DawgTalkers.net Forums DawgTalk Palus Politicus The GOP and what they’ve become +

Jc

So the voters in Ohio made our voices loud and clear we weren’t going to accept such trash.

GOP needs to stop that garbage. They won’t take the hint, but that’s fine.

Another loss for those that think pushing things down our throats is gonna work.

Exactly.

It won't happen, but I hope OH politicians take a long, hard look at the results of this vote. This should be starting some uncomfortable conversations in Columbus.

I would hope so, too, although I agree it won't happen. I think the two most likely scenarios are:

1) They start pointing fingers as to why it failed, either at the other side of the aisle, or at one or two fall guys on the same side, or both.
2) They take their short-term lumps, and try to repackage it later in a different Trojan horse.
3) They sweep the loss under the rug and hunt for an issue that is more in their favor.
4) Any combination of the above.

I think the big problem, from what I read, is all of the funding coming from out of the state, like that one guy from Illinois. I think it'll be hard to snip those kinds of puppet strings.

I 100% voted no and convinced at least 10 Republican friends to vote no because of the way the law was written.

IMO I think this was more of us vs politicians vote.

If it were to have passed, it would have made it harder for us to get items on the ballot and politicians would have had more control over what is voted on and they could pass more of their own laws.

You are right. They were politicians. In this case it was politicians from one party trying to take away the right for everyone's vote to count equally in order to push their standard of moral and religious beliefs.

Actually, I think it was both parties secretly wanted it to go through as a way to make our votes not matter.

Also, it's very short-sighted to think it was all just women's rights/abortion. There will be future elections where R's won't always hold the majority and D's will.

That's JMHO.


Ohio voters already have to face extreme gerrymandering, restrictive voter registration rules, and other barriers to the ballot box erected by conservative supermajorities in the state legislature. Constitutional initiatives are a critical tool for Ohio voters to provide checks and balances of their state government. Moreover, Ohioans have repeatedly demonstrated an appreciation and respect for constitutional initiatives and have given the legislature no reason to revise the process. This is not a partisan issue -- both Republicans and Democrats have spoken out in opposition to State Issue 1, including former Republican and Democratic Ohio Governors and Attorneys General.


The effort behind State Issue 1 has an “under the cover of darkness” cynicism to it, from the substance proposed to the timing of the election.


https://www.acslaw.org/expertforum/an-attempt-to-disempower-ohio-voters/

I do think it was a matter of "be careful what you wish for". And you can show that "former" politicians from both sides spoke out against it. But see, once you're no longer a politician you have nothing to gain by being dishonest or manipulative. Look at all of the former Bush officials speaking out against trump.

Politicians in power rarely look beyond their own self interest at the time. And I'm speaking of politicians on both sides. In this case Republicans had everything to gain and nothing to lose. Democrats were railing against it. Sure, we can go beyond this single issue and talk big picture if you like. But that's not what this particular example is about. This is about an attempted power grab over a single issue, abortion.

Federal judge orders Southwest Airlines attorneys to attend ‘religious-liberty training’ from conservative group

Washington CNN —

A federal judge in Texas on Monday ordered three attorneys for Southwest Airlines to attend “religious-liberty training” from a conservative legal advocacy group as punishment for allegedly violating his ruling in a religious discrimination case brought against the company by a fired flight attendant.

The sanctions order handed down by District Judge Brantley Starr, an appointee of former President Donald Trump, are an unusual demand given that the group, the Alliance Defending Freedom, has a lengthy history of representing religious adherents in high-profile cases seeking to bolster religious protections and roll back LGBTQ and reproductive rights nationwide.

Last year, a jury found that both Southwest and Transport Union Workers discriminated against Charlene Carter when it fired the flight attendant after she “expressed her pro-life beliefs to her union president.”

Following the verdict, Starr ordered Southwest to reinstate Carter and take several other corrective actions, including requiring both the airline and the union to “inform Southwest flight attendants that, under Title VII, they may not discriminate against Southwest flight attendants for their religious practices and beliefs, including – but not limited to – those expressed on social media and those concerning abortion.”

But in messages sent by three Southwest attorneys to the company’s employees, according to a sanctions order handed down by Starr, the airline instead said that “Southwest does not discriminate against our Employees for their religious practices and beliefs.”

