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Post by mhbruin on Jun 10, 2023 8:18:34 GMT -8
What is the best thing about living in Switzerland? Well, the flag is a big plus.
They Don't Want to Do His Dirty Work, No More
Appearing on CNN early Saturday morning, the state attorney for Palm Beach County claimed the lawyer turmoil Donald Trump is experiencing as he heads to Florida where he will be formally charged on dozens of charges from the Department of Justice puts him at a disadvantage.
Speaking with host Amara Walker, prosecutor Dave Aronberg pointed out that the former president has put himself in the position of not having legal representation experienced in dealing with national security issues that are at the heart of the case against him.
Noting that Trump lawyers Jim Trusty and John Rowley walked away less than 24 hours after the indictments were announced, Aronberg said that is a "problem" for the now twice-indicted former president.
With Walker prompting, "There's a high turnover rate of his legal team," Aronberg quickly responded, "The strategy is just to find a lawyer who will take the case in Florida with knowledge in this area."
"The problem is, as respected as his new lawyer is, apparently he's not an expert in the field of national security," he continued. "We lawyers are specialists and you want someone who is used to this stuff, dealing with classified information because they're going against Jay Bratt who's the head of the Department of Justice's Counterintelligence division and you are going against Jack Smith who is a bulldog."
They Did Jumping Jack Smith's Dirty Work
In a column for the conservative National Review, longtime political observer Andrew McCarthy made the case that Donald Trump can no longer call the investigation by special counsel Jack Smith a "witch hunt" since key evidence contained in the 37-count indictment was provided courtesy of his own lawyers.
As McCarthy points out, the charges against the former president should give his defenders pause and that analogies to former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's national security issues are grossly misplaced.
More to the point, McCarthy suggested that the "witch hunt" Trump has been ranting about is non-operative since the damning information about his treatment of sensitive government documents came from his own lawyers who were employed to defend him.
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Post by mhbruin on Jun 10, 2023 8:21:36 GMT -8
Is Jumping Jack Smith Stuck with Loose Cannon?
“First and foremost let me explain to you why I am not worried that this case has been assigned to judge Aileen Cannon. So it's assigned to judge Aileen Cannon for now. However under 11th Circuit Court of Appeals precedent which is binding on federal judges in the southern district of Florida and all the federal courts in Florida judge Aileen Cannon should on her own recuse herself from this case. Or upon a motion for recusal brought by the Department of Justice she should recuse herself.
"If she does not voluntarily recuse herself the Department of Justice can then appeal that to the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals and they should then order that she be recused. There is an 11th circuit case called U.S versus Martin which is the binding precedent there, which holds that where a judge has shown prior bias and where the judge has engaged in potential prior misconduct and there is an appearance of impropriety the judge should be removed from the case. And if they don't voluntarily recuse the 11th circuit can remove the judge.
"So I ultimately do think judge Aileen Cannon will either recuse herself or be removed by the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals under the U.S versus Martin 11th circuit precedent, because the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals has already made a ruling where they removed judge Aileen Cannon from assuming jurisdiction. Extraordinary jurisdiction which she didn't have and in the order they basically accused her of interfering improperly with the Department of Justice's criminal investigation into Donald Trump.
"So where there is an order essentially already reprimanding her the remedy here would be recusal and I think that is what the Department of Justice is I'm going to pursue. So I don't think she's going to be on this case for any significant period of time.”
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Post by mhbruin on Jun 10, 2023 8:25:42 GMT -8
The Eternal Truth: "Follow the Money"
Now that special counsel Jack Smith has slammed Donald Trump with a 37-count federal indictment containing conspiracy and Espionage Act violations, it's time for the Department of Justice to look into the former president and his family's dealing with the Saudi royal family.
That is the opinion of former Trump lawyer Michael Cohen who visited with MSNBC host Katie Phang early Saturday morning to discuss the groundbreaking indictment of a former president.
