The Stewart Rhodes insurrection case went to the jury yesterday. Maybe we’ll get a verdict before Thanksgiving.
For an interesting read on what’s being called “salad bar terrorism,” see Composite Violent Extremism: A Radicalization Pattern Changing the Face of Terrorism by a bunch of people at Lawfare Blog. This is about an increasing phenomenon of mass shooters and others committing violent acts who don’t fit into pre-existing ideological categories.
In recent congressional testimony, for example, FBI Director Christopher Wray described extremists who hold a “weird hodgepodge blend of ideologies,” noting that this trend is producing challenges in “trying to unpack what are often sort of incoherent belief systems, combined with kind of personal grievances.” Other government officials and private-sector researchers have used a variety of different terms to discuss the same phenomenon, including ideological mixing and ideology à la carte.
What the fashionable Balenciaga Leftie was wearing in 1954. You can tell she’s a Communist getting ready to infiltrate something.
Speaking of ideological confusion, yesterday a guy at the Right-Wing site Hot Air wrote a post headlined Kids and Bondage that began, “The Left gets creepier by the minute. And that is saying something.” It was about some advertising featuring children in sexualized poses from the luxury fashion house Balenciaga. Since when is Balenciaga “the Left”? Oh, it’s explained late in the post — the NAACP commended Balenciaga for leaving Twitter. That’s the connection.
Well, obviously, this is solid proof that Hillary Clinton up to something. Maybe Anthony Fauci also. They’ll find the truth on Hunter Biden’s laptop.
Alas, fashion can’t fix stupid.
The new leak allegations aimed at Justice Samuel Alito are showing us how very wealthy right-wing people get access to Supreme Court justices. Through money, of course. The money isn’t going into the justice’s personal pockets, but it still stinks. See The Real Problem With the Second Alleged Leak at the Court by Dahlia Lithwick at Slate.
Update: Lindsey Graham is testifying to the Fulton Country Grand Jury today. He probably didn’t wear Balenciaga.
Update: The Supreme Court has decided the House can get Trump’s tax returns. Of course, now there is some question about whether they can get the returns before the Republicans take over.
If the House Dems can get the returns before the term is up, they should be sure Democratic senators get copies. They should send a copy to Susanne Craig at the New York Times. Hell, I’d make PDFs and put them all online.
Also, this happened today at the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals. This is from Law & Crime:
In the first courtroom match-up for newly anointed special counsel Jack Smith, the Department of Justice urged a conservative panel of the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals to void the privilege review stopping them from using certain files seized from Mar-a-Lago in their investigation against former President Donald Trump.
“Delay is fatal to the vindication of criminal law,” Justice Department attorney Sopan Joshi, on loan from the solicitor general’s office, declared on Tuesday afternoon.
From the general tenor of the roughly 40-minute hearing, that warning resonated: A three-judge panel of all Republican appointees from the conservative 11th Circuit Court of Appeals suggested that a lower court judge may not have had equitable jurisdiction over the case and appeared deeply concerned about the precedent finding in Trump’s favor would set for any subject or target of a criminal investigation.
Time and again throughout oral arguments, Trump’s attorney James Trusty faced sharp questioning from the three-judge panel, even over referring to the search of Mar-a-Lago as a “raid.”
“Do you think that ‘raid” is the right term for execution of a a warrant?” U.S. Circuit Judge Elizabeth “Britt” Cagle Grant, a Trump appointee, asked.
Trusty apologized for using loaded terminology, only to earn another rebuke later for referring to the document authorizing it as a “general warrant.”
“You didn’t establish that it was a general warrant,” Pryor countered.
The exchanges encapsulated the rough reception Trump’s legal team has had in the 11th Circuit since the Justice Department’s appeal began.
There's not a one-size-fits-all description for judges but generally, I think they're protective of their 'turf.' By that I mean, judges do not want to create by their rulings that they’re an extension of (and subject to) either the executive or legislative branches. Trump has never figured out that the USSC is NOT eager to do his bidding. Trump has a single judge in FL who will twist the law to do Trump's bidding. The 11th has reversed her decisions (partially) and given her obvious compulsion to hand down half-baked decisions for Trump, the 11th may just decide she exceeded her authority from the get-go. If they don't do this they may have to hear and reverse a stream of decisions on appeal when Judge Cannon reverses the decisions of the Special Master.
