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Post by mhbruin on Aug 23, 2023 8:57:53 GMT -8
I started dating a zookeeper, but it turned out he was a cheetah
Speaking of Cheaters ...
Former Justice Department official Jeffrey Clark, who is accused of trying to use the Justice Department to lean on Georgia to block its electoral count, is one of many defendants caught up in the Georgia racketeering case targeting former President Donald Trump and his associates. But he has filed an emergency motion to try to block his arrest and give himself extra time to try to get the case removed to another jurisdiction.
What really stunned MSNBC anchor Lawrence O'Donnell, though, was the disrespectful way that Clark treated the judge presiding over the case.
"Jeffrey Clark's pleading to the same federal judge about being arrested is like the rest of Jeffrey Clark's legal thinking that got him indicted: legally farfetched, and also astonishingly childish," said O'Donnell on "The Last Word" Tuesday evening. "Jeffrey Clark's emergency motion to avoid arrest did something that, and a lifetime of reading such motions, I, for one, have never seen before. He gave the judge a deadline. Jeffrey Clark filed his motion in the middle of the night last night, when pretty much every federal judge in the continental United States is sound asleep. And he gave the judge a deadline of 5:00pm today. Jeffrey Clark asked the judge, quote, to 'grant a stay, or a temporary restraining order, against Fulton County on or before 5:00pm Tuesday, August 22nd.'"
"I have never held a motion in my hands in which a criminal defendant gives a judge a deadline of 5:00pm on the day the motion was filed, or a deadline of anytime," said O'Donnell. "Not surprisingly, Judge Steve Jones ignored Jeffrey Clark's deadline. And as crazy as it sounds to give a judge a deadline, Jeffrey Clark's reason, stated in writing, for the deadline, is the single most childish thing, maybe the only childish thing, I have ever seen in a criminal defendant put in writing to a judge."
Specifically, said O'Donnell, Clark's motion says the deadline is necessary because Clark should not have to be put through "the choice of making rushed travel arrangements to fly into Atlanta or instead risking being labeled a fugitive" — an argument that O'Donnell found silly.
"Delta Air Lines, the third biggest airline in the United States of America, which is based in Atlanta, has made Atlanta possibly the most reachable city in the United States of America," said O'Donnell. "You can be on a flight to Atlanta from anywhere in America two hours after someone tells you you need to go. You could be on a flight to Atlanta from anywhere in the world the same day you get the word, you have to get to Atlanta. But not Jeffrey Clark. Being a criminal co-defendant in an alleged criminal enterprise to defraud the United States of America and to defraud the State of Georgia should not force Jeffrey Clark to make rushed travel arrangements, to fly into Atlanta."
He Could Also Take the Midnight Train to Georgia
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Post by mhbruin on Aug 23, 2023 9:00:06 GMT -8
The Secret Service Couldn't Keep This Secret
Secret Service agents were in close communication with Oath Keepers leader Stewart Rhodes months before the Jan. 6 insurrection he helped plan.
The government watchdog Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) obtained internal Secret Service emails showing an agent sent an email to others within the agency in September 2020 notifying them he had spoken to Rhodes about an upcoming visit by then-president Donald Trump to Fayetteville, North Carolina.
The agent described himself "the unofficial liaison to the Oath Keepers (inching towards official)" in the email, and said Rhodes and other members of the anti-government militia wanted "to provide protection and medical attention to Trump supporters if they come under attack by leftist groups.”
He told the other agents that Rhodes "had specific questions" and shared the Oath Keepers founder's cell phone number, and the agent followed up the following day with another email explaining the group members hoped to "assist those attending the event make it to and from their cars safely. They are NOT there to demonstrate or push a political agenda.”
POLL: Should Trump be allowed to run for office?
A former member of the group testified in October 2022 that Rhodes had spoken to the Secret Service to coordinate around the rally, but a spokesman said at the time that the agency didn't have enough information to determine whether that call took place -- which the emails now show had occurred.
An agent asked for intelligence about the Oath Keepers, and another said that news articles showed Rhodes had denounced white nationalists and disliked Antifa, the loosely knit anti-fascist activist group.
I Wonder What Else They Wiped From Their Cell Phones
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Post by mhbruin on Aug 23, 2023 9:03:17 GMT -8
A Power-Drunk Tyrant is a Supporter of Previous Guy. Who Would Have Guessed?
After laying off most of its workforce last week, right-wing media group Project Veritas is considering cost-cutting measures like going fully remote and bringing in an outside firm to produce its content.
Project Veritas laid off 25 employees last week, citing financial difficulties. The company has struggled to fundraise after the departure of its founder James O’Keefe earlier this year. By the time of his departure, O’Keefe had become controversial within Project Veritas, with some employees accusing him of being “a power-drunk tyrant” who allegedly squandered company funds on lavish personal expenses. After the layoffs—which employees previously characterized as slashing Project Veritas from 43 to 18 staffers—the company is seeking a profitable path forward, according to sources. And it won’t be easy, management has suggested in a recent conversation.
