Prepare for Trump rants against the Supreme Court he packed

The supreme court has rejected Donald Trump’s request to block New York prosecutors from gaining access to his tax returns.

In a one-sentence unsigned order, the court ruled that it would not step in to prevent the Manhattan district attorney’s office from obtaining eight years of Trump’s financial documents from his accounting firm. The court’s decision clears the way for the documents to be turned over to a grand jury that has been convened as part of an investigation into Trump’s business dealings in New York.

The decision marks a serious defeat for Trump, who has fought for years to keep his tax returns from the public. The tax returns will not be publicly released as part of the grand jury investigation, but the former president has nevertheless launched extensive legal battles to block access to the documents.

  Guardian

Sad!

UPDATE:  But they won't hear Stormy Daniels' appeal.  Not sure that will placate him.  His finances are more important.

UPDATE 2/22:

Millions?

Is Mark Zuckerberg a white supremacist?

In December, a former core data scientist wrote a memo titled, “Political Influences on Content Policy.” Seen by BuzzFeed News, the memo stated that [Facebook]’s policy team “regularly protects powerful constituencies” and listed several examples, including: removing penalties for misinformation from right-wing pages, blunting attempts to improve content quality in News Feed, and briefly blocking a proposal to stop recommending political groups ahead of the US election.

[...]

In April 2019, Facebook was preparing to ban one of the internet’s most notorious spreaders of misinformation and hate, Infowars founder Alex Jones. Then CEO Mark Zuckerberg personally intervened.

Jones had gained infamy for claiming that the 2012 Sandy Hook elementary school massacre was a “giant hoax,” and that the teenage survivors of the 2018 Parkland shooting were “crisis actors.” But Facebook had found that he was also relentlessly spreading hate against various groups, including Muslims and trans people. That behavior qualified him for expulsion from the social network under the company's policies for "dangerous individuals and organizations," which required Facebook to also remove any content that expressed “praise or support” for them.

But Zuckerberg didn’t consider the Infowars founder to be a hate figure, according to a person familiar with the decision, so he overruled his own internal experts and opened a gaping loophole: Facebook would permanently ban Jones and his company — but would not touch posts of praise and support for them from other Facebook users. This meant that Jones’ legions of followers could continue to share his lies across the world’s largest social network.

"Mark personally didn’t like the punishment, so he changed the rules,” a former policy employee told BuzzFeed News, noting that the original rule had already been in use and represented the product of untold hours of work between multiple teams and experts.

  Buzzfeed

Continue reading.

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

They needed this info for the second impeachment

It might not have changed the vote enough to convict, but it would be in the record. Hopefully, the investigation into the coup attempt will be thorough.

Attorneys for Ohio Oath Keeper Jessica Watkins detail how the efforts among paramilitants who are now accused of conspiracy on January 6 were closer to the apparatus around then-President Donald Trump and his rally than was previously known.

[...]

"On January 5 and 6, Ms. Watkins was present not as an insurrectionist, but to provide security to the speakers at the rally, to provide escort for the legislators and others to march to the Capitol as directed by the then-President, and to safely escort protestors away from the Capitol to their vehicles and cars at the conclusion of the protest," the court filing said on Saturday. "She was given a VIP pass to the rally. She met with Secret Service agents. She was within 50 feet of the stage during the rally to provide security for the speakers. At the time the Capitol was breached, she was still at the site of the initial rally where she had provided security."

"To carry out its protective functions on January 6th, the U.S. Secret Service relied on the assistance of various government partners. Any assertion that the Secret Service employed private citizens to perform those functions is false," a US Secret Service spokesperson said in a statement to CNN on Sunday.

  CNN

Did she say she was paid?

Watkins is central to one of the most aggressive criminal conspiracy cases yet to emerge from the insurrection. The Justice Department indicted her and eight other alleged Oath Keepers on several charges related to the riot, including allegations that the group coordinated their travel to the pro-Trump event, discussed training and weapons beforehand, suited up in body armor and broke through the crowd heading into the Capitol in a military-style formation.