I wonder if Lindsey invoked the fifth.
I'd bet that Congress gets Trump's returns this month. I'm hoping it all gets leaked and when the Republicans scream, let the Democrats agree to an investigation after the House investigates Judge Alito leaking the Hobby-Lobby decision in advance. In ALL the articles about Trump's tax returns and the legal fight, no one is mentioning that it's unprecedented because every candidate for POTUS except Trump since the time of Nixon cheating on his returns has made his/her tax returns public while campaigning. THAT'S why the legal case is unique. So will someone explain to me why there's not a stench around Trump's efforts to keep his returns secret? Besides fraud, can you think of any?
I'm hopeful that advertisers will find Trump's return to Twitter a good reason to pull their ads. Love to see inside numbers on falling revenue – I don't know but I'm hopeful that Musk stepped on his Robert one more time. If he keeps it up his weenie is gonna look like a tortilla.
What fashion sense could the senseless Keyboard KKKommandos possibly have?
These idiots probably wear orange sweatshirts and orange sweatpants while they're typing on their laptops in their parent's basement.
Not orange in honor of their beloved presiDUNCE, tRUMP – though that might be a good secondary reason.
But orange clothing, because they can wipe the Cheeto-dust encrusted, and often licked, fingers on their clothes without their mom's calling then pigs!
@Doug – Trump on Twitter will be fun this time around. Without the power of the presidency, with Jack Smith closing in, I expect him to make an even bigger fool of himself than before. Musk will be along for the ride, apparently unaware that everything Trump touches dies.
I'll be praying for a speedy conviction for Elmer and his band of oath keeping misfits. One positive bit of information that I picked up from the legal talking heads on TV is the fact that even after a conviction it's still possible to cut a deal with the Justice Dept. for a reduced sentence. There's always the hope that those oath keeping oafs will give up the names of the liason people in Trump's camp who coordinated and facilitated their participation in the insurrection. I mean, if I were given the opportunity to slash 5 or 10 years off of a potential 20 year sentence by rolling over on Roger Stone and whoever else encouraged me to such foolish actions, I'd do it in a hearbeat. There's no sense in being a martyr for a lost cause.
I went back and read an article about Scalia's demise. He was flown on private jet by very rich people that he evidently did not know well(he had not gone there before) to a 30,000 acre hunting lodge in Texas near the border. Alito and wife went to Jackson Hole , wonder who paid for that? On whose private jet?
The problem is not their blindness so much as their acceptance of their entitlement and righteousness about it. Impartiality is a foreign concept to them .
While they hobnob with the billionaires who pretend to be righteous, they are screwing over all of us little people with rapacious capitalism and autocratic theocracy.
They heard arguments over the Indian Child Welfare Act and I expect will soon gut it as with affirmative action, (and voting rights) . They are so bought and paid for and so focused on taking boutique cases with which to over turn all the pet peeves of their rich white donors. They have reduced women to uteruses owned by the state and will soon destroy the tribes sovereignty and allow their children to be stolen by more 'suitable' white christian families. How convenient that will let corporations rip off tribal resources that much easier. After all anything that prevents rightwing theocrats from getting their way is "racist " to the white foster parents who are assumed to always be better. So just wait until any preference that doesn't help rich whites is outlawed by this court. This stripping icwa will harm sovereignty just as the recent Kavanaugh decision modifing the Mcgirt decision did.
And John Roberts and Amy Coney Barrett each have 2 adopted children and are NOT impartial actors and should recuse but they never will. This court never met a conflict of interest they didn't like.
The very foundation of Federalist Society thinking is building the legal precedents to support the concept justice is variable in proportion to net worth. It doesn't quite say a rich person is immune to prosecution but it should be a slam-dunk to put away a poor person and a perfect case three times over to incarcerate a rich man for murder if a million people witnessed it.