The judge said Southwest also sent around a memo to flight attendants in which the company “lambasts Carter” by taking issue with the conduct she was fired over.

“It’s hard to see how Southwest could have violated the notice requirement more. Take these modified historical and movie anecdotes. After God told Adam, ‘[Y]ou must not eat from the tree [in the middle of the garden],’ imagine Adam telling God, ‘I do not eat from the tree in the middle of the garden’ – while an apple core rests at his feet. Or where Gandalf bellows, ‘You shall not pass,’ the Balrog muses, ‘I do not pass,’ while strolling past Gandalf on the Bridge of Khazad-dûm,” Starr wrote.

“The Court concludes that training on religious freedom for three lawyers at Southwest the Court finds responsible (Kerrie Forbes, Kevin Minchey, and Chris Maberry) is the least restrictive means of achieving compliance with the Court’s order,” the judge said. “The Alliance Defending Freedom (‘ADF’) has conducted such training in the past, and the Court deems that appropriate here.”

The sanctions order was featured earlier Tuesday in the Law Dork newsletter authored by Chris Geidner.

Southwest and Transport Union Workers have appealed the judge’s ruling from December, and the airline said in a brief statement to CNN that it plans to appeal Starr’s sanctions order.

ADF has a long history of advocating for conservative causes at courts around the country, including the US Supreme Court, where its lawyers successfully represented the plaintiff in a major free speech case this term in which the conservative majority rolled back some key LGBTQ protections.

The group’s attorneys are also representing the challengers to a key medication abortion pill in a high-profile case that could also soon land before the high court.

In fillings submitted ahead of Monday’s order, attorneys for Southwest urged the judge not to order the trainings, saying that “ordering religious-liberty training would be an inappropriate remedy for the alleged civil contempt.”

“Although Southwest contends the Email Notice still substantially complied with the judgment, Southwest has already offered to purge this alleged contempt by providing a corrective notice replacing the ‘does not discriminate’ language with ‘may not discriminate,’” they wrote. “Put another way, there is no conduct for religious-liberty training to remedy.”

Starr said in his order that “this isn’t the first time an entity has needed religious-liberty training after it attempted to suppress speech,” and added that ADF is among other “esteemed non-profit organizations that are dedicated to preserving free speech and religious freedom.”

“And some of those entities laudably provide training free of charge for those who have struggled to respect religious liberties in the manner federal law requires,” he wrote.

The group said in a statement to CNN that it’s “pleased that the judge and jury protected the religious speech of the employee in this case.”

“Every company should respect religious liberty and diverse viewpoints in the workplace,” said Jim Campbell, the group’s chief legal counsel. “We are happy to help Southwest achieve that goal by providing training on Title VII and other applicable laws barring religious discrimination.”

Starr’s order says the training must last at least eight hours and that it has to be completed by August 28. The airline must also “transport ADF’s representative to Dallas and be responsible for any food, accommodation, or other travel expenses for ADF’s representative.”

https://www.cnn.com/2023/08/08/poli...ns-alliance-defending-freedom/index.html

Well-said

DeSantis replaces an elected Democratic state prosecutor for the 2nd time, as his campaign continues to circle the drain

GOP presidential candidate and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis just replaced an elected Democratic state prosecutor, the second time he's done so in just over a year.

Stepping away from the campaign trail on Wednesday, DeSantis announced he had officially suspended State Attorney Monique Worrell, citing a "neglect of duty and incompetence," and replaced her with Andrew Bain, who was serving as an Orange County Court judge before his new appointment.

"It is my duty as Governor to ensure that the laws enacted by our duly elected Legislature are followed," DeSantis said. "The people of Central Florida deserve to have a state attorney who will seek justice in accordance with the law instead of allowing violent criminals to roam the streets and find new victims."

Worrell, a Democrat, was elected as Florida's Ninth Judicial Circuit State Attorney in November 2020, where she garnered 66.6 percent of the final vote against her Republican opponent.

In August 2022, DeSantis suspended State Attorney Andrew Warren, also a Democrat and elected official, alleging Warren was picking and choosing which laws to enforce after he said he wouldn't pursue cases related to gender-affirming healthcare or abortion.

