You can’t make this crap up. Lol

Steve Bannon Issues Threat to Trump's Former Attorney General Bill Barr

Former White House strategist Steve Bannon issued a warning on Friday to ex-Attorney General Bill Barr for recently criticizing Donald Trump.

Barr said in an interview on Thursday with CBS News that Trump is "very exposed" legally in his alleged mishandling of classified documents that were seized by FBI agents from the former president's Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida last August.

Trump is now being investigated for illegally keeping the documents, which he took from the White House after leaving office in 2021. The former president has maintained his innocence in the case and claimed that he declassified them before transferring them to Mar-a-Lago. Trump's claim of "automatically" declassifying the documents when they were placed into boxes is not "gonna fly," Barr added during his interview.

"I've said all along that of the cases out there right now, the one I'd be most concerned about, if I were the president, is the Mar-a-Lago document case," Barr said. When asked why by CBS News' Catherine Herridge, he said it was due to the investigation not being largely focused "on intent or anything like that."

The National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) told Trump on Thursday that 16 records would be handed over to special counsel Jack Smith, who is overseeing the case. Multiple sources told CNN that Trump and his top advisers had knowledge of the correct declassification process while he was president.

"It's very clear that he had no business having those documents," the former attorney general said Thursday. "He was given a long time to send them back and he was—they were subpoenaed. And if there's any games being played there, he's going to be very exposed."

Bannon shared Barr's remarks on Friday and commented on Gettr, "First Prosecution in President Trump's 2nd Term—Bill Barr .....The worse type of Republican Establishment vermin."

The former Trump official made a similar comment last year as he floated the idea that Barr could face trial if Republicans take back the White House in 2024. Trump announced his 2024 presidential bid this past November, even though some Republicans have expressed their preferences for other potential candidates.

During his War Room podcast at the time, Bannon blasted Barr and his memoir One Damn Thing After Another. Bannon added that Barr's book, which he called "shocking," would be used as evidence against him if the GOP takes back the White House.

Bannon also criticized Barr during that segment for "the lies he tells about election fraud, the lies he tells about misleading President Trump."

"I would tell to Bill Barr, 'Preserve your documents, preserve your documents, OK?'" he said.

Once a Trump loyalist, Barr has long received backlash from some Republicans and conservatives for repeatedly stating that there is "no evidence" to support claims of widespread voter fraud in the 2020 presidential election which Joe Biden won. Barr resigned as attorney general in mid-December 2020, just over a month before Trump left the White House and before the Capitol riot on January 6, 2021, another incident the former president is being investigated for by the Department of Justice (DOJ).

https://www.newsweek.com/steve-bann..._-aTJZVDZdfo8t44JbTmKDqf9cGdLnBs2km2miL4

An unconfirmed source claims that after the taping of the podcast conclued that Barr was walking around the studio screaming "Don't talk about my daddy that way!"

If the the extremist in the GOP think it's wrong that children may accidentally see someone performing in drag when walking by an outdoor venue, I wonder how many more children may see it on TV through the local news?

Marjorie Taylor Greene, who's raged about drag queens for months, is defending her boyfriend over an old video of him donning drag in Dallas

Greene defended her boyfriend, RSBN's Brian Glenn, after an old video of him in drag resurfaced.

"I may keep the pantyhose on. It does feel kind of good," Glenn said in the video.

Greene, who has a strong anti-drag stance, laughed it off, saying: "The left is so stupid."

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, who has consistently bashed drag queens, defended her boyfriend, Brian Glenn, after a Twitter account surfaced an old video of him dressed like a woman.

The Twitter account "Patriot Takes" posted the video on Sunday, which showed Glenn dressed like an old Caucasian woman — complete with a fluffy blonde wig, white gloves, and a pink cardigan.

Glenn, a producer at a right-wing broadcasting network, could be heard saying: "I'm kicking the shoes off. I may keep the pantyhose on. It does feel kind of good, actually." It is unclear when the video first aired, but Glenn was an anchor for WFAA TV, an ABC-affiliated media company in Dallas, from 2013 to 2015.

The video has been viewed more than 1.3 million times at press time.

Greene, 48, reposted the video on Sunday, saying: "I'm literally lol'ing. @brianglenntv dressed in drag for morning news in Dallas years ago reporting on an upcoming local theatre production and the morons over at Patriot Takes think this is an attack."

The Georgia Republican added: "Brian loves the throwback and is reposting. The left is so stupid."



Glenn reposted the video and tweeted: "The things I did for morning show television!! LOVED it and so did the @wfaa @WFAADaybreak viewers. It's a good thing I have a sense of humor!"

But Greene has previously taken a very different tone when talking about drag.

She previously said that allowing children to attend drag shows should "be illegal."

"What's the difference in children stuffing cash in a drag queen bra and a strippers bra? Nothing. It's wrong and it's indoctrination," Greene's tweet on June 15 read.

In 2022, she also claimed without substantiation that Democrats would use IRS agents to target Trump voters who refused to support "drag queen story time for children."

Greene divorced her husband of 27 years, Perry Greene, in September. Seven months later, she went public about her relationship with Glenn.

Glenn tweeted a picture of him and Greene on a golf course in Georgia on April 11, saying that he was "looking forward to returning with this one in 2024."

"Love living life with you," Greene tweeted back at Glenn the same day.

A representative for Greene did not immediately respond to a request for comment sent outside regular business hours.

https://ca.news.yahoo.com/marjorie-taylor-greene-whos-raged-095708870.html

They only find humor in it when one of them does it. Performers in drag didn't use to be a big deal until they decided to create a new enemy.

Comment made by South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster during a South Carolina Republican convention Saturday.



Murica!

Surprised she didn’t draw and shoot him. Fearful scummy idiots.

Bannon better be careful, Barr is in survival mode, he may bring out the real receipts he covered up on Russia/Trump. Along with all the other crimes committed. He would be well received. And Bannon is neck deep in a lot of it.

Ronny DStains is launching his Presidential campaign with Elon on the new troll hole platform formerly known as twitter tonight. You can’t make this crap up.

Illinois GOP legislator threatens violence if state passes all-gender bathroom bill

Illinois state senators last week were told to expect violence if they voted to pass legislation that would allow businesses to install multiple-occupancy restrooms open to all genders.

Speaking on the Illinois Senate floor Thursday, state Sen. Neil Anderson, a Republican, said he would be driven to physical violence if “a guy” entered the same restroom as his 10-year-old daughter.

“I’m telling you right now, if a guy walks in there, I’m going to beat the living piss out of him,” Anderson said during Thursday’s floor debate on House Bill 1286 as his supporters cheered. “So, this is going to cause violence, and it’s going to cause violence from dads like me.”

The bill — which would require mixed-gender, multiple-occupancy bathrooms be equipped with floor-to-ceiling stall dividers, locks, baby changing tables and at least one vending machine for menstrual products — seeks to expand an existing state law requiring that single-occupancy restrooms be open to all genders.

The legislation passed the Senate largely along party lines in a 35-20 vote Thursday and was given final approval by the Democratic-controlled House on Friday. The measure would go into effect with Democratic Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s signature.

Anderson’s comments during Thursday’s floor debate were condemned as gratuitously violent by Illinois Senate Democrats. State Sen. Mike Simmons (D) suggested Anderson’s remarks should be stricken from the record.

“I wouldn’t want a single person in the state to read that record and think that anybody here would come after them if they would do something so mundane as to use the bathroom,” he said.

Simmons, Illinois’s first openly gay state senator, in a Twitter post late Thursday said Anderson’s comments targeted LGBTQ people.

“I refuse to accept dog-whistling against LGBTQ+ communities,” he wrote, “and today’s floor debate on gender neutral restrooms legislation was no exception.”

On Friday, three LGBTQ rights groups — Equality Illinois, Pride Action Tank and AIDS Foundation Chicago — issued a joint statement denouncing “the violent language” used during Thursday’s debate and accusing a “state senator” of advocating for “transphobic violence,” an apparent reference to Simmons.

“This violent language is appalling and emblematic of what trans and gender-expansive people experience in their daily lives,” the groups wrote in the statement. They referenced data from a 2015 survey that found 58 percent of transgender people in Illinois avoided public restrooms because they were fearful of confrontation.

“The violent language like that used by the state senator gives license to transphobic actors to harm trans people,” the groups wrote Friday. “Enough is enough.”

https://thehill.com/homenews/state-...upqUvAPwZgblnofXJwySvgOg9SMhht2LCTjZiZI4

1. He shouldn’t have said that anywhere, especially not on the Illinois State Senate floor.

2. Floor to ceiling stalls are better than what we have now in public bathrooms.

3. People are genuinely concerned for their children’s well being. It’s not just some dog whistles against trans people for the majority of us who are against these bathroom policies.

Since as you have mentioned, the stalls would have walls going from floor to ceiling, nobody could see anyone else in a state of being disrobed. Considering that, what part of your children's well being is it that you're concerned with? Some have used the excuse that for some reason they feel that trans people must be more inclined to be sexual predators although I've never seen any evidence to back that up.

I have to say that the thought of it in theory disturbs me as well, but after thinking about it I really can' think of any legitimate reason as to why I feel that way.

1. It’s not trans people but rather those that say they are to gain access. Men are crap humans and I don’t trust them.

The stalls aren’t the issue for me. It’s the fact that they are still alone with men in an enclosed area. These bathrooms are for all, not just women and trans women.

I don’t know how many trans peoples people we have in this country. I assume it’s a small amount. I’m not sure why the unisex bathrooms that are for all genders by state law in Illinois aren’t good enough?

I'm really not sure why having unisex bathrooms aren't good enough either. My best guess is that may very well be cost prohibitive for small businesses and businesses without the additional space to do so but I don't really know.

Keep the perverts out of women's bathrooms. This whole trans argument is an attack on women. They are destroying women's rights to privacy. They are destroying women's sports. The are sexual deviants in the first place and have no place around woman and especially girls.

No it’s not an attack on women and that notion is absurd. Just more alt-right fascist talking point regurgitation without a shred of evidence. Instead of banning books, the GOP should encourage reading them. SMH.

Yeah, men are just elevating what women have accomplished because they can't do it for themselves. Obliterating records in women's sports makes all women better.

51,50

If your point is that you object to trans athletes participating in women's sports, then we agree.

This is where you have gone from having a rational discussion to making a blanket statement about something you have no idea about. Calling trans people sexual deviants is the very root of the problem. It's the excuse people use to create laws against them.

There is a mental illness there that needs to be dealt with professionally. These people need help for sure but not catered to. They should not be in women's sports; they should not be in spaces where women feel vulnerable like bathrooms, locker rooms, etc... They live in a fantasy world. There are only two genders and the women's gender needs protected from these people.

And what possible qualifications do you have to make such an accusation?


At this point in time they need help not being treated unfairly and of being labeled as mentally ill by people that have no qualifications to do so. But throughout history we have seen such negative labels attached to people that are unlike the vast majority of other people. I mean there was a time blacks were considered more like monkeys because many whites considered them lass than human.

I agree with you about that. That is unfair to women.


So you're basing that on "feelings"? That's part of the problem too.


Other than an unfair advantage is sports, which we agree on, what exactly is it that you claim trans people are doing that requires women to be "protected from them"?

Are you saying that them living their life as they see fit is a "fantasy world"? To some extent I agree because there are too many people such as yourself trying to do everything they can to prevent them from doing that.

Woman of the year... is a biological male... biological females are losing in sports to biological males... first female CEO/Owner of the global beauty pageant organization... is a biological male... all female sororities are forced to accept biological males into heir organizations..... biological males are celebrated for their year of girlhood.... invited to the White House to interview the president....

transgender activism isn't an attack on women... sure....

Yeah, but, but, but... transgenders are under attack! Don't you read the stories?!

OMG!

The president actually met with one of "those" at the White house!?

Yeah, and instead of celebrating them he should be helping them get the help and treatment they need for their mental illness.

Thank you Dr. Dawg.

Student loans: House votes to claw back pandemic forbearance and debt relief
What lies ahead for President Biden’s student debt relief plan amid Supreme Court reviewScroll back up to restore default view.
8.2k
Ronda Lee
Ronda Lee
Wed, May 24, 2023 at 6:03 PM EDT
The US House of Representatives voted in favor of a bill that would claw back paused student loan payments and block the president's student debt forgiveness program.

The bill called the Congressional Review Act (CRA) was passed by a 218-203 vote, with at least two Democratic representatives appearing to support the measure.

It would require the Education Department to reverse months of forbearance since September 2022 and waived interest charges that was part of the federal response to the Covid-19 pandemic. It would also prevent the implementation of President Joe Biden’s up to $20,000 cancellation of student debt — regardless of how the Supreme Court rules on the legality of the program.

The measure, which the president has vowed to veto if it passes the Senate, would leave 40 million student loan borrowers with past-due balances on their loans plus new interest charges.

“Voting in favor of CRA is really a pretty extraordinary slap in the face to representatives' constituents,” Abby Shafroth, a senior attorney with the National Consumer Law Center, told Yahoo Finance. “It would not only break a promise the government has already made to constituents to provide them life-changing debt relief, but also increase their student loan balances right now by undoing past months of 0% interest and retroactively charging interest for that time.”

US Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy, a Republican of California, speaks to the press about the debt ceiling negotiations in Statuary Hall at the US Capitol in Washington, DC, on May 24, 2023. The White House and Congressional Republicans are still locked in crunch talks to try and avert the first debt default in US history, which Treasury officials have warned could come as soon as June 1. (Photo by SAUL LOEB / AFP) (Photo by SAUL LOEB/AFP via Getty Images)
US Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy, a Republican of California, speaks to the press about the debt ceiling negotiations in Statuary Hall at the US Capitol in Washington, DC, on May 24, 2023. (Photo by SAUL LOEB / AFP) (Photo by SAUL LOEB/AFP via Getty Images)More
Other advocates worry that the resolution would reinstate debt for borrowers who received debt cancellation under the public service loan forgiveness (PSLF) program.

“Many individuals whose loans were discharged under longstanding forgiveness programs, such as Public Service Loan Forgiveness, could see their debts reinstated," Eden Iscil, public policy manager at National Consumers League, told Yahoo Finance. "This would all be in addition to the dangers of restarting monthly payments during high inflation and without the president’s debt cancellation.”

The American Federation of Teachers (AFT) and the Student Borrower Protection Center (SBPC) released a new report Tuesday showing the CRA resolution would cause far greater harm to public service workers with student debt.

“The CRA would impact PSLF, block Biden’s student loan cancellation, and will roll back debt relief already delivered,” Mike Pierce, executive director of the Student Borrowers Protection Center, said in a press conference. “It would strike down an existing set of programs having an immediate impact on borrowers by invalidating student loan policies since 2022.”

Around 268,660 public service workers who received debt cancellation from September 2022 through March 2023 through the public service loan forgiveness program would have $19.5 billion in debt put back in place as a result of the CRA, according to the AFT/SBPC report.

On the other end, the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget estimated that if the measure passed, it would reduce deficits by $316 billion through 2033. The public policy nonprofit instead said the administration should "find a bipartisan path forward that truly reforms the system," CRFB President Maya MacGuineas said in a statement.

The back and forth between supporters and critics is mostly moot.

"It is unlikely that the bill would pass in the Senate or survive a presidential veto,” Mark Kantrowitz, author and student loans expert, told Yahoo Finance.

The White House reiterated that stance on Wednesday in a press briefing before the House vote.

“And know this: President Biden won’t stand for it," White House Press Secretary Karen Pierre said. "He will veto this bill.”

https://thehill.com/homenews/house/...price-hearing-its-cheaper-to-have-a-kid/

HOUSE
Boebert on birth control: ‘It’s cheaper to have a kid’


“I left a prescription at a pharmacy once. I went to get birth control,” she said. “And I was there at the counter and went to pay for it, and the price was very, very high. I said, ‘Wow, is this a three-, six-month prescription?’ ‘No ma’am, this is one month’ And I said, ‘It’s cheaper to have a kid,’ and I left it there.”

More GOPer BS in Ohio. Republicans don’t want Ohio voters to have a choice on abortion bans in November, so they want to hold a special election in August to change the rules… after banning special elections in August.

Sen. Tuberville's hold on military promotions will apply to Biden's new Joint Chiefs nominee

Tuberville is using a procedural tactic to delay the speedy confirmation of military officials in protest of a recent DOD policy that provides travel expenses and paid time off for abortions.

WASHINGTON — Sen. Tommy Tuberville’s hold on military promotions will apply to Air Force Gen. C.Q. Brown Jr.’s elevation to chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, his spokesperson told NBC News.

Tuberville, R-Ala., has faced bipartisan criticism for stalling promotions of more than 150 military officials in protest of a recent Department of Defense policy that provides travel expenses and paid time off for service members and their dependents seeking abortions.

Biden formally announced Thursday that he has picked Brown to serve as the next chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, replacing Army Gen. Mark Milley when his term ends in October. If Brown is confirmed, he would be the second Black man to hold the position, following the late Colin Powell, who served under former President George W. Bush.

The president called Brown a “fearless leader and unyielding patriot,” noting he was confirmed to his current post as Air Force chief of staff in 2020 by a vote of 98-0. “I urge the Senate to once again confirm General Brown with the same overwhelming bipartisan support from him for his new role,” Biden said.

Senate approval of the promotions of top level-officers and generals is a task that's usually quick and smooth, but any single senator can make it less so. Most military promotions are approved by the Senate by unanimous consent, meaning all 100 senators agree to approve them without a vote.

Tuberville is using a procedural tactic to plug up the speedy confirmation of military officials, which will apply to Brown as well, his office said, because the hold applies to all one-star nominations and above. While Tuberville's hold can’t actually block the Senate from processing any promotion, it can dramatically slow down a process that is typically done without a vote at all.

Adam Hodge, a spokesperson for the White House National Security Council, said Thursday that "Tuberville is threatening our national security with his political gamesmanship and risking our military readiness by depriving our armed forces of leadership at a critical time."

"As we face persistent threats to our national security all over the world, we need our military nominees — and certainly our next Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff — to be confirmed quickly. Senators shouldn’t play politics with our military its readiness or our military families," Hodge said in a statement.

Asked earlier this month if he supported Tuberville’s holds, Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-K.Y., said: “No, I don’t support putting a hold on military nominations. I don’t support that.”

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said in March, “One senator — just one single senator, my colleague from Alabama, Sen. Tuberville — is blocking all general and flag officer confirmations, taking our military, our national security, our safety hostage."

Tuberville has said he will keep the hold on the promotions until the policy is changed. “Over the past 40 years, I don’t recall one military person ever complaining that we weren’t performing enough abortions," he declared at a Senate hearing earlier this year. “I want our military to be the strongest and the deadliest it has ever been but also want the administration to follow the law.”

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/co...sLD3_Rc4ASkf2PFDRnn51VEsyG-tYz31A_BkLOoo

What law?

DeSantis says he’ll consider pardoning Jan. 6 defendants, including Trump

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) said Thursday that if elected president, he will consider pardoning all the Jan. 6 defendants — including former President Trump — on his first day in office.

“On day one, I will have folks that will get together and look at all these cases, who people are victims of weaponization or political targeting, and we will be aggressive in issuing pardons,” DeSantis said on “The Clay Travis & Buck Sexton Show” podcast when asked about whether he will consider pardoning Jan. 6 defendants, including Trump, who is currently facing a federal investigation over his role on Jan. 6.

“I would say any example of disfavored treatment based on politics, or weaponization would be included in that review, no matter how small or how big,” he added.

DeSantis also accused the Justice Department and the FBI of weaponizing its authority by pursuing ongoing investigations into the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol. The Justice Department said earlier this month that 1,033 arrests have been made in connection to the Capitol attacks and about 485 people have been sentenced due to criminal activity conducted that day.

DeSantis also claimed that the FBI is targeting anti-abortion groups, as well as parents who want to attend school board meetings. He said that if elected, his administration would determine on a “case-by-case” basis if the government was weaponized against certain groups.

“We’re going to find examples where the government’s been weaponized against disfavored groups, and we will apply relief as appropriate, but it will be done on a case-by-case basis,” he said.

DeSantis officially launched his bid for the White House on Wednesday evening, where it was met with a slew of technical difficulties and glitches on the Twitter livestream. DeSantis has consistently been the trailing Trump in second place in recent polls as the former president ramps up his attacks on the governor.

https://thehill.com/homenews/campai...doning-jan-6-defendants-including-trump/

Murica!

So it's not about what crimes they actually committed, it's about what party they belong to and which party prosecuted them.

Yeah lol….ok rich girl. You can afford just about anything you want.

Meanwhile you are in favor of cutting off those less fortunate….Congresswoman Lauren Boebert (CO-03) introduced the Defund Planned Parenthood Act, legislation that prohibits federal tax dollars from going to Planned Parenthood and that redirects those resources to community health centers.

This must have been before she had her government subsidized healthcare.

Steve Bannon’s ‘We Build the Wall’ scheme trial set for May 2024

NEW YORK (AP) — Steve Bannon, the conservative strategist and longtime ally of former President Donald Trump, will stand trial next May on charges that he duped donors who gave money to build a wall along the U.S. southern border, a judge said Thursday.

Judge Juan Manuel Merchan set Bannon’s trial in the “We Build the Wall” case for May 28, 2024, amending his calendar after realizing that the date he announced in court — May 27 — is next year’s Memorial Day holiday, when courts will be closed.

If the schedule holds, Bannon will stand trial soon after Trump is slated to do so in the same Manhattan courtroom in an unrelated criminal case.

Bannon, 69, pleaded not guilty last September following his indictment on state money laundering, conspiracy, fraud and other charges. Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg took up the case after Bannon’s federal prosecution was cut short by a Trump pardon. Presidential pardons apply only to federal crimes, not state offenses.

Bannon is accused of falsely promising donors that all money given to the We Build the Wall campaign would go toward building a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border. Instead, prosecutors allege that the money was used to enrich Bannon and others involved in the project.

Brian Kolfage and Andrew Badolato pleaded guilty to federal charges and were sentenced to prison. A third defendant, Timothy Shea, was convicted in October and is scheduled to be sentenced next month.

Merchan is presiding over both the Bannon and Trump cases. Bannon is free pending trial. Thursday’s hearing lasted all of four minutes.

“We’ll see you back in here in May,” Bannon said as he left the courthouse in a black SUV.

https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politi...EzTLl67KfvmbR6pExIjx9M-6Tv9cCHwXQE5kxidA

He already got four months for defying a subpoena.

Quick! Somebody needs to pardon this guy! It's a witch hunt I tell ya!

Oh that's right. Trump already pardoned this guy once.

Trump pardons Steve Bannon as one of his final acts in office

https://www.cnn.com/2021/01/19/politics/steve-bannon-pardoned-by-trump/index.html

Texas House of Representatives votes to impeach Attorney General Ken Paxton

The Texas House of Representatives has voted to impeach Attorney General Ken Paxton, an unprecedented move following a legislative probe that faulted the third-term Republican for a yearslong pattern of corruption, including abusing his office’s powers, retaliating against whistleblowers and obstructing justice.

Under state law, Paxton is now temporarily suspended from his duties as attorney general and will await a Senate trial.

The vote was 121-23, with two members voting “present.”

“The evidence is substantial. It is alarming and unnerving,” said GOP Rep. Andrew Murr, chair of the General Investigating Committee, during his closing statement following hours of debate. The committee recommended 20 counts of impeachment against Paxton.

Democrat Rep. Harold Dutton was one of the members voting present. He said the impeachment vote had been rushed. “The process by which we’re getting this done seems to be abbreviated to the point that it just encroaches on due process,” said Dutton.

Paxton denied wrongdoing in a Friday news conference, but focused his statements against the impeachment this week on his record as a key opponent of President Joe Biden. Paxton’s office has filed dozens of lawsuits against the Biden administration.

The now-suspended attorney general called the impeachment a “politically motivated sham” in a statement just minutes after the vote.

“The ugly spectacle in the Texas House today confirmed the outrageous impeachment plot against me was never meant to be fair or just,” he said.

Paxton said he was never given a chance to present evidence refuting the findings of an investigation that he abused his office. He has cast House Speaker Dade Phelan, a Republican who presides over a chamber where his party currently holds 85 seats to Democrats’ 64, as a “liberal.” He continued his attack on Phelan saying, “Phelan’s coalition of Democrats and liberal Republicans is now in lockstep with the Biden Administration, the abortion industry, anti-gun zealots, and woke corporations.”

The Office of the Attorney General issued its own “comprehensive report” about the allegations following the impeachment vote, saying it “unequivocally refutes incorrect testimony” against Paxton. The office also released a report it commissioned from an outside law firm, although the report from Lewis Brisbois Bisgaard and Smith LLP notes it is based only on information and testimony provided by the attorney general’s office.

Republican Governor Greg Abbott can appoint a provisional replacement while Paxton is temporarily suspended. Paxton would be reinstated if he is acquitted at his Senate trial.

The impeachment vote had its origins in an investigation launched in March by the General Investigating Committee of the Texas House after Paxton had asked the legislature to approve $3.3 million in government funds to settle a lawsuit with four whistleblowers who were fired from his office.

That investigation led the committee – a five-member panel investigating corruption in state government – to approve 20 articles of impeachment Thursday, setting up the vote in the full House.

During the debate Saturday, Rep. Charlie Geren, who is a Republican, claimed Paxton had threatened fellow House members.

“I would like to point out that several members of this House, while on the floor of this House doing the state’s business, received telephone calls from General Paxton personally threatening them with political consequences in their next election,” Geren said.

Opponents of the impeachment largely declined to address the allegations against him, instead focusing on the investigation leading up to the proceedings. “I don’t think today is about whether there’s guilt or innocence. It’s about the process,” said Rep. Tony Tinderholt.

“I’m not here to defend Ken Paxton,” Rep. John T. Smithee stated on the floor. He went on to say, “What you’re being asked to do today is to impeach without evidence. It is all rumor. It is all innuendo. It is all speculation.”

Paxton’s impeachment is a stunning rebuke of a Republican official in a state where the GOP controls all levers of state government. Voters in Texas shrugged off the swirling scandals around Paxton last year, handing him a third term in November’s election. Paxton had earlier fought off multiple opponents for the GOP nomination, including Bush family scion George P. Bush, the state land commissioner, whom he easily bested in a runoff.

Paxton has long been a controversial figure who has clashed with Texas legislative leadership. A conservative who has aligned himself with former President Donald Trump, he led a lawsuit in 2020 seeking to overturn Joe Biden’s victory in the presidential election.

He retains support within the Texas GOP. In a statement Friday, state party chairman Matt Rinaldi blasted Phelan for what he called a “sham impeachment.”

“The voters have supported General Paxton through three elections – and his popularity has only grown despite millions of dollars spent to try to defeat him. Now the Texas House is trying to overturn the election results,” Rinaldi said, adding that he was looking to the “principled leadership” of the Senate to “restore sanity and reason for our state.”

In Texas, no attorney general has ever been impeached and removed from office. The only two elected officials to lose office as a result of impeachment were Gov. James Ferguson in 1917 and District Judge O.P. Carrillo in 1975.

For Paxton to be removed from office, two-thirds of the Texas Senate’s members who are present will have to vote to convict him. His wife, Angela Paxton, is a state senator representing a Dallas-area district.

It’s not yet clear when the Senate, where Republicans have a 19-12 majority over Democrats, will conduct its trial. The state’s legislative session is scheduled to end Monday.

While only the governor can call special sessions once the legislature is out of the biennial regular session, the Texas Constitution states that impeachment is the one issue for which the state House and Senate lawmakers can bring themselves into session without the governor, according to Mark Jones, a political science professor at Rice University.
Litany of legal trouble

The impeachment proceedings are the latest in a series of legal troubles for Paxton.

CNN has previously reported he was facing an FBI investigation for abuse of office and that Justice Department prosecutors in Washington, DC, took over a corruption investigation into Paxton. He is also under indictment for securities fraud in a separate, unrelated case. Paxton has denied all charges and allegations.

The state House probe came after Paxton had sought to settle a lawsuit with four former employees of the attorney general’s office. Whistleblowers had accused him of using his authority to benefit political friend Nate Paul, a real estate investor who had donated tens of thousands of dollars to Paxton’s campaign. In the settlement, Paxton apologized but did not admit fault or accept liability. He denied wrongdoing and said in a statement he had agreed to the settlement “to put this issue to rest.”

