;)
The Conversation -- January 20, 2024
** Donald Trump Has Lost What Little Was Left of His Mind. Michael Luciano of Mediaite: "... Donald Trump blamed his Republican presidential opponent and former South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley for the Jan. 6 Capitol riot during a rally on Friday. Speaking in Concord, New Hampshire, Trump confused his former ambassador to the U.N. with former Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA). Trump has previously blamed Pelosi for the security breakdown that enabled the Jan. 6 Capitol riot to take place. During his speech, Trump repeatedly said Haley's name before claiming she was behind the lapse. 'You know, Nikki Haley, Nikki Haley, Nikki Haley, you know they -- do you know they destroyed all of the information and all of the evidence?' Trump told the crowd. 'Everything. Deleted and destroyed all of it. All of it because of, lots of things. Like, Nikki Haley is in charge of security. We offered her 10,000 people.'... However, the speaker [MB: who never has been Nikki Haley] is not in charge of the National Guard." Thanks to RAS for the link. ~~~
~~~ Marie: We already knew that for Trump, blonde women were interchangeable: During a deposition, Trump also couldn't tell E. Jeanne Carroll from his wife. So we now know that for Trump, brunette women are interchangeable, too.
Kyle Cheney of Politico: "Washington, D.C., bar investigators have filed disciplinary charges against three lawyers who aided Donald Trump ally Sidney Powell's campaign to mount discredited legal challenges to the 2020 election results. Filings made public Friday accused attorneys Juli Haller, Lawrence Joseph and Brandon Johnson of making knowingly false representations to courts about a slew of lawsuits they filed in the weeks after the 2020 election."
Colorado. Ryan Grenoble of the Huffington Post: "Hundreds of copies of newspapers in Ouray, Colorado, were stolen from around town this week, the day the paper published a story about an alleged rape at the police chief's house. Ouray County Plaindealer co-publisher Erin McIntyre acknowledged the apparent theft of almost all the papers in an email to readers Thursday and encouraged them to connect the dots on their own.... The front-page headline on the January 18-24 edition of the paper in question reads, 'Girl: Rapes occurred at chief's house.'"
~~~~~~~~~~
** Dan Froomkin's proposed additions to the New York Times style guide are priceless -- and necessary. If, like me, you keep searching for honesty in MSM reporting, reading Froomkin's suggestions is a must. Sadly, the Times' reporters and editors will shine on Froomkin. It's what they do. The "first drafts of history" are not serious. Many thanks to mJK for the link, and to Froomkin, of course, for never giving up (or as a NYT "journalist" would put it, "for not giving up so far").
Erica Green of the New York Times: "President Biden on Friday signed legislation averting a partial government shutdown, which will fund agencies until early March as Congress continues to wrangle over spending proposals to fund the government for the remainder of the year. The Senate and the House approved the stopgap measure on Thursday; funding was to run out at midnight Friday. The six-week deal was passed over the opposition of hard-right Republicans in the House but with bipartisan majorities in both chambers." (Also linked yesterday.)
Danielle Douglas-Gabriel of Washington Post: "Millions of Americans are paying down their student loans for the first time in years but with more repayment options than before. Chief among them is President Biden's new income-driven repayment plan -- Saving on a Valuable Education plan, commonly known as SAVE -- which ties monthly payments to earnings and family size. The White House estimates the plan could save the typical borrower $1,000 a year on payments because it reduces the amount of income used to calculate monthly bills. And some people enrolled in the plan will have their balances forgiven starting in February. So how does it work? Here's some information that could help you decide whether SAVE is right for you."
