bothering him?

The pause coincides with an escalation in the activity of a parallel civil inquiry by the New York state attorney general, Letitia James, whose office is examining some of the same conduct by Mr. Trump.

Ms. James, who last week received approval from a judge to question Mr. Trump and two of his adult children under oath, has filed court documents describing a number of ways in which the Trump Organization appeared to have misrepresented the value of its properties.

[...]

Mr. Bragg’s office must meet a higher bar to bring a criminal case and has encountered a number of challenges in pursuing Mr. Trump, including its inability thus far to persuade any Trump Organization executives to cooperate.

[...]

rosecutors have thus far been unable to convince Mr. Trump’s long-serving chief financial officer to cooperate with the investigation, depriving them of the type of insider witness whose testimony can be crucial to complicated white collar criminal cases.

[...]

Mr. Trump has disputed the notion that he inflated his property values or defrauded his lenders, and has accused Mr. Bragg and Ms. James, both Democrats who are Black, of being politically motivated and “racists.”

[...]

As Mr. Bragg’s grand jury presentation has come to a halt, another serious criminal inquiry into the former president has been gaining steam. In recent weeks, a district attorney in Atlanta asked a judge to convene a grand jury for an investigation into Mr. Trump’s attempts to overturn the results of the 2020 election in Georgia.

Another criminal investigation, in New York’s Westchester County, is examining Mr. Trump’s financial dealings at one of his company’s
golf courses.

UPDATE 04/05/2023:  Sorry, Alvin.  I take it all back.  I now understand the reasons Bragg didn't push this out.

Rudy Giuliani before the January 6 Committee

Broadly, Giuliani has indicated through his lawyer to the select committee that he will produce documents and answer questions about Trump’s schemes to return himself to office on 6 January that House investigators had outlined in a subpoena issued to him last month.

The former president’s attorney is prepared to reveal his contacts and the roles played by Republican members of Congress in the scheme Giuliani helped orchestrate to have then-vice-president Mike Pence stop the certification of Joe Biden’s election victory.

Giuliani is also prepared to divulge details about Trump’s pressure campaign on Pence to adopt the scheme, and the effort coordinated by him and the Trump White House to have legislatures certify slates of electors for Trump in states actually won by Biden.

  Guardian

I'll believe it when I see it.

The move by Giuliani to appear before the panel – in a cooperation deal that could be agreed within weeks, according to two sources briefed on negotiations – could mark a breakthrough moment for the inquiry as it seeks to interview key members of Trump’s inner circle.

[...]

But the former president’s attorney has indicated that he will assist the select committee only if his appearance is not pursuant to his subpoena, and does not have to give records or discuss his contacts with Trump over executive and attorney-client privilege concerns.

[...]

The demands surrounding the circumstances of his cooperation reflect comments he made on Newsmax last week when he falsely claimed the select committee was “illegal”, and claimed that “it doesn’t have minority membership and really can’t subpoena anybody.”

The select committee appears to have ignored his remarks as they move to finalize an agreement with Giuliani. The comments did not come up in recent talks and the panel last week allowed Giuliani to postpone his document production deadline for a second time, one of the sources said.

Yeah, nothing is going to come of this.

The cooperation deal would also technically involve Giuliani turning over documents in addition to appearing before the select committee, the sources said, but the logistics were unclear given the FBI last year seized his devices that he used on 6 January.

Giuliani is committed to appearing before the panel, the source said, but it was not clear whether he would testify under oath in a closed-door deposition, for which the select committee has been pushing, or appear in a more informal interview on Capitol Hill.

I'm speculating here, but if he appears for an "interview" as opposed to under subpoena, I suppose he can lie with impunity, and even claim later that anything damning he said wasn't really true. If that were the case, I guess he could still be charged with lying to Congress, but what's the penalty for that? Not much that we've seen so far.

Trump’s former chief strategist Steve Bannon refused to comply with his subpoena in its entirety, boasting executive privilege protection – only to be referred to the justice department for criminal contempt of Congress and indicted on two counts about four weeks later.

That has served as a warning to other witnesses. Even if his cooperation deal ultimately falls through, Giuliani may be engaging with the select committee at least to avoid a similar fate to Bannon and a potentially costly legal battle to fight such charges.

The benefits of partial cooperation have also become apparent, after Meadows was held in contempt of Congress for refusing to appear for a deposition as required by his subpoena, but remains unindicted two months after his initial referral to the justice department.

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

Expect some (more) Trump attacks on the Supreme Court

The Supreme Court on Tuesday turned away an appeal by former President Trump in his dispute with congressional investigators who have sought access to Trump-era records as part of a House panel’s investigation into the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol.

The court’s move, which came in a brief unsigned order issued without comment, comes after the justices denied Trump's emergency request to block the transfer of his White House records from the National Archives to the House select committee, a process that began last month.

Tuesday's development formally ends Trump’s legal effort to stymie lawmakers’ efforts to obtain a batch of schedules, call logs, emails and other requested documents that the committee says could illuminate key circumstances surrounding the deadly Capitol riot.

  The Hill

Need any more Third World comparisons?

Or in this case, perhaps it's still a contrast.