Watkins' attorney argued in the new filing she isn't alleged to have been violent in the melee, and that, though she is charged with aiding the destruction of property, didn't participate in vandalism and encouraged others not to as well.

[...]

Watkins' defense attorney, Michelle Peterson, wrote on Saturday that her client and other supporters of Trump had believed the then-President would invoke the Insurrection Act to use the military to overturn what he falsely said was the fraudulent election of Joe Biden. And Watkins and others believed "they would have a role if this were to happen," the filing said. "However misguided, her intentions were not in any way related to an intention to overthrow the government, but to support what she believed to be the lawful government." [...] Watkins' attorney argued in the filing her client had worn tactical gear potentially to defend herself, and walked up the Capitol steps with other Oath Keepers in a "stack" formation because the group may have wanted to stay together in the crowd.

"May have." That's an odd defense.

She has been detained since her arrest in mid-January. The Justice Department is seeking to keep her in jail pending trial.

[...]

She has been detained since her arrest in mid-January. The Justice Department is seeking to keep her in jail pending trial.

Well, she risked getting covid by being in the crowd of insurrectionists. The other...yes, she'd probably be at risk, but the bigger question is how is she a Trump supporter while being transgender? 

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

They still haven't found the pipe bomber(s)

Deathbed confession on the killing of Malcolm X

On February 21, 1965, minister and civil rights activist Malcolm X, 39, was shot dead inside Harlem’s Audubon Ballroom in New York by assassins identified as members of the Nation of Islam. Three men were convicted of murder and imprisoned, and all were eventually paroled.

[...]

A letter written by ex-undercover NYPD policeman Raymond Wood alleges his department and the FBI covered up details of the assassination, saying he was ordered to infiltrate the civil rights movement and had members of Malcolm X’s security detail arrested shortly before the killing.

[...]

“I participated in actions that in hindsight were deplorable and detrimental to the advancement of my own Black people. My actions on behalf of the New York City Police Department were done under duress and fear,” said Reggie Wood, a relative who read Raymond’s letter aloud at a press conference on Saturday.

[...]

It is unclear when Wood died, but he did not want the letter made public until after his death, saying he feared repercussions from authorities if he came forward with his allegations, according to Reggie Wood.

  alJazeera

Half-assed ICE restrictions

The Biden administration rolled out new instructions to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers Thursday, temporarily restricting the causes agents can rely on for initiating deportation.

The enforcement priorities, which will be in effect for up to 90 days while ICE develops long-term guidelines, shrinks the types of convictions that allow for someone to be deported as a public safety threat.

The guidelines additionally allow for deportation of those who are deemed a national security threat due to terrorism or espionage concerns or who illegally crossed a U.S. border after Nov. 1 of last year.

  The Hill

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

Ending support for Saudi war on Yemen

In his first major foreign policy speech as President earlier this month, Biden announced an end to "all American support for offensive operations in the war in Yemen, including relevant arm sales," though he also said the US will "continue to help and support Saudi Arabia defend its sovereignty and its territorial integrity."

[...]

In 2017, [Rep. Ro] Khanna, a progressive Democrat from California, introduced a measure that came to be known as the Yemen War Powers resolution. It was intended to curtail US military support for the Saudi-led campaign in Yemen, which has created a humanitarian crisis in the country. At the time, there was very little support on Capitol Hill. Now, the policy appears to have been embraced by the White House.

[...]

The move is an early global consequence of Biden taking over from former President Donald Trump, who vetoed the Yemen War Powers resolution in 2019 after it passed Congress with bipartisan support.

Yemen has been embroiled in a years-long civil war that has pitted a coalition backed by Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates against the Iran-backed Houthi rebels, a Shia political and military organization from the north of Yemen. The conflict has cost thousands of civilian lives.

Democrats are optimistic the Biden administration will prioritize diplomatic and humanitarian efforts to bring an end to the conflict and point to the fact that career diplomat Timothy Lenderking has been appointed as special envoy for Yemen as a promising sign. But questions remain over exactly what the US will do next and how the administration will implement the policy change, and lawmakers on both sides of the aisle are promising oversight.

[...]

