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Post by mhbruin on Aug 12, 2023 8:23:12 GMT -8
Why couldn't the leopard play hide and seek? Because he was always spotted.
The Judge Doesn't Seem to Want to Hear BS.
Hugo Lowell of the Guardian claimed lawyers for Donald Trump got off to a rough start with Judge Tanya Chutkan during a hearing Friday afternoon.
According to the reporter who was in Chutkan's courtroom on Friday for the start of a trial where the judge laid down the law about how she will conduct his trial on charges related to his attempts to subvert the 2020 election, the judge at one point put her face in her hands as accusations were made against the Joe Biden administration for "coming after" the ex-president.
Lowell stated Chutkan was clearly unhappy with the former president's lawyers harping on the fact that the trial would impact their client's third presidential campaign.
"The judge was sympathetic to some of the Trump lawyers' arguments, they were making the case that you know, being a defense lawyer is difficult, especially with a client like Trump and I think she kind of accepted that, she has a defense background herself," he explained.
"But at other times I think she kind of grew exasperated by all the discussions about politics, at one point she had her face in her hands and rolled her eyes when there was another discussion about the Biden Administration coming after Trump," he continued. "So I think Trump's lawyer John Lauro picked up on that a little bit, and shifted course at the hearing."
"So clearly that was something he thought was gonna be a loser and changed tack," he added.
Who Won?
If there was a "winner" in Friday morning's hearing during which special counsel Jack Smith sought a protective order limiting Donald Trump from sharing information from the case, it was the government, former prosecutors say.
The judge ended up entering an order that was less expansive than Smith's team sought, but it also fell short of the Trump lawyers' expectations.
Former prosecutor Harry Litman said there was an "interesting divide among commentators" between those who say Trump's legal team prevailed, and those who believe Smith "won" today's hearing before Judge Chutkan.
"I vote for gov: it got more or less all it wanted and Chutkan's several admonitions to Team Trump were foreboding," Litman wrote Friday, referencing warnings from the judge.
Former federal prosecutor Elizabeth de la Vega agreed.
"The gov't definitely 'won' today's hearing before Judge Chutkan, but the judge handled the matter so brilliantly that the defense would've thought they won," she wrote on Friday. "The order doesn't cover non-sensitive info, but the govt designates what is & isn't sensitive. Most material is sensitive."
The More He Talks, the Sooner He Goes to Jail
U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan warned Donald Trump and his attorney Friday that repeated “inflammatory” statements about his latest criminal prosecution would force her to speed his trial on charges related to his bid to subvert the 2020 election.
“I caution you and your client to take special care in your public statements about this case,” Chutkan told Trump lawyer John Lauro during a hearing. “I will take whatever measures are necessary to safeguard the integrity of these proceedings.”
“The fact that he’s running a political campaign has to yield to the orderly administration of justice,” Chutkan said. “If that means he can’t say exactly what he wants to say about witnesses in this case, that’s how it has to be.”
“Even arguably ambiguous statements from parties or their counsel, if they can be reasonably interpreted to intimidate witnesses or to prejudice potential jurors, can threaten the process,” Chutkan added later. “The more a party makes inflammatory statements about this case which could taint the jury pool … the greater the urgency will be that we proceed to trial quickly.”
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Post by mhbruin on Aug 12, 2023 8:27:21 GMT -8
Does DeathSentence Try to Hire the Least Qualified People?DiNapoli struggled with personal debt for years. DeSantis put him in charge of billions Eight years before Gov. Ron DeSantis chose him to be Florida’s affordable housing director, overseeing billions of state and federal dollars, Mike DiNapoli’s finances — and career — appeared to be in shambles. After decades of working in wealth management in New York City, he lost his job with the financial services firm UBS, where a customer — who said DiNapoli was her brother — accused him of stealing her money and forging her name on a check. Creditors were garnishing DiNapoli’s bank accounts. His nearly 10-acre equestrian estate in Ocala was in foreclosure and his homeowners association was pursuing him for past dues. In 2017, he filed for bankruptcy. Later that year, DiNapoli found a new career working in state government, and in January, DeSantis promoted him to lead the Florida Housing Finance Corp., the state-created organization in charge of Florida’s affordable housing dollars. DiNapoli, 54, was suspended in July, less than six months after DeSantis chose him for the job. An inspector general investigation is ongoing. His suspension leaves the corporation leaderless as it assigns an additional $711 million for affordable housing across the state, part of the Legislature’s attempt to tackle the state’s growing affordability crisis.