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

It's on

This is the Guardian's online front page today:

I thought Russia would invade Ukraine after the Olympics in order to not cast a shadow on Russian athletes, but I guess since the doping scandal over the young Russian figure skater, that's already happened, so why wait?

If you thought there was a bottom to GOP freedoming, think again

In a question-and-answer session Monday at the Bipartisan Policy Center, Sen. Thom Tillis, R-North Carolina, argued that restaurants should be allowed to “opt out” of certain regulations - such as employees washing their hands. Such a rule, he says, is an example of how America is “one of the most regulated nations in the history of the planet.”

[...]

“I said that I don’t have any problem with Starbucks if they choose to opt out of this policy as long as they post a sign that says, ‘We don’t require our employees to wash their hands after leaving the restroom.’ The market will take care of that,” Tillis said.

“If you let a business or industry opt out as long as they indicate through proper disclosure, through advertising, through employee literature, there’s this level of regulations that maybe they’re on the books,” Tillis said. “But maybe you can make a market based decision as to whether or not they should apply to you.”

The Republican senator from North Carolina went on to say that a move like that by a restaurant would probably result in it going out of business.

  ABC

Depends on its location.

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

The era of ultra-high finance scandals continues

Click the graphic above for the story.

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

It's Sunday

A Catholic priest in Arizona has resigned after he was found to have performed baptisms incorrectly throughout his career, rendering the rite invalid for thousands of people.

The Catholic Diocese of Phoenix announced on its website that it determined after careful study that the Rev. Andres Arango had used the wrong wording in baptisms performed up until June 17, 2021. He had been off by a single word.

During baptisms in both English and Spanish, Arango used the phrase "we baptize you in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit." He should have said "I baptize," the diocese explained.

  NPR

This must be what is meant by the letter of the law.

"It is not the community that baptizes a person and incorporates them into the Church of Christ; rather, it is Christ, and Christ alone, who presides at all sacraments; therefore, it is Christ who baptizes," it said. "If you were baptized using the wrong words, that means your baptism is invalid, and you are not baptized."

So...is the priest Christ?  Jesus Fucking Christ.

As far as the diocese is aware, all of the other sacraments that Arango conferred are valid. But because baptism is the "sacrament that grants access to all the others," a botched baptism could invalidate any subsequent sacraments, including confirmation, marriage and holy orders.

"What this means for you is, if your baptism was invalid and you’ve received other sacraments, you may need to repeat some or all of those sacraments after you are validly baptized as well," the diocese said.

The Catholic Church better lose some parishoners over this bullshit.

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

Oh, gee, another Trump scam

Former President Donald Trump spent $375,000 raised from his followers for rent at his financially troubled Manhattan skyscraper last year ― even though his political committees have no presence in the building.

“It’s a huge scam,” said one former aide with direct knowledge of Trump’s political spending. “I can’t believe his base lets him get away with it.”

  WaPo

I can.

A HuffPost analysis of Federal Election Commission filings shows that Trump’s Make America Great Again PAC spent $37,541.67 in each of 10 months last year renting office space at Trump Tower, the former president’s 57-story mixed-use building near Central Park.

[...]

In all those months, there was at most one person who periodically visited the 7,000-square-foot office in Trump Tower, the former aide said. But Trump insisted on having the campaign continue renting there ― as it had during the 2016 election ― because the building was having trouble finding tenants, he said.

[...]

After the 2020 election, the Trump presidential campaign committee was reformulated as the Make America Great Again PAC and continued leasing the space. Only now it is not used at all, except to store campaign memorabilia, the former aide said. “No one works at that office,” he said. “It sits there locked up.”

Pretty stiff rent for a storage unit.

The $375,417 Trump spent for the unused office space is more than the $350,500 that his Save America committee donated last year to Republican candidates running for office, which is ostensibly Trump’s purpose for raising money for his committees.

Trump used similar tactics when he originally created the Save America “leadership” PAC following his election loss in November 2020, claiming in repeated emails and text messages to tens of millions of his supporters that the money would be used to help Republicans win key U.S. Senate runoffs in Georgia to maintain control of that chamber. But even though he raised $76 million in those weeks before the Jan. 5, 2021, runoff, Trump spent none of it helping the GOP candidates.

[...]

Noah Bookbinder, the president of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, said that although Trump is still using his position to funnel donors’ money to himself, it does not appear to be illegal. “There’s no law that says you can’t use this as a scam to enrich yourself. He’s allowed to do this. It’s sleazy, but it’s legal.”

So maybe it shouldn't be.

Trump’s total donations to candidates is also dwarfed by the amount of money his properties have taken in from GOP candidates and committees staging events at and otherwise patronizing his various properties. Mar-a-Lago, Trump’s tennis and croquet social club in Palm Beach, Florida, where he lives and has a taxpayer-supported post-presidential office, alone received $427,196 in payments last year, just from federal candidates and committees.

[...]

His hotels and golf courses in Florida, New Jersey, New York and Washington, D.C., took in an additional $153,243.

Trump ended 2021 with $105 million in his Save America committee, which, unlike a campaign committee with strict spending rules, can be used for virtually anything he wants, including paying his personal expenses or even providing himself a hefty salary.

“It’s all a slush fund,” the former aide said.

Grifters will grift. 

Duh!

Democrats deserve to lose to Republicans, but I sure hate watching it happen.