Claiming such an inquiry could already be in the process of being pursued, Cohen told the host that Trump as well as son-in-law Jared Kushner appear to have an "unholy" relationship with the Saudis.
"Donald will throw anyone and everyone under the bus in order to preserve his own freedom, in order to benefit himself," the former Trump "fixer" told the MSNBC host.
"I think the DOJ should be, if they're not already, [be] looking at the unholy relationships that exist between Saudi Arabia, Mohammed bin Salman, and Jared Kushner," he explained.
"I mean, this whole two plus billion dollars to an unqualified hedge funder makes no sense to me, and in light of the information that came out, that there was military information on Iran, and we all know what that Saudi Arabia has had with Iranian aggression on their mind for a long time -- who knows what was shown to them? Who knows what was discussed? Who knows what was sold? None of us."
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Post by mhbruin on Jun 10, 2023 8:28:33 GMT -8
They Are SurvivorsFour Indigenous children who had been missing for more than a month in the Colombian Amazon rainforest were found alive and flown to the capital Bogota early Saturday. The children, who survived a small plane crash in the jungle, were transported by army medical plane to a military airport at around 00:30 am Saturday (0530 GMT). They were taken off the plane on stretchers, wrapped in thermal blankets, with ambulances waiting to bring them to hospital, AFP journalists said. Originally from the Huitoto Indigenous group, the children -- aged 13, nine, four and one -- had been wandering alone in the jungle since May 1, when the Cessna 206 in which they were traveling crashed. The pilot had reported engine problems only minutes after taking off from a jungle area known as Araracuara on the 350-kilometer (217-mile) journey to the town of San Jose del Guaviare. The bodies of the pilot, the children's mother and a local Indigenous leader were all found at the crash site, where the plane sat almost vertical in the trees. Officials said the group had been fleeing threats from members of an armed group. 
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Post by mhbruin on Jun 10, 2023 8:31:16 GMT -8
There Goes Half Their LuckTwo giant yellow ducks meant to signify good fortune in Hong Kong ran into bad luck of their own after one was deflated Saturday to protect it from the heat. The art installation by Dutch artist Forentijn Hofman, featuring twin 18-metre (59-feet) inflatable ducks, was unveiled to the public on Friday. The exhibition came a decade after one of Hofman's air-filled avians first visited the Chinese city, with the artist saying the new work would bring "double luck". But organisers had to let the air out of one bird due to high summer temperatures, which on Saturday reached highs of 33 degrees Celsius (91.4 degrees Fahrenheit). 
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Post by mhbruin on Jun 10, 2023 8:34:00 GMT -8
My Math Geek Friends are Very Excited About ThisDavid Smith, a retired print technician from the north of England, was pursuing his hobby of looking for interesting shapes when he stumbled onto one unlike any other in November. When Smith shared his shape with the world in March, excited fans printed it onto T-shirts, sewed it into quilts, crafted cookie cutters or used it to replace the hexagons on a soccer ball -- some even made plans for tattoos. The 13-sided polygon, which 64-year-old Smith called "the hat", is the first single shape ever found that can completely cover an infinitely large flat surface without ever repeating the same pattern. That makes it the first "einstein" -- named after the German for "one stone" (ein stein), not the famed physicist -- and solves a problem posed 60 years ago that some mathematicians had thought impossible. After stunning the mathematics world, Smith -- a hobbyist with no training who told AFP that he wasn't great at maths at school -- then did it again. While all agreed "the hat" was the first einstein, its mirror image was required one in seven times to ensure that a pattern never repeated. But in a preprint study published online late last month, Smith and the three mathematicians who helped him confirm the discovery revealed a new shape -- "the spectre." It requires no mirror image, making it an even purer einstein. 
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Post by mhbruin on Jun 10, 2023 8:35:53 GMT -8
12 Million Americans Love Slime so Much That ...
12m Americans believe violence is justified to restore Trump to power
University of Chicago research finds support for violence to achieve political goals and general distrust of democracy
Two and a half years after the January 6 attack on the Capitol, an estimated 12 million American adults, or 4.4% of the adult population, believe violence is justified to restore Donald Trump to the White House.