Rebecca Beitsch & Emily Brooks of the Hill: "An attorney for Kevin Morris, a close friend of Hunter Biden, accused House Republicans of misrepresenting his testimony following Morris's Thursday closed-door interview. The pushback from Morris, a Hollywood lawyer who paid off Biden's overdue taxes, came after his lawyer accused GOP leaders of cherry-picking items from his testimony 'not two hours' after he left his meeting with investigators.... Democrats and Republicans offered very different accounts of Morris's Thursday testimony, which reviewed some $5 million in what Morris said were loans to Biden to cover the cost of his tax debts. 'Morris made clear that he loaned money to Hunter when he needed help and never asked, expected, or received anything from the White House, the Administration, the Biden family, nor the President in exchange for his representation, loans, and friendship with Hunter,' said a Democratic source familiar with the interview.... But a statement from Comer said Morris's relationship with Biden 'raises ethical and campaign finance concerns.'" (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~
~~~ The Congressman Who Cried Wolf. Philip Bump of the Washington Post: Jim Comer (R-Ky.) has so often cherry-picked and misrepresented witness testimony from closed-door depositions that when the attorney for friend-of-Hunter Kevin Morris claimed that's exactly what Comer did after Morris's testimony, the lawyer's accusation was entirely believable. Perhaps a full transcript of the deposition will be released someday, but in the meantime, Comer's version is less believable than is the witness's lawyer's. (Also linked yesterday.)
Injustice Follows a Judge. Dana Milbank of the Washington Post: President Obama nominated D.C. Judge Todd Edelman to the U.S. District Court, but Mitch McConnell's blockade of Obama's nominations put the kibosh on that. President Biden renominated Edelman, but "Republicans struck again, this time with an ugly, Willie-Horton style smear campaign. Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) fabricated an outrageous lie, telling the Senate Judiciary Committee that a man Edelman released in a pretrial hearing 'went on to murder -- to murder -- an 11-year-old.' In reality, the man in question hadn't murdered anyone, but Blackburn badly distorted the facts of a case to suggest that Edelman was to blame for a child's death." Some Democrats eventually stood up for Edelman but not enough to get him a vote out of committee, and the White House refused to renominate him for the new sessions of Congress. Edelman & Milbank are longtime friends. (Also linked yesterday.)
Evan Perez, et al., of CNN: "Attorney General Merrick Garland said in an interview with CNN that he believes there should be a 'speedy trial' in the election subversion case against Donald Trump, while also pushing back on allegations that his department is targeting the former president for political reasons. Garland said he agrees with special counsel Jack Smith's assertion that the 'public interest requires a speedy trial' in the 2020 election currently set for trial in March in Washington, DC." (Also linked yesterday.)
Graham Kates of CBS News: "Combative, angry and prone to grandiose claims -- newly unveiled footage of an April 2023 deposition gives a glimpse into how ... Donald Trump behaves when testifying under oath. The video, released to CBS News on Friday in response to a freedom of information request, shows Trump claiming to have averted a 'nuclear holocaust' and 'saving millions of lives' as president. A transcript of the deposition was previously made public as an exhibit in Trump's New York civil fraud case.... "I was very busy[,' Trump said in the April 2023 deposition. ']I considered this the most important job in the world, saving millions of lives. I think you would've had nuclear holocaust if I didn't deal with North Korea. I think you would've had a nuclear war if I weren't elected. And I think you might have a nuclear war now, if you want to know the truth,' Trump said." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~
~~~ Marie: By Trump's standards, every modern president except Truman could claim to have saved millions of lives by preventing a nuclear holocaust. So could untold numbers of presidential aides, not to mention the leaders and top military & diplomatic aides of other nuclear-armed countries like Russia and China.
Alan Feuer & Maggie Haberman of the New York Times: "... Donald J. Trump said on Friday night that American presidents deserve complete immunity from prosecution even for acts that 'cross the line,' contending for the second time this week that the holder of the nation's highest office should effectively remain beyond the reach of criminal law. Mr. Trump's remarks on his social media platform, Truth Social, were the latest signal that he seems to view the presidency as an office unbounded by the normal checks of the criminal justice system.... Mr. Trump's statements appeared to go further than legal arguments that one of his lawyers made in his efforts to use sweeping claims of executive immunity to dismiss a federal indictment he is facing.... Mr. Trump's lawyer took the position during the appellate court hearing that presidents could be prosecuted for things they did in office ... only if they were first convicted in an impeachment proceeding.... Mr. Trump's statements this week, which made no reference to impeachment, suggested that he believes there are no circumstances that would allow presidents to be held accountable under criminal law.... Mr. Trump's posts ... appeared to be an indication that the former president was taking a position that he could not be subject to prosecution for anything he did in office should he be elected again in November." MB: Throw him in Guantanamo, Joe.