One of the impeachment articles accuses Paxton of using employees of the attorney general’s office to write a legal opinion intended to help Paul avoid the foreclosure sale of properties owned by Paul and his businesses.

It was among a series of articles focused on Paxton’s relationship with Paul, including accusations he hired an outside attorney who issued more than 30 grand jury subpoenas while investigating a “baseless complaint” made by Paul, benefited from Paul hiring a woman with whom Paxton “was having an extramarital affair,” and provided Paul with favorable legal help in exchange for renovations on Paxton’s home.

The articles of impeachment also detail what are described as Paxton’s efforts to cause “protracted” delays in the securities fraud investigation.

And the articles say voters in November did not have a full understanding of Paxton’s legal troubles because he had intentionally obscured the details of the charges he faces.

“Paxton then concealed the facts underlying his criminal charges from voters by causing protracted delay of the trial, which deprived the electorate of its opportunity to make an informed decision when voting for attorney general,” the impeachment articles state.
A wild week

The impeachment of Paxton follows a wild week in which the attorney general accused House Speaker Phelan of presiding over the House chamber while drunk and called for the speaker’s resignation.

On Tuesday, Paxton posted on Twitter a letter to the state House ethics panel, asking for an investigation into Phelan for performing his duties in what Paxton described as “an obviously intoxicated state.”

Paxton’s call for Phelan’s resignation came after video circulated on social media last weekend of Phelan appearing to slur his words as he presided over the House chamber at the end of a late-night session. Paxton did not present any evidence beyond the video clips to support his claim Phelan was drunk.

“It is with profound disappointment that I call on Speaker Dade Phelan to resign at the end of this legislative session,” Paxton said in a statement he posted on Twitter. “Texans were dismayed to witness his performance presiding over the Texas House in a state of apparent debilitating intoxication.”

Less than an hour later, the state House General Investigating Committee revealed it had subpoenaed records from Paxton’s office as part of an investigation Phelan’s office said had started in March. The committee, whose members are appointed by Phelan, voted unanimously Thursday to recommend Paxton’s impeachment.

Phelan’s office said Paxton’s allegation was merely retaliation for the House ethics panel’s probe.

“Mr. Paxton’s statement today amounts to little more than a last-ditch effort to save face,” Phelan communications director Cait Wittman said in a statement Tuesday.

Democratic Rep. Terry Canales said the broader context of last week’s all-day session made clear Phelan “was not under the influence.”

“At that point in the night the House had been in session over 13 hours and we had been doing so for multiple days in a row. We were all exhausted,” Canales said in a statement. “Nevertheless, I had multiple interactions with the speaker throughout the day and that night and I can say unequivocally he was not under the influence.”

https://www.cnn.com/2023/05/27/politics/ken-paxton-impeachment-texas-house/index.html

Sounds great right? The Republicans calling out one of their own in Texas and I applaud the ones who did. And then......

.... The current front runner for the presidential nomination to represent the GOP in 2024 did this....

Trump throws support behind Texas AG, calls impeachment vote an ‘unfair process’

Former President Trump threw his support behind Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton (R) on Saturday, as the embattled state official faces potential impeachment over allegations of misconduct.

“The RINO Speaker of the House of Texas, Dade Phelan, who is barely a Republican at all and failed the test on voter integrity, wants to impeach one of the most hard working and effective Attorney Generals in the United States, Ken Paxton, who just won re-election with a large number of American Patriots strongly voting for him,” Trump said in a post on Truth Social.

“You would think that any issue would have been fully adjudicated by the voters of Texas, especially when that vote was so conclusive,” he added.

Paxton, who has been under criminal indictment since 2015 over conduct from before he took office, was reelected in 2018 and 2022.

A team of four former state prosecutors commissioned by the GOP-led Texas House revealed the results of their monthslong investigation into the state attorney general on Wednesday, alleging, among other things, that he took bribes and fired the deputies who reported it.

The House is set to vote on the articles of impeachment against Paxton on Saturday afternoon. If the chamber votes in favor of impeachment, Paxton is required by Texas law to step aside while he awaits trial in the state Senate.

Paxton has denied the allegations and called for protests, claiming that state lawmakers are attempting to overturn the will of the voters who reelected him. Trump echoed these claims on Saturday.

“Hopefully Republicans in the Texas House will agree that this is a very unfair process that should not be allowed to happen or proceed—I will fight you if it does,” the former president said in another Truth Social post. “It is the Radical Left Democrats, RINOS, and Criminals that never stop.”

“ELECTION INTERFERENCE! Free Ken Paxton, let them wait for the next election!” he added.

https://thehill.com/homenews/state-...u9KVzBXzigmi4VjLb7GX0GcgDX-Zho3QvRk7yUAY

Does anyone actually believe that he'll get removed from office?

It’s baffling to me that after being taken for a ride on the hate train, that the radicalized MAGAts still cling to Trump, DeStains, and all the ridiculous, debunked claims of these idiots and others parroting the same messages. It like they like their politicians lying to them, their news lying to them, and ;Yang to each other about pretty much everything in the world. But hey, they are pwning the libs. I hope they do that for the next 50 years. That should be enough time for dems to fix all the rights snafus and clean up this mess.

Trump wishes happy Memorial Day to those fighting ‘misfits and lunatic thugs’ within the nation

Former President Trump wished a happy Memorial Day to “those who gave the ultimate sacrifice” for the nation as well as to those who are “stopping the threats of the terrorists, misfits and lunatic thugs who are working feverishly from within to overturn and destroy our once great nation.”

Trump warned on his social media platform, Truth Social, that the nation “has never been in greater peril than it is right now” and urged his supporters to help him “stop the communists, Marxists and fascist ‘pigs’ at every turn and make American great again!”

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, Trump’s top rival for the GOP presidential nomination, offered his own thoughts on Memorial Day during an interview with “Fox & Friends” earlier Monday.

He praised the nation as a “great country built on great values” but warned that the Constitution and Declaration of Independence “don’t run on autopilot if you don’t have people throughout history willing to put on the uniform, risk their lives and indeed give the last full measure of devotion.

“And so today is a day to reflect on those that made the ultimate sacrifice, because if you don’t have people that are willing to do that, then you really can’t have a free society,” he said.

Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.), who jumped into the presidential race last week, also offered remarks to honor service members who gave their lives to the nation’s defense.

“Over 1.3 million Americans have lost their lives in service to a greater cause. Today, let us not only reflect but let us be emboldened by their sacrifice, let us live each and every day as a way of saying thank you to the men and women we’ve never met. Our responsibility is to live our lives as Americans because the price is too high for us to live anything less than our very best,” he said in a short video clip posted on Twitter.

“God bless the United States of America and God bless every family who’s lost a loved one to the greater good,” he said.

Former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley (R), who is also running for the party’s presidential nomination, tweeted: “We should never take our rights and freedoms for granted.”

“Those blessings come with a price paid by so many brave men and women in our military. Let’s honor them today — and every day — with the greatest gift: teaching our kids to love America,” she said.

https://thehill.com/homenews/campai...h94_rE7NXH5OZwR73DtY9j9dIoJzEI9E8T8Wqme8

The feckless leader of the GOP can't even honor our fallen troops without turning it into political hate speech.

Trump pledges to end birthright citizenship on first day in office

Former President Trump is returning to his calls to remove birthright citizenship, with his 2024 White House campaign announcing Tuesday he would seek to end it via executive order on his first day in office.

Trump announced his plan on the 125th anniversary of United States v. Wong Kim Ark, the Supreme Court case that established the constitutional right to birthright citizenship.

The proposal echoes a longtime demand of immigration restrictionists and a measure Trump toyed with while in office, attracting criticism from both immigration advocates and legal experts.

Most experts agree that a president does not have authority to end birthright citizenship through an executive order, primarily because the practice is enshrined in the Constitution.

The 14th Amendment grants citizenship to those “born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof.”

The widely accepted interpretation of that amendment — that it applies to children born in the United States regardless of the parents’ immigration status — has held since an 1898 Supreme Court case involving a U.S. citizen with Chinese parents.

The 14th amendment was adopted after the Civil War to guarantee equal rights for former slaves – immigration restrictionists argue that excludes the children of other groups like undocumented immigrants from its benefits.

“As members of the Reconstruction Congress explained in 1866, the narrow exception to birthright citizenship applied only to the children of diplomats and those born into Native American tribes, who were under the ‘jurisdiction’ of a separate sovereign and did not need to comply with all U.S. laws,” wrote Amanda Frost, a professor of law at the University of Virginia and author of “You Are Not American: Citizenship Stripping from Dred Scott to the Dreamers.”

“In contrast, immigrants and their children living in the United States were and are required to follow all federal and state laws or face criminal and civil penalties and so are fully ‘subject’ to the nation’s ‘jurisdiction.'”

According to the Trump campaign, the executive order “will explain the clear meaning of the 14th Amendment,” which it says is that the children of foreign nationals born in the United States are not subject to the jurisdiction of the United States as defined in the Constitution.

During Trump’s term in office, a draft executive order to that effect was circulated, and the idea was revived shortly after Trump’s loss to President Biden in the 2020 election.

But Trump had floated ending birthright citizenship earlier in his presidency.

Trump in 2018 said in an Axios interview that he planned to issue an executive order ending birthright citizenship, setting off a political firestorm.

“It was always told to me that you needed a constitutional amendment. Guess what? You don’t,” Trump said at the time.

While an executive order altering the interpretation of the 14th amendment would likely face legal challenges, its proponents sought to take the case to the courts, in hopes of getting a favorable Supreme Court outcome.

Supporters of the measure lauded the idea, betting on a judicial revocation of birthright citizenship.

“This will set up the court fight — the order will be enjoined, case will eventually reach SCOTUS, which then will finally have to rule on the meaning of ‘subject to the jurisdiction,'” wrote Mark Krikorian, executive director of the Center for Immigration Studies, a restrictionist group that calls for massive reductions in immigration.

Yet Trump did not trigger that court fight on the way out of the White House.

Like in 2016, Trump has sought to make immigration and border security a top campaign issue.

In its release Tuesday, the Trump campaign dove into the fight over the meaning of “jurisdiction,” and falsely claimed that the United States has “become one of the few countries in the world to extend citizenship to the children of illegal aliens even if both parents are not citizens nor even legally present in the United States.”

A broad majority of countries in the Americas have full birthright citizenship – Colombia and the Dominican Republic have some restrictions – and much of Western Europe employs a limited version of birthright citizenship.

Experts say that eliminating birthright citizenship in countries with high immigration carries inherent risks.

Germany, for instance, liberalized its citizenship rules after decades of imposing a strict system that negatively impacted many children of immigrants.

“​​The situation led to a few generations of resentful, displaced youths with only partial allegiance to the nation of their birth,” wrote Alex Nowrasteh, vice president for economic and social policy studies at the Cato Institute shortly after Trump’s 2018 Axios interview.

“Noncitizens born in Germany formed ‘parallel societies.’ They were more prone to crime and political ideologies like radical Islamism or Kurdish nationalism,” wrote Nowrasteh.

https://thehill.com/homenews/campai...x4VWtJLGgWOlAAFJh2paTG9CnVNc5VDG_XaUWzUU

The Trump hate train is rolling. Cuckoo GOPer fascists are “luvin’ it” like a cheap cheeseburger.

Birthright citizenship.... another Trump grievance.

I see this as DOA and not really worth discussing. The only exception being intentional travel based deliveries.

For people who reside here, if you are living (not visiting) in the country and a child is born, it is a citizen.

Yep! STOP THE WHITE SLAVIC INVASION.

Lessons from history.

51-50....

Police: Woman tries having man from dating site’s wife killed

Authorities in Tennessee arrested a woman accused of trying to hire a hitman to kill the wife of the man she met on the dating website Match.com.

Prosecutors say Melody Sasser allegedly tracked the woman using a fitness app and sent real-time information to a fake assassination website that may have tipped off investigators. According to court documents, she paid the website more than $9,700 worth of Bitcoin for the “job.”

According to a criminal complaint obtained by The Daily Beast, Sasser placed her request through the “Online Killers Market” that offered “hitman for hire” type services.

User “cattree,” who authorities believe to be Sasser, wrote on the site in January: “It needs to seem random or (like an) accident or plant drugs. (I) do not want a long investigation.”

Information from the complaint filed in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Tennessee explains that “cattree” communicated with the now defunct site’s administrator for months about the murder-for-hire plot and provided specific details about the victim along with a photo of her.

One message said: “Two weeks ago, you said it was (being) worked on and would be done in a week. The job is still not done. Does it need to be assigned to someone else? Will it be done? What is the delay? When will it be done?”

Another said: “Yesterday, she worked from home and went for a two-mile walk by herself. Assign to another that can complete the job.”

A Homeland Security agent believes Sasser monitored the couple on the fitness app Strava. Investigators confirmed from the app that the victim had walked exactly two miles on the day the message was sent.

The victim’s husband said he met Sasser, an employee of Pilot Headquarters in Knoxville, on Match.com. They were allegedly “hiking friends” in East Tennessee before he moved to Alabama, where Sasser is accused of showing up unannounced at his new home in the fall of last year. After he told her he was engaged, the criminal complaint says Sasser replied: “I hope you both fall off a cliff and die.”

After the encounter, the victim said she received damage to her vehicle and started getting unpleasant, untraceable phone calls from someone using a device to disguise their voice.

Prosecutors say in November, license plate reader cameras placed Sasser’s car in the immediate area of the victim’s workplace in Alabama. They say the next month, Sasser’s alleged activity on the “Online Killers Market” started.

In late April, police in Prattville, Alabama, informed the victim of the threat on her life and sent patrols to monitor her home.

According to reports, Sasser was arrested on May 18 and remains in custody. She is charged with murder-for-hire and due in court Thursday.

https://www.newsnationnow.com/crime...ObJ6B-a09ouemXwMXg2UFJVHzLg15VyGUmMx0M0c

further proof people are crazy and giving people access to your location in real-time is a terrible idea.

The most obvious thing of interest for Browns fans.

"The victim’s husband said he met Sasser, an employee of Pilot Headquarters in Knoxville"

Jimmy????

Nothing will get CNN viewers to go from 6 to midnight quicker than the quote "puppet of Putin". Well played, Christie.....you beached whale.

LOL...i doubt it.


The Haslams sold a large chunk of the company to Buffett in 2016 or 17. I don't think Jimmy has much of a role other than sitting on the board. That was what, 6-7 years ago? An even larger portion went away maybe 2 years ago.

Wow! You went straight from the LGBTQ community to overweight people. No wonder your ilk hated political correctness so much. It made it hard for you to outwardly show your hate.

LMAO - don't like the (truthful) message, attack the messenger and not the message. Well played Memphis, well played.

Brought to you by the poster who makes negative comments referencing women.

Oh, the irony.

What negative comments did I ever make about women without a woman acting like a complete ass first? If somebody steps up to the plate and hurls insults they will get equal treatment. I guess treating women equally means nothing these days.

Yada yada yada. That is your go to excuse for belittling others. "They did it first."

So now you're problem is treating people the same way they treat you? So much for the defending yourself crowd. Your kind hated political correctness until it came back to bite them in the face.

Oh, GOPers eating GOPers. And I’m out of popcorn.

I have some but I'm not sharing. I heard pot gives ya the munchies something wicked.

You can push threw those with more weed. Else, I’d weigh a ton.

That's something to brag about.

I’m glad you disapprove. Would love to be your neighbor. Does your neighborhood issue anal sticks with all those guns?

Hopefully you never need it for pain, then your mind will change. It’s much better than the pills those drug dealers in white lab coats push.

Anal sticks?

This reminds me why I don't deal with pot heads. Especially those that brag about it. And then post while high.

It’s legal medication arsh. And I’m more RATIONAL high than you are stone sober… so there’s that.

Doubt it. You talk about smoking it. And, you've never been rational. Just high.

What's your medical issue?

You don’t get answers to personal questions because you like to use them as weapons later. But I talked openly about it before, so you can use the archives.

Now all he's got left is "You smoke pot". That's when you know they're desperate.

Using is an addiction and a weakness. He answers all your questions in one sad post.

Same argument or statement could be said for many things - beer, wine, spirits, cigarettes .... hopefully you've never consumed any of those.

...sex, food, fear, hell - Fox news... "everybody's some kinda junkie".

"Everybody needs a little place they can hide
Somewhere to call their own
Don't let nobody inside
Every now and then we all need to let go
For some it's the doctor
For me it's rock and roll
For some it's a bottle
For some it's a pill
Some people wave the Bible
Cause it's giving them a thrill
Others point their finger
If they don't like what they see
If you live in a glass house
Don't be throwing rocks at me"

🤘

"Now dig up ya'll
Now we're stoned to the bone and we're hot and sweaty
Look at us, we're everything your parents ever warned you about
They think we're all junkies, but everybody's some kind of junkie
There's money junkies, booze junkies, dope junkies, sex junkies,
And there's one thing they don't understand, all of us, you and I, we're Godz, and Godz are rock and roll junkies"

Your mind is a weakness.

You do realize that your defending a drinker who is pointing the finger at someone who smokes weed don't you? The only difference is which drug they choose to partake of. How Christian of you.

Impeached Texas attorney general’s business associate jailed on federal charges

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — The FBI on Thursday arrested a businessman at the center of the scandal that led to Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton’s historic impeachment, a move that came amid new questions about the men’s dealings raised by financial records the Republican’s lawyers made public to try to clear him of bribery allegations.

Nate Paul, 36, was taken into custody by federal agents and booked into an Austin jail in the afternoon, according to Travis County Sheriff’s Office records. It was not immediately clear what charges led to his arrest, but the records showed he was being held on a federal detainer for a felony.

Paul’s arrest followed a yearslong federal investigation into the Austin real estate developer — a probe that Paxton involved his office in, setting off a chain of events that ultimately led to his impeachment last month.

Lawyers for Paul did not immediately respond to requests for comment. One of Paxton’s defense attorneys, Dan Cogdell, said he had no additional information on the arrest. The FBI declined to comment, and a spokesman for federal prosecutors in West Texas did not respond to inquiries.

FBI agents examining Paul’s troubled real estate empire searched his Austin offices and palatial home in 2019. The next year, eight of Paxton ’s top deputies reported the attorney general to the FBI on allegations of bribery and abusing his office to help Paul, including by hiring an outside lawyer to examine the developer’s claims of wrongdoing by federal agents.

The allegations by Paxton’s staff prompted an FBI investigation, which remains ongoing, and are central to articles of impeachment overwhelmingly approved by the GOP-led state House of Representatives.

On Wednesday, Paxton’s defense team showed a packed room of journalists a bank statement that included a 2020 wire transfer purportedly showing him, and not a donor, paying more than $120,000 for a home renovation.

The wire transfer was dated Oct. 1, 2020 — the same day Paxton’s deputies signed a letter informing the head of human resources at the Texas attorney general’s office that they had reported Paxton to the FBI.

The $121,000 payment was to Cupertino Builders, whose manager was an associate of Paul, state corporation and court records show.

The company did not incorporate as a business in Texas until more than three weeks after the transaction took place. A company of the same name was formed in Delaware in April of that year, although public filings there do not make clear who is behind it.

Last year a court-appointed overseer for some of Paul’s companies wrote in a report that Cupertino Builders was used for “fraudulent transfers” from his business to Narsimha Raju Sagiraju, who was convicted of fraud in California in 2016. The report described Sagiraju as Paul’s “friend.”

Paul, who also employed a woman with whom Paxton acknowledged having an extramarital affair, has denied bribing Paxton. In a deposition, Paul described Sagiraju as an “independent contractor” and said he didn’t remember how they first met.

The timing of the payment — and the identity of who was paid for renovations at Paxton’s home in Austin — was not publicly known before his new legal team held a news conference Wednesday in which they put financial documents on a projector screen while criticizing the impeachment. They were first reported by The Wall Street Journal.

Tony Buzbee, a prominent Houston attorney who was hired by Paxton over the weekend and led the news conference, said by email Thursday that receipts “clearly demonstrate” Paxton paid for the repairs. He did not address questions about the timing of the payments or Cupertino Builders.

“Without any evidence the politicians leading this sham impeachment falsely accused General Paxton of not paying for the repairs to his home. That is a lie,” Buzbee said.

Since becoming just the third sitting official in Texas history to be impeached, Paxton has attacked the proceedings as politically motivated and rushed, saying he was never given the chance to rebut the accusations in the state House.

“We have the receipts,” Buzbee told reporters Wednesday as the documents flashed onscreen. “This is the type of evidence we tried to offer them once we found out this foolishness was going on.”

Paxton is temporarily suspended from office pending the outcome of a trial in the Texas Senate that is set to begin no later than Aug. 28. The jury will be the members of the 31-seat Senate; one of them, Paxton’s wife, Sen. Angela Paxton, has not said whether she will recuse herself.

The Paxtons purchased the Austin house in 2018. When it was remodeled two years later, Paxton’s former staff alleged in court documents, Paul “was involved in” the work.

Among the 20 articles of impeachment are accusations that Paxton used the power of his office to help Paul over unproven claims of an elaborate conspiracy to steal $200 million of the developer’s properties. The FBI searched Paul’s home in 2019, but he has not been charged and his attorneys have denied wrongdoing.

The city has no record of building permits from the time of the renovations. A different Austin contractor — not Cupertino Builders — received a federal grand jury subpoena in 2021 for records related to work on Paxton’s home that started in January 2020.

Cupertino Builders was formed in October 2020 and dissolved less than two years later, according to Texas corporation records. Its manager was Sagiraju, who said in a deposition for an unrelated case that he did “consulting” work for Paul’s business and had an email address with Paul’s company.

Sagiraju acknowledged that he served prison time for securities fraud and grand theft in California before moving to Austin, according to a transcript of the deposition. He said he was first introduced to Paul by a mutual friend before his prison term and they later did “a few projects” together.

A lawyer for Sagiraju did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Paxton was separately indicted on securities fraud charges in 2015, though he has yet to stand trial. ___

https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politi...j15mnKCfULYSGtkXTSbM7LdZWQrYOH2SSRU_Xfgg

Similar, except I have a doctors prescription and meet the medical requirements to use it for pain. And they want to make fun of that. But I smoked weed when they were craping green and I’m here to talk about it. Had they drank alcohol that long, the husk and rotten liver would be here, not much else.

I don’t give a damn what they say about me. I know who I am. I drink weed tea and smoke it every so often, Big Deal. And I’m damn proud to NOT BE LIKE THEM. Pretty bad they have to come after me medically, but that’s all they have. I’ll never understand how many Ls they have to take to realize who the losers are.

I find it hilarious that it's only a couple of them acting like this is the 1970's when people believed smoking weed was so evil and made people stupid. I've known several professional people, some of who were Republicans who smoked weed and some probably still do. Teachers, a couple of lawyers, including my own lawyer, health care professionals and others.

I stopped smoking it several years ago because I simply lacked the desire to do so any longer. The same with drinking. But I'm not one of those who did something for decades and then point the finger at others for the exact same thing. It's odd how some of the very same people who claim they promote freedom sound more like they are talking about freedumb.

But as we see, not all of them feel the same way about it. Some people learn and evolve. Some people don't. Long gone are the days when the masses feel the way these couple of outliers do about smoking weed. Weed is no longer the political game that it used to be in large part and I'm glad we no longer see a large pattern of people who drink try to act superior to people who smoke weed. For some reason they think it's okay to do their drug but not for you to do yours. What kind of double standard BS is that anyway?

I hadn’t smoked for 20 years when I turned to it for pain. But you know, once a pothead, always a pothead. They can’t shame me because idgaf.

I understand this isn't something as catastrophic or egregious as mandated composting but I thought I would share it anyway.

Robocalls to voters before 2020 election result in $5 million fine

The Federal Communications Commission hit conservative provocateurs Jacob Wohl and Jack Burkman with the fine over claims targeting voters in several states.

The Federal Communications Commission announced this week that it will serve a $5.1 million fine against conservative activists Jack Burkman and Jacob Wohl and J.M. Burkman & Associates over their role in making 1,141 unlawful robocalls before the 2020 election.

The FCC said the robocalls were made from Aug. 26 to Sept. 14, 2020, in New York, Ohio, Michigan and other states, according to state prosecutors, who said the scheme was an attempt to suppress the Black vote in the run-up to the presidential election.

The calls identified Burkman and Wohl, and they told potential voters that if they voted by mail, their “personal information will be part of a public database that will be used by police departments to track down old warrants and be used by credit card companies to collect outstanding debts.”

Burkman and Wohl, who have been involved in a number of attention-grabbing plans involving opponents of former President Donald Trump, have since pleaded guilty to one count of telecommunications fraud. They were sentenced to community service that entails registering voters in minority and low-income communities, according to the FCC.

“This penalty emphasizes the seriousness with which we take our obligations to protect American consumers, and in this instance American voters, from being targeted through the clear and illegal misuse of U.S. communications networks,” FCC enforcement chief Loyaan A. Egal said in a news release. “We commend our law enforcement partners for bringing Burkman and Wohl to justice for their actions, and we will continue our efforts to make it clear that there are significant consequences for engaging in this type of conduct.”

The FCC unanimously agreed to impose the fine, which, at the time it was proposed, was the largest it had ever proposed for a violation of the Telephone Consumer Protection Act.

A detailed investigation by the FCC’s Enforcement Bureau found that the robocalls to consumers’ wireless phones were “pre-recorded” and conducted without “required prior consent.”

In response to the FCC’s proposed fine back in 2021, Burkman and Wohl argued that the dialing companies they hired to make the calls were responsible for alleged violations, and they argued that the political robocalls were exempt from the Telephone Consumer Protection Act restrictions.

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/el...H84tsJJYzHzUsEmdUYJKsJmr4efWm783AwapcDaA

Don't you just think you are precious? Did someone forget to put you down for a nap?

Government mandates for stupid stuff are just dumb. I know you love your government to tell you how to live.

#Not-here-to-Fight

Says the party of law and order. Lol

You just have nonsense like that ready to copy and paste don't you? Do you think I am a "party"?

You make no sense at times.

Wah. You sound like a six year old throwing a tantrum on the playground.

Maybe building more dumps would be better than composting? Some people can't seem to see past the end of their nose.

Disclaimer; For any six year old who may read this and feel offended by comparing such deplorable behavior to you, I totally understand and apologize in advance.

If you were nobody would attend.

Maybe not fining people because they didn't put their potato skins into the official gubbermint pot and kept them for themselves? Laurel is a very liberal area, I suspect a lot of people already compost on their own. But you know... they can create a problem to fix, at taxpayer expense, so they can then campaign on it.

I get you love your nanny state, some of us can handle our own affairs.

You don't seem to be handling them very well. All this outrage over something so trivial indicates a possible underlying issue. I had no idea you lived in New York.

I never claimed to live in New York.

Yet it seems like a big deal to you. Even when someone made a joke about it. I thought maybe you actually had some vested interest in it. Obviously not.

Lol..Some of us yes. Unless you’re a women impregnated by a rapist.

They only approve of their nanny's. You know, banning abortions, banning books and the like.

j/c

Lots of countries around the world have switched to aggressively sorting their household waste. China has stopped accepting the world's trash and that forced some of the changes. Gee I wonder what happens if people/communities/countries don't come up with better ways to deal with trash than throwing into a landfill??

What most of the rest of the (first world countries) / world can handle easily - apparently is a challenge for the USA. Instead of asking why - the defense seems to be attack the concept of more efficient waste handling and call it a Nanny State. That's about the right level I guess.

https://www.statista.com/statistics/1098337/people-separating-waste-at-home-globally-by-country/

Yet it seems I think it is stupid and was posted in a different thread... you know, about democrats doing stupid things. Mayhaps you should play moderator with yourself and tell yourself to stay on topic. Oh no, you won't use the same standards for you as you do for others.

The color purple is lost on some people. And so it goes.....

Now back to our regularly scheduled program......

North Carolina GOP censures Sen. Tillis for supporting LGBTQ+ rights, immigration policies

GREENSBORO, N.C. (AP) — Republican delegates in North Carolina voted Saturday at their annual convention to censure Thom Tillis, the state’s senior U.S. senator, for backing LGBTQ+ rights, immigration and gun violence policies.

As Sen. Tillis has gained influence in Congress for his willingness to work across the aisle, his record of supporting some key policies has raised concerns among some state Republicans that the senator has strayed from conservative values.

Several delegates in Greensboro criticized Tillis, who has held his seat in the Senate since 2015, for his work last year on the Respect For Marriage Act, which enshrined protections for same-sex and interracial marriages in federal law.

Both the state and national GOP platforms oppose same-sex marriage. But Tillis, who had opposed it earlier in his political career, was among the early supporters of the law who lobbied his GOP colleagues in Congress to vote in favor of it.

Others criticized him for challenging former President Donald Trump’s immigration policies and for supporting a measure that provided funds for red flag laws, which allow state courts to authorize the temporary removal of firearms from people who they believe might pose a danger to themselves or others.

The North Carolina senator initially opposed Trump’s plan to use military construction dollars to build a wall along the nation’s southern border, but he eventually shifted his position.

Tillis spokesperson Daniel Keylin defended the senator’s voting record, writing in an email to The Associated Press that he “keeps his promises and delivers results.”

“He will never apologize for his work passing the largest tax cut in history, introducing legislation to secure the border and end sanctuary cities, delivering desperately-needed funding to strengthen school safety and protecting the rights of churches to worship freely based on their belief in traditional marriage,” Keylin said.

While the vote Saturday, which took place behind closed doors, cannot remove Tillis from office, supporters said they hope it sends a firm message of dissatisfaction. A two-thirds majority of the state party’s 1,801 voting delegates was needed for the resolution to pass, party spokesperson Jeff Moore said.

“We need people who are unwavering in their support for conservative ideals,” said Jim Forster, an 81-year-old delegate from Guilford. “His recent actions don’t reflect the party’s shift to the right — in fact, they’re moving in the exact wrong direction.”

Several state legislators, including Sen. Bobby Hanig of Currituck County, criticized the decision, saying it’s a bad idea to create more divisions within the party ahead of an election year when party unity will be paramount.

“I believe that a mob mentality doesn’t do us any good,” Hanig said. “Senator Tillis does a lot for North Carolina, he does a lot for the coastal communities, so why would I want to make him mad?”

State Sen. Jim Burgin of Harnett County said the vote to censure Tillis sets a dangerous precedent and does not allow enough flexibility for individual interpretation of party values.

Burgin questioned whether his own vote last month for North Carolina’s 12-week abortion ban would similarly put him at risk of being censured because it’s out of line with the Republican platform, which states that life begins at conception.

“I don’t think we need to be attacking our own,” he said. “You don’t shoot your own elephants.”

https://thehill.com/homenews/ap/ap-...rt-of-lgbtq-rights-immigration-policies/

Ironic that dems are criticized for supporting LBGT communities and also in charge of the current cancel culture. Funny how that works, right?

Projection.

the only state where the GOP hasn't completely lost their minds is here in Ohio, it SEEMS. emphasis on 'seems'. this state is so confusing. i love it and hate it at the same time.

This state has become an embarrassment under right-wing extremist rule. This is not the State I grew up in. Ohio used to be one of the friendlier states, not fascist Trump flag flying y’alliban pickups and hate. We used to leave our doors unlocked, now we cower at every bump in the night. This state has gone to hell in a hand basket.

Things have gone to hell.....list of living Presidents- Clinton, Bush, jr, Obama, and Trump---as bad as those guys left us- Trump's insanity is only one which really has divided USA- he's been found guilty directly or cagy/indirectly how many times since leaving office- his businesses/tax problem- guilty, his sexual problem- guilty, his current federal charges/ more charges sex payments----and yet part of America LOVES HE----we got serious problems if that loser is adored....WOW!!!

Can anyone tell me what the hell this has to do with being the "Oklahoma Superintendent of Public Instruction"? Who is indoctrinating America's students again?

School Boss’ Pro-Trump Rant Is Definition of Indoctrination

Oklahoma schools rank 49th in the nation, so you might assume the official in charge of running them would have more pressing concerns than issuing a completely bonkers statement regarding Donald Trump’s arraignment in Miami federal court.

“Joe Biden Leading a Banana Republic Coup Against American Justice,” announced the press release from Oklahoma Superintendent of Public Instruction Ryan Walters on Monday.

The accompanying statement has nothing to do with education and proved that the dunce elected last year to supervise the schooling of 700,000 kids is either a result or a perpetuator of far right indoctrination—possibly both.

“We are seeing the most profound unwinding of the U.S. Constitution that our country has ever experienced since the Civil War,” Walters’ statement begins. “The impending arrest of former President Donald Trump is Joe Biden wielding power that one would find in a third-world dictator attempting to end his opponent’s political campaign.”

Walters, who is 38, then proceeds from falsehood to conspiracy theory.

“The investigation is a highly coordinated trap by the DOJ, and the entire Democratic establishment promoting these actions.”

Walters ends by saying, “These are illegal actions by Biden as part of a banana republic coup on the entire judicial system and the Constitution.”

The truth is that Trump sought and failed to thwart the 2020 result with a Big Lie that he continues to voice daily—one that his followers still buy into wholeheartedly. He has bolstered his fantasy by installing a facsimile of the Oval Office desk in his Mar-a-Lago home and referring to himself in the third person. His pronoun is the royal, not the all-inclusive pronoun WE.

He has also held onto a stash of classified documents and refused to relinquish them despite numerous pleas and warnings from investigators. He once said that nobody is above the law—but he strenuously sought to make himself an exception.

Trump’s arrest and arraignment in Miami on Tuesday afternoon should have been a teachable moment for school kids in Oklahoma, along with everywhere else. The lesson is that even a former president is subject to the law. That is one of the central principles that made America great in the first place and will continue to do so as long as we honor it.

But in his statement, Walters chose fantasy over education—and you have to ask yourself why. Does he actually believe it?

A recording of him talking about kitty litter boxes in classrooms—a wacky falsehood spread by him and other far-right loonies to rile up their base—sounds like he would believe almost anything about the “the radical left” that he has pledged to vanquish from his state’s schools, along with their “woke ideology.”

Walters defended the far-right group Moms for Liberty when the Southern Poverty Law Center branded it an extremist group in its annual report released last week. And two days before he posted his delusional press release about Trump’s arraignment, he retweeted an announcement by the Moms for Liberty that he would be one of the speakers at the group’s upcoming summit in Philadelphia. Other scheduled speakers include Trump and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who Walters seems to parrot often.

Moms for Liberty bills Walters as one of “the most innovative leaders in education in America.” Some of those who work with him might disagree. A state education official named Matthew Colwell who had, until last month, been in charge of overseeing Oklahoma’s federal education funds told a local news outlet, “We had to convert a 1-pager to 4 to 6 bullet points for Supt. Walters because I needed to translate it like I’m talking to a five-year-old.”

Colwell, whose duties included the complex task of ensuring each of the state’s 541 school districts received its due share, told The Daily Beast that Walters did not seem interested in the particulars of running a huge educational organization.

“At some point you start to expect that somebody in a position of that importance is going to learn something about how to do the job,” Colwell said. “It felt more and more like he’s not really interested in doing the job that he has. I don't know what job he wants, but it doesn’t seem to be being the leader of the school system in Oklahoma. It just kind of seems like maybe there’s something else out there.”

Whatever that something might be, Walters’ strategy for getting it seems clear.

“Tweeting and talking and spinning,” Colwell said. “Most of his attention [is] on really national political type stuff.”

That would include what Walters calls liberal indoctrination—as well as so-called wokeism. He has also spoken out about supposed porn in schools, an issue that Colwell says is not on the forefront of most teachers’ or students’ minds.

“None of that is like the concerns that people are raising in Oklahoma,” Colwell said. “These are not the actual issues that we hear every single day from teachers and superintendent and principals, what they're really dealing with. Like the porn in libraries, nobody’s worried about that in schools. They're worried about trying to get kids to go to the library.”

He added that if principals see porn as a danger, it is the porn that kids can summon instantly on their cellphones.

“And like sharing pictures of each other,” Colwell said. “That’s what principals are worried about. They’re not worried about, you know, some random book. No enterprising 13-year-old is going to search for porn by sneaking into his school library and find the one naughty book that got hidden there 10 years ago.”

In terms of innovation, Walters prepared to offer teachers big signing bonuses with a five-year commitment. Colwell, who says he is fiscally conservative and politically centrist, pointed out that Walters’ plan appeared to violate state law—and maybe also federal regulations.

“I guess the charitable way to say this is [Walters] has a higher tolerance for not complying with the law than I do,” Colwell said.

Colwell was summoned to human resources on May 26.

“They said, ‘I just got a call from your boss’” Colwell said. “HR got it directly from Ryan Walters that I was to be terminated, effective immediately.”

Colwell subsequently filed a wrongful termination lawsuit. A Walters spokesperson dismissed it as “Yet another example of a baseless claim.”

“Contrary to being a public servant, this individual is a political activist who has no business being funded by Oklahoma taxpayers,” the spokesman went on. “This administration will not tolerate pre-existing bureaucrats who are not 100% committed to empowering parents, ending leftist indoctrination, and making Oklahoma’s public education the best in the nation.”

The response sounded like a melding of Trump and DeSantis.

Walters’ spokesperson did not respond to an inquiry from The Daily Beast about the Trump press release and how that fits with the duties of a state superintendent—or whether his bananas banana-republic version of the event is what he would like to see taught in the state’s schools.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/oklah...em4Nly6YonQT2iCFVVnnLeUg32AVg8i24IXaPVBQ

Crackpot.

ya'll shouldn't be allowed to share content from these crackpot sites. (dailymail/dailybeast etc)

They are direct quotes from the man who stated them. Is that your issue?

Republican senators in Oregon end legislative walkout

Republican senators went back to work in Salem Thursday, ending the longest legislative walkout in Oregon's history, which stalled work for six weeks.

Why it matters: Democrats dialed back proposals on guns, abortion and transgender health care to get the Senate back to work, Oregon Public Broadcasting reports. The Legislature now has just over a week left to pass a raft of laws and a state budget for the next two years.

Details: Proposed gun restrictions were changed significantly in the deal to bring Republicans back to Salem, according to The Oregonian.

A proposal to ban "ghost guns" — weapons with no serial number, typically assembled at home after buying parts online — remains on the table, but Democrats agreed to drop amendments they had added to the bill, including raising the purchase age from 18 to 21 and allowing local governments to ban concealed weapons in public buildings.
Democrats also agreed to drop a bill that would have required training and a 72-hour waiting period before buying a gun. Similar rules put in place by a ballot measure are under court challenge.

Separately, a bill guaranteeing access to abortion and gender-affirming care will be amended as part of the deal, Oregon Capital Chronicle reports. Abortion providers will be required to notify parents of people younger than 15 who are seeking abortions, unless two separate providers agree that would be harmful.

It also drops grants for reproductive care and abortion services in rural areas and on college campuses.
Legal protections for abortion providers remain in the bill, which also mandates more insurance coverage of gender-affirming care.

Context: Republicans also won consideration of a bill that would ask voters to change the state constitution to allow impeachment of elected state officials.

What they're saying: Senate President Rob Wagner, D-Lake Oswego, said in a written statement that he was "encouraged that we were able to come to an agreement that will allow us to finish the important work Oregonians sent us here to accomplish."

Sen. Tim Knopp, R-Bend, said Republicans returned "in good faith" to finish the business of the session.

Of note: It's still unclear whether the extended absences of multiple senators will prevent them from serving another term, as intended by a 2022 ballot measure.

It could face a legal challenge.

What's next: Lawmakers need to change procedural rules to speed through bills stacked up on the Senate side. Republicans have agreed to stay for the rest of the session, which by law ends June 25.

If their work is not done, Gov. Tina Kotek could call the Legislature back for a special session.

https://www.axios.com/local/portlan...1HfjR7JD6fK3ogZo2WfbdES3XvHzuuUA13Pwc94E

Republican senators in Oregon are now the official, "If I don't get what I want I will take my ball and go home club."

Six weeks away from work? Somebody needs to dock their pay at least.

They only go into session every other year in Oregon. Pffft Goper’s. Never failing to disappoint as the party of no.

You need to discern the difference between News and Events that are being reported on with quotes from individuals - versus opinion pieces from crackpot biased media. Same story -->

https://autos.yahoo.com/autos/oklahoma-top-education-official-chooses-031637549.html

Republicans acting like mean girls throwing tantrums as a leadership model. SMH.

Has anybody had a chance to look at the repub "Plan to Save America" yet?
This is not just one persons pipe dream-it is a plan made up from about 70-75% of house repubs.

Here are some lowlights;

Raise the age for social security from 67 to 69.
Privatize medicare
Stops govt from negotiate drug prices and rapid price increases; removes the cap on insulin
cuts funding for Obamacare and Medicaid and "revise" the protections for people with pre-existing conditions
Gut all non-defense spending, drastically
cuts any green spending
has lots of anti-abortion stuff
Endowment for the arts, public broadcasting, stuff like that-gone

But it would;
raise defense spending 3-5% over current yearly projections
Give mostly corps another 5 trillion tax cut

"Nobody is above the law." per trump. "I will make sure documents are protected."

Irony or karma.

Now all the Gop's are singing about a "pardon" if elected. How does that go with nobody is above the law.


These spineless hypocrites are nauseating.

I have seen online but not verified completely:

a) that everyone will have to take a pledge that whoever gets the nomination will have to pardon trump if elected
b) I saw last day or two that desantis is asking the RNC to put in their charter that excludes anyone currently indicted from getting the repub nomination for president

j/c



....Unless of course it's him.

But they stand for the people of Real Murica.

Own the libs by owning themselves.

Too funny.

https://newrepublic.com/post/173834...lauren-boebert-impeached-joe-biden-first

Two vacuous bimbi in a frenetic race to the bottom.
Maybe they'll finally settle their differences when they meet up- at the Titanic wreckage site.

(frankly, I don't foresee much in the way of an international rescue effort when they finally have their pow-wow...)


.02

Anybody check out them celebrating winning the war on gas stoves?

The Boebert vs. Greene fight isn't just happening in a ladies' bathroom anymore — it's out on the House floor and uglier than before

https://www.yahoo.com/news/boebert-vs-greene-fight-isnt-030929045.html


Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene wants people to know that, yes — she did use a choice word during a confrontation with her onetime ally turned GOP nemesis Colorado Rep. Lauren Boebert.

"She has genuinely been a nasty little bitch to me," Greene told Semafor when asked about a confrontation between the two women on the House floor on Wednesday.

"I told her exactly what I think about her," Greene said of Boebert, adding that she would "absolutely not" be reconciling with her House Freedom Caucus colleague.

Greene's statement to Semafor confirms a scoop from the Daily Beast's Zachary Petrizzo and Sam Brodey, who spoke to several sources who witnessed the exchange.

The heated back-and-forth was over articles of impeachment against President Joe Biden that Boebert introduced on Tuesday night. Greene — who has also filed articles of impeachment against Biden — accused Boebert of copying her legislation. Boebert denied doing so, per the Daily Beast's sources.

"I've donated to you, I've defended you," Greene told Boebert before referring to her with the profanity, per one of the Daily Beast's sources.

"And you copied my articles of impeachment after I asked you to cosponsor them," Greene added.

And while Greene is still going after Boebert, the Colorado Republican appears to want to wrap it up before any blood's drawn.

"Marjorie is not my enemy. I came here to protect our children and their posterity. Joe Biden and the Democrats are destroying our country," Boebert told the Daily Beast. "My priorities are to correct their bad policies and save America."

But Boebert couldn't resist getting a little jab in on the way out.

"Like I said, I'm not in middle school," she told CNN's Manu Raju, per CNN Capitol Hill reporter Haley Talbot.

Boebert and Greene have been feuding for months. In January, Greene confronted Boebert in a bathroom on Capitol Hill over her refusal to vote for Rep. Kevin McCarthy for speaker, per the Daily Beast.

Greene, too, has broken from the far-right Freedom Caucus on more than one occasion — she hit out at Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz during the Speaker vote, declaring herself "the leading MAGA voice in Congress" over Gaetz.

In November, Greene resolved to "fight it out" with her GOP colleagues over McCarthy's speakership.

"I'm telling you — I've always said I'm not afraid of the civil war in the GOP. I lean into it," Greene told former Trump adviser Steve Bannon on his "War Room" podcast at the time.

Representatives for Greene and Boebert did not immediately respond to requests for comment from Insider sent outside regular business hours.

Read the original article on Business Insider

______

Aye, y’all remember when conservatives claimed they hated Hollywood and the elite? How come they keep sending reality TV stars into our government?

Turns out John Durham didn't turn out to be the hero the GOP was looking for......

John Durham said exactly what Trumpworld didn't want to hear

The special counsel's testimony before the House Judiciary Committee didn't live up to the promises of retribution against Trump's enemies.

There was a lot of time spent in the weeds during Wednesday’s House Judiciary Committee hearing with special counsel John Durham. Lawmakers burned hours trying to spin, parse and unpack the dense, 300-page report he issued last month into the origins of the FBI’s 2016 investigation of former President Donald Trump. Names that nobody who hasn’t been glued to the coverage of the Russia probe and its aftermath would recognize got thrown around to a degree that at several points even I was left wondering, “Who?”

It wasn’t the most riveting of hearings, but here’s the bottom line: John Durham found nothing to discredit special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation. At no point in his testimony did he take the bait from Republicans to give credence to Trump’s “Russia hoax” rhetoric. If anything, Durham went out of the way to praise his predecessor — even if his grasp on what Mueller found proved to be a bit shaky.

Like Durham’s investigation itself, the hearing was at times a crude doppelgänger of Mueller’s testimony about his findings in 2019. Then, as now, a special counsel defended his work before a divided partisan panel. Then, as now, the special counsel tried to stick to the scope of what was actually in the text of his report. And then, as now, Republicans desperately sought to spin the text before them into a full exoneration of Trump. A major difference is that this time, the laundry list of crimes that Trump has been accused of stretches much longer than it did before, including multiple criminal indictments.

Judiciary Committee Chair Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, and his colleagues sought to paint Durham’s weak-tea conclusions — that the FBI had the responsibility to investigate claims of Russian collusion but made missteps along the way — as evidence of a vast conspiracy against Trump. Most of the accusations thrown around were relatively incomprehensible, especially since Durham found no specific wrongdoing of note from any particular member of FBI or Justice Department leadership. It was on the whole a rather tepid affair, befitting a rather tepid report that was packed with speculation that Durham couldn’t prove in court.

That’s not to say that the day was completely pointless. Durham confirmed under Democratic questioning that current Attorney General Merrick Garland didn’t interfere with his investigation or tell him that any potential targets were off-limits. He admitted that the reason that former President Obama and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton still walk free, no matter how much Trumpworld wants them behind bars, is that there’s simply no evidence of wrongdoing. Likewise, none of the three individuals he did prosecute, two of whom were acquitted, were accused of taking part in a supposed “deep state” plot to take down Trump. It’s a far cry from when the former president was promising that Durham’s probe would reveal “the crime of the century.”

Instead, Durham said in his opening statement that his report “should not be read to suggest in any way that Russian election interference was not a threat; it was.” And when it came to Mueller himself, Durham didn’t hold back in his praise. “Our object, our aim, was not to dispute Director Mueller,” Durham said. “I have the greatest regard, the highest regard for Director Mueller. He is a patriot.” That’s again not what Trump’s most ardent devotees would like to hear coming from the man who they expected to expose Mueller’s role in the “witch hunt” against Trump.

But Durham seemed shockingly unprepared to discuss Mueller’s actual work and findings under questioning. He also appeared to be blissfully unaware of the way that Trump frequently utilized the material released by the Russians who stole emails from the Democratic National Committee and Clinton campaign. “I don’t really read the newspapers or listen to the news,” Durham said when confronted with the fact that the Russian interference was meant to help then-candidate Trump.

In the end, Wednesday’s hearing offered little fodder for sound bites to rile up the GOP base. The lack of recommendations from Durham beyond what the FBI has already done makes it harder to use him in Trump’s ongoing war on the Justice Department for which he has drafted Republicans into fighting. Durham even rejected the idea that Republicans should move to defund the Justice Department and the FBI. And his willingness to admit that there was Russian interference in 2016 means that he has likely outlived his usefulness to Trump.

Towards the end of Durham's testimony, Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., channeled the most diehard MAGA supporters, who had been promised for years now that the special counsel would strike a blow against Trump's enemies. "When you are part of the cover-up, Mr. Durham, then it makes our job harder," Gaetz declared, affecting an air of righteous disappointment.

But that’s not to say that Durham's name won’t be thrown around over the coming months and years anyway. He surely will remain a touchstone for those who never read a word he wrote but are sure that he fully vindicated Trump in the process. For the MAGA movement, John Durham was always more useful as a vessel for whatever conspiracy needed a kernel of truth than as an actual investigator.

https://www.msnbc.com/opinion/msnbc-opinion/john-durham-report-hearing-testimony-trump-rcna90392

God that's hilarious on so many levels.

Even on this very board the Durham report was **ASSUMED** to be brilliant GOTCHA moment for the Deep State and weaponizing of the FBI and how it was a political puppet for the Dems.... they said that because that's what their Right Wing source told them it was.

If anyone had ANY doubt that was absolutely NOT the case - read what Gaetz just said:

Towards the end of Durham's testimony, Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., channeled the most diehard MAGA supporters, who had been promised for years now that the special counsel would strike a blow against Trump's enemies. "When you are part of the cover-up, Mr. Durham, then it makes our job harder," Gaetz declared, affecting an air of righteous disappointment.

Sure - both parties are bad. Sure most politicans are in it for themselves. Sure they both talk a better game than they play. . . . but both parties are NOT as bad as each other. Biden and Hunter are NOT (as yet) as bad as Trump and his cronies. The Durham Report is nothing like the Mueller Report. So many fake and false equivelents get thrown around.

Civil war in the GOP, damn, these folks sure know how to win elections. PS- interesting sidebar- Kendra Kingsbury, ex-FBI intel person- sentenced to almost FOUR years in prison for SECRET level intel in her bathroom. Trump had two level higher secrets- SCI and TOP Secret intel in his bathroom----wonder how Republicans will justify his leadership when little people go to PRISON and their boy seeks---not guilty, pardon, home detention---imagine Trump without "Truth Social", no Twitter, no Facebook, no Fox News----he'd be an empty shell.

He’d be?

Moms for Liberty chapter apologizes for quoting Hitler in newsletter

The Hamilton County chapter of Moms for Liberty in Indiana placed the quote on the front page of its new newsletter.

A local Indiana chapter of Moms for Liberty, a national conservative parents organization, apologized on Thursday for quoting Adolf Hitler in a newsletter.

The Hamilton County chapter of Moms for Liberty quoted Hitler's remarks at a 1935 rally on the front page of its new newsletter on Wednesday. The quote, placed directly below the masthead, read: "He alone, who OWNS the youth, GAINS the future.”

After the Indianapolis Star first reported this story on Wednesday, the local chapter of Moms for Liberty added additional "context" to the original newsletter, saying the quote from this "horrific leader should put parents on alert."

"If the government has control over our children today, they control our country’s future," the note read.

A day later, Paige Miller, the chapter's leader, apologized for quoting the Nazi leader in a statement posted to the Moms for Liberty Facebook group.

“We condemn Adolf Hitler’s actions and his dark place in human history,” Miller wrote. “We should not have quoted him in our newsletter and express our deepest apology.”

The four administrators of the chapter's Facebook group did not immediately respond to NBC News' requests for comment.

A bipartisan chorus of local politicians condemned the group's quoting of Hitler, who led the systematic genocide of at least 6 million Jewish people, along with other groups.

Matt McNally, a Democrat running for Indiana's 39th Congressional District, said the group's move makes clear that Moms for Liberty has "no business" in politics.

"No group that quotes Nazis should be anywhere near our children or have any influence in our community," McNally tweeted. "It is time for our community leaders to stop acquiescing to them and make clear that their hateful rhetoric will not be tolerated."

Mario Massillamany, the chairman of the Hamilton County Republican Party, also condemned the inclusion of the quote in an interview with the Indianapolis Star and described the Holocaust as a "terrible page" in history.

"I don’t think that we as a society can say enough about the atrocities that the poor Jewish people had to go through," Massillamany said.

After forming a little more than two years ago, Moms for Liberty has grown to include 285 chapters in 44 states, according to the organization, and it has targeted core cultural issues to fuel its rise — including opposing mask mandates in schools, banning library books that mention sexual orientation and gender identity, and curtailing classroom lessons on racial inequity and discrimination.

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/po...GA1OEiCN0wnjY8lw8x7i8j-zBCAWT9h0ldNn6m74

Hopefully this will help people fully understand who they're supporting and who they are actually dealing with when it comes to preventing our nation's children learn the true history of our nation and to learn tolerance for people who are different than themselves.

Arizona Republican election official sues Kari Lake for defamation

Maricopa County Recorder Stephen Richer said he’s faced "violent vitriol" and death threats because of lies spread by Lake, an election denier who lost the 2022 governor's race.

June 22, 2023, 9:49 PM CDT / Source: Associated Press

By The Associated Press

PHOENIX — A top Republican election official in Arizona filed a defamation lawsuit Thursday against Kari Lake, who falsely claims she lost the 2022 race for governor because of fraud.

Maricopa County Recorder Stephen Richer said he’s faced “violent vitriol and other dire consequences” because of lies spread by Lake, including death threats and the loss of friendships.

“Rather than accept political defeat, rather than get a new job, she has sought to undermine confidence in our elections and has mobilized millions of her followers against me,” Richer wrote in an op-ed in The Arizona Republic.

Lake is a former Phoenix television news anchor who quickly built an enthusiastic political following as a loyal supporter of former President Donald Trump and his lie that the 2020 election was stolen from him. She went on to narrowly lose her own race for Arizona governor last year along with a lawsuit challenging the results.

Despite her losses in court, she continues to claim that Richer and other Maricopa County officials interfered in the election to prevent her from winning.

A spokesperson for Lake did not immediately respond to a request for comment. She is openly considering a run for U.S. Senate and is a leading contender to be Trump’s running mate in his 2024 presidential campaign.

The suit, filed in Maricopa County Superior Court, names Lake, her campaign and her political fundraising group as defendants. In addition to unspecified monetary damages, Richer is seeking a court order declaring Lake’s statements false and requiring her to delete them from social media.

U.S. Supreme Court precedent sets a high bar for defamation cases brought by public officials like Richer. But Dominion Voting Systems’ lawsuit against Fox News Channel over false claims about its vote-counting equipment resulted in damaging disclosures of internal Fox messages and a $787.5 billion settlement.

Richer’s lawyers wrote in their complaint that Lake has the right to criticize Richer but not to spread lies that bring him harm.

The suit takes issue with two claims in particular — that Richer intentionally had 19-inch ballot images printed on 20-inch paper, causing counting problems, and that he injected 300,000 bogus ballots. It details nearly three dozen times she made the claims publicly on social media or at rallies and news conferences.

The suit says Richer has faced death threats, including one that was prosecuted by the U.S. Justice Department, and has spent thousands of dollars on home security. He said he and his wife have altered their routines and law enforcement has stepped up patrols around their home and workplaces.

“She has gone far outside of the bounds of protected free speech as guaranteed under the First Amendment and the Arizona Constitution,” Richer wrote in The Republic.

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/20..._OYrYXRqvHV9eafLnSEu4jClRDru5DeCQe7UPib0

And the usual response from the right to defuse these types of political death threats is to point out both sides do it. As if?

Delaware town seeks to give businesses right to vote

A rural Delaware town is seeking to allow local businesses the right to vote, causing concern that corporate interests could sway local elections.

Seaford, Del., with a population of about 7,000 in the state’s rural west, changed its charter in April to allow each business in the town one vote in local elections. For that measure to go into effect, it would have to be approved by the state legislature.

There are 234 businesses registered in the town. Only 340 people turned out to vote in the last municipal election on April 15, according to state records, raising questions about corporate influence on election results.

“‘One person, one vote’ is a long agreed upon principle that governs our elections. Proponents of this bill have tried to frame this as an innocuous way to give business owners more power, but in reality, this legislation has the power to transform our elections for the worse,” Common Cause Delaware Director Claire Snyder-Hall said in a statement.

The law would not allow a Seaford business owner to vote twice, but would allow a non-town resident to vote multiple times: once where they live and once in Seaford on behalf of their business.

Any business that wants a vote must own property in the town, allaying concerns related to the state’s lax business registration law.

Delaware is a hotspot for shell companies due to limited registration and tax requirements. The state has more registered businesses — more than 1.8 million, according to state records — than residents.

Seaford wouldn’t be the first town in Delaware to adopt such a measure, but the idea has come under criticism from voting rights advocates and progressives in the state legislature. Earlier this year, Delaware progressives proposed a law banning corporate voting in the state.

“People who snowbird in Florida do not get to vote in both Delaware and Florida. It does not work that way,” Snyder-Hall said in a legislature hearing in May.

Rehoboth Beach, Del., home to President Biden’s oceanfront estate, voted down a corporate voting measure in 2017, following protests from residents.

The measure is expected to be voted on before the legislative session ends June 30.

State Rep. Danny Short (R), the legislation’s sponsor, did not respond to a request for comment.

https://thehill.com/homenews/state-...QozfUuqTLA_An8jO4bIRlse424_-CSxIqyaIsnr4

A stupid idea.

No kidding. Delaware, the financial mob of murica. Pfft.

Corporations are people... Mitt Romney.. and SCOTUS.

For the republicans and the republican party to continue to support a career criminal says all there needs to be said about what the republican party has become.

Evangelicals support a guy convicted of assaulting a woman along with stealing government documents. effing hypocrites.

I actually am not a member of any party. I try to pick the best person to lead the country.

There has never been a person more unfit than trump. If republicans continue to support the traitor. They will continue to lose.

People that run US corporations along with their employees already have a vote. That is if they are US citizens. Otherwise tough tatas. No vote.

j/c

This op-ed was penned by conservative judge Michael Luttig. Judge Luttig was appointed by George H.W. Bush, and served on the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit from 1991 to 2006. He was the person upon whom Mike Pence called for advice on how to handle his role in the Jan 6 transfer of power. Luttig advised Pence to perform as history now records he did on Jan 6. Luttig has worked for and in Republican administrations dating all the way back to the Ronald Reagan years. His curriculum vitae and professional bona fides are well-known and respected among the legal world's heavy hitters. In short- he's a serious man who has spent his entire career dealing with serious issues.

And today, The New York Times released this op-ed he sent to them.


Without further editorializing on the part of this poster, I'll simply drop this here- for your consideration.


______________________


It’s Not Too Late for the Republican Party
By J. Michael Luttig
June 25, 2023, 6:00 a.m. ET

Donald Trump this month became the first former or incumbent American president to be charged with crimes against the nation that he once led and wishes to lead again. He cynically calculated that his indictment would ensure that a riled-up Republican Party base would nominate him as its standard-bearer in 2024, and the last few weeks have proved that his political calculation was probably right.

The former president’s behavior may have invited charges, but the Republicans’ spineless support for the past two years convinced Mr. Trump of his political immortality, giving him the assurance that he could purloin some of the nation’s most sensitive national security secrets upon leaving the White House — and preposterously insist that they were his to do with as he wished — all without facing political consequences. Indeed, their fawning support since the Jan. 6 insurrection at the Capitol has given Mr. Trump every reason to believe that he can ride these charges and any others not just to the Republican nomination, but also to the White House in 2024.

In a word, the Republicans are as responsible as Mr. Trump for this month’s indictment — and will be as responsible for any indictment and prosecution of him for Jan. 6. One would think that, for a party that has prided itself for caring about the Constitution and the rule of law, this would stir some measure of self-reflection among party officials and even voters about their abiding support for the former president. Surely before barreling headlong into the 2024 presidential election season, more Republicans would realize it is time to come to the reckoning with Mr. Trump that they have vainly hoped and naïvely believed would never be necessary.

But by all appearances, it certainly hasn’t occurred to them yet that any reckoning is needed. As only the Republicans can do, they are already turning this ignominious moment into an even more ignominious moment — and a self-immolating one at that — by rushing to crown Mr. Trump their nominee before the primary season even begins. Building the Republican campaign around the newly indicted front-runner is a colossal political miscalculation, as comedic as it is tragic for the country. No assemblage of politicians except the Republicans would ever conceive of running for the American presidency by running against the Constitution and the rule of law. But that’s exactly what they’re planning.

The stewards of the Republican Party have become so inured to their putative leader, they have managed to convince themselves that an indicted and perhaps even convicted Donald Trump is their party’s best hope for the future. But rushing to model their campaign on Mr. Trump’s breathtakingly inane template is as absurd as it is ill fated. They will be defending the indefensible.

On cue, the Republicans kicked their self-defeating political apparatus into high gear this month. Almost as soon as the indictment in the documents case was unsealed, Mr. Trump jump-started his up-to-then languishing campaign, predictably declaring himself an “innocent man” victimized in “the greatest witch hunt of all time” by his “totally corrupt” political nemesis, the Biden administration. On Thursday, he added that it was all part of a plot, hatched at the Justice Department and the F.B.I., to “rig” the 2024 election against him.

From his distant second place, Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida denounced the Biden administration’s “weaponization of federal law enforcement” against Mr. Trump and the Republicans. Mike Pence dutifully pronounced the indictment political. And both Governor DeSantis and Mr. Pence pledged — in a new Republican litmus test — that on their first day in office they would fire the director of the F.B.I., the Trump appointee Christopher Wray, obviously for his turpitude in investigating Mr. Trump. It fell to Kevin McCarthy, the House speaker, to articulate the treacherous overarching Republican strategy: “I, and every American who believes in the rule of law, stand with President Trump against this grave injustice. House Republicans will hold this brazen weaponization of power accountable.”

There’s no stopping Republicans now, until they have succeeded in completely politicizing the rule of law in service to their partisan political ends.

If the indictment of Mr. Trump on Espionage Act charges — not to mention his now almost certain indictment for conspiring to obstruct Congress from certifying Mr. Biden as the president on Jan. 6 — fails to shake the Republican Party from its moribund political senses, then it is beyond saving itself. Nor ought it be saved.

There is no path to the White House for Republicans with Mr. Trump. He would need every single Republican and independent vote, and there are untold numbers of Republicans and independents who will never vote for him, if for no other perfectly legitimate reason than that he has corrupted America’s democracy and is now attempting to corrupt the country’s rule of law. No sane Democrat will vote for Mr. Trump — even over the aging Mr. Biden — when there are so many sane Republicans who will refuse to vote for Mr. Trump. This is all plain to see, which makes it all the more mystifying why more Republicans don’t see it.

When Republicans faced an 11th-hour reckoning with another of their presidents over far less serious offenses almost 50 years ago, the elder statesmen of the party marched into the Oval Office and told Richard Nixon the truth. He had lost his Republican support and he would be impeached if he did not resign. The beleaguered Nixon resigned the next day and left the White House the day following.

Such is what it means to put country over party. History tends to look favorably upon a party that writes its own history, as Winston Churchill might have said.

Republicans have waited in vain for political absolution. It’s finally time for them to put the country before their party and pull back from the brink — for the good of the party, as well as the nation.

If not now, then they must forever hold their peace.

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/06/25/opinion/trump-republican-party.html

________________


I will now vacate this post for awhile, to:
1. not influence the direction of the conversation.
2. allow other Dawgs to bark their opinions.

3... 2... 1... discuss.

I read the article when it appeared on the CNN website and wondered if "moderate" republicans (not the cult) would take what he states to heart.

I don't know.

Any American who backs trump is a lost cause at this point. So I have no idea how they will react.

This kinda thing is going on all over.. Look at Ohio for instance. In Ohio the rule for a majority is 50% + 1. Republicans want to change it to 60%.

When cornered a republican state rep said, yeah,we doing it to stop the potential of the Abortion issue being put before the people to vote.. For me this is just another way of saying we don't care what the majority says, we want it our way.

So basically in order to get something on the ballot, it's gotta have 60% of the vote to even be considered. Instead of 50% + 1. 59.99999% won't cut it anymore.

And yet it only takes one Goper in the house to throw Kevin out and not one has the nads.

I think they believe that that would throw the house into chaos.. The question is, how would they be able to tell the difference?

Those of you who claim to be Republicans or conservatives.. what kind of Republican ARE YOU...?...
...Christian conservatives..?
...or fiscal conservatives..?
...or Tea Party conservatives..?
...or Neo-conservatives..?
...are you Russian/communist conservatives..?
... MAGA Republican..?
...OR, are you Republicans/conservatives who are SIMPLY..."ANTI-AMERICAN REPUBLICANS"...?
The truth is, Republicans change their beliefs and change their colors whenever it suites their "AGENDA".
Defining what a Republican/conservative is today is nearly impossible..!
...

It's nice to see a true Republican and patriot say what needs to be said. Sadly when you look at the polls, Trump is leading in the Republican nomination race by more than a 2 to 1 margin over his closest rival, DeSantis. And in actuality when listening to his rhetoric, how much better would DeSantis be than trump? It's sad what the Republican party has turned into. Unfortunately for Judge Luttig, and for the country as far as that goes, I think he and the rest of us know it's already too late.

In some ways I think it is good for the country to go back and forth between conservative and progressive agendas.

What hurts the country is when extreme right or left views become dominate. Or, when a cult takes hold and warps the foundations of our institutions.

The DOJ is not a political weapon. The supreme court should not be a political arm of government with a political agenda.

trump has been an enemy to the US.

Much like yourself I'm not a fan of extremism on either side. My main issue with your comment is this part... "I think it is good for the country to go back and forth between conservative and progressive agendas."

There shouldn't be "conservative and liberal agendas". I understand there will be some differences in policies between the parties. That's always been the case. But as it is now, each side spends more time undoing what the previous administration has done because the agendas and ideologies outweigh everything else. No more is it about what's actually best for America. No longer is it about caring for each other. As of now it's more about attacking and labeling the other side than trying to put the country first. It's time I think for politicians as a whole to care more about America than acting like children on the playground.

Our nation can never move forward in any meaningful way when those in power spend the vast majority of their time and effort attacking each other instead of trying to run the country.

Luttig is a dinosaur republican. The party has evolved into his worst nightmare.

I posted the same news story down under "Rino or Libtard" -- in another era when people might have longer attention spans and didn't get their view points from FaceBook, this would have been a huge story. It's a shockingindictment of what the GOP is. Half the party chasing the extreme fringe voters that Trump courted and played to - an element that previously no party 'had in it's pocket' - the other half wanting to move on from the worst and most unsavory 'would be King' POTUS we've ever had but not having the stones to do so publicly.

In lots of ways - people like Luttig and Liz Cheney and any Republican who wants to publicly stand up for integrity and speak openly of the nightmare that is Trump are currently outliers. I think there's probably quite a few more that share the same thoughts but are trying to work the machine so as to not have to publicly admit what a cluster flock Trump's presidency was and how royally he's contaminated the party.

He's right. Republicans won't admit they have a problem. There was a new republican chairman in Colorado this year. First thing he says is Republicans don't have a brand problem. Meanwhile, Republicans are irrelevant in Colorado. Democrats have a super majority. While republicans keep on losing and refusing to admit they have a problem, we move towards single party rule. Democrats in Colorado are now free to move to the extreme left and there is nothing to stop them.

It should be about the country but it is not.

What happens is power to the party. If one party gains power and say increases debt. And then loses it allows the next party to address the debt. Going back and forth is almost inevitable.

My hope is consensus on some things especially clean air and water. I am an environmentalist because long term that is what we leave behind for future generations.

Some laws that get passed should remain forever when it comes to areas of the country that have been set aside as wildlife sanctuaries.

We should leave behind a better place than what we inherited.

Boston.com Logo Boston.com
New Hampshire Republican state senator charged with assaulting an employee at his restaurant
Sen. Keith Murphy, of Manchester, turned himself in Monday and was charged with two counts of simple assault and one count of criminal threatening.
By The Associated Press
June 21, 2023
MANCHESTER, N.H. (AP) — A Republican state senator in New Hampshire has been charged with assault after an employee at a restaurant he owns said he slapped and spit on him during an argument.

Advertisement:



Keith Murphy, 47, of Manchester, N.H. a member of the New Hampshire Senate, is accused of spitting on and slapping an employee of Murphy’s Taproom in Manchester, which Murphy owns. – Manchester Police Department
Sen. Keith Murphy, of Manchester, turned himself in Monday and was charged with two counts of simple assault and one count of criminal threatening. The employee told police in April that the argument happened at Murphy’s Taproom. According to a Manchester police news release, surveillance video also shows Murphy picking up a chair “in an aggressive manner.”

Murphy, who was released on personal recognizance bail, said Tuesday he is innocent of the charges and looks forward to his day in court.

“When the facts are known it will be clear that the police have charged the victim in this case,” he said in an email. “I will be defending my name, reputation, and business through the legal process.”

Murphy opened the Manchester restaurant in 2007 and another in Bedford in 2017. He is serving his first term in the Senate after several terms in the House.

He will be arraigned July 24.

https://www.boston.com/news/crime/2...ing-an-employee-at-his-restaurant/?amp=1

This is the level of st00pid that amazes me. They got you on tape, fool.
Old guy here: there was once a time when people actually felt shame when confronted with their misdeeds. Caught. Busted. Witnesses. Police blotter. Shame.
Not so much any more.

and damn... spitting on someone- it just doesn't get any more low-class than that, I don't care who you are or what politics you represent.


This post could just as easily gone in the "WTH?" thread.

Former GOP Ohio House speaker sentenced to 20 years for role in $60M bribery scheme

CINCINNATI (AP) — Former Ohio House Speaker Larry Householder was sentenced to 20 years in prison on Thursday for his role in the largest corruption scandal in state history.

The 64-year-old Republican appeared before U.S. District Judge Timothy Black, who meted out the punishment, about an hour after he and his wife Taundra arrived at the federal courthouse.

Householder had pleaded for mercy ahead of the sentencing — not on behalf of himself, but his wife of 40 years, sons and friends. His son Nathan and other friends and family were present in the courtroom.

Black instead delivered a blistering rebuke, accusing Householder of abusing voters’ trust.

“You were a bully with a lust for power who thought he was better than everyone else,” he said.

Householder also received one year of probation and showed little emotion before being led out of the courtroom in handcuffs as he was remanded into the custody of U.S. Marshals.

Householder and lobbyist Matt Borges, a former chair of the Ohio Republican Party, were both convicted in April of a single racketeering charge each, after a six-week trial. Borges is set to be sentenced Friday.

Jurors found that Householder orchestrated and Borges participated in a $60 million bribery scheme secretly funded by Akron-based FirstEnergy Corp. to secure Householder’s power, elect his allies, pass legislation containing a $1 billion bailout for two aging nuclear power plants owned by a FirstEnergy affiliate and then to use a dirty tricks campaign to stifle a ballot effort to overturn the bill.

Federal prosecutors had recommended Householder receive 16 to 20 years, holding in a sentencing memo that he “acted as the quintessential mob boss, directing the criminal enterprise from the shadows and using his casket carriers to execute the scheme.” That strategy, they said, gave Householder ”plausible deniability.”

His own attorneys had recommended just 12 to 18 months, reporting to the judge that he is “a broken man” who has been “humiliated and disgraced” by the ordeal of his widely reported arrest, high-profile prosecution and seven-week trial by jury.

Householder was one of Ohio’s most powerful politicians, a historically twice-elected speaker, before his indictment. After Householder’s arrest in July 2020, the Republican-controlled House ousted him from his leadership post, but he refused to resign for nearly a year on grounds he was innocent until proven guilty. In a bipartisan vote, representatives ultimately ousted him from the chamber in 2021 — the first such expulsion in Ohio in 150 years.

All told, five people and a dark money group have been charged so far for their roles in the scheme. A federal investigation remains ongoing.

During the trial, the prosecution called two of the people arrested — Juan Cespedes and Jeff Longstreth, who both pleaded guilty and are cooperating — to testify about political contributions they said were not ordinary, but rather bribes intended to secure passage of the bailout legislation. Generation Now, the 501(c) nonprofit through which much of the money flowed, also has pleaded guilty to racketeering.

Cespedes and Longstreth face up to six months in prison each under their plea deals. Neither has been sentenced.

The last person arrested, the late Statehouse superlobbyist Neil Clark, was heard on tape in the courtroom. Clark had pleaded not guilty before dying by suicide in March 2021.

All the alleged members of the conspiracy benefited personally from the scheme, using sums that an FBI agent described colloquially as “bags of cash” from FirstEnergy. Householder spent around $500,000 of FirstEnergy money to settle a business lawsuit, pay attorneys, deal with expenses at his Florida home and pay off credit card debt. Another $97,000 was used to pay staff and expenses for his 2018 reelection campaign.

https://www.pbs.org/newshour/nation...JyB7tMIAkIGDJ2jpHFViLM5wye4SU5lDFIwCw4f8

Some seem to be confused as either to what racketeering is or what it actually looks like. Hopefully this will help clear things up for them.

Ex-Arizona House Speaker says he’s spoken to FBI in 2020 election probe

Former Arizona House Speaker Rusty Bowers (R) revealed Wednesday that he has been interviewed by the FBI in connection with the 2020 election probe.

“I am hesitant to talk about any subpoenas, et cetera. But I have been interviewed by the FBI,” he told CNN’s Kaitlin Collins when asked whether he had been subpoenaed by the special counsel investigating efforts to overturn the election results.

Bowers testified before the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot last year, when he refuted former President Trump’s description of a phone call between them during the 2020 election and said he was pressured by the former president and his former personal attorney, Rudy Giuliani, to overturn President Biden’s victory in Arizona.

Ahead of Bowers’s public testimony, Trump said that Bowers “told me that the election was rigged and that I won Arizona.”

Bowers said Wednesday that the interview with the FBI was held a couple of months ago and lasted four hours. When asked what new information he told the FBI, Bowers said there was “nothing new” that was not in the testimony.

“They seem to have a good grasp on all of the testimony that I’ve given and all of the interviews that I had given to the Arizona Republic and The Washington Post,” he said.

“They were very aware of the Jan. 6th committee testimony that I gave,” he added. “There may have been something that I said that was of interest. But I don’t remember anything standing out that had not been mentioned before.”

Bowers faced backlash after giving his public testimony, including being censured by the Arizona GOP and being called a traitor by members of his party. He lost his reelection bid to a Trump-backed challenger last August, just a couple of months after he gave his testimony.

https://thehill.com/homenews/408316...Qvd-bw61z_hBzi--BXeWzvmS-J_IPwMljZbA60OI

If you are a GOP politician who wishes to be labeled a traitor and lose your job, all you have to do is tell the truth. Don't believe it? Just ask Rusty Bowers or Liz Cheney.

They can’t handle the truth!

Jc

Aye these Moms For Liberty crazies are out of control. Imma need all the rugged white conservative male individuals to get their women in line like a real Alpha. Supposed to keep that day drinking nonsense in the house during the school year.

This post above just won the internet.

Go home.
Turn off your phones.
Disconnect your interlink.

There is nothing left to see here.

I just spat out a perfectly good shot of vodka. Lol

Can you say ramp up the crazy boys and girls?

Republican attorneys general issue warning letter to Target about Pride merchandise

Seven U.S. state attorneys general sent a letter to Target on Wednesday warning that clothes and merchandise sold as part of the company's Pride month campaigns might violate their state's child protection laws.

Republican attorneys general from Indiana, Arkansas, Idaho, Kentucky, Mississippi, Missouri and South Carolina signed the letter, writing that they were "concerned by recent events involving the company's 'Pride' campaign."

The attorneys said that they believed the campaign was a "comprehensive effort to promote gender and sexual identity among children," criticizing items like T-shirts that advertised popular drag queens and a T-shirt that said 'Girls Gays Theys.' They also highlighted merchandise with "anti Christian designs such as pentagrams, horned skulls and other Satanic products."

The letter also criticized Target for donating to GLSEN, an LGBTQ+ organization that works to end bullying in schools based on sexual and gender identity. The company stated in a 2020 guide that school staff should not tell parents about a child's gender or sexual orientation without consulting the child first, something the attorneys general said undermines "parents' constitutional and statutory rights."

The letter did not include any specific demands nor did it outline how they believe the campaign could violate child protection laws, but the attorneys general did suggest that Target might find it "more profitable to sell the type of Pride that enshrines the love of the United States."

The attorneys general also said they believed Target's Pride campaign threatened their financial interests, writing that Target leadership has a "fiduciary duty to our States as shareholders in the company" and suggesting that company officials "may be negligent" in promoting the campaign since it has negatively affected Target's stock prices and led to some backlash among customers.

Target shares have declined 12% this year, but the company is facing issues far beyond the backlash to its Pride collection, which included onesies, bibs, and T-shirts for babies and children. Like many retailers, the company is struggling with a pullback in consumer spending because of high inflation, which has weighed on its profits.

But Target is also facing scrutiny for its merchandise selection, including its Pride line, with its stores removing some of the items in May after facing threats. At the time, the company didn't specify which products were being removed, although Target has faced criticism online over swimsuits advertised as "tuck-friendly" with "extra crotch coverage" in its Pride collection.

"Target's management has no duty to fill stores with objectionable goods, let alone endorse or feature them in attention-grabbing displays at the behest of radical activists," the attorneys general wrote. "However, Target management does have fiduciary duties to its shareholders to prudently manage the company and act loyally in the company's best interests."

Backlash to the Pride campaign did involve threats of violence to Target stores and workers. Some merchandise was relocated to less popular areas of the store, and other pieces, including the swimsuits criticized by the attorneys general, were removed.

"Since introducing this year's collection, we've experienced threats impacting our team members' sense of safety and well-being while at work," Target said in a statement earlier in June. "Given these volatile circumstances, we are making adjustments to our plans, including removing items that have been at the center of the most significant confrontational behavior."

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/republ...etter-to-target-about-pride-merchandise/

These guys are so screwed up in the head they make McCarthyism look like a balanced and thoughtful movement. And what's worse is there'll be many folks that think this is legit.
🤮🤮🤮

A mob storms Tbilisi Pride Fest site, forcing the event’s cancellation

TBILISI, Georgia (AP) — Hundreds of opponents of gay rights on Saturday swarmed the site of an LGBT festival in the capital of the country of Georgia, vandalizing the stage, setting fires and looting the event’s bar.

Deputy Georgian Interior Minister Aleksandre Darakhvelidze said participants in the Tbilisi Pride Fest were safely evacuated from the scene. Festival organizers called on people not to come to the lakeside park where the event was to be held.

Georgian news media estimated about 5,000 people marched toward the site. Many of them waved Georgian flags and carried religious icons.

Animosity toward sexual minorities is strong in Georgia, which is predominantly Orthodox Christian, and some previous LGBT events have met violent disruptions.

Darakhvelidze said police tried to obstruct the protesters but could not hold all of them back.

But the event organizers criticized police as ineffectual, saying in a statement: “The police did not block the access road to the festival site in order to prevent an aggressive group. The police did not use proportional force against the attackers.”

https://apnews.com/article/georgia-...tF90ABT094MLfkT5wKFtl9xlZPi_ROJQo5-sTc8o

Onward Christian Soldiers?

What does a mob in the country of Georgia have to do with Republicans?

Yeah, I guess I should have started an entire new thread about the ultra right from a global perspective and what they've become. Just like what just happened in Germany. It all just sounds so familiar......

A German county elected a far-right candidate for the first time since the Nazi era, raising concern

SONNEBERG, Germany (AP) — Mike Knoth is more than thrilled that a far-right populist party’s candidate recently won the county administration in his hometown in rural eastern Germany for the first time since the Nazi era.

The gardener despises the country’s established parties, he doesn’t trust the media and he feels there are too many migrants in the country. The far-right party Alternative for Germany, or AfD, he hopes, will improve everything that’s not going well in his eyes in Sonneberg, which is in the southeastern state of Thuringia.

“I think the fact that so many people voted for Alternative for Germany has already given it legitimacy,” Knoth, 50, said during an interview this week as he walked his dog down the town’s deserted main shopping street.

But some in Sonneberg haven’t been won over by the AfD’s nationalist and antidemocratic rhetoric.

Margret Sturm, an optometrist whose family has been selling glasses in Sonneberg for almost 60 years, voiced her concern in an interview with a public television station.

“I told them that I don’t think it’s good to vote for the AfD. And whoever votes for the AfD must know that they have the Nazis in tow,” Sturm told The Associated Press in an interview in her store.

Sturm can barely fathom what happened after the interview was aired last week.

“We got hate mail, threatening phone calls, every minute. We were insulted by people we don’t even know, who don’t know us, who don’t know the business.”

The threats were so relentless that Sturm’s husband installed surveillance cameras inside the store.

But Sturm, 60, said she wouldn’t let anybody silence her.

“People here are afraid to take a stand against the AfD and that makes us even more worried than anything else.”

She said that other residents who oppose the AfD no longer want to voice their criticism openly.

“That’s exactly the kind of intimidation that basically results from the machinery of hatred and incitement and then sadly spreads. And that really worries me,” said Stephan Kramer, the head of Thuringia’s state domestic intelligence agency, told the AP at his office in the state capital, Erfurt.

Kramer has warned for years that the AfD’s Thuringia branch is particularly radical and put it under official surveillance more than two years ago as a “proven right-wing extremist” group.

It doesn’t bother Knoth that the AfD is under surveillance for its ties to far-right extremists.

“It was elected democratically, and I don’t find anything offensive about it,” he said.

Knoth expects the AfD to take a law-and-order approach, curb immigration and make Germany safe.

Tackling migration and fighting crime are hardly topics that belong to the job description of a local county administrator, but the AfD’s Robert Sesselmann campaigned successfully on these themes.

The runoff election in Sonneberg county last month pitted Sesselmann against center-right rival Jürgen Köpper. Official figures showed that Sesselmann won by 52.8% to 47.2%.

Sonneberg has a relatively small population of 56,800, but the win was a symbolic milestone for the AfD.

The unemployed Radoslaw Schneider, 39, also expects things to improve now that Sesselmann is in charge. He said that AfD “believes that something needs to be done also for the Germans,” and foreigners should no longer get preferential treatment — which will happen now with AfD in power, he thinks.

Alternative for Germany first entered the national parliament in 2017 following an anti-migrant campaign in response to a mass arrival of refugees in Europe.

Now a decade old, the party has been polling at record levels nationally with between 18% and 20% of support.

Center-left Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s governing coalition with the environmentalist Greens and the pro-business Free Democrats, meanwhile, faces strong headwinds over high immigration, a plan to replace millions of home heating systems, and a reputation for infighting, while inflation remains high.

AfD’s Thuringia leader, Björn Höcke, has espoused revisionist views of Germany’s Nazi past. In 2018, he called the Holocaust memorial in Berlin a “monument of shame” and called for Germany to perform a “180-degree turn” when it comes to the way it remembers its past.

In the early 1930s, Thuringia was one of the first power bases of Adolf Hitler’s National Socialist Party.

Nowadays, the AfD appeals especially to people in the formerly communist and less prosperous eastern states, such as Thuringia.

The coronavirus pandemic, Russia’s war in Ukraine and the influx of hundreds of thousands of Ukrainian refugees to Germany have also contributed to AfD’s success, Katharina König-Preuss, a state lawmaker with The Left party in Thuringia, said during an interview in the state parliament in Erfurt.

The AfD has been putting the blame for many problems squarely on immigrants or the national government, she said.

“I would say that a great deal of these racist narratives, which don’t match reality at all, have now caught on with a larger part of the East German population,” said König-Preuss, who is one of the most outspoken critics of the AfD and has received several death threats.

Scholz tried to play down the recent rise of the far-right populists.

“Germany has been a strong democracy for a long time now, since World War II,” Scholz told reporters in Berlin last week after being asked what he’s doing to prevent a resurgence of fascism 77 years since Hitler’s demise.

It was Germany’s Nazi rule, which led to the murder of 6 million European Jews and others, and more than 60 million dead in World War II, that gives Kramer sleepless nights.

“When I look at this development in Germany, the country where industrial mass murder was driven to perfection, then this is different from all other countries,” he said.

In autumn 2024, there will be state elections in Thuringia. The AfD leads in the polls with more than 30%.

If the AfD, which is currently still shunned by all other mainstream parties in Germany, becomes part of the state government, then Kramer, who is Jewish, will leave the country with his family.