In post-layoff conversations with staff, Project Veritas board president Joseph Barton has indicated that the company plans to work remotely and part ways with its Mamaroneck, New York, headquarters, people familiar with the talks told The Daily Beast.
You Don't "Part Ways" With Your Headquarters.
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Post by mhbruin on Aug 23, 2023 9:12:48 GMT -8
They Call Him Flipper, Flipper, Faster Than Lightning
A key witness in the Mar-a-Lago classified documents case has retracted their "false testimony" after switching lawyers, special counsel Jack Smith’s team contends in court filings obtained by Politico’s Kyle Cheney.
The witness is identified as “Employee 4” in Smith’s legal team’s notification to Judge Aileen Cannon.
“Chief Judge Boasberg made available independent counsel (the First Assistant in the Federal Public Defender’s Office for the District of Columbia) to provide advice to Trump Employee 4 regarding potential conflicts. On July 5, 2023, Trump Employee informed Chief Judge Boasberg that he no longer wished to be represented by Mr. Woodward and that, going forward, he wished to be represented by the First Assistant Federal Defender.”
The witness since retaining new counsel has provided evidence to prosecutors implicating Donald Trump along with his aide Walt Nauta and Mar-a-Lago staffer Carlos De Olivera, the filing contends.
“Immediately after receiving new counsel, Trump Employee 4 retracted his prior false testimony and provided information that implicated Nauta, De Oliveira and Trump in efforts to delete security camera footage, as set forth in the superseding indictment,” the court filings said.
We're Gonna See More Flipping Than Watching the Burgers Cook at McDonalds
Special counsel prosecutors asked on Wednesday for a hearing to inform the Mar-a-Lago club’s maintenance chief, charged with helping Donald Trump to obstruct the government’s attempt to retrieve the classified documents at the property, that his lawyer might be hamstrung at trial due to potential conflicts of interest.
The issue, according to prosecutors, is that De Oliveira’s lawyer, John Irving, represents three other witnesses who provided incriminating evidence against Carlos De Oliveira and could be called to testify against him at trial.
In an 11-page court filing, the prosecutors explained the potential conflicts could mean Irving might not be able to defend De Oliveira as forcefully as he would have otherwise because he needed to protect the interests of those other clients, described as “Witness 1”, “Witness 2” and “Trump employee 3”.
“An attorney who cross-examines a client inherently encounters divided loyalties,” prosecutors in the office of the special counsel Jack Smith wrote. “A hearing would permit colloquy with Mr Irving’s clients to inform them of potential risks and inquire into possible waivers.”
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Post by mhbruin on Aug 23, 2023 9:17:22 GMT -8
A Man Who Is His Own Lawyer has a Fool for His Client...Oh. It's Rudy. We Already Knew He Was a FoolRudy Giuliani, acting as his own lawyer, asks NYC court to toss suit by ex-ShopRite worker jailed for patting him on the backRudy Giuliani has asked a Manhattan federal court judge to toss a lawsuit brought by a former ShopRite worker alleging the ex-mayor’s bogus assault accusations derailed his life. Acting as his own lawyer, Giuliani said comments he made that caused supermarket employee Daniel Gill to lose his job and land in jail were his legally permitted opinions. The two men crossed paths in June 2022 as Giuliani was stumping for his son, Andrew, on Staten Island during his failed run for governor. CCTV footage of the incident in a Charleston ShopRite shows Gill approach Giuliani, give him a single pat on the back, and say something later confirmed to be, “What’s up, scumbag?” Giuliani’s version painted a more dramatic scene. “I got hit on the back as if a boulder hit me,” Giuliani claimed, later complaining of “wounds” suffered in the “attack.” “It hurt tremendously. I did not know what it was. I had no idea what it was,” Giuliani said. “And all of a sudden I heard someone yell something at me, dirty curse words and some more dirty curse words as he retreated, ran away. Then he turned around and said I was a woman-killer.” Gill was arrested and charged with felony assault, later seeing the charges downgraded to misdemeanors and ultimately dismissed and sealed. He didn’t get his ShopRite job back.
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Post by mhbruin on Aug 23, 2023 9:24:44 GMT -8
Not Even Mecca is Safe From Climate
Saudi Arabia’s Mecca, home to Islam’s holiest sites, has seen extreme storms and rain that affected pilgrims, shuttered schools and caused chaotic scenes.
Videos online on Tuesday showed pilgrims who were doing the tawaf – circling the Kaaba – getting soaked and slipping on the floor as heavy rains thrashed and carried objects around.
