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Created
Wed, 12/07/2023 - 07:00
“He was always telling me that we need to use the FBI and IRS to go after people,” Kelly told the Times last year, adding that “it was constant and obsessive and is just what he’s claiming is being done to him now.” This lawsuit by Lisa Page and Peter Strzok is focusing attention once again on Trump’s abuse of power. Former Chief of Staff John Kelly testified that he wanted him to use the IRS to go after them, his political enemies. His abuses were extensive and a lot of it was right out in the open. I’m not talking about the rank corruption — running his business out of the White House, signing hush money checks in the oval office, accepting unlimited graft and access in the form of both foreign and domestic money at his hotels and resorts. Nobody seems to care about that at all. I’m talking about the abuse of his power as president. Aaron Blake has a short, incomplete, list: Trump also wanted the IRS to investigate former FBI director James B.
Created
Wed, 12/07/2023 - 05:30
Yep, it’s the deep state You knew the Republicans were going to say this. I’m surprised it took so long. But the fact that he was indicted before the GOP took over the House makes this absurd. And it makes the House Majority MAGAs look like gullible idiots once again. *Sigh*. Philip Bump at the Washington Post. “Anyone offering criticism of President Biden instantly becomes credible on the right”: The Justice Department on Monday announced that it had unsealed an indictment against Gal Luft, a director at a think tank in the Washington area. According to federal prosecutors, he is also someone who violated Iranian sanctions, trafficked weapons and aided the Chinese government without registering as a foreign agent. The specific allegations included in the indictment were not known before Monday, but the fact that Luft had been indicted was. He was arrested in Cyprus in February, which Luft immediately suggested was a response to his having information incriminating President Biden and members of his family.
Created
Wed, 12/07/2023 - 05:24

Recent developments raise the prospect that British intelligence agents could finally face justice for their little-known role in the CIA’s global torture program. Britain’s foreign and domestic intelligence apparatus is facing scrutiny by a tribunal tasked with intelligence oversight. On May 26, London’s infamously opaque Investigatory Powers Tribunal (IPT) unanimously issued a landmark ruling which means the complaints of two Saudis brutally tortured at CIA black sites and jailed for years in Guantanamo Bay can finally be heard, at least […]

The post British intelligence in the dock for CIA torture first appeared on The Grayzone.

The post British intelligence in the dock for CIA torture appeared first on The Grayzone.

Created
Wed, 12/07/2023 - 05:10
There is an element of hypocrisy among DSGE advocates … Long before the advent of DSGE, microeconomic theorists demonstrated that the conditions for the derivation of aggregates from individual choices are so constraining that they cannot possibly be met in a world populated by people. Yet, never to my knowledge have DSGE advocates addressed the […]
Created
Wed, 12/07/2023 - 04:58
The good news is the US can’t sell Australia the three to five used Virginia class nuclear subs that the Albanese government has announced it will buy. Nor will it sell us any new ones. The chief of US Naval operations Admiral Michael Gilday was recently reported from Washington as saying the US shipyards are Continue reading »
Created
Wed, 12/07/2023 - 04:57
Eight Hong Kong dissidents now living abroad are subject to arrest warrants, including Kevin Yam, a Melbourne-based lawyer, and Ted Hui, a former politician who now lives in Adelaide. This is profoundly depressing news. It is certainly not the “rose garden” of wide-ranging freedom and autonomy that some over-optimistically anticipated. The Hong Kong government has Continue reading »
Created
Wed, 12/07/2023 - 04:54
While both Donald Trump Junior and Novak Djokovic were granted visas to enter Australia, the stark difference in how the two cases were managed highlight the difference in approaches of the Albanese and Morrison Governments to controversial visitors. Australia’s immigration system has long used the Movement Alert List (MAL) to manage controversial visitors. By listing Continue reading »
Created
Wed, 12/07/2023 - 04:52
The earth is getting especially hot this year, as record after record falls. Seth Borenstein at AP reports that three times this past week, the average temperature of the earth topped anything ever recorded. Thursday’s average 17.18 °C. (62.9 °F.) broke the record yet again. You don’t break all those records without the accumulation of Continue reading »
Created
Wed, 12/07/2023 - 04:50
On China, Biden is faced with both a political problem, represented by his secretary of state, and an economic reality, represented by the Treasury secretary. Yellen’s visit suggests economics may be starting to play a larger role in the bilateral relationship, but the US will need to demonstrate consistent sincerity to see improvement in ties. Continue reading »
Created
Wed, 12/07/2023 - 04:00
That’s Trump talking about the country Excerpts from Trump’s softball interview with the Nevada Globe: TNG: What do you think that they would be saying to you now as you’re going through another campaign and this legal persecution, if you will? President Trump: It is persecution. It is. I call it election interference, more than anything else. These are terrible people, disgusting people. My father would be angry at these people. My mother would be– she’d feel a little remorse for me, because, you know, it’s very unfair. It’s a total…this witch hunt has been going on from the beginning–from the time I came down the escalator, and it has been proven to all be false. Everything has been proven to be false. If you look, every single thing that they’ve done, from Russia, Russia, Russia…it has all turned out to be a hoax. That’s what Democrats are good at is just these hoaxes. They’re not good at policy. They’re not good at, frankly, many things. All Democrats do is disinformation and hoaxes. But, I think that it has been an amazing period of time. We had an amazing presidency.
Created
Wed, 12/07/2023 - 03:00

SIGNATURE CHALLENGE:
SOMETHING WITH BREAD

VOICEOVER: For their signature challenge, the bakers were asked to prepare something, anything, with bread. Because, for the love of god, they need to eat today.

Val’s Bread-fast

PRUE: I appreciate the effort you put into getting out of bed and going to the refrigerator to feed yourself at a reasonable time of day. But you’ve applied the mustard to the slice of bread a bit unevenly. Details like this are important.

PAUL: It’s just yellow mustard on plain bread. I mean, the Dijon was sitting right next to it on the shelf, and you could have used that instead. It’s a shame, really.

Shanti’s Pa-jam-a Toast

SHANTI: This is what I eat when I haven’t gotten out of my pajamas all day.

PAUL: Nicely toasted. Proper jam distribution. Well done.

Created
Wed, 12/07/2023 - 02:30
Next time he’ll get ‘er done: Donald Trump wanted to “tap the phones” of White House aides who he suspected of leaking information, according to bombshell claims made by a former Trump administration official. Miles Taylor, who served as the Department of Homeland Security’s chief of staff under Mr Trump, has claimed in his new book Blowback that the then-president floated the idea “to pursue leakers by tapping phones” at some point in 2018. The idea was quickly shut down by then-White House Chief of Staff John Kelly who warned Mr Trump he would be breaking the law. Mr Kelly “quickly nixed the suggestion, knowing it would be illegal,” Mr Taylor writes in the book excerpt, obtained by Axios. I suspect that Chief of Staff Kash Patel won;t be quite so squeamish.