Warren has since fought his suspension in court — a federal judge found DeSantis' accusations to be "false" and said the governor violated Warren's First Amendment rights but he didn't have the authority to reinstate Warren as state attorney.

As DeSantis cracks down on another duly-elected state prosecutor, his campaign is currently underwater and struggling to catch up to former President Donald Trump in the polls. According to an average of "major" polls from FiveThirtyEight, Trump holds a commanding lead with 52.4 percent support compared to DeSantis' 15.6 percent.

DeSantis has promised to reboot his campaign in recent months, leading to several internal layoffs. On Tuesday, he replaced his campaign manager, Generra Peck, who had no previous national campaign experience, with James Uthmeier, his gubernatorial chief of staff, who also has no national campaign experience.

https://www.businessinsider.com/desantis-just-replaced-an-elected-democratic-state-prosecutor-2023-8

Elections? Who cares about stinking elections!?

Frank LaRose coming right out of the gate with Tact No. 1!

This 100. Not that any of my friends needed any convincing.

My wife and I had a laugh this morning. We received numerous mailers on this issue. Every single one of them from the same side. Colorful, shiny, spare-no-expense mailers... that used scare tactics to insist we needed to pass this. You know, to prevent special interest groups from using scare tactics and big money from influencing law. Uhhh, boy, this stuff is too strange for Hollywood anymore.

Has anyone looked at what it cost the state to put on this vote? Maybe 15 or 20 million?

I'm going to do my best to put forth a Swish style post:

Been thinking about traveling to the south of France next year. Wonder if I'll see DJT there. Maybe we could hit up the Casino Royale.

Normally I'd agree with you, but in this case Issue 1 came from a specific slice of a specific side of the aisle. The thread is "The GOP and what they've become" and I think Issue 1 is a perfect example. Do an equivalent thread for Dems and I'll rail against that group over there.

Nailed it

Former Tennessee state senator gets 21-month prison sentence for campaign finance cash scheme

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — A former Tennessee state senator on Friday was sentenced to 21 months in prison after he unsuccessfully tried to take back his guilty plea on federal campaign finance charges and initially described the case as a “political witch hunt.”

Former Republican Sen. Brian Kelsey received his sentence in U.S. District Court in Nashville in the case centering on his attempts to funnel campaign money from his legislative seat toward supporting his failed 2016 congressional bid. He won’t have to begin his prison time until October.

“I do think there’s a need to sentence you that sends a message for general deterrence,” U.S. Judge Waverly Crenshaw said Friday.

Crenshaw handed down the punishment after the former Memphis-area lawmaker argued in March that he should be allowed to go back on his November 2022 guilty plea because he entered it with an “unsure heart and a confused mind” due to events in his personal life — his father had terminal pancreatic cancer, then died in February, and he and his wife were caring for their twin sons born in September. Crenshaw denied the change of plea in May.

Before that, Kelsey had pleaded not guilty — often saying he was being targeted by Democrats. But he changed his mind shortly after his co-defendant, Nashville social club owner Joshua Smith, pleaded guilty to one count under a deal that required him to “cooperate fully and truthfully” with federal authorities. Smith was sentenced Friday to five years of probation.

Late last month, federal prosecutors accused Kelsey of intentionally delaying his sentencing after he switched up his legal defense team.

Dozens of Kelsey’s friends and family packed the Nashville courtroom, where many silently cried and comforted each other as Crenshaw explained why he was sentencing Kelsey to 21 months in prison.

“I’m truly sorry for the actions that led me here today,” Kelsey told the court. “I knew I was taking a risk and yet I did it anyway and in doing so, I broke the law.”

Prosecutors had initially requested 41 months of prison time and spent the majority of their Friday argument depicting Kelsey as a “sophisticated mastermind” behind a complicated campaign scheme designed to flout federal finance regulations.

However, Kelsey’s attorneys countered that the former lawmaker simply crossed a “very small line” and that the government was seeking a harsher punishment because he hadn’t shown enough remorse for his actions.

Yet Crenshaw noted that out of the four character witnesses who provided testimony that day, only one —— former Democratic state Rep. John DeBerry — mentioned that Kelsey was regretful of his actions.

