Jesus, I can't keep up

Ten days before Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman dined with President Trump at his Washington hotel, they were part of a small group of Republican Party donors who met with the president at Mar-a-Lago, his Florida estate, a new recording shows.

[...]

The April 2018 meeting came days before the two men took part in a donor dinner with the president at his Washington hotel, an encounter captured on a video released last week by Parnas’s attorney.

[...]

The recordings of the two events undercut Trump’s repeated assertions that he does not know Parnas and Fruman, who were arrested in October on campaign finance charges.

[...]

Giuliani — who began working with Fruman and Parnas later that year — was not present at either gathering, people familiar with the meetings said.

[...]

Parnas’s attorney, Joseph A. Bondy, provided the recording of the Mar-a-Lago gathering to The Washington Post. He said he had previously given a copy to House impeachment investigators.

  WaPo

I wonder how many of these recordings there are.

UPDATE 9/11/21:

Igor Fruman found guilty in Trump campaign charge

UPDATE 10/24/21:

Lev Parnas found guilty in Trump campaign charge

Ghost of the blue dress

Lucky for Trump, he's already got Ken Starr on his team.  He'll be familiar with this idea.

There's a lawsuit currently underway of a woman suing Trump for allegedly raping her.

Advice columnist E. Jean Carroll’s lawyers served notice to a Trump attorney Thursday for Trump to submit a [DNA] sample on March 2 in Washington for “analysis and comparison against unidentified male DNA present on the dress.”

[...]

In a New York magazine piece in June and a book published the next month, Carroll said she and Trump met by chance, chatted and went to the lingerie department for Trump to pick out a gift for an unidentified woman. She said joking banter about trying on a bodysuit ended in a dressing room, where she said Trump reached under her black wool dress, pulled down her tights and raped her as she tried to fight him off, eventually escaping.

[...]

A lab report with the legal notice says DNA found on the sleeves was a mix of at least four people, at least one of them male.

Several other people were tested and eliminated as possible contributors to the mix, according to the lab report, which was obtained by The Associated Press. Their names are redacted.

[...]

“The Donna Karan coatdress still hangs on the back of my closet door, unworn and unlaundered since that evening,” she wrote. She donned it for a photo accompanying the magazine piece.

Trump said in June that Carroll was “totally lying” and he had “never met this person in my life.” While a 1987 photo shows them and their then-spouses at a social event, Trump dismissed it as a moment when he was “standing with my coat on in a line.”

  AP News

Rand Paul should be censured and then run out of politics

Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul named the alleged Ukraine intelligence whistleblower Thursday after Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts refused to read a question he submitted at President Trump’s impeachment trial that included the person’s purported name.

The conservative Republican left the proceedings to hold an impromptu press conference at which he fingered the person whom right-wing media have named as the CIA operative in the White House who filed a complaint about Trump’s infamous July 25 call to Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky.

Paul read out his conspiratorial question that Roberts twice refused to read inside the chamber, apparently out of the judge’s respect for federal law protecting whistleblowers from retaliation.

  NY Daily News

Totally disgusting.

The whistleblower’s lawyer, Mark Zaid, declined to comment.

Bradley Moss, a law partner of Zaid, hit back within minutes, calling on Paul to resign.

[...]

Presidential son Donald Trump Jr. called outing the whistleblower a crucial part of his dad’s defense against the impeachment effort led by Rep. Adam Schiff.

Despicable little prick.

Paul (R-Ky.), a fiery defender of Trump, first sought to sneak the whistleblower’s name into the impeachment record on Wednesday night.

Roberts refused to read his question and repeated his refusal when Paul resubmitted it Thursday.

“The presiding officer declines to read the question as submitted,” Roberts said.

Under Senate rules, lawmakers are supposed to remain in the chamber while the trial is in session, although some exceptions are made for bathroom and other breaks. It’s unclear if Paul could face any punishment for holding a press conference as the trial continued inside the Senate chamber.

Not likely. And he's probably not the only one who has.

Federal law prohibits retaliating against government workers who file whistleblower complaints. It doesn’t explicitly bar identifying them, although legal experts say anyone publicly disclosing the name of a whistleblower might be opening themselves up to liability for any harm they undergo.

Besides it being simply an unconscionable act of intimidation and a tool of oppression.

Things I didn't know about how the Senate works - or doesn't

This was a very interesting podcast that turned what I thought I knew about the way the Senate works on its head.

The actual 'real elites' speak

Or at least they're pouring enough money into it that they assume will take care of it.

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

A vote for Big Brother?

Elizabeth Warren is showing her Republican past.

That ought to pretty much do her in as a viable candidate.

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

Jesus, these people

Such caring.

There's a vote for germ warfare. Perhaps makes some Chinese wonder if it's already been deployed.

Fare thee well

John Roberts v Rand Paul

Sen. Rand Paul's (R-Ky.) attempt to ask about the whistleblower whose report helped spark the impeachment inquiry is running into a roadblock in the form of Chief Justice John Roberts.

A source confirmed that Roberts has indicated he would not read a question from Paul regarding the whistleblower at the center of the House impeachment inquiry.

The question from Paul is expected to name the individual. Because Roberts is responsible for reading the questions that would put him in the position of publicly outing the person on the Senate floor.

Paul indicated to reporters after a closed-door Republican dinner that he was not backing down from trying to ask his question.

  The Hill

WTF does he need to name the whistleblower?

Roberts signaled to GOP senators on Tuesday that he wouldn’t allow the whistleblower’s name to be mentioned during the question-and-answer session that started the next day, the sources.

[...]

Paul has submitted at least one question with the name of a person believed to be the whistleblower, although it was rejected. Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) composed and asked a question regarding the whistleblower earlier Wednesday that tiptoed around identifying the source who essentially sparked the House impeachment drive.

[...]

Paul — who has strongly opposed the impeachment proceedings against President Donald Trump — has been floating the alleged whistleblower’s name in media interviews for months.

  Politico

Prick.

The symbol of Trump's reign

The steel panels, more than nine metres (30ft) high, began to lean at a sharp angle on the border between the Californian town of Calexico and Mexicali in Mexico amid gusts on Wednesday.

The section of wall was under construction at the time, with concrete anchors being put in place. But the strong winds blew the panels over onto the Mexican side of the border before the concrete had cured, according to reports.

“Luckily, Mexican authorities responded quickly and were able to divert traffic from the nearby street,” said border patrol agent Carlos Pitones, according to the LA Times.

The panels were being retrieved from the Mexican side and re-erected, Pitones said.

“CBP [Customs and Border Protection] will work with the construction contractor to mitigate the impact of high winds as construction continues,” Pitones said.

  Guardian

Was this the low bid?

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

UPDATE: