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Criminal Convictions and the Presidency
By Ben Voth
What MSNBC Can Teach The Atlantic about January 6
By Jack Cashill
On Memorial Day, during the Annual Ashli Babbitt Freedom March in D.C., I had the chance to speak with Hanna Rosin, who was covering the march for the Atlantic magazine with fellow reporter Lauren Ober.
As I tried to explain while we were walking, Ober and Rosin have an extraordinary opportunity. They can be the first journalists to share with their half of America the epic story of January 6 — the true story, that is. I cautioned, however, that as MSNBC learned the hard way, there are powerful people who do not want that story told.
The ignorance about January 6 is staggering. The tourists near the Peace Monument where the march began just looked confused. They all know who George Floyd was, but most, I am sure, had not a clue about Ashli Babbitt.
Ashli, 35, was the 14-year Air Force veteran shot and killed by the Capitol Police on January 6. The corporate media have no interest in sharing her story and even less in telling the story of Rosanne Boyland. Few, even on the right, know about Rosanne. A year younger than Ashli, Rosanne was the second woman killed by police action on January 6 and the woman whose death MSNBC vainly tried to investigate.
As the marchers, perhaps 50 strong, proceeded eastward toward the D.C. jail down Massachusetts Avenue, the neighbors alerted Ober and Rosin to the character of the D.C. jury pool. Many, virtually all white, volunteered their disgust at the caravan, some in very colorful language. I was particularly impressed at how well young D.C. women have mastered the F-bomb.
The Atlantic has as its motto “Exploring the American idea through ambitious, essential reporting and storytelling. Of no party or clique since 1857.” This is not exactly true, but in contrast to CNN or the New York Times, as Rosin conceded, The Atlantic has at least the potential to be unpredictable.
After leaving the march — I had a flight to catch — I texted Ashli Babbitt’s mother, Micki Witthoeft. “Had a long talk with Hanna from the Atlantic. You never know when the media might crack.” Replied Witthoeft, “We’ve been talking with her partner Lauren for months — she follows us to the courthouse — hearings — even CPAC — because you’re right, you never know.”
I handed Rosin a copy of my newly released book, Ashli: The Untold Story of the Women of January 6. Given the depth of their reporting, she and Ober will have no excuse not to read it. When they do, they will confront the towering wall of official disinformation that has shielded America from the truth these last three-plus years.
Rosin was unaware of MSNBC’s futile attempt to crack that wall. As I explained, network anchor Ayman Mohyeldin had an inside track on the death of Rosanne Boyland. He attended high school with Rosanne’s brother-in-law, Justin Cave. Cave and his liberal wife Lonna wanted help in exposing what they saw as the diabolic seduction of Rosanne by President Trump and the elusive QAnon. Mohyeldin was eager to oblige them.
Soon enough, however, Mohyeldin discovered that the plot line he hoped to follow was a red herring. The real story would lead him beyond the MSNBC pale and down a rabbit hole whose end he would never quite reach. Without his effort, however, little would have ever been known about Rosanne’s tragic death.
As the evidence clearly showed, Rosanne got caught up in a scrum at the front of the tunnel entrance on the west side of the Capitol. The D.C. Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) took the offensive, spraying the protesters with a chemical irritant, which left many of them breathless. The police then pushed the lot of them down the makeshift steps set up for the impending inauguration.
Rosanne found herself at the bottom of this human pile, desperate for air, until pulled out from under by the other protesters. As Roseanne lay at the tunnel entrance, either dead or dying, MPD officer Lila Morris picked up a tree branch, raised it up, and struck Rosanne over the head at least three times before the branch snapped and flew out of her hands. For her heroism, Morris was rewarded with a trip to the Super Bowl a few weeks later.
The media paid little attention to Rosanne’s death. Those few who bothered to report on the incident suggested she had been “trampled” by a riotous mob. Not one outlet investigated the tragedy. Nor did any journalist protest the official ruling from the complicit D.C. medical examiner’s office. Its pathologists waited until the very last day of the ninety-day reporting window to claim that Roseanne died of “acute amphetamine intoxication.”
The Boylands were appalled by the report. At the time, the only drug Rosanne was taking was the Adderall prescribed for her ADHD. For the authorities, the drug overdose ruling smeared Rosanne and, by extension, tainted all other protesters. The autopsy report also cleared the police of any wrongdoing. The DOJ did not bother to speak to a single eyewitness or review the beating that was captured on video. For its part, the voluminous House subcommittee report did not mention Rosanne's name, not even in the footnotes.
Although reluctant to see the larger picture, Mohyeldin was getting a glimpse into the workings of D.C. justice. He and his team contacted the medical examiner several times, but “all our requests were denied,” he lamented in MSNBC’s five-part podcast on Rosanne. “The trampling, the riot, the video evidence, none of this was even mentioned in the official autopsy report.”
Of note, too, the relevant body cam footage in Rosanne’s death was strategically withheld. As Mohyeldin admitted, “We requested the officer in question’s body camera footage, but we were denied.” Rosanne’s father Bret Boyland applied through the Freedom of Information Act for Morris’s bodycam footage and was denied as well.
In the concluding chapter of his podcast, American Radical, Mohyeldin met with Lonna Cave for the final time. The Boylands, it was clear, no longer trusted his motives. They hoped to learn more about Rosanne’s fate. He wanted to learn more about QAnon. The podcast series ended inconclusively, with him guilt-tripping Rosanne’s sisters for not saving Rosanne from “dangerous conspiracy theories designed to entrap vulnerable people like her.”
I have to wonder how Rosin and Ober will conclude their series. They are investigating a historic injustice, the greatest mass injustice here at home since Japanese internment. My book lays out the larger story in undeniable detail. They have done enough spade work on their own to provide the necessary color. Better still, on their side of the aisle, they have no competition.
The question remains as to whether Rosin and Ober will find the courage to follow the truth where it leads. Mohyeldin did not — could not, really. At MSNBC, too much truth can kill a career. But at The Atlantic, where writers pride themselves on “essential reporting and storytelling,” there may be hope, at least a glimmer thereof. As Ashli’s mom observes, “You never know.”
https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2024/05/what_msnbc_can_teach_the_atlantic_about_january_6.html
California Experiencing Fiscal Horror Story
New Pew study examines financial health of the 50 states.
by Andrew Moran | May 31, 2024
Despite possessing one of the world’s largest economies, the Golden State is the lead character in a fiscal horror story. California’s debt is about $1.6 trillion, the annual budget deficit is projected to be as high as $70 billion in the coming years, and lawmakers are tapping into the rainy-day fund to maintain the basics. This is Newsomonics in Newsom Nation. A new study highlights how bad the situation is in sunny California.
The Fiscal State of California and Others
The Pew Charitable Trusts’ Fiscal 50 project analyzed state tax revenue trends in the second quarter of 2023, concluding that 32 states outperformed their 15-year trends and 18 states reported falling tax revenues. Researchers say that the data, adjusted for inflation and seasonality, offers state leaders “a deeper understanding of long-term trends” and determine “whether their budgets are on a sustainable path and allow for better-informed fiscal planning and policy formulation.”
Alaska topped the charts, collecting 1,041% more than its long-term trend. This was followed by Wyoming (37.7%), New Mexico (32.5%), West Virginia (10.6%), and Montana (10%). Florida and Texas also outperformed their long-term trajectory thanks to their notably “strong” collections. On the other end of the fiscal spectrum, California suffered the weakest tax revenues, sliding 16.2% compared to the 15-year trend. This was followed by Minnesota (negative 4.9%), New York (negative 4.8%), and Connecticut (negative 4%).
Overall, total state tax revenue growth was $4.2 billion, 1.2% below the 15-year trend. Here is the most damning part of the report’s findings: “For the first time since 2000, no state had fewer than a month’s worth of operating funds in its total balances. Between fiscal years 2007 and 2021, 8 states ran long-term deficits, carrying forward costs of past services and government operations.”
The results were unsurprising. Alaska is awash in energy. Florida and Texas keep attracting businesses and families. New York is gradually becoming a strange concoction of Escape From New York, Mad Max, and Soylent Green. California decays by the day through vacuous public policy pursuits and a population exodus. As Liberty Nation has reported over the years, the fiscal snapshot of state and local finances is deteriorating through overpromising and underdelivering.
In the case of California, officials are entertaining various ideas to stop the bleeding.
‘Democracy Is on the Ballot’
Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) has contemplated a plethora of prescriptions for his state’s fiscal illness. With tens of thousands of folks waving goodbye yearly, desperate times apparently call for desperate measures.
The governor, considered a presidential candidate for 2028, called for a windfall tax on energy titans because “greedy oil companies fleece Californians.” In January 2023, the legislature proposed imposing a wealth tax, with the kicker being that it would also apply to residents who flee the state and relocate to another jurisdiction. Because more people are driving electric vehicles in California, officials are also thinking about transitioning away from a gasoline tax to a mileage levy, a concept that experts say would penalize EV drivers more than conventional motorists.
The newest endeavor attempts to prohibit voters from approving new taxes. Democrats contend that citizens lack the knowledge to understand taxation complexities and therefore should not be granted decision-making power. “The state Democrats are apoplectic over the prospect of citizen control over revenue and taxes,” opined legal scholar Jonathan Turley. “What was a quaint element of democratic empowerment is now challenging a core vehicle of Democratic power.”
As Bad as Uncle Sam
Washington’s finances are worsening, but politicians on either side of the aisle do not seem to have any plan to halt the country’s fiscal demise. Instead, lawmakers want to double down by spending, printing, borrowing, and taxing more than they already do. The annual Festivus report, courtesy of Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY), offers insight into how much the nation’s capital wastes the $5 to $6 trillion in annual revenues.
But it is just as bad at the state and local level. Nearly every day, local news reports on state or city lawmakers demanding new taxes, fees, surcharges, and other dubious methods to confiscate wealth. What is comical is that these levies usually fail, as in the hilarious case of Philadelphia’s soda taxes: Sales of sugary beverages declined, prices rose, and the majority of the funds dedicated to education were allocated to the city’s general coffers. In Illinois, legislators want higher taxes to give themselves a raise. New York maintains a remote work tax that forces workers to pay income tax if their employers are situated in the Empire State.
Is it any wonder why states are enduring fiscal challenges?
https://www.libertynation.com/california-experiencing-fiscal-horror-story/
The Sentencing Singularity – Examining the Trump Guilty Verdict
What comes next for the former president?
by Liberty Nation Authors | May 31, 2024
Former President Donald Trump was found guilty on all 34 charges of falsifying business records in the first degree on Thursday evening, May 30. This is the first time a former president has been convicted of a felony, let alone almost three dozen. Judge Juan Merchan set the sentencing date as July 11th, just four days before the Republican National Convention, which begins July 15. What does this mean for Trump’s presidential campaign? What are his options going forward, and what sort of sentence might he face? We go to Liberty Nation’s Legal Affairs Editor Scott D. Cosenza, Esq., to answer this and more.
James Fite: Scott, the first question that comes to mind is what sentence awaits Trump now that he has been convicted on 34 Class E felonies? What does the sentencing guideline suggest, and what seems likely in this case?
Scott D. Cosenza: There are five felony classes in New York, and E is the least serious. By definition, felonies are crimes carrying potential incarceration terms of a year or more. These were non-violent felonies committed by someone with no criminal record, however. District Attorney Alvin Bragg declined to state what sentence he would request in post-trial comments. No custodial sentence is required here, and Juan Merchan will not likely sentence Trump to any time behind bars. That would be consistent with what NY-based attorneys report with other first-time offenders convicted of non-violent class E felonies.
Defense motions on sentencing are due in court by June 13, while the state has until June 27 to respond.
The Trump Appeal Pathway
James: What are the former president’s options for appeal? What would that process look like, and how long might it delay the sentencing should any appeal prove successful?
Scott: Donald Trump’s defense has an abundance of pathways that may lead to a successful appeal. Lead defense attorney Todd Blanche filed a motion for acquittal immediately after the guilty verdict, which Merchan just as quickly denied. That’s the last time Merchan will be deciding such matters, however. Future appeals from Trump will be in state appellate courts and, eventually, federal court if needed.
We should expect to see Trump’s pleadings challenging all manner of things, including many of Judge Merchan’s rulings that prejudiced the defendant’s fundamental rights. Another thing that springs to the front of my mind is Merchan allowing the jury to hear multiple times that Trump violated campaign finance laws and have that presented as a fact rather than a prosecution theory.
James: Donald Trump is a convicted felon – at least for now – but the Constitution doesn’t prohibit felons from running for and, therefore, becoming president. If Trump wins in November as the polls suggest he will, how might his sentencing affect his taking office in January? Alternatively, if he appeals and that delays his sentencing beyond Election Day, how might a win in November affect the eventual sentencing should his appeal fail? Finally, as president, would Trump be able to pardon himself?
Scott: The President may grant pardons for federal convictions. Trump cannot pardon himself unless he becomes Governor of New York. If he wins, he will likely be able to appeal sentencing until after his presidency. There is no printed rulebook for this kind of thing, and avoiding chaos and perhaps a genuine Constitutional crisis are great reasons to wait.
https://www.libertynation.com/the-sentencing-singularity-examining-the-trump-guilty-verdict/
The Trump Verdict: What Cost to the Republic?
May 30, 2024, is a day that will live in infamy.
by Tim Donner | May 31, 2024
Show me the man, and I will show you the crime. So said the right-hand man to Joseph Stalin, architect of the infamous show trial, the centerpiece of the Soviet system of justice. Today, many Americans are wondering whether their own justice system is any less capricious or politically biased. In less than 12 hours of deliberation, 12 supposedly unbiased jurors – guided by a judge whom many have suggested has displayed a nakedly partisan stance throughout the trial – convicted a former president and leading candidate to reclaim the Oval Office on 34 felony counts. His crime? A long-expired bookkeeping misdemeanor rejected by three authorities but somehow sculpted into a still-undefined felony – based on the testimony of a convicted liar and concocted by a Manhattan district attorney who campaigned on a promise to get Trump by whatever means availed themselves.
So Alvin Bragg has now reached the promised land, and the left has finally achieved what it has thirsted for from the moment Donald Trump claimed the presidency: to label him a convicted felon, thought to be the one surefire way to drive him out of politics. Judge Juan Merchan – a donor to Democrats with an activist family who defied astronomical odds by miraculously landing not one, but all three Trump-related cases in what was supposed to be a random selection process, and as an acting judge no less – closed the deal with consistent rulings favoring the prosecution and silencing the defense. He then gave voluminous instructions which seemed to encourage jurors to conclude there was some amorphous stain of guilt on the defendant – which they could determine themselves. The actors out to take down Trump with their stacked deck played their hands effectively to a willing judge and jury.
But at what cost to the republic?
The Trump Verdict: The Undoing of Our Country?
The Rubicon has been crossed. The once-unthinkable has happened. The distance between the United States of America and any of the world’s many lawless banana republics has just significantly narrowed. Make no mistake, the magnitude of the jury’s swift and unanimous verdict has sent shockwaves around the world. The many who love or hate the 45th president are predictably giddy or outraged at the verdict, but how about the many everyday Americans without strong opinions either way who have always believed their nation is based on the rule of law and not subject to the political persecution of those who dare to threaten the established order? Have we not always believed that we were above the tactics of petty tyrants in a prototypical one-party state?
Ask yourself this simple question, the answer to which should remove any lingering doubts about the justice of the verdict and the trial itself: Would anyone else in the entire country have been indicted, not to mention convicted, on these novel, paper-thin charges? And remember, this was long thought by the left to be the weakest of the four cases brought against their archenemy. The beleaguered prosecutors targeting Trump in three other venues – long under pressure to advance their cases – will undoubtedly be energized by this verdict despite delays that threaten to deaden the desired political impact of their own prosecutions.
And now, with the twisted outcome in hand, and just to make sure the political impact of the verdict sticks, the notorious – or heroic, depending on your viewpoint – Judge Juan Merchan set sentencing for July 11, conveniently four days before the start of the Republican National Convention. Nothing is left to chance when Trump is in the crosshairs.
At the same time, not just Trump loyalists but, more importantly, almost every single Republican across the land will be more motivated than ever to bank their vote as early as possible. Non-Trump-deranged but skeptical or moderate Republicans will likely vote in record numbers on principle alone, perhaps offsetting any gains for Biden based on the convicted felon label. Poll watchers will work around the clock attempting to determine the political impact.
Only God knows the consequences for the loser of what has now officially become, unlike the many proclaimed as such before, the most important election of our lifetime. The one thing on which Americans have always counted, the rule of law, not to mention the very credibility of our elections in the wake of a lawfare campaign designed to disqualify a hated rival, is now undoubtedly on the line. The progressives who have been calling the shots in the Biden administration have won the battle – though not yet the war – and they will now be emboldened beyond measure to continue deconstructing the American way of life.
The 2024 presidential election, if it wasn’t already, has become boom or bust for both sides, the stakes and consequences now more consequential than ever. But for the American system of justice, the damage has already been done. Former Congressman Trey Gowdy said of the verdict on Fox News what so many have undoubtedly thought in the aftermath of the stunning verdict: “It may be the undoing of our country.” Indeed, it is impossible to calculate the cascading effects of the historic turn of events on May 30, 2024 – a day that, as Franklin D. Roosevelt once said of the attack on Pearl Harbor, will live in infamy.
https://www.libertynation.com/the-trump-verdict-what-cost-to-the-republic/
Gloat While You Still Can
“The hour is much later than you think…on multiple fronts: Financial, political, medical and geopolitical.” — Edward Dowd
James Howard Kunstler
May 31, 2024
In the pre-gloat hours before the verdict in Judge Juan Merchan’s courtroom, Lawfare caporegime Andrew Weissmann (“Mueller’s Pitbull”) confessed Valley Girl style from his MSNBC clubhouse perch, “. . . I mean, I am, like, now I have a man-crush on him, he is such a great judge!” Bromance on, looks like! If the two happen to frequent the same athletic club in downtown Manhattan, Judge Merchan better be careful in the post-workout shower when he bends over to pick up the soap. The Pitbull cometh!
Of course, the Alvin Bragg victory in the artfully constructed “Stormy Daniels Payoff Case” decided late Thursday calls to question how come the Mueller Special Counsel Probe into 2016 election interference (actually run by Mr. Weissmann, due to Mr. Mueller’s declining cognitive ability) failed to spot the same web of evidence — hard as they toiled, and they had a good two years and millions of taxpayer dollars to git’er done?
My guess: too many white lawyers on the Mueller staff. Everybody knows now from watching the latest crop of television commercials that white people are unusually stupid and helpless and cannot cope with common problems without assistance from helpful people of color (POCs). So, God bless Alvin Bragg for finally fixing what Bob Mueller’s fifteen bloodhounds led by a pitbull somehow botched.
The former president is now convicted on thirty-four counts of book-keeping errors in furtherance of an alleged 2016 federal election violation that the Federal Election Commission declined to charge — that is, paying a porn star to sign a non-disclosure agreement about a sexual liaison — because it is not a crime under federal election law, and about which the head of the FEC, James E. “Trey” Trainor III, was barred by Judge Merchan from testifying on during the course of the trial for reasons yet unknown.
