;)
June 15, 2022
Afternoon Update:
Jeff Cox of CNBC: "The Federal Reserve on Wednesday launched its biggest broadside yet against inflation, raising benchmark interest rates three-quarters of a percentage point in a move that equates to the most aggressive hike since 1994. Ending weeks of speculation, the rate-setting Federal Open Market Committee took the level of its benchmark funds rate to a range of 1.5%-1.75%, the highest since just before the Covid pandemic began in March 2020. Additionally, members indicated a much stronger path of rate increases ahead to arrest inflation moving at its fastest pace going back to December 1981, according to one commonly cited measure." The Washington Post's story is here. The New York Times report, part of a liveblog, is here.
Carolyn Thompson of the AP: "The white gunman who killed 10 Black people in a racist attack at a Buffalo supermarket was charged Wednesday with federal hate crimes and could face the death penalty if convicted. The criminal complaint filed Wednesday against Payton Gendron coincided with a visit to Buffalo by Attorney General Merrick Garland. He met with the families of the people who were killed and placed a bouquet of white flowers tied with a yellow ribbon at a memorial outside the store, which has been closed since the attack."
GOP Mobilizes Vast Voter Intimidation Squad Made Up of Election Deniers. Isaac Arnsdorf & Josh Dawsey of the Washington Post: "The Republican National Committee is spending millions this year in 16 critical states on an unprecedented push to recruit thousands of poll workers and watchers, adding firepower to a growing effort on the right to find election irregularities that could be used to challenge results. The RNC was until recently barred from bringing its substantial resources to bear on field operations at polling sites because of a decades-old court order.... The RNC has so far signed up more than 14,000 poll workers and 10,000 poll watchers nationwide, and political director Elliott Echols said the party plans to have more than 5,000 in each state for the November midterms.... While Democrats have set up legal hotlines and mobilized volunteers by stressing a need to help those denied a chance to vote, the Republican operation is centered on challenging ballots, spotting potential fraud -- and for poll watchers, reporting those concerns directly to party attorneys on Election Day, according to the RNC."
"The Plot Thickens." Aaron Blake of the Washington Post: "... for the first time, we have real detail on what evidence the Jan. 6 committee ... [has on a 'reconnaissance' tours of the Capitol the day before the insurrection]. And while far from conclusive, it further calls into question the misleading denials and explanations offered by Rep. Barry Loudermilk (R-Ga.). The Jan. 6 committee on Wednesday morning released new details about the group Loudermilk led around the Capitol complex on Jan. 5.... According to surveillance footage, the letter says, Loudermilk led a tour of 'approximately ten individuals' through a trio of House office buildings and near entrances to the tunnels to the Capitol. The committee indicates participants acted in an unusual manner, taking photographs of areas 'not typically of interest to tourists, including hallways, staircases, and security checkpoints.' It says one of those people ... marched to the Capitol on Jan. 6. While near the Capitol, someone the committee identifies as the same man recorded a video with threatening words for Democratic members of Congress. 'There's no escape, Pelosi, Schumer, Nadler; we're coming for you,' the man says in footage provided by the committee." A Politico story is here. A CNN story is here. ~~~
~~~ Marie: There's no publicly-released evidence that Barry was anything but a dupe in this guy's plan to assault Nancy Pelosi & others, but Barry's shifting stories make him seem, well, shifty. A normal person would cooperate with the committee to get to the bottom of this man's motives to go on a Capitol tour & take photos of areas that to you & me would be of no more interest than the stairwell in our local parking garage.
Michelle Cottle of the New York Times writes about something we discussed in yesterday's thread: In snippits of an interview the January 6 committee released Monday, Trump campaign manager Bill Stepien said, "'I didn't mind being characterized as being part of Team Normal ... I've built up a pretty good -- I hope -- a good reputation for being honest and professional. I didn't think what was happening was necessarily honest or professional at that point in time. So that led to me stepping away.'... A more accurate, less self-aggrandizing way might be to say that he slunk away ... in the hopes that no one would notice him fleeing the spiraling freak show to which he had sold his services and his soul. And he has since taken pains to stay on Mr. Trump's good side: In the 17 months after the Jan. 6 insurrection, he has served as a consultant to the former president's Save America PAC and signed on to work with Trump-backed candidates who have peddled, or have at least flirted with, the election-fraud fiction.... He is apparently cool with Mr. Trump's basic plan to burn down the nation by advancing conspiracy theories about a rigged election.... This, apparently, is what constitutes 'normal' in today's Republican Party." Cottle gives props to Bill Barr, too, as the most craven representative of this bunch of reprobates.
