The Memes Just Keep Coming

Careful What You Wish For!

Buzzfeed Users Share the Moment They Realized They Were Dating a Dummy

1. "I once told a guy I was dating he needed more humility, and he literally responded with 'Why would I want to be humiliated?'" 

2. "My ex-husband didn't know you had to have a checking account, with money in it, and a credit or debit card to withdraw money from an ATM. He also pronounced ATM like 'Adam.'"

3. "She thought that rust was one of the chemical elements. You know like: oxygen, neon, silver, uranium, rust."

4. "They were curious about the amount of fat in water."

5. "I dated a manager of the produce section of the grocery store. He didn’t know what crudités was, thought my portobello mushrooms weren’t cooked through because they were white on the inside, and wouldn’t eat any yellow cheese because he thought it was made with carrots. Also, he thought strawberries were sour."

6. "I dated a girl in high school, and she was generally very bright. We were at the mall one day, looking at one of those big maps of the mall directory. She asked me how the map knew where we were standing. Dumbfounded, I asked her to clarify. She pointed at the point at the star on the map that said 'You are here,' and asked how the map knew. I explained that the map was where we were standing, and we are reading it. After 10 minutes of trying to explain, she still didn't get it."

7. "My best friend had a boyfriend one time that refused to drink water because it said it was unhealthy and caused cancer. His solution was that he only drank soda or diet soda. All day every day."

8. "My ex broke several coffee cups trying to reheat her coffee on the electric stove top. We had a microwave. Why she tried to use the stove, I don’t know. Why she continued to try it after the first one broke, I don’t know. She had a master's degree. I finally bought her a plug-in coffee cup warmer, and she loved it."

9. "He thought cutting the umbilical cord determined penis length. He legit thought it was the doctor's fault for cutting it 'too short' if a man had a smaller penis and didn't realize the cord was what caused people to have belly buttons. He didn't think girls had an umbilical cord to cut at all when they were born."

10. "My ex would only drink whole milk because when he saw 2% milk, he thought, "What’s the other 98%? He thought he was a genius."

11. "She was a 40-something woman and asked 'Is duck an animal?' Everyone in the room got real quiet and just looked at each other."

12. "I dumped a guy because he didn't know what color red and yellow make when mixed together. It was a question on "Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader? When I asked him to just take a wild guess, he goes 'I don't know, purple?' That's when I knew we were done."

13. "I had to teach my ex how to locate a book in a library. We were both college graduates."

14. "My now-husband, when we were first dating, told me that he believed that all plants could be classified as either a fruit or a vegetable. After we were married, he told me he thought platypuses were the size of golden retrievers."

15. "My ex asked me, 'What kind of animal is Mickey Mouse?' I just kept saying back, 'Say that again…slower.'"

16. "When I found out my ex didn't know what order the months go in. When I asked him to learn, he got mad, said no, and that it wasn't something he was interested in."

17. "After homecoming in high school, we went for pizza. She wanted to try a vegetarian diet, and as we were selecting toppings, she asked me, 'Is there meat in mushrooms?'"

18. "I once briefly dated a dude who thought sweetened coffee had zero calories because 'the sugar has dissolved, so it’s not there.'”

19. "She said playing basketball makes you taller. Her proof was all the tall people playing basketball."

20. "We were talking about dinosaurs and he was shocked to hear they were real. Then, he proceeded to ask me if they really breathed fire. He thought dinosaurs and dragons were the same thing."

21. "When he missed his daily medication, he threw it out instead of just saving it for the next day."

22. "When he said he’d make pancakes and then put the dry powder directly in the hot pan."

23. "My wife would bring stuff home that said 'refrigerate after opening,' open it, and put it in the refrigerator."

24. "When my ex asked me where they grew spaghetti."

25. "She didn't know that yogurt and pudding were not the same thing. She thought it was like how the British call fries 'chips.' She had been eating pudding and granola for breakfast for months and congratulating herself for being so healthy."

26. "She didn’t understand that you actually have to pay what you spent on credit cards. Like the credit amount she had was supposed to be her monthly limit that just resets each month."

27. "My ex asked me, 'Where does the sun go at night?' I was dumbfounded. She was in her early 20s at the time."

28. "She asked me if I could name all 52 US states."

29. "I once asked my ex to start boiling the potatoes for dinner about 20 minutes before I got home so that they would be close to ready for me to mash up as the side for dinner. I got home right as he put them in the water. He had to call his dad to ask how to boil potatoes."

30. And lastly, "I introduced him to my stepsister. He said, 'Weird. You guys look nothing alike.'”

 

Maui Developer Playing Game of Retribution Against Water Commission

A group of farmers, activists and lawyers is rallying behind a top water official who was reassigned after the catastrophic wildfires, saying he has become a scapegoat in the ongoing finger-pointing about how the fires grew out of control so quickly. Kaleo Manuel, who was a member of the state Commission on Water Resource Management when three wildfires erupted on Maui on August 8, has come under intense scrutiny after a land developer wrote a letter to him accusing the water commission of delaying additional water resources during the blaze.

But Manuel’s advocates question the facts and motives behind West Maui Land Co.’s claim that the water commission had a hand in delaying a water diversion, and behind the state government’s decision to reassign him as criticism mounted.  Maui taro farmers Charles and Lauren Palakiko have joined a growing chorus of Native Hawaiians demanding that Manuel be reinstated. Charles Palakiko said in an interview that West Maui Land Co., which supplies water to parts of Lahaina, is using the fires as a pretext to tap into his stream, which he needs to maintain his farm, where he grows the vegetable used in Native Hawaiian dishes.   “Kaleo had nothing to do with it,” Palakiko said. “They’re trying to destroy us, and they’re blaming him.”

Glenn Tremble, an executive with West Maui Land Co., wrote to Manuel in an August 10 letter, claiming the water commission delayed approving the company’s request on the day of the fires to divert more water to its reservoirs, which Tremble suggested firefighters could have used to slow the blaze, which destroyed most of Lahaina.  In the letter, Tremble said that an unnamed water commission representative instructed the company to contact a downstream farmer for permission but that the farmer, who was not named, did not immediately respond. Tremble said in the letter that the water commission approved the diversion five hours after the initial request but that the company could not reach the equipment it needed to make the adjustment because the fires had spread.

