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Created
Thu, 06/06/2024 - 08:00
Overwhelming corruption: Former Obama deputy national security adviser Ben Rhodes said President Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner engaged in a “level of corruption that we’ve just never seen” when talking about his firm’s recent investments overseas.  Rhodes made the comment when asked about The New York Times’s recent reporting that detailed that 99 percent of Kushner’s investment fund’s money came from foreign sources. The outlet also reported Kushner is working on developing hotels in the Balkans, specifically in Serbia and Albania, and noted that the firm has taken money from Qatar and the United Arab Emirates. “I mean, look, this is not subtle corruption that we’re looking at,” Rhodes told MSNBC’s Alex Wagner during his Wednesday appearance on “Alex Wagner Tonight.” “This is a guy, Jared Kushner, who had no expertise, no qualification whatsoever to be in the White House while he was there. He made it his account to work in the Gulf Arab states. He basically helped lead the cover-up for [Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman].
Created
Thu, 06/06/2024 - 06:30
Sadly, yes… Republicans used to call themselves the moral majority. Last week, Donald Trump was convicted on 34 felony charges in the hush-money case against him. Compared to before the verdict, the biggest changes we found in a post-conviction poll conducted between May 31 and June 2 are in Republicans’ positions on felony, crime in general, and the presidency. They have shifted in a way that puts the verdict in a more favorable light and keeps Trump’s candidacy viable. For example, fewer Republicans think it should be illegal to pay hush money for the purposes of influencing an election than did a year ago, and more now say felons should be allowed to become president than did a few months ago. Sigh…
Created
Thu, 06/06/2024 - 06:23

An online fact-checking organization at the center of attacks on UK rapper Lowkey is likely an Israeli intelligence cut-out operation with ties to controversial IDF spying organization, Unit 8200, MintPress can reveal.

The post Cyabra: The Intelligence Cutout Waging Israel’s Online Propaganda War appeared first on MintPress News.

Created
Thu, 06/06/2024 - 05:00
He then said “Some people said I should have done it. Would have been very easy to do it. But I thought it would be a terrible precedent for our country.” Philip Bump responds: This is nonsense. Trump’s administration did attempt to effect legal retribution against his opponents, including Clinton. It wasn’t that he didn’t try, it was that it wasn’t “very easy” to do. Trump came into office railing against the intelligence community and the FBI because of the investigation into Russian interference that was publicly reported soon after he won the 2016 election. He fired FBI Director James B. Comey in an explicit effort to kneecap that probe, resulting in the appointment of special counsel Robert S. Mueller III. Mueller ultimately determined that there were links between Trump’s campaign and Russian actors, and that the campaign embraced Russia’s assistance, but that there was no coordination that violated the law.
Created
Thu, 06/06/2024 - 04:33
Do You Have Any Moral Absolutes?

I’m curious as to whether readers have any moral absolutes — actions they believe are never acceptable, or actions they believe must always be taken.

I’ll name two of mine: rape and torture are never justifiable as far as I’m concerned.

Do you have any moral absolutes? If so, what are they?

(Be polite in comments when discussing other people’s moral absolutes.)

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Created
Thu, 06/06/2024 - 03:30
This is really getting terrifying: Julie Adams, a member of the Fulton County election board, filed her lawsuit on May 22 with the help of lawyers from America First Policy Institute, a pro-Trump think tank. The lawsuit seeks access to voting records that Adams says she was denied by Fulton County’s election director, Nadine Williams, and also seeks the court’s ruling on whether Adams’ duty to certify election results is up to her discretion.  Adams’ lawsuit specifically requests that the judge “clarify” that her “duties are, in fact, discretionary, not ministerial.” This MAGA flunky wants the “discretion” to overturn the election results. […] The Adams lawsuit is an attempt to pave the way for Republican election officials to deny election results en masse — a fundamental part of Trump’s strategy of baselessly questioning election results and making claims of widespread voter fraud. According to Axios, the Republican National Committee has been staffing up lawyers, legal observers, and poll watchers to “gather string for lawsuits challenging the results of the Nov.