Of course, that is but one of a great many points of law that will merit appeal in what everybody — even some white people (people of non-color, PONCs) — knows was a case so crookedly contrived that it is fated to get tossed in the higher courts, and probably with harsh remonstrance to the degenerate officers of the court who brought it and adjudicated it. But you will have to wait on that because the mills of the law grind slowly.
Now, in the radiance of the full Woke gloat, we await Judge Merchan’s sentence, to be announced a mere few days before the Republican Convention in Milwaukee in early July. Jail time at Rikers? Home confinement (with ankle bracelet)? Severe travel restrictions? Reporting to a parole officer? Drug tests? Hey, No one is above the law! It is hard to imagine that the judge will demur from inflicting maximum humiliation on this wanton repeat violator (thirty-four times!) of book-keeping errors. It would tend to interfere with the presidential candidate’s campaign schedule, but so what? Where does it say in the Constitution that an election must be fair?
Or Judge Merchan could suspend all that pending appeal and just allow Mr. Trump to go about his election business free on bail. But why would he? After all the trouble he went to. And all the glory he’s reaping for it. “Joe Biden’s” party has Mr. Trump exactly where they want him, they think: pinned down like a moth in a shadow-box, inert and pathetic. (But, in reality, more like King Kong, chained in the rank basement below the stage of a Broadway theater before busting loose in midtown and upending subway cars so as to devour the little humans tumbling out like so many tic-tacs.)
Expect Mr. Trump’s lawyers to file writs to the SCOTUS requesting expedited attention to the denial of due process issues and the election interference question. The situation is comparable to the year 2000 presidential race, where the SCOTUS stepped in on probable cause that the lower court (in Florida that time) had violated the Equal Protection clause of the constitution.
In the meantime, through the luminescent fog of gloat, perhaps you did not notice that “Joe Biden” took a giant step yesterday toward commencing World War Three. The move was framed as the US gives Ukraine permission to use American missiles to strike deep within Russia. That was a bit disingenuous, you see, because Ukraine’s military lacks the know-how to actually launch the missiles, so American military “advisors” will have to be on hand to do it, meaning US military personnel will commit an act of aggression upon Russia.
Voila! That world war you’ve all been clamoring for. . .? The perfect climax to “Joe Biden’s” catastrophic, fraudulently-acquired term in office. I scent the acrid, burnt-flesh odor of miscalculation here, as of a bunch of American cities get turned into radioactive bonfires that will blot out that sublime luminosity of gloat.
Apparently, the “Joe Biden” team has never seen a Clint Eastwood movie — too lowbrow, I’m sure — and they don’t grok the role of the underdog in the American psyche. They have succeeded in making Donald Trump the greatest underdog in US history under the direst circumstances the nation may have ever faced — worse than Valley Forge, Bull Run, or Ardennes Forest. Sinister forces are driving the country straight into a communo-fascist despotism alien to our nation’s very soul, demonic forces bent on depriving Americans of their rights, their property, and their liberty. This is the “all-in-lost” moment in that movie. This is where the hero comes back from the edge of eternal darkness, raging like Kali the Destroyer to smite the cowards arrayed against him, against the country’s honor, against the people. You asked for it. Now you’re going to get it.
https://jameshowardkunstler.substack.com/p/gloat-while-you-still-can?publication_id=2076970&post_id=145165138&isFreemail=true&r=rd9j8&triedRedirect=true
GM g m s-
Nice article, thanks for sharing. I am in total agreement.
.................al
Hey Bob-
It was no less than expected all along. IMHO I think it will solidify more of the Trump base and expand it as so many articles I have read saying many independents and even democrats saying this was a railroad job and totally unfair. Also many legal experts are saying this will never hold up on appeal. Doesn't much matter now as the damage to our justice system has already been done. I just hope cooler heads will prevail and make this right before it's too late.
.............al
Hey posh-
Now that is a brilliant read on things. It seems to have started right outside the courthouse. I don't think these liberals are going to want to mess around too much. Too many pissed off MAGAs many now with an axe to grind. Like I just told Trinity, glad I'm in rural America. There's more cows that people here and more guns than cows.
..................al
Doxing-
the action of finding or publishing private information about someone on the internet without their permission, especially in a way that reveals their name, address, etc.:
https://dictionary.cambridge.org/us/dictionary/english/doxing
I had never heard of this word until democrats and leftists starting using it as a weapon against people they didn't like. It may be time for putting the shoe on the other foot. JMHO
....................al
Trump guilty on all counts in New York criminal trial
Trump says he will 'fight till the end,' and says 'this is long from over'
Brooke Singman
Published May 30, 2024 5:08pm EDT | Updated May 30, 2024 5:20pm EDT
Former President Trump speaks outside the NYC courtroom ahead of closing arguments in his criminal trial.
Former President Trump was found guilty on all counts in his historic and unprecedented criminal trial, making him the first former president of the United States to be convicted of a crime.
Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg charged former President Donald Trump with 34 counts of falsifying business records in the first degree.
Trump pleaded not guilty to all counts.
Jurors found the former president guilty on all counts.
Each count carries a maximum prison sentence of 4 years. In total, Trump faces a maximum sentence of 136 years.
Judge Juan Merchan invited the jury into the courtroom to read its verdict after two days of deliberations.
Sentencing for the former president will be July 11 at 10:00 a.m--just five days before the start of the Republican National Convention, where he is expected to be formally nominated as the 2024 Republican presidential nominee.
Any motions will need to be filed by June 13th.
Prosecutors needed to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Trump falsified those records to conceal a $130,000 payment to Stormy Daniels, a pornographic performer, in the lead-up to the 2016 election to silence her about an alleged affair with Trump in 2006.
Moments after the verdict was delivered by the jury, the former president spoke to reporters in the hallway outside the courtroom.
"This was a disgrace. This was a rigged trial by a conflicted judge who was corrupt as a rigged trial and disgrace. It wouldn't give us a venue change," Trump said. "We were at five percent or 6% in this district, in this area. This was a rigged, disgraceful trial."
Trump said "the real verdict is going to be November 5th by the people."
"And they know what happened here and everybody knows what happened here," Trump said. "You have a Soros backed DA and the whole thing."
He added: "We didn't do anything wrong. I'm a very innocent man. And it's okay. I'm fighting for our country. I'm fighting for our Constitution. Our whole country is being rigged right now."
Trump said that the case was "done by the Biden administration in order to wound or hurt an opponent, a political opponent."
"And I think it's it's just a disgrace. And we'll keep fighting--we'll fight till the end and we'll win because our country's gone to hell," he said. "We don't have the same country anymore. We have a divided mess. We're a nation of decline, serious decline."
Trump said "millions and millions of people pouring into our country right now from prisons and from mental institutions, terrorists. And they're taking over our country. We have a country that's in big trouble."
"But this was a rigged decision right from day one, with a conflicted judge who should have never been allowed to try this case. Never," he said. "And we will fight for our Constitution. This is long from over."
During closing arguments, defense attorneys for former President Trump told the jury Tuesday he is innocent, did not commit any crimes and that Bragg "did not meet the burden of proof. Period."
"President Trump is innocent. He did not commit any crimes. The district attorney did not meet the burden of proof. Period," Blanche said.
Blanche added that the case is "simple" and it is "not a guilty verdict."
"This case is about documents; it is a paper case," Blanche said. "This case is not about an encounter with Stormy Daniels 18 years ago. It is not even about a nondisclosure agreement signed eight years ago."
Blanche said the charges are about whether Trump "had anything" to do with payments to his ex-attorney, Michael Cohen, on his personal accounting ledger.
"The answer? The bookings were accurate and there was no intent to defraud and there was no conspiracy to influence the 2016 election," Blanche said. "The proof doesn’t add up."
Blanche told the jury they cannot convict Trump based on Cohen’s testimony, recalling how Trump’s ex-attorney "took the stand and then lied."
"The records are not false and there was no intent to defraud," he said.
Blanche said not one single invoice was sent to Trump directly and that Cohen billed Trump "for services rendered." He also told the jury Cohen rendered services as Trump’s personal attorney in 2017.
Blanche noted Cohen had lied to both Houses of Congress, federal judges, state judges and family.
"You cannot send someone to prison based upon the words of Michael Cohen," Blanche said, adding that a verdict needs to be reached based on evidence from documents and witnesses. "If you do that, this is a very quick and easy not-guilty verdict."
Meanwhile, prosecutor Joshua Steinglass delivered his closing argument for more than five hours Tuesday, saying the prosecution has presented "powerful" evidence in their case against Trump.
Steinglass said Trump’s intent to defraud "could not be any clearer," arguing that it would have been far easier for him to pay Stormy Daniels directly. Instead, the prosecutor said, he concocted an elaborate scheme and everything he and his cohorts did was "cloaked in lies."
"The name of the game was concealment and all roads lead inescapably to the man who benefited the most: the defendant, former President Donald Trump," Steinglass said.
Steinglass defended the prosecution's use of Michael Cohen as a witness, telling the jury: "I’m not asking you to feel bad for Michael Cohen. He made his bed."
"But you can hardly blame him for making money from the one thing he has left, which is his knowledge of the inner workings of the Trump Organization," he said.
"We didn’t choose Michael Cohen to be our witness. We didn’t pick him up at the witness store," Steinglass said. "The defendant chose Michael Cohen to be his fixer because he was willing to lie and cheat on the defendant’s behalf."
Trump defense attorneys, in their second attempt to dismiss the case earlier this month, said no evidence had been presented by the prosecution to connect the former president to any falsification of business records. Defense attorneys motioned for dismissal after Michael Cohen, Trump’s former attorney and the prosecution’s "star witness," finished his testimony.
He testified that he personally made the $130,000 payment to Daniels using a home equity line of credit in an effort to conceal the payment from his wife. Cohen said he did this because Trump told him to "handle it" and prevent a negative story from coming out ahead of the election.