Adam Liptak of the New York Times: "The Supreme Court on Wednesday dismissed an appeal from several states led by Republicans that had sought to step in to defend a Trump-era immigration policy that the Biden administration has abandoned. The court's decision was one sentence long and said only that the states' petition seeking review was 'dismissed as improvidently granted.' In a concurring opinion, Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. said the case had presented 'a host of important questions.' But he added that a 'mare's nest' of procedural issues stood in the way of a clean resolution of those questions. Chief Justice Roberts stressed that the dismissal 'should not be taken as reflective of a view' on how the questions should be answered, and he suggested that the court may resolve them in another context.... The Trump-era policy at issue in the case revised the 'public charge' rule, which allows officials to deny permanent legal status, also known as a green card, to immigrants who are likely to need public assistance."
New Mexico. The Ghost in the Machine Was Hugo Chavez. Or Something. Morgan Lee of the AP: "New Mexico's secretary of state on Tuesday asked the state Supreme Court to order the Republican-led commission of rural Otero County to certify primary election results after it refused to do so over distrust of Dominion vote-tallying machines. Democratic Secretary of State Maggie Toulouse Olive's request came a day after the three-member Otero County commission, in its role as a county canvassing board, voted unanimously against certifying the results of the June 7 primary without raising specific concerns about discrepancies. The commission's members include Cowboys for Trump co-founder Couy Griffin, who ascribes to unsubstantiated claims that ... Donald Trump won the 2020 election. Griffin was convicted of illegally entering restricted U.S. Capitol grounds ... amid the riots on Jan. 6, 2021, and is scheduled for sentencing later this month."
~~~~~~~~~~
BTW, today is the day quarterly estimated tax payments are due.
Zach Montague of the New York Times reports on the schedule of upcoming January 6 committee hearings: "The next hearing is set for Thursday, with a tentative start time of 1 p.m. Eastern, though that could change if committee members opt to move their presentation into prime time. The committee also plans to hold two more hearings next week, on Tuesday and Thursday, both at 1 p.m."
Annie Grayer of CNN: "The House select committee investigating the January 6, 2021, riot at the US Capitol has postponed its hearing scheduled for Wednesday. The next hearing is scheduled for Thursday afternoon. Democratic Rep. Zoe Lofgren of California, a member of the committee, told reporters that the reason for the rescheduling was due to 'technical issues' and 'not a big deal.' 'It's just technical issues,' she said. 'You know the staff, putting together all the videos.... It was overwhelming. So we're trying to give them a little room.' Lofgren said Wednesday's hearing topic, which was focused on the Department of Justice, will get moved to another day, and Thursday will still focus on ... Donald Trump's efforts to pressure then-Vice President Mike Pence to refuse to certify the election results." (Also linked yesterday.)
Neal Katyal, in a New York Times op-ed: "... a [Justice Department] investigation [of some of the January 6 committee's findings] is virtually inevitable, given the evidence generated by the committee. How could Attorney General Merrick Garland ignore the facts the American people are now learning about?... But we've seen no signs of such an investigation." Katyal looks at the charges that might be filed against Donald Trump: obstruction of an official proceeding, conspiracy to defraud the United States, & seditious conspiracy. "Based on the evidence presented so far, it seems as if the most likely charges are obstruction of an official proceeding and conspiracy, and not seditious conspiracy."
Ken Vogel & Rachel Shorey of the New York Times: "The House committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol is suggesting that there might be criminal exposure in one particular strain of [Donald] Trump's misleading fund-raising appeals -- those urging his supporters to donate to efforts to overturn his loss in the 2020 election. In a hearing on Monday, the panel highlighted fund-raising solicitations sent by Mr. Trump's campaign committees in the weeks after the election, seeking donations for an 'Official Election Defense Fund' that the Trump team claimed would be used to fight what they asserted without evidence was rampant voter fraud favoring candidate Joseph R. Biden Jr. 'The select committee discovered no such fund existed,' a committee investigator said in a video shown at the hearing.... Campaign finance experts expressed mixed opinions about the prospects of any potential prosecution.... The experts said that any investigation of Mr. Trump's fund-raising would likely target his aides, not the former president himself."
Isaac Stanley-Becker & Beth Reinhard of the Washington Post: "Kimberly Guilfoyle, a fundraiser for ... Donald Trump and the fiancee of his eldest son, Donald Trump Jr., spoke for less than three minutes at the rally on Jan. 6, 2021, that preceded the Capitol riot. For her appearance, she was compensated $60,000 by Turning Point Action, a conservative nonprofit led by Charlie Kirk, according to two people with knowledge of her compensation who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the matter's sensitivity. The two people said the sponsoring donor was Julie Fancelli, the 72-year-old daughter of the founder of the Publix grocery store chain.... Guilfoyle's speaking fee, for her remarks introducing her fiance, was disclosed in a Monday appearance on CNN by Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.), a member of the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack. Lofgren pointed to the payment as an example of what she described as a misleading marketing effort run by the Trump campaign, which raised roughly $250 million in the weeks after the Nov. 3 election.... But the payment did not come from the campaign or affiliated political committees." CNN's report is here.
Liz Cheney provdes a fun clip of former White House lawyer Eric Herschmann's interview before the January 6 committee. This is an extension of the clip aired during Monday's hearing:
Aaron Blake of the Washington Post: Team Trump descends into vicious, post-hearing infighting. (Also linked yesterday.)
Zachary Cohen & Whitney Wild of CNN: "US Capitol Police have concluded after reviewing security footage that 'there is no evidence' GOP Rep. Barry Loudermilk led a reconnaissance tour with Trump supporters trying to learn more about the Capitol complex the day before the deadly January 6 insurrection. The House select committee investigating January 6, 2021, raised the issue publicly in a letter last month asking Loudermilk to explain the purpose of his January 5 meeting with a group of constituents.... 'There is no evidence that Representative Loudermilk entered the U.S. Capitol with this group on January 5, 2021,' Capitol Police Chief Tom Manger wrote in a letter on Monday to Rep. Rodney Davis, the top Republican on the House Administration Committee. 'We train our officers on being alert for people conducting surveillance or reconnaissance, and we do not consider any of the activities we observed as suspicious. 'The Capitol Police review was done at the urging of Davis." (Also linked yesterday.)
Peter Baker of the New York Times: "President Biden plans to appoint Keisha Lance Bottoms, the former mayor of Atlanta, to his White House staff as a senior adviser charged with managing relations with pivotal constituent groups heading into the midterm campaigns, a White House official said on Tuesday. Ms. Bottoms will succeed Cedric Richmond as director of the White House Office of Public Engagement and serve as the president's ambassador to community and business organizations at a time when Mr. Biden is struggling with low approval ratings and his party faces the loss of one or both houses of Congress in the fall elections." An NBC News report is here.
Mike DeBonis of the Washington Post: "A tentative bipartisan deal to toughen federal gun laws picked up momentum in the Senate on Tuesday after Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) lent public support to a framework that negotiators released this week. McConnell's backing provided further evidence that the current round of gun-law negotiations, which kicked off after last month's deadly shooting inside a Texas elementary school, might just have what previous attempts at bipartisan compromise did not -- sufficient GOP support to overcome a filibuster."
Carl Hulse of the New York Times: "The House on Tuesday overwhelmingly approved legislation that would extend police protection to the immediate families of Supreme Court justices, clearing the bill for President Biden at a time of rising concern about threats to justices as a potentially momentous abortion ruling looms. The vote was 396 to 27, with all of the opposition coming from Democrats, who tried unsuccessfully to extend the protections to the families of court employees. The action sent the measure to Mr. Biden for his signature." (Also linked yesterday.)
The New York Times' live Covid-19 updates for Tuesday are here: "An expert committee advising the Food and Drug Administration on Tuesday unanimously recommended Moderna's coronavirus vaccine for use in children and adolescents ages 6 to 17, an important step before emergency authorization. The F.D.A. will most likely follow the panel's advice in the coming days, as it has done consistently during the pandemic, and grant authorization. But doing so may have little immediate impact, since the age group has had access to Pfizer-BioNTech shots since last year. To date, Moderna's shots have been authorized only for adults."
Beyond the Beltway
The New York Times is live-updating Tuesday's primary election results here: "In Nevada, Trump loyalists prevailed in statewide contests. G.O.P. voters in South Carolina ousted Representative Tom Rice, but Representative Nancy Mace beat a Trump-backed rival.... Republican voters in Nevada on Tuesday elevated conservative candidates who have ardently embraced Donald J. Trump's false claims of election fraud.... Joseph Lombardo, the sheriff who oversees the Las Vegas area and was endorsed by former President Donald J. Trump, has won Nevada's Republican primary for governor.... Adam Laxalt, a former Nevada attorney general, has won the state's Republican primary for Senate and will face Senator Catherine Cortez Masto, a Democrat, in what is likely to be a highly competitive November general election.... ~~~
"Jim Marchant, one of the organizers of a Trump-inspired 'America First' slate of candidates who continue to question the legitimacy of the 2020 election, easily won the Republican nomination for secretary of state in Nevada, a key political battleground.... Mr. Marchant, who was also a member of Nevada's alternate slate of pro-Trump electors seeking to overturn Joseph R. Biden Jr.'s victory in the state in 2020, has said he would have refused to certify that year's election had he been in office." ~~~
~~~ CNN's live updates are here. (Also linked yesterday.) An AP story on Jim Marchant's win is here. ~~~
~~~ South Carolina Congressional Race. Meg Kinnard of the AP: "U.S. Rep. Tom Rice of South Carolina has been ousted from Congress in his Republican primary after voting to impeach Donald Trump over the Jan. 6 insurrection. He is the first of the 10 House Republicans who voted to impeach Trump to lose a reelection bid. Rice, a five-term congressman, was defeated Tuesday by state Rep. Russell Fry, who was endorsed by Trump. Rice was a strong supporter of Trump's policies in Washington but said he was left no choice but to impeach Trump over his failure to calm the mob that violently sought to stop the certification of Joe Biden's victory."
Georgia Senate Race. Maya King of the New York Times: "Herschel Walker, the Republican nominee for Senate from Georgia, who has often spoken out against absentee fathers, particularly in Black households, on Tuesday publicly acknowledged having fathered a second son with whom he is not in contact. The admission came in response to a report by The Daily Beast, which said it had confirmed the 10-year-old boy's parentage bu withheld his name and that of his mother. It said the child's mother had sued Mr. Walker a year after giving birth to obtain a declaration of paternity and child support, and that the suit lasted until August 2014, when Mr. Walker was ordered to pay child support. The boy, by then more than 2 years old, took Mr. Walker's last name." The Raw Story's report is here. MB: How can you tell Walker is a Republican? He's a hypocrite & he lies a lot. ~~~
~~~ Timothy Bella of the Washington Post goes into the lies-a-lot part.
Texas Congressional Race. Jennifer Medina of the New York Times: "A U.S. House district in South Texas will send a Republican to Congress for the first time in its 10-year history. Mayra Flores, a Republican and respiratory-care health aide, scored a significant victory in a special election on Tuesday for the party, which has been trying to capitalize on its successes in 2020 in the Democratic stronghold of the Rio Grande Valley. She will be the first Latina Republican from Texas in Congress. Ms. Flores defeated three opponents in the special election to replace former Representative Filemon Vela, a Democrat who retired this year before the end of his term." Politico's report is here.
Washington State. Cashing in on Bigotry. Livia Albeck-Ripka of the New York Times: “The City of Kent, Wash., will pay more than $1.5 million to an assistant police chief to resign after he was disciplined for displaying a Nazi insignia on his office door. The officer, Assistant Chief Derek Kammerzell, taped the symbol of oak leaves and diamonds, signifying the rank of Obergruppenführer, a high-ranking SS officer, to his office door in September 2020, according to the city of Kent, which is south of Seattle.... The settlement follows months of negotiations and an investigation of Chief Kammerzell, conducted by a private law firm, that was ordered by the city.... The Jewish Federation said the payout was the 'best possible outcome' because it ensured Chief Kammerzell would not return to his role in law enforcement." (Also linked yesterday.)
Way Beyond
Ukraine, et al. The New York Times' live updates of developments Wednesday in Russia's war on Ukraine are here. The Guardian's live updates are here.