“Life is about living with consequences,” DeBerry said, who detailed working with Kelsey closely during their time working in the Tennessee Statehouse. “When we lose ourselves, you forget you got to do it the right way every time.”

In October 2021, a federal grand jury indicted Kelsey and Smith, who owns the The Standard club in Nashville, on several counts each. The indictment alleged that Kelsey, Smith and others violated campaign finance laws by illegally concealing the transfer of $91,000 from Kelsey’s state Senate campaign committee and $25,000 from a nonprofit that advocated legal justice issues — to a national political organization, the American Conservative Union, to fund advertisements urging support of Kelsey’s congressional campaign.

Prosecutors allege that Kelsey and others caused the organization to make illegal and excessive campaign contributions to Kelsey by coordinating on advertisements, and that they caused the nonprofit to file false reports to the Federal Election Commission.

Two co-conspirators were also involved, including former Tennessee Rep. Jeremy Durham, a Republican, who was expelled in 2016 on multiple sexual misconduct allegations. Durham cooperated with federal officials in Kelsey’s case and has not faced any charges.

Kelsey’s attorney had argued that since Durham wasn’t facing prison time, then neither should their client. Crenshaw disagreed by repeatedly pointing out that Durham and others agreed to work with federal officials early on.

Kelsey, a 45-year-old attorney from Germantown, was first elected to the General Assembly in 2004 as a state representative. He was later elected to the state Senate in 2009.

Due to his conviction, Kelsey is banned from running for state office in Tennessee and has been stripped of his law license. He also been ordered to surrender any guns from his possession.

https://apnews.com/article/former-s...d-ABKJ0axeOQ4qb-X89NOjcgbYL8Wl6dmSSBvggM

You know it's bad when they can take your guns from you in Tennessee.

Lol … 21 months and doesn’t have to serve it until October….scheeeeeeeez ……nice slap on the wrist there judgie poo.

The Federal Election Commission has fined both Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign and the Democratic National Committee for lying about how they spent money used to fund the now-debunked Steele dossier on former President Donald Trump.

The Clinton campaign and the DNC paid more than $1 million combined to powerful Democratic law firm Perkins Coie, which engaged Fusion GPS to dig for dirt on Trump.

Hillary Clinton will be forced to pay a fine of $8,000.

Probably only needs to sell 3, maybe 4 baby parts to cover that-

" 'Cankles': she's the criminal mastermind Trump aspired to be.
He's just always been playing with less equipment than she."


Pay the money, honey.
Do the right thing.

Shows how easy it was to find dirt on trump. But of course nothing was done about it.

It will be interesting to see how much $ trump’s campaign will be fined to find dirt on Biden and Hillary. Lol. My guess zippo. Because they found nothing.

I think that should disqualify Hillary to run for president in 2024.

A little closer to home-

https://www.wkbn.com/news/local-new...-charity-tied-to-e-palestine-derailment/

3 former GOP operatives to pay $50K for roles in a fake charity tied to E. Palestine derailment
by: The Associated Press

Posted: Aug 14, 2023 / 10:59 AM EDT

Updated: Aug 14, 2023 / 11:00 AM EDT

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — Three men who have worked as Republican political operatives agreed to pay more than $50,000 in restitution and penalties in Ohio for their roles in operating a phony charity that collected cash purportedly to help victims of the East Palestine train derailment.

The settlement, announced Thursday by Republican Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost, requires Isaiah Wartman and Luke Mahoney of WAMA Strategies to pay more than $22,000 to a local food bank, plus $3,000 in investigative costs and fees.

Under the deal, Michael Peppel, co-founder of the fraudulent charity, Ohio Clean Water Fund, must pay a $25,000 civil penalty and agree to a lifetime ban on starting, running or soliciting for any charity in the state, Yost announced.


Cleveland.com/The Plain Dealer reports that Wartman worked as campaign manager and senior adviser to Republican U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, of Georgia. Mahoney worked as a campaign staffer for Republican U.S. Rep. Elise Stefanik, of New York.

The pair formed WAMA Strategies together earlier this year. The settlement prohibits the strategy group from soliciting charitable donations in Ohio for the next four years, and Mahoney from starting, operating or soliciting contributions for any charity in Ohio until 2027.