Richard Fausset of the New York Times: "The estranged wife of a special prosecutor accused of having a romantic relationship with Fani T. Willis, the Atlanta district attorney who hired him, offered evidence on Friday that Ms. Willis accompanied him on trips unrelated to their work: leading the Georgia case against ... Donald J. Trump. A court filing from Joycelyn Wade, who is in divorce proceedings with the prosecutor, Nathan J. Wade, included what it said were statements for a credit card account belonging to Mr. Wade. The statements showed that he bought plane tickets for himself and Ms. Willis, including tickets to San Francisco from Atlanta purchased on April 25, 2023, and to Miami from Atlanta purchased on Oct. 4, 2022." (Also linked yesterday.)
Presidential Race
Reid Epstein & Ken Bessinger of the New York Times: "Even as [Joe Biden & Donald Trump] stroll toward likely summer coronations and a fall rematch, an undercurrent of disbelief is coursing through the country. Many Republicans view Mr. Biden as so politically and physically weak that they think his party will replace him. Many Democrats can't fathom that Mr. Trump could win another nomination while he is facing 91 felony counts and four criminal trials. This incredulity -- ranging from casual doubtfulness to conspiratorial denial -- has lurked beneath a year of polling showing a deeply gloomy public mood, and has emerged in dozens of interviews over the past two weeks as well as recent declarations from candidates and political commentators.... The [Republican] party is nearly a decade into the Trump era, and misinformation and conspiratorial thinking about Mr. Biden's health and Democratic plotting to replace him are rampant in the conservative news media and broader political world. Democrats, for their part, are consumed by a gut-wrenching hope that Mr. Trump won't be the nominee. They are crossing their fingers that his legal cases or efforts to disqualify him from office through the 14th Amendment will keep him off the ballot." ~~~
~~~ Marie: Oh, that's so silly. I firmly believe that all Americans -- Republicans & Demcrats alike -- will coalesce around somebody like Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse or Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro.
Amy Wang, et al., of Washington Post: "... Donald Trump is lobbing racially charged attacks at Republican rival Nikki Haley, a daughter of Indian immigrants who served as his U.N. ambassador, days before a hotly contested New Hampshire primary that could determine the trajectory of the party's nominating contest.... Writing on [his social media platform], Trump repeatedly referred to Haley as 'Nimbra,' an apparent intentional misspelling of her birth name. Haley ... was born [in the U.S.] Nimarata Nikki Randhawa. Reminiscent of his spurious claims about former president Barack Obama's citizenship, Trump also last week spread a false 'birther' claim about Haley when he shared a post on Truth Social from the Gateway Pundit, a far-right website that propagates baseless accusations.... Haley recently asserting that the United States is not and never was a racist nation.... Trump, whose mother migrated to the United States from Scotland, has a history of using a rival's name or background as a tool in his efforts to make rivals sound like they are not fully American." ~~~
~~~ Marie: There are three reporters on this story: Wang, Maegan Vazquez & Azi Paybarah. My wild guess is that none of them came from Scotland (though it's possible!). Why not just write down that the reason it's okay for your parent to come from Scotland (or your wives from Eastern Europe) is that Donald Trump thinks his mother & wives are Whitey-White people? It isn't immigrants whom Trump despises; it's non-European immigrants. We'll have to ask him if Southern Europeans -- Spaniards, Italians, Greeks & so on -- are okay. He makes me sick. ~~~
~~~ Ah, well, the AP report is worse. The reporter is Bill Barrow. Whaddaya bet he's a White guy? Barrow characterizes Trump's racist attack on Haley as being "the latest example of the former president keying on race and ethnicity to attack people of color, especially his political rivals." Yes, indeedy, "keying in on race and ethnicity." Doesn't sound so bad, does it? Why, look at Louisiana (link below). The state legislature "keyed in on race and ethnicity" when, under court order, it expanded Black-majority Congressional districts from one to two. And that's a good thing. The press is an incorrigible band of wimps. That wimpiness makes them liars. ~~~
~~~ SO THEN. Comedy of Horrors, Ctd. Gabriella Abdul-Hakim, et al., of ABC News: "South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott delivered a blow to Nikki Haley ahead of the New Hampshire primary, appearing on stage with ... Donald Trump and endorsing him at his rally in Concord[, New Hampshire].... 'We need a president who will unite our country,' Scott said. 'We need Donald Trump.'... Haley, who served as South Carolina governor from 2011 to 2017, appointed Scott to the Senate in 2012." Scott apparently flew to Florida Friday so he could fly with Trump to New Hampshire (NYT link). MB: So the only Black Republican in the Senate, who owes his job to Haley, endorses Haley's opponent, who has been lobbing racist taunts at Haley. And he claims said racist fellow will unite the country.