The letter asked the commission to suspend the water diversion rules for the company during the declared emergency period, which would have allowed it to divert more water for “fire prevention,” and it sought changes to the rules that would allow its reservoirs to be filled during fires.

After Tremble’s letter was reported by news outlets, Manuel was criticized by conservative pundits and politicians. The Hawaii Department of Land and Natural Resources announced August 16 that Manuel had been reassigned to a different division. It did not say which one, and it said in the statement that it would not comment further on the matter.   “This deployment does not suggest that First Deputy Manuel did anything wrong,” the announcement said.

The cascade of decisions and statements from government officials has alarmed and angered farmers and activists. Palakiko, the taro farmer, contests the core argument that water from his stream could have helped fight the fires, because, he said, his stream is not connected to the Lahaina water system. The nearest reservoir, owned by West Maui Land Co., is best accessible by helicopter, Palakiko said, but hurricane-force winds prevented aerial crews from conducting water drops.  Palakiko said he immediately allowed the developer to use his stream after a company employee called and texted him on August 8 around 3 p.m., two hours after West Maui Land had contacted the water commission, according to Tremble. Palakiko said he is unaware of any earlier attempts by the company to contact him, even though Tremble said in his letter that “we had already made a concerted effort to contact the one downstream user.”  Palakiko said he agreed to the water diversion with the understanding that the company return the water flow after the fire was contained. More than two weeks later, his water allotment remains below its usual levels, he said, adding that a West Maui Land Co. employee told him this week that the developer was still drawing water from the stream.

Many also say that West Maui Land Co. has an axe to grind, and view its claims with suspicion. 

The Georgia 19

 

Jon Batiste - Drink Water

TRUMP ARRESTED

Fulton County inmate # P01135809

 

DeSantis Continues to Hurt Florida Business

Broward County tourism officials say that financial losses are continuing to mount as conventions once scheduled for Fort Lauderdale have opted to go someplace else.  The tally now stands at 14, with four of those conventions backing out in August alone, according to Visit Lauderdale, the agency formerly known as the Greater Fort Lauderdale Convention & Visitors Bureau. They cite Florida’s culture wars on issues that attack Blacks, gays, and transgender youth, as well as policies targeting state universities as well as migrants.

Broward’s tourism arm said the lost conventions could have brought hotel stays to Fort Lauderdale and its surrounding cities, which also meant money spent on restaurants and attractions.  On the updated list now includes the National Sales Network Conference, whose founder and CEO emailed the county Monday: “Moving forward, we will not consider conducting any future conferences in the state of Florida given the Governor’s statement that slavery was good for Black people.”

The Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology backed out of its planned convention last week, citing in an email: “At the moment, we aren’t able to consider any Florida cities because of the political issues around women’s health and the added challenges with higher education there.”

It adds to the laundry list of groups including the Chicago-based American Specialty Toy Retailing Association, which had planned a 3,000-person conference in Fort Lauderdale in 2026, and cited the “unfriendly political environment in Florida.” The Washington, D.C.-based Association of Farmworker Opportunity Programs, which was scheduled to come to Fort Lauderdale in January, diverted to New Orleans instead because of what’s perceived as anti-migrant policies. And the Atlanta-based aParent Miracles Foundation for this November is headed to Texas instead after the NAACP issued a travel advisory for Florida “in direct response to Governor Ron DeSantis’ attempts to erase Black history, and to restrict diversity, equity, and inclusion programs in Florida schools,” the organizer wrote the county’s tourism office.

Last month, the Tom Joyner Foundation (and the 1,700 hotel rooms it wanted,) disappeared, too. “If this were about economics, that would be one thing, but what is at the core of the issue from the above, is fear for the safety of African-American, LGBTQ+ and a smaller portion of even Latino students and others traveling to Florida to participate in what is a national event,” an organizer wrote the tourism office. The agency also cited the state’s new permitless gun carry laws, which allow people to carry concealed weapons without training or a permit, as another reason to skip the Sunshine State. That legislation was hailed by the NRA.

The emails were obtained by the South Florida Sun Sentinel in a public records request.  Stacy Ritter, president and CEO of Visit Lauderdale, Broward County’s tourism promotion arm, said she was “keeping a careful eye on the trend, which isn’t great.”  “It’s most troubling because of the economic impact which translates into Broward County residents’ jobs,” saying an estimated 10% of Broward’s jobs were directly or indirectly tied to tourism.

"Protest" Song Hits Too Many False Notes

Oliver Anthony's viral hit "Rich Men North of Richmond" debuts at No. 1 on the next Billboard Hot 100 chart, making it the first time that an artist with no prior chart history has achieved that feat since the Hot 100 began in 1958.

The politically charged track, from a rural Virginia farmer and former factory worker, gained attention on social media with its lyrics including, “Your dollar taxed to no end / ’cause of rich men north of Richmond.”  Anthony’s video of his song went viral over the past week, clocking up more than 20 million views on YouTube, rising to the top of the streaming charts and becoming an anthem for conservatives from nutjob Marjorie Taylor Green and right wing political commentator Matt Walsh, all viewing Anthony as a righteous figure, whose “rawness” and “authenticity” speak to real Americans.

On a superficial level, "Rich Men North of Richmond" seems to echo the themes of working-class troubadors such as Woody Guthrie and Paul Robeson-- giving voice to a sense of a world divided into rich and poor, and of ordinary people as menaced by those in power.  Whereas early folk pioneers were committed to social justice and collective action, Oliver Anthony's  lament about the precariousness of working-class life is fleeting at best.   "Rich Men North of Richmond" more strongly expresses individualized resentment-- a resentment not towards bosses or the capitalist class (as in the old songs) but (as has become fashionable today) towards a nebulous political elite.  

Anthony even gives a nod towards conspiracy theories about pedophiles (“I wish politicians would look out for miners / And not just minors on an island somewhere”).  And his resentment is directed not just towards the elite--  but also toward the undeserving poor, benefit recipients, and welfare recipients: “Lord, we got folks in the street, ain’t got nothin’ to eat / And the obese milkin’ welfare”.  For Mr. Anthony, “if you’re 5-foot-3 and you’re 300 pounds / Taxes ought not to pay for your bags of fudge rounds”.  It seems that only for some people is the precariousness of life to be condemned!