NY v Trump

Go Trisha.

UPDATE:

The decision by Justice Arthur Engoron of the New York State Supreme Court came after two hours of at-times heated oral arguments in which the Trumps' attorneys argued that James' probe constituted selective enforcement and "viewpoint discrimination" and could improperly mix the findings of a civil investigation with a separate criminal case that James is also a party to.

[...]

Donald Trump and the Trump Organization jointly sued James in federal court in late December, demanding that a judge block James' investigation.

[...]

"In the final analysis," Engoron wrote, "a State Attorney General commences investigating a business entity, uncovers copious evidence of possible financial fraud, and wants to question, under oath, several of the entities' principals, including its namesake. She has the clear right to do so."

[...]

"She is doing everything within their corrupt discretion to interfere with my business relationships, and with the political process," Trump said. "It is a continuation of the greatest Witch Hunt in history — and remember, I can't get a fair hearing in New York because of the hatred of me by Judges and the judiciary. It is not possible!"

  NPR

Waaaaah.

The move was seen by many as an indication that James' investigation may be nearing its end, having already obtained hundreds of thousands of pages of documents from the Trump Organization, the company's former accounting firm and Deutsche Bank, a lender. James has not yet made a determination on whether to bring a suit.

[...]

The probe appears to reach back more than a decade, examining Trump business transactions in Britain, California and New York.

This month, Mazars USA, the longtime accounting firm for the Trump Organization, ended its relationship with the company and warned in a letter that financial statements from 2011 to 2020 "should no longer be relied upon."

Somebody didn't want to go to jail with the Trumps.

In July, a grand jury indicted the Trump Organization and its former chief financial officer, Allen Weisselberg, alleging an elaborate scheme to avoid federal, state and local taxes. James has detailed attorneys from her office to work with the district attorney on his case, which may go to trial as soon as next summer.

<snark font> So unfair. </snark font>

GOP has no redeeming qualities

This is a hell of a thread on Nina Morrison's confirmation hearing.  Check it out.

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

PJ O'Rourke has joined Molly Ivins in journalism heaven

PJ O'Rourke   November 14, 1947 - February 15, 2022
Molly Ivins    August 30, 1944 - January 31, 2007

Trump Organization getting buried in lawsuits

New York Attorney General Letitia James (D) on Wednesday criticized former President Trump's comments on his company's financial statements which she said contradict the former president's own lawyers' court filing. “It is not unusual for parties to a legal proceeding to disagree about the facts,” the attorney general’s office said in a letter filed in the state's court, according to NBC News. “But it is truly rare for a party to publicly disagree with statements submitted by his own attorneys in a signed pleading — let alone one day after the pleading was filed,” the letter added.

[...]

Ahead of Trump’s statement, a letter from his longtime accounting firm, Mazars, said it could no longer vouch for the financial statements it had prepared for the Trump Organization and ended its business relationship with the company.

[...]

Her comments on Wednesday were in reference to the former president's statement on Tuesday that it was a “sham investigation,” NBC reported.

“Remember when the attorney general and or District Attorney say they think my financial statements may be high, I don’t even include these branding numbers in them, which is far more than any discrepancy they may have,” Trump wrote, adding that investigations should be focused on Hillary Clinton and “murderers, drug dealers and rapists.”

  The Hill

WTF?

Also, we have reason to believe Trump is a rapist and at least a money launderer for drug dealers, and I wouldn't be surprised to find out he's involved in murders. So there's that.

The Trump Organization is being reinstated as a defendant in a lawsuit filed by the D.C. attorney general against former President Trump's 2017 Inaugural Committee.

[...]

A ruling by D.C. Superior Court Judge Yvonne Williams on Monday reversed an earlier decision by another judge to dismiss the case against the Trump Organization. The ruling focused on the District leaving out testimony regarding authority over the Trump Organization.

[...]

In November, a judge dropped part of a lawsuit against Trump's 2017 Inaugural Committee by ruling the nonprofit had not misused funds by spending $1 million on ballrooms and meeting spaces at Trump's D.C. hotel.

But the ruling did allow another part of the lawsuit to continue, which claimed the committee misused assets for the Trump family's personal gain. The committee, technically a nonprofit, is not allowed to privately benefit its leader.

  The Hill

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

Ahmaud Arbery murder trial underway

There was a text message from Travis McMichael, complaining about Black people at a local restaurant. "Need to change the name from Cracker Barrel to N****r Bucket," he wrote.

There was a video, shared by McMichael on Facebook, of a Black boy dancing on The Ellen DeGeneres Show, the original music cut out and swapped for the racist song "Alabama N****r" by Johnny Rebel.A comment under a video of Black Lives Matter protesters, in which McMichael wished for a semiautomatic rifle in order to shoot the people he described as "goddamn monkeys," and another post advocating driving into a group of Black people with a vehicle.

[...]

A comment under a video of Black Lives Matter protesters, in which McMichael wished for a semiautomatic rifle in order to shoot the people he described as "goddamn monkeys," and another post advocating driving into a group of Black people with a vehicle.

  NPR

No wonder these guys wanted to plea bargain.