But Trump’s defense attorneys maintained that the president never directed Cohen to do so.
Cohen testified that he was "reimbursed $420,000" for the $130,000 he paid to Daniels. Cohen said former Trump Organization CFO Allen Weisselberg suggested he "gross up" the payments and that Trump knew the details of the reimbursement.
The prosecution presented Cohen with 11 checks totaling $420,000. Cohen confirmed that they were all received and deposited. The checks had a description of a "retainer," which Cohen said was false.
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/ny-v-trump-jury-verdict-former-presidents-historic-criminal-trial
'I’m gonna kill all the Jews': Pakistani immigrant seen on video trying to run down students Brooklyn yeshiva
NYPD’s Hate Crimes Task Force is now investigating the case.
'I’m gonna kill all the Jews': Pakistani immigrant seen on video trying to run down students Brooklyn yeshiva
The Post Millennial
May 30, 2024 2 minute read
On Wednesday, a Pakistani immigrant was caught on video attempting to run down Orthodox Jewish students and a rabbi outside a Brooklyn Yeshiva and, according to witnesses, yelled “I’m gonna kill all the Jews.”
Video from the Flatbush Shomrim Safety Patrol showed, at approximately 11:25 am, the driver revving the engine of his 2011 white Crown Victoria, then mounting the curb and aiming his car toward Jews outside the Mesivta Nachlas Yakov School.
“I’m gonna kill all the Jews,” the driver yelled, according to witnesses. He then drove around the block and back toward the school, again targeting two students and a rabbi outside the school.
The driver fled, but was quickly found at a nearby Dunkin’ Donuts by members of a Jewish safety patrol called the Shomrim. They called the NYPD, who arrested the suspect and transferred him to a Coney Island Hospital.
According to police, the alleged driver was Asghar Ali, 58, a Pakistani immigrant cab driver with a history of mental illness. NYPD’s Hate Crimes Task Force is now investigating the case. He is originally from Pakistan and has been living in the US for more than twenty years and is considered an “emotionally disturbed” person, according to police. He also has four prior arrests, and though he claims to be a cab driver, he does not have a valid taxi license.
Ali is facing over a dozen charges, including attempted murder, attempted assault, and hate crimes charges.
Rabbi Twersky, who works at the Yeshiva but declined to give his first name, told The New York Post, “I came in, and the boys were like ‘Did you see the cameras? Did you see the cameras?’ I’m more scared for them. I’m much more scared than they are — their adrenaline is up.”
https://thepostmillennial.com/im-gonna-kill-all-the-jews-pakistani-immigrant-seen-on-video-trying-to-run-down-students-brooklyn-yeshiva
College Grad Finds Perfect Spot On Wall To Hang First Unemployment Check
OLD WESTBURY, NY — Sources close to the Ellington household claim that Kael Ellington, a recent graduate from Columbia University who majored in Gender Studies and Post-Colonial Deconstructionist Performance Art, is currently trying to find just the right spot to hang his first framed unemployment check.
According to Kael's parents, who shelled out $90,000 a year during his 9 semesters at Columbia, their son has been scrutinizing the walls of his basement suite all morning for the perfect place to display his $350 check from the U.S. Treasury, signifying his life as a college graduate has officially begun.
"No, not there - it might cover up my Palestinian flag," Kael allegedly muttered as he gazed at the wall, which was already covered in several Pride flags, an Elizabeth Warren "Eat The Rich" poster, a Che Guevara T-shirt, a LeBron James jersey, and various communist flags from regimes around the world. "What about here? No, I want to be able to see my Taylor Swift "The Eras Tour" poster. I wonder about over the bed…"
Sources confirmed Kael soon found the perfect spot next to his poster of Rey Skywalker from The Rise of Skywalker.
"We were a bit worried about Kael's career options, but we're quite relieved to see that he's going to be able to draw unemployment checks," said Jonathan Ellington, Kael's father. "All his degrees seemed to qualify him for was assistant DEI officer at the local community college, but he said that would involve "too much work" and has been sulking in the basement ever since. Hopefully, all this free money will cheer him up a little."
At publishing time, Kael had shown some initiative by applying to the local Starbucks, but was rejected for being too "white-adjacent."
https://babylonbee.com/news/report-gender-studiespatriarchal-deconstructionism-double-major-looking-for-perfect-spot-on-wall-to-hang-first-unemployment-check
Report Reveals $7.5 Billion In Government EV Charger Spending Has Purchased One 4-Pack of Energizer AAs
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Despite pouring massive amounts of taxpayer funding into green energy initiatives, a new report has revealed that $7.5 billion in government EV charger spending has purchased one 4-pack of Energizer AA batteries.
The report indicated that the federal government's significant investment in installing chargers for electronic vehicles has somehow resulted in only having the lone 4-pack of AAs on hand, leaving officials stumped.
"We are proud to announce we have delivered for the American taxpayer," said Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg. "Thanks to the sacrifices made by the American people, you can now feel proud that your government has stockpiled an entire 4-pack of AA batteries. And these aren't just any AA batteries — these are Energizers! That's a name brand. The United States spares no expense. You're welcome, America."
When asked to comment on alleged wasteful spending on the government's part, President Joe Biden provided a brief statement. "That's a bunch of malarkey," he told reporters. "My administration has the utmost confidence in… in… Secretary Booty Juice. Purchasing a 4-pack of Energizer AA batteries is just the first step in an important process to fill the country with… with the… with ED… E… with E… F… G. Anyway." The White House then provided a press release highlighting the outstanding track record of Energizer batteries.
At publishing time, Secretary Buttigieg issued a separate statement promising to investigate where the remainder of the $7.5 billion in government funding went as soon as he returns from his current vacation in Turks & Caicos but before he takes the month of June off to celebrate Pride Month.
https://babylonbee.com/news/report-reveals-75-billion-in-government-ev-charger-spending-has-purchased-one-4-pack-of-energizer-aas
Biden Administration Stations Circus Clowns, Jugglers, Lion Tamers Outside Trump Trial
NEW YORK, NY — Police have diverted traffic away from Centre St. to make way for a legion of circus folk that has turned up outside the Manhattan Criminal Courthouse for Donald Trump's hush money trial. Sources confirm that the Biden administration is directly responsible for the clowns, jugglers, and lion tamers that now roam the street.
"Wow! What a circus!" said Charlie Danvers, a local man who'd been following the news on Trump's criminal trial. "How do they fit that many clowns in a single car? Hilarious!"
Young children from all over Manhattan have converged on the location to see the excitement. Hot dog carts have been replaced with a line of stands selling popcorn and cotton candy. No peanuts are permitted, for fear of attracting elephants.
Joe Biden reportedly invited the best circus performers in the world to perform outside the Trump trial as closing arguments began.
"Daddy, why is that clown talking?" one young boy was heard asking his father as Robert DeNiro began speaking.
"This city is accommodating; we make room for clowns," DeNiro said while wearing comically oversized pants.
"And elections? Forget about it!" DeNiro continued to uproarious laughter. "That's over! That's done! If he gets in — I can tell you right now — he will never leave."
Everyone in attendance agreed that Robert DeNiro was the funniest clown of all.
At publishing time, local reports indicate Democratic Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez sadly lost her life during the event after trying to pet one of the lions.
https://babylonbee.com/news/biden-administration-stations-circus-clowns-jugglers-lion-tamers-outside-trump-trial
Judge Instructs Jurors They Need Not Believe Trump Is Guilty To Convict Him
NEW YORK, NY — As the criminal trial involving former President Donald Trump winds to a close, the presiding judge instructed jurors that they don't have to believe Trump is guilty to convict him.
The reminder from Judge Juan Merchan was issued to the jury as closing arguments began, with the judge clarifying that Trump doesn't necessarily have to be guilty of a crime in order for the jury to find Trump guilty of a crime.
"Don't get hung up on whether or not he's ‘guilty' of anything," Judge Merchan instructed jurors. "Words like ‘guilty' or ‘innocent' or ‘evidence' are really just for show, anyway. The important thing is that you listen to the closing arguments with an open mind and an unwavering commitment to handing down a guilty verdict. Remember, believing Trump is guilty is not important. Declaring him guilty — that's what you're all here for."
As the trial neared its end, media, politicians, celebrities, and the general public all eagerly awaited the outcome. "Judge Merchan has run a very strict courtroom," said one legal analyst. "Not allowing any type of shenanigans, reasoned arguments, or clear evidence to be present during the trial was a bold choice, and now he's making sure the jurors are aware that believing Trump to be guilty has no bearing on convicting him of the charges. An impressive stance from a judge to say the least."
At publishing time, Judge Merchan had reportedly informed bailiffs to be ready to handcuff Trump and escort him to jail regardless of whether or not the jury found him guilty.
https://babylonbee.com/news/judge-instructs-jurors-they-need-not-believe-trump-is-guilty-to-convict-him
7 Ways For Christians To Prepare For Pride Month
It's almost that time of year again, when corporations suddenly bathe themselves in rainbow colors overnight and vast mobs of drag queens roam the streets. With such troubling sights on the way, it can be challenging for Christians to know how to get ready.
The Babylon Bee has come up with the following list of ways Christians can prepare themselves for Pride Month:
Gouge out your eyes with a fork: Some may think this a little extreme, but if you've ever seen clips of a Pride parade, this seems like a no-brainer.
Retreat to your underground bunker until July 1: Wait, you don't have an underground bunker?
Cancel your Planet Fitness membership: Take a month off from working out and seeing 6'7" bearded women named Jeff in the sauna.
Put up signs for a new Subaru dealership with arrows pointing out of town: The gays will follow the signs out of town like an irresistible pied piper.
Get your Lasik reversed: No confirmation if this is even possible, but at least ask an eye doctor to try.