All this has turned the song into a conservative hymn and in Greene’s words, “the anthem of the forgotten Americans." Most of these same folks that are campaigning for Anthony's song have also long campaigned to deny those forgotten Americans their dues.  They oppose unionization, Medicare and abortion rights.  They view tax cuts for the rich as more important than support for the poor and vilify welfare any chance they get.

It is a common theme among the GOP that when people take collective action to defend their interests, they are the wrong kind of workers. It is only when workers lament without resisting that their voice is deemed “authentic”.  Unfortunately, the neutering of the labor movement and the abandonment of working-class issues by many on the left  has allowed the most grotesque of right wing reactionaries to shamelessly pose as friends of the downtrodden.

“I’ve been sellin’ my soul, workin’ all day / Overtime hours for bullshit pay.” Anthony’s complaint hearkens back to working class champions like Springsteen, Mellencamp, Cash, and Seeger.  But as long as such discontent is directed more against the undeserving poor instead of against employers and politicians who seek to crush unions and impose austerity, rich men (whether they are north or south of Richmond) will remain in power.

Murdered Over a Flag

A woman who owns two clothing stores in California was shot and killed by a man who made derogatory comments about the pride flag hanging outside her business.

The fatal shooting happened Friday night in Lake Arrowhead, CA ... with law enforcement saying the suspect shot the 66-year-old shop owner, Lauri Carleton, because he didn't like the rainbow flag outside her clothing store.  Lauri owns the Mag.Pi store in Lake Arrowhead and another in Studio City ... and she's been a top fashion designer in Los Angeles for decades.

The San Bernardino County Sheriff says deputies arrived at the scene of Friday's shooting to find Lauri suffering from a gunshot wound. Paramedics pronounced her dead at the scene. The sheriff says the killer, armed with a handgun, fled on foot and he was tracked down about a mile away from the store, when deputies shot and killed him after a confrontation.

San Bernardino County Supervisor Dawn Rowe called the incident a "senseless act of hate and violence." Rowe said in a statement, "Everyone deserves to live free of hate and discrimination and practice their constitutional right of freedom of speech. Lauri was a remarkable member of the community and I send my deepest condolences to her family in this time of grief."  Lauri is survived by her husband of 28 years and their 9 children.

 

 

Dan & Shay - Bigger Houses

Stating the Obvious

Trump Now Faces Racketeering Charges in Georgia

Georgia prosecutors late yesterdays filed RICO charges against Donald Trump late last night.  The indictment from Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis included 18 defendants in addition to Trump.  There were a total of 41 charges and 30 unindicted co-conspirators.  They all have ten days to turn themselves in to authorities, or face arrest.

The 19 people charged in the case, according to the indictment, are:

• Donald Trump
• Rudy Giuliani, Trump lawyer
• Mark Meadows, White House chief of staff
• John Eastman, Trump lawyer
• Kenneth Chesebro, pro-Trump lawyer
• Jeffrey Clark, top Justice Department official
• Jenna Ellis, Trump campaign lawyer
• Robert Cheeley, lawyer who promoted fraud claims
• Mike Roman, Trump campaign official
• David Shafer, Georgia GOP chair and fake elector
• Shawn Still, fake GOP elector
• Stephen Lee, pastor tied to intimidation of election workers
• Harrison Floyd, leader of Black Voices for Trump
• Trevian Kutti, publicist tied to intimidation of election workers
• Sidney Powell, Trump campaign lawyer
• Cathy Latham, fake GOP elector tied to Coffee County breach
• Scott Hall, tied to Coffee County election system breach
• Misty Hampton, Coffee County elections supervisor
• Ray Smith, Trump campaign attorney

Here is a look at key dates for the investigation:

Nov. 3, 2020: General election.

Nov. 7, 2020: Democrat Joe Biden declared winner in presidential race, defeating incumbent Republican President Donald Trump.

Nov. 9, 2020: Georgia U.S. Sens. David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler, both facing runoff elections in January, call for the resignation of Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, a fellow Republican. They cite “failures in Georgia elections” without providing any details.

Nov. 11, 2020: Raffensperger announces a full hand count of the votes in the presidential race in Georgia to satisfy a new audit requirement in state law.

Nov. 13, 2020: U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham calls Raffensperger. The secretary of state said the South Carolina Republican asked him whether he had the power to reject certain absentee ballots, which he interpreted as a suggestion to toss legally cast ballots.

Nov. 19, 2020: Georgia completes a hand recount of votes in the presidential election that was undertaken to satisfy an audit requirement in state law. The Associated Press calls Georgia for Biden.

Nov. 20, 2020: Georgia officials certify election results showing Biden won the presidential race in the state.

Nov. 21, 2020: Trump campaign requests a recount of the votes in the presidential race in Georgia. State law allows a candidate to request a recount if the margin is less than 0.5%.

Dec. 1, 2020: U.S. Attorney General William Barr tells the AP that the U.S. Justice Department had uncovered no evidence of widespread voter fraud that could change the outcome of the 2020 election.

Dec. 3, 2020: Former New York mayor and Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani and others speak during Georgia Senate subcommittee meeting. Giuliani alleges suitcases of fraudulent ballots were introduced as votes were being counted at Atlanta's State Farm Arena on election night.

Dec. 4, 2020: Barr asks U.S. Attorney BJay Pak in Atlanta to investigate allegations of election fraud made by Giuliani the day before.

Dec. 5, 2020: Trump calls Kemp urging him to call a special session.  During a rally for Republican candidates in the Senate special election, Trump spreads baseless allegations of election fraud.

Dec. 7, 2020: Georgia certifies election results showing Biden victory for a second time after completing a machine recount of the presidential race requested by Trump's campaign.

Dec. 8, 2020: Texas attorney general files a lawsuit asking the  U.S. Supreme Court to invalidate Electoral College votes in battleground states that Trump lost. Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr rejects it as “legally and factually wrong about Georgia.” Trump calls Carr and warns him not to encourage other Republican officials to reject the Texas lawsuit.