The three men were already convicted of murder and sentenced to life in prison in a state trial last year. Now, federal prosecutors are trying to prove that the McMichaels and Bryan went after Arbery because of his race, violating his right to use a public street.

[...]

Prosecutors also played a video of the father and son laughing about trespassing on private property while out hunting

[...]

The McMichaels have tried to defend their actions against Arbery as justified because Arbery was seen trespassing on private property — a home under construction in the neighborhood.

[...]

Bryan's text records show, according to Vaughn, "a pattern seen over several years" of making derogatory comments about Black people on Martin Luther King Jr. Day, and WhatsApp messages about Bryan's daughter's new Black boyfriend, including a message in which his daughter writes passionately that race doesn't matter and begs her father for understanding.

That's rich. His daughter.

"I've always told her this is the only thing I could not accept," Bryan texted a friend. One day after killing Arbery, Bryan texted the friend again, still about the falling-out with his daughter.Lawyers for the defense briefly argued that some of the racist comments are taken out of context.

What's the proper context for racist comments? Other than using them in a court case.

I guess Bryan won't be able to use "the proof I don't hate blacks is my daughter's boyfriend" defense. Be careful what you text, folks.

"I'm not going to ask you to like Travis McMichael," [defense] attorney Amy Lee Copeland told the jurors.

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

Well, this trial IS taking place in Georgia.

The jury is comprised of eight whites, three Blacks and one Hispanic. Alternates are three white members and one Pacific Islander.

  NPR

Feds v Missouri

The Department of Justice has asked a federal judge to block a Missouri law that allows private citizens to sue law enforcement agencies and officers for $50,000 if they can show their state gun rights were infringed upon. Gov. Mike Parson signed the Second Amendment Preservation Act last year, and since then, counties, cities and dozens of Missouri police chiefs have challenged it.

The law, known as H.B. 85, invalidates in Missouri five specific federal gun law categories, such as ones prohibiting the gun ownership by some felons, confiscation orders, and registration laws.

The complaint filed in federal court in Jefferson City, Mo., on Wednesday says "the overall purpose and effect of H.B. 85 are thus to nullify federal firearm laws and to affirmatively interfere with their enforcement."

[...]

Member station KCUR reports that more than 12 local law agencies have ended partnerships with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.

Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt, who is running in the Republican primary for an open Senate seat, said he'd challenge the suit.

[...]

Parson, who noted at the bill signing in June that he was once a sheriff, framed the law as a tool for the state to stand up to the federal government.

[...]

But the complaint alleges the law violates the supremacy clause of the U.S. Constitution. "A state cannot simply declare federal laws invalid," said Brian Boynton, head of the Justice Department's Civil Division. "This act makes enforcement of federal firearms laws difficult and strains the important law enforcement partnerships that help keep violent criminals off the street."

  NPR

Prince Andrew squeaks by

Prince Andrew, the disgraced second son of Queen Elizabeth II, has settled a lawsuit brought by Virginia Giuffre, a woman who had accused him of raping her when she was a teenage victim of Andrew’s friend, the notorious sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, according to a new court filing in Manhattan on Tuesday.

The amount that Andrew, 61, will pay Ms. Giuffre is confidential, the parties said in a joint statement attached to the filing.

  NYT

I bet it was a shit-ton.

The deal comes just weeks before Andrew was scheduled to sit for a deposition, in which he would have been questioned under oath by Ms. Giuffre’s lawyers. Andrew did not admit to any of Ms. Giuffre’s accusations against him in the statement announcing the settlement.

I wouldn't be surprised if his own stake was added to by people whose names might have come out in deposition: e.g. Alan Dershowitz and Donald Trump.

Andrew was forced to relinquish his military titles and royal charities, no longer was to use the title “His Royal Highness,” and was “not to undertake any public duties,” Buckingham Palace said in a statement last month.

[...]

In the statement on Tuesday, Andrew said it was “known that Jeffrey Epstein trafficked countless young girls over many years,” and that he “regrets his association with Epstein and commends the bravery of Ms. Giuffre and other survivors in standing up for themselves and others.”

[...]

The settlement came relatively quickly — just six months after Ms. Giuffre filed her suit and one month after Judge Kaplan denied Andrew’s motion to dismiss it.

Until they pay conseqences, they'll keep doing it

In the year since Mr. Trump has left the White House, he has undertaken a wide-ranging set of moneymaking ventures, trading repeatedly on his political fame and fan base in pursuit of profit.

[...]

In early December, Donald J. Trump put on a tuxedo and boarded the private jet of a scrap-metal magnate and crypto-miner for a short flight across Florida, touching down at an airport in Naples. There, a long red carpet marked the pathway into a Christmas-decorated hangar filled with supporters of Mr. Trump who had paid $10,000 to $30,000 for the privilege of attending a party and taking a photo with him.

[...]

But the money raised did not go to Mr. Trump’s political operation. Instead, Mr. Trump’s share of the evening’s proceeds went straight into his pocket, according to a person familiar with the arrangement.

Multiple attendees said they bought their tickets from a private company, Whip Fundraising, whose founder, Brad Keltner, has asserted that “the lion’s share” went to charity. But the website advertising the event listed no charitable cause. And Mr. Keltner, reached by phone, declined to discuss how money was distributed.

[...]

