Actually, we do.
Trump flew in on “Trump Force One” unexpectedly and a brief tour of the fair to the delight of the crowd.
Meanwhile:
They want a mob boss instead of a creepy weasel. I guess if that’s what’s on offer, it sort of makes sense.
Breaking (CNN):
Atlanta-area prosecutors investigating efforts to overturn the 2020 election results in Georgia are in possession of text messages and emails directly connecting members of Donald Trump’s legal team to the early January 2021 voting system breach in Coffee County, sources tell CNN.
Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis is expected to seek charges against more than a dozen individuals when her team presents its case before a grand jury next week. Several individuals involved in the voting systems breach in Coffee County are among those who may face charges in the sprawling criminal probe.
Investigators in the Georgia criminal probe have long suspected the breach was not an organic effort sprung from sympathetic Trump supporters in rural and heavily Republican Coffee County – a county Trump won by nearly 70% of the vote. They have gathered evidence indicating it was a top-down push by Trump’s team to access sensitive voting software, according to people familiar with the situation.
A Jan. 6 Committee witness, a former Trump official, testified under oath that plans to access the voting systems included a December 18, 2020 Oval Office meeting in which Trump was present.
On January 1, 2021 – days ahead of the January 7 voting systems breach – Katherine Friess – an attorney working with Giuliani, Sidney Powell and other Trump allies shared a “written invitation” to examine voting systems in Coffee County with a group of Trump allies.
That group included members of Sullivan Strickler, a firm hired by Trump’s attorneys to examine voting systems in the small, heavily Republican Georgia county, according to text messages obtained by CNN.
That same day, Friess sent a “Letter of invitation to Coffee County, Georgia” to former NYPD Police Commissioner Bernie Kerik, who was working with Giuliani to find evidence that would back up their baseless claims of potential widespread voter fraud, according to court documents filed as part of an ongoing civil case.
Friess then notified operatives who carried out the Coffee County breach and others working directly with Giuliani that Trump’s team had secured written permission, the texts show.
CNN has not reviewed the substance of the invitation letter itself, only communications that confirm it was provided to Friess, Kerik and Sullivan Strickler employees.
There is much more at the link.
Christmas in August?
If it wasn’t for bad faith, they wouldn’t have no faith at all (with apologies to Albert King).
For those who missed MSNBC’s “Alex Wagner Tonight” on Friday, guest George Conway, attorney and former Republican, presented a hand-drawn “GOP Hunter Biden Flow Chart” that made a mockery of the prolonged right-wing hissy fit Republicans keep throwing over President Biden’s son Hunter’s legal troubles.
CliffNotes version: Heads, right-wing hissy fit. Tails, right-wing hissy fit.
Obviously, Republican Sen. Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee missed the show. Or she didn’t and the joke went over her head (not hard). On Friday evening and Saturday morning, Blackburn responded to Attorney General Merrick Garland’s appointment Friday of U.S. Attorney David Weiss as Special Counsel for the ongoing investigation and prosecutions referenced and described in United States v. Robert Hunter Biden.
Blackburn’s Xitter posts perfectly encapsulated the bad faith running through the veins of today’s Republican Party like the arrows of Conway’s flow chart. The appointment of Weiss, Blackburn charged, was a ploy by Garland to deep-six the Hunter Biden investigation and “an attempt to cover up the Biden family corruption.”
Perhaps Blackburn, 71, is having memory issues and cannot remember her actions from as recently as September. Perhaps she expects the public’s memory is even shorter and we cannot. Or perhaps what she did last year was as much bad faith then is it is bad faith now.
Last September, Blackburn joined 32 other Republicans (by my count) in demanding that Garland appoint a special counsel in the Hunter Biden investigation. They named their preferred candidate: David Weiss.
“The level of brazen, demonstrable gaslighting from this GOP is beyond belief,” MSNBC’s Mehdi Hasan responded. It is also Standard Operating Procedure.
As Digby is fond of saying, shamelessness is their superpower.
UPDATE: My apologies for missing Ron. Johnson’s toeing the same line as Blackburn.
You’ve heard the one about cockroaches and Cher surviving the Apocalypse? You can add this item to that list: Maxell UD XL-II 90 cassettes. I was going through some musty boxes the other day and found a stash of mix tapes that I’ve had since the 70s and 80s. I’ll be damned if they didn’t sound just as good as the day I recorded them (My theory is that they are manufactured from the same material they use for “black boxes”).
I was into putting together “theme sets” long before I got into the radio biz. My mix tapes were popular with friends; I’d make copies on demand, and name them (of course). One of my faves was “The Oh My God I am So Stoned Tape”. I don’t think that requires explanation; I mean, it was the 70s and I was a long-haired stoner music geek.