Though the number of adults who believe this has declined since the insurrection, recent survey data from the University of Chicago reveal alarming and dangerous levels of support for political violence and conspiracy theories across the United States.
The university’s Chicago Project on Security & Threats (CPOST) research center has been conducting Dangers to Democracy surveys of American adults on political violence and attitudes towards democracy since shortly after the January 6 attacks. In new data from April shared exclusively with the Guardian, researchers found a continued support for violence to achieve various political goals on both sides of the aisle, and a general distrust for democracy.
The results are particularly alarming as the 2024 election approaches without essential safeguards that some lawmakers say could help prevent another violent attack on US democracy.
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Post by mhbruin on Jun 10, 2023 8:38:23 GMT -8
Panny Dreadful
A couple in California are in for a penny, in for a pound after finding what they estimate to be a million copper pennies in a basement.
John Reyes and his wife discovered bags of the coins while cleaning her late father's Los Angeles home around nine months ago.
The family thought about cashing them in for their $10,000 (£8,000) face value, but ultimately held back.
One local bank told Mr Reyes it had no room in the vault to take the coins.
"'Don't bring them here,'" the manager of a Well Fargo branch told him, he recalled in an interview with a local CBS News affiliate.
The discovery came as he was on his hands and knees rummaging through a crawlspace in his father-in-law's home in the Pico-Union neighbourhood of LA.
At first, he said, he found loads of loose pennies that had rolled away after the paper rolls holding them in bundles disintegrated. They later found bank bags containing heavy loads full of pennies.
"Some of the banks don't even exist anymore," Mr Reyes said.
"Literally bag-by-bag, we had to take them out of the basement, up the stairs, and into the trucks," Mr Reyes continued, adding that it took an entire day to remove them from the house.
The coins, which are made from pure copper, pre-date 1943, when the US began using other metals to make the one cent coin due to World War Two shortages. Pennies are now made primarily from zinc.
The coins weighed down their car to the point that they had to drive in the slow lane, the couple said. They have not counted each one, but extrapolate that there are around one million in the stash based on the weight.
After consulting with a banker, the couple begrudgingly decided not to cash out the heavy load.
"You see all these stories of people finding pennies worth $2 million," said Mr Reyes.
Rather than search the haul for any rare valuable coins themselves, they have instead decided to sell them all online, asking $25,000 for the lot.
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Post by mhbruin on Jun 10, 2023 8:42:20 GMT -8
Who is Walt Nauta and Why Are They Saying Those Terrible Things About Him? He Did Previous Guy's Dirty Work
An aide to ex-President Donald Trump has been charged alongside him over the alleged mishandling of national security documents.
Walt Nauta, a US Navy veteran, was a White House military valet to Mr Trump and joined him as an assistant at his Florida mansion after he left office.
Mr Nauta faces six charges, including conspiracy to obstruct justice, withholding records,concealing documents and making false statements.
According to the indictment, Mr Trump directed his aide to move boxes that were a focus of the investigation from a storage room and to conceal them from Trump's attorney, the FBI and the grand jury.
Mr Nauta, whose first name is Waltine, served as President Trump's military aide, a role similar to a personal valet and sometimes referred to as a "body-man". He has been described as a constant presence in the Trump White House.
Born in Agat, Guam, a US territory, Mr Nauta enlisted in the US Navy in 2001, according to the Washington Post. Navy records show he ascended through the ranks to become a Senior Chief Culinary Specialist, in 2021.
According to the indictment, Mr Nauta became an executive assistant to Donald Trump in August 2021. Unlike other aides who sought to remain in Washington DC after Mr Trump lost the 2020 election, Mr Nauta relocated to Florida.
He continued to serve there as an aide to the former president at his Mar-a-Lago residence in Palm Beach.