Hold a Chuck Norris movie marathon: The ripple effect of the raw, heterosexual masculinity reverberating from your TV will singlehandedly reverse all Pride Month effects.
Move to Florida: We heard Pride Month is totally illegal there.
By following even a few of the tips listed above, you can take the proper precautions to protect yourself from the annual Pride Month onslaught.
https://babylonbee.com/news/7-ways-for-christians-to-prepare-for-pride-month
In Touching Memorial Day Address, Biden Thanks Fallen American Servicemen For Their Votes
WASHINGTON, D.C. — In a moving speech to the nation on Memorial Day, President Biden thanked all the fallen American servicemen for voting for him in the last election.
"Today, we honor our fallen," said Biden, since that was what the teleprompter had told him to say. "The men and women of the armed forces who made the ultimate sacrifice, giving their lives for our great nation, and who then voted for me in 2020 despite being dead, deserve our humble thanks. Pause for silence but do not read these words as they are not part of the speech. End."
Biden then stood rigid and silent for 12 minutes out of respect for the deceased before turning around to shake their hands.
Official records show approximately 100% of service members killed during Operation Iraqi Freedom, the Persian Gulf war, Vietnam, The Korean War, WWII, WWI, The Apache Wars, The Navajo War, The Civil War, The War of 1812, The First Barbary War, and the Revolutionary War all vote for Democrats.
"We're not surprised to see such loyal Democrat support from these patriots," said Camilla Barnes, a community organizer in charge of collecting fallen servicemember votes in Georgia. "Such heroes would never vote for evil Republicans."
At publishing time, Biden had finally ended his speech and given the stage to Kamala Harris, who began her address with a series of inappropriate cackles.
https://babylonbee.com/news/in-touching-memorial-day-address-biden-thanks-fallen-american-servicemen-for-their-votes
Trump's Trade Revolution: Better days that we need again
By Joseph Ford Cotto
On genocide, leftist media need an education
By Michael Berenhaus
In “WCK draws criticism for neutrality in Gaza” (5/27/24), The Washington Post provides a platform to state its views: the libel that Israel is committing genocide — which it clearly isn’t.
The Post is publishing misinformation. Whether the Post is saying it or quoting people saying it, it’s on the paper’s platform and quite frankly on the paper. The Post certainly doesn’t challenge it. With attacks on Jews, vandalism on Jewish institutions, Jews threatened, all on the rise exponentially, the Post and its writers are complicit. They must understand the history of the Jews and blood libels, to own their guilt.
In this article, “genocide” is mentioned about a half-dozen times. If Israel wanted to commit genocide, which it clearly doesn’t, it certainly has the firepower. According to all standards written about by war experts, Israel is fighting the most humane war in history, with a 1.5-civilian death count to combatants. All tragic, all the fault of Hamas.
Genocide, for example, is when two thirds of all Jews in Europe were exterminated in WWII. And it wasn’t the Jews who started the war against the Nazis. A similar percentage of Jews died in Israel’s 1948 war of independence as in the current Gaza war, and nobody said the Arabs were committing a genocide against them.
Hamas could end this war in a second by surrendering and returning the tortured and raped hostages, some of whom are Americans. Where are the Washington Post articles about that?
Does The Washington Post ever think to write about the Hamas charter portion that explicitly describes its goal of an actual genocide against Israel? Or that it talks about the goal of the extermination of Jews the world over, like me, my family, my loved ones, the Post’s friends and perhaps family members?
Hamas won’t surrender, because its battle is still going on in the legacy media like The Washington Post, which is fighting its fight for it.
Blood is on your hands, Washington Post. That includes for the deaths of both Israelis and Palestinians.
But the Post’s crew is just too stubborn to fess up to it — and wouldn’t even think to make a needed shift.
https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2024/05/on_genocide_leftist_media_need_an_education.html
Thought police: USA Today thinks twice about transgender wrongthink
By DC Larson
Home insurance rates continue to surge, media and industry blame ‘climate change’ catastrophes
By Jack Hellner
New study: Infrastructure needed to support a ‘zero emissions’ electric trucking fleet comes with a $1 trillion price tag
By Olivia Murray
Justice Merchan gets even sleazier
By Monica Showalter
Robert De Niro doesn’t suffer from ‘Trump Derangement Syndrome’, he’s just a vile individual
By Rajan Laad
The murder of Bryan Malinowski
By John Dietrich
“The way to respond to a search warrant is to allow your house to be searched and to cooperate.” — Rep. Dan Goldman
On March 19, the ATF, accompanied by members of the Little Rock Police Department, raided the home of Bryan Malinowski. Malinowski was the executive director of the Bill and Hillary Clinton National Airport in Little Rock. He had no criminal record and did not even know that he was under investigation. The announced reason for the raid was to execute a search warrant. The actual reason was to deliver a message to American gun owners that the ATF has the power to end their lives. This was an example of premeditated murder. A week prior to the raid, the ATF had assembled to carry out the raid; this raid was canceled allegedly because Malinowski was not home, and it was necessary for him to be there in order for him to set an example.
There are numerous reasons to why this raid appears to be an execution. Ten vehicles pulled up to Malinowski’s home. At 06:02:46 a.m., an hour before sunup, agents in full SWAT gear approached the front door. An agent put a piece of tape over the doorbell camera lens. According to Rep. Jim Jordan, the ATF also apparently killed electricity to the home. None of the government participants were wearing required body cameras. This was a “no knock” raid. Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco wrote a directive limiting the circumstances in which agents may seek to enter dwelling pursuant to a warrant without complying with the knock and announce rule because of the risk posed to both law enforcement and civilians. This requirement was announced two years ago. Agents knocked down Malinowski’s front door. Malinowski awoke, loaded a pistol and headed for the front door. He reportedly fired a few shots at the intruder’s feet to drive them back out the front door. An ATF agent was hit in the foot during this effort. The ATF responded by shooting Malinowski in the head. The entire affair lasted only 57 seconds. At 06:03:43 a.m. agents dragged Mrs. Malinowski into the front yard. She was barefoot and wearing her night clothing. The temperature was 34 degrees. They locked her in the backseat of a car and detained her there for four hours while refusing to allow her to use a neighbor’s bathroom. The humiliation of spouses is apparently an integral part of this process.
Why would it not be unreasonable to conclude that this was a premeditated execution? Rep. Kelly Armstrong pointed out that “Somebody made a leadership decision in order to execute a warrant in the most dangerous way possible.” He concluded, “They chose to implement a warrant in a way that absolutely maximized the risk of harm both to the person being served the warrant on and to the officers serving the warrant.” Rep. Troy Nehls asked, “When you kick down or break down a door and you don’t even announce who you are what do you think is going to happen?” Rep. Darrell Issa concluded, “Malinowski . . . was killed doing what any normal citizen does when people enter their home in the darkness of night and they don’t know who they are.” You do not need to be a psychic to know what the most likely outcome of such a raid would be.
Rep. Goldman claims that warrants are routinely done at 6 a.m.. According to him, this time is standard operating procedure. There are certain advantages to conducting raids at this time. Aleksandr I. Solzhenitsyn, author of The Gulag Archipelago, pointed out this:
The kind of night arrest described is, in fact, a favorite, because it has important advantages. Everyone living in the apartment is thrown into a state of terror by the first knock at the door. The arrested person is torn from the warmth of his bed. He is in a daze, half-asleep, helpless, and his judgment is befogged. In a night arrest the State Security men have a superiority in numbers; there are many of them, armed, against one person who hasn’t even finished buttoning his trousers.
ATF Director Steven Dettelbach contends that the ATF conducts 11,000 of these raids per year; the ATF probably would not want it to be known that their SOP was written by the KGB.
There are countless questions that need to be answered concerning this raid. Dettelbach was an expert at evading answers. Rep.Victoria Spartz chastised him for not answering questions because everything is under investigation. She pointed out that the January 6 pipe bomb investigation has been going on for three years. Undoubtedly the Malinowski investigation will last until most people have forgotten about it. Before this is forgotten these questions should be answered:
Did a manager at ATF instruct Little Rock police not to wear body cameras in contradiction to their local policy?
Who authorized this “no knock” raid?
Dettelbach maintained “budget cuts” were to blame for the lack of body cameras; but how expensive are 11,000 raids?
Eventually the Malinowski family will be compensated for their loss, although the loss of a spouse can not really be compensated for. The federal government paid the Weaver family $3.1 million for the murder of Randy Weaver’s wife and son at Ruby Ridge. Vicki Weaver was shot by a sniper while she was holding an infant in her arms. No one was disciplined for this fiasco and the government denied any wrongdoing.
https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2024/05/the_murder_of_bryan_malinowski.html
If Biden Wrecks Trump’s Presidential Immunity...
By Michael G. Zey
The Top 20 Lies of the 2020s
By Jack Gleason
Lying is an epidemic even worse than COVID.
Our president and his press secretaries seem to lie with every word they say and deny facts that anyone with a pair of eyes can see for himself.
Scientists and doctors, formerly among the most trusted members of our society, lie to foster popular environmental theories and get government grants, or to promote Big Pharma and deter people from effective treatments.
Our news media no longer report the news; they shape the news as instructed.
Here is just a sample of commonly promoted lies starting in 2020.
Covid has a 4% death rate.
Masks will keep us safe from COVID.
COVID vaccines are safe and effective.
Oil and natural gas are going to destroy the planet.
Electric cars are going to save the environment.
Electric cars are safe.
Our justice system is fair for all.
Hunter Biden’s laptop was Russian disinformation.
Trump stole classified documents.
Boys should compete in girls’ sports.
Men can have babies.
Search engines give honest results.
Protecting Ukraine’s borders is in the interest of the United States.
Our borders are safe and secure.
Israel is guilty of war crimes.
Inflation is under control.