“We’ve seen before in history where that can lead,” he said. “And I must honestly confess, I have no desire to wait for it to occur again.”

https://apnews.com/article/germany-...nneberg-28822981d98257b9783ffbe5351f293a

But I suppose one must consider that at one time they elected Hitler as well.

Lol .. considering the mob mentality against the LBGT community in the USA from the maga haters and Gopers it should be pretty obvious, no?

Odd. https://www.yahoo.com/news/georgia-mayor-arrested-burglary-trespassing-223750103.html

No mention in the article of the party - democrat - I guess it's what the media has become?

I cannot imagine the headline if the guy had been a republican.

Yeah because it becomes political when republican leaders call for violent insurrection against our government over a fair election which trumps trespassing and petty burglaries every time.

He acts like there isn't already a thread for that. After all these years you would think he would have figured out how this is supposed to work by now. And just think, it's the right who calls out whatabouts.

The sad, sad saga of Mike Lindell.......

Mike Lindell Reveals MyPillow Has Lost $100M as He Auctions Off Equipment

MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell has claimed the company "lost $100 million" after major retailers stopped stocking its products in response to his vocal support for the discredited conspiracy theory that the 2020 presidential election was stolen from Donald Trump.

Due to its difficult financial situation, the company is currently selling hundreds of pieces of surplus equipment on the online auction site K-Bid, and subleasing manufacturing space.

Trump is continuing to insist the 2020 presidential contest was rigged against him, despite the claim being repeatedly rejected in court and by independent and even Republican-leaning legal experts. Special Counsel Jack Smith is investigating whether Trump broke the law in his bid to overturn the election, including his role in the January 6, 2021, storming of Congress by Trump supporters.

Speaking to the Minnesota-based newspaper Star Tribune, Lindell said MyPillow was hit with a "massive, massive cancellation" after his election fraud claims.

"We lost $100 million from attacks by the box stores, the shopping networks, the shopping channels, all of them did cancel culture on us," he said.

Newsweek reached out to MyPillow and Mike Lindell via the contact form on the official MyPillow website for comment.

Lindell provided financial backing for legal efforts to reverse the 2020 election outcome and the MyPillow logo was included on TrumpMarch.com, a website promoting the January 6 rally that led to the riot at the U.S. Capitol.

MyPillow was later dropped by a number of major retailers, including Bed Bath & Beyond and Kohl's.

In response, Lindell told Star Tribune that MyPillow had shifted its focus to direct sales via television and email marketing and is subleasing some of its former manufacturing space in Shakopee, Minnesota.

"We kind of needed a building and a half, but now with these moves we're making, we can get it down to our one building," he said.

Some 854 pieces of equipment are currently being sold by MyPillow on K-Bid, ranging from vans and forklifts to sewing machines and flat boxes. Lindell told the newspaper that the equipment will need to be replaced if the major retailers "ever come back."

Dominion Voting Systems is suing Lindell and a number of other Trump allies for $1.3 billion in response to unfounded claims that polling machines produced by the company were involved in rigging the 2020 election. Lindell has denied any wrongdoing.

In April, Fox agreed to pay Dominion $787.5 million to settle a defamation lawsuit caused by Fox News hosts and guests baselessly accusing the company of working to rig the election against Trump.

Responding to the verdict, Dominion attorney Justin Nelson said: "People across the political spectrum can and should disagree on issues, even of the most profound importance. But for our democracy to endure another 250 years and hopefully much longer, we must share a commitment to facts."

https://www.newsweek.com/mike-linde...p25HkI7v1zFoxcZl3YklFC0h4FzkJhi4-wNevt7k

I wonder why they never use the term cancel culture when they talk about what they have attempted to do to brands such as Bud Light and Target?

I saw a display of them at Ollies this past weekend, $19 queens and $29.kings. LMAO, maybe he shouldn’t have backed a traitorous loser and invested so much ad money in the loser news stations.

It's called free market. It's not worth it to be associated with one of the main guys funding the clown show.

Swish mentioned Tuberville holding up military promotions. But that's not all he's been in the news for over the past week.......

WASHINGTON (AP) — Alabama Sen. Tommy Tuberville on Tuesday backed off his defense of white nationalists, telling reporters in the Capitol that white nationalists “are racists.”

Tuberville’s brief comment in the hallway, after a regular weekly lunch with his GOP Senate colleagues, follows several media interviews in which he has repeatedly declined to describe white nationalists as racist. And it comes as the Alabama Republican is also receiving criticism from both Republicans and Democrats for his monthslong blockade on the confirmation of all senior military officers in protest of a Defense Department abortion policy.

In a May interview, Tuberville suggested that the Biden administration’s efforts to expand diversity in the military were weakening the force and hampering recruitment, though the Army has said that the real problem is that many young people do not see enlistment as safe or a good career path.

“We are losing in the military so fast. Our readiness in terms of recruitment,” Tuberville told the Alabama radio station WBHM. “And why? I’ll tell you why. Because the Democrats are attacking our military, saying we need to get out the white extremists, the white nationalists, people that don’t believe in our agenda.”

When asked if he believed white nationalists should be allowed in the U.S. military, Tuberville responded: “Well, they call them that. I call them Americans.”

After that interview, Tuberville said his comments had been misinterpreted. His office said he had been expressing skepticism at the idea that white nationalists were in the armed services.

“Democrats portray all Trump people as white nationalists. That’s what I was saying,” Tuberville said.

He added: “There’s a lot of good people that are Trump supporters that for some reason my Democratic colleagues want to portray as white nationalists. That’s not true.”

But he continued to equivocate on the issue. In an interview Monday, Tuberville told CNN’s Kaitlin Collins that white nationalists “have different beliefs. But if racism is one of those beliefs, I’m totally against it. I am totally against racism.”

Collins said white nationalists are racist. “That’s your opinion,” he responded.

On Tuesday, Tuberville was asked if he wanted to clarify those remarks. “White nationalists are racist,” he responded, without elaborating.

The Southern Poverty Law Center, which tracks hate groups, says that white nationalist groups focus on the inferiority of non-white people and that their primary goal is to create “a white ethnostate.” The group says the number of white nationalist groups reached a historic high in 2019, during Donald Trump’s presidency.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said on the Senate floor Tuesday morning that Tuberville should apologize.

“The definition of white nationalism is not a matter of opinion,” Schumer said. “White nationalism — the ideology that one race is inherently superior to others, that people of color should be segregated, subjected and relegated to second-class citizenship — is racist down to its rotten core.”

Hours after Schumer’s speech, when Tuberville told reporters that he believes white nationalists are racist, he also declined to apologize for his earlier comments. “No, he needs to apologize,” Tuberville said of Schumer.

Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell also denounced the ideology.

“White supremacy is simply unacceptable in the military and in our whole country,” McConnell said Tuesday when asked about Tuberville’s comments.

https://apnews.com/article/tubervil...a_k0ANOI2n8JEePJdT7WcFgxGmQUd5_wHNNV0dsg

Keep in mind this is also the same guy who said the three branches of Government are the House, the Senate and the Executive...

Steve Bannon ordered to pay his lawyers almost $500,000 in fees

Bannon's former attorneys allege he stiffed them on more than $480,000 in fees after they helped him secure a pardon from former President Donald Trump.

A New York judge has ordered former Trump adviser Steve Bannon to pay almost $500,000 to lawyers who allege he stiffed them after they helped him land a pardon from his former boss.

The law firm of Davidoff Hutcher & Citron filed suit against Bannon in February, alleging the "War Room" podcaster owed them $480,487.87 in unpaid fees for their work in numerous legal matters, including two federal criminal cases and a subpoena from the House committee that was investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol.

The firm started representing Bannon in November 2020, after he was indicted in federal court in New York for allegedly taking part in a scheme to defraud donors who wanted to build a wall along the southern U.S. border.

Bannon's co-defendants were convicted, but he never stood trial in that case because he was pardoned by Trump in the final hours of his presidency.

The presidential pardon "was secured through the aid of DHC," the firm said in its lawsuit.

Bannon has since been hit with charges related to the fraud allegations by the Manhattan district attorney's office. He's scheduled to stand trial next May.

The firm also represented Bannon when he snubbed a subpoena from the Jan. 6 committee, which eventually led to his being convicted of criminal contempt of Congress. He was sentenced to four months behind bars, but the sentence was stayed while he appeals the conviction.

The firm said that it did legal work for Bannon until November 2022, and that he paid only about $375,000 out of the more than $850,000 he'd been billed.

Bannon said he told the firm to "stop working on his behalf in January 2022," a claim the firm denied.

In a ruling Friday, Justice Arlene Bluth sided with the law firm, saying it had shown that Bannon "was actively seeking" their legal representation "well after the time (January 2022) that defendant allegedly told plaintiff to stop providing legal services," and that Bannon never objected to any of their invoices.

Bannon's current lawyer, Harlan Protass, told NBC News, "The judge's decision was clearly wrong and we intend to immediately appeal."

An attorney for Davidoff Hutcher & Citron did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/do...pay-lawyers-almost-500000-fees-rcna93465

I won't get into the trump crime syndicate portion of it all but what's with these guys refusing to pay their bills?

Trump wouldn't pay his contractors. At least six companies had to sue Musk for not paying his bills for Twitter and now Bannon? Seems to quite a trend among these guys.

Sounds like Netanyahu in Israel.

Dumber than a sack of hair.

"they’re not sending their best. […] They’re sending people that have lots of problems, and they’re bringing those problems with us." Donald Trump

The real losers in this mess are the loyal employees of My Pillow. I mean besides Trump and Lindell that is.

Trump Voter Sues Fox News After Tucker Carlson Lies Ruined His Life

https://www.yahoo.com/news/trump-voter-sues-fox-news-202030886.html

I don’t even know what to make of this.

Ha, Ha, the real losers are the American people- another example- Chairman Jordon/ and his band of idiots roasting Wray, Director of FBI- as they/idiots put forth more conspiracy theories- soon we'll be investigating the Deep/Deep/Deep State....hell, the idiot Congressmen are eating their own.....unbelievable.

And honestly, I'd be curious to see what actual, substantive wins Jim Jordan has brought to his gerrymandered district.

I love Gym Jockstrap.

Best non-scripted comedy you could ask for.
Chair of endless investigations that never hit their targets. Not the slightest bit concerned about how foolish he looks, so he just keeps playing that same old record. He's the modern-day chief of the Keystone Kops. The clips tell the tale: watch the famous "Whistleblower scene," where he tried to ignore House points of order protocols, and just make rules up on the fly. Grade school backyard s#... change the rules when The Game's kickin' ya azz.



From what I can tell, not much. He reps my former home town, and the folks there can't seem to point to anything he's done that actually benefits them. Which brings me to my assessment: He's another of those camera whores who spends his time on the Hill holding pointless, theatrical investigative hearings, planting himself in front of news cameras in the hallways, and going on Sunday morning talk shows. With a packed schedule like that, who has time for things like legislation? He's a trivial man in a serious job, wasting time and money while yielding trivial results.

If you can't tell- I'm not a fan.

What makes him such comedic gold is how ineffectual he is at his 'job.' He's constantly forced to punch above his intellectual weight because he's such a natural featherweight. A graduate c um laude* of Dunning-Kreuger University. C-SPAN is his worst nemesis, because it's raw camera footage with zero editing. Nothing makes you look worse than a mirror with bright lighting.

So yeah- Gym Jockstrap: laffs aplenty.

If you can't tell- I'm a big fan.


.02


* This website's Profanity Hall Monitor censored my Latin. I had to add a space just to keep my post pure. We need some next-gen AI up in this b#, yo-

Amen, it is so sad for us- the American people- we got buffoons like Jordon, Greene, Trump who accomplish nearly nothing- yet spew endless stuff for what. And, other side- President who should be enjoying his golden/golden years and staying out of Depends/maybe- damn, can't we do better than this? Desantis is a mini-Trump-living in Florida- can't understand why he's butting heads with biggest employer in state. Idiot.

Wasn't Jim Jordan the one that stated that if the Republicans regained the house, they'd investigate anything that would clear Trump? Or something like that.

House Republicans use spending bills to push for abortion restrictions

House Republicans are pressing for abortion restrictions in government spending and must-pass policy bills, giving lawmakers a way to show their anti-abortion bonafides without putting the difficult issue to a standalone vote.

The moves set up a clash with the Senate: Democrats say they will block any poison pills, and even Republicans acknowledge the bills will need to be bipartisan.

The anti-abortion provisions are wide-ranging. Some are written into the text of the underlying legislation, while some are amendments.

They touch on the military’s reimbursement for abortion-related travel, whether Department of Veterans Affairs hospitals should provide abortions, and changes to how the abortion drug mifepristone is dispensed.

“It’s just to create division, culture, wars, etc. And they think that that’s going to distract the public from the unbelievable harm they’re doing in terms of the programmatic cuts from the services that people rely on,” Rep. Rosa DeLauro (Conn.), top Democrat on the House Appropriations Committee, told The Hill on Tuesday.

The fight over abortion access to military personnel has been playing out in the Senate for months, as Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-Ala.) single-handedly stalls military promotions in protest of the Pentagon’s policy of reimbursing service members who need to travel out of state to obtain an abortion.

The policy was enacted last year in the wake of the Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade, which had for almost 50 years protected the federal right to an abortion.

That issue has moved to the House, where it threatens to delay a vote on the annual National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), and conservatives are pushing an amendment that would rescind the policy.

It’s unclear whether the amendment will end up as part of the larger bill, but appropriations bills have already advanced in the House with anti-abortion provisions included.

Last month, the House Appropriations Committee advanced the Food and Drug Administration spending bill, which included a provision rolling back a policy that allows pharmacists to dispense mifepristone — one of the drugs used in medication abortion — and for it to be sent to patients by mail.

The full committee also advanced the annual Military Construction and Veterans Affairs funding bill that banned VA medical centers from performing any abortions or gender-affirming care.

The VA said last year that medical facilities would offer abortion access to veterans and eligible dependents “in cases that endanger the life or health of an individual,” even in states that ban abortion without exceptions.

In a statement tied to the anniversary of the Supreme Court ending Roe, the GOP Appropriations Committee majority celebrated the anti-abortion provisions included in the bills.

One year after Roe v. Wade was overturned, an increasing number of House Republicans are shying away from taking steps to restrict abortion at the national level as polls show majorities of Americans favor protecting the procedure.

The House GOP majority has seemingly abandoned plans for any national abortion ban and faced difficulty in moving even bills that cover a much narrower scope, including a measure to permanently codify and expand the Hyde Amendment, a provision that prohibits certain federal funds from being used on abortion procedures.

That bill has yet to come to the floor, with opposition from moderate House Republicans being a factor.

Rep. Nancy Mace (R-S.C.) said that while she has not read the proposed anti-abortion NDAA amendments, she warned that Republicans shouldn’t be focusing on abortion bans, especially if the policies aren’t related to the underlying legislation.

“We shouldn’t be doing anything that’s not germane. This is an issue I’ve been very vocal on,” Mace said. “We have voted on three or four or five different abortion bills or amendments so far this year, but what have we done to protect women?”

But the effort to restrict abortions from within funding bills could allow Republicans to send a message to voters without subjecting vulnerable swing-district members to a vote.

“They know it’s unpopular, their policy position, people believe in abortion rights and reproductive rights, and so they’re trying to do things through a more hidden process,” Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) said.

Still, Republicans pushing for controversial anti-abortion policies is not new.

In 2018, House Republicans demanded a rider on the annual health spending bill that would have cut federal funding from Planned Parenthood and eliminated a federal family planning program.

But it didn’t advance in the Senate, a possibility that lawmakers on both sides acknowledge will likely happen this year as well.

“I don’t know anything that’s going on in the House, but 60 votes in the Senate, either to make room to restrict abortion or to enhance or to increase its availability?” Sen. Jerry Moran (R-Kan.), a member of the Senate Appropriations Committee, said. “I don’t know how something would pass the Senate.”

Sen. Tammy Baldwin (Wis.), top Democrat on the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services and Education, also isn’t anticipating any new major moves on abortion through the appropriations process.

“That is in major part because our chair and vice chair, Patty Murray (D-Wash.) and Susan Collins (R-Maine), met very early on this year,” she said. “The agreement was we’re going to try to do regular order, and that there would be no new poison pill amendments in our final bills — and that’s an agreement between the parties.”

“Remember, there’s poison pills on each side. And so, while I don’t think we’ll get rid of things that we have previously known as poison pills, [we] will not let any new ones happen,” she said.

https://thehill.com/policy/healthca...yqC-JYLhIg8f4QsS56BM6HGZyyekylt1hcJnAlBE

FBI Director Running Out of Adjectives for Nutty GOP Conspiracies

FBI Director Christopher Wray fielded hours of “absurd” questions on Wednesday from the Republican-led House Judiciary Committee, as the party continues to ramp up its attempts to discredit both Wray and the agency that he runs with claims of political bias against conservatives.

Ironically, as he pointed out repeatedly during the six-hour hearing Wednesday, Wray is a lifelong Republican and member of the right-wing Federalist Society. He was also appointed to his post in 2017 by then-president Donald Trump.

“I hope you don’t change your party affiliation after this hearing is over,” Rep. Ken Buck (R-CO) joked at one point.

Despite his sterling conservative resume, Wray was forced to defend himself from charges of bias from members of his own party, many of whom alleged that the FBI was unfairly targeting the right in its recent investigations and prosecutions.

Wray used a variety of adjectives to describe recent right-wing conspiracies lobbed at the FBI—including that the Jan. 6 Capitol riot was an inside job masterminded by the agency—calling Republican attacks on his character “insane,” “absurd,” “ironic” and “ludicrous.”

“The idea that I’m biased against conservatives seems somewhat insane to me, given my own personal background,” he told the committee.

None of the director’s fiery language stopped Republicans on the committee from questioning Wray about Jan. 6, entertaining a years-old conspiracy theory that the FBI helped incite the riot.

It was a claim championed by former Fox News host Tucker Carlson, who was sued alongside the network earlier Wednesday by Ray Epps, a Capitol rioter who was falsely smeared by right-wing media and accused of being an FBI informant despite little evidence.

Wray tried his best not to feed into the narrative.

“I will say this notion that somehow the violence at the Capitol on Jan. 6 was part of some operation by FBI sources and agents is ludicrous and is a disservice to our brave, hard-working, dedicated men and women,” he said.

Rep. Mike Johnson (R-LA) even brought up the COVID-19 lab-leak theory, insinuating that Wray’s FBI was helping the broader U.S. government cover it up. Wray called the claim “ironic” and “somewhat absurd,” considering the FBI was, at one point, “the only agency in the entire intelligence community” to give credit to the lab leak theory.

Wray largely avoided getting too heated with even his biggest critics Wednesday, keeping a steady demeanor throughout a number of contentious lines of questioning. Near the end of the hearing, he subtly warned those on the committee who may hope to see him bend amid the political gamesmanship.

“No one should ever mistake my demeanor for what my spine is made out of,” he said.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/fbi-d...HrL3GrnVcwG3qhc5HY729-w0-UKep3Gl6LyX17-g

Kari Lake’s team ordered to pay more than $122K in sanctions over Maricopa lawsuit

Kari Lake’s legal team, including lawyer Alan Dershowitz, must pay $122,200 in sanctions after a federal court in Arizona found that the former Republican gubernatorial candidate’s lawsuit contesting voting methods was “frivolous.”

Lake, a former television news anchor, brought a suit against the state of Arizona in April 2022 demanding the election officials use alternative methods to collect and count ballots, claiming that electronic voting machines are not reliable.

The lawsuit was thrown out and Lake ultimately lost the gubernatorial election to Gov. Katie Hobbs. She then filed another suit after the election alleging widespread fraud. That case was also dismissed, though she continues make baseless claims that the race was stolen from her.

The $122,000 judgment, released Friday, will be paid by Lake’s three lawyers, Andrew Painter, Kurt Olson and Dershowitz. Dershowitz was found to have a limited involvement in the case and was ordered to pay only 10 percent of the order.

“Failing to impose meaningful sanctions here might very well encourage others to follow suit by lending their credibility to documents filed in court without facing any real consequence if their certifications prove hollow or incomplete,” Judge John Tuchi said in his ruling. “The need for general deterrence is therefore significant.”

In May, Lake’s legal team was levied a $2,000 sanction judgment for their role in spreading misinformation about election integrity.

https://thehill.com/regulation/cour...nv-L1MJG1Dp07jPlNZUB9S9VlvWo8vNFGLv43na4

Sounds like the perfect candidate to become trump's 2024 running mate for Vice President.

Uh oh. Goper’s being charged for frivolous lawsuits? Oh the irony. Lol

Navy vet arrested near Obama’s home indicted on firearms charges

A Capitol riot suspect who had guns and hundreds of rounds of ammunition in his van when he was arrested near former President Barack Obama’s Washington home has been indicted on federal firearms charges, authorities said Friday.

Taylor Taranto, 37, was already facing misdemeanor charges stemming from his alleged involvement in the Jan. 6, 2021, riot, and a grand jury indicted him on additional felony charges alleging he illegally carried a firearm without a license and unlawfully possessed a large-capacity ammunition feeding device, prosecutors said.

A magistrate judge earlier this week ruled that Taranto, of Pasco, Washington, must remain behind bars while he awaits trial because he would pose a danger to the community if released. Taranto’s attorney has said she will appeal that decision.

Taranto’s attorney, Kathryn Guevara, didn’t immediately respond to an email seeking comment Friday on the indictment.

Guevara has said that her client had been receiving mental health treatment to overcome trauma that he experienced during military service. He deployed to Iraq while serving in the Navy and was driving a combat vehicle in a convoy that was hit by enemy missiles, she said.

Taranto was arrested June 29 after prosecutors say he showed up in Obama’s neighborhood on the same day that former President Donald Trump posted on his social media platform what he claimed was Obama’s home address.

While livestreaming on YouTube in the neighborhood, Taranto told followers that he was looking for “entrance points,” was going to find a way to the “tunnels underneath their houses” and wanted to get a “good angle on a shot,” according to court papers. Officials said he was spotted by law enforcement a few blocks from Obama’s home and fled, though he was chased by Secret Service officers.

In his van — which investigators say he appeared to be living in — Taranto had two guns, 400 rounds of ammunition as well as a machete, prosecutors have said. Taranto’s wife told investigators that he had come to D.C. because of House Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s offer earlier this year to produce unseen video of the Jan. 6 attack.

Taranto’s arrest came the day after investigators say he asserted on his YouTube livestream that he was in Gaithersburg, Maryland, on a “one-way mission” and suggested that he intended to blow up his van at the National Institute of Standards and Technology.

On the day of the riot, authorities say Taranto joined the crush of people who broke into the Capitol. He was captured on video at the entrance of the Speaker’s Lobby around the time that Ashli Babbitt was fatally shot by an officer while attempting to climb through the broken window of a barricaded door.

Taranto’s lawyer told the judge earlier this week that her client was talking about tunnels near Obama’s home “in a joking manner” because the subject has been fodder for conspiracy theories. She said in court papers that comments he made about getting the “the shot” or “angle” while near Obama’s house were only in reference to the livestream video he was taking at the time.

https://www.militarytimes.com/flash...QoSi9YaZMOqOMPc5fjwXYp98OINoD3rQgQS5pHbU

Shout out to all my vets out there who have trauma and crazy ideas in our minds all the time, but choose not to act upon it.

Like showing up to the former POTUS house strapped up like punisher. And for what?

The states that celebrate both MLK Day and confederate holidays

States where MLK Day is shared with a confederate holiday in 2023

Ten states — all in the American South — celebrate Martin Luther King Day and observe at least one confederate holiday during the rest of the year.

Why it matters: All U.S. states honor MLK every year. But the number of states also honoring the Confederacy highlights the country's struggle to reconcile its racial past.

What's happening: Alabama and Mississippi celebrate MLK and Robert E. Lee, the losing Confederate general and slaveholder, on the same day.

Arkansas, Georgia, Florida, Kentucky, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee and Texas all have at least one day commemorating the Confederacy on other days of the year, the Axios analysis found.
Mississippi and Alabama each celebrate a total of three confederate holidays every year — Robert E. Lee Day, Confederate Memorial Day and Jefferson Davis' Birthday — all paid holidays for state employees.
Last February in Alabama, a bipartisan group of state senators introduced legislation to split up Robert E. Lee Day and MLK Day, but the bill is "indefinitely postponed."

The intrigue: In 2000, when South Carolina became one of the last states to honor MLK with a state holiday, the legislature also voted to create "Confederate Memorial Day," celebrated annually on May 10.

Tennessee has a day of "special observance" for Nathan Bedford Forrest, another Confederate general and the first grand wizard of the Ku Klux Klan.
Though Arkansas split up Robert E. Lee Day and MLK day in 2017, the state still commemorates Lee on the second Saturday in October, as well as Jefferson Davis on June 3.
For years, Georgia listed Confederate Memorial Day and Robert E. Lee Day on its official state holiday calendar. Since 2016, the state has changed both holiday names to the innocuous-sounding "State Holiday."
Georgia state law requires the governor to pronounce at least one day dedicated to honoring the Confederacy.

Zoom out: Defenders of the confederate holidays and monuments say removing them would erase history.

Reality check: Historians and scholars say the confederate holidays and monuments in the South mostly appeared well after the Civil War as confederate apologists pushed the Lost Cause narrative downplaying slavery.

What they're saying: "It is a diminishing reality that people even recognize and celebrate those Confederate days," NAACP president and CEO Derrick Johnson told Axios.

"We must completely do away with any concept that the Confederacy and those who participated were patriots."
DaMareo Cooper, co-executive director of The Center for Popular Democracy, said it was hypocritical for any state to honor King while celebrating those who defended enslavement.
"There's no way that you can compare someone who literally fought for the highest ideals of human beings ... to someone who was like, 'I think these humans are checkbooks, they are cow, they're like animals.'"

Don't forget: While many remaining historic sites in the South dedicated to confederates are well kept, many sites linked to civil rights and the victorious Union North sit abandoned or in disarray.

https://www.axios.com/2023/01/16/mlk-day-states-confederate-holidays-slavery

MURICA!

It's quite odd the things they celebrate when compared with the things they try to keep silent with their politics.

Hard to believe a known Jan 6th 2020 insurrectionist who broke into the US capitol is already back on the streets of DC locked and loaded and ready for more. But then again it’s not. Pffft .. lunatic Goper’s ruin it all for everyone.

Now the Republican Nazi State AGs want their gestapo police to have the authority to forcefully obtain out of state private medical records to prosecute women going to extremes to get healthcare. It doesn't get more fascist than that before the MAGA Yalliban magats start naming handmaids.

These people need to be wiped from the face of the earth in an especially expedited painful fashion.

Don’t worry, a lot of those bums keep getting some heavy sentencing during court.

WOW, talk about loving your fellow man.....lets put those liberals in concentration camps, gas them, and then burn the bodies.....that's been done and some want it repeated.....-absolutely, one nation under god--as long as you goose step to the Trump tyrant.

So now you want to abort full grown adults as well. LOL

It's nothing more than a political stunt. State AG's have no jurisdiction outside of their own state. As a matter of fact as far as I know, they have no right to prosecute anything that happens outside the jurisdiction of their own state.

Bring it, I can’t wait for the civil war the right keeps whining about.

It's already began. They're using their elected officials to fight it for them.

They’re using snake in the grass people with no morals or sense of country or duty to the people to thwart democracy. And dumbass Dems are still playing by the old rules as if they remotely matter. It’s like watching the twilight zone. A third of the country isn’t worth the powder it would take to blow them to hell IMO.

I’m trying to give the dupes the benefit of the doubt, but when they still refuse to believe the facts in the face of all this evidence against Trump, you have to write them off. Ten years from now they all be on a special after Trump social security program for the mentally ill. Many will die believing his lies.

And that’s IF they don’t somehow pull off another election theft and end our democracy for a dictatorship. The brain dead somehow believe that would be better than sharing the country with people who don’t think like they do, like we have since it’s inception. And the road to hell will be paved by anti-abortion zealots and uninformed imbeciles being allowed to vote.

Funny thing genius. This Country is not and never has been a Democracy. It is a Constitutional Republic.

This country is a Democracy. Call it what you want it’s a free country. But people like you want to make it a ruthless dictatorship. Sorry, we aren’t having it.

