I’m frantically boxing stuff up and preparing to move it to New York. But I had to say something about the Elon Musk-Ron DeSantis disaster yesterday. How big a mess is Twitter now if even The Boss can’t count on a glitch-free event? And I’m hearing the audience wasn’t exceptionally large. This made Ron look bad, but IMO it’s worse for Elon.
Today the Supreme Court put limits on the EPA’s power to regulate wetlands. SCOTUS really isn’t so much a court any more. It’s more like a House of Lords that makes sure the wealthy and monied get the last word.
There is all kinds of reporting that Jack Smith is wrapping up the Mar a Lago documents investigation and will be bringing indictments soon. This is why Trump’s “lawyers” tried to get a meeting with Merrick Garland, which they won’t get.
Texas AG Ken Paxton is in a lot of trouble.
The link to Paxton goes to a Trump article.
I fixed it. Thanks for letting me know.
he sure has some shitty advisers, who the hell would trust twitter to roll out a presidential campaign, ignorant and a preview to how disastrous he would be as POTUS. Maybe even worse than Stump? AG Paxton link is the same as the Stump-Garland link.
O.T. Oath Keeper Elmer "one eye" Rhodes got 18 years in the clink. He'll be well into his 70's when he gets out, have fun with that Elmer, Enjoy!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vWoGA1X0YCc
Way to go,Elmer! He says he's going to be the new 'American Solzhenitsyn'. Well, he'll have 18 years to perfect that act.
Serve it well.
"the new Solzhenitsyn" – that's truly hilarious. How screwed up do you have to be to believe this?
One of my favorite Russian v-bloggers made a video about IC3PEAK, a Russian electro-punk band that’s popular among Russians against the war. Back in Putin’s USSR, you can get sent to a real Solzhenitsyn gulag just for speaking out, as these musicians are. Yale-educated Elmer doesn’t have a clue.
"How screwed up do you have to be to believe this"
not sure but at least 74,223,975 are already there
"Serve it well" Yeah Man. You know he's shit scared!
He only has one chance. Only Stump and an ignorant nation can save him, maybe 2025, otherwise he's fucked.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dYwhINZgVeU
I am sick aout the the wetlands decision, Your assessment of the current court seems to me spot-on.
WHODATHUNK IT, Elon?!?!
I guess cutting costs after ya vastly overpay for a company, and then to save money after that dumb decision ya decide to either fire, or let go, YOUR company's best engineers, and then at a critical moment, ya got more problems communicating to the masses than a mute speaker at a deaf – uh, than a speaking-impaired person at a hearing-impaired convention – just might not be the greatest idea, huh?
But then, Elon, who am I to question a genius like you?
And as for that for other genius, Ron DeSantis:
Who am I to question a political genius like the one who decided to announce his run for the presidency over the equivalent of two Dixie-cups connected (badly) by an inter-tube string.
Yeah, who am I?
OY!!!
HOW CAN WE BE LOSING TO PEOPLE LIKE THESE AND THEIR SYCOPHANTS?!?!?!?
Smuk has turned Twitter into the basket for holding deplorables.
Technically it should be a piece of cake for a company like Twitter to scale up for an event like this. Either they're so starved of resources and staff or on so tight a bureaucratic leash that they couldn't pull this off, or morale is so low that IT sabotaged it. Neither speaks well for Space Karen.
We have a three-ring circus, I think. The media tends to look at each separately but it's all part of the same act under the big tent. The debt ceiling is gonna be connected to at least one government shutdown before '24. All intended to force Biden and the Democrats to accept government by extortion. That's not center ring.
The '24 election is another ring. Not just POTUS but control of Congress. The big deal over elections is money for the ultra-rich. The wetlands decision is a small part of that. If Democrats sweep, I hope packing the court is on the table. The GOP is fueling the fire with ever-more invasive moves on abortion, boo9k bans, and overtly racist legislation. I don't think the '24 election is center ring, though it's the most critical election of my lifetime.