Nearly 50 years later, I’m still putting together theme sets. It is my métier. Kind of sad, really (grown man and all). Anyway …turn off the news (it’s depressing!), turn down the lights, do some deep breathing, and let “The Oh My God I am So Stoned Tape 2023” wash anxiety away. I’ve sequenced the songs in a manner designed to sustain a certain mood-so for maximum effect, I suggest that you listen to it in order. Enjoy!*
*Herbal enhancement optional
Van Morrison – “Coney Island”
Peter Frampton – “Fig Tree Bay”
The Jam – “English Rose”
The Dream Academy – “Indian Summer”
Kevin Ayers – “Puis Je?”
Mark-Almond Band – “Girl on Table 4”
Carole King – “Only Love is Real”
Brian Auger’s Oblivion Express – “All the Time There Is”
Matt Deighton – “5 Years in Pieces”
Nick Drake – “From the Morning”
The Monkees – “As We Go Along”
Montrose – “One and a Half”
Batdorf and Rodney – “Oh Can You Tell Me”
Lyle Lovett – “If I Had a Boat”
Hotlegs – “Fly Away”
Nick Heyward – “Whistle Down the Wind”
Peter Sinfield – “Under the Sky”
Julee Cruise – “Summer Kisses, Winter Tears”
Graham Nash & David Crosby – “Whole Cloth”
Jeff Beck Group – “Max’s Tune”
The Who – “The Song is Over”
Previous posts with related themes:
Book of Saturday: A Chillaxing Mixtape (Part I)
Explore the mixtape archives at Den of Cinema
— Dennis Hartley
If only they would listen…
House and Senate Republicans on Friday ripped Attorney General Merrick Garland’s decision to appoint U.S. Attorney David Weiss as the special counsel in the ongoing investigation into Hunter Biden.
Republicans accused Weiss of signing off on a “sweetheart deal” with the president’s son and suggested that he was appointed as special counsel to inhibit congressional investigations into the Bidens and to avoid testifying before Congress.
“This action by Biden’s DOJ cannot be used to obstruct congressional investigations or whitewash the Biden family corruption,” Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., said in a tweet. “If Weiss negotiated the sweetheart deal that couldn’t get approved, how can he be trusted as a Special Counsel? House Republicans will continue to pursue the facts for the American people.”
Rep. James Comer, R-Ky., the chair of the Oversight Committee who’s been investigating the Biden family’s business dealings, slammed the development as “part of the Justice Department’s efforts to attempt a Biden family coverup.”
I would bet they are secretly happy about this. They can keep “investigating” while claiming they are being stonewalled by the DOj and the Special Counsel and never have to produce any evidence. Which they don’t have. It’s quite helpful.
“FBI is now killing all online critics of Biden,” Ali Alexander, organizer of “Stop the Steal” protests that fueled the Jan. 6 Capitol riot, announced on his Telegram account on Wednesday. “This is all by design.”
This alarming claim was prompted by the death of Craig Deleeuw Robertson, 75, in an FBI raid on his Provo, Utah residence early that morning. According to a criminal complaint from the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Robertson was to be charged with interstate threats, impeding federal law enforcement officers by threat, and making threats against the president — all on the social media platforms Truth Social and Facebook. But Robertson was reportedly armed when agents showed up on his doorstep with arrest and search warrants, according to law enforcement sources who spoke to the Associated Press, and was killed by gunfire.
“The FBI is reviewing an agent-involved shooting which occurred around 6:15 a.m. on Wednesday,” the agency said in a statement shared with Rolling Stone, noting that the subject of their warrants was deceased. “In accordance with FBI policy, the shooting incident is under review by the FBI’s Inspection Division.”
In the aftermath of the raid, plenty of media attention focused on the nature of Robertson’s alleged threats, which broadly targeted Democrats and perceived enemies of Donald Trump. According to the charging documents, agents had tried to speak to him in person in March about a Truth Social post in which he related a violent fantasy about murdering New York County District Attorney Alvin Bragg — who indicted Trump in April on many counts of falsifying business records. (Truth Social itself reportedly tipped the FBI off about the post.) After rebuffing agents in that encounter, according to charging documents, Robertson allegedly posted on Facebook that they had come close to “violent eradication.” This month, upon learning that Biden was to visit Utah, Robertson allegedly stated on Facebook that he was “cleaning the dust off” of an M24 sniper rifle. Based on other social media content, including photos of his many guns, investigators believed he owned such a weapon.
However, given Robertson’s age and apparent mobility issues (neighbors say he walked with a cane and would even drive the 200-yard distance to his church), the FBI now faces serious questions about its tactical response to his online activity.
Whether he was a real threat or not, Trump supporters and other right-wingers have seized on his death to imply or claim that Robertson was executed for his political views — turning him into a martyr for free speech. “Hating Biden is enough to get you dead,” as one widely followed conservative put it on Twitter.