And BTW, I’ve been booted from this site for calling someone a Genius in jest. But the board monitors seem to lean right your way here. You’ll probably get a pass like the idiotic policies of trump does here.

Alabama GOP Defies SCOTUS, Refuses to Create 2nd Majority-Black District

The Supreme Court ruled that Alabama must create two congressional districts that would encompass majority-Black electorates. Republicans in the state didn’t listen.

Republicans in the Alabama legislature have passed a new congressional map with only a single majority Black district—ignoring a recent Supreme Court ruling that ordered the creation of a second.

In a June ruling, the conservative-leaning Supreme Court surprised some onlookers when it ruled 5-4 that Alabama’s new map of congressional districts likely violated the Voting Rights Act as an illegal racial gerrymander. Under that map, only one out of Alabama’s seven districts had a majority Black electorate, even though Black residents comprise more than a quarter of the population.

The justices, upholding a lower court’s ruling, ordered Alabama’s Republican-controlled legislature to redo the maps, this time carving out a second Black-majority district, “or something quite close to it.”

But Republicans in the state didn’t go through with it, effectively spurning the high court’s order, opponents argue.

After a special session convened in response to the ruling, Alabama’s legislature passed a new map on Friday that created only one seat with a majority Black electorate, NBC reported. Another seat included in the revised plan has a 40 percent Black voter base.

The new maps passed a vote on Friday afternoon—as a court-mandated deadline loomed—and got Alabama governor Kay Ivey’s signature that night. They advanced over the objection of Democratic lawmakers, as well as the advocacy groups that successfully challenged the previous maps—and who have promised to fight the new one as well.

"The Legislature knows our state, our people and our districts better than the federal courts or activist groups, and I am pleased that they answered the call, remained focused and produced new districts ahead of the court deadline,” Ivey said in a statement Friday night.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/alaba...W66XybbyStDPgBGue9LVz6p4ZUccI6uLnzOOlj4U

Same as it ever was.

Another lame ass GOPer talking point. Every politician in history has referred to it as a democracy at some point. Don’t put much weight into the Faux News talking points DOTD. It’s a recipe for disaster. In case you missed it, they LIE A LOT, and it’s proven admitted to fact.

Our country is a constitutional republic for the common vernacular used is democracy, even though we are not one in the strict definition of the word.
People bring this up when they don't have a valid argument so they bring up this petty semantic to distract from the discussion.

Clowns and sheep.

His tax exempt status should be pulled and he should be billed by the IRS for back taxes on his fraudulent ‘church’.

I don't think many take either one seriously, so what's the point?

The largest point is this, when you have several candidates going up against trump it splits those who don't want trump to be the nominee in several different directions. Thus none of them can ever get enough support to challenge trump. This will guarantee him the nomination without much of a fight and you will be stuck with him again.

There are worse things.

That might be said by anyone who hasn't been paying attention.

Jc

Y’all think there’s a chance Romney is contemplating jumping into the primaries? He lets the field organically clear themselves then jumps in late.

It’s just an idea, but since the Republican Party has gone full Real Housewives, I figured that the most outrageous idea is probably just another Tuesday in the GOP.

Backlash brews against Texas law that eliminates mandatory water breaks

Texas had three straight weeks of high humidity and triple-digit temperatures in June. Critics of the law say it will create dangerous conditions for construction workers in heat waves

As Texas sweltered last month under a weekslong, record-breaking heat wave, the state passed a law that will eliminate mandatory water breaks for construction workers in cities where such ordinances had been in place to protect people from extreme heat.

Now, backlash is brewing.

House Bill 2127 passed the state Legislature and Gov. Greg Abbott promptly signed it into law on June 14. The bill, which goes into effect in September, strips construction workers in Austin and Dallas of the right to water breaks every four hours and time to rest in the shade while on the job.

The new law comes as Texas endured three straight weeks of high humidity and triple-digit temperatures in June. Such intense and long-lasting heat waves are expected to become more common in a warming world, climate scientists have said.

Backlash to the legislation is mounting. Earlier this week, the city of Houston filed a lawsuit that seeks to block the state law and have it declared “unconstitutional.”

The measure has been nicknamed the “Death Star” bill because it broadly pre-empts legislation at the local government level if it clashes with state law. The bill covers eight areas of government — including labor, business and agriculture — overturning local ordinances that are already in place and preventing local governments from passing new ones if they conflict or deviate from state regulations.

The legislation aims to address “a patchwork of regulations that apply inconsistently across this state.”

Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner said in a statement that the law undercuts the “ability to govern at the level closest to the people.”

“Houston will fight so its residents retain their constitutional rights and have immediate local recourse to government,” Turner said in the statement.

Ana Gonzalez, deputy director of politics and policy at the Texas AFL-CIO, a labor federation of 240,000 union members in the state, said the bill “attacks local democracy,” adding that it will have “a huge impact and many unintended consequences to the way we govern at the local level.”

Beyond the political implications, eliminating guaranteed water breaks could create dangerous working conditions for construction workers during heat waves. Extreme heat events have been associated with upticks in cardiovascular, respiratory and kidney diseases, and heat causes more deaths across the U.S. each year than any other weather event, according to the National Weather Service.

Last month’s heat wave caused at least 13 deaths in Texas, according to health officials. A 46-year-old construction worker in the Houston area also died on June 16 after collapsing while working in the extreme heat, as reported by the Houston Chronicle.

“This is an emergency,” Gonzalez said. “Texas is the deadliest state when it comes to construction, where one worker dies every three days in our state.”

A local ordinance was passed in Austin in 2010 that guarantees outdoor workers a break of at least 10 minutes every four hours to rest and hydrate. Dallas followed suit in 2015 with a similar ordinance.

Gonzalez said scrapping mandatory water breaks under House Bill 2127 “creates a floor for employers” and sets a worrying new standard.

“This law is not only inhumane, but it’s also very dangerous,” she said.

https://www.nbcnews.com/science/sci...minates-mandatory-water-breaks-rcna92961

Freedumb! Murica!

Guaranteeing workers a 10 minute break every four hours in extreme heat is just asking too much! That sounds like communism!

Man sentenced to 5 years in ‘We Build the Wall’ fraud case

Prosecutors said he and others stole hundreds of thousands of dollars from a fundraising effort to raise money for a wall on the U.S.-Mexico border.

The last of three men convicted in a “We Build the Wall” fundraising fraud scheme was sentenced to more than five years in prison Tuesday, federal prosecutors said.

Timothy Shea "stole hundreds of thousands of dollars in donations to line his own pockets," U.S. Attorney Damian Williams of the Southern District of New York said in a statement.

Shea, 52, was sentenced to 63 months, or five years and three months, in prison, the U.S. attorney’s office said.

"We Build the Wall" was a crowdfunded effort to build a wall on the U.S.-Mexico border. President Donald Trump made a wall a key part of his 2016 campaign and presidency.

It pulled in more than $25 million, federal prosecutors said. The government alleged that Shea and others defrauded donors and took money for their own use.

Steve Bannon, the chief White House strategist in the Trump administration, was also charged in the scheme.

Bannon, who had pleaded not guilty, was pardoned by Trump in the final hours of his presidency in 2021 and never stood trial.

Shea, of Castle Rock, Colorado, also pleaded not guilty but was convicted by a jury in October of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, conspiracy to commit money laundering and obstruction of justice.

The other two people charged — Brian Kolfage and Andrew Badolato — pleaded guilty and were sentenced to prison in April.

Kolfage was sentenced to a little over four years, and Badolato was sentenced to three years. They each pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud. Kolfage also pleaded guilty to tax and wire fraud counts out of Florida, officials said.

The fundraising scheme started on GoFundMe, but it was impossible to directly transfer money to the federal government, and GoFundMe threatened to return the cash to donors unless a nonprofit entity was identified, according to court documents.

That’s when Bannon and Badolato got involved, according to prosecutors, and all four men started a nonprofit entity called “We Build the Wall, Inc.,” prosecutors said in a sentencing memo.

Promises were made that "100%" of the funds would be used in the effort to build a wall, and Kolfage promised to take no compensation, prosecutors wrote.

“Those representations were lies,” the U.S. attorney’s office said.

Kolfage took more than $350,000 for his personal use, and Shea kept more than $180,000, prosecutors said.

"Shea’s communications make clear that he was motivated by greed," prosecutors wrote in a sentencing submission. "From the beginning, Shea viewed this fundraising project as a cash cow."

An attorney for Shea did not immediately respond to a request for comment Tuesday night.

Shea’s attorneys argued that Shea was not aware of a “secret agreement” about payment that prosecutors alleged and that he learned about it only after his arrest.

"He is a good man who got swept up in a dizzying vision of becoming enriched by something that both got out of control and was not what he planned," his attorneys wrote in their own sentencing submission.

Shea wrote in a letter to the judge that he regrets becoming involved and that he failed to recognize the importance of Kolfage’s claim of no compensation, seeing it instead as “a relatively meaningless salesman’s boast.”

He also wrote that he wished he had taken a plea deal. “I do acknowledge that some of the things I did were wrong and probably illegal,” he wrote.

In addition to the prison term, Shea was ordered to pay $1,801,707 in restitution, the U.S. attorney's office said.

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/man-sentenced-5-years-build-wall-fraud-case-rcna96345

Grifters are gonna grift. And at least one grifter involved in this case was pardoned by yet another grifter. Murica!

MTG thinks angels are piloting UFO's.

“I’m a Christian and I believe the Bible,” said Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.). “I think that to me, honestly – I’ve looked into it. And I think we have to question if it’s more of the spiritual realm. Angels, or fallen angels. And that’s my honest opinion.”

I'm just wondering where in the Bible it mentions angels piloting UFO's.

https://thehill.com/homenews/house/...5-WiSAZ0-2TwX0T0cbhbPohWMKXogW6VcWUnyGKM

REVELATIONS CHAPTER 6 666, VERSES 1 THROUGH 10 000

You know I've given this UFO thing some thought. After Bezos and Musk got into space travel, I've began to believe that if we figure out the UFO question we'll find that it will end up just being billionaire A-holes from other planets.

IIRC, there were at least a couple DT members who bragged that they were going to send some of their hard-earned to fund a wall. Don't know if this was the bunch that were to get the cheddar, nor do I remember who made the pledge, but I do recall saying something like


fools <-------------> money

I remember that as well. Like yourself I don't remember who they were. I'm just wondering if they were of Mexican descent? I mean after all they also told us Mexicans were going to pay for it.

I think I saw Musk flying around the Skinwalker Ranch

I think it's important to point out, Christians don't hold up Lewd pictures of people in a public setting. So, I basically don't believe she's Christian at all. I'm not sure she's ever read the Bible either.

Schumer, McConnell defend Senate pages against Republican lawmaker’s curses

“Chuck Schumer should think twice before throwing stones from glass houses,” a spokesperson for Rep. Derrick Van Orden told POLITICO.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said Thursday he was “shocked” by reports of a Republican lawmaker cursing out teenage Senate pages.

“I was shocked when I heard about it, and I am further shocked at his refusal to apologize to these young people,” Schumer said while speaking on the floor Thursday night ahead of the National Defense Authorization Act passage.

When Rep. Derrick Van Orden (R-Wis.) saw a group of Senate pages lying on the floor of the Capitol Rotunda and taking pictures Wednesday night, he called them “pieces of s---” and told them to “get the f--- up” off the floor, according to a transcript of the remarks obtained by The Hill.

Van Orden, a freshman congressman, told the pages “Wake the f‑‑‑ up you little s‑‑‑‑. … What the f‑‑‑ are you all doing? Get the f‑‑‑ out of here. You are defiling the space you [pieces of s‑‑‑],” according to the transcript written by a page. Punchbowl News first reported the incident.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell backed Schumer’s defense of the pages, saying he would like to “associate myself with the remarks of the majority leader” and “everybody on this side of the aisle feels exactly the same way.”

Speaker Kevin McCarthy told reporters on Friday that he had spoken with Schumer about the Van Orden incident, but hadn’t yet spoken with the Wisconsin Republican.

“I haven’t been able to speak to [him]. I’ll call him today. I don’t know this situation. I saw what was reported. That’s not their normal Derrick Van Orden,” McCarthy said, adding, “I guess the interns have some ritual laying down or something like that. I think it’s a misunderstanding.”

Van Orden defended his remarks in a statement to various news outlets, stating “our nation’s Capitol is a symbol of the sacrifice our servicemen and women have made for this country and should never be treated like a frat house common room.”

In a statement to POLITICO, Van Orden’s office took aim at the majority leader: “Chuck Schumer should think twice before throwing stones from glass houses,” spokesperson Anna Kelly said in a statement.

In a brief interview with POLITICO Thursday night, Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) gave his own praise to the pages.

“Only talking about that person, we only diminish the greatness of these young people. They’re phenomenal people and come here and make a big sacrifice,” Booker said. “They’re smart, they’re dedicated, they believe in this country in its highest ideals, and we should be elevating them.”

Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.) posted to Twitter, “My message to the Senate Pages: This is one of the most amazing experiences you’ll ever have. Take it in. Learn a lot. And of course, have fun.”

“My message to out-of-line Members of Congress who yell at Senate Pages: Learn to respect others, especially kids,” she added.

It’s not unusual for Senate pages to rest in the Rotunda, a midway point between the House and Senate. High school students, pages frequently work late into the night as they assist with day-to-day operations.

Schumer praised the pages’ work during his farewell address to the page class, saying they “can help make this place run smoothly, they’re here when we need them and they have served this institution with grace.”

https://www.politico.com/news/2023/...-u84Z4CeAkO90U-gxssUoi54yVc9y747saxI8jPA

So NOW he's suddenly worried about the Capitol Rotunda being defiled by some kids laying on the floor taking selfies? Where the hell was his outrage on January 6th? What a moron!

Proof that we don’t tie nearly enough people to pick ups by their feet and drive them down gravel roads for a nice scenic day out.

Wells Fargo's firearm policies under Texas AG scrutiny

July 28 (Reuters) - Wells Fargo & Co's (WFC.N) policies around the firearm industry are being probed by the Texas Attorney General's office, the company said in an emailed statement on Thursday.

The letter sent by Leslie Brock, chief of the AG's public finance division, to lawyers who work on bond deals in Texas said that officials are seeking to determine whether Wells Fargo has a practice or policy that "discriminates against a firearm entity or firearm trade association," Bloomberg News reported.

Reuters could not immediately verify the contents of the letter.

"We have been cooperating with the Texas AG's Office and continue to affirm our standing letter that was provided to that office," the company said.

The public finance division, which oversees most municipal bond offerings in Texas, will decide by Aug. 25 whether the bank is a "discriminating company," according to Bloomberg News.

Brock's letter said the AG will not block deals that Wells Fargo manages that are already in the works from closing before it makes the decision, as long as the bank confirms via email that it is compliant with the legislation, Bloomberg reported.

"If we determine that Wells Fargo is a discriminating company under Senate Bill 19, we will not approve any public security issued on or after that date in which Wells Fargo purchases or underwrites," the report quoted Brock as writing in the letter.

The Texas Attorney General's office did not respond to a Reuters request for comment on the report.

In January, it said that Citigroup Inc (C.N) had discriminated against the firearms sector, making a decision that "has the effect" of Texas halting Citi's ability to underwrite most municipal bond offerings in the state.

https://www.reuters.com/business/fi...lwE3X57V2ADbj66-1kkrtR-OEDppafNbDyiQEUpE

So let's recap. Republicans stand for a business's right to refuse to do business with people based on their sexual preference. In the latest such case the SCOTUS stood behind such a ruling based on free speech rights. But suddenly they want to punish banks for the same thing? Which "protected calls" do banks fall under again? How much more obvious can they make their BS?

Goper’s hate anything that protect our freedoms. Except the right for any ole lunatic to purchase an AR and a boatload of ammo.

Trump's $475 million 'big lie' defamation lawsuit against CNN dismissed

July 29 (Reuters) - A federal judge has thrown out Donald Trump's $475 million defamation lawsuit against CNN, in which the former president claimed the network's description of his election fraud as the "big lie" associated him with Adolf Hitler.

In a ruling late on Friday night, U.S. Judge Raag Singhal, who was nominated by Trump in 2019, said CNN's words were opinion, not fact, and therefore could not be the subject of a defamation claim.

"CNN's statements while repugnant, were not, as a matter of law, defamatory," wrote Singhal, who sits in federal court in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, near Trump's home at his Mar-a-Lago resort.

In a statement, a Trump spokesperson said: "We agree with the highly respected judge's findings that CNN's statements about President Trump are repugnant. CNN will be held responsible for their wrongful mistreatment of President Trump and his supporters."

The statement did not say whether Trump would appeal the decision.

The lawsuit, which was filed in October 2022, highlighted five instances in which CNN either published stories or aired comments referring to Trump's assertions about the 2020 election as his "big lie." The phrase is also associated with the Nazi regime's use of propaganda.

The wording, the lawsuit said, constituted "a deliberate effort by CNN to propagate to its audience an association between the plaintiff and one of the most repugnant figures in modern history."

But the mere use of the phrase "big lie" is not enough to give rise to a true connotation, Singhal wrote.

"No reasonable viewer could (or should) plausibly make that reference," he said.

Since launching his first presidential campaign in 2015, Trump has often attacked media outlets whose coverage he dislikes, with CNN a favorite target.

Trump is the front-runner for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, despite facing both state and federal indictments.

https://www.reuters.com/world/us/tr...awsuit-against-cnn-dismissed-2023-07-29/

Aren't his supporters some of the very same people who claimed to hate frivolous lawsuits? You would think that after well over 60 fake election lawsuits that were either dismissed or found false combined with all of the other crazy lawsuits trump has filed, at some point they would call him out over it? But nah, McDonald's being sued by a black woman over getting burnt by a cup of coffee was the mountain they thought was worth standing on, not something far more important like these crazy lawsuits that keep being filed.

And just for the record, I agreed with them that the amount of frivolous lawsuits needed to end. The only real difference seems to be that I feel that way across the board while they seem to pick and choose when they speak out against it.

Watching trump spend Goper campaign funds to support his silly lawsuits is so rewarding. Lol

https://apnews.com/article/libraries-books-bans-arkansas-758f28c04c573d03b869ad2738e2b06d


LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) — Arkansas is temporarily blocked from enforcing a law that would have allowed criminal charges against librarians and booksellers for providing “harmful” materials to minors, a federal judge ruled Saturday.

U.S. District Judge Timothy L. Brooks issued a preliminary injunction against the law, which also would have created a new process to challenge library materials and request that they be relocated to areas not accessible by kids. The measure, signed by Republican Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders earlier this year, was set to take effect Aug. 1.

A coalition that included the Central Arkansas Library System in Little Rock had challenged the law, saying fear of prosecution under the measure could prompt libraries and booksellers to no longer carry titles that could be challenged.



The judge also rejected a motion by the defendants, which include prosecuting attorneys for the state, seeking to dismiss the case.



“The question we had to ask was — do Arkansans still legally have access to reading materials? Luckily, the judicial system has once again defended our highly valued liberties,” Holly Dickson, the executive director of the ACLU in Arkansas, said in a statement.

The lawsuit comes as lawmakers in an increasing number of conservative states are pushing for measures making it easier to ban or restrict access to books. The number of attempts to ban or restrict books across the U.S. last year was the highest in the 20 years the American Library Association has been tracking such efforts.


Arkansas Attorney General Tim Griffin said in an email Saturday that his office would be “reviewing the judge’s opinion and will continue to vigorously defend the law.”

The executive director of Central Arkansas Library System, Nate Coulter, said the judge’s 49-page decision recognized the law as censorship, a violation of the Constitution and wrongly maligning librarians.

“As folks in southwest Arkansas say, this order is stout as horseradish!” he said in an email.

“I’m relieved that for now the dark cloud that was hanging over CALS’ librarians has lifted,” he added.

Cheryl Davis, general counsel for the Authors Guild, said the organization is “thrilled” about the decision. She said enforcing this law “is likely to limit the free speech rights of older minors, who are capable of reading and processing more complex reading materials than young children can.”

The Arkansas lawsuit names the state’s 28 local prosecutors as defendants, along with Crawford County in west Arkansas. A separate lawsuit is challenging the Crawford County library’s decision to move children’s books that included LGBTQ+ themes to a separate portion of the library.

The plaintiffs challenging Arkansas’ restrictions also include the Fayetteville and Eureka Springs Carnegie public libraries, the American Booksellers Association and the Association of American Publishers.

Texas appoints school superintendent to Houston schools in June. New superintendent close library's, fires the library and media workers and makes the library's discipline centers.



Houston school district to turn libraries into disciplinary centers
Critics condemn superintendent Mike Miles’s ‘new education system’ that removes students’ access to books

Erum Salam
Sat 29 Jul 2023 07.00 EDT
The largest school district in Texas announced its libraries will be eliminated and replaced with discipline centers in the new school year.

Houston independent school district announced earlier this summer that librarian and media-specialist positions in 28 schools will be eliminated as part of superintendent Mike Miles’s “new education system” initiative.

Teachers at these schools will soon have the option to send misbehaving students to these discipline centers, or “team centers’” – designated areas where they will continue to learn remotely.

Valentina Alexander in her Birmingham bookshop MyBookbasket.
My big Birmingham bookshop crawl: why booksellers are suddenly thriving
Read more
News of the library removals comes after the state announced it would be taking over the district, effective in the 2023-24 school year, due to poor academic performance. Miles was appointed by the the Texas Education Agency in June.

In a press release announcing the schools participating in the “new education system” program, Miles said: “I am overwhelmingly proud that this many HISD school leaders are ready to take bold action to improve outcomes for all students and eradicate the persistent achievement and opportunity gaps in our district.”

Lisa Robinson, a librarian retired from the school district, told local news outlet KPRC2 that her “heart is just broken for these children that are in the [NES] schools that are losing their librarians”.

Houston’s mayor, Sylvester Turner, condemned the district’s move and said the solution to the problem of behavioral conduct was not to revoke access to books, especially in these underserved communities.

He said: “Are there students who need additional support? Yes, and I am 100% supportive of that. But it’s not an eithe/or. You don’t close the libraries, remove the librarians, and simply have the books on the shelf. What about all the other students? What are you saying to them?”

He added: “With all due respect to the superintendent, I grew up in this city. I still live in the same neighborhood that exists. I am the mayor of this city, and I am the mayor of every person who lives in the city of Houston.”

He urged schools to open up libraries to avoid creating a two-tier system within the district, as well as providing additional support to students who need it.

The Houston independent school district did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Taking their libraries from them should sure help the education process.

Trump legal fees eclipse second quarter fundraising, reports say

Former President Donald Trump's legal fees continue to mount up as he's potentially facing a historic third indictment, putting further strain on his 2024 campaign, according to multiple reports.

Driving the news: Trump's PAC, Save America, has reportedly paid over $40 million in legal fees so far in 2023; more than the campaign raised during the second quarter of the year.

According to reports from several outlets, an FEC filing that's due tomorrow will list around $40.2 million in legal fees for Trump and some others involved in ongoing cases, including valet Waltine “Walt” Nauta, and his property manager Carlos De Oliveira.

The expenses are the largest incurred so far in Trump's 2024 presidential bid, sources told The Washington Post, the first to report the news.

By the numbers: Earlier this month, the Trump campaign reported $35 million in donations received during the second quarter.

That number was almost double what the former president had raked in during 2023's first quarter -- $18.8 million.

At the time, the fundraising boost was thought to be a result of his indictment for his role in the ongoing classified documents case in mid-June.

In 2022, the campaign spent $16.4 million in legal fees, according to FEC filings, bringing the amount of spending on Trump's court cases to approximately $56.6 million to date.

The Trump campaign did not disclose how much of the $35 million raised went to Save America, but a fundraising appeal cited 90% of donations would go to the campaign and 10% to the PAC, Axios' Erin Doherty reports.

What they're saying: “In order to combat these heinous actions by Joe Biden’s cronies and to protect these innocent people from financial ruin and prevent their lives from being completely destroyed, the leadership PAC contributed to their legal fees to ensure they have representation against unlawful harassment," Trump campaign spokesman Steven Cheung told CNN in a statement.

Trump has not publicly commented on campaign fundraising but posted several messages on his Truth Social account Sunday regarding the ongoing probe by special counsel Jack Smith.

Last week, Smith met with Trump's lawyers after the former president was informed he is a target of a grand jury investigation about 2020 election interference.

Meetings like the one between Smith's office and Trump's lawyers can indicate charges are near, though Trump said on Truth Social that "no indication of notice was given during the meeting."

The bottom line: Any charges in the election interference case would likely mean more money is diverted to legal fees as the 2024 election moves closer to primary season and GOP candidates rush to qualify for the first debate next month in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

https://www.axios.com/2023/07/30/tr...kOYDPE2xY4e3YLWNoe_p6YkGbl76tCz77Kc9oxCw

Facing legal peril, Trump calls on GOP to rally around him and focus on investigating Biden

At a moment of growing legal peril, Donald Trump has ramped calls for his Republican rivals to drop out of the 2024 presidential race

NEW YORK -- At a moment of growing legal peril, Donald Trump ramped up his calls for his GOP rivals to drop out of the 2024 presidential race as he threatened to go after Republican members of Congress who fail to focus on investigating Democratic President Joe Biden.

Trump also urged a halt to Ukrainian military aid until the White House cooperates with congressional investigations into Biden and his family.

“Every dollar spent attacking me by Republicans is a dollar given straight to the Biden campaign,” Trump said at a rally in Erie, Pennsylvania, on Saturday night.

The former president and GOP front-runner said it was time for Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and others he dismissed as “clowns” to clear the field, accusing them of “wasting hundreds of millions of dollars that Republicans should be using to build a massive vote-gathering operation” to take on Biden in November.

The comments came two days after federal prosecutors unveiled new criminal charges against Trump as part of the case that accuses him of illegally hoarding classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago club and refusing to turn them over to investigators. The superseding indictment unsealed Thursday alleges that Trump and two staffers sought to delete surveillance at the club in an effort to obstruct the Justice Department's investigation.

The case is just one of Trump's mounting legal challenges. His team is currently bracing for additional possible indictments, which could happen as soon as this coming week, related to his efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election brought by prosecutors in both Washington and Georgia. Trump already faces criminal charges in New York over hush money payments made to women who accused him of sexual encounters during his 2016 presidential campaign.

Nevertheless, Trump remains the dominant early figure for the Republican nomination and has only seen his lead grow as the charges have mounted and as his rivals have struggled to respond. Their challenge was on display at a GOP gathering in Iowa Friday night, where they largely declined to go after Trump directly. The only one who did — accusing Trump of “running to stay out of prison” — was booed as he left the stage.

In the meantime, Trump has embraced his legal woes, turning them into the core message of his bid to return to the White House as he accuses Biden of using the Justice Department to maim his chief political rival. The White House has said repeatedly that the president has had no involvement in the cases.

At rallies, Trump has tried to frame the charges, which come with serious threats of jail time, as an attack not just on him, but those who support him.

“They’re not indicting me, they’re indicting you. I just happen to be standing in the way,” he said in Erie, adding, “Every time the radical left Democrats, Marxists, communists and fascists indict me, I consider it actually a great badge of honor.... Because I’m being indicted for you.”

"In order to combat these heinous actions by Joe Biden’s cronies and to protect these innocent people from financial ruin and prevent their lives from being completely destroyed, the leadership PAC contributed to their legal fees to ensure they have representation against unlawful harassment," said Trump's spokesman Steven Cheung.

At the rally, in a former Democratic stronghold that Trump flipped in 2016, but Biden won narrowly in 2020, Trump also threatened Republicans in Congress who refuse to go along with efforts to impeach Biden. House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., said this past week that Republican lawmakers may consider an impeachment inquiry into the president over unproven claims of financial misconduct.

Trump, who was impeached twice while in office, said Saturday that, “The biggest complaint that I get is that the Republicans find out this information and then they do nothing about it."

“Any Republican that doesn't act on Democrat fraud should be immediately primaries and get out — out!” he told the crowd to loud applause. “They have to play tough and ... if they’re not willing to do it, we got a lot of good, tough Republicans around ... and they're going to get my endorsement every singe time.”

