Pam Bondi is right out of Central Casting Many Americans were sorely disappointed this week when Special Prosecutor Jack Smith decided to drag up and withdraw the January 6th indictment and the appeal of the classified documents case dismissal against Donald Trump. Smith said in his filings that the government stood by the charges but because of the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel’s rule that a sitting president cannot be prosecuted, he had no choice but to drop the charges.The judges in the cases acceded to his requests and dismissed them both without prejudice although the idea that anyone will bring these cases in 2029 when Trump is 82 years old is fanciful. It’s over. He got away with it once again. It’s not that we didn’t know it was coming one way or the other. In fact, from the moment the Supreme Court issued their shocking opinion about presidential immunity, the writing was on the wall that Trump would face no accountability even if he didn’t win the election. It went without saying that if he won, he would order the cases dismissed and that would be that.
Uncategorized
A few years back on Thanksgiving eve I ran this recipe for Pumpkin Cake and received a very nice note from journalist Karen Tumulty saying that she’d been tooling around the web for something to bake and tried it and liked it very much. Ever since then I’ve called it Karen Tumulty Cake. It’s easy even for non bakers and it really is very good. And while that pan is lovely, you could easily bake it in a regular bundt pan or regular cake pans. Karen Tumulty Pumpkin Cake For cake * (3/4 cup) softened unsalted butter.* 2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour plus additional for dusting pan* 2 teaspoons baking powder* 1 teaspoon baking soda* 1 teaspoon cinnamon* 3/4 teaspoon ground allspice* 2 tablespoons crystalized ginger, finely chopped* 1/2 teaspoon salt* 1 1/4 cups canned pumpkin* 3/4 cup well-shaken buttermilk * 1 teaspoon vanilla* 1 1/4 cups granulated sugar* 3 large eggs Icing * 2 tablespoons plus 2 teaspoons well-shaken buttermilk* 1 1/2 cups confectioners sugar, * 1/4 cup chopped walnuts* a 10-inch nonstick bundt pan Preheat oven to 350°F. Butter bundt pan generously.
58% say he isn’t honest and 54% say he doesn’t care about people like them. 65% don’t think he’s a good role model. And yet he is the president. I guess Biden being seen as senile and Trump calling Kamala Harris an idiot a couple of thousand times made him seem mentally sharp and that was the deciding factor? Oy.
You’re kidding… This was obvious before the eleciton but Trump’s promise was such music to people’s ears that I guess eveyrone decided to just let his stupid demagoguery hang out there unrefuted: U.S. oil and gas producers are unlikely to radically increase production under president-elect Donald Trump as companies remain focused on capital discipline, a senior executive at Exxon Mobil (XOM.N), opens new tab said on Tuesday. “We’re not going to see anybody in ‘drill, baby, drill’ mode,” Liam Mallon, head of Exxon’s upstream division, told the Energy Intelligence Forum conference in London. “A radical change (in production) is unlikely because the vast majority, if not everybody, is focused on the economics of what they’re doing,” he said. What he means by “focused on the economics” is that there is a thing called “supply and demand” and they aren’t going to boost production to lower the price and cut into their profits. It’s ridiculous and always was.
Rolling Stone is reporting today that Trump and Co have revived their plans to invade Mexico. I’m not kidding: Within Donald Trump’s government-in-waiting, there is a fresh debate over whether and how thoroughly the president-elect should follow through on his campaign promise to attack or even invade Mexico, as part of the “war” he’s pledged to wage against powerful drug cartels. “How much should we invade Mexico?” says a senior Trump transition member. “That is the question.” It is a question that would have seemed batty for the GOP elite to consider before, even during Trump’s first term. But in the four years since, many within the mainstream Republican centers of power have come around to support Trump’s idea to bomb or attack Mexico. Trump’s Cabinet picks, including his choices for secretary of defense and secretary of state, have publicly supported the idea of potentially unleashing the U.S. military in Mexico. So has the man Trump has tapped to be his national security adviser. So has the man Trump selected as his “border czar” to lead his immigration crackdowns.
I just saw a great video from my old friend Cliff Schechter on his new YouTube channel, Cliff’s Edge. Is It Time to Start FIGHTING Dirty Against Donald Trump? After I watched it, I liked, subscribed and joined the channel as a paying member. I’d like folks to do the same. Then I called Cliff to talk about it. I’ve known Cliff for years and we talked about “fighting” on camera on RW media, and the opportunity for a lefty billionaire to buy a media outlet like CNBC and MSNBC. I hope it happens. If it DOES happen, we need to understand the fear of funders on the left to fighting back and what to do about it. One thing that I’ve seen is that people who consider themselves journalists in the mainstream media don’t see “fighting back” as their job. That’s the job of activists. That’s the job of Democrats. Many see their role as reporting the facts. (Or “documenting the atrocities” as Atrios would say.) I’ve written about what happens to journalists when they do report the facts, do the “both sides” bit, and talk to experts. They get threatened. Accepting death threats IS NOT part of the job!
In case you were wondering why all these people involved in sexual assault are being chosen for the Trump administration, this is why. And it is why those fucked up, incel bros voted for him: He “tells it like it is” — that they were asking for it. And he’s right that for millenia some men have told themselves that. Now read the Pete Hegseth police report. Listen to Matt Gaetz defend himself. It’s all a version of the same thing. When you’re a star you can get away with it. And Trump and his miserable, garbage cabinet and staff are proving it.
James Fallows has written a fascinating piece for Wired (temporarily out from under the paywall)about California and the future that I hope you will read with an open mind. An excerpt: California has at many points been held up as an American paradise. Now it’s widely seen as closer to hell. Runaway housing prices, tax burdens, homelessness, congestion, fire, drought, flood. The best sides of tech innovation, and the worst of tech-bro greed and narcissism. These are the state’s hallmarks. This perception is particularly rampant among Republicans: Polls show that two-thirds of Republicans say this one US state has done more damage than good for the country, and that almost half of them don’t consider it “American” at all. Beyond political party, fully half of adult Americans say in polls that California is in decline. As a recent headline put it shortly before Harris became the Democratic nominee, “California’s image will be a weapon” against her as a candidate.
Are they out to get you? Who they? During the runup to Nov. 5, there was a lot of talk about “vibes.” This was a vibes election more about what people felt than about what they think (or think they know). Jonathan V. Last has a Bulwark post about how out of synch people perceptions are with reality. It’s rather instructive. First, the results of a YouGov poll on how people perceive what percentage of the population various groups constitute: Now, the actual numbers: People make a consistent mistake in the same direction, Last observes. They wildly overestimate the number of people from recognized minority/interest groups of every kind and underestimate how numerically common their own group is.