News Lede
New York Times: “The Brazilian authorities said on Tuesday that they had arrested a second man in the disappearance of a British journalist and a Brazilian expert on Indigenous people deep in the Amazon, confirming that their efforts were shifting from a search-and-rescue operation to a homicide investigation.... The missing men -- Dom Phillips, 57, a freelance writer for the British news organization The Guardian, and Bruno Araújo Pereira, 41, an expert who worked extensively in the region -- were last seen on June 5 while traveling in a boat on the Itaquaí River in the northern Brazilian state of Amazonas, near the borders with Peru and Colombia. Mr. Phillips was reporting on patrol teams that Mr. Pereira had helped create to crack down on illegal fishing and hunting, an initiative that had led to threats against Mr. Pereira."
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Reader Comments (13)
ALL THE PRESIDENT'S ENABLERS:
" By the time Trump very unwillingly left the White House, on January 20, 2021, the Washington Post’s Fact Checker project had documented more than thirty thousand false or misleading statements made over the course of his Presidency—the vast majority before the election. But Barr and Stepien and all the other witnesses who testified on Monday were apparently fine with those. They did not object publicly when Trump nearly blew up nato, or exchanged “love letters” with North Korea’s young tyrant, or took the word of Vladimir Putin over American intelligence officials." Susan Glasser (NY)
And we can go back to the beginning when the signs of the times indicated that a man who had ripped off students at his bogus university, was known for his scuzzy doings in real estate, was a pussy grabber–––the list goes on–––was elected president by a majority of voters who found him hunky– dory to lead this nation. And boy, oh, boy, did he have help from all those who licked his boots and told him over and over what a great job he was doing while knowing what a disaster his presidency was. It's a pathetic story––one that many authors of books were telling but those that needed to read them, didn't. Meanwhile the bulk of the Republican congress waved the victory flags and those that didn't either resigned or were relegated to the back of the bus. The voices now telling us how they REALLY felt is welcome but much too late! The damage that has been done is going to take years to correct and just maybe–––– it won't.
P.D.
Thanks, but beg to differ--a bit.
The Pretender was not elected by a majority of voters. He was elected by an Electoral College that made him the Pretend president despite having lost the popular vote by nearly 3,000,000.
Certifying once again that the American people have often proved to be smarter than the Constitution.
And tho' it's a nice morning here, I'm still pissed...
PD,
The Bill (dis)Barr Reputation Reclamation Project continues apace.
The smirking dolt who now giggles at Trump’s refusal to listen to his expert opinions after he lost, telling the Fat Fascist that, with regards to the fictitious stolen election, there was no there there, used the same line to instruct the American public that, despite mountains of evidence demonstrating Fatty’s Russian Connection, there was no there there, handily tossing the Mueller Report into the trash can before it was even released, thus sucking up in the basest, most servile manner to the autocrat he now snickers about.
A more hypocritical, self-serving piece of shit would be hard to find.
Oh, hold on. No. It wouldn’t. “Hypocritical, self-serving piece of shit” describes 99% of the Party of Traitors.
@Akhilleus. Yeah. And every time Bill chuckles or smirks, somebody should shove his resignation letter in his face, the one dated December 14, 2020, which -- according to Barr's own testimony -- was after Barr decided Trump was delusional, the one where he devotes a whole page to telling Trump he walketh upon the water.
Hey kids, great news. If you’re a misogynistic racist fan of authoritarianism. Tom Cotton is looking at a presidential race (the race will be for the office but it sure won’t be presidential). He’ll likely be going up against the Orange Monster and Florida’s Benito DeSantollini. Talk about a trifecta of diseased tree stumps!
Cotton, you may recall, wrote an op-ed in the Times (I believe) in which he declared BLM supporters protesting the murder of African-Americans by police to be undeserving of the right to protest being targeted for regular abuse. He KKK-itized his screed with the instruction that BLM supporters be given no quarter, a standard rule in the Confederacy for anyone standing up against slavery. I’m guessing “no quarter” means beaten, pepper sprayed, arrested, or shot. Probably all four.
But that makes sense. Cotton’s family made their money with the help of their very own slaves.
And Cotton himself once described slavery as a “necessary evil”. It’s a lead pipe cinch that, for Cotton, the essential word in that phrase is “necessary”, not “evil”. Sorry, black people, but massa got to make the money, so here are your chains. And oh yeah, we just sold your wife and kids to our cousins down the road.