Trump, during the 2022 midterm elections, made it his mission to punish those who had voted in favor of his second impeachment. He succeeded in unseating most who had by backing primary challengers.

At the rally, Trump also called on Republican members of Congress to halt the authorization of additional military support to Ukraine, which has been mired in a war fighting Russia’s invasion, until the Biden administration cooperates with Republican investigations into Biden and his family’s business dealings — words that echoed the call that lead to his first impeachment.

“He’s dragging into a global conflict on behalf of the very same country, Ukraine, that apparently paid his family all of these millions of dollars,” Trump alleged. “In light of this information,” Congress, he said, “should refuse to authorize a single additional payment of our depleted stockpiles ... the weapons stockpiles to Ukraine until the FBI, DOJ and IRS hand over every scrap of evidence they have on the Biden crime family’s corrupt business dealings.”

House Republicans have been investigating the Biden family’s finances, particularly payments Hunter, the president’s son, received from Burisma, a Ukrainian energy company that became tangled in the first impeachment of Trump.

An unnamed confidential FBI informant claimed that Burisma company officials in 2015 and 2016 sought to pay the Bidens $5 million each in return for their help ousting a Ukrainian prosecutor who was purportedly investigating the company. But a Justice Department review in 2020, while Trump was president, was closed eight months later with insufficient evidence of wrongdoing.

Trump’s first impeachment by the House resulted in charges that he pressured Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to dig up dirt on the Bidens while threatening to withhold military aid. Trump was later acquitted by the Senate.

https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/wir...5pmFOmdXfS2CAc2kEs6Ccn8mz58Guqnlg59zWFZw

I guess he must have missed that they're already doing that. To the point of desperation. Trying to make claims about some audio tape nobody has even seen or heard which in the end they had to admit they didn't know if it existed. Claiming they have a witness "they can't find". Monday they will be using a witness who was convicted of felony fraud only a few years ago. I mean it's almost like watching The Keystone Cops.

Stupid, hollow rhetoric.
American voters haven't received a target letter from Jack Smith.
Know why? Because American voters were smart enough to not crime their asses off.
Jack Smith is going after Don J Trump; not John Q. Public.

It amazes me that there exists people gullible enough to believe this stuff when The Absolute Truth is sitting right in front of them.

Like I say it’s so rewarding to see him spend all the Goper hard earned funds on his own legal fees and defense and now wants more cash for Hunter Biden investigations. Lol. “Let’s go Brandon!” Goper’s keep cracking me up.

Trump team creating legal defense fund amid mounting legal fees

Former President Donald Trump’s team is creating a legal defense fund to help offset some of the enormous bills incurred as his legal troubles mount, two sources familiar with the planning told CNN.

The fund is expected to cover the bills of some of Trump’s current and former aides and employees who have been wrapped up in various investigations into the former president. Trump’s political action committee, Save America, spent more than $40 million on legal fees for him and many of his associates since the start of 2023.

The new fund will be called the Patriot Legal Defense Fund Inc., according to the sources, and will be led by Trump associate and adviser Michael Glassner.

A Trump spokesperson blamed “the weaponized Department of Justice” and special counsel Jack Smith for targeting “innocent Americans associated with President Trump.”

“In order to combat these heinous actions by Joe Biden’s cronies and to protect these innocent people from financial ruin and prevent their lives from being completely destroyed, a new legal defense fund will help pay for their legal fees to ensure they have representation against unlawful harassment,” the spokesperson told CNN.

The New York Times first reported the expected creation of the fund.

Smith filed new charges on Thursday against the former president, his aide Walt Nauta and a third defendant, Carlos De Oliveira, in the case alleging Trump mishandled classified documents after leaving the White House. The new charges included allegations that Trump and his employees attempted to delete Mar-a-Lago security footage sought by the grand jury. Both Nauta and De Oliveira are being represented by attorneys paid for by Trump’s operation.

Earlier this year, Trump was indicted by a Manhattan grand jury on more than 30 counts related to business fraud. He also faces potential charges in the special counsel’s grand jury investigation into the lead-up to January 6, 2021, as well as an investigation by the Fulton County district attorney’s office in Georgia relating to attempts by him and his allies to overturn the state’s 2020 presidential election result.

Trump has expanded his legal team in light of the mounting legal battles he is facing.

https://www.cnn.com/2023/07/30/poli...yfxWzC4ZFOyaOPpOXtMNTQDMAgK7L0ytpqXjnUIs

This is what it actually looks like when you have built a crime family.

Republicans look to eliminate congressional office of diversity and inclusion

Rep. Alex Mooney (R-W.Va.) has introduced legislation to abolish the Office of Diversity and Inclusion of the House of Representatives.

Mooney’s bill, which has no Democratic co-sponsors, comes on the heels of the passage of the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), which eliminated diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) offices at the Pentagon.

“The House should abide by the same standards we set for federal agencies across the government, which is why I have introduced this resolution to eliminate the House Office of Diversity and Inclusion,” Mooney said in a statement.

The House Office of Diversity and Inclusion was created by the 116th Congress, after Democrats recaptured control of the House. It was the most diverse Congress ever elected, until the 2020 midterms.

But in a press release, Mooney called DEI efforts “the latest woke liberal method of injecting cultural Marxism into the workplace.” Mooney is a candidate for Senate, looking to take the seat held by Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.).

“These offices start with the premise that white people are inheritably racist and oppressive,” he said. “The House of Representatives does not need bureaucrats promoting this divisive ideology.”

Republicans have been working to eradicate DEI offices around the nation, with some limiting schools from being able to promote programs on DEI efforts or in their hiring practices.

But Republicans have stumbled in their messaging on race in the last few weeks, most notably when Rep. Eli Crane (R-Ariz.) called Black military members and veterans “colored people” in his defense of eliminating DEI offices as part of the NDAA.

The Congressional Black Caucus last week blasted these gaffes.

“They’re proving every single day why diversity, equity and inclusion is needed,” Rep. Steven Horsford (D-Nev.), chair of the caucus, told reporters. “I would encourage them to contact the Office of Diversity here at the U.S. Capitol and benefit from the training and the resources that they have.”

In a statement to The Hill, the House Office of Diversity and Inclusion emphasized that it is a nonpartisan and nonlegislative office.

“Currently, ODI, which maintains relationships on both sides of the aisle, remains committed to its mission to advance a representative and qualified workforce by “putting the people in the people’s house,” ODI Director, Sesha Joi Moon, said.

“As for the future of ODI, our office, which currently consists of 12 employees, will of course comply with any forthcoming legislation and directives from leadership.”

The bill has several initial co-sponsors, including Reps. Troy Nehls (R-Texas), Claudia Tenney (R-N.Y.), Jeff Duncan (R-S.C.), Bob Good (R-Va.), Tom Tiffany (R-Wis.), Brian Babin (R-Texas), Andrew Ogles (R-Tenn.), Chip Roy (R-Texas), Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.), Jack Bergman (R-Mich.), Mary Miller (R-Ill.), Andy Biggs (R-Ariz.) and Ralph Norman (R-S.C.).

Even if Mooney’s bill passes in the House, it’s unlikely to pass in the Democratic-controlled Senate.

https://thehill.com/homenews/house/...Ri_cK_hACGGnpbYt8Hy8V9W_NhaXsbi_a3ut_1p4

All while they claim it's the democrats waging a culture war. Many of us warned this would happen and Republicans claimed it wouldn't. Now that it's happening they defend it. Sad really....

We are all Americans. There should never be a law, a department, or any other entity that divides us. There is no need for a diversity or inclusion office. As long as the Democrats define us and label us they will keep us divided. We should be only Americans.

Yes, that all worked out so well throughout our nation's history. I'm sure there were many stating pretty much the same thing when The Civil rights Amendments were passed.

Agreed, we should be only Americans, but history does not support your reasoning. We should have never had slavery, separate but equal, or Jim Crow laws... But we did.

Those who deny history are bound to repeat it.

They gotta justify those votes and donations bro. SMH. You can’t fix stupid.

Nope, we can not fix it, stupidity !

The problem is you cannot go back in time and right the wrong of others. In today's world the race baiting is what separates us. Besides that all are equal. Decisions made by the human determine their outcomes and not outside influences.

Have you ever been pulled over for no reason? Have you ever been followed around by security at a high end clothing store for no reason? Neither have I. But I know people who have. And guess what, they weren't white people. A big part of the problem is the failure to recognize there are still problems. So people such as yourself attach negative connotations to it like "race baiting".

You certainly are right that we're all Americans. As such we should be sharing our actual history, admitting that we still have issues to fix and address those issues. Just look around you. People railing against and passing laws to discriminate against people based on their sexuality. Aren't they Americans too? When you keep repeating mistakes of the past on yet another underrepresented group you haven't learned anything from your history and just keep making the same mistakes against different groups of people.

That's exactly why you need such things as inclusion and diversity boards. To make sure the rights of those Americans aren't being stepped on as we still see today. Just pretending like it no longer exists by applying a negative label to it doesn't mean it's disappeared.

Wow, watch the lights come on…

I really didn't pay any attention to the commentary that went along with what Steve Deace himself actually said. But watching Deace have that "Come to Jesus moment" for lack of a better term was priceless. It shows that there's actually still hope for some.

DeSantis-controlled Disney World district abolishes diversity, equity initiatives

ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) — Diversity, equity and inclusion programs were abolished Tuesday from Walt Disney World’s governing district, now controlled by appointees of Gov. Ron DeSantis, in an echo of the Florida governor’s agenda which has championed curtailing such programs in higher education and elsewhere.

The Central Florida Tourism Oversight District said in a statement that its diversity, equity and inclusion committee would be eliminated, as would any job duties connected to it. Also axed were initiatives left over from when the district was controlled by Disney supporters, which awarded contracts based on goals of achieving racial or gender parity.

Glenton Gilzean, the district’s new administrator who is African American and a former head of the Central Florida Urban League, called such initiatives “illegal and simply un-American.” Gilzean has been a fellow or member at two conservative institutions, the James Madison Institute and the American Enterprise Institute Leadership Network, as well as a DeSantis appointee to the Florida Commission on Ethics.

“Our district will no longer participate in any attempt to divide us by race or advance the notion that we are not created equal,” Gilzean said in a statement. “As the former head of the Central Florida Urban League, a civil rights organization, I can say definitively that our community thrives only when we work together despite our differences.”

An email was sent seeking comment from Disney World.

Last spring, DeSantis, who is running for the GOP presidential nomination, signed into law a measure that blocks public colleges from using federal or state funding on diversity programs.

DeSantis also has championed Florida’s so-called “Stop WOKE” law, which bars businesses, colleges and K-12 schools from giving training on certain racial concepts, such as the theory that people of a particular race are inherently racist, privileged or oppressed. A federal judge last November blocked the law’s enforcement in colleges, universities and businesses, calling it “positively dystopian.”

The creation of the district, then known as the Reedy Creek Improvement District, was instrumental in Disney’s decision to build a theme park resort near Orlando in the 1960s. Having a separate government allowed the company to provide zoning, fire protection, utilities and infrastructure services on its sprawling property. The district was controlled by Disney supporters for more than five decades.

Richard Foglesong, a Rollins College professor emeritus, said he was surprised that the matter was decided internally, rather than by a public vote of the five members appointed by DeSantis to the district’s board who have promised repeatedly to be more transparent than their predecessors.

“This is an issue of public importance,” said Foglesong, who wrote a definitive account of Disney World’s governance in his book, “Married to the Mouse: Walt Disney World and Orlando.”

The DeSantis appointees took control of the renamed district earlier this year following a yearlong feud between the company and DeSantis. The fight began last year after Disney, beset by significant pressure internally and externally, publicly opposed a state law banning classroom lessons on sexual orientation and gender identity in early grades, a policy critics call “Don’t Say Gay.”

As punishment, DeSantis took over the district through legislation passed by Republican lawmakers and appointed a new board of supervisors to oversee municipal services for the sprawling theme parks and hotels. Disney sued DeSantis and his five board appointees in federal court, claiming the Florida governor violated the company’s free speech rights by taking the retaliatory action.

Before the new board came in, Disney made agreements with previous oversight board members who were Disney supporters that stripped the new supervisors of their authority over design and development. The DeSantis-appointed members of the governing district have sued Disney in state court in a second lawsuit stemming from the district’s takeover, seeking to invalidate those agreements.

https://apnews.com/article/disney-d...R8SWVG0El8Q5QEae7WXfOYwHiITJl7hl5jDs77qY

And just think, this was the same political party who not so long ago said that government should stay out of interfering with business. But then the whack a moles took over.

Imagine these radical unhinged far right ‘laws’ being applied across the country. Got a feeling America would look like a hood wearing klan within a year. DeStains can never be POTUS.

Wrong again. The clan was formed by the Democrats. Republican's stand for all Americans and not dividing us for their personal gain (voting blocks).

So who runs the Klan today, Democrats? The people who support which party control the Klan today?

This is from 2016.....

Former KKK Leader David Duke Says 'Of Course' Trump Voters Are His Voters

https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo...ys-of-course-trump-voters-are-his-voters

David Duke was the grand wizard of the KKK.

So the Christian right isn't a voting bloc? Come on man. Look at the laws being enacted in red states against gay and trans people and their self proclaimed "war on woke" and then try to honestly say they aren't trying to "divide us for personal gain". Look at trump and all of his cronies spreading the lie that the election was stolen to purposefully divide the people and then claim Republicans aren't trying to "divide us for personal gain".

Do you you manage to post this BS with a straight face?

Sure it was, back when dems acted almost as bad as Trumpians. Those roles changed decades ago, get with the times. The modern dems will save you if you just get out of the way. SMH, some people would do well to get themselves a power of attorney for a dem to handle their important affairs. Bonus is there would be way more time to focus on conspiracy theories.

Here is something to think about. When I was a kid in the Coal mines of Kentucky everyone, I knew were Democrats. Strong Union Democrats. The small towns still had buildings there that were known as the white fountain and the colored fountain. Today, white and black people live in the same neighborhoods in those small coal towns. Also, when I go back to visit everyone has become Republicans. So as the South turned more Republican it became less racist at the same time. Something to really think long and hard about!

You know that supporting a bill that doesn't work like affirmative action does not make a person not racist. Affirmative action has been in place for years and has not improved black people's quality of life at all. Martin Luther King said he wanted to live in a world that people were judged by the quality of their character and not the color of their skin. I agree with that. Democrats want black people to feel victimized and suppressed. If they didn't in places were Democrats have been in legal control for decades the quality of life would have improved for their citizens. Ask Detroit, Chicago, Baltimore, etc... citizens if their quality of life has improved. Supporting a failed policy does not make a person less racist. Treating everyone no matter the color of their skin the same makes a person not a racist.

Ikr

Yes, because LBJ, a democrat, worked his ass off convincing just enough Republicans to go along with voting for Civil Rights Amendments. They turned into Republicans because the Democrats pushed for treating blacks as equal. Once again, history dictates it was George Wallace, a republican, who stood on the steps of the University of Alabama and said "In the name of the greatest people that have ever trod this earth, I draw the line in the dust and toss the gauntlet before the feet of tyranny, and I say segregation now, segregation tomorrow, segregation forever." He actually blocked blacks from entering the building. The president had to send the National Guard to escort black students into a school. The KKK was ran by David Duke who said trump voters were his voters. The truth is there for anyone who doesn't make themselves purposely blind to it.

As much as you wish to write an alternate version of history, the reality of it isn't going to go away.

Must of got his critical race learning from a good ole boy.

The consequences keep getting more severe in Tommy Tuberville's war against the military..........

DoD chief warns of disruptions as Army, Marines lack confirmed leaders

WASHINGTON — Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin warned that troop readiness and retention is at risk as the Army’s chief stepped down Friday, leaving the military’s two ground combat forces without Senate-confirmed leaders for the first time in history.

Speaking during a ceremony at Joint Base Myer-Henderson Hall, Austin said the Senate’s failure to confirm the services’ new leaders is disruptive to the force and could impact relationships with allies and partners around the globe.

The confirmation of the next Army chief and Marine commandant are among more than 300 military nominations stalled by Alabama Sen. Tommy Tuberville, a Republican, over the Pentagon’s policy to pay for travel when a service member has to go out of state to get an abortion or other reproductive care.

“Today for the first time in the history of the Department of Defense, two of our services will be operating without Senate confirmed leadership,” said Austin. “Great teams need great leaders, and that’s central to maintaining the full might of the most lethal fighting force on earth.”

Army Gen. James McConville is retiring and Gen. Randy George, the current vice chief has been nominated to become the next chief of the service. On Friday, George became the acting chief. Similarly, Marine Gen. Eric Smith has been nominated to be the next commandant, but is serving in an acting capacity now because he hasn’t been confirmed.

Both can serve as “acting” chiefs, but can do nothing that would presume confirmation. As a result, they can’t move into the main residences or offices, or issue formal planning guidance, which is traditional for a new leader. And officials have also warned that there are some authorities, including some budgeting powers, that don’t shift to acting leaders.

“We need these leaders in place to ensure the readiness of our force,” said Army Secretary Christine Wormuth, speaking at the ceremony. “And we need to end all of this uncertainty for our military families.” She noted that officers and their families are in limbo, waiting to see if they will move or not to new bases, states and job.

Smith addressed the issue in a letter to the force on Thursday, laying out the need for the Corps to continue modernization efforts and broader programs to improve warfighting.

“Until the Senate confirms our 39th Commandant, this guidance will serve as our reference point,” Smith said. " I cannot predict how long this process may take, but waiting is not an option for Marines, so we will move out as a team – just as we would in combat.”

Tuberville has blocked efforts to have Senate votes on all nominations for senior military jobs because he disagrees with the travel pay policy. And congress is now out on summer vacation, which means there will be no action on the jobs for weeks.

Adm. Michael Gilday, chief of naval operations, will step down on Monday. Adm. Lisa M. Franchetti, the current vice chief, has been nominated to take over.

Further complicating things, Air Force Gen. CQ Brown has been nominated to become the next chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, when Army Gen. Mark Milley leaves, as required by law, on Sept. 30. The current vice chairman, Adm. Christopher Grady, would serve as acting chairman.

Brown, whose term as Air Force chief goes for another year, will remain in that post. Gen. David Allvin has been nominated to be the next Air Force chief, if Brown moves to the chairman’s job.

https://www.militarytimes.com/news/...xl6nsxgXRN4732eEAdh9vZdl-WtNdg5LIPkT27SE

#freedumb

Goper’s and their war against women’s reproductive rights is more important than national security…pffft

And once again the party of no…cutting the purse strings. Can’t expect to get qualified leaders if you aren’t going to pay them. Like teachers, police, and first responders. Get a clue Gopers

Many of our teachers are not qualified to teach, and while the good ones are underpaid. The bad ones are overpaid.

Morning dawg…. That can be fixed.

GOOD TEACHERS are made when they are given a subject to teach then allowed to teach it as they see fit. All this ‘fit in the mold of a factory worker’ public education state/national testing needs to go away. The quality of ones education should be measured by their accomplishments after the education, not their test taking prowess.

The best teachers I’ve had in my life were free to teach in their own way.

We should also accelerate education in the US by making school year round, and adding at minimum an associates level degree into public high school curriculums. Graduate with a specialized associates degree and some damn direction rather than being allowed to flounder and seek only menial jobs as a career path. We also should stress the importance of ongoing education and teach our youth to strive to learn new things every day. Lastly, we need to teach them to use their screen wielding tech as tools for success and not just for gaming, social media, or hook-ups. Over the next decade, AI will enhance everything, and if this new LK99 superconductor proves out, there will be drastic improvements on our electronic devices. It makes no damn sense to me at all to use this tech for posting cat videos, lunch pics, or other idiotic uses, while remaining ignorant to the greater world around you. Today, your phone is stronger than the computers that took us to the moon and look at the crap we use them for.

I agree and it's long past time to do so.

I wouldn’t teach dog tricks, let alone school kids in a red state with a Governor like DeStains. Every teacher in Florida at all levels should just quit. Let the Trumpian cuckoos bring in MAGA priestesses to teach their rug rats. Let everyone else sign their kids up for online school from a sane state.

I stopped reading at "Teachers should be able to teach how they see fit" Wrong. Teachers should teach standardized course work so students can learn skills at grade level or higher. You dont get to teach based on your feelings.

Did I say they shouldn’t use school books? No I didn’t. But teaching for efficiency tests is a ridiculous way to teach. Teachers need to form bonds and reach kids on their particular level to really awaken their minds. Who knows how many Einsteins we’ve lost with the dumbed down education system and letting special interest zealots bring religion into public schools. We’ve been creating an abundance of absolute morons for at least 20 years. Yes, there were always some here and there, but they are now everywhere. Surely, you’ve noticed.

Like I said, the best teachers I had coming up taught like this. They’re the ones you remember with a smile on your heart. You actually learned the subject thoroughly back then. But I also had mediocre and bad/poor quality teachers. So, I get you may have never had a teacher like that, but it was pretty common when I came through the education system. Teachers cared about the kids and weren’t afraid of them or worried about getting gunned down at work. They also didn’t have to come out of pocket for school supplies or helping feed other peoples kids. And they could make a few extra bucks leading or assisting with tons of extracurricular activities. Teachers were much more respected. If a teacher had to call your parents over your behavior, you were screwed. You welcomed a paddling to keep your parents out of it. It was a different era.

But he’s got so much more harm he can cause before he finally croaks. Why retire now?

Anybody notice how the anti cancel culture brigade can literally devour their own in an instant. Lol

All they have to do is say one negative thing about trump or disagree with him about something and they're toast. This is no longer the Republican party. It's the trumpian party.

Yet another frivolous lawsuit by trump. This time attacking a woman who was proven to be one of his victims. And of course he plans to appeal the decision....

Trump counterclaim against E. Jean Carroll dismissed

A federal judge Monday dismissed former President Trump’s claim that E. Jean Carroll defamed him in May after a jury found Trump liable for sexually abusing the writer.

The day after the verdict, Carroll appeared on CNN and indicated Trump had raped her. The jury had not found Trump liable for rape under New York’s definition, but instead found him liable for sexual abuse.

Trump then claimed Carroll’s insistence on CNN amounted to defamation, filing a counterclaim in Carroll’s other lawsuit that has not yet gone to trial.

U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan on Monday dismissed Trump’s argument, ruling Carroll’s statement on the cable network was substantially true and that “[t]here would have been no different effect on the mind of an average listener.”

“The difference between Ms. Carroll’s allegedly defamatory statements — that Mr. Trump ‘raped’ her as defined in the New York Penal Law — and the ‘truth’ — that Mr. Trump forcibly digitally penetrated Ms. Carroll — is minimal. Both are felonious sex crimes,” Kaplan ruled.

Kaplan, a Clinton appointee, separately rejected Trump’s defense that he has “absolute presidential immunity” in the case.

Trump attorney Alina Habba said the former president would be filing an appeal shortly, calling it a “flawed decision.”

Carroll in June 2019 publicly accused Trump of raping her in a New York department store in the mid-1990s. She has since filed two lawsuits against Trump.

In May, a jury heard one of those cases and found Trump liable for sexual abuse and defaming Carroll last year by denying her story.

Carroll appeared on CNN the following morning, and Trump appeared on the network for a town hall hours after that.

Both addressed the jury’s verdict during their appearances. Carroll added Trump’s comments to her pending lawsuit, and Trump followed by filing the now-dismissed counterclaim.

The lawsuit had originally accused Trump of defamation when Carroll initially came forward in 2019. It cited three statements Trump made denying Carroll’s story, including one he made during an interview with The Hill. A trial is scheduled for January.

“We are pleased that the Court dismissed Donald Trump’s counterclaim,” Carroll attorney Robbie Kaplan, who is not related to the judge, said in a statement.

“That means that the January 15th jury trial will be limited to a narrow set of issues and shouldn’t take very long to complete,” she continued. “E. Jean Carroll looks forward to obtaining additional compensatory and punitive damages based on the original defamatory statements Donald Trump made in 2019.”

https://thehill.com/regulation/cour...8iKEL0vYbS7tpX-ZJkXH-mlNFwAgt5XrbTPi_rs4

Lol … more goper campaign funds being used to shine the turd they put in front of us.

Jc

Make sure y’all vote today if you live in Ohio. These crazy ass republicans in the state legislature trying their normal crap again, thinking there was gonna be low voter turnout for the special election.

I am voting against Issue 1 myself. I think my biggest fear/qualm with the whole thing is that they are using the anti-abortion argument as a Trojan horse to really move the needle further away from pure-form democracy. Regardless of my own beliefs on abortion, we have to safeguard the system. I am hoping that other people view it that way, too. We can't sacrifice important aspects of our democratic construct because we really want a certain policy to be implemented and never changed.

I think it was someone on here that said if it was just about the 60% thing, then it's a different ballgame entirely. We can at least have a conversation about that, and honestly you could probably get me to vote yes. And at the end of the day, wasn't that their main goal (abortion was allegedly polling at 58% in favor)?

But of course they had to layer on the BS with the ridiculous signature requirements, force it into an August election when they said those were no good, and only apply all these higher thresholds to citizen-driven amendments (ones coming from the legislature, where Republicans have a death grip thanks to unconstitutional gerrymandering, still pass with a simple majority).

They're not even trying to hide it anymore, and I think/hope they get a big smack upside the head today... if nothing else than for the shear arrogance behind Issue 1.

Ahhh, 05 and Oob have finally came to the dark side.

Welcome, brothers.

Haha, thanks man. I've been told by two different sides that I'm on the dark side, so it's a lose-lose for me

The undermining of democracy continues. And you're right. They're not even trying to hide it anymore.

I saw something yesterday that seemed to be one of the most appropriate descriptions of what we are currently seeing unfold with trump......

"Accountability feels like persecution to those who have never been held accountable."

FIFY 🤪

Let me know when Biden is indicted 3 times on over 70 counts. As of now your response is nothing more than a temper tantrum with zero substance. Basing emotions on a supposed audio tape that there's no evidence it actually exists and a witness who testified the opposite of what was claimed he would testify to is like watching the Keystone Cops.

We are being told that passage protects us from special interests possible actions in future. The tangible problems I have now as an Ohio citizen include PUCO utility rates, Householder's criminal actions (including those still unrepealed), the over-reach lunacy of Issue 1, illegal gerrymandering, horrible school funding and biased subsidizing of for-profit charters, and catering to anti-abortion despite majority wishes.
I am convinced that we need to protect ourselves, and our rights, and prevent LaRose and the Republican "party" from further power grabs. This represents the real special interest group threatening Ohio today, and doing it for an anti-abortion movement that is legislating from a minority, and is able to do its agenda with the personal aiding and abetting of LaRose. I hope it is defeated soundly.

A temper tantrum? 🤣

This place is a non-stop temper tantrum, with basically one poster at the controls... It ain't me! lmao

And yet it continues.....

I know you somehow wish to present that showing and documenting the facts of what's going on as a temper tantrum. When the facts obviously point in a direction you don't like the only weapon you have left it to attack the messenger. Very trumpian like.

Yes, it's those who use brainless memes because they can provide no substance to argue the truth with. Their only instinctive reaction is to lash out against the truth.

A live map of voter turnout in Cuyahoga County. So far, Cleveland proper seems to have a more than crappy voter turnout.

https://cuyahogavoters.s3.amazonaws.com/map.html

This same site reported 19% of the County and 12% of Cleveland at 11AM.

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.

Ohio voters sent a message to the ruling party of the state...the real political power is in the hands of each voter.

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.

oobs...GOP miscalculation on the issue of a woman's right to choose...

the GOP did this to themselves by using their power and control to push their minority agenda, believing that the voters would not react to the GOPs "misuse" of their power by targeting women and woman's rights.

It started with the GOP's desire to use a their radical right leaning Supreme Court majority to target women's rights.

When American voters are represented by elected officials who put their minority agenda ahead of the viewpoint and wishes of the majority of voters...voters have no recourse but to VOTE THEM OUT.

It started with the Supreme Court and now the GOP is left with the payback from the voters. The only way that the GOP escapes the tidal wave that is coming is if the Radical Right Supremes revisit their decision to limit women's rights. It was terrible decision by the court that affected voters regardless of party affiliation.

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.

And if you'll buy that I'll make you a good deal on some ocean front property in Arizona. He's been lying to you since he said he would build the wall and Mexico would pay for it and you still believe this clown.