Center Ring, IMO, will be the criminal trials of Donald J. Trump. It's worth looking at a timeline and making a few educated guesses. The next trial scheduled is in NY (not criminal) for Oct. 2 of this year. That's brought by A/G Letitia James and she seems to be prepared. But the civil trial may be linked to the criminal counterpart which would be brought by A/G Bragg. Informed (but not confirmed) speculation is that Bragg let the civil case go first. It forced Trump to a deposition that Trump would have refused in a criminal case, a deposition that Bragg can use. Back to that in a minute.)
The next scheduled trial is criminal, set for March 25 of '24. That's the hush-money trial re Stormy Daniels. Michale Cohen will testify – he did time in prison for the crime Trump will answer for.
BEFORE either of those trials, it's a good bet that Smith will bring charges against Trump for Obstruction of Justice along with other charges related to Trump stealing federal documents on the way out of the White House. Speculation is that it's gone or going to Merrick Garland for a decision. Best guess is that charges will be filed this summer, probably not less than a month, probably not more than two months. We have a firm date that Georgia will file charges from Aug 7 to 14. Anti-terrorism preparations are being requested by A/G Fani Willis. I take that to mean charges against Trump (and others, including Rudy,) So if the pundits are right, federal charges in July and Georgia charges in August.
(There's a second defamation suit against Trump with E. Jean Carrol's name on it. She's amended that complaint to include the newest insults from the day after she won in NY. If the courts proceed with that, I see no reason for a lengthy delay. The kicker will be the argument that MUCH greater punitive damages are needed to silence Trump. With no reliable info, that might go to a jury this year – might.)
To circle around, if James wins the civil case against Trump in NY for falsifying the values of properties (Up for loans, down for insurance and taxes) that puts a 250 million dollar crimp in Trump's budget. It also opens up a CRIMINAL case, which would require a higher level of proof. But any weaknesses exposed in the civil case can be addressed before the criminal case. A dress rehearsal, if you like. If the guesses of some Internet gurus is right, criminal fraud charges in NY could be filed soon after the civil trial, around the beginning of 2024.
So let's look at the calendar if anyone is still awake.
July 2023 – Smith files federal charges for Obstruction re the Mir-a-lago docs
August 2023 – James files charges in GA for Election fraud
October 2023 – NY Civil trial for fraud related to fake valuations of real estate
Jan 2024 – NY Criminal charges filed for fake valuations of real estate
March 2024 – First Criminal trial in NY for Stormy Daniels hush money
*July 2024 – Federal trial in DC for Obstruction of Justice/ documents case
*August 2024 – Georgia trial for Election fraud/interference
* The NY criminal case was scheduled almost exactly a year after charges were filed. There's no guarantee the feds or Georgia will follow the same interval, but that's the basis of my guess.
Somewhere in there, the second E. Jean Carrol decision may be rendered. Somewhere in there, the DC cops civil trial against Trump may happen.
WHY do I think the tribulations of Trump are more critical to history than the '24 election? If Trump is convicted, over and over, in multiple jurisdictions by a half-dozen juries, Trump is toast. As Trumpism is a cult movement, if Trump is in exile or in prison, the movement will disintegrate. (Not overnight, but the cage match to the death between all the tyrants who want to inherit Trump's followers will doom the fascists to a position of irrelevance if the GOP party regroups and re-identifies with their old values – minus the bigotry and misogyny. This is when two-thirds of the citizens get serious about democracy and close the chapter we are in.
Good one by Lawrence – “Chief Justice Roberts reveals his shockingly shallow ‘hardest decision'”. Same guy who keeps insisting he and his court are impartial, despite the mounting, overwhelming evidence to the contrary.
I used to tune out O’Donnell’s diatribes, but he’s been so spot-on lately.
It is close to Memorial Day and we need to decorate, at least symbolically, the grave of Molly Ivans. Molly never pretended that Texas politics was honest and wrote accordingly. Her absence from the fourth estate in Texas is obvious with the Paxton case. Is it a surprise that the criminal wing of the republican party thrives there now?
When the people reelect politicians with questionable character is not that a rejection of law and order for a political class? A lot of people must want the fix to be in. Those Texans are always fixing to do one thing or another. Kind of makes sense.