And leave us not forget his vile attacks on Ketanji Brown Jackson for having the temerity to bother ‘ol Tom with her darkie bullshit idea that she might be good enough for His Court.
Another of Cotton’s big bogeymen is that tired GOP saw, cancel culture. But this is a surprise because Cotton’s family got the land they used to make their money on by claiming land formerly inhabited by Native Americans after Old Hickory passed his Indian Removal Act. Talk about cancel culture!
So white supremacy fans take heart. You’re sure to have choices when it comes to the 2024 election.
Ken: Yes, I keep forgetting that item–-Fatty was elected by the electoral college ––an institution that we should put in the dust bin. But from some of the recent elections looks like those Merican peoples are still rallying round the rosy with Trump's blessings. And that thing called "state rights" where the governors are little tyrants who belong to the Trump Bumpy Brigade. And a few negative high flown fives to our esteemed Supreme Court in which sits a sixth who should have been disbarred––the one whose wife mingles with the enemy.
It's a lovely day here as well––- but, like you, my "pissed barometer" is stuck on HIGH.
What they all said... I too wish to punch the Fat Fascist's equally Fat F***weasel in his Nixon jowls. He is of course the author of a book. God burn him and all the other guys who wrote books instead of attempting to save the republic by cancelling his opinions and crazed meanderings. They are anything but patriots, despite their belching out hypocritical blather about how they love the country. This includes everyone elected to the stew of gangbangers serving in Congress. As it continues, I don't deviate from the pessimism that pervades my thoughts (no prayers) because even though the J6 committee has done fabulous work, the morons and half-wits and racists and crazy people are not listening, and they continue to elect more of the residents of the GQP asylum. It may take history to punish the FF and his lies, and I will reserve my optimism for when I am long gone...
AK's ". He’ll [Tom Cotton] likely be going up against the Orange Monster and Florida’s Benito DeSantollini. Talk about a trifecta of diseased tree stumps!" Best description EVAH!!
One of us should remind the former president* that today is when
quarterly estimated tax payments are due so write that check you
fat f___.
Sorry, I don't have his email address so that leaves me out.
Jeanne,
As far as anyone knows, Trumpenstein has never written a book. It’s debatable as to whether he’s ever even read a book, even those he supposedly wrote. His books have all been ghost written.
There’s a fairly common story about people who like to peek into medicine cabinets when they visit someone’s home. That’s never been me. What I do is scan the bookcase(s).
In a few instances, when I walk into someone’s home and see no books at all—not even self help stuff or coffee table tomes, even in a very nice looking house—my first thought is “Whoa. These people don’t read anything? How quickly can I get out of here?” In some cases there’s one book, and only one: the Bible, which increases the imminent departure frenzy exponentially.
Tony Schwartz, the ghost writer for Fatty’s “Art of the Squeal” stated once, in an interview in the New Yorker, that in all the time he was with Trump, in all the various Trumpy domiciles, he never saw a single book. And never saw Trump reading a book.
Never.
Given the level of idiocy on display every time this ignoramus opens that trash hole in his fat face, is this surprising?
I find myself wanting to say to these guys, up close and personal, "But, Tom (or Ron or whoever), you do know your an immoral dimwit, don't you? Why would you want an immoral dimwit in charge of running the country?"
In my younger days, I might have been more polite, but now I realize that when an immoral dimwit decides he should run the country, it is a citizen's duty to advise him or her otherwise and in no uncertain terms.
Marie,
C’mon. Immoral dimwittedness is a primary quality for wingers running for the presidency. Would these schmucks want an immoral dimwit running the country? Of course! Why would they ever consider that a smart, morally conscientious person should ever run things? They’d be in serious trouble. Oh, unless that person had a razor thin congressional majority confounded by immoral dimwits of his own party schtupping him in the senate.
Ak—oops—unclear subjects in rant. Meant that Barr, the Fat Fascist’s own F***weasel, wrote the book. Of course. The FF can’t even arrange toddlers’ blocks to spell his own name, I am sure. I am fed up by so-called patriots sitting on info for their own fame and fortune instead of telling the appropriate authorities months and years earlier.
Sorry. Got tangled in pronouns—