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Trump is going to get new lawyers so we don’t know what kind of defense they will put up. But one of his former lawyers, who quit last month, says they will claim prosecutorial misconduct and complain that the Presidential Records Act gives a former president two years to give back highly classified documents that he’s storing in a bathroom at his beach club. Seriously. Here’s Watergate prosecutor Michael Conway: Timothy Parlatore, an attorney who represented Trump until he resigned in May, recently predicted that Trump’s lawyers will file a motion to dismiss any indictment in the documents case based upon claims of prosecutorial misconduct. When defense lawyers level claims of illegal conduct by law enforcement to shift the focus away from their clients’ behavior, it can suggest the clients’ actions are increasingly indefensible. (The special counsel’s office declined to comment on Parlatore’s allegations.) That’s a sign of desperation. The alleged misconduct seemingly has at least two themes, at least according to Parlatore.
The Soviets were big on purging anyone who deviated from the party line (and quite a few who didn’t) and the Russia loving MAGA freedom fighters are doing the same. They are making their requirements clear and it now goes even beyond total fealty to Donald Trump: Republican delegates in North Carolina voted Saturday at their annual convention to censure Thom Tillis, the state’s senior U.S. senator, for backing LGBTQ+ rights, immigration and gun violence policies. As Sen. Tillis has gained influence in Congress for his willingness to work across the aisle, his record of supporting some key policies has raised concerns among some state Republicans that the senator has strayed from conservative values. Several delegates in Greensboro criticized Tillis, who has held his seat in the Senate since 2015, for his work last year on the Respect For Marriage Act, which enshrined protections for same-sex and interracial marriages in federal law. Both the state and national GOP platforms oppose same-sex marriage. But Tillis, who had opposed it earlier in his political career, was among the early supporters of the law who lobbied his GOP colleagues in Congress to vote in favor of it.
I realized, while watching the semi-final at Roland Garros between Djokovic and Alcaraz, that I have lived a uniquely blessed and cursed life. My life has coincided with the best years of humanity, and I have played a unique but ultimately losing role in the two great crises of our age: the collapse of the … Continue reading "My Blessed and Cursed Life"
Disinformation, slippery slopes and whataboutism The Department of Justice released the indictments in the Trump documents case Friday afternoon and it was much worse (and far more detailed) than many commentators anticipated. It included 37 felony counts in all against Trump for national security violations and obstruction of justice. The bathroom photo (above) became instantly iconic. Pages 28-33 of the indictment reveal that documents found at Mar-a-Lago contained national defense, foreign intelligence, and U.S. nuclear secrets. From the indictment: The Mar-a-Lago Club was an active social club, which, between January 2021 and August 2022, hosted events for tens of thousands of members and guests. After TRUMP’s presidency, The Mar-a-Lago Club was not an authorized location for the storage, possession, review, display, or discussion of classified documents. Nevertheless, TRUMP stored his boxes containing classified documents in various locations at The Mar-a-Lago Club—including in a ballroom, a bathroom and shower, an office space, his bedroom, and a storage room. Soon after the release, Special Counsel Jack Smith delivered a brief statement.
Trump and the MAGA wingnuts are hystericl screeching about Hillary Clinton’s emails again so it’s worth reminding everyone what it actually was about and comparing it to Trump’s bizarre classified documents case: The obvious comparison that Republicans have, and will, make to Trump’s predicament is Clinton’s use of a private email server while she was secretary of state from 2009 to 2013. The email server became a public controversy during her 2016 presidential campaign against Trump, with his rally crowds chanting “Lock her up,” a sentiment Trump said he was “starting to agree with” in July 2016. Trump ally Alex Jones sold “Hillary for prison” T-shirts. The initial investigation into Clinton’s private email server revealed classified information had been shared in upwards of 2,000 email chains stored on the server. In making the server a campaign issue, Trump promised to enforce the law. “In my administration, I’m going to enforce all laws concerning the protection of classified information,” Trump said in August 2016.
Garth Brooks is selling Bud Light at his bar and says that the boycotters are assholes. The right is now calling for a boycott against Garth Brooks. Of course. (Read the comments to this…) Look who’s making moral judgments about Garth Brooks: I know, I know. Garth does a great version of a Billy Joel song called “Shameless” and I think it’s called for right now:
New York City’s Tribeca Film Festival is running through June 18th. The festival (co-founded by Robert De Niro, Jane Rosenthal, and Craig Hatkoff in 2001) features a variety of media platforms, including film, TV, music, audio storytelling, games, and XR. I’m doing virtual coverage; as much as I’d love to be skipping down the streets of my birth city (well…technically Queens), physical mobility issues have made travel too uncomfortable. At any rate, I’ll be sharing reviews over the next couple weeks. The good news is that you can virtually attend as well-the festival is offering select titles via the “Tribeca at Home” online portal. Check out the website for more info. Against All Enemies (U.S.) *** – In a post examining reaction from the Right when news broke this week that ex-president Trump was being indicted by federal prosecutors for alleged mishandling of classified documents, Digby included this disturbing tidbit: Take this seriously. “Perimeter probe”: Higgins thinks indictment precedes bigger attack. “rPOTUS”: “real POTUS,” Trump.
… found that the companionship with this Lab has not only helped it calm down, but thrive. This is a thing: CHEETAHS AND DOGS WEREN’T ALWAYS friends. And at first glance, the feline-and-canine couple seems an odd pairing—one that turns heads for its cuteness, if not its unconventionality. But the practice of rearing young cheetahs with a canine companion has become a major means of relaxing the notoriously nervous cats at U.S. zoos from New York to San Diego. The relationship didn’t begin there, however. Nor, for that matter, did it start on an African wildlife reserve. Captive cheetahs and dogs first became friends in a small town in Oregon. In 1976, research scientist and conservation biologist Laurie Marker was living in Winston, a town of about 3,000 people. As the curator of a cheetah-breeding program at Wildlife Safari, she found herself hand-rearing a lonely cheetah cub named Khayam. Cheetahs are companionable litter-mates, but Marker had no other cats to put with Khayam. So she decided to try pairing the fastest land mammal on the planet with the animal typically thought of as a human’s best friend.
What kind of a country do we want? Fox News and guests threw a blizzard of chaff into the air last night to reassure MAGAstan that the 37-count Trump felony indictment was a malicious hit job by the left against the patron saint of kitch. After a few glances, I needed a palate cleanser. John Pavlovitz regularly reposts some of his sermonettes. One from April he posted last night, “The Conservative War on Everything,” outlines how the conservative project “is a case study in what fear does when it fully grips a group of people.” Their view is as bleak and cold as Trump’s “American carnage.” Their oversized displays of “patriotism” smack of flop-sweat desperation. “In this environment,” Pavlovitz wrote, “the human heart become unable to manufacture empathy for the other, as it finds encroaching enemies everywhere it looks.” The result is a withered soul. Millions of them. Another post he wrote just days ago, “Woke Will Win,” indirectly lays out the choice America faces: fear or hope.