Jamelle Bouie of the New York Times: "Between government reports, testimony from witnesses, the confessions of Klansmen and the physical evidence of violence and destruction [made public in the 1870s], it would seem impossible to deny the awful scope of Klan terror, much less the existence of the Klan itself.... We know, as much as we can know anything, that Donald Trump led a conspiracy to overturn the results of an election that he lost. Yet that is exactly what happened.... [Today,] despite this unambiguous evidence of insurrection, there is a concerted effort -- out of either skepticism or denial -- to present the events of Jan. 6, including the schemes that led up to the attack on the Capitol, as something else.... And in much the same way that the collapse of Reconstruction and the political victory of so-called Redeemers heralded the ideological victory of the Klan's defenders, sympathizers and apologists, it is Trump's ultimate fate that will shape and determine our lasting memory of what happened on Jan. 6."
Dennis Aftergut & Walter White in the Bulwark: "JAMIE DIMON ISSUED WHAT CNN characterized as a 'warning to Democrats' this week. During a CNBC interview on Wednesday at the World Economic Forum at Davos, the JPMorgan Chase CEO said that 'Donald Trump was right about some critical issues,' so Democrats should not too quickly dismiss Trump's base as a cult of personality.... Such a statement from such a powerful and influential business leader is just what a mad doctor ordered to normalize Trump.... Dimon's endorsement of Trump's policies serves as a kind of permission slip to others in the world of finance and commerce to move in Trump's direction." Read on, because the authors ask just what Dimon likes about the policies he references. ~~~
~~~ Robert Reich writes a similar column, excoriating Dimon on the specifics of his praise. "At a time in American history when the most influential leaders of America need to stand up loudly and clearly for the rule of law, for democracy, for decency, and against Donald Trump, Dimon is leading the charge in the opposite direction. This is how fascism takes root and spreads, friends." Emphasis original.
Jenna Russell of the New York Times: "Maine's top election official said on Friday she intends to appeal the ruling by a state Superior Court judge this week that placed on hold her decision to exclude ... Donald J. Trump from the state's Republican primary ballot. In a statement, the official, Secretary of State Shenna Bellows, said she welcomed the guidance of the U.S. Supreme Court, which is expected to hear arguments on a similar case on Feb. 8. But in the meantime, she said, she will seek the input of Maine's highest court.... 'This appeal ensures that Maine's highest court has the opportunity to weigh in now, before ballots are counted, promoting trust in our free, safe and secure elections.'" (Also linked yesterday.)
Joe Rennison & Edward Moreno of the New York Times: "The stock market broke through to new heights on Friday, with the S&P 500 index finally hitting a record after weeks of bumping up against its previous peak. The index, one of the most widely watched Wall Street benchmarks and a cornerstone of many portfolios, rose 1.2 percent to close above the high that was set in January 2022." MB: I suppose Donald Trump would explain the buoyant market as a sign that investors are optimistic because He Donald is about to become president* again.
Julia Jacobs of the New York Times: "A grand jury in New Mexico indicted Alec Baldwin on Friday on a charge of involuntary manslaughter, reviving the criminal case against him in the fatal shooting of a cinematographer on the set of the film 'Rust' more than two years ago when a gun he was rehearsing with went off. The indictment, which came exactly one year after the first involuntary manslaughter case against him was announced, was the latest reversal of fortune for Mr. Baldwin. The local district attorney's initial case fell apart and the initial charge against Mr. Baldwin was dismissed in April. But a new prosecution team, Kari T. Morrissey and Jason J. Lewis, decided to present the case to a grand jury, which indicted Mr. Baldwin on Friday." (Also linked yesterday.)