Far-right conspiracy theorist Jack Posobiec said on his podcast that the raid “looks like a message being sent” from the government: “Threaten us, and we’ll show up at your home at 6:15 in the morning and take you out.” On Friday, he posted to Truth Social, “The Left wants what happened to Craig Robertson and Ashli Babbitt to happen to every Trump supporter,” referring to the MAGA rioter killed by a police officer during the Jan. 6 Capitol attack as she attempted to breach the barricaded Speaker’s Lobby. Fellow conspiracy theorist Mike Cernovich tweeted Thursday, “This hit was executed on [Robertson] to make Americans afraid.”
Conservative radio host Glenn Beck, meanwhile, tweeted that he had “never seen the FBI gun anybody down” over threats against the president in “40+ years of broadcasting.” And Laura Loomer, an extremist banned from various platforms over the years for hate speech and misinformation, referred to the agency as a “Gestapo” in one tweet about Robertson’s death, later alleging that they murdered him “in cold blood because he criticized Joe Biden online.”
On Telegram, a channel for the QAnon-linked group “The Patriot Voice,” which has more than 50,000 subscribers, shared a link to an article about Robertson’s death. The message added scare quotes around the word “threats” when describing his social media posts. “What do you think,” the author wrote, “does the FBI have a right to KILL someone during a search warrant just because of some statement made online?” One commenter chimed in to say, “It sounds like Biden used the FBI to do his dirty work.”
It was inevitable. Cults thrive on martyrs.
I understand the FBI is investigating what happened, as they should. The authorities may have overstepped their bounds. They often do. This man was a fanatic who threatened all kinds of people. He fantasized on his Facebook page about killing Merrick Garland in a parking garage and standing over his dead body admiring the hole he put in his head. He had posted that he was “Digging out my old ghillie suit and cleaning the dust off the M24 sniper rifle” when he heard that Biden was coming to Utah. From what we understand, he was armed and I assume he failed to comply with the police which is usually a big no-no among the pro-police crowd.
I also can’t help but be reminded of this:
President Donald Trump on Thursday gloated over the September killing of Portland, Oregon, murder suspect Michael Reinoehl by law enforcement officers who had been deputized as US Marshals.
A task force involving federal, state and local law enforcement officers had been trying to arrest Reinoehl in connection with the August 29 fatal shooting of a supporter of a right-wing group in Portland, a killing that happened during clashes between pro-Trump groups and left-wing protesters.
“We sent in the US Marshals,” Trump said during a campaign rally in North Carolina, adding that it “took 15 minutes (and) it was over.”
The President immediately followed that statement by appearing to indicate that authorities had no intention of ever taking Reinoehl alive.
“They knew who he was; they didn’t want to arrest him, and in 15 minutes that ended,” Trump said. It was unclear what information he was basing his assertion on.
That action was cheered by the right wingers. It turned out that Reinoehl wasn’t armed when they shot him down but whatevs. He was supposedly “antifa” so that’s all that matters.
It’s fair to be suspicious of this shooting because he was an old man who used a cane. On the other hand, that doesn’t mean he couldn’t have sat himself down somewhere with his sniper rifle and tried to kill the president. When you issue threats like that after already having been visited by the Secret Service it’s not surprising that the FBI would issue a search warrant. What happened next is up for grabs but let’s just say it wouldn’t be surprising if that man had a gun and pointed it at the cops. We all know what happens next, especially the right wing which cheers whenever the police gun down a Black person because they failed to comply.
The other day on Threads, Bulwark contributor and all-around great writer
Nicholas Grossman asked the following question:
What he’s getting at is one of the political and ideological asymmetries we talk about here often:
One side of our political divide routinely castigates itself for being in a bubble. One side expends a lot of energy trying to figure out how to appeal to people who don’t vote for them. One side talks a lot about persuasion and understanding the people across from them.
Not coincidentally, that side is the same side that can no longer wield executive power nationally without winning a sizable popular majority.
The other side does not seem to worry about the media bubble it lives in.
This side does not expend much energy trying to understand the 51 percent of the country which votes against it.
Systems engineering is one of those disciplines that, once you start looking at it, shapes your perception of everything around you. (Reminder: The Logic of Failure is a classic and accessible book on the subject and is worth your time.)
In our case, I think it is not an accident that the Republican party became an authoritarian institution at the same moment that it realized minority rule was a viable pathway.
The incentives for majority rule are expansive: Try to be as open to as many voters as possible without losing your base. The incentives for minority rule are propulsive: Try to maximize your base while turning off as few swing voters as possible.
Majority rule as a system selects for moderation while minority rule pushes a party to become an ouroboros.
