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Post by mhbruin on Jun 15, 2023 8:16:53 GMT -8
My kids have been throwing Scrabble tiles at each other again. It's all fun and games until someone loses an i. With Media Like This, the US Doesn't Need Enemies"MOMENTOUS SCENE IN MIAMI AS TRUMP PLEADS NOT GUILTY" is the headline, and it takes no imagination at all to imagine Donald Trump himself writing that out. The headline-important news is that Trump pleaded "NOT GUILTY," as if there was any damn question that he would do otherwise. The headline-important takeaway is that it was a "MOMENTOUS SCENE" as Trump pled not guilty, with "MOMENTOUS" being a word more often associated with headlines about war-ending victory parades, not a dozen-car motorcade threading through Miami to be met by perhaps a 100 gawking boosters and about as many members of the press. All of it illustrated with a front-page picture that doesn't show the motorcade or crowd or arrest or any of it, but instead shows Trump stepping down from a flag-adorned plane that many or most observers might think is Air Force One. It's not, of course. It's Trump's private jet, and he painted it that way on purpose. This is a newspaper front page that Donald Trump will hang on a Mar-a-Lago wall. It is the Truth Social version of events. The man attempted a coup, roused a crowd to attack the U.S. Capitol, and made off with some of the nation's most closely guarded secrets so that he could sort through them in Mar-a-Lago and in Bedminster at his leisure, and the actual New York Times believes the takeaway story to be the momentous scene of him pleading not guilty. The alleged top editors in the country have to try very, very hard to be this bad at their jobs. What would have been their second choice, if "Trump descending from Not Air Force One" had been unavailable? Would they have gone with him hugging a flag? Waving from a balcony? While the Times attempts to convince us that the most important story of the day was the sheer spectacle of Trump being met with dozens of supporters as he walked into the courthouse to be booked, the more explicitly fascist media is looking to stir up political violence rather than abide by Trump being held accountable for actual federal crimes. Here's How CNN Reports Falling Inflation |
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Post by mhbruin on Jun 15, 2023 8:17:58 GMT -8
It Takes a Thief to Defend a Thief
A lawyer representing Donald Trump in multiple cases is facing legal troubles of his own, New York Law Journal reports.
Todd Blanche and his former law firm, Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft, are being sued for malpractice by twin brothers Adam Kaplan and Daniel Kaplan, who allege Blanche and Cadwalader forged their signatures on a retainer agreement and “severely” overbilled them while they were the subject of a U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission probe.
The Kaplan brothers also reportedly allege their former attorneys are now refusing to turn over their case file to their new lawyers.
People Magazine reports that “Blanche's move to represent Trump came as the politician reportedly struggled to assemble a team of respected defense lawyers, the Washington Post reported in April. Retaining counsel for his arraignment on Tuesday appeared just as challenging, a trusted legal source tells PEOPLE.”
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Post by mhbruin on Jun 15, 2023 8:20:25 GMT -8
There is No Such Thing as a Free Lunch, Even If Previous Guy Offers It.
Donald Trump was in Miami yesterday to plead not guilty to 37 counts in a felony case that alleges he illegally hoarded classified documents from his time in the White House.
The former president was fingerprinted and arraigned at the Wilkie D. Ferguson Jr. U.S. Courthouse in downtown Miami. And, no matter what side of the political fence you stand on, it's a fact that after a hard day in court, you need a little break.
Trump opted to decompress with a trip to Versailles in Little Havana. The iconic restaurant has long been a pit stop for politicians seeking to curry favor with Miami's Cuban voters.
Trump and his entourage arrived at Versailles shortly after leaving the courthouse and made straight for the bakery.
The local press was on hand to capture footage of the large crowd milling outside to greet their man. Inside the bakery, Trump supporters fawned over their man, regaling the soon-to-turn-77-year-old with a rousing rendition of "Happy Birthday" a day early and holding a group prayer. Former MMA fighter Jorge Masvidal, sporting a University of Miami ball cap, hailed Trump as "everybody's favorite president of all time" after embracing the former leader of the free world.
A glad-handing Trump was heard to declare, "Food for everyone!"
So, New Times wondered, did Trump — who famously fancies his chicken from KFC and his steaks well-done and slathered with ketchup but isn't exactly known for picking up the check — treat his fan club to a spread of croquetas, pastelitos, and cubanos chased with cafecitos?
It turns out no one got anything. Not even a cafecito to-go.
A knowledgeable source assures New Times that Donald Trump's stop at Versailles totaled about ten minutes, leaving no time for anyone to eat anything, much less place an order.