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Florida. Patricia Mazzei of the New York Times: "The former chairman of the Republican Party of Florida who was ousted earlier this month amid a criminal investigation will not be charged with sexual battery, the Sarasota Police Department said on Friday. But the authorities will seek to charge him with video voyeurism, a felony. Christian Ziegler, the ousted chairman, recorded a sexual encounter he had in October with a woman who later accused him of assault. The recording occurred without her knowledge or consent, the Police Department said in a statement. Officers prepared a probable cause affidavit for the video voyeurism charge and sent it to state prosecutors on Friday. They did not pursue a more serious sexual battery charge because the video, which the police obtained, 'showed that the encounter was likely consensual,' the statement said."
Louisiana. Miracle* on the Bayou. Emily Cochrane of the New York Times: "Louisiana lawmakers on Friday approved a new congressional map that would create a second district with a majority of Black voters, after a federal court found that the existing map appeared to illegally undercut the power of Black voters in the state. Given that Black voters often back Democratic candidates in the state, the new map also increases the possibility of Democrats' taking control of a second congressional seat in Louisiana.... Lawmakers in Baton Rouge also agreed to tighten the state's raucous 'jungle primary' system for federal elections and State Supreme Court races beginning in 2026, though they stopped far short of the statewide overhaul sought by Gov. Jeff Landry, the newly inaugurated Republican governor."
* Oh, and a nudge from a federal court: Mr. Landry [-- who as the state's attorney general, defended the original map --] now governor and facing a court order, threw his weight behind a new map that not only creates a second majority-Black district but also protects the state's two most powerful conservatives in Washington -- Speaker Mike Johnson and Representative Steve Scalise, the majority leader. The new map does undercut one Republican, Representative Garret Graves, who endorsed one of Mr. Landry's rivals in the governor's race." MB: Funny how that worked out.
New York. In J. Edgar Hoover's Shadow. Ed Shanahan of the New York Times: "A federal judge on Friday ordered that a New York man be freed from prison because a 'most unsavory' government informant had duped him into an 'F.B.I.-orchestrated conspiracy' focused on attacking an upstate Air Force base and Jewish sites in the Bronx. The scathingly worded decision by the judge, Colleen McMahon, granting the man, James Cromitie, 'compassionate release' was the latest twist in the case of four Hudson Valley men who were convicted of terrorism charges in 2010 despite arguing that they had been entrapped. In July, Judge McMahon, of Federal District Court in Manhattan, ordered the release of Mr. Cromitie's co-defendants, Laguerre Payen, David Williams and Onta Williams, for the same reasons. The men, the so-called Newburgh Four, had each been sentenced to 25 years in prison in 2011. As with the others, the judge's order called for Mr. Cromitie's sentence to be reduced to time served plus 90 days. The order did not reverse his conviction."
Texas. Edgar Sandoval of the New York Times: "The district attorney in Uvalde, Texas, [Christina Mitchell,] has said for months that she intended to convene a grand jury to consider evidence from the 2022 shooting at Robb Elementary School, with the possibility that state criminal charges could result over the botched police response to the massacre.... On Friday, it emerged that selection for the grand jury had begun, according to a person familiar with the matter. The inquiry was likely to last months. Word that the grand jury had begun to be convened, first reported by The Uvalde Leader-News, came a day after the Justice Department published a 600-page report that found broad and 'unimaginable' failures that delayed the response and subsequent medical care to the victims after the mass shooting."
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Israel/Palestine, et al.
The Washington Post's live updates of developments Saturday in the Israel/Hamas war are here: "U.S. forces destroyed three Houthi anti-ship missiles that were aimed at targets in the Red Sea and were ready to be launched, U.S. Central Command said in a statement. The State Department confirmed the death of a U.S. civilian in the occupied West Bank on Friday, hours after National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said he was 'seriously concerned; about reports of the death of a Palestinian American teenager there."