The 2020 Election was the safest and most secure in history.
Lyndsey Stonebridge’s fascinating article in Time from February of this year cited Hannah Arendt, a German-American historian and philosopher who died in 1975. She lived through the persecution of the Jews starting in the 1930s and often discussed “the big lie.”
She had been interested in how the most outrageous lies get a political hold ever since Nazi lies about the Jews, Communists, and intellectuals drove her from Berlin in 1933 after her arrest by the Gestapo. She wrote her final analysis of the nature of the modern political lying after the publication of the Pentagon Papers revealed the extent to which American lawmakers and bureaucrats had carefully, patiently, painstakingly constructed a fiction about the Vietnam War — a fiction fit enough for other people’s children to die in[.] ...
Lies like this are grandly shameless, blatantly, and obviously fake. Political lying isn’t even lying anymore. We know that you know we are lying, say the politicians, but isn’t that part of the thrill? Tell us the world is made up of more than the mundane fact we are forced to live by, reply many, and yes, of course we will believe you. Anything is better than this[.] ...
[T]he world is complex, shifting, sometimes random, perplexing and bewildering. Politicians have always known that this means the best stories are likely to be those that make some sense of reality.
In other words, we believe the lies, because to disbelieve them, we would have to realize that our entire world is insurmountably corrupt.
What makes this scholarly article so much fun is that Stonebridge is decrying the continuing popularity of Donald Trump in 2024. His article starts with “[a]s we head into 2024 with Donald Trump as the all but confirmed Republican nominee, any hope that Trump and his rampant lying — seemingly about anything and everything — might retreat into history has clearly become wishful thinking. Mendacity is back in town.”
He continues:
Trump’s outrageous lies are one thing. But what about self-deception? In the realm of politics, Arendt said, perhaps political self-deception is the greatest threat. The self-deceived politician, “loses all contact, not only with his audience but with the real world which will catch up with him.” In another sobering moment, Arendt reflects that perhaps the person who is most likely to be an “an ideal victim of complete manipulation is the President of the United States” themselves. Some Presidents might stake their power on outrageous deceits; but is the President who is deceived about his own beliefs necessarily in the strongest position to win the battle for democracy?
Stonebridge is blind to the possibility that his own world may be upside-down. What if Trump is telling the truth, the people he supports/worships are lying to him “bigly,” and the president who is deceived is Biden?
Stonebridge has bought the lie that Trump is a self-serving maniac, capable of doing anything. He prefers this to a reality where a cabal of Soros, China, Iran, tech moguls, and Marxists have conspired to take over everything in our world. Their control of the media means they can weave their lies of “orange man bad” and portray themselves as the only ones who can save you.
Review my list of lies above. Note the use of fear — COVID, global warming, the “Far Right” — and the word “safe.” “We will keep you safe.”
Another liberal, Brian Stelter, also bought the lies about Trump, and wrote in November of last year,
First, the lies aren’t really about the lies. As Anne Applebaum, the Pulitzer Prize–winning historian, has observed, “sometimes the point isn't to make people believe a lie — it's to make people fear the liar.” It’s to assert power over reality.
Second, the point is ... to overwhelm the press and the public with so much misinformation and disinformation that democracy can't function. Trump, despite his frontrunner status, is barely fact-checked anymore. He says so much, so wrongly, that fact-checkers are at a supreme disadvantage — just the way his team likes it.
Third, lying is contagious. Neuroscientists have studied how peoples’ brains react when they lie over and over again for personal gain. In short: The more they do it, the easier it gets. The results suggest a “slippery slope” where “small acts of dishonesty escalate into more significant lies,” Dr. Tali Sharot has said.
It’s positively amazing that the authors of these “scholarly” articles are victims of the very groupthink they decry. Their own leaders lie blatantly because they have no fear. “We control everything,” they say. “We’ll throw you in jail for any reason we choose.” “We control your news.”
What are the current lies?
Joe Biden is running for president in 2024.
Is there anyone on the planet who thinks Joe is competent to be president of the United States for another four years? When he drops out at the convention “for health reasons,” he will be canonized for his self-sacrifice and “lifelong service to the nation.”
The new RNC will win the 2024 election by ballot-harvesting and poll-watching.
This is the clearest indication that the RINOs remain at the RNC and are part of the cabal. They’re lying to all of those concerned about election fraud that they will save us.
Far Right Groups are disputing recent elections to disrupt 2024.
The cabal’s greatest fear is that their rampant and shameless election cheating won’t be enough. Instead, they dishonestly demonize the nationwide movement of election fraud sleuths that has arisen to expose the fraud.
The shameless lies of the 2020s are designed to shift your focus to anything but the fact that our elections are rigged from the top down. If you don’t believe me, listen to Barack Obama in his speech at Stanford in 2012.
Our only hope is to wholeheartedly support efforts to force fair and honest elections through civil rights litigation all the way to the Supreme Court before November.
If we don’t win this election, we will all be at the mercy of the merciless — forever.
https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2024/05/the_top_20_lies_of_the_2020s.html
In Its Pursuit Of Power, The Democrat Party Openly Allies With Jihadists
By Al Bienenfeld
Trump is Correct About Deportation
By Warren Beatty
Rishi Sunak Admits to ‘Infected Blood Scandal’
By Mark Hewitt
After letters to my senators and an American Thinker article, Why is the FDA Contaminating America’s Blood Supply? it is the United Kingdom that finally comes clean:
Britain’s ‘day of shame’ as full scale of infected blood scandal revealed
‘The result of this inquiry should shake our nation to its core. This should have been avoided. It was known these treatments were contaminated; warnings were ignored repeatedly.
‘Time and again people in positions of power and trust had the chance to stop the transmission of those infections. Time and again they failed to do so.’
Patients “died or suffered miserably” as a result of being given contaminated blood products between 1970 and 1998 because medics and successive governments “did not put patient safety first.” When the scandal was exposed, “the response of those in authority served to compound people’s suffering.”
You see, the UK has their very own “deep state.”
How did this happen?
Medicines for hemophiliacs, including one called Factor VIII, were imported from the US in the 1970s and 1980s [emphasis added] and prescribed by the NHS. However, the treatments were made from blood plasma donations which often came from groups at high risk for HIV and hepatitis C such as gay men, sex workers and prisoners and were often contaminated.
All this time, we thought that before there was the deep state FDA, there was the “dedicated to patient safety” and “do no harm” FDA. With respect to the national blood supply, the old FDA reduced the risk of HIV transmission (and the chance of acquiring AIDS) into the nation’s blood supply by preventing it from occurring. Period, full stop. Gay men were not allowed to give blood, but in case they lied, there were other safeguards in place—blood was tested, and destroyed as a biohazard if the hepatitis virus or HIV were detected.
At least, the FDA was supposed to do this. What do you want to bet that blood products that were rejected in the U.S. (that had hepatitis C or HIV) from 1970–1980 weren’t destroyed as biohazards but were “still worth something” or the laws in the UK allowed and were moved to the U.K.?
The UK also has a deep state:
The final report of a five-year inquiry into the scandal, which has so far claimed more than 3,000 lives, concluded that the health service and governments took part in a ‘chilling’ cover-up, as they ‘closed ranks’ to hide the truth, even destroying documents to keep patients in the dark.
Now they want to say they are sorry. At least a £10 billion sorry.
Lord Clarke, the former UK health secretary, faces calls to be stripped of his peerage after he was condemned by Sir Brian for maintaining in the 1980s that there was no conclusive proof of HIV being spread through blood products—a position the inquiry chairman said was ‘indefensible.’ The report said the former health secretary had misled the public.
Which is exactly what the FDA did, and is doing—it’s misleading the public, asserting that “there is no conclusive proof of HIV will be spread through blood products” which is why it decided to reinstate the ability of gay men (MSM) to give blood.
My senators and the DOD could have shut this down when it was merely a proposal; what they did instead was kick the can down the road and send me a link: “the FDA is currently accepting public comment on the proposal.” You will not be surprised, but every LGBTQ-affiliated group on the planet offered their public comments. Fait accompli. Now the deep state FDA has succeeded in overturning the decades-long moratorium of gay men giving blood, contaminating the supply.
This is also a national security issue at the highest level, and the Department of Defense should have been raising hell. But because they have also been fully compromised with “woke” B.S., they will not say a thing to their co-conspirators, the deep state FDA. Like the buffoonery and illegitimacy of the COVID mandates, coercing troops to take experimental Wuhan wet market sewer water or whatever is in those little vials of death, military doctors have long known that allowing HIV-tainted blood into the national blood supply would guarantee infection of the men and women in uniform who are serving across the globe, protecting Americans.
Maybe that’s what they want.
In his 2,527-page report, Sir Brian also warned that a substantial number of people remained unaware that they were given transfusions or other products of infected blood, and were therefore undiagnosed. They include around 900 people infected with hepatitis C and around 200 people who were infected with HIV, the virus that causes Aids, as children.
(This was between 1970-1998.)
The FDA should add anyone with a COVID jabs has contaminated blood. When the idiots at the FDA issued Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) to the untested, unproven, and experimental COVID “vaccines” they completely eliminated any safety testing of what would be the effect of COVID “vaccines” in a person’s blood. We now know the side effects are off the charts because the FDA didn’t do their homework on COVID. A woke, DEI FDA did not put patient safety first. Blood banks should stop accepting COVID-contaminated blood.
Information from my previous article is still germane. A growing number of parents are rightfully refusing to have their children subjected to COVID vaccine-contaminated blood. When HIV-contaminated blood is introduced into America’s bloodstream, what parent will accept that either?
In New Zealand, children who needed blood for surgery or blood transfusions were removed from their parents’ custody by government authorities on the premise “it is simply impractical to have a designated donor.” The concerns of these parents are non-criminal actions but the American left will find their way to inflict this level of nuttiness and craziness on American children—be it HIV or COVID vaccine-contaminated blood—all under the “greater good of society” argument.