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Post by mhbruin on Jun 15, 2023 8:23:56 GMT -8
Has Cannon Always Misfired? Apparently Not.Politico legal reporter Kyle Cheney has published a deep dive into Judge Aileen Cannon's judicial record and has found that she's spent more than a year working on what he describes as "a fraud case with extraordinary parallels to Trump's." The case in question is a 10-defendant healthcare fraud trial that features many of the procedural issues that she will in all likelihood be asked to rule on in the upcoming criminal case against former President Donald Trump, including the piercing of attorney-client privilege and an attempt by defendants to suppress certain evidence taken from personal devices. And what's particularly notable about this, says Cheney, is how often she has sided with prosecutors. Trump judge’s thin criminal trial resume comes with a twist
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Post by mhbruin on Jun 15, 2023 8:26:03 GMT -8
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Post by mhbruin on Jun 15, 2023 8:28:00 GMT -8
The QOP Wants to Screw Over their Base: Old People
A panel comprised of three-quarters of the House Republican caucus released a budget proposal on Wednesday that would raise the Social Security retirement age—cutting benefits across the board—while further privatizing Medicare and slashing taxes for the rich, a plan that Democratic lawmakers and progressive advocacy groups said is a clear statement of the GOP's warped priorities ahead of a critical spending fight this fall.
The proposal outlined by the 175-member Republican Study Committee (RSC), led by Rep. Kevin Hern (R-Okla.), would gradually raise Social Security's full retirement age—the age at which people are eligible for full Social Security benefits—to 69, up from the current level of 67 for those born in 1960 or later.
Nancy Altman, the president of Social Security Works, said the RSC budget would "destroy Social Security as we know it," using a "modest shortfall" that's more than a decade away to justify reducing benefits for millions.
"These changes would transform Social Security from an earned insurance benefit, which replaces wages lost in the event of old age, disability, or death, into a subsistence-level welfare benefit," said Altman, who noted that the RSC "rules out any options for raising revenue, such as requiring billionaires to contribute even a penny more."
All of This While We Should Be Looking at a Reasonable Version of Entitlement Reform
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Post by mhbruin on Jun 15, 2023 8:29:04 GMT -8
Are Smart Drugs Really Stupid Pills?Financial services workers, medical students and others working in highly competitive environments are using so-called “smart drugs” to enhance cognitive performance. Do they actually work? Some of these drugs, such as methylphenidate (aka Ritalin) and dextroamphetamine, have been used successfully as part of treatment for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), but less is known about their effect on people who do not have ADHD. Users may report a subjective feeling of cognitive enhancement, but it has been less clear whether this corresponds to objective improvements in performance. In a new study, we examined the effect of three common “smart drugs” on cognitive performance, and our results suggest the drugs are not so smart after all. Users expended more cognitive effort and showed more frantic activity, but in general the drugs made their output worse. Not so smart? “Smart” drugs increase the level but decrease the quality of cognitive effortIf you are buying Smart Water at $4 a bottle, it isn’t working.
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Post by mhbruin on Jun 15, 2023 8:34:34 GMT -8
The BBC Looks at Life in North KoreaFor months, the BBC has been communicating in secret with three North Koreans living in the country. They expose, for the first time, the disaster unfolding there since the government sealed the borders more than three years ago. Starvation, brutal crackdowns, and no chance to escape. We have changed their names to protect them.
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Post by mhbruin on Jun 15, 2023 8:35:35 GMT -8
Women Need Not Apply
The US's largest Baptist denomination has voted to expel two churches for having female pastors.
A vote by Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) members found Southern Californian megachurch Saddleback and Kentucky's Fern Creek Baptist Church were "not in friendly cooperation" with SBC, the Baptist Press reported.
SBC's mission statement says the office of pastor should be "limited to men."
Fern Creek's pastor told CBS News it was a "sad day for Southern Baptists".
SBC is an association of more than 47,000 Baptist churches with a membership of more than 13 million, the group's website says.
The church is a protestant denomination of Christianity, with congregations led by pastors.
In total, five churches have been expelled from SBC for being led by women.
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Post by mhbruin on Jun 15, 2023 8:37:46 GMT -8
Senate Democrats Continue to Run Things Like It's 1999.
Two Republican senators are taking a page from the House nihilists, using similar tactics to shut down Senate operations. Sen. Tommy Tuberville of Alabama has blocked hundreds of military appointments and promotions as an objection to a Department of Defense policy that allows service members time and a travel allowance, as needed, to obtain abortions or infertility treatments. This week, Ohio Sen. J.D. Vance decided to add his own blockade on Justice Department nominees to protest Donald Trump’s being held accountable for his alleged crimes against the government.