He has turned an online Trump store into a MAGA merchandiser, with his company sending marketing missives to people on his 2020 campaign’s email list.

That store is now selling red “Make America Great Again” hats for $50 each — a $20 markup from the price currently offered by his political action committee — with all proceeds going to a Trump-owned company.

His wife, Melania, has gotten into the act, too, auctioning off online collectibles and scheduling her own big-ticket event in Naples this April, a “tulips and topiaries high tea,” with V.I.P. packages reaching $50,000 and an undisclosed portion going to charity.

[...]

There are grandiose enterprises, such as a fledgling social-media company, whose billion-dollar market capitalization is largely predicated on Mr. Trump’s direct personal involvement. And there are smaller ones, like remodeling the lobby bar of Trump Tower in Manhattan and renaming it the 45 Wine and Whiskey Bar — where specialty cocktails range in price up to, yes, $45 (that one comes with two “American beef sliders”) and can be sipped in dark velvet chairs surrounded by Mr. Trump’s black-and-white presidential portraits and paraphernalia.

“You come here, you drink Trump,” said Daniel Popescu, a 79-year-old architect and a bar regular, whose typical order is a $20 glass of Trump Blanc de Blanc sparkling wine. He hailed Mr. Trump on a recent evening as “the best president this country has ever had.”

“For a billionaire to give up his life to do good for the country,” Mr. Popescu said, with a shake of his head and a sip, “it’s unbelievable.”

  NYT

Indeed, it never happened.

No doubt this is why he took whatever was in those 15 boxes of presidential materials recovered by the National Archives - to make money.

Trump Media & Technology Group, which is behind the new social media company, has raised more than $1 billion. Bankers for the company dangled an unusual perk: Invest at least $100 million, get a phone call from the former president. Later, the price of such a call came down to $50 million.

Hahahahahaha.

Mrs. Trump, too, has found ways to monetize her ties to Mr. Trump, including through a series of online sales. In January, she put up for auction a digital portrait of her by a French artist, a print of the portrait and a white hat she once wore at the White House while meeting the president of France.

Her plan to maximize the sales price by accepting payments only in cryptocurrency appears to have backfired, however: The crash in cryptocurrency prices in January reduced the planned opening-bid price of $250,000 to about $170,000 on the final day of the auction.

The auction drew just seven bids, according to electronic records, which also suggest that the winning bid was made by the auction’s sponsors.

[...]

Mrs. Trump is now selling tickets to the April “high tea,” with organizers saying that some of the profits will benefit an initiative of her “Be Best” endeavor called “Fostering the Future,” meant to provide computer-science scholarships to young people who have been in foster care.

There was no indication of how much of the proceeds Mrs. Trump herself intended to pocket. Florida requires any organization that raises charitable contributions in the state to register. No charity with the name “Fostering the Future” or “Be Best” is registered in Florida.

[...]

“Consumer Services Division is currently investigating whether this event involves an entity operating in violation of Chapter 496, Florida Statutes,” Erin M. Moffet, an agency spokeswoman, said in a statement.

[...]

Mrs. Trump, after declining to address questions from The Times about the status of the charity, sent a Tweet after publication of this article, asserting that “everything has been done lawfully, & all documents are in the works.”

In the works.

Sucker

This was the big deal.

Sarah Palin, 2-time loser

A judge has ruled that a libel lawsuit former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin filed against the New York Times over a 2017 editorial should be thrown out because her lawyers failed to produce adequate evidence that the newspaper knew what it wrote about her was false or acted recklessly toward indications it was false.

[...]

The decision Monday was the second time Rakoff has thrown out the case. He did so in 2017 after an unusual hearing in which Bennet testified about his decision-making related to the editorial. The 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals later reinstated Palin’s suit, calling Rakoff’s approach unorthodox and in violation of federal rules covering civil litigation.

[...]

The [current] ruling from U.S. District Court Judge Jed Rakoff Monday came as a Manhattan jury was deliberating on Palin’s suit, which claimed the Times and former editorial page editor James Bennet defamed her by unfairly linking her to a 2011 shooting spree in Arizona that killed six people and gravely wounded then-Rep. Gabby Giffords (D-Ariz.).

[...]

Bennet testified that the Times saw the event as an occasion to urge politicians at both ends of the political spectrum to tone down their rhetoric. He said he introduced language into the editorial that suggested a direct link between a targeting map issued by Palin’s political action committee and the 2011 Arizona shooting. No such link was ever established, but Bennet said he wasn’t trying to imply there was a cause-and-effect relationship, just that there was rhetoric specifically targeting Giffords in advance of that shooting.

[...]

Rakoff said he would continue to allow the jury to deliberate to a verdict, arguing that an appeal in the case seems inevitable and that the jury’s verdict could be useful to the appeals court.

[...]

“Ms. Palin was subjected to an ultimately unsupported and very serious allegation that Mr. Bennet chose to revisit 7 years or so after the underlying events,” the judge said. “I think this is an example of very unfortunate editorializing on the part of the Times but, having said that, that’s not the issue before this court.”

[...]

Rakoff noted that Palin was not only obligated to show actual malice, but needed to prove it with clear and convincing evidence. “That places the burden very much on the plaintiff in these situations,” he said. “In this case, the court finds that that standard has not been met.”