Peter Baker of the New York Times: "President Biden pressed Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel on Friday to agree to the creation of a Palestinian state after the war in Gaza is over and raised options that would limit Palestinian sovereignty to make the prospect more palatable to Israel. Hoping to overcome Mr. Netanyahu's strenuous resistance, Mr. Biden floated the possibility of a disarmed Palestinian nation that would not threaten Israel's security. While there was no indication that Mr. Netanyahu would ease his opposition, which is popular with his fragile right-wing political coalition, Mr. Biden expressed optimism that they may yet find consensus." ~~~
~~~ Liz Goodwin & Yasmeen Abutaleb of Washington Post: "After weeks of unquestioning support, the Senate is emerging as a center of resistance to [President] Biden's unwavering embrace of Israel -- at least in modest ways -- as even centrist Democrats are signaling their discomfort with the president's "bear hug' of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. A number of prominent Democrats have proposed or backed measures that aim to hold Israel accountable or to shift American strategy, even if they are unlikely to garner enough support to pass.... While few senators are voicing full-throated criticism of Biden's Israel policy, the new, more skeptical tone reflects an increasing unease as the civilian toll in Gaza rises and Israel repeatedly flouts U.S. requests to modify its military onslaught."
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Reader Comments (18)
Dan Froomkin's proposed additions to the New York Times style guide to improve its political coverage
Euphemism is connivance.
OED
connivance
1. The action of conniving; the action of winking at, overlooking or ignoring (an offence, fault, etc.); often implying secret sympathy or approval: tacit permission or sanction; encouragement by forbearing to condemn.
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2024/jan/19/boris-johnson-says-trump-back-in-white-house-is-what-the-world-needs
WTF! Is it the KGB or Mossad who has his nuts in a vise?
Or just for kicks and clicks either way Boris needs to Fall Back way back.
As a longtime fan of Dan Froomkin’s writing and pursuit of the truth wherever it leads, I don’t think he’d mind my recalibration of the word euphemism, as employed by indolent idolaters who worship at the Shrine of Both Sides: youfuckmeism, as in “You fuck me when resorting to slippery elisions designed to whitewash, paper over, or otherwise hobble the truth”. For instance, how many YEARS did it take the Times, and most other legacy MSM operations to stop referring to Trump’s serial, prodigious, and provable lies as “untruths” or “inaccuracies”?
So happy to hear that Milquetoast Creampuff Merrick Garland wants a “speedy trial”. Oh, goody. It’s looking more and more like Fatty’s delay tactics will be entirely successful in keeping him from any serious consequences to his many crimes before he’s allowed to try to steal another election, which if successful, will be the end of any and all federal indictments.
Perhaps had Speedy Gonzales not waited TWO WHOLE YEARS before getting off the fucking dime, that fat traitor would be waddling about some prison yard whining about how unfaaaaiiir it is that the warden won’t let him have his daily five Big Macs, instead of screeching about retribution, revenge, and his planned dictatorship.
Speedy, my ass.
https://www.yahoo.com/news/actual-governing-threatens-trip-
republican-060820605.html
Republican legislatos who attempt to perform the duties of the job
they hold risk offending conservative members and their political base,
and many are conflicted about whether solving a problem like
immigration comes at the expense of being able to exploit that issue
politically, not to mention associating Pres. Joe Biden with another
legislative win.
Sounds like: Screw the public we're here to serve. If we did anything
positive, it would make the other side look good, an that's bad.
@Akhilleus: Yeah, Wow! Milquetoast Creampuff Merrick the Unready takes the controversial stance that Trump should get a speedy trial. Seems to me the authors of the Bill of Rights noticed that in, like 1789, when they wrote into the Sixth Amendment, "the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial...."
Next year, Merrick just may say something equally radical about some aspect of the Seventh Amendment as he works his way through that ole Bill of Rights. Good grief!
I’m not a huge fan of Alec Baldwin generally, although I think he’s a fine actor, but I don’t really see how he, personally, is responsible for the terrible accident that killed the cinematographer of the movie they were working on.