Peppel previously worked as a senior legislative aide to GOP state Sen. Michael Rulli, of Mahoning County, the news organization reported, and as political director for the campaign of Republican U.S. Rep. Bill Johnson.


According to Yost’s investigation, Wartman and Mahoney were fundraisers for the fake charity, which collected nearly $149,000 from donors in the aftermath of the fiery Feb. 3 derailment that caused ongoing harm to the tiny community of East Palestine, along the Ohio-Pennsylvania border. Toxic chemicals released by the crash led to resident evacuations and lingering health worries.

The fake charity claimed the money would be given to the Second Harvest Food Bank of the Mahoning Valley, but the group gave only $10,000 to the food bank and kept the rest for themselves, the investigation found.

Bryan Kostura, an attorney representing Wartman and Mahoney, told the news outlet that the two men were both victims of a fraud perpetrated by Peppel and cooperated with Yost’s investigation. He said that, once they realized they’d been “bamboozled,” they “did what was right and gave back all of their profits for this entire engagement to the people of East Palestine.”

Peppel’s attorney, Dave Thomas, declined comment.

Sounds like Bannon's fake "Build the wall scheme". Of course trump pardoned him for that.

I'd take that deal every day. Neither one can run in 2024. Where do We The People sign?

Sadly I don't think we can. Because you must remember that according to some the creators and signers of our constitution were God like. They say that the constitution in fact isn't a living document and as such is pretty much set in stone. Thus the only requirements to be president is that you are born in The United States and be at least 35 years old. Such a high standard to run the nation! You can even be president from a jail cell. And there's a possibility that may be exactly how things end up.

It is sad we are led by people, average citizens, KNOW are liars and thieves. The joke, how do you know when a lawyer is lying- when his or her lips move......and MOST of our Congress is made up of lawyers. We, as a nation, elected a so called successful outsider, Trump, to drain the swamp. What are the results, he's biggest liar, con artist ever- he's front runner for Republican party and mostly talks about how he won three years ago....AND, can he be elected and serve as President from JAIL......dang, we are in a HUGE PICKLE- current President- much better man/leader than Trump is WAY to OLD for job- and Trump's to OLD also---AND he's incredibly stupid- have you seen the "stealth airplane clip- you can't see it...with USAF pilots biting their lips not to laugh at the ignorant ass....or his comments on how during the Revolutionary War, the patriots protected the airfields.....WHAT? The WORLD is laughing at us because we have idiots leading us.....got to scare them to death......Anyone but TRUMP and BIDEN.

Leave Biden out of it. He has done an admirable job by any standard. He’s not perfect, but he’s better than most. Oh, and he has been indicted on ZERO felonies.

Jc

I know at the macro level, I wish all Americans would come together and realize we have the same enemies.

That being said, the current state of affairs in the conservative micro level is beyond hilarious. It’s like watching a cult implode once some of the brainwashed get deprogrammed.

Straight chaos lmfao

We got got hardcore trump supporters calling other hardcore trump supporters ‘Never Trumpers’ and RINOs.

This is why there will never be another civil war in this country, and why conservatives bragging about having the most guns doesn’t matter one bit: They’re more likely to get into a shootout with each other.

Because as usual, conservatives showed the world that they can’t even stand each other, never mind anyone else. The Right have shown us in 4kUHD with HDR10 what paranoia, blind loyalty and just straight up hate speech will do to a community internally: metaphorically off themselves. They’re a bigger threat to each other as individual Americans than any Deep State could hope to accomplish.

We’re watching people digitally drink the Koolaid, and over who?

Trump?

That crap is mind blowing, and I’m glad I get to witness this live. Some people need their ass whooped, some just need to see one. I really needed to see what cult like behavior really looked like. Typically we only get to see that in documentaries and unfortunate traffic stops in Utah.

I’ve told my daughters to pay attention to conservatives in this country. Look how long the list of people/communities/etc that they dislike or straight up hate is. If my daughters ever have that much beef with that many different type of people, the people aren’t the problem; it’s you. At some point, conservatives have to realize that you guys are just….

