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I just thought you should know that the cult has other important business to attend to.

Yes Donald Trump was arrested and arraigned today. But if you were to watch right wing media you’d think it was Joe Biden who was facing a criminal trial. Don’t kid yourself. That story is happening right alongside Trump’s impending trial. Philip Bump takes you through it just so you know what they’re braying about if you happen to hear it: The news release went out on May 3 from the Republican majority on the House Oversight Committee. “Information provided by a whistleblower raises concerns that then-Vice President Biden allegedly engaged in a bribery scheme with a foreign national,” it alleged, quoting committee Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.). A letter from Comer and Sen. Charles E. Grassley (R-Iowa) to the FBI, seeking the release of documentation of a June 2020 interview, wasn’t similarly hedged. The document, it claimed, “describes an alleged criminal scheme involving then-Vice President Biden and a foreign national relating to the exchange of money for policy decisions.” Over the next month, Republicans pressed the FBI to release the form publicly. Comer threatened to hold FBI Director Christopher A.

These cases are not the same If anyone things that Trump is being treated less fairly than Pence and Biden they need to realize that Trump is not being prosecuted for any of the highly sensitive documents he gave back to the government, first on his own and then in response to the subpeona. He is only being charged for the documents they found later when they issued a warrant. Biden and Pence have given back all the documents, no subpoena and no warrant necessary. If they were indicted for retaining those documents they would be being held to a higher standard than Trump. Read this piece by Eric Levitz which shows that the DOJ has actually given Trump an easier time than anyone else who did what he did. He runs down all the reasons the Clinton, Biden and Pence cases and makes the same point I made above. He then cites a particular case of an average citizen: [I]t is helpful to contrast the DOJ’s treatment of Trump with its handling of Asia Janay Lavarello, a former civilian employee of the Defense Department. In 2020, Lavarello was on assignment at the U.S. Embassy in Manila, where she had been researching a classified thesis.

Many people seem offended by the very idea that banks can create money “out of nothing”, or that governments can finance their spending by creating money, rather than borrowing. They seem wedded to the idea that money must be a physical thing, and therefore it can’t be created “out of nothing”. This probably arises from … Continue reading "Money from Nothing"

In my latest piece for UnHerd, I reflect on Berlusconi’s legacy and on his influence on my own political identity, from my early dabbling in left-wing politics in the early Nineties and the tragic violence of the anti-G8 protests in 2001 to my disillusionment with the obsessive and myopic anti-Berlusconismo of the Italian left. Ultimately, for all his many …

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Trump gave his first interview to Roger Stone for his new radio show DONALD TRUMP (GUEST): I tell you what, they must hate – these Democrats, these crazy lunatic Democrats like deranged Jack Smith. He’s a deranged person, in my opinion. His wife hates me more than he does. You got to see what the wife – the wife hates Trump more than she hates Trump more than any human being who’s ever lived. And it’s a shame. It’s a shame that we can have this because we did a great job with borders, with taxes, with – with everything. I mean, we did a great job with everything that people can hate so much, but I believe they hate our country. ROGER STONE (HOST): Mr. President, many of your supporters intend to go to the Miami courthouse on Tuesday to demonstrate their support for you and to protest what they see as unfair and politically motivated charges. I urge all of your supporters … that if they decide to go, it is essential that they keep it peaceful, civil, and legal. … Do you have a message for those who may be planning to go to just to demonstrate their support for you? TRUMP: I do. We need strength in our country now.

Tucker Carlson has a very lame new “twitter show”. I think he and his lawyers think they can make the case that because it’s on social media instead of TV he’s not breaking his non-compete clause. He’s just a guy sharing his opinions and talking to his friends, amirite? We’ll see how that goes. Fox is fighting it: Fox News has demanded that Tucker Carlson stop posting videos to Twitter, escalating the dispute between the network and its former star host over how — and if — he can continue to speak publicly now that his prime-time show is off the air. In a letter sent to Mr. Carlson from Fox lawyers, the network accused him of violating the terms of his contract, which runs until early 2025 and limits his ability to appear in media other than Fox. The letter is labeled “not for publication,” in all caps. Since Mr. Carlson was ousted by Fox News, he has begun producing a bare-bones version of his Fox program, “Tucker Carlson Tonight,” and posting it directly to Twitter.

Axios Republican voters remain overwhelmingly loyal to former President Trump after he was charged with several federal crimes related to his possession of classified documents after his presidency, recent polls show. Why it matters: Despite the charges, Trump is still the favorite for the 2024 GOP presidential nomination, according to recent polling. Even some of his fellow candidates have lent support to Trump and questioned the motivation behind the indictment. By the numbers: An ABC News/Ipsos survey published on Sunday found that 80% of polled Republicans said they believe the charges against Trump are politically motivated, while only 9% of GOP voters said they didn’t see politics in the charges. Separately, in a CBS News/YouGov poll published on Sunday, 61% of polled Republican voters said the indictment did not change the way they viewed Trump, while 80% of Republicans said he should still be able to assume office if he’s convicted and wins the 2024 presidential election. The CBS News/YouGov poll also found 76% of Republican voters believe the charges were motivated by politics.

There’s pandering and then there’s pandering The Fuehrer may not be around but how about the Kracken lady, Sidney Powell? I hear she’s at liberty. Or maybe that anti-abortion zealot down in Texas Matthew Kacsmaryk. He’s definitely the Alito and Thomas extremist level. I’m sure DeSantis’ idol Donald Trump put some others on the bench that are even worse if he looks hard enough! This woman seems like an especially good fit: The San Francisco lawyer Harmeet Dhillon is a fixture on Fox News who has garnered support from the likes of Matt Gaetz, Tucker Carlson and Laura Ingraham; she also helms a non-profit that appears to have directed more than $1m into her law firm, Dhillon Law Group. Dhillon most recently made headlines when she signed on to represent Carlson in a gender discrimination lawsuit he and Fox News face from former producer Abby Grossberg. She also acted as an attorney for Donald Trump and former Project Veritas head James O’Keefe, who in 2021 sued Twitter for banning him.

Four years ago, the Trump administration DOJ prosecuted this fellow and he got 9 years in prison: A former National Security Agency contractor who pleaded guilty to stealing vast troves of classified material over the course of two decades has been sentenced to nine years in prison. Harold Martin III, 54, apologized before U.S. District Judge Richard Bennett handed down the sentence on Friday. “My methods were wrong, illegal and highly questionable,” Martin told the court in Baltimore, according to The Associated Press. Earlier this year, he pleaded guilty to “willful retention of national defense information,” a crime that carries a punishment of anywhere from no jail time to a maximum prison sentence of 10 years. His plea agreement called for a sentence of nine years in prison. Martin, who at the time worked for Booz Allen Hamilton, began to accumulate classified documents in his vehicle and at his home in Glen Burnie, Md., in the late 1990s. The Navy veteran held a Top Secret security clearance. He was arrested in August 2016, and the documents were found when the FBI searched his residence.