There are many moving parts in a film production. Everyone has a job. Actors must assume that others have performed their duties accordingly when they step before a camera or go into a rehearsal. I’ve read of instances in film productions where a director used live rounds to achieve an effect (usually to scare the crap out of actors, thereby capturing a genuine look of terror) but I think that’s mostly in the past. That shit is—or should be—illegal now. No one, least of all an actor, could assume a weapon being used on a movie set has a live round in the chamber.
Baldwin has already been cleared of these charges once, but prosecutors are still coming after him. I have zero doubt that this is the result of screeching from the right, specifically, from Trump and his allies (pretty much the entire GQP and their media shills) who hate Baldwin for his political stances and for his hilarious portrayals of the Orange Monster on SNL.
Months ago, while at the gym, where Fox is on almost every TV monitor, I noticed a “Breaking News Special” which turned out to be one of their phony baloney experts opining on how it surely was all Baldwin’s fault. A half hour later, I looked up at the monitor to see that this “Special” was still going on. I’m sure the giddiness over their success in promoting this latest charge has everyone at Fox incapacitated from all the sneering giggling.
So Alec Baldwin will possibly be sent to prison, while the guy who has been demanding that he get the death penalty, a guy who is personally responsible for the deaths of close to a million Americans, waddles around free.
Life in Trump’s Amerika.
Maybe this will eventually get through our collective heads.
The Guardian
"Half of recent US inflation due to high corporate profits, report finds
Thinktank report says ‘resounding evidence’ shows companies continue to keep prices high even as their inflationary costs drop"
And one other thing…
Fatty claims that he saved millions of lives by personally fending off nuclear holocaust. But he actually Is personally responsible for the deaths of perhaps hundreds of thousands of Americans during the pandemic (I guess we’ll knock off a few hundred thousand who perhaps might have died anyway).
And leave us not forget the Mr. I Saved You from the Nukes had run off with the nation’s nuclear secrets and was broadcasting some of them for personal aggrandizement, also perhaps to keep for sale to foreign governments.
Every claim of fantasy glory uttered by this evil monster must be balanced against facts.
Marie,
Re: the Sixth Amendment…quite. But the right to a speedy trial is not reserved solely for a defendant. The public has the right to know, within a reasonable time frame, that Justice has been served. In this case, it’s imperative that voters know whether or not the guy they want to run the country is a convicted felon. Trump is demanding that this right be canceled. Merrick has helped.
Oh, and one other thought. If he ever goes go to trial, I’m betting he’ll try another trick. Declaring that he must be judged by a jury of his peers, which, he might claim, is impossible since one could never find twelve jurors as fabulous as he.
In fact, he’d be partially correct. A true jury of his peers would have yo include a number of people who are dead (Bernie Madoff, Al Capone, Joe Stalin) and others unlikely to appear (Putin, Kim).
Mediaite
"Former President Donald Trump blamed his Republican presidential opponent and former South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley for the Jan. 6 Capitol riot during a rally on Friday.
Speaking in Concord, New Hampshire, Trump confused his former ambassador to the U.N. with former Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA). Trump has previously blamed Pelosi for the security breakdown that enabled the Jan. 6 Capitol riot to take place. During his speech, Trump repeatedly said Haley’s name before claiming she was behind the lapse."
Another Robert Reich
Davos duplicity
“It’s hard to come up with any group of Americans, outside of Trump and his congressional loyalists, who have done more to destroy public trust than the senior executives of America’s biggest corporations — corrupting democracy by pouring money into political campaigns, fighting unions and suppressing wages, monopolizing their markets and price-gouging consumers, and siphoning off almost all gains to shareholders.”
Firearm safety 101:
Upon handling any firearm, no matter whether someone has just handed it to you and assured you it was safe, you must immediately check to see if it is loaded and with what. If you don't know how to do that safely, you must not touch it until you have learned how.
It seems to me that practically everyone involved in the incident is at least guilty of negligent homicide.
D,
A fair point. Nonetheless, if what you say were uppermost in the minds of prosecutors from the start, Baldwin would not have been initially cleared. I still contend that the relentlessness of the pursuit to put him on trial is the result of incessant badgering by Trump, Fox, and the usual suspects to punish their enemies (while holding friends who have committed offenses both numerous and astounding blameless as a newborn).