Like really come off as miserable people. And yes, it absolutely has a lot to do with trump and how you will proudly walk the plank for this clown, though it’s not close to being the only reason. But it’s a big one.

I mean….guys, conservatives are really out here talking trash about women, created incel communities, got crazies like - lmfao - Moms of Liberty, and spreading Christian nationalism. And that’s on top of all the other people they already had beef with.

It’s so freaking funny that you conservatives trash non-white migrants coming into this country because you’re scared of the culture changing and people bringing their culture here, yet do y’all not realize that you continue the same trash European culture that you claimed to want independence from? Didn’t the colonial era Europeans of your ‘heritage’ have beef with literally everyone? Good lord, they couldn’t even stop beefing with each other.

From a pure American perspective and terminology, European history is a bunch of white people finding different reasons and ways to kill other white people. It’s almost as if being white in Europe doesn’t mean a damn thing, and I thought our founding fathers fought to break away from that very chaos and hate.

And yet, here we are. Summer 2023, and white liberals and minorities get to sit back and watch the conservatives/right wing self-cannibalize.

Conservatives claimed they hated Hollywood types, silver-spooned big city brats, metro/urban communities, and non stop drama.

So they elected Trump, a silver-spooned, big city billionaire who has 5 kids by 3 different women, and They elected Lauren Boebart and Majorie Taylor Greene, two elected house members of the GOP that are publicly insulting each other in DC and on social media. And Trump has stirred every single pot he could get his hands on since 2015.

And you conservative Americans let him and the GOP do all of that. You rewarded them over and over again, like a horrible parent with no control over their child, never telling them no.

You guys literally donated your hard earned money to a BILLIONAIRE for legal fees. The GOP doesn’t even pretend to care about y’all anymore, and guys what you guys do?

Nothing.

I literally posted on this board that all these conservatives complain about term limits, only for those same conservatives that happen to live in Kentucky decided to re-elect Mitch McConnell, who literally has a higher chance of dying in office before worrying about a primary.

Surprise surprise. Conservatives in Kentucky could’ve picked another Republican in the primary instead of Mitch, and that person would still be a republican senator. Nobody told them to vote for Mitch. Conservatives did that. They claimed they hate the dude, but vote for him. Dude been in the senate since 1985, but conservatives care about term limits, when they literally have the power of term limits when they vote.

Unfortunately our current crop of conservatives voting for the GOP don’t actually understand the power of their constitutional rights. So here we are.

My fellow liberals, pay no attention to this little wave of conservatives complaining about corporations and how they’re destroying the country with their Woke policies. Go woke, go broke, they say.

Lol.

Conservatives literally voted for republicans to give these corporations all the tax cuts and deregulation they want, and guess what they will continue to do?

Vote for their slave masters to have more money and control. Cause Barbie and those damn gays.

I know at the macro level, I wish all Americans would come together and realize we have the same enemies.

Good luck with that, the whole purpose of politics in 2023 is to make the opponents baggage worse than your own.

Sad but true.

Be a realist/pragmatist and learn to deal with the world that exists, instead of the world that should exist.

J Michael Luttig, who advised Mike Pence not to try to overturn 2020 election, says former president has destroyed GOP


A respected conservative judge who advised the former Republican vice-president Mike Pence not to attempt to overturn the 2020 election believes Donald Trump has destroyed the Republican party.

“American democracy simply cannot function without two equally healthy and equally strong political parties,” J Michael Luttig told CNN on Wednesday. “So today, in my view, there is no Republican party to counter the Democratic party in the country.

“And for that reason, American democracy is in grave peril.”

American democracy has by most measures been in grave peril since 6 January 2021, the day Pence, as vice-president, took Luttig’s advice and refused to attempt to block congressional certification of Joe Biden’s election win.


A mob Trump told to “fight like hell” attacked the Capitol, some chanting for Pence to be hanged. The effort failed but nine deaths have been linked to the riot, including law enforcement suicides. More than a thousand people have been charged and hundreds convicted, some with seditious conspiracy.

Last week, the special counsel Jack Smith indicted Trump on four counts relating to election subversion. Trump, 77, pleaded not guilty, as he has to 74 other criminal counts, in New York over hush-money payments to a porn star and federally regarding his retention of classified information.