  Politico

Libel or defamation suits are hard to win against news organizations. I wonder who encouraged her. And who bankrolled her, because they're definitely not cheap.

The Times issued two corrections to the disputed editorial within hours, but Palin claimed they were inadequate and that the publication damaged her reputation, leading to fewer speaking engagements and requests for political help.

Hahahahahahahahahahahahaha. Damaged her reputation.

Before the jurors were excused for the day Monday, Times attorney David Axelrod expressed concern to Rakoff that some of the jurors might see “push notifications” about his decision that were sent out by various news outlets.

The judge then said he planned to “schmooze” with the jurors a bit before telling them to avoid press coverage of the case.

“I didn’t think I should let the day expire, when you know I love this jury, without wishing you a happy Valentine’s Day,” he later told the jury. “If you see anything in the media about this case, just turn away.”

Ummmm....kind of sounds like the judge is setting Palin up with an automatic appeal.

The January 6 Committee vs the DOJ

I read and hear a lot of worrying about the question of whether the DOJ is actually investigating anyone in the Trump administration or the GOP congress regarding organizing and inciting the January 6 insurrection. Considering the dangers of interference, I wonder if the DOJ might simply be waiting for the January 6 House investigation to complete and present its work to the American public. Here's why...

[D]efense attorney and well-respected former House general counsel Stanley Brand told the New York Times about the Jan. 6 select committee: “Having lived through and being a part of every major congressional investigation of the past 50 years from Iran-contra to Whitewater to everything else, this is the mother of all investigations and a quantum leap for Congress in a way I’ve never seen before.”

[...]

Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) just had a very telling little meltdown on Fox News’s “The Ingraham Angle,” ranting against the make-up of the House Jan. 6 select committee staff. His big concern? The committee has brought in too many former prosecutors. This is not a criminal investigation, he says.

Jordan’s criticism is both irrelevant and ignorant; perhaps, more generously, he’s playing provocateur.

The committee has staffed up with 14 or so ex-prosecutors because: a) the task is vast; b) they have the resources to hire well-trained lawyers who have handled complex federal cases; and c) typical congressional staffers just can’t handle such a colossal undertaking. In other words, Jordan and other Trump World lackeys are facing their worst possible nightmare in the mother of all congressional investigations.

[...]

In addition to hiring investigators, [past] select committees always brought in outside legal talent, usually on loan from major law firms. Michael Chertoff was brought in by Chairman Alphonse D’Amato (R-N.Y.) for the Whitewater investigation; Chairman John F. Kerry (D-Mass) of the Senate POW/MIA committee brought in Boston lawyer Bill Codinha, and so on. They brought in other attorneys as well.

But not 14 of them.

  The Hill

Those 14 ex-prosecutors can be doing a lot of work the DOJ can use in potential future charges.  Anyway, I hope to God the DOJ is or plans to investigate those at the top of an attempt to overthrow the government. Jim Jordan is one of those.

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

UPDATE:  In numbers...

Slinking out the back door

The accounting firm that prepared former President Donald Trump’s annual financial statements said the documents, used to secure lucrative loans and burnish Trump’s image as a wealthy businessman, “should no longer be relied upon” after New York’s attorney general said they regularly misstated the value of assets.

In a letter to the Trump Organization’s lawyer on February 9, Mazars USA LLP advised the company to inform anyone who had possession of the documents not to use them when assessing the financial health of the company and the former president.

The firm also said it was cutting ties with Trump, its highest-profile client.

[...]

Kelly told Garten that Mazars could no longer work with Trump because of a conflict of interest and urged him to find another tax preparer.

  alJazeera

What interest? Staying out of jail?

James’ office included a copy of Kelly’s letter in a court filing as she seeks to enforce a subpoena to have Trump and his two eldest children, Donald Jr and Ivanka, testify under oath.

A state court judge, Arthur Engoron, is scheduled to hear arguments Thursday in the subpoena dispute.

[...]

The [Mazars] letter “confirms that after conducting a subsequent review of all prior statements of financial condition, Mazars’ work was performed in accordance with all applicable accounting standards and principles and that such statements of financial condition do not contain any material discrepancies,” the Trump Organization said.

“This confirmation effectively renders the investigations by the DA and AG moot.”

Completely exonerated, right?

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

UPDATE:

Stupid is as stupid does

The effort to launch an American “freedom convoy”, inspired by the Canadian truckers who  [...]  shut down parts of Ottawa for several weeks initially to protest vaccine mandates, is taking shape in a somewhat haphazard fashion.

At least three national organizations, and a constellation of regional ones, say they will depart for Washington in early March.

One proposed convoy [organized by Kip Coltrin] aims to leave from Fresno in California on 2 March, taking the I-10 interstate straight to the capital, where it would arrive on 6 March.

  Guardian

I hope they're getting paid by someone with deep pockets. Those rigs cost a great deal to run, and unless they're making deliveries along the highway, they're losing big money. But perhaps the dumbest part is that they're protesting something that is rapidly being reversed without organized protests.

Numbskulls. They're just going to piss people off.

Another organization, which calls itself the “People’s Convoy”, also plans to depart in the first week of March from California. That effort is being backed by Freedom Fighter Nation, a far-right conspiracy group led by lawyer Leigh Dundas.