As the rare scenes were unfolding at the giant black cube towards which all Muslims pray, another video showed a bolt of lightning striking the iconic Fairmont Makkah Clock Royal Tower hotel, illuminating the night sky on Tuesday.
Hussain al-Qahtani, spokesman for the National Center for Meteorology, posted on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter that the storm brought gale-force winds exceeding 80 kilometres (50 miles) per hour.
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Post by mhbruin on Aug 23, 2023 9:30:24 GMT -8
When Will They Ever Learn? When Will They Ever Learn?
Six years after Fyre Festival became synonymous with epic disaster, its founder announced he's relaunching the failed music and camping retreat — and its first drop of tickets have already sold out.
After a stint in jail for fraud, Billy McFarland — the founder and organizer of the infamous Fyre Festival in 2017 — is back with his latest venture: the same botched fest.
The first drop of 100 pre-sale tickets for Fyre Festival II went on sale Monday for $499 a pop and sold out within a day, according to the festival's website.
Virtually no details were released about the event that’s “targeted for the end of 2024 in the Caribbean,” according to the site.
There was no line up, no details on accommodation and the location was vaguely set as “The Caribbean.” The Bahamas Ministry of Tourism said last year the government “will not endorse or approve any event” on the islands “associated with [McFarland].”
More tickets are “coming soon,” according to the website, dropping in tiers that range from $799 to an eye-popping price of $7,999 each.
The calamitous 2017 festival became a cultural phenomenon.
What was initially touted as the ultimate luxury music festival on the Bahamian island of Exuma, promoted by A-list celebrities like Kendall Jenner and Hailey Beiber, turned into a disaster.
Fyre Festival's promised glamping accommodations ended up being FEMA disaster relief tents, its decadent dining turned out to be meager cheese sandwiches, and its star-studded line-up — from Blink-182 to Migos — all canceled.
Donning a fluffy, white robe, McFarland said in an Instagram video on Monday that the idea to relaunch came to him “during a 7-month stint in solitary confinement.”
Giving Your Money to Someone Who Got An Idea in Solitary Confinement Isn't A Good Idea. But It's a Better Use Of Your Money Than This.
Donald Trump is hosting a $100,000-per-person fundraiser for Rudy Giuliani, his cash-strapped former lawyer and alleged co-conspirator in the attempted overthrow of 2020 election results, a New York Times reporter shared Tuesday.
The former president appears to be following through on a reported promise to help Giuliani after the former mayor of New York City went to Mar-a-Lago with his own lawyer to plead with Trump to pay Giuliani’s mounting legal bills.
The New York Times’ Shane Goldmacher shared an invitation for the Sept. 7 event at Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster, New Jersey, which touted a roundtable with “President” Trump and Giuliani and then a dinner with “America’s Mayor.”
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Post by mhbruin on Aug 23, 2023 9:32:18 GMT -8
The QOP Doesn't Want to Hear Things That Will Make Them Sad
Families close to a Nashville fatal school shooting broke down in tears Tuesday after a Tennessee Republican leader ordered state troopers to remove them and others from a legislative hearing room while they waited to testify in favor of gun control measures.
The emotional scene was just one of several chaotic moments that erupted during the second day of Tennessee’s special legislative session. Republican Gov. Bill Lee initially called lawmakers back to the Capitol to consider his proposal to keep firearms away from dangerous people.
“I was supposed to speak, I was supposed to testify,” said Sarah Shoop Neumann, sobbing and shaking in front of the silent GOP-controlled House subcommittee room, which was cleared out after some clapping from the public gallery, even though she sat quietly and wasn’t holding any signs.
As a parent whose child attends The Covenant School, Neumann is among the family members desperately attempting to address the state’s relaxed gun laws after a shooter opened fire inside their school and killed three children and three adults.
They Sure Don't Want to Hear This.
Guns killed a record number of children in the United States in 2021, exceeding the peak registered in the first year of the pandemic, according to a new analysis of CDC data.
The report said 4,752 children died from a firearm injury in 2021 — an increase of almost 42 percent from 2018. The study, published in the journal American Academy of Pediatrics, found nearly half of those who died in 2021 were Black and about 85 percent were males.
The analysis, which looked at children and adolescents from newborn to age 19, found nearly two-thirds of the deaths among children in 2021 were homicides, almost 30 percent were suicides and 3.5 percent resulted from “unintentional injury.”
The research also found that, among that group, a majority of firearm homicides were Black children killed by gun-related injuries, while White children accounted for a majority of firearms suicides. Adolescents between 15 and 19 years old accounted for most of the gun-related deaths.
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Post by mhbruin on Aug 23, 2023 9:35:14 GMT -8
Not the Most Famous Landing at Inchon, But ....
A jet ski rider who has been detained since washing up on South Korea’s coast is believed to be a Chinese dissident who feared for his safety and fled by crossing hundreds of miles of sea, trailing barrels of fuel behind him.