Dec. 10, 2020: Giuliani and others speak during Georgia House subcommittee meeting, perpetuating false allegations of election fraud in the state.

Dec. 14, 2020: The official Democratic electors meet in the Georgia state Senate chamber to cast the state's 16 electoral college votes for Biden. Meanwhile, a group of 16 Republicans meet at Georgia Capitol to sign a certificate falsely stating that Trump won and that they were the state’s “duly elected and qualified” electors.

Dec. 18. 2020: On or about this date, Trump, Giuliani, Sidney Powell and unindicted co-conspirator #20 (whose identity is known to the grand jury), meet with others at the White House to discuss certain strategies and theories intended to influence the outcome of the November 3, 2020, presidential election, including seizing voting equipment.

Dec. 22, 2020: White House chief of staff Mark Meadows visits Cobb County, where an audit of signatures on absentee ballot envelopes was being conducted. While there, he meets Frances Watson, lead investigator in Georgia secretary of state’s office, and gets her phone number.

Dec. 23, 2020: Trump calls Watson and urges her to look at Fulton County, saying she would “find things that are gonna be unbelievable.” He also tells her, “When the right answer comes out, you’ll be praised.”

Jan. 1, 2021: Fani Willis takes office as Fulton County district attorney after defeating her former boss in the Democratic primary and running unopposed in the November election.

Jan. 2, 2021: Trump calls Raffensperger and suggests the secretary of state can help him “find” the votes needed to overturn Trump's loss in the state.

Jan. 4, 2021: Pak, the U.S. attorney in Atlanta, abruptly resigns after learning that Trump felt he wasn't doing enough to investigate allegations of election fraud and wanted to fire him.

Jan. 5, 2021: Democrats Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock defeat incumbent Republicans Loeffler and Perdue in a runoff election for Georgia's two U.S. Senate seats.

Jan. 6, 2021: Trump supporters break into the U.S. Capitol and storm the halls trying to stop Congress from certifying Biden’s election.

Jan. 7, 2021: A computer forensics team travels to rural Coffee County in south Georgia to copy software and data from voting equipment. Emails and records show Sidney Powell and other Trump-allied attorneys helped arrange the trip.

Jan. 18-19, 2021: Doug Logan, who founded Cyber Ninjas, the company that led Arizona Republicans’ controversial 2020 election review, and Jeff Lenberg, visit the Coffee County elections office. Lenberg returns the following week. Both men had been active in efforts to cast doubt on the 2020 election results.

Jan. 20, 2021: Biden inaugurated as president.

Feb. 10, 2021: Willis, the district attorney in Fulton County, sends letters to top Georgia elected officials telling them she's opened a criminal investigation into “attempts to influence” the state's 2020 general election and instructs them to preserve evidence.

Jan. 20, 2022: Willis asks for a special grand jury to be impaneled for her investigation.

Jan. 24, 2022: Fulton County Superior Court judges approve Willis' request for a special grand jury.

May 2, 2022: Special grand jury seated.

June 2, 2022: Raffensperger testifies before the special grand jury.

July 5, 2022: Willis seeks to compel testimony before the special grand jury from people close to Trump, including Giuliani and Graham. This signals that the investigation is zeroing in on close Trump associates.

July 25, 2022: The judge overseeing the special grand jury rules that Willis cannot call state Sen. Burt Jones before the special grand jury or seek charges against him because of a conflict of interest stemming from her hosting a fundraiser for Jones' Democratic opponent in the race for lieutenant governor. Jones, who was elected lieutenant governor in the November 2022 general election, was one of the 16 Republican fake electors.

Aug. 11, 2022: Prominent Atlanta criminal defense attorney Drew Findling confirms that he is part of a legal team hired by Trump to represent him in matters related to the special grand jury.

Aug. 15, 2022: Lawyers for Giuliani confirm that they've been told their client is a target of the investigation.

Aug. 17, 2022: Giuliani testifies before the special grand jury.

Aug. 25, 2022: Willis files paperwork seeking to have more Trump allies, including former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows and lawyer Sidney Powell, testify before the special grand jury.

Aug. 31, 2022: Lawyer John Eastman appears before the special grand jury.

Oct. 7, 2022: The day before beginning a month-long pause in public activity related to the investigation ahead of the midterm elections, Willis files paperwork to compel the testimony of another round of Trump associates, including former U.S. House Speaker Newt Gingrich and former national security adviser Michael Flynn.

Nov. 22, 2022: Graham appears before the special grand jury for questioning after losing a fight to avoid testifying that went all the way up to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Dec. 8, 2022: Former national security adviser Michael Flynn testifies before the special grand jury.

Dec. 15, 2022: The special grand jury completes its final report.

Jan. 9, 2023: Fulton County Superior Court Judge Robert McBurney, who oversaw the special grand jury, issues an order dissolving the panel, saying it had completed its work and submitted its final report to him.

Jan. 24, 2023: McBurney holds a hearing to determine whether the special grand jury's report can be made public as the grand jurors had recommended. Prosecutors urged him to keep it secret until decisions had been made on whether charges would be sought, while a coalition of media organizations pressed for its release.

Feb. 13, 2023: McBurney orders the partial release of the special grand jury's report. The judge said the introduction and conclusion of the report, as well as a section in which the grand jurors expressed concerns that some witnesses may have lied under oath would be released three days later. But he said sections of the report that recommended specific charges for specific people would remain under wraps for the time being.

Feb. 16, 2023: Part of the special grand jury report is made public. The grand jurors wrote that they believed that “one or more witnesses” committed perjury and urged local prosecutors to bring charges. They also said they found no evidence of widespread election fraud in the 2020 election in Georgia.

Feb. 21, 2023: Special grand jury foreperson Emily Kohrs speaks out for the first time in an interview with The Associated Press. Kohrs gives a behind-the-scenes look at the special grand jury's workings and said that the panel recommended multiple people be indicted.

Feb. 23, 2023: The first extensive interviews with Trump's legal team in Georgia are published by the AP and other news outlets. Lawyers Drew Findling and Jennifer Little blast the special grand jury investigation, saying it was unreliable and calling it “a circus.”