How deep are his pockets?

In a Facebook video, [Kip] Coltrin said he has been asked just how many participants he expects to join him on the trek to Washington. “My response was to begin laughing – respectfully, of course – chuckle and say, ‘I don’t know.’” But, he insisted: “It’s going to happen. There’s no maybes.”

Fool.  It may be him and his best buddy.  That'll cause some chuckling.  Respectfully, of course.

Around the world, convoys sympathetic to the Canadian truckers, who occupied the area in front of the parliament buildings and attracted thousands of additional protesters, have formed with varying degrees of success.

Apparently truckers around the globe are not the brightest folk.

Coltrin said in [one] video: “Patriot Guard Riders, our veterans, come on guys. Three Percenters: come on, guys. Oath Keepers: come on guys.”

[...]

The motivation of the US convoys appears as fragmented as its organization. Coltrin has said his group’s protest will be about everything from the cross-border vaccine mandates for truckers, to rising inflation, to their erroneous belief that electoral fraud cost Donald Trump his re-election.

Not a good plan. If you're going to have a protest, you need to focus it on one thing. "We're protesting everything" doesn't give people something to rally around. Think of the signs. No wonder it's not coming together well.

Also, the Oath Keepers are missing some leadership these days.  They won't be out of jail by the first of March.

On Friday, the White House press secretary, Jen Psaki, said the Department of Homeland Security is actively monitoring the possibility of a Washington-bound convoy.

“They’re taking all necessary steps to ensure that the convoy does not disrupt lawful trade and transportation or interfere with federal government and law enforcement operations,” Psaki said.

[...]

Dozens of social media pages have popped up to advertise and organize the American convoys, especially on rightwing social media platforms such as Gettr and Gab. One Facebook group intended to organize logistics and support boasts nearly 25,000 members.

[...]

Coltrin has repeatedly shared anti-vaccine misinformation on Facebook, including from the QAnon influencer Praying Medic.

Praying Medic?

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

It's Sunday

On Thursday night in Castle Rock, Colorado, a group called “FEC United” (FEC stands for faith, education, and commerce) held a “town hall” meeting that featured a potpourri of GOP candidates and election conspiracy theorists. Most notably, the event included John Eastman, the Claremont scholar who authored the notorious legal memos that purported to justify the decertification and reversal of the 2020 election results [...] , but perhaps the most ominous aspect of the evening was its location—a church called The Rock.

If you think it’s remotely unusual that a truly extremist event (which included more than one person who’d called for hanging his political opponents) was held at a church, then you’re not familiar with far-right road shows that are stoking extremism in church after church at event after event.

[...]

Last week, the New York Times’s Robert Draper wrote a must-read profile of former President Donald Trump’s one-time national security adviser Michael Flynn.

[...]

During the Biden administration, he’s taken his show on the road, launching a “ReAwaken America” tour that features conferences that combine “elements of a tent revival, a trade fair and a sci-fi convention.”

[...]

[T]he tour is sponsored by Charisma News, a charismatic Christian outlet. The next thing you should notice is the list of upcoming venues: Trinity Gospel Temple in Ohio, Awaken Church in California, The River Church in Oregon, and Burnsview Baptist Church in South Carolina.

[...]

MAGA Christian nationalism is emotional and spiritual, not intellectual or ideological. While a number of scholars have done yeoman’s work in identifying the basic tenets of Christian nationalism, I’m still partial to Baylor University historian Thomas Kidd’s formulation of the ideology as “more a visceral reaction than a rationally chosen stance.” Kidd provides a telling example:

I recently saw a yard sign that read “Make Faith Great Again: Trump 2020.” I wondered, How can re-electing Donald Trump make “faith” great again? What faith? When did it stop being great? No coherent answers would be forthcoming to such questions, but that’s the point. The sign speaks to a person’s ethnic, religious, and cultural identity in ways easier to notice than to explain.

But a MAGA Christian nationalist will read that sign and know exactly what it means–when Trump wins, America wins, and the church wins. The man, the nation, and the church are the movement.

[...]

It’s no coincidence that Paula White, a pentecostal pastor herself, was Trump’s spiritual adviser.

[...]

MAGA Christian nationalism is often rooted in purported prophecies. I’ve spent every single day of the Trump era living deep in the heart of Trump country, surrounded by Trump-supporting friends, and attending church with Trump-supporting Christians. If there’s anything I know by heart, it’s the “Christian case for Trump.” I’ve read all the essays. I’ve heard all the arguments. It’s in the air out here.

There’s the pragmatic or prudential cost/benefit analysis—he’s a bad man, but his judicial appointments are good. There’s the cultural argument about threat—the left has grown so terrible that we have to punch back. But there’s also another argument entirely, one that’s impossible to discuss rationally—that Trump is divinely anointed by God to save this nation from imminent destruction.

[...]

It’s possible to overreact to this, to paint with too broad a brush. Michael Flynn is not speaking for the Evangelical mainstream. Millions of Republican Evangelicals have likely never even heard of the ReAwaken America tour. They dismiss “prophecies.” They’re legitimately aggrieved when they’re lumped into a movement and an ethos they find strange and appalling.

[...]