Let’s be clear, when parents did not voluntarily accept COVID-vaccine contaminated blood introduced into their children during surgery, New Zealand treated these parents as if they were members of a cult. Americans will be next if something isn’t done immediately to prevent these lunatics from enacting woke terroristic policies—introducing HIV or COVID vaccine-contaminated blood into the national blood supply—in the name of the government.
However, there are state legislatures working to bring transparency and consent to blood-receiving therapies; of course, Democrats are protesting these initiatives.
Effective immediately, American blood banks need to stop accepting blood from those with HIV as well as those who have been uselessly “vaccinated” with the untested, mRNA experimental and unapproved gene therapy marketed as “effective” against the COVID where there is no third-party or peer-reviewed data to back up the government’s claims.
A growing number of the public knows the blood supply is now being targeted and contaminated with HIV-tainted blood as well as the experimental COVID vaccine concoctions. It is time for Congress to put a stop to this madness.
https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2024/05/rishi_sunak_admits_to_infected_blood_scandal.html
A Tale of Two Realities: Media Splits on Trump Trial
Awaiting a verdict in search of a crime.
by Mark Angelides | May 30, 2024
Economist Thomas Sowell wrote, “If people in the media cannot decide whether they are in the business of reporting news or manufacturing propaganda, it is all the more important that the public understand that difference, and choose their news sources accordingly.” It’s a dilemma that has come to the fore with the trial of Donald J. Trump. The Fourth Estate appears irreconcilably riven between two realities that bear no relation to one another. And in the middle waits the patient audience, desperately seeking even a flicker of truth.
No One Wants to Be Stupid!
Credentialism is likely the only socially acceptable veneer of elitism. Indeed, careers are built and fortunes are made in the media world by being the guy or gal “in the know.” And yet Trump’s criminal trial – with ramifications that make it potentially one of the most impactful in modern history – has exposed what many have long suspected: The experts don’t really know a whole lot.
The left and right sides of the news media are determined to sell their opinions to a less-than-trusting public. Its denizens bemoan how any clear-thinking individual could possibly determine that the former president is innocent or, on the other hand, guilty. It seems that a number of talking heads have staked their credentialed reputations on calling this jury verdict.
Of course, should the jury ultimately rule the opposite to their prognostications, the credentialed class will dismiss it as the wrong decision. As gamblers are wont to say, “You’re only as good as your last hand.” The mercurial public tends to remember losses over wins.
Skin in the Game
What has become increasingly apparent is that the two sides of the media divide are unofficial surrogates for their chosen presidential candidate. On the left, dealing a conviction blow to Trump would allow President Joe Biden to campaign that his opponent is a felon and deserves to be in a jail rather than the Oval Office – a clarion call that will certainly be echoed on the front pages of many once-esteemed news outlets. On the right, a guilty verdict will be used to declare that Trump is the victim of political persecution.
The Fourth Estate appears to have forgotten its role as a recorder of events and instead finds itself in desperate need to ensure its own relevance by shaping the narrative to its own benefit, presenting its own version of reality as the absolute truth.
Who are the victims in this game? The consumers of news, who are owed honesty over agenda.
Media in Memoriam
An ailing press, stuck in the dead space of irrelevance between social media and political apathy, was revitalized by the presidential run of a well-known New York real estate developer and erstwhile TV reality star. Trump gave them headlines, purpose, and a raison d’être unthinkable prior to the internet age.
President Trump brought the nation’s media back from the brink, but the cost was bifurcation: a split system that reveled in or reviled each utterance of the 45th president. Now, each side must provide its audience with the red (or blue) meat it craves. The problem comes when that meal no longer satisfies and when the guy or gal “in the know” no longer appears to be an expert. Well, that’s the equivalent of a funeral.
As the Fourth Estate and a nation await a verdict, one can just hear the dirge of lamentations in the distance, cresting the hill where rhetoric meets reality.
https://www.libertynation.com/a-tale-of-two-realities-media-splits-on-trump-trial/
California Poised to Punish EV Drivers – Swamponomics
Plus, Biden taps gasoline reserve and interest rates.
by Andrew Moran | May 30, 2024
Have electric vehicles become a laughingstock? Perhaps in California. Under President Joe Biden, the United States has gone ultra-bullish on electrified automobiles. Well, except for consumers, of course. Across the country, all three levels of government have invested in EVs and the required infrastructure, from handing out billions in corporate welfare to subsidizing motorists’ EV purchases. Officials touted the benefits of electric cars, but various reports and studies have highlighted the disadvantages of owning these automobiles.
California Might Punish EV Drivers
Gas taxes ain’t what they used to be, whether because automobiles require less fuel or drivers are switching to electric. Whatever the case, the government needs money. Estimates show that real gas tax revenues are forecast to decline by more than half over the next two decades. Even if politicians hike the gas levy, it would not be enough.
The government is attempting to be proactive in California, a state with heavy EV usage rates. With Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) trying to make all new vehicle sales emission-free by 2035, the Golden State risks losing a lot of revenue, especially as its infrastructure maintenance costs $8.5 billion per year. As a result, California is piloting a mileage fee program called Road Charge, an initiative aimed to replace or complement the gasoline tax. The government will compile data in the pilot program, and the numbers will determine if it is time to ditch the gas tax.
While an exact rate has not been set, reports suggest it could range between two and four cents per mile. The popular Autoblog makes a good point: “It’s EV drivers that will end up spending more: they’d pay the same monthly Road Charge but they currently don’t pay a gas tax.” That is if there is enough range in these electric cars anyway.
In other California EV news, the state is apparently an “EV-charging desert.” According to the Department of Energy, only four fast-charging public stations are found throughout 4,500 square miles. Ouch. This is as bad as the “seven or eight” public charging stations nationwide, even after the federal government spent $7.5 billion to construct these apparatuses. Is this massive taxpayer investment in EVs turning out to be a boondoggle?
Biden Taps Gas Reserves
Gasoline prices had rocketed to kick off spring. However, in recent weeks, they have flat lined heading into the busy summer driving season. American Automobile Association data suggest that the national average for a gallon of gasoline is about $3.59, a penny or two higher than a year ago. The reasons vary, from the war risk premium vanishing from global energy markets to lackluster fuel demand.
The White House wants to be prepared in case of a sudden surge. This is why the administration announced it would be releasing one million barrels of gas from the Northeast Gasoline Supply Reserve to reduce pump prices. Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm confirmed that supplies will be sold from storage facilities in Maine and New Jersey in 100,000-barrel quantities to ensure competitive bidding. The volumes, totaling about 42 million gallons of gas, will be given to retailers and terminals by June 3 at the latest.
The administration touted the “strategic action” as another step Biden is taking to help households lower energy costs, comparing it to more than 40% drawdown from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve. In total, US gas stocks stand at roughly 228 million barrels, and emergency inventories stand at nearly 368 million barrels.
It could only be described as a preventative measure since energy prices have struggled to sustain momentum in either direction. Even if there were a sudden rally in West Texas Intermediate futures, it would not justify selling emergency stocks for political purposes. That’s Bidenomics, baby!
The New Era of Higher Rates?
All the talk on Wall Street is about when the Federal Reserve will cut interest rates. The futures market is penciling in a quarter-point rate cut beginning in September or November. But while investors are looking at the near-term path of rates, what is the long-term trajectory? Well, even if the Eccles Building followed its own projections, the March Summary of Economic Projections, the benchmark federal funds rate will still be much higher than even where it was before the pandemic. The median policy rate is expected to be 3.1% by 2026.
However, with inflation trends mirroring the 1970s and 1980s, can the central bank afford to slash rates? If not, consumers and businesses from California to Massachusetts might need to brace for higher borrowing costs, be it auto loans or credit cards.
https://www.libertynation.com/california-poised-to-punish-ev-drivers-swamponomics/
Former President’s Future Rests in Jury’s Hands
Jury to start the day hearing judge’s instructions again.
by Scott D. Cosenza, Esq.
Donald Trump is presently being judged by a jury of 12 people, accused of 34 felony counts of falsifying business records. Not since 1974, before President Richard Nixon was pardoned by his successor, President Gerald Ford, has a past commander-in-chief been in such criminal jeopardy. Judge Juan Merchan charged the jury with the case yesterday morning (May 29), and now the country and the defendant await their decision.
Merchan told the jury they did not have to be unanimous on the underlying crime that established a basis for the almost three dozen charges of falsifying business records. A guilty verdict on any of the 34 counts depends on finding intent to fraudulently file records and another crime. In this case, that might be violating New York City or federal election law. Jurors don’t have to agree on which law Trump violated in addition to the fraudulent filing. The judge explained that excessive donations or violating corporate donation rules, for instance, would each qualify.
4-4-4
Law professor and legal commentator Jonathan Turley tweeted from the courtroom: “Merchan just delivered the coup de grace instruction. He said that there is no need to agree on what occurred. [The jury] can disagree on what the crime was among the three choices. Thus, this means that they could split 4-4-4 and he will still treat them as unanimous.” No fan of the prosecution or judge in the case, Turley wrote: “Before jurors left, Judge Juan Merchan framed their deliberations in a way that seemed less like a jury deliberation than a canned hunt.”
How was it canned? Turley said the judge allowed the jury to be told repeatedly, and falsely, that Trump committed federal campaign violations. Turley went on: “That is not true … [T]he judge allowed them to be repeatedly told a false fact that could make it difficult for anyone to acquit.”
Merchan instructed jurors to strive for a universal verdict while remaining committed to their judgments when firm. Per reports from the courthouse, he stated: “You should not surrender an honest view of the evidence simply because you want the trial to be over or are outvoted.”