@Akhilleus wrote, "Baldwin has already been cleared of these charges once, but prosecutors are still coming after him. I have zero doubt that this is the result of screeching from the right, specifically, from Trump and his allies (pretty much the entire GQP and their media shills) who hate Baldwin for his political stances and for his hilarious portrayals of the Orange Monster on SNL."
One would think so. But I did some of my deep, extensive research -- that is, I checked a couple of stories on the Internet -- and learned that the two prosecutors who called the grand jury -- Kari Morrissey and Jason Lewis -- are appointees of Mary Carmack-Altwies, who is the New Mexico First Judicial District Attorney. And she is a Democrat. She's since quit her post.
She originally charged Baldwin. Morrissey & Lewis dropped those original charges, but at the same time said that investigators had found new facts & that the investigation would continue.
Donny Two Times may be able to identify a whale on sight (big, wet, hole in head, etc) but when he tries to reach for Nancy Pelosi's name it keeps coming out of his lie-hole as "Nikki". He has to say it three times to check whether that's the name he wants, gives up, and then pulls it up again a few words later, again thinking that "Nikki" is the person who looks like Pelosi.
This is definitely a brain malfunction. Maybe a little stroke, maybe a little tumor, maybe a tissue degradation of some kind. But, the brain is not working properly.
Normally, it is bad form to criticize an opponent's physical disabilities, but in this case it would be criminal to ignore the physical evidence that a presidential candidate cannot properly associate, identify and utter names. This is not a small thing. You can put up with your dotty grandpa's sessions away with the fairies, but the country can't have a president who is even occasionally disconnected from the word or image bank in his big brain.
And, why did he talk this week about acing his cognitive test, four years ago? Why is that a current topic for him? And, four years ago, when he "aced" that test, why was he given the cog f test you use for accident victims, to check for trauma and function loss?
I expect the NYT will get right on it.
@Patrick: For years, doctors administered the test to people of a certain age during their annual physicals. I think that was because Medicare paid for it. I mentioned the test this year to my doctor, and she said the test was now out. That is, Medicare probably doesn't pay for it anymore.
Anyhow, it's not surprising that Trump was given the test four years ago because he was more than 65 then.
So many things to be aggravated about. I got a note from Adam Schiff today, in which he says Dumpface said terrible things about him last night in some flea circus rally-- actually called him Shifty, and Pencil Neck, and then went on to muse that how can that neck support Schiff's big ole fat head, or something. This "man" Crump makes me absolutely rage. He's juvenile and stupid and not fit to be anywhere. I do not see how anyone thinks otherwise. For god's sake: he mixed up Nancy Pelosi and Nikki Haley!! Not once, but three times! And on the radio, someone interviewed Stefanik the Serpent, and she spun it completely into the Grand Canyon...it made zero sense.
I concur with all enraged thoughts concerning Merrick the Unready. It reminds me of all the times Obama took the high road instead of taking on the haters-- husband kept saying that he was playing the long game and just wait! it will all come out later. It did not. He never got Garland on the SC. (Maybe a good or bad thing, but certainly has pointed the way toward bad news to come.). Why can we never catch a break?
The thing with Alec Baldwin and the ensuing comments reminds me of something that happened in our county. A guy camping with a trailer had to put down his gun to run around the trailer for something, gone 30 seconds, and in that time, his three-year-old picked up the gun and shot himself through his eye. Our coroner does not think he needs to release the name, saying the family is going through enough, and the DA refused to press charges. The letters and the public are pretty aghast, saying it was SOMEONE'S fault, like the parents of that kid in Michigan who everyone ignored and he shot a bunch of his classmates. The parents have been charged, maybe the first time. I think this was an accident that should never have happened. He should not have had a loaded pistol anywhere near his family. So, Alec Baldwin? His staff is all guilty, and by extension, probably him too. The shooting should never have occurred and it IS someone's fault.
Tired of feeling bad and angry and upset and scared all the time. It is Chump's fault, as well as every single maga warthog's, no matter whom. They all need to be incarcerated pronto.