Trump also faces cases concerning his business affairs and his treatment of women. In New York this week, regarding a civil suit in which Trump was found liable for defamation and sexual assault, a judge said it was not defamatory to call the former president a rapist.

Trial dates are piling up, most during the Republican primary next year. Nonetheless, Trump leads Ron DeSantis of Florida, Pence and the rest of the field by more than 30 points, firmly on course to face Biden again. In Congress, his far-right supporters maintain a grip on the House as they seek to impeach Biden.

Luttig told CNN: “A political party is a collection and assemblage of individuals who share a set of beliefs and principles and policy views about the United States of America. Today, there is no such shared set of beliefs and values and principles or even policy views as within the Republican party for America.”

Trump, he said, was a danger “more so today” than last year, when Luttig testified to the House January 6 committee.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/aug/09/anti-trump-judge-conservative-republican-party

It seems pretty obvious what a crime syndicate looks like when you start seeing a pattern of obvious and factual fraud among more than one of them. First it was Bannon and his "build a wall" fraud scam which even after being convicted trump pardoned him of. And now it's Rudy with funds he bilked these two out of with the claim it would fund a documentary that Rudy claimed would "expose President Joe Biden and his son, Hunter Biden, holding corrupt business dealings in Ukraine ahead of the 2020 election". And of course since he was lying about being able to prove that in a documentary, it was never made. Now they want their money back in Rudy's attempt to scam them................

"It's not a smart idea": As legal bills mount up, Trump may not have the choice to abandon Giuliani

Rudy Giuliani is hit with another lawsuit just as he reportedly returns from a trip to Mar-a-Lago to beg for cash

Rudy Giuliani, the former New York City mayor and personal attorney for Donald Trump, was paid $300,000 for pitching investors on an anti-Biden film that was never made, a lawsuit filed earlier this month by the investors, who are seeking their money back, claims.

In 2019, the two farmers — California fruit-and-nut farming barons and brothers Baldev and Kewel Munger — invested $1 million into a documentary they were told would expose President Joe Biden and his son, Hunter Biden, holding corrupt business dealings in Ukraine ahead of the 2020 election, Insider reports. According to the suit, Tim Yale, a political operative and defendant in the suit, introduced the two to Giuliani who, by that time, was already working to dig up dirt on the Bidens. The complaint alleges that Giuliani, alongside Yale and cannabis investor George Dickson III, who is also listed as a defendant, pitched the farmers on a documentary that would be "a possible 'kill shot' to Biden's presidential campaign."

The trio "all represented that they possessed key documents that were 'smoking guns' that would establish that the Ukrainian government engaged in a quid pro quo exchange with the Biden family to benefit Burisma," the suit continues, referencing the Ukrainian energy company that paid Hunter Biden to sit on its board. Republicans have long worked to prove the connection between Hunter Biden's work on the board and then-vice President Biden's effort to remove a Ukrainian prosecutor who was investigating the company, but haven't brought forth any tangible evidence of the alleged corruption.

The information the proposed film would reveal would incriminate the Bidens, secure a second term for former president Trump, and yield a hefty payoff for the Mungers. "Yale and Dickson represented that this documentary movie was going to be bigger and more profitable than Michael Moore's 'Fahrenheit 9/11,' which earned $200 million at the box office," the brothers, who hold part ownership of the world's largest producer of blueberries and had previously given tens of thousands of dollars to Republican candidates, wrote in the suit. Promissory notes attached to the complaint as exhibits show that the Mungers, through one of several multinational LLCs they control, gave Yale and Dickson $1 million in four installments of $250,000 between April 2020 and August 2020. Out of that sum, $300,000 went to Giuliani himself, while the rest "was stolen by Dickson and Yale for their own personal use," the lawsuit alleges.

The film was never made or released, and since Joe Biden won the 2020 presidential election, the Munger's investment disappeared. After conducting interviews with a range of Ukrainian officials, Giuliani failed to produce the supposed "smoking gun" and instead set his sights on the emails and data obtained from Hunter Biden's laptop.