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Post by mhbruin on Aug 12, 2023 8:30:18 GMT -8
Was the Entire Jury High on Drugs?A Chicago man has been in prison 20 years for murder though 6 witnesses said he didn’t do it. His lawyers allege police misconductA man serving a 71-year prison sentence is seeking to have his murder conviction tossed out, in part because of allegations of misconduct by a Chicago Police officer who was once ripped by a judge for “garbage” testimony. The recent filing by attorneys representing Antonio Porter, 48, is the latest development in a winding murder case that has seen several astonishing twists. Porter’s murder trial in 2003 featured four witnesses called by prosecutors who testified that he wasn’t the gunman, reversing prior statements to police. No other direct testimony or evidence presented at the trial implicated Porter, but a Cook County jury nevertheless convicted him. State’s Attorney Kim Foxx’s office in 2018 rebuffed efforts by his former attorney to have Porter cleared, saying they believed he was properly convicted.
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Post by mhbruin on Aug 12, 2023 8:34:25 GMT -8
The AZ QOP is Broken and Broke. Here's the Broke Part
The Arizona Republican Party’s fundraising efforts so far this year have been dismal, with Democrats outpacing them seven to one, leaving political operatives wondering if the party’s new chairman can right the ship in time to mount any sort of meaningful campaign in 2024.
The party took in only $165,293 in contributions so far in 2023, as compared to the Arizona Democratic Party’s more than $1.15 million. While in recent years, the state Democratic Party has always taken in a larger amount of individual contributions than the Republican Party, the GOP is struggling even more than usual to garner funding this year.
And the state Republican Party’s federal account, which is vital to fund operations during a presidential election year, was in a sad state as of the end of June, with less than $24,000 in cash on hand, compared to the state Democratic Party’s nearly $714,000.
Here's the Broken Part
Last month, Democrats and Republicans overrode the objections of the hyper-conservative (Stop calling these crazies "conservative") Arizona Freedom Caucus to pass a bill allowing Maricopa County voters to decide whether to extend a local transportation sales tax next year.
The far-right members of the Freedom Caucus have publicly fought with the Republicans who backed the transportation tax vote legislation, saying the plan wastes tax money by funding public transit — particularly Maricopa County’s light rail system.
But some have gone beyond traditional conservative opposition to taxes and government spending and say the transportation plan is actually part of a covert plot to implement totalitarian control over Arizona.
In the immediate wake of the legislature passing the bill to extend Proposition 400, several Freedom Caucus critics of the measure linked it to conspiracy theories that claim urban development and transit projects are really nefarious attempts by the government to trap people in ghettos so they can be controlled more easily.
That, they claim, is done by creating so-called “15-minute cities,” in which urban areas are developed so that all necessities are available within a 15-minute walk. The primary benefit would be reducing the average person’s reliance on automobiles, leading to an overall decrease in carbon emissions, which are a lead cause of climate change.
To bad-faith critics and conspiracy theorists, it’s actually meant to block citizens from moving out of small areas.
“What this is, is an attempt by … the climate alarmists to go out there and actually have a way of making travel more difficult,” Rep. Cory McGarr, R-Tucson, said in a July 31 interview on KNST in Tucson. “So, they say the 15-minute city, well, you don’t get there overnight, but what you do is you condense down the road — it’s called a road diet… You’re making a four lane road down to two, and then you’re adding, like, a bike lane, because everybody I know bikes to work, except for nobody I know bikes to work.”
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Post by mhbruin on Aug 12, 2023 8:41:23 GMT -8
Make Sure You Chew Your Food.
