What???? Former acting Secretary of Defense Christopher Miller said he is not sure if President Donald Trump installed him to slow the response to the Capitol attack on Jan. 6. During a Sunday discussion on C-SPAN’s Washington Journal program, a caller confronted Miller about his role in the Jan. 6 attack. “What do you say to all the people that believe that you, Kash Patel, Chad Wolf, Charles Lamb all were installed for one reason, and that’s to delay the response on Jan. 6?” a caller named David asked. “They were only deployed after the coup had failed. They failed because [then-Vice President Mike Pence] wouldn’t leave the building.” “I think it’s complete bull—you know what,” Miller shot back.
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Just another Republican, doing what they do: A Republican consultant was sentenced Friday to 18 months in prison for his role in conspiring to illegally funnel contributions from a Russian national to former President Donald Trump‘s 2016 presidential campaign. Jesse R. Benton, 45, of The Woodlands, Texas, was convicted in November on a series of charges including conspiracy, contribution by a foreign national, and causing false records to be filed with the Federal Election Commission. It’s the second time Benton, who has advised numerous GOP lawmakers on campaign strategy, has been convicted of charges related to political contributions. According to court documents, Benton schemed with Roy Douglas, another political adviser, to pass contributions to Trump’s campaign from a Russian national who wanted to meet and take a picture with the candidate. At the time, Benton was a strategist for the Great America PAC, a super PAC that backed Trump in 2016. The Russian national allegedly wired $100,000 as part of an arrangement with Benton to attend a Trump campaign fundraiser.
Doesn’t he ever take a day off? It’s certainly fair to warn people about various substances being laced with fentanyl. But this approach never worked in the past and it won’t work now. I think politicians (who aren’t as dumb as Trump) know this but they do it thrill their voters with lurid imagery. And preaching abstinence, as this one seems to do, is just a waste of breath. He should be talking about Naloxone and those fentanyl test strips. But he’ll never do that because this isn’t really about helping people struggling with substance use disorders or making a deadly mistake. It’s just pandering to conservatives. As usual. As Gov.
I was hoping someone would do this: People keep saying, “well, duh, of course they were doing this.” I guess we all suspected they knew the truth and were lying and we certainly suspected they did much of what they did because their audience was pissed that they called Arizona. But these emails are far worse than just that. The top star of the network was worrying about the stock price and calling Trump a demonic figure in private. Others were trying to get reporters fired for telling the truth and following journalistic standards and validating people they personally believed were f-ing nuts. The chairman of the network was telling them not to report what they knew were the facts. I mean, even I didn’t think they were quite that openly corrupt among themselves. It’s a full-blown profit-making, propaganda institution and they know exactly what they are doing.
The anti-vaxxers are on a tear My loathing for these madmen knows no bounds: It was a peaceful Sunday afternoon at the Conscious Life Expo, and in a large, windowless ballroom, Del Bigtree was red-faced and triumphant in front of a captivated crowd. “These people,” he told them, “need to go to prison!” There was a smattering of solemn applause. “For life!” someone in the audience cried out. Bigtree is a TV producer turned big fish in the anti-vaccine world, and this talk was, more or less, part of his victory lap. In a lecture running nearly two hours, he accused government officials and pharmaceutical companies of fraud for promoting mRNA vaccine, and for downplaying the effectiveness of drugs like hydroxychloroquine and ivermectin. (Neither drug is effective as a cure, treatment, or preventative for COVID; the FDA warns against using hydroxychloroquine for COVID due to possible heart rhythm problems, and ivermectin because it can lead to problems ranging from hypotension to death.
Not if he can help it It is damning, no doubt about it. He is such a pig… In April, Donald Trump’s lawyers are set to defend him in civil court against allegations from writer E. Jean Carroll that he raped her in a department store in the mid-’90s. When they do, they really, really want to ensure that jurors are not allowed to hear the infamous Access Hollywood tape in which Trump brags about grabbing women “by the pussy” without their consent. Why? Because they know how bad it makes him sound! In court papers filed late Thursday, Trump attorneys Alina Habba and Michael Madaio argued that the 2005 tape, which emerged while Trump was running for president the first time, should be banned from the trial. (They want both the tape itself and any references to it blocked.) Calling the recording “irrelevant and highly prejudicial,” the attorneys claim, per the Associated Press, that it “might unjustly be used to suggest to jurors that Trump had a propensity for sexual assault and therefore must have raped Carroll.” Why might the tape give jurors that idea, you ask?
Fox lies because viewers want lies Fox is infotainment for the WWE crowd. But it’s nothing new. It’s The Drunkard without throwing peanuts. David Blaine’s fans know the magic show isn’t real. It’s not clear how many WWE and Fox fans know those entertainments aren’t real. Or how many Fox anchors do, for that matter. But Dominion lawsuit filings gave us a hint this week. The Drunkard is a morality play. Like other morality plays, temptations of the flesh, of money, reveal character. We all have our failings and know it. We watch to boo and hiss at the cartoonish bad guys. But we cheer for their redemption, like Scrooge’s every Christmas, knowing it could be us. Something darker is afoot with Fox and Trumpism. WWE and morality plays don’t lead to violent insurrection. But as the Dominion lawsuit reveals, the lure of money was a big motive behind Fox’s lies. Michelle Goldberg recounts in The New York Times: As the Dominion filing lays out, there was panic at Fox News over viewer backlash to the network correctly calling Arizona for Joe Biden on election night.
Former UK foreign secretary’s deep thoughts David Miliband’s jumping off point is Russia’s war in Ukraine, but his Age of Impunity is deeper and more insidious. First, former UK foreign secretary Miliband in The New York Times: The war’s impact goes far beyond the region. It has driven up food and energy prices worldwide, contributing to the record 349 million people experiencing food insecurity and to famine-like conditions in East Africa. The conduct of the war has flouted the most basic international laws and conventions, posing a fundamental threat to the global order. As such, it offers a textbook example of the Age of Impunity. Impunity is the exercise of power without accountability, which becomes, in starkest form, the commission of crimes without punishment. In Ukraine this goes beyond the original invasion. It has included repeated violations of international humanitarian law, which is supposed to establish clear protections for civilians, aid workers and civilian infrastructure in conflict zones every day. The danger is that few people will ever face consequences for these crimes. It’s a start.
Who can blame him? Biden knows that some people are irredeemable. Ron Johnson is one of them: Over his 36 years in the Senate, JOE BIDEN took pride in establishing friendships across the aisle. And now, as president in a hyper-partisan time, he often waxes nostalgic for the old days and states aloud just how much he likes many Republicans, including Minority Leader MITCH MCCONNELL. But Biden’s love of bipartisanship has its limits. The president clearly detests some on the opposite side of the aisle. There are those he views as convenient foils, allowing him to draw a distinction between his old GOP pals and the new crop of “MAGA Republicans” who, he often argues, pose a threat to the country. Biden frequently seizes on Florida Sen. RICK SCOTT’s plan to cut spending, including putting Social Security and Medicare on renew-every-five-year plans, as a cudgel with which to bash the GOP. There is little love lost between the two men. But Biden holds real antipathy for one Republican above all others: Sen. RON JOHNSON.