Mr Nauta's proximity to Mr Trump placed him in the crosshairs of the justice department probe into documents with classification markings that the ex-president took with him to Florida after leaving the White House.
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Post by mhbruin on Jun 10, 2023 8:44:00 GMT -8
Is It Different This Time?
-Polling suggests Republicans view Trump’s mishandling of classified documents as more serious, with an Associated Press/NORC poll in April finding 47% of respondents overall view it as illegal (versus 41% for the hush money payments), and 20% of Republicans said the behavior was illegal versus 13% who said the same of the New York charges.
-A Yahoo News/YouGov poll conducted May 25-30 put disapproval even higher, finding 63% of all respondents and 42% of Republicans view “taking highly classified documents from the White House and obstructing efforts to retrieve them” as a “serious crime,” versus 52% of all respondents and 28% of Republicans who said the same of “falsifying business records to conceal hush money payments to a porn star.”
-If Trump is convicted of a “serious crime,” only 23% of Yahoo/YouGov respondents said he should be allowed to serve as president again, including 43% of Republicans—with 39% saying he should not be allowed—and only 51% of people who voted for Trump in 2020.
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Post by mhbruin on Jun 10, 2023 8:50:17 GMT -8
We Know Something's Happening, But We Don't Know What It is
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Post by mhbruin on Jun 10, 2023 8:53:34 GMT -8
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Post by mhbruin on Jun 10, 2023 8:55:23 GMT -8
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Post by mhbruin on Jun 10, 2023 8:58:48 GMT -8
But Her E-Mails!!!
In 2016, Donald Trump rode to the White House by vigorously criticizing his Democratic opponent, Hillary Clinton, as “corrupt” and “crooked” amid an investigation into classified materials kept on a private email server during her time as secretary of state.
“Lock her up,” his adoring crowds chanted.
But now the shoe is on the other foot. Trump’s attacks on Clinton have come back to bite him as he himself is indicted over his handling of classified documents. His words are even featured in the indictment in a special “But her emails!” style section.
On a page titled “TRUMP’s Public Statements on Classified Information,” the new indictment highlights excerpts from Trump’s campaign trail speeches in 2016 about the importance of protecting classified information and enforcing the law. These statements serve as evidence that the former president seemed to know that mishandling classified information is a serious crime.
“In my administration I’m going to enforce all laws concerning the protection of classified information,” Trump said on Aug. 18, 2016, as the indictment notes. “No one will be above the law.”
“We also need to fight this battle by collecting intelligence and then protecting, protecting our classified secrets. … We can’t have someone in the Oval Office who doesn’t understand the meaning of the word confidential or classified,” Trump said on Sept. 6, 2016.
“[O]ne of the first things we must do is to enforce all classification rules and to enforce all laws relating to the handling of classified information,” Trump is quoted as saying on Sept. 7, 2016.
“We also need the best protection of classified information,” Trump said on Sept. 19, 2016.
“Service members here in North Carolina have risked their lives to acquire classified intelligence to protect our country,” Trump said on Nov. 3, 2016.
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Post by mhbruin on Jun 10, 2023 9:03:48 GMT -8
Bye, Bye Boris. It Wasn't a Witch Hunt, It Was a Kangaroo Court
Former U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson shocked Britain on Friday by quitting as a lawmaker after being told he will be sanctioned for misleading Parliament. He quit with a ferocious tirade at his political opponents — and at his successor, Rishi Sunak — that could blast open tensions within the governing Conservative Party.
Johnson quit after receiving the results of an investigation by lawmakers over misleading statements he made to Parliament about “partygate,” a series of rule-breaking government parties during the pandemic.
In a lengthy resignation statement, Johnson accused opponents of trying to drive him out — and hinted that he might try to return.
“It is very sad to be leaving Parliament — at least for now,” he said.
Johnson said he had “received a letter from the Privileges Committee making it clear — much to my amazement — that they are determined to use the proceedings against me to drive me out of Parliament.”
He called the committee investigating him a “kangaroo court.”
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