Montana man sentenced to federal prison for threatening to kill US Sen. Jon Tester

MISSOULA, Mont. (AP) — A Montana man was sentenced Thursday to 2 1/2 years in federal prison for threatening to kill U.S. Sen. Jon Tester in voicemails left at the Democratic lawmaker’s office.

Kevin Patrick Smith, of Kalispell, pleaded guilty in April to one count of threats to injure and murder a U.S. senator. U.S. District Judge Dana Christensen dismissed a second count as part of a plea agreement.

Smith, 46, made the threats because he was upset with Tester’s political decisions, court records said.

On Jan, 30, Smith made threatening phone calls to Tester’s office. The voicemails included threats to “rip your head off” and were laced with profanity. The caller acknowledged in a recording that he was threatening Tester “on purpose,” court records said. One voicemail challenged Tester to contact the FBI.

The FBI contacted Smith on Feb. 1 and told him to stop threatening the senator. But 10 days later, the threatening calls resumed, and Smith was arrested Feb. 22, the documents show.

The criminal complaint, which was later replaced by an indictment, said calls from Smith’s phone number to Tester’s office began in late 2022.

Tester is seeking his fourth term in the U.S. Senate. A third-generation farmer and former music teacher, Tester has leaned on a folksy speaking style and populist-themed messages to overcome Republican opponents in each of his last three elections.

A spokesperson for Tester, Harry Child, didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

https://apnews.com/article/senator-...J0ukjVOu-HywR-Q-CsINY9GxO19jW7QkH63iB60Y

1. I don't believe anything Trump says.
2. I hope he goes to jail
3. I would never vote for Trump if he ran again
4. Stop making everyone who doesn't agree with the liberal agenda a trump supporter.
*Both extremes... maga and liberals are brainwashing the simple minds of America and driving a wedge between both parties.

Let me explain this to you. I'll try to do it slowly just in case that might help.

You posted a meme that feeds into the conspiracy that the timing of inmate #01135809 legal troubles are something orchestrated by the democrats to interfere in the election. That in fact IS the conspiracy inmate #01135809 and his supporters are using in defense of inmate #01135809. Playing coy about that isn't attractive. So whether you wish to admit it or not, you are in fact supporting the inmate #01135809 own story in defense of him.

And let me explain something else to you. I too dislike the extremes in both parties. Read my Joe Manchin thread for a reference. Here is who I consider inmate #01135809 supporters.

1. People who outwardly make excuses for him.

2. People who avoid even so much as addressing all of the things he has done and who use deflection to avoid it.

3. Those who post things that further his own message to make it look like it's somebody eleses fault that he's being convicted or make him out to be some sort of victim. Which is what you did.

Yeah, daddy show off those beta fingers and how you type slower to show dominance.

It was an attempt to try to explain something you seem to be having trouble understanding. But I see you are following what seems to be a popular theme around here these days. Ignore every point that a poster makes and go after them instead. It is a great way of dismissing them and ignoring actually having a discussion. I'll give you that. Would you like to try again?

LMAO. Thats hilarious.

I suspect if you stopped making excuses for him, it would be clearer...

Fixed it for SBD

1. I don't believe anything Trump says.
2. I hope he goes to jail
3. I would never vote for Trump if he ran again
4. I voted for trump

Shallow minds think alike.

In Iowa and elsewhere, bans on LGBTQ+ ‘conversion therapy’ become a conservative target

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — One of Iowa’s largest cities repealed its ban on “conversion therapy” — the discredited practice of trying to change a person’s sexual orientation or gender identity through counseling — after a Christian organization threatened legal action, part of a deepening national movement to challenge protections for LGBTQ+ kids.

The city council in Waterloo voted this week to remove its restrictions after Liberty Counsel warned in a letter June 30 that it would “take further action” if the city did not repeal the ordinance by August 1. It was enacted in May.

The organization, which is based in Orlando, Florida, argued the ordinance infringes on the constitutional right to free speech and acted on behalf of a therapist in Waterloo “who was concerned about the implications of this on the practice of counseling,” Mat Staver, Liberty Counsel founder and chair, said in an interview in which he promised further litigation targeting states.

In Iowa and across the country, efforts are spreading to curb the rights of LGBTQ+ kids and adopt restrictions on gender and sexuality in classrooms, youth sports and medicine. In recent years, local bans on conversion therapy in Florida also fell with the help of Liberty Counsel, which describes itself as a Christian ministry that is “restoring the culture by advancing religious freedom, the sanctity of human life and the family.”

Such therapy has been discredited and is opposed by, among others, the American Medical Association and the American Psychiatric Association, citing research that shows it leads to increased risk of suicide and depression.

“The mental health mainstream believes that one, that these practices don’t really work, and two, that they may cause harm,” said Dr. Jack Drescher, a Columbia University psychiatry professor and editor of the chapter on gender dysphoria in the psychiatric association’s diagnostic manual. “There’s no science on the side of people who believe in conversion therapy. There’s just faith and belief.”

Laws prohibiting mental health professionals from attempting to change a minor’s sexual orientation or gender identity are on the books in 22 states and Washington, D.C., according to the Movement Advancement Project, an LGBTQ+ rights think tank. In 13 states, including Iowa, some municipalities have adopted their own provisions.

The issue has the potential to come to a head in the next year if the U.S. Supreme Court decides early this fall to hear the appeal of a Washington state therapist, Brian Tingley, whose lawsuit was dismissed.

While early lawsuits similar to Tingley’s failed, a Supreme Court ruling in 2018 prompted a new round of cases, said Christy Mallory, legal director at the UCLA School of Law’s Williams Institute, which researches sexual orientation and gender identity. That ruling invoked free speech protections to block a California law that required anti-abortion centers to provide information about abortion.

In 2020, a panel of three federal judges in Florida relied in part on that 2018 ruling and became the first federal appeals court to block ordinances in Boca Raton and Palm Beach County that banned conversion therapy. Liberty Counsel represents the two therapists who won that case.

The diverging federal rulings in the Washington and Florida cases may be a reason for the U.S. Supreme Court to weigh in this term, bringing another high-profile LGBTQ+ issue to the docket.

Staver is confident the Supreme Court will strike down bans in the near future. And Liberty Counsel has imminent plans to sue over statewide bans, he said.

“I think it is a losing proposition for any state or local government to have one of these laws, and they would be wise to repeal them before they also are sued,” Staver said.

In Iowa, Senate Democrats and a Republican in the House introduced bills for conversion therapy bans that didn’t make it out of subcommittees in 2020. That was the last time there was a concerted effort for a ban in the state, said Damian Thompson, public policy director at Iowa Safe Schools, an organization that advocates for LGBTQ+ children.

Meanwhile, in Iowa and elsewhere, laws have since been passed to prohibit teachers from raising gender identity and sexual orientation issues with students through grade six, to restrict the restrooms transgender students can use, and to ban treatments like puberty blockers and hormone therapy for trans minors. Many are facing challenges in court.

Republican lawmakers say the laws are designed to affirm parents’ rights and protect children. The issues have become flashpoints in the race for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination.

But many parents and advocates worry about the deterioration of the rights and safety of LGBTQ+ kids.

In Waterloo, a city of over 65,000, Councilor Jonathan Grieder said he had heard concerns about conversion therapy happening in the area. He worked with Thompson at Iowa Safe Schools to draft an ordinance after watching statewide efforts stall but a ban pass in another Iowa city, Davenport, and in Linn County.

The Waterloo council approved it 6-1 in May, but overturned it 4-3 on Monday amid the prospect of costly litigation.

Archer Trip, of neighboring Cedar Falls, addressed the council before the repeal vote as a “survivor of conversion therapy” who had been placed there in high school.

“It does not work. Now, I am a proud queer man, but I am also here to protect everyone else,” Trip said. “We should protect our children.”

Archer’s twin sister, Nic Trip, who was also put in conversion therapy, testified: “Unfortunately, not all parents always make the safest decision for their children. What is the line of what is OK to do to our children?”

Mayor Quentin Hart said, not mentioning the Liberty Counsel, that there was “threat of impending litigation moving forward,” which put the members in a “tough situation.”

“I don’t believe that the Waterloo City Council are cowards,” Hart said. “I believe that they do have a decision to make tonight.”

The decision disappointed Thompson, who said Iowa Safe Schools will continue to advocate for local bans despite far-right groups’ success in turning a “common sense” issue into a “wedge culture war” one.

“Which is a shame,” Thompson said, “because in the meantime it only results in more kids being victimized and more kids, ultimately, receiving lifelong trauma.”

https://apnews.com/article/lgbtq-ga...nG76sNdqoOIMBTSpKnNeMv_Jf_NC8ql5AEQWDDV0

You know, the big claim on the right is that mass shootings are caused by people with mental health issues. But where's the push to fund and rebuild mental health in America? Well here it is! We're back to "pray the gay away".

A. I actually posted Trump's tweet. not a meme. He is his own demise. He is not a victim.
B. I am not supporting him. I was just sharing information from Trump's X social page.
C. People outwardly make excuses for various current or former presidents (not saying it's right) Ironically, you deflect more on Biden to Trump than anyone.
D. My point in the other thread was.... If anyone brings up anything about Biden, you immediately deflect and bring up Trump/#01135809/Tangerine/any other name you can think of. Try, just talking about Biden and not mentioning Trump and you also name-call/degrade/insult anyone who does not have your beliefs. Again, you are doing that in this thread.

What we have here is a constant state of people trying to control what rights you have vs what rights they think you should have. All brought on by people who are in the minority. All trying to make the majority do their bidding.

I actually only brought inmate #1135809 into the Biden threads a few days ago. It was after months of Republicans ignoring everything that has happened which has been historical by any measure one could think of.

And you may wish to think back about who it was that railed against "everything PC". The claim was that they were tired of holding back and not being able to say what they felt and how they thought about things because it was labeled they weren't PC. Okay, they got what they wanted. And now they don't like it very much because it doesn't work "just for them". I tried explaining to them at the time they should be careful what they wished for to no avail. So I'm simply honoring their request.

Try being objective and actually looking at when I brought prisoner #1135809 into the Biden threads. You'll see it was very recent. Maybe just yesterday. So you can stop making it sound like it's been going on forever. And still not one single Republican on this board has addressed all of the criminal charges against trump and what he has done, including you.

And yes, all you did was help spread inmate #1135809 propaganda on this message board straight from his own website. And BTW- I'm not the one who labeled him prisoner #1135809. That was the state of Georgia for the criminal acts he's been charged with. But you don't wish to discuss that of course. Blaming me seems like a much better option for you and others.

And here I thought you were part of the movement for personal accountability.

Pit

Your stitch wears out quickly.

Amen, we/ Americans want everyone to have the best life possible- but, we allow the 1 or 3 or 5 percent of people who have very different lives from the "norm" dictate to the majority- JMHO, it shouldn't be that way- stop catering to every possible situation.

Not at all. I use Willow branches.

Hilarious that now GOPers want to defund law enforcement to protect Trump… You can’t make this crap up.

On a much more serious note it appears Mitch McConnell had another episode where he appeared to freeze up today. I may not agree with his political platform but I hate to see this kind of thing happen to anyone. It's twice in a very short period of time.....

Yep it’s sad to see. He acted like he was stroking IMO. Definitely glitched.

This is hard to watch.

Although I feel for anyone who finds him/herself in such a state, I simply cannot forget that this man once reveled in his senatorial reputation as "The Grim Reaper." The man who killed bills for spite and Machiavellian gains. The man who touted as his crowning political achievement, the stonewalling of Merrick Garland's SCOTUS seat, and the subsequent addition of 3 SCOTUS seats under the following administration.

He was a very different man back then.

The present-day Mitch McConnell... I have sympathy and empathy for that guy. I'm a Human Being, not a ghoul.
The former Mitch McConnell- I'm actually OK with the idea that he is no longer with us.

Yes- I can hold both ideas in my head at once, with zero personal conflict.


#termlimits.

He could be having TIA's

Sad to watch.

Amen, so may of these guys and gals cling to power for to long--term limits would solve lots of problems.

Please let us elect a President who isn't in/or past his/her seventies. And I'm not badmouthing all seniors- I am one.

We need younger blood.

Yes it is. Although I’m certain if this was a leading democrat the Goper’s would be making fun of him.

I think there's a certain portion of both parties that would be mocking such a thing depending on who it had happened to. Let's not pretend that isn't true.

My wife and I were talking about this and I'll say the same thing I said to her.

I really don't have a ton of sympathy. I feel the same way about Feinstein. They are clearly not fit for office. If they were anyone else doing any other job, their employer would figure out how to put them out to pasture. Instead, they get to continue to rake in all various benefits that are paid for by the taxpayer and call what they're doing "service to their country".

agreed.

Feinstein: another poster child.

It’s not hard to watch. It’s expected.

As I said a while ago, the people have the ability to enforce term limits by voting. The conservatives of Kentucky knew he was old as dirt, claimed he was part of the deep state establishment….and re-elected him anyway. He now more likely to die in office than worry about another primary, never mind a November election.

Tired of the term limit talk from my fellow Americans who have no intention of actually enforcing it.

Two plead guilty to threatening government officials over elections

The guilty pleas in Arizona and Georgia carry possible prison sentences, and in both cases the defendants called for public officials to be killed.

Two people pleaded guilty Thursday in separate cases that involved calling for the deaths of public officials on election days following the 2020 presidential contest, federal prosecutors said.

Joshua Russell, 44, of Ohio, threatened a person in the Arizona secretary of state’s office by name, whom he called “a traitor to this country,” the Justice Department said in a statement.

“America’s coming for you, and you will pay with your life,” Russell said in a voicemail on Aug. 2, 2022, the day of Arizona’s primary elections. He made two other threats in September and November.

Russell pleaded guilty to one count of making a threatening interstate communication, the Justice Department said.

In Georgia, Chad Christopher Stark, 55, of Texas, pleaded guilty Thursday to one count of a sending a threat using a telecommunications device.

Stark on Jan. 5, 2021, posted a message to Craigslist in which he called for Georgia public officials to be killed.

“We’re going to make examples of traitors to our country,” Stark wrote, the Justice Department said.

Georgia held special Senate runoff elections that day, when Democrats ousted the two Republican incumbents. Two months earlier, Joe Biden won Georgia in the presidential election.

Threats to elections officials have skyrocketed after the 2020 election as former President Donald Trump and his allies have spread lies about the election’s having been stolen or rigged.

Forty-five percent of elections officials reported fearing for the safety of other elections workers, according to a poll released in April by the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University School of Law. The survey found 1 in 3 elections officials "have been harassed, abused, or threatened because of their job," the center said.

Russell faces a maximum sentence of five years in prison, and the charge Stark pleaded guilty to carries up to two years, prosecutors said.

Russell's sentencing is scheduled for Nov. 13, while a sentencing date has not yet been set for Stark, the Justice Department said.

Jazmin Alagha, a federal public defender representing Russell, said that “we respect this process and expect a fair result.” A defender listed as representing Stark did not immediately reply to a request for comment Thursday night.

The guilty pleas are the eighth and ninth convictions since the Justice Department formed an Election Threats Task Force to combat threats made to elections officials after the 2020 election. Fourteen cases have been charged by the task force, the Justice Department said.

“A functioning democracy requires that the public servants who administer our elections are able to do their jobs without fearing for their lives,” Attorney General Merrick Garland said in a statement Thursday.

The task force was launched in July 2021, around six months after a mob of Trump supporters attacked the U.S. Capitol and temporarily disrupted the formality of counting electoral votes.

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/el...0_vZ1OuSw4XKzYhuxss4OBM1vTB-_OWgEZNjdtdU

Murica!

Maybe behind closed doors. Many Goper’s openly mocked and joke about Feinstein and RBG and you know it. And you can see how they joke and turn Biden’s speech impediment into an impeachable offense.

You obviously don't follow some of the same social media that I do. And whether Biden simply has a "speech impediment" alone is highly questionable.

Alabama legislator agrees to plead guilty to voter fraud

Republican Rep. David Cole of Huntsville will plead guilty to a charge of voting in an unauthorized location. He will resign when he enters his guilty plea.

MONTGOMERY, Ala. — An Alabama legislator has agreed to plead guilty to a felony voter fraud charge that he used a fraudulent address to run for office in a district where he did not live, according to an agreement filed Thursday.

Republican Rep. David Cole of Huntsville will plead guilty to a charge of voting in an unauthorized location, according to a plea agreement filed in state court. He will resign from office on the day he enters his guilty plea.

Cole, a doctor and Army veteran, was elected to the House of Representatives last year. According to a plea agreement, Cole signed a lease in 2021 to pay $5 per month for a “5X5 space” in a home in order to run for office in House District 10. Cole had some mail sent there, but never lived there and never “stepped past the entry foyer” on the two times he visited the location, according to the plea agreement.

Alabama law requires candidates to live in a legislative district for one year before they run for office. Cole signed the lease for the space two days after a redistricting plan was enacted that placed the home, where Cole had lived since 2014, in another House district. Cole in 2022 signed a lease for an apartment in District 10, but he continued to claim a property tax break from the county by saying he resided at his house.

“Dr. Cole admits and takes full responsibility for the mistakes he made in the political process. He entered the process to serve his community. he has lived a life of service including serving for 22 years in the Army with tours in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Egypt,” Bill Espy, a lawyer representing Cole, said in a statement on Cole’s behalf.

According to the plea agreement, Cole will serve 60 days in the Madison County Jail and the remainder of a three-year sentence on unsupervised probation.

Cole’s arrest on Tuesday comes after accusations surfaced that he did not live in the district in which he was elected.

Elijah Boyd, the Libertarian candidate in the district, had filed an election challenge in civil court, arguing that Cole did not live in District 10 and was not eligible to represent the district.

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/el...GX9VhPIPCa8chmMGwkt25A77MtTWcVigxafh2LLA

Hmmm, I guess there was voter fraud after all. Hopefully DOTD doesn't have temporary blindness so he can see a Republican criminal this time.

According to who?

Probably those you dislike and would never possibly agree with so what's the point? I mean according to trump's doctor and arrest report in GA. he's 215 pounds.

More than 6 in 10 say Biden's mental fitness to be president is a concern, poll finds

https://www.npr.org/2023/05/23/1177...ess-to-be-president-is-a-concern-poll-fi

I understand that you probably don't think 60% of Americans qualifies as "highly questionable".

Conspiracy Theory Kingpin Calls for Hunter Biden’s Execution

At a wild pitstop of the ReAwaken America tour, headlined by Donald Trump Jr., Stew Peters demanded “permanent accountability” for another presidential failson

Conspiracy theorist Stew Peters made a startling demand for public executions at the latest stop on the ReAwaken America tour — calling for the death of Joe Biden’s son Hunter as well as Dr. Anthony Fauci, whom Peters insisted should “hang from a length of thick rope until he is dead.”

Peters speaks in the argot of the tin-foil-hat set. To hear him tell it, Fauci deserves the gallows because the federal physician-scientist supposedly backed a Wuhan “bioweapons lab” — and that this “illegal research” cost “millions of lives.” The younger Biden should get the “Julius and Ethel Rosenberg” treatment, Peters insisted, for the “treason” of “selling this country off to rich oligarchs.” Peters also demanded that Alejandro Mayorkas, the secretary of Homeland Security, be executed as “a treasonous traitor” because he has permitted legions of “rapists and murderers and killers and goons” to breach the border.

“In the world that we are going to build,” Peters declared, “traitors will hang.”

As Peters ramped up this violent diatribe, including with a call to drown doctors who care for transgender patients, no one cut his microphone. The North Las Vegas crowd didn’t recoil; rather, they filled the giant air-conditioned tent hall with hoots and hollers of approval. After Peters thundered his demand for “permanent accountability with extreme prejudice,” emcee Clay Clark treated Peters as if he were a WWE star. “Ladies and gentlemen,” he intoned. “Let’s hear it for Stuuuuuuuuuuuuuu Peters!!”

ReAwaken America is a traveling, far-right roadshow, headlined by pardoned criminal Gen. Michael Flynn, and Clark, the Tulsa-based entrepreneur radio personality. It has drawn raucous crowds across the country, with an atmosphere that’s part political convention, part religious revival, and part QAnon circus. Just minutes after Peters’ call for Hunter Biden’s execution, a different presidential failson, Donald Trump Jr., picked up the same red-white-and-blue mic, and began preaching to the MAGA minions about the dangers and “derangement” of the Left.

Peters couldn’t be a more natural fit in this setting. He is a media maven for a country hooked on conspiracy theories,catering to a religious, red-pilled audience that chooses to live in a dark irreality, full of horrific plots, satanic forces, and illicit knowledge. No longer just a sideshow on the right’s lunatic fringe, Peters, through his dark films and on his nightly streaming broadcast, is reaching an audience of millions. Increasingly, he’s playing host to elected officials, including sitting members of congress, at least one of whom praises him as a “friend.”

Peters is a prolific conspiracy content creator. In the last two years, he has churned out a pair of feature-length films — “Watch the Water” and “Died Suddenly” — each falsely purporting to reveal demonic plots behind the novel coronavirus and the “bioweapon” vaccines allegedly foisted on an unsuspecting public by a nefarious cabal.

His first film absurdly purported that Covid is connected to snake venom in the water, and that mRNA jabs transform humans into satanic “hybrids.” The second movie spreads the widely debunked conspiracy theory that Covid vaccines are causing an epidemic of heart failure — which Peters paints as part of a genocidal plot by “globalist” elites to “depopulate” the world. The noxious films have been streamed by tens of millions of viewers.

In addition to the viral success of his smooth-brained cinema, Peters has also built a large audience for his weeknight broadcasts of the “Stew Peters Show,” which has more than half a million subscribers on Rumble alone. Peters did not respond to an interview request to discuss his worldview or his calls for public hangings. But such calls to violence — in particular toward Fauci — are a staple of Peters’ schtick. As is lofting new, ever-more-absurd conspiracy theories, like that the Titan submersible was destroyed to prevent the public from learning that the Titanic was not, in fact, sunk by an iceberg but in a nefarious plot linked to the Rothschilds.

In a sane world, Peters would be politically radioactive. But the conspiratorial audience that Peters is building is, to be frank, a key component of the modern GOP base. And these days, Peters’ broadcast is not just filled with fellow-citizen crackpots. It’s becoming a venue for right-wing GOP politicians who treat Peters as just another media persona. Peters has interviewed many members of the United States Congress, including Paul Gosar, Bob Good, Pete Sessions, and Andy Biggs, who signed off with the encouraging words to Peters: “Keep preaching, my friend.” He’s also interviewed the anti-vax extremist Robert Kennedy, Jr., now a Democratic candidate for president.

Peters has long hungered for this kind of limelight. He grew up in Minnesota and first attempted to launch a career as a rapper, performing under the name Fokiss, pronounced “focus,” while sporting a frosted-tip mini mohawk.

His boastful bars included predictions of triumph: “The future looks real bright for Fokiss/ we’re planning shows in the tropics / I’m talking Grammys and Oscars.” But when his rap dreams fizzled, Peters turned to a different life on the edge — as a bounty hunter.

In this business, Peters was infamous for controversial outfits, including a dark uniform and a badge, that critics contended could be confused with law enforcement. The Minnesota legislature took this issue seriously enough to make changes to state law in 2015 that, as AP reported it, were “aimed mostly at curtailing Peters.” (At the time, Peters insisted he had no intention of being confused for a policeman. “We’re proudly bounty hunters,” Peters said. “I don’t go out to play cops and robbers.”) But Peters’ career catching bail hoppers petered out, around the time he ran afoul of the law himself in 2021 — reportedly getting sentenced to probation after a domestic dispute.

But by then, Peters’ conspiracy-laced, shock-jock enterprise was already taking off. His online show launched in 2020, just as the coronavirus pandemic struck. Is Peters a true believer in the garbage he peddles? Or a cynical man who found lucrative way to build an audience? In the end, any level of ironic detachment from the material matters less than surface-level ugliness that Peters is preaching to rapt crowds.

At ReAwaken America, Peters flashed the full, rancid, often bigoted, display of his conspiratorial repertoire. (Peters’ dark comments were first highlighted by Right Wing Watch.) The theme of his address was how “Trust the Plan” — a popular slogan among believers in the QAnon conspiracy — may be too passive, and why listeners must decide to make their own plan.

“The group of people who can sit around and ‘trust the plan’ are liberal Democrats,” he argued. “Our enemies have a plan. Our enemies’ leader has a plan. We all have one common enemy, his name is Satan,” Peters said, giving the speech a dark, biblical twist. “And right now his minions are trying to run this country.”

Even as he invoked the Good Book, Peters wove in the latest, utterly abominable conspiracy about the Obamas, suggesting Michelle Obama is secretly a man (known to believers of this hokum as “Big Mike”) and insisting, therefore, Barack Obama was the “first gay president” — with Peters sneering hatefully that liberals want “our first tranny president.”

Lacking a theory to peddle as much as just naked, bigoted disrespect, Peters then railed against “big, fat, black Fani Willis,” the Fulton County DA who indicted Trump for election crimes, before pivoting to a medley of Covid misinformation, and then adding a soupçon of QAnon: “Our opponents have a plan to make America communist, to overthrow our constitution,” he said, and “to turn our children into their painted sex slaves.”

In his ReAwaken calls for public executions, it should be noted, Peters did call for nominal trials before imposing the death penalty. But introducing a video of his speech on the Christian nationalist social network Gab, Peters seemed to suggest he’d be also alright with wild-west style justice.

“The plan is called EXTREME accountability,” he wrote. “So get your ropes ready…”

https://www.rollingstone.com/politi...6mbjRFcGr8FLxIcCnx9dk3cRThb7cZninj1cr_Go

You shouldnt give a conspiracy theorist like him a platform.

Right wind extreme media sources do. I on the other hand post in in a fashion that shows it for exactly for what it is unlike what they do. If you fail to recognize the things that are going on around you, you deny yourself the ability to understand what's going on around you.

When you repeat the nonsense youre just as bad. You could be unknowingly creating new radicals.

I think you're confused about what giving someone a platform means. Or maybe you're just being purposefully obtuse. I'm guessing it's the latter of the two. Giving them a platform would mean allowing them to spread their message unchecked. That's not what's happening here. Repeating his nonsense would be doing that and only that. I'm posting just how wrong and dangerous his message is. He is trying to create new radicals. I'm sending a warning out about it. If you tried really hard you could do much better than that.

You didnt warn anybody against anything. You parroted an article for more extremists to read. Thats on you dude.

What, we’re now assessing someone’s speech impediment and mental health on a NPR poll? Gotcha.

I think you once again have no idea what the word, "parroting" means. That would mean repeating exactly what he said without pointing out the danger and craziness of what he said. That's not what was done here.

I've explained it in a way that even a six year old could understand. You either lack the ability to understand it, refuse to understand it or are pretending not to understand it. Once again I choose to believe it's the latter of the three. But you do you. People with any type of understanding know the difference in what you're claiming and what was done here.

Maybe you need an intro to plagarism course so you know what parroting means.

See, even a website you normally agree with isn't good enough for you.

Try looking at what I posted.


I guess that even if that poll is off by 10% you don't think that half the people polled that question his mental fitness makes it "highly questionable".

Now can you show me the evidence that it is not highly questioned? I didn't think so.

It's not about what you think. it's not about what I think. It's about the fact according to what the public thinks. And please don't resort to showing doctors who agree with you who have never diagnosed Biden.

Parroting; repeat mechanically.

It's not that complicated.

On the GOP and their Furher-ex-President Trump----he of " I'll give up my salary as President".....check out how he screw us little taxpayers- "As if a shocking fraud case weren't enough, Trump Tower has hit the headlines for a multitude of reasons. On 17 October 2022, an investigation by the House Committee on Oversight and Reform was publicly released, detailing how much Donald Trump charged security agents to stay in his hotels while they protected him during his time as president. During Trump’s presidency, Trump Hotels charged the Secret Service as much as $1,185 per night, more than five times the recommended government rate, at least 40 times between January 2017 and September 2021, and have continued to do so even after Trump left office." Ain't it wonderful our honest former President screwed the government and filled his pockets over and over again housing his protectors.....ONLY TRUMP. Ain't he just grand. MAGA- what a JOKE and loser he is---buy your Jail Picture T-shirt soon.....WOW.