Trump: The Jury Instructions Were Rigged
During an afternoon break, Trump commented to reporters in the courthouse hallway that the instructions were “rigged” against him and that “Mother Teresa could not beat these charges, but we’ll see.”
An odd feature of New York criminal trial procedure is that juries are not presented with printed jury instructions; the judge reads them aloud. If members of the jury later want clarification on a point, they are directed back into the courtroom, where the judge has the court reporter read them again from the transcript. It is as cumbersome as it sounds. Trump’s jurors requested the instructions again toward the end of Merchan’s appointed 4:30 p.m. quitting time, prompting the judge to end a little early and begin the next day with the reading.
Merchan told the jurors they may choose to work late today (May 30), but not past 6 p.m.
https://www.libertynation.com/former-presidents-future-rests-in-jurys-hands/
Trump Storms Into Biden’s Blue America
As Biden beats a path to Pennsylvania, Trump takes a road less traveled.
by Tim Donner | May 30, 2024
Even as pundits everywhere work overtime to calculate the political effect of the upcoming verdict in the Trump trial – will an acquittal, conviction or hung jury help, hurt or make little difference for the 45th president? – there are more conventional and reliable methods for gauging the state of a presidential campaign. And the most effective way to do so, other than reliable and widespread polling, is to examine the candidate’s schedule. Where advisers choose to invest time and treasure is perhaps most indicative of their genuine view of their candidate’s strengths and weaknesses and where he needs to secure his base or expand his reach. Ultimately, wittingly or unwittingly, it reveals an optimistic or pessimistic outlook on the race.
To use an extreme example, if Joe Biden needs to travel to deep-blue California to secure that state or Donald Trump feels it necessary to campaign in ruby-red Mississippi, it is an unmistakable sign that his campaign is going off the rails. To that point, when Joe Biden announced a new initiative, the rather stark “Black Voters for Biden-Harris” in Philadelphia on Wednesday, he was trying to win back support from his most crucial demographic group, one that should have been locked down by now. Having to invest so much of his limited energy to securing his base is an ominous sign for a campaign that should be thinking of ways to expand its appeal by this point in the campaign.
In light of the incumbent’s travel plans, or lack thereof, the Biden re-election campaign and its champions in elite media are now essentially admitting that the president will have to win all three battleground states of the upper Midwest — Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Wisconsin — to secure a second term. Unless all polling to date is wrong, as Biden constantly suggests, or a Trump conviction in his Manhattan trial changes the contours of the race, Biden’s path to four more years is undoubtedly narrow. The president’s campaign is now desperate enough to send the 80-year-old, Trump-deranged Robert De Niro out on Tuesday (May 28) for a rambling, unhinged rant in front of the Manhattan courthouse where Trump’s trial had entered its final stages, declaring Trump is out to destroy the world.
Conversely, if a candidate makes bold moves to appear in regions where his opponent is the clear favorite, it demonstrates optimism about his prospects. And, despite a legal Sword of Damocles hanging over his head, that has been the case of late with Donald Trump.
Trump Derangement Itself on Trial
Of course, New York is hardly in play, but Biden’s lead there is just 9 points, down from 22 one year ago in polling by Siena, after he crushed Trump by 23 points in the Empire State in 2020. That shrunken advantage is certainly indicative of the national trend, and in response to his slim path to victory, this president has become almost an unofficial resident of Pennsylvania, just a short ride from his home in Delaware. The state is considered a bellwether for the nation writ large, and Biden established his campaign headquarters in Philadelphia in 2020. On Wednesday he made his fifth trip to the City of Brotherly Love and seventh to Pennsylvania in 2024 alone. Vice President Kamala Harris also has campaigned in the Keystone State three times in the last several weeks.
New banner Memo - From the Desk of Senior Political Analyst Tim Donner 1But as is so often the case, Biden had nothing on his calendar Tuesday, and after his appearance in Philadelphia, he is headed back to the beach again for the weekend, bringing again into question the seeming lack of urgency from a candidate who is clearly losing the race with just over five months until Election Day.
Indeed, the walls have been closing in on the incumbent, with four other states universally considered pivotal to the outcome of the election — North Carolina, Georgia, Arizona, and Nevada — seemingly out of Biden’s reach at this point. This leaves the president no choice but to spend most of his time in the trio of upper Midwest battlegrounds he needs to sweep. Together with the states he won before and is likely to win again, sweeping Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Wisconsin would get Biden to 269 electoral votes, and he would then need to either pull off a big upset in a red state or capture a decisive 270th vote in Nebraska, where one of the state’s four votes is up for grabs in the most Democrat district in an otherwise deep-red state.
In sharp contrast, while it seemed being locked down in Manhattan might cripple his campaign, Trump has taken full advantage of his persecution, speaking daily to the cameras and directly to audiences ordinarily hostile to Republicans. He has drawn an outsized crowd of more than 100,000 in blue New Jersey – Biden leads in the Garden State by 7%, after he won there by 16% in 2020 — plus an almost unthinkable 20,000 or more in the midnight-blue Bronx, while adding in stops at a union gathering and a Manhattan bodega. And while the left mocks Trump for visiting places he has little or no hope of winning, the former president has demonstrated to the electorate his willingness to talk to anyone, anywhere, anytime, friendly or hostile, while Biden remains distant from the people.
“President Trump goes to the bright-blue Bronx and another political party’s convention [Libertarian], a week before that he goes to bright-blue Minnesota, and before that, he has stops at the Teamsters headquarters and SneakerCon and even a town hall on CNN during the Republican primary,” campaign adviser Jason Miller texted Politico over the weekend. “What’s now clear is that President Trump is changing the game and living in what normally would be considered Joe Biden’s political territory, and this has to terrify Democrats.”
A Brief History of Overconfidence and Desperate Gambits
Political history is replete with lost opportunities, missing what was in plain sight, and failed gambits such as De Niro’s clumsy attack that broke Biden’s explicit promise to avoid commenting on the legal travails of his opponent. Al Gore was blasted for ignoring and losing his home state of Tennessee, costing him the 2000 election. Vice President Dick Cheney was sent 5,000 miles to Hawaii on the eve of the 2004 election in a failed attempt to secure the deep blue state’s three electoral votes, though he and Bush 43 still won re-election In 2012, Mitt Romney behaved as if he had a shot at Pennsylvania by holding a rally in Pittsburgh on Election Day itself, only to lose the state decisively.
Then there was 2016, when Hillary Clinton’s famous overconfidence and inattention to Wisconsin and Michigan, while spending time and money in states she was set up to lose, was blamed for her crushing losses behind the one-time “blue wall.” That year, pundits spoke of Trump having to pull an “inside straight” to upset the heavily favored former first lady, senator, and secretary of state. He somehow pulled it off, and, ironically, that is exactly what Biden will have to do now to take down Trump.
The 45th president, despite being targeted and frozen in place by a nakedly biased judge and bloodthirsty prosecutors, one of whom was sicked on Trump directly from Biden’s Justice Department, is brimming with confidence enough to travel directly to the belly of the blue beast. Meanwhile, 46 continues to employ a Rose Garden strategy, acting as if all is well, he is leading, and all he has to do is watch Trump be convicted and keep showing up in Pennsylvania. Trump supporters can only hope he continues down the same path.
https://www.libertynation.com/trump-storms-into-bidens-blue-america/
Dems Kick Off their Traditional Election Year Silly Season Targeting 'Big Oil'
David Blackmon
May 30, 2024
[Note: Donald Trump isn’t the only party who gets hit by Democrat partisan show trials. CEOs of “Big Oil” companies know they’ll also be targeted along about May of any election year by Democrats in congress. That particular political silly season kicked off last week when Senators Ron Wyden and Sheldon Whitehouse, along with New Jersey Rep. Frank Pallone sent letters to an array of company CEOs demanding they ‘fess up to alleged schemes of market manipulation that of course do not exist.
I wrote separate pieces on this tiresome bit of partisan hackery this week for The Daily Caller and The Telegraph. They appear below. Enjoy.]
t happens in or around May in any election year during which Democrats hold suitable positions in either house of Congress: heavily politicised show trial-style hearings targeting “Big Oil” begin. This has been an entirely predictable process across at least the last 30 years, and last week we found out this year will be no exception.
The first step comes when senior Democrats on certain committees in the Senate and/or House fire off hyperbolic letters to CEOs of “Big Oil” companies (this includes gas, of course) accusing them of all sorts of nefarious activities. Most frequently, the suggestion is that their companies have been engaging in “collusion” to “fix prices” for gasoline at the pump. Not surprisingly, that very accusation forms part of the basis for this year’s round of hearings.
As it happens, this year’s scenario was set in place by what appeared to be a coordinated media frenzy regarding a fundraising dinner at Mar-a-Lago involving Donald Trump and some oil and gas industry executives. Although the dinner took place on April 11 and the Washington Post reported on it just 6 days later, the story didn’t become a cause célèbre in the rest of the legacy media until the second week in May. Then it took off, for whatever reason.
That turned out to be perfect timing for Senate Democrats Ron Wyden of Oregon and Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island, who sent letters on May 23 to CEOs of 8 “Big Oil” companies, as well as the American Petroleum Institute, under the letterhead of the Senate Finance Committee which Wyden chairs. Setting up a predicate for a hearing to come, the Senators demanded that each company provide information related to the April 11 dinner, and to also provide any draft documents they might have prepared for proposed policy actions in a future Trump administration.
Senators Wyden and Whitehouse demand all this information without irony despite the fact that these kinds of interactions between politicians and their supporters are standard operating procedure in the US political system. They happen all the time, in both parties.
https://blackmon.substack.com/p/dems-kick-off-their-traditional-election?publication_id=712558&post_id=145122748&isFreemail=true&r=rd9j8&triedRedirect=true