April 24, 2023: Willis writes in a letter to Fulton County Sheriff Pat Labat and other law enforcement officials that she expects to announce charging decisions in her investigation between July 11 and Sept. 1, 2023. She cites a desire “to ensure that our law enforcement community is ready to protect the public.”

May 18, 2023: Willis sends a letter to the county Superior Court chief judge indicating that she planned to have much of her staff work remotely during the first three weeks of August and asking that judges not schedule trials and in-person hearings during part of that time. The letter was widely seen as a suggestion that she would seek charges in her investigation during that period.

July 11, 2023: Two grand juries are seated in Fulton County.

August 14, 2023: Trump and 18 other people are indicted.

 

Steve Miller Says Pop Tarts are Gay and Sexualize Kids

Remember that creepy white nationalist who worked in the Trump White House?  It looks like Steve Miller now has a beef with Kellogg's, and has filed a complaint with the EEOC, about not only racism in Frosted Flakes, but gay Pop-Tarts!

Miller’s right-wing nonprofit organization America First Legal has sent out a series of tweets highlighting its complaints that Kellogg’s “appears to be using company resources to engage in illegal racial discrimination.”   Very quickly you realize that Miller and his team of race-war obsessives are claiming that “Kellogg’s hiring, training, and promotion policies and programs are infused with woke ideology.”

Because Kellogg’s is making a pledge to try and diversify its business (both in terms of race as well as gender) that means  (to Miller) that they are discriminating against white men. In Miller’s white world, the only truly capable employees are white ones. Male white ones. But this isn’t the worst of it. According to America First Legal, Kellogg’s “has discarded the Company’s long-held family-friendly marketing approach to politicize and sexualize its products.” 

In 2022, Kellogg's released a limited-edition cereal in partnership with GLAAD-- but Miller thinks that the company is using its iconic characters to advance "an extreme social agenda."  The same year, the company released a limited-edition “NEON Pink Block Party Lemonade Pop-Tarts.” The box illustrations depict cartoon drawings of people waving rainbow flags-- oh, the horror!  So I guess if you eat those Pop-Tarts you’re totally going be turned gay or trans or something.  That’s in the Bible, right?

So now Kellogg’s joins the ranks of Chik-fil-A, Cracker Barrell, and Budweiser as targets for their war on woke. What is “woke”? Anything that isn’t white and male and Christian conservative.

 

Heartbreak and Hope in Hawaii

Ninety-three people have been confirmed killed in the Maui fire that razed the historic town of Lahaina, making it the deadliest U.S. fire in modern history.   The number of victims could rise "significantly", Hawaii Governor Josh Green warned, as forensic work continues to identify the victims.  Hundreds remain unaccounted for while hundreds of others fill shelters across Maui after fleeing the flames.

The fire will "certainly be the worst natural disaster that Hawaii ever faced", he said.  "We can only wait and support those who are living.  Our focus now is to reunite people when we can and get them housing and get them health care, and then turn to rebuilding."

While the wildfires are now largely under control, efforts to fully extinguish them are continuing in parts of the island, including around Lahaina, which has been devastated.  Authorities have focused efforts on combing through what is left of the coastal area of the island, using sniffer dogs trained to detect bodies to look for signs of corpses under the rubble. 

Helicopter pilot Richard Olsten, who has flown over western Maui, said that most of the boats in the harbor were burnt and had sunk.  "The historic buildings, the church, the missionary building and so forth - all gone," he said.  "The main tourist area where all the shops and restaurants are, the historic front street - everything burnt to the ground."   Lahaina resident Anthony Garcia said the fire had gutted the apartment he was renting and destroyed all his belongings and memories.  "It took everything, everything! It's heartbreaking," the 80-year-old California native, who has lived in Lahaina for three decades, said. "It's a lot to take in."

In the emergency shelter at Maui's War Memorial Complex on Saturday, hundreds of evacuees continued to gather, receiving food, toiletries and medical aid from a still-growing number of volunteers.  Large whiteboards noted the most pressing needs - batteries, water, and generators - and an all-caps note that no more clothing was needed. Keapo Bissen, a member of the War Memorial shelter team, said the list of the missing was fluctuating hour to hour as more people reported absent loved ones, and others were found.  "We've had a lot of great reunions happen in this parking lot," she said. "That's really been the bright side in all of this."

It is thought that more than 2,000 buildings have been damaged or destroyed since the fires broke out, with the majority of those in the Lahaina area.  The main road to Lahaina, the Honoapiilani highway, was briefly re-opened to residents on Saturday, before quickly being closed again. Hundreds of Lahaina residents have stayed in line on the highway anyway, hoping to be be allowed through.  Liz Germansky, who lost her home in the fire, is angry about the response. "The government's getting in the way of people helping," she says, sitting in that same traffic queue.  Another route, the Kahekili Highway, is open, but locals say it's far too dangerous to attempt that drive. The road - known simply here as "the backroad" to Lahaina - is barely wide enough for one car, has many hair-pin turns, and a steep drop-off.  "We can't drive this truck there. It's a cliff," said resident Ruth Lee who was stuck in traffic trying to bring supplies to her family that stayed behind.  Many of the docks in the Lahaina area are too badly damaged or destroyed to bring in supplies by boat. People who have made the journey by boat have had to swim the supplies to the shore. Some of the young men helping organize supplies blame government mismanagement and bureaucracy.  "Too many chiefs, not enough warriors," said 25-year-old Bradah Young.

For some of those who made it back into Lahaina, there was a momentary sense of elation when they tearfully reconnected with neighbors they feared might not have gotten out alive.  "You made it!" cried Chyna Cho, as she embraced Amber Langdon amid the ruins. "I was trying to find you."   Others who made it back to Lahaina wandered in stunned silence trying to take in the enormity of the destruction.   44-year-old Anthony La Puente said the shock of finding his home burned to nothing was profound.  "It sucks not being able to find the things you grew up with, or the things you remember," he told AFP.

Hawaii's Attorney General Anne Lopez said her office would examine "critical decision-making and standing policies leading up to, during and after the wildfires on Maui and Hawaii islands this week."  "We underestimated the lethality, the quickness of fire," Hawaii Congresswoman Jill Tokuda said.  Maui suffered numerous power outages during the crisis, preventing many residents from receiving emergency alerts on their cellphones -- something, Tokuda said, officials should have prepared for.  