Bill W. asks, “Is drinking many of our fruits, vegetables, nuts and seeds in a smoothie as healthy and nutritious as eating them?”
Surprisingly, even though the whole food we pop into the blender may have the same nutrients as the liquid smoothie, how those nutrients are absorbed can be affected by their form and structure.
A 2019 paper published in the journal Food & Function describes how researchers tested the digestibility of three different forms of foods (solid, semisolid and liquid) that were identical in nutrient content. Then they measured how the varied forms of food affected appetite and specific blood tests in human subjects.
Interestingly, scientists found that the liquid food caused a higher rise in triglycerides (a form of fat in the blood) than the solid food. The liquid food also caused less fullness and satisfaction (satiety) than the solid food.
Other studies (cited in this same article) have found similar results. Ground nuts (peanut butter) have been shown to cause a higher rise in blood fat (triglycerides) than whole nuts, for example.
Why is this important?
When excess triglycerides enter the circulation after a meal, it can trigger inflammation. In fact, these rises in blood fat after meals have been found to increase our risk for heart disease as well as Type 2 diabetes, say experts.
These types of studies are intriguing, but they are also inconsistent because they are so difficult to study. Liquid meals can also be convenient and life-saving, especially in people who rely on liquid nourishment for medical reasons.
Still, it’s fascinating to learn that the form of the food we eat may have more impact than we think. Thanks for the question.
Who Would Want to Drink a Steak, Anyway?
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Post by mhbruin on Aug 12, 2023 8:47:00 GMT -8
What Didn't Happen This Week?
CLAIM: A bank owned by Dominion Voting Systems, Sequoia Capital, donated $2 million to Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis.
THE FACTS: A venture capitalist with Sequoia, a firm that finances emerging companies, contributed $2 million to a political group that is supporting DeSantis’ presidential bid. But Dominion does not own Sequoia Capital; it bought the assets of an unrelated company called Sequoia Voting Systems in 2010. ___
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CLAIM: A mug shot circulating on social media shows a serial killer who is currently on the loose and is abducting women after hitting their cars with his truck.
THE FACTS: This is a viral hoax that has spread in Indiana, Texas, Pennsylvania, Alabama and elsewhere in the U.S. The mug shot is of Jose Gilberto Rodriguez, a man accused of killing three people over four days in the Houston area in 2018 — but he has been in a detention facility awaiting trial since then and remains behind bars, officials in Harris County, Texas, confirmed this week.
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CLAIM: Video shows President Joe Biden struggling to speak for a whole minute as he stumbles over his words in an interview with Nicolle Wallace on MSNBC.
THE FACTS: Footage of a 20-minute interview with Biden on the network in June has been edited down to only show moments where Biden briefly faltered in his speech. Biden gave a rare televised interview to MSNBC’s “Deadline: White House” in June, where he discussed topics including the Supreme Court and his reelection campaign. But over a month later, social media users are sharing an altered clip from the appearance that makes it appear that the president spoke incoherently for more than a minute. T
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CLAIM: A video showing a beach club in Kyiv proves the war in Ukraine is “fake.”
THE FACTS: The video does show partygoers at a beach club in Kyiv, but it doesn’t prove the war is fictitious. The front line of the war is in the eastern part of the country, far from Ukraine’s capital city. But that has not spared the Kyiv, which has regularly been attacked by Russia with missiles and drones.
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Post by mhbruin on Aug 12, 2023 8:54:13 GMT -8
I'm Glad Too.
It's Not Exactly "Honest Abe."
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Post by mhbruin on Aug 12, 2023 8:58:20 GMT -8
No Tragedy is Too Great for Scammers Not to Exploit
The day after she lost her husband of 22 years to lung cancer, Lisa Ann Motto received a phone call from a man who said he worked at the funeral home that was handling the cremation.
“He said I needed to make a deposit for insurance purposes, and it was urgent,” recalled Motto, 58, who lives in Bonita Springs, Florida.
The man told her that she owed $5,000 but that she could pay an initial installment of $2,500. He told her she could use Zelle or Apple Pay to make the payment.