This asks why conservatives aren’t asking this question and the answer is, I think, correct. They’ve decided that their only path is through sheer power politics. They prefer that anyway,
But here’s another question: why does the mainstream media do exactly the same thing? They are still obsessed with the Trump voter as they have been for the last eight years. There’s been a tiny bit of interest in the effects of the Roe being overturned but I have still not read many profiles of Biden voters or even Democratic voters beyond that specific issue. They have zero interest in the thoughts of the majority. It’s one reason why Trump remains so close. If you didn’t know better you would think that most people in this country are for him.
Students in a Florida school district will be reading only excerpts from William Shakespeare’s plays for class rather than the full texts under redesigned curriculum guides developed, in part, to take into consideration the state’s new laws that restrict classroom materials whose content can be deemed sexual.
The changes to the Hillsborough County Public Schools’ curriculum guides were made with Florida’s new legislation limiting classroom materials that “contain pornography or obscene depictions of sexual conduct” in mind. Other reasons included revised state standards and an effort to get students to read a wide variety of books for new state exams, the school district said in an emailed statement on Tuesday.
Several Shakespeare plays use suggestive puns and innuendo, and it is implied that the protagonists have had premarital sex in “Romeo and Juliet.” Shakespeare’s books will be available for checkout at media centers at schools, said the district, which covers the Tampa area.
“First and foremost, we have not excluded Shakespeare from our high school curriculum. Students will still have the physical books to read excerpts in class,” the statement said. “Curriculum guides are continually reviewed and refined throughout the year to align with state standards and current law.”
The decision in Tampa is the latest fallout from laws passed by Florida’s Republican-controlled Legislature and championed by GOP Gov. Ron DeSantis over the past two years. The first law, dubbed “Don’t Say Gay” by critics, was passed last year and prohibited classroom discussion about sexual orientation or gender identity in lower grades.
The second law passed this year extended the prohibition on gender and sexual orientation discussion to other grades. It also prevents students and teachers from being required to use pronouns that don’t correspond to someone’s biological sex and strengthens the system in which people can lodge challenges against school books. Republican lawmakers said at the time that the bill was intended to shield children from sexualized content.
Underscoring the confusion over what is allowed in schools, Florida Education Commissioner Manny Diaz on Tuesday put “Romeo and Juliet” on his list of books he is recommending that students read in August.
“This month’s book recommendations provide a variety of reading materials that students will find uplifting and will spark a love for literacy,” Diaz said in a statement.
Florida is fast becoming an intellectual black hole. Check this out:
Yes, they have abolished gender studies at the state liberal arts school that was turned over to hardcore right wing zealots led by this crackpot “intellectual” leader Chris Rufo. That he couches this autocratic assault on academic freedom as “democratic means” is enough to give you a headache. Nobody elected Chris Rufo to anything.
Does this make your day?
The luck ran out for FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried on Friday, when a New York judge ordered that he be confined to jail in advance of his October trial.
The former billionaire had repeatedly angered both prosecutors and the court while out on bail following his arrest in December. Most recently, he leaked documents to The New York Times about his former lover Caroline Ellison, who once ran Bankman-Fried’s hedge fund and is likely to be a witness in his trial.
Prosecutors framed the leaks as a possible attempt at witness tampering, both by intimidating Ellison and influencing public perception of her in the media. An assistant U.S. attorney argued in court last month that there was “no set of conditions short of detention to ensure the safety of the community.”
Judge Lewis Kaplan agreed that defendant Bankman-Fried has a right to try and repair his reputation. “But I find that there is a practical possibility [leaking documents] was intended to have [witnesses] back off.”
Who else wants to play chicken with the courts? Specifically, with Judge Tanya Chutkan, the judge assigned to Donald Trump’s Jan. 6 case?
On Friday, Chutkan issued a protective order following a hearing that special counsel Jack Smith requested a week ago after Trump “posted a message to his social media platform, Truth Social, saying, ‘IF YOU GO AFTER ME, I’M COMING AFTER YOU!'” ABC News reports.
Trump famously, perhaps reflexively, tries to delay, delay, delay his way out of legal trouble. Chutkan on Friday threw his words back in his face, perhaps more politely than in the graphic above. She did not threaten prison if Trump disobeyed her order, but perhaps something worse: a speedier trial.
“The more a party makes inflammatory statements about this case which could taint the jury pool or intimidate potential witnesses, the greater the urgency will be that we proceed to trial to ensure a jury pool from which we can select an impartial jury,” Chutkan told Trump’s attorneys on Friday.
Is the ever-petulant, 77-year-old former president playing chicken with the wrong judge? Will Bankman-Fried’s jailing make any impression on a teetotaler so drunk on himself, he’s bulletproof?
To Be Continued.