For several days leading up to the wildfires, weather forecasters warned authorities that powerful wind gusts would trigger dangerous fire conditions across much of the island and Hawaii. The state’s electric utility responded with some preemptive steps but did not use what is widely regarded as the most aggressive but effective safety measure: shutting down the power. 

Hawaiian Electric, the utility that oversees Maui Electric and provides service to 95 percent of the state’s residents, did not deploy what’s known as a “public power shutoff plan,” which involves intentionally cutting off electricity to areas where big wind events could spark fires. A number of states, including California, have increasingly adopted this safety strategy after deadly and destructive wildfires in 2018..

Hawaiian Electric was aware that a power shut-off was an effective strategy, documents show, but had not adopted it as part of its fire mitigation plans, according to the company and two former power and energy officials interviewed by the Washington Post.The decision to avoid shutting off power is reflective of the utility’s struggles to bolster its aging and vulnerable infrastructure against wildfires, said Jennifer Potter, who lives in Lahaina and was a member of the Hawaii Public Utilities Commission until just nine months ago.  “They were not as proactive as they should have been,” Potter said about Hawaiian Electric’s fire-prevention planning, adding that there had not been any real meaningful action to “address some of those inadequacies in terms of wildfire.”  Doug McLeod, a former energy commissioner for Maui County, also said the utility was aware of the need for a regular shut-down system and to bury lines, especially given the “number of close calls in the past.” 

There are also growing concerns that any homes rebuilt in Lahaina will be targeted at affluent outsiders seeking a tropical haven. That would turbo-charge what is already one of Hawaii’s gravest and biggest challenges: the exodus and displacement of Native Hawaiian and local-born residents who can no longer afford to live in their homeland.  "I’m more concerned of big land developers coming in and seeing this charred land as an opportunity to rebuild,” 25-year-old Richy Palalay said in an interview at a shelter for evacuees.   Hotels and condos “that we can’t afford, that we can’t afford to live in — that’s what we’re afraid of,” he added.  

Palalay was born and raised in Lahaina. He started working at an oceanfront seafood restaurant in town when he was 16 and worked his way up to be kitchen supervisor. He was training to be a sous chef.  The blaze torched Palalay’s restaurant, his neighborhood, his friends’ homes and possibly even the four-bedroom house where he pays $1,000 monthly to rent one room. He and his housemates haven’t had an opportunity to return to examine it themselves, though they’ve seen images showing their neighborhood in ruins.  He said the town, which was once the capital of the former Hawaiian kingdom in the 1800s, made him the man he is today. “Lahaina is my home. Lahaina is my pride. My life. My joy,” he said in a text message, adding that the town has taught him “lessons of love, struggle, discrimination, passion, division and unity you could not fathom.”

The cause of the Maui blazes — now the deadliest wildfire in modern U.S. history — remains under investigation. That probe may take weeks or even months to produce official findings, and on Friday, Hawaii Attorney General Anne Lopez (D) announced a “comprehensive review” of the decisions and policies surrounding the fires.  

In the meantime, Maui residents are well aware of the hard lessons from Kauai, when Hurricane Iniki slammed into the island in 1992.  In the wake of that disaster, many spent years fighting for insurance payments.  Locals have much-justified fears that even though residents with insurance or government aid may get funds to rebuild, those payouts could take years and recipients may find it won’t be enough to pay rent or buy an alternate property in the interim.

Sterling Higa, the executive director of Housing Hawaii’s Future, a nonprofit organization that advocates for more housing in Hawaii, said “As they deal with this — the frustration of fighting insurance companies or fighting (the Federal Emergency Management Agency) — many of them may well leave because there are no other options.”   But Richy Palalay vows to stay.  “I don’t have any money to help rebuild. I’ll put on a construction hat and help get this ship going. I’m not going to leave this place,” he said. “Where am I going to go?”

 

Shocking New Revelations of Ethical Lapses at the Supreme Court

Portrait of arrogance and greed

During his three decades on the Supreme Court, Clarence Thomas has enjoyed steady access to a lifestyle most Americans can only imagine. A cadre of industry titans and ultra-wealthy executives have treated him to far-flung vacations aboard their yachts, ushered him into the premium suites at sporting events and sent their private jets to fetch him — including, on more than one occasion, an entire 737. It’s a stream of luxury that is both more extensive and from a wider circle than has been previously understood.

Thomas’ leisure activities have been underwritten by benefactors who share the ideology that drives his jurisprudence. Their gifts include at least 38 destination vacations (including a previously unreported voyage on a yacht around the Bahamas); 26 private jet flights (plus an additional eight by helicopter); a dozen VIP passes to professional and college sporting events (typically perched in the skybox); two stays at luxury resorts in Florida and Jamaica; and one standing invitation to an uber-exclusive golf club overlooking the Atlantic coast.

While some of the hospitality, such as stays in personal homes, may not have required disclosure, Thomas appears to have violated the law by failing to disclose flights, yacht cruises and expensive sports tickets, according to ethics experts. “In my career I don’t remember ever seeing this degree of largesse given to anybody,” said Jeremy Fogel, a former federal judge who served for years on the judicial committee that reviews judges’ financial disclosures. “I think it’s unprecedented.”

This year, ProPublica revealed Texas real estate billionaire Harlan Crow’s generosity toward Thomas, including vacations, private jet flights, gifts, the purchase of his mother’s house in Georgia and tuition payments. The New York Times recently surfaced VIP treatment from wealthy businessmen he met through the Horatio Alger Association, an exclusive nonprofit. Among them were David Sokol, a former top executive at Berkshire Hathaway, and H. Wayne Huizenga, a billionaire who turned Blockbuster and Waste Management into business giants.  Records and interviews show Thomas had another benefactor, oil baron Paul “Tony” Novelly, whose gifts to the justice have not previously been reported. 

Each of these men — Novelly, Huizenga, Sokol and Crow — appears to have first met Thomas after he ascended to the Supreme Court. With the exception of Crow, their names are nowhere in Thomas’ financial disclosures, where justices are required by law to publicly report most gifts.  Don Fox, the former general counsel of the U.S. Office of Government Ethics and the senior ethics official in the executive branch, said, “It’s just the height of hypocrisy to wear the robes and live the lifestyle of a billionaire.” Taxpayers, he added, have the right to expect that Supreme Court justices are not living on the dime of others.