For all the (legitimate) talk of cancel culture from the left, many Christians self-censor out of fear of the right. They know Michael Flynn is dangerous, but saying so out loud carries a cost. So they remain silent. They stay in their anti-left lane.

[...]

But underreaction can be dangerous too. We know that fanatical religious subcultures can do an immense amount of damage to the body politic. We know that they can be both deadly and destabilizing. A Christian political movement that’s so focused on the threat from the left can often unwittingly facilitate the rise of radicals.

[...]

[W]e have to know what we face, and what we face is an Christian subculture that is full of terrible religious purpose. The seeds of renewed political violence are being sown in churches across our land.

  French Press

It's Sunday

That silence was deafening.

Brace yourself

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

Pledging allegiance

Check out this whole thread.

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

So will the DOJ take action against Trump?

If those 15 boxes of presidential material the National Archives retrieved from Mar-A-Lago prove to actually contain any classified material, I'm assuming DOJ will have to press charges, right?

BTW, I wonder how they found out those records were being held at Mar-A-Lago.  Somebody had to snitch.  Who was it?

“Throughout the course of the last year, NARA obtained the cooperation of Trump representatives to locate presidential records that had not been transferred to the National Archives at the end of the Trump administration. When a representative informed NARA in December 2021 that they had located some records, NARA arranged for them to be securely transported to Washington. NARA officials did not visit or ‘raid’ the Mar-a-Lago property,” the National Archives told the Palm Beach Daily News on Tuesday.

  Business & Politics

Even if DOJ did the right thing and pressed charges, I have no doubt it won't be against Trump, but some lackey, and Trump will claim not to have known anything about it.

UPDATE:

I get it, but...

On the heels of the National Archives recovering 15 boxes of presidential papers at Mar-A-Lago, and the claim that Trump was flushing other presidential papers, this still seems particularly stupid.   Trump supporters will be wearing these hats to keep Clinton's email scandal alive.  At the very least, the hats should have been blue.

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

UPDATE:  This would be better if it were just the one toilet from the residence that he actually used.

Systemic racism

The most important elections are local

Longtime Trump allies, chief among them Steve Bannon, have spread his Big Lie that voter fraud swung the 2020 election against him, and they are striving to take over these offices. In Pennsylvania, they recruited candidates in 2021 to run for “election judge,” a hyper-local and typically uncontested position, with some success.

Pennsylvania may be one of the country’s core swing states, but chances are you haven’t heard of its “election judges.” Even if you closely follow American politics, you likely do not know how their powers compare to those of the state’s county boards of elections, nor when and how any of those officials are selected. For people who hope to protect the election system from the Big Lie, this labyrinth of relevant offices can be a nightmare to navigate.

[...]

The bulk of election administration in the United States takes place at the local level, across thousands of counties and municipalities, as Trump and Bannon’s forces well know. Sleepy offices like county clerk or county auditor determine much of what goes into running elections—determining the number and location of polling places, appointing precinct officials, designing ballots, scheduling early voting options, and overseeing voter registration.

These local officials can ease access to the ballot, and Houston’s clerk drew widespread attention for such reforms in 2020. But they can also mar the election process via policies that close down polling locations, purge eligible residents from the rolls, or fuel long lines.

[...]

These local administrators also have clout in state or federal policymaking. They are often members of statewide associations that lobby legislatures.

[...]

Every state structures its system differently. Election administration can also vary wildly from county to county within a state. [...] To make matters more confusing, election administration is frequently split between different institutions even within a county. It pulls in officials like sheriffs and tax-assessors, whose formal titles do not reveal their responsibility for running elections.

[...]

Many states provide little if any centralized information about their systems or relevant offices, and it’s even harder to track down when administrators are selected or elected. Even if this was all readily available, the sheer number of election administrators make them a challenge to follow.

This decentralized election administration has a major benefit: It helps prevent any sort of widespread hacking. With so many offices in so many municipalities, it would be functionally impossible to rig a large-scale election. But this dynamic also creates layers of inequity. Depending on where they live, voters within the same state may face different rules.

[...]

A well-financed group’s concerted efforts to win such offices can remain largely under-the-radar, as in Pennsylvania in 2021. Voting rights activists seeking to expand access to the polls may comparatively struggle to organize inside opaque election systems that usually draw little public attention.

Today Bolts is publishing an original database that compiles, state by state, the local institutions that are responsible for administering elections at the county and municipal level.

[...]

And in almost every state, the process of tabulating, canvassing, and officially certifying the votes cast, is conducted in a separate process that may not always involve the same administrators but that has also come under conservative attack. Bolts will dig into these complexities in future work.

  Bolts

Texas has one of the most complex (and controllable by the major party) system, as you might imagine they would.  (Click the graphics for an enlarged view.)

And Pennsylvania's shows how difficult it might be to have a straightforward and honest election in that state.   

Compare those with Missouri's, which surprisingly seems to be fair and unassailable, except in those counties that don't have an election board. And, guess what? That's almost all of them, with the notable exceptions of Jackson (Kansas City) and St. Louis counties. Even the state's capitol county (Cole) has its elections run by the clerk's office.

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

UPDATE:

Fox News is on the case

And Ted Cruz got the memo.  (I'd say "wrote", but I don't think Ted Cruz is smart enough to organize anything.)

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