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Created
Wed, 21/06/2023 - 00:30
Judge Aileen Cannon sets Aug. 14 trial date But don’t get too excited (CBS News): U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon has set an Aug. 14 start date for former President Donald Trump’s trial in the case over his alleged mishandling of classified documents. In a brief order issued Tuesday, Cannon said the criminal jury trial is set to take place over a two-week period beginning Aug. 14 at the federal district court in Fort Pierce, Florida. That date, however, is likely to change, as Trump’s legal team files requests with the court that could result in the trial’s delay. Prosecutors suggested in their indictment that Trump’s documents trial might take 21-60 days, not two weeks. So there’s that. We are told that the Southern District of Florida has a “rocket docket,” but what do I know? Is this normal procedure, or an attempt to keep Trump from rope-a-doping justice yet again with his delay-delay shtick? Not that Cannon would help stop that. Or is it an attempt by Cannon to help Trump clear his legal dance card in advance of his 2024 run for president?
Created
Tue, 20/06/2023 - 23:30

On June 3rd, President Joe Biden signed a bill into law that lifted the government’s debt ceiling and capped some categories of government spending. The big winner was — surprise, surprise! — the Pentagon. Congress spared military-related programs any cuts while freezing all other categories of discretionary spending at the fiscal year 2023 level (except support for veterans). Indeed, lawmakers set the budget for the Pentagon and for other national security programs like nuclear-related work developing nuclear warheads at the Department of Energy at the level requested in the administration’s Fiscal Year 2024 budget proposal — a 3.3% increase in military spending to a whopping total of $886 billion. Consider that preferential treatment of the first order and, mind you,... Read more

Created
Tue, 20/06/2023 - 23:00
Trump’s “I was very busy” interview with Fox News “Good morning, everyone, especially those of you who didn’t admit to committing more federal crimes on television last night,” snarks the Lincoln Project’s Rick Wilson. “I don’t like watching the former guy EVER – least of all on Juneteenth – but he just confessed to the crime of stealing classified documents,” tweeted Christine Pelosi Monday night. ICYMI, Wilson and Pelosi mean this Donald Trump interview with Bret Baier of Fox News. “Because I had boxes, I wanted to go through the boxes and get all of my personal things out. I don’t want to hand that over to NARA yet.  And I was very busy, as you’ve sort of seen,” Trump insisted about why he failed to return all the national defense documents he removed from the White House. But he was not too busy to order his attorneys to affirm in a sworn statement that he had complied fully with the subpoena. Also, he’s not a very good listener, is he? The sniffing is back. “His tell… whenever he’s spewing an egregious lie,” observed GottaLaff on Mastodon.
Created
Tue, 20/06/2023 - 22:29

The prominent role of Banderite Neo-Nazis in Ukraine's government propaganda operations suggests that Nazi apologism has spread into the core institutions of its government – perhaps more than the dominant Western view is able to admit.

The post How US and UK Government Propaganda Specialists Collaborated with Nazis in Ukraine appeared first on MintPress News.

Created
Tue, 20/06/2023 - 22:00

1. All four humors are out of whack.

2. May be experiencing menstruation and, as such, advised against standing.

3. In the event a man impregnates me, I will likely be dead by then.

4. Simply can’t find my good tooth.

5. The apparition of a tubercular boy whose soul is bound to mine makes it impossible to obtain a visa.

6. After inquiring about local politics, I was diagnosed by the family doctor with an overactive mind and prescribed a rest cure until the foreseeable future.

7. Sea salt air is harsh on acidic bones.

8. Father says temperament isn’t well-suited to “too balmy of climates.”

9. Every evening I stare beyond the cliff’s edge, waiting for my long-lost brother to return from sea. I fear the one weekend I am gone for your wedding will be when he returns.

10. The restless Caribbean waves beating against the shore suggest a more profound truth of how trapped I am in a life of domesticity dictated by societal norms that I neither help define nor benefit from.

11. Hotel is not cemetery-adjacent for daily sojourns.

Created
Tue, 20/06/2023 - 21:08

Since the 2019 general election, there have been three Conservative Party leaders and prime ministers. While each professed to represent a clean break from their predecessors — whether on the economy, defence, or crime — there has been one alarming consistency in the respective policy prescriptions: the assault on civil liberties. The proposed ‘Anti-Boycott Bill’ embodies precisely […]

Created
Tue, 20/06/2023 - 17:56
The Duty Of The Good Is To Be Powerful

There is no more important line in all of the humanities and the social sciences than this one from the Melian dialogue:

the strong do as they wish, while the weak suffer as they must

We have a system which requires those who wish to be powerful to perform evil acts. It is difficult to become powerful without having been vetted, without having “made ones bones.” To be sure, if you want power in a corporation or as a politician or in an organization like the World Bank or IMF, your killing and your torture of people is sanitized and done at arm’s length, but that doesn’t make it any less real.

You must prove you can make the “tough” decisions, which apparently means hurting other people while paying yourself very very well.

So tough.