The justices have said they follow court rules prohibiting them from accepting gifts from a group of people so frequently that “a reasonable person would believe that the public office is being used for private gain.”   Thomas acceptance of gifts and leisure travel is unprecedented in the sheer volume and frequency, as well as its undisclosed nature (we are still waiting for his most recent financial disclosure, which was due almost three months ago).  Thomas once complained that he sacrificed wealth to sit on the court, though he tried to depict the choice as a matter of conscience. “The job is not worth doing for what they pay,” he told the bar association in Savannah, Georgia, in 2001.

ProPublica has the shocking new details of Thomas' ethical lapses-- whether this will result in any changes, it's hard to tell.  It's no wonder that public trust in the Supreme Court is at at an all-time low.

We've Entered the Knockout Stage

Graham Nash - A Better Life

Shocking Assassination of Presidential Candidate in Ecuador

A candidate in Ecuador's upcoming presidential election who campaigned against corruption and gangs has been shot dead at a campaign rally.  Fernando Villavicencio, a member of the country's national assembly, was attacked as he left the event in the capital, Quito. He is one of the few candidates to allege links between organized crime and government officials in Ecuador.  The killing comes less than a fortnight before presidential elections, in which the issue of insecurity features as the top concern. 

A burst of gunfire could be heard as the 59-year-old was getting into a car outside the building where, just moments before, he had been meeting voters. Villavicencio's uncle, Galo Valencia, described the moment his nephew was killed: "We were just a few meters from the school when we were hit by a hail of about 40 bullets."   Valencia said his nephew had been hit by three bullets in the head.  Carlos Figueroa, another witness, said that "30 seconds after he [Fernando Villavicencio] left through the main door, the shots started".

Video from inside the building shows panicked supporters diving for cover. In the chaos, nine other people were injured, including a candidate for the country's assembly and two police officers, prosecutors said. The suspect was also shot in an exchange of bullets with security and later died from his injuries, the country's attorney general said on social media. Six people have been detained by police in connection with the assassination after raids in Quito, they added.

A criminal gang called Los Lobos (The Wolves) has claimed responsibility. Los Lobos is the second-largest gang in Ecuador with some 8,000 members, many of whom are behind bars. The gang has been involved in a number of recent deadly prison fights, in which scores of inmates have been brutally killed. A break-away faction from the Los Choneros gang, Los Lobos is believed to have links to the Mexico-based Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG), for which it traffics cocaine.

Suspicion for the killing had first fallen on Los Choneros, which had threatened Villavicencio last week, but Los Lobos claimed responsibility in a video in which gang members wearing balaclavas flashed gang signs and waved their weapons. 

Ecuador has historically been a relatively safe and stable country in Latin America, but crime has shot up in recent years, fueled by the growing presence of Colombian and Mexican drug cartels, which have infiltrated local criminal gangs. The cartels use Ecuador, which has a good infrastructure and large ports, to smuggle cocaine produced in neighboring Colombia and Peru to the U.S . and Europe.  They have threatened and targeted anyone who they feel stands in their way.

Fernando Villavicencio, a serving congressman and former journalist, had condemned what he said was the lenient approach to the gangs, saying that were he to come to power, there would be a crackdown. Villavicencio, who was married and had five children, was one of eight candidates in the first round of the election - although he was not the front runner and was polling around the middle of the pack.  He is not the first politician to be assassinated. Last month, the mayor of the city of Manta was shot dead, while in February, a candidate for mayor in the city of Puerto López was killed.  But the shooting of a presidential candidate at a public event in the capital is the most brazen attack so far and shocking testimony to the strength of the gangs.

A state of emergency has been declared and current President Guillermo Lasso has vowed the "crime will not go unpunished".  Lasso, who will not be on the ballot, said he was "outraged and shocked" by the killing, adding: "Organized crime has come a long way, but the full weight of the law is going to fall on them."   The front runner in the polls, Luisa González shared her "solidarity" with Villavicencio's family, adding: "This vile act will not go unpunished."  Former vice-president and fellow candidate Otto Sonnenholzner also sent his "deepest condolences and deep solidarity" to Villavicencio's family. "May God keep him in his glory," he wrote. "Our country has got out of hand."

 

Claws and Fangs, Oh My!

A Texas woman was attacked by a hawk and a snake at the same time after the bird accidentally dropped the wriggling serpent on her.  64-year-old Peggy Jones was mowing her lawn last month when a passing hawk dropped a snake on her before swooping down to angrily try to reclaim its meal.

The snake wrapped itself around her arm and began striking her face as the bird sunk its talons deep into her flesh.  The terrifying ordeal left her with cuts and bruising to her arm and face.  The bizarre incident took place last month in the town of Silsbee, Texas, near the Louisiana border.

It began after a snake suddenly fell out of the sky and landed on her. Before she could remove it, the hawk attack began.  "As I was trying to sling my arm and sling the snake off, the snake wrapped around my arm," she told CBS News.  "The snake was striking in my face, it struck my glasses a couple of times... I was slinging and slinging, he was striking and striking, and he just kept hanging on."

She realized it must have been dropped by a passing bird, since she was not standing under trees when it happened. Her assumption was quickly confirmed when the hawk swooped down and joined in the melee.  "Then the hawk appeared just as fast as the snake appeared," Jones said.  "The hawk grabbed the snake that was wrapped around my arm and pulled it like he was going to carry it away. And when he did, it flung my arm up. The hawk was carrying my arm and the snake with it."

The hawk struggled to remove the snake from Jones' body, stabbing her with its talons repeatedly as it attempted to snatch back its food.  Jones was in the back of the property, while her husband was out front. She tried to scream for help, and then she started screaming for Jesus. "I was screaming, 'Please Jesus, just help me,'" she said tearfully. 

The hawk couldn't immediately get the snake detangled from Jones' arm, she said. It swooped in about four times, its wings flapping around her, causing a bloody brawl. Finally, the snake was released from her arm, and Jones says she ran toward her husband, "hysterical" and covered in blood. Her forearm had been ripped up by the hawk's talons. Once she reached him, he couldn't comprehend what she was trying to tell him, she said.  He drove her to the hospital, where she was treated for puncture wounds, cuts, abrasions, scratches and severe bruising.  