Giuliani's attempts in the months after Trump's loss to overturn Joe Biden's victory have made him one of the 19 defendants in Georgia District Attorney Fani Willis' sprawling indictment against Trump and his associates, which alleges they conspired to subvert the election results in the state. He is widely believed to be the unnamed and unindicted first co-conspirator described in Trump's federal indictment in connection to the 2020 election. Giuliani's former assistant, Noelle Dunphy, has also filed a lawsuit against him, accusing the lawyer of wage theft and sexual assault.

As the once-regaled mayor's legal battles mount both in connection to his work for the former president and of his own alleged misconduct, so has his heap of legal fees. Alongside his attorney, Giuliani traveled to Trump's Mar-a-Lago beach club in Florida in late April to make a "personal and desperate appeal" to Trump to foot the bill for his legal bills, CNN reports. By going in person, Giuliani and his lawyer Robert Costello believed they could convince the former president of why it was in his best interest to assist his former personal attorney with his legal fees, a source familiar with matter told the outlet.

The duo had two meetings with Trump to discuss Giuliani's seven-figure legal fees, but the former president, who is notorious for not paying for his legal services, didn't bite. After Costello made his appeal, Trump verbally agreed to foot the bill for some of Giuliani's legal bills but did not commit to any specific amount or timeline. He also agreed to appear at two of Giuliani's fundraisers, another source told CNN.

The outlet confirmed that the $340,000 payment federal campaign filings show Trump's Save America PAC paid to a data vendor hosting Giuliani's records, which a source had told CNN Trump agreed to, was intended to cover the former mayor's outstanding bill with the company. Another attorney for Giuliani referenced the payment in court Wednesday, arguing to a New York state judge that Giuliani can not afford to pay additional legal costs to produce records in a defamation suit brought by voting tech company Smartmatic.

Trump's unwillingness to pay for Giuliani's bills, given that his former attorney could find himself under pressure to cooperate with federal and state authorities in any of the former president's ongoing cases, has surprised members of his inner circle.

"It's not a smart idea," one person close to the situation told CNN, noting how Trump's relationship with Michael Cohen fell apart during special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation.

The outlet reported on Tuesday that Giuliani has accumulated hundreds of thousands of dollars in legal fees, bills and sanctions amid his range of lawsuits, including those tied to his claims that the 2020 election was stolen. Not including standard legal bills, Giuliani is confronting nearly $90,000 in sanctions in the Smartmatic case, a $20,000 fee to a company hosting his electronic records, $15,000 or more for a search of his records, and a $57,000 judgment against his company over unpaid phone bills.

His attorneys have said in court that he "cannot afford" a bill that could range from $15,000 to $23,000 to pay for more discovery-related document searches. In what appears to be a response to his thinning wallet, Giuliani has also listed his three-bedroom Manhattan apartment for $6.5 million.

Mother Jones reported in 2020 details about Yale and Dickson's efforts to finance the film by raising a total of $10 million in investments. In a 2021 follow-up, the magazine reported that the production only yielded 15 minutes of low-quality footage while Giuliani received six figures to get potential investors on board. The failed documentary project is also noted in a whistleblower disclosure from FBI special agent Johnathan Buma, whose allegations against Giuliani, Insider first reported. Buma's disclosure claims that Giuliani raised money from a group of California activists for an election-year film about Biden and that Giuliani was seeking information on Biden from "Ukranian and also likely Russian sources."

Though Giuliani is not a defendant in the Mungers' lawsuit, he and Dickson were reportedly the subjects of an FBI investigation because of the documentary. The bureau searched Dickson's home in connection with the film in 2021 but never filed charges. The suit also refers to "John Doe" defendants and could be updated to include more people.

https://www.salon.com/2023/08/18/it...uKe7cWVQD9dzhozULaJ7hi1Q_UcgTCcBYcWvuLAw

So trump rips off Rudy and Rudy rips off donors for a documentary he never made. Sometimes it's obvious how much people deserve to be together.

Maybe they'll be cellmates?

Anybody that gave these two criminals a dime deserve to loose it.

DAMN, Trump sets a new record.....and, I'll predict, it won't be matched in my lifetime----he has his very own real.....MUGSHOT....another first for our glorious former President.....he looks like an angry OLD MAN.

He's only President selling "action figures/collectables"----WOW, what a loser.