The coast guard in the western South Korean port city of Incheon said in a statement Sunday that a Chinese man in his 30s tried to illegally enter the country Aug. 16 by riding a jet ski from the Shandong area of China, an eastern province that lies around 200 miles away across the Yellow Sea.
He was detained and being investigated for breaching immigration law, the statement said.
The coast guard quoted the man as saying that he left China on his own jet ski, wearing a life vest and a helmet, and carrying a navigator and binoculars. The man also carried five fuel containers, weighing 25 liters (about 6.6 gallons) each, according to the statement, tying them to the jet ski to make sure he had enough fuel to reach South Korea.
The agency said it had to rescue the man from the muddy shore in Incheon late at night after getting a request from the South Korean navy to track a jet ski stuck in the area.
The man, who lived in South Korea before, had visited the Incheon area several times, the statement added.
His name has not been released by South Korean authorities, and official statements have referred to him as “Mr. A.”
Is He a Distant Relative of Mr. T? "Pain"
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Post by mhbruin on Aug 23, 2023 9:38:33 GMT -8
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Post by mhbruin on Aug 23, 2023 9:40:30 GMT -8
You Don't Get to Kill Your Parents and Then Ask for Mercy Because You Are An Orphan
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Post by mhbruin on Aug 23, 2023 9:41:53 GMT -8
MAGA is the World's Biggest Pity Party
Why Republican voters believe Trump
Former President Donald Trump has solidified his lead in the GOP race by convincing most Republican voters to view his four criminal indictments as a politicized “witch hunt” aimed not only at him, but them.
Trump’s success in selling that argument to GOP voters has some immediate causes, key among them the choice by all of his leading competitors in the race, as well as most prominent voices in conservative media, to echo rather than challenge his contention. But the inclination of so many Republican voters to dismiss all of the charges accumulating against Trump also reflects something much more fundamental: the hardening tendency of conservatives to believe that they are the real victims of bias in a society irreversibly growing more racially and culturally diverse.
From the outset of Trump’s political career, he has channeled that sentiment into his seemingly unbreakable bond with his core supporters. Now, Trump has transformed his multiple indictments – particularly from Black prosecutors he has repeatedly called “racist” – into just the latest proof point for the widespread belief within the GOP base that the biggest victims of discrimination are the groups most of them belong to: Christians, men and Whites.
“Victimhood is embedded in every part of Trump’s campaign, personality, communications, and strategy,” says Tresa Undem, a pollster for progressive causes. “The only thing that shifts is the topic and the object of blame.”
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Post by mhbruin on Aug 23, 2023 9:45:18 GMT -8
Who Wants Higher Prices? Have I Got the Candidate For You!
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Post by mhbruin on Aug 23, 2023 9:51:39 GMT -8
Gypsys, Tramps, and Thieves. And Witches and Freaks
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Post by mhbruin on Aug 23, 2023 9:54:36 GMT -8
And They Don't Rally Have a Dollar Tree After being fined repeatedly for workplace safety violations in recent years, discount retailers Dollar Tree and Family Dollar have reached an agreement with federal regulators to address what inspectors found to be widespread hazards inside their stores. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration announced Wednesday that the two chains will conduct a nationwide assessment to find the “root causes” that led to violations for blocked fire exits and other dangers, and develop a plan to resolve them within two years. Dollar Tree acquired Family Dollar in 2015. As part of the agreement, the company will pay $1.35 million to settle several open inspections and violations. When OSHA informs the company of a hazard in one of its stores, it will have two days to fix the issue or face penalties up to $500,000 under the deal. Dollar Tree will have to form advisory groups where workers can raise safety concerns, and maintain a hotline where workers can report hazards without fear of retaliation. The company will also hire more safety specialists under the agreement. Doug Parker, the head of OSHA, told reporters the discount chains had been acting in good faith to address the problems, so he was confident the arrangement would make the stores safer. “It’s really intended to address the root causes of these hazards and how the operations of the company to date have contributed to those,” Parker said. “We believe [Dollar Tree] has proposed to us a plan that is genuinely going to make a significant impact on improving safety and health for its workers.” Customers who’ve shopped in dollar stores are familiar with the huge stacks of unboxed merchandise that often litter the aisles and make it hard to navigate. OSHA has hit the retailers with numerous fines — and publicized them — for impeding exits, unsafely storing boxes and cutting off access to fire extinguishers and electrical panels. Dollar Tree, for instance, has been cited for such infractions in Georgia, Idaho, Illinois, Massachusetts, Nebraska, New Jersey, New York, Rhode Island, Texas and Wisconsin in recent years. OSHA says inspectors had identified more than 300 violations over the course of more than 500 inspections at Dollar Tree and Family Dollar stores since 2017.
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