Jones said she was given antibiotics and, because they were unsure at first if the snake was venomous, she stayed up all night monitoring her wounds. "Not that I could've slept anyway," she said, adding that she doesn't think the snake bit her and remains unsure what kind of snake it was.Jones described the attack as severely traumatic, adding that she thought she was going to die and has had trouble sleeping since it happened.

She said that living in rural Texas, she is no stranger to wildlife encounters. "I've actually seen a hawk pick up a snake. That's something they do, that's how they kill their prey," she said.   But now, she says, its something that she will always keep in mind.

 

Satire is Apparently Now Illegal in Jordan

After a decade lampooning the region’s kings, autocrats and despots, the satirical website AlHudood has been blocked in Jordan, where it was founded in 2013, with Isam  Uraiqat and his team of comedy writers now effectively personae non grata. Their offense? Mocking the lavish wedding of the kingdom’s crown prince.

Comedians and satirists were on the leading edge of the Arab Spring, the wave of protests that brought down or weakened dictators from 2010 to 2012. Bassem Youssef, known as Egypt’s Jon Stewart, ridiculed powerful politicians from across the political spectrum, drawing millions of viewers until his show was canceled in 2014. In the early years of Syria’s civil war, an anonymous collective of puppeteers poked fun at Bashar al-Assad and his regime.

But while parts of the Middle East are in the midst of a modernization push that is bringing raves to the Saudi desert and Israelis to World Cup games in Qatar, the region is still wrestling with how seriously to take itself. Police crackdowns and a flurry of new laws restricting free speech are growing.   “The space for comedy and political satire in the Middle East has shrunk,” said Céline Assaf Boustani, president of Human Rights Foundation, a New York-based human rights organization. Many comedians, including Youssef, now reside in exile in the West.

The United Arab Emirates, a favorite target of AlHudood, or “the Limit,” blocked the satirical website two years ago. Egyptian authorities detained three TikTok influencers earlier this year after they posted a parody video about visiting an inmate in the country’s feared prisons. Algeria’s satirical website, El Manchar, cited government pressure when it shut down in 2020. In July, the U.A.E. arrested an influencer living in the country after he posted a biting parody of an Emirati on an exorbitant spending spree.

The AlHudood website is irreverent and ruthless in challenging feared Middle East rulers and daily political life in the region.  It has published sardonic stories about a joint Saudi-Turkish “counter-journalism agreement,” a British-French team of crocodiles patrolling the English Channel looking for migrant boats, and an Israeli offer to help the Syrian government bomb Syrian cities.

But it was AlHudood’s coverage earlier this summer of a royal wedding that seemed to be the final straw in Jordan. It published a series of stories pillorying Jordan’s royal family for spending so much on the wedding when millions in the country struggle with poverty.

Uraiqat suspects that the post that got him in trouble was one about the royal wedding that urged citizens to “be happy, dog,” a pointed insult in the Middle East. Uraiqat suspects that the government thought the reference was to the crown prince who was getting married, not the average citizen. The Jordanian government declined to comment on its reasons for imposing the ban.

In Jordan, widely regarded as one of the region’s more progressive countries, the government is clamping down on its online critics, including AlHudood. The country’s parliament last month approved a cybercrime bill that expands the government’s powers to prosecute people accused of undermining national unity. In a statement ahead of the vote, a State Department spokesman warned that the draft law could “further shrink the civic space that journalists, bloggers, and other members of civil society operate in.”

Rise in Anti-LGBT Sentiment in Israel

Activist Yair ("Yaya") Fink filed a police complaint after Rabbi Zvi Thau called on his followers to “wage war" against “postmodernism” and LGBT people which he called a "crime against humanity."  Thau’s new book does not explicitly refer to the word LGBT, but it does frequently discuss matters relating to LGBT people, referring to the LGBT community as a “new culture of eliminating the family.” 

The book complains about efforts to place “parent 1” and “parent 2” in lieu of “father” and “mother” on government forms, among other issues. The book focuses largely on family structure, including comments such as “the period of childhood is a very important period for instilling basic values ​​and basic distinctions, and when a child does not have a father and a mother, all the normal relation to his origin, his past, and his future is blurred.” Thau's book refers to this situation as a "crime against humanity."

Thau has been accused of raping and sexually abusing at least two women. Israel Police announced in June that they had completed the investigation into the rabbi’s case and had transferred the materials collected to the State Attorney’s Office. There have been no updates since.

 

Thau was one of the founders of the Hazon movement which made its debut ahead of elections in 2019 with a large banner at the entrance to Jerusalem reading “A father and a mother = a family. The courage to be normal."  While Hazon’s campaign targeted a variety of topics, including work and public transport on Shabbat, the vast majority of the campaign focused on anti-LGBT matters.

 

The Hazon movement has been replaced by the Noam Party, which ran on an identical campaign, with its tagline being “a normal nation in our land.” The head of the party has expressed strong opposition to LGBT people and Reform Jews.

Yair Fink, who filed the police complaint against Thau, stated "There are important and dark rabbis who have forgotten what it is to be Jewish and continue to incite against hundreds of thousands of members of the LGBT community. When a leading rabbi in the community calls on his followers to take action, the action may be taken. The police must act a moment before the next murder.”   The Agudah - The Association for LGBTQ Equality in Israel - condemned Thau’s comments as well, stating “Iran is here." The Agudah added that it had filed a police complaint against Thau, saying the rabbi was inciting violence with his comments.

LGBT-phobia has been on the rise in recent years and has spiked since the government led by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu took office.

 

Church People Being All Funny

 

Judge Reacting To Trump Threat Against Prosecutor

Federal District Judge Tanya Chutkan has ordered Donald Trump's lawyers to file a response to Special Counsel Jack Smith's motion in response to Trump's social media threat.  News broke Friday night that Smith reacted to a Trump  Truth social post — which said “If you go after me, I’m coming after you” — by filing a request for a protective order, arguing Trump posts could have a chilling effect on witnesses.

 n her motion, Smith wrote:  "