"The details matter," Khanna said, when it comes to the Yemen policy change, noting that one of his concerns is that the Saudis will claim future attacks are defensive and not offensive in an effort to find a loophole. The term offensive strikes should refer to "any strikes into Yemen," he said.

  CNN

It was a given

Gas company profits soar on the backs of freezing Texans.

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

Resurgence of right-wing attempts to MAGA

In addition to a spate of new abortion and voter suppression bills being introduced, we're now into fossil fuel protest bills.

Lords of the earth meet virtually

"America is back. I speak to you today as president of the United States at the very start of my administration, and I'm sending a clear message to the world — America is back," [US president Joe] Biden said in what could be a summary of his speech [to the Munich Security Conference].

[...]

"Competition with China is going to be stiff. That's what I expect. And that's what I welcome," Mr. Biden said, adding the U.S. and European partners can "own the race of the future."

The president also spoke of Russia as an adversary, something that threatens the freedom of its people. That's why the U.S. must stand up for Ukraine, and stand against hacking and other Russian tools, he said.

[...]

Mr. Biden also spoke of Iran as a threat to the safety and prosperity of the Middle East.

  CBS

So, back to the status quo: West vs. East.

Earlier Friday, the president participated virtually in the G7 COVID-19 meeting with world leaders and announced the U.S. would contribute $4 billion to COVAX, emphasizing the administration's stance that the coronavirus must be fought around the world.

The Biden administration is also officially reentering the Paris climate accords later Friday afternoon.

Joe Biden, Angela Merkel, Emmanuel Macron and Boris Johnson topped the bill on Friday in a virtual version of the world’s top gathering on foreign affairs and defense — the Munich Security Conference.

  Politico

Did Australia get booted out of the "Five Eyes" intelligence group, or just snubbed for this meeting?

The online event presented a first opportunity for the new U.S. president to set out his foreign policy agenda to Europe since he took office last month. John Kerry, Biden’s climate envoy, also addressed the conference — a scaled-down rejig of the gathering that normally fills Munich’s Hotel Bayerischer Hof every February.

NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, European Council President Charles Michel and U.N. chief António Guterres were among the other big names on the program.

[...]

Boris Johnson (who has a reputation as a political chameleon) pulled off the trick again. The man Joe Biden once called a Trump “clone” gave a Munich speech that positioned him as the optimistic champion of the transatlantic alliance Trump so often scorned.

[...]

Johnson highlighted the U.K.’s role in standing up to Beijing on human rights over the Munich Security Conference, as he was the only national leader to mention Xinjiang and Hong Kong during the event.

Interesting.

It's “not acceptable for countries to think they can go to Glasgow and simply put out big numbers” for decades into the future, [U.S. climate envoy John Kerry] said. “We are absolutely clearly … now inside the decisive decade.”

Oh, we're way past the decisive decade. We're now in the desperate one.

Scientists have warned that governments need to drastically cut emissions and drop fossil fuel use by 2030 to keep warming in line with the goals of the Paris Agreement.

Which Joe Biden has officially rejoined as of this meeting.

NATO needs to step up efforts “to fully understand the security consequences” of climate change [noted NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg].

[...]

Stoltenberg warned that climate change has a direct impact on military operations and infrastructure, with rising sea levels raising questions over where to built military bases, especially naval bases, and the future of organizing military missions as temperatures are going through the roof.

[...]

“In the future, we will need even more cooperation,” particularly when it comes to dealing with China.

“Neither NATO nor the European Union have all the tools you need to address the consequences of the rise of China,” he argued.

Indeed, a climate pact that leaves out China (and Russia) seems like a huge disadvantage.

In her speech, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen put the regulation of internet platforms front and center — together with fighting climate change — of a new transatlantic agenda.

“The storming on the U.S. Capitol was a turning point for our discussions on the impact social media have on our democracies,” the Commission president said.

“Imposing democratic limits on the uncontrolled power of the big tech companies alone will not stop political violence but it is an important step.”

I wonder what "democratic limits" are.

“I don’t think that TTIP [Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership] will be revived because we are not there where the United States left us four years ago,” she said. “The world has changed, the United States has changed, and Europe has changed.”

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