In an intersection of those issues, Tuberville wasn’t at the Senate on Tuesday. He was at Trump’s Bedminster Golf Club to provide moral support to the twice-indicted walking, talking national security threat. The Senate could have taken advantage of absence, and moved the whole bloc of nominees through with a unanimous consent vote. There are so many of these nominees, there’s simply not enough floor time to have individual votes on every single one of them. That’s why Democrats have been trying for months to get unanimous consent to approve them. Which they could have tried to do Tuesday, at the very least.
But no.
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Post by mhbruin on Jun 15, 2023 8:39:07 GMT -8
Is This Time Different?
When Donald Trump was caught laundering money through his casino, he made a deal to pay $10 million and the problem went away. When Trump was caught defrauding people with his fake university, he paid $20 million and the problem went away. When Trump was caught stealing money from his own charity, he paid a fine of $2 million and the problem went away.
All his life, Trump has been convinced that so long as he was able to pull a few more million out of the family vaults, there was nothing he couldn’t get away with. And he’s been right. His deep pockets have allowed him to dodge and delay every legal issue he’s faced, and each time agencies charged with enforcing the law decided they’d rather have Trump’s money than justice.
In the last five years, Trump has only gained an extra layer of protection. Impeached for attempting to blackmail Ukrainian leaders into making false statements against Joe Biden, then impeached again for attempting to overturn the results of the 2020 election, Trump was never in serious danger so long as Republicans had more than a third of the Senate. Republicans have made protecting Trump not just a cause, but the cause. To a very large extent, the modern Republican Party exists to create a protective screen for Trump.
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Post by mhbruin on Jun 15, 2023 8:41:28 GMT -8
America's Refugee Crisis
According to research by the Clark University professor Abbie Goldberg published in January by the Williams Institute at the UCLA School of Law, which surveyed 113 parents in Florida who are L.G.B.T.Q. in the wake of the passage of Florida’s Don’t Say Gay law, “56 percent of parents considered moving out of Florida and 16.5 percent have taken steps to move out of Florida.”
The study found that some respondents were already saving money and looking for jobs and houses elsewhere. But the fight-or-flight dilemma that these families face is fraught because, as the study points out, “many felt conflicted,” noting that “they loved their families, friends and communities.” They’re being pushed to choose between the comfort of their chosen tribe and the safety of their families — something no one should have to do. It’s a predicament underscoring that anti-trans laws aren’t noble, but wicked; they don’t protect, they prey.
And as the study notes, for some families with L.G.B.T.Q. members, “moving was currently impossible,” as they were “caring for older family members or other dependents or had jobs that they could not find elsewhere.” As Goldberg has explained: “For L.G.B.T.Q.+ parents without the means to move or send their children to private schools”— where, hopefully, they wouldn’t have to be silent about their families — the stress that anti-L.G.B.T.Q. legislation creates “will be significant.” Uprooting and moving to get away from political persecution is a privileged option that’s just not feasible for everyone, at least in the short term.
Only the N.Y.T. Inserts Periods After LGBTQ
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Post by mhbruin on Jun 15, 2023 8:43:40 GMT -8
Is Joe Biden Really the Best at the Art of the Deal?
Iran would agree under a new pact — which two Israeli officials called “imminent” — not to enrich uranium beyond its current production level of 60 percent purity. That is close to but short of the 90 percent purity needed to fashion a nuclear weapon, a level that the United States has warned would force a severe response.
Iran would also halt lethal attacks on American contractors in Syria and Iraq by its proxies in the region, expand its cooperation with international nuclear inspectors, and refrain from selling ballistic missiles to Russia, Iranian officials said.
In return, Iran would expect the United States to avoid tightening sanctions already choking its economy; to not seize oil-bearing foreign tankers, as it most recently did in April; and to not seek new punitive resolutions at the United Nations or the International Atomic Energy Agency against Iran for its nuclear activity.
“None of this is aimed at reaching a groundbreaking agreement,” said Ali Vaez, the Iran director for the International Crisis Group, a conflict prevention organization. Instead, he said, the goal is to “put a lid on any activity that basically crosses a red line or puts either party in a position to retaliate in a way that destabilizes the status quo.”
Previous Guy Tears Up Deals. Biden Makes Them.
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Post by mhbruin on Jun 15, 2023 8:45:16 GMT -8
Have You Ever Had a Root Canal?
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Post by mhbruin on Jun 15, 2023 8:47:16 GMT -8
What's He Got Against Mutants?
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