Motto said she should have known then that something was off, but she wasn’t thinking clearly. It was just after 8:30 a.m., and she'd had a rough night. Plus, the man on the phone didn’t sound suspicious — he spoke with a Southern drawl and was “real personable,” she said.
She tried to make the payments, but they were flagged as suspicious. The man started explaining to her that he would send a PayPal request when Motto’s son overheard the conversation and told her to hang up immediately.
She now knows that she was targeted in a new scam that preys on people who just lost their loved ones.
“They just catch you at such a weak moment,” said Motto, whose husband, Doug, died at the age of 53 on July 20. “There’s a special place in hell for people like that.”
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Post by mhbruin on Aug 12, 2023 9:02:07 GMT -8
Not Exactly the Wisdom of Solomon
Students at David Solomon's alma mater have accused the Goldman Sachs CEO of having "blatant ignorance and disrespect" during a conversation about fossil fuel divestment.
Three seniors at New York's Hamilton College wrote a letter accusing the executive of "belittling" them during a discussion about the university's climate change initiatives.
Solomon, who graduated from the private liberal arts college in 1984, was attending a networking event at the college in March this year when the students challenged him on the issue of divestment.
The letter says that Solomon was speaking to "a group of six or so people," who "were all non-male, and at least half were people of color."
It adds that throughout the discussion, Solomon's attitude and behavior toward the students came from a "position of power."
"Despite knowing nothing about us and our roles in our communities and history of activist work, Solomon claimed he does more in a week to help climate change than we will ever do in our entire lives. When we asked him to elaborate, he attributed his "capital accumulation" and position of power," the letter read.
The letter also claims that Solomon pointed to the group, claiming that they must have benefitted from a financial aid.
"Once we all looked shocked at the claim, he quickly backtracked, citing the statistic that something like 80% of Hamilton students are on some kind of financial aid," it adds.
The students also said Solomon suggested fossil fuel divestment was a "stupid movement" and said that the university likely had a higher exposure to fossil fuels than it claimed.
They alleged that Solomon also called them hypocrites for driving cars and using electricity while supporting divestment, adding that he told them they would "see how the world really works" if they visited countries like China, India, and Cambodia.
"At one point, he laughed and told us he'd be dead in thirty years, so climate change would be our problem anyway," the letter also says.
Goldman's spokesman Tony Fratto told Insider in a statement: "David Solomon has enormous respect for the students at Hamilton College. He did not and would not say things to offend them. We strongly dispute the claims that he did."
Solomon has had a tough time at Goldman lately, with a big bet on its consumer banking business ending in a mess and partners voicing their concerns about him to the firm's board.
Even Solomon's DJ side hustle has brought him issues, with sources telling Insider they were fuming at his use of a private company jet to promote his gig.
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Post by sagobob on Aug 12, 2023 14:07:26 GMT -8
Does DeathSentence Try to Hire the Least Qualified People?DiNapoli struggled with personal debt for years. DeSantis put him in charge of billions Eight years before Gov. Ron DeSantis chose him to be Florida’s affordable housing director, overseeing billions of state and federal dollars, Mike DiNapoli’s finances — and career — appeared to be in shambles. After decades of working in wealth management in New York City, he lost his job with the financial services firm UBS, where a customer — who said DiNapoli was her brother — accused him of stealing her money and forging her name on a check. Creditors were garnishing DiNapoli’s bank accounts. His nearly 10-acre equestrian estate in Ocala was in foreclosure and his homeowners association was pursuing him for past dues. In 2017, he filed for bankruptcy. Later that year, DiNapoli found a new career working in state government, and in January, DeSantis promoted him to lead the Florida Housing Finance Corp., the state-created organization in charge of Florida’s affordable housing dollars. DiNapoli, 54, was suspended in July, less than six months after DeSantis chose him for the job. An inspector general investigation is ongoing. His suspension leaves the corporation leaderless as it assigns an additional $711 million for affordable housing across the state, part of the Legislature’s attempt to tackle the state’s growing affordability crisis. Trump vowed to surround himself "only with the best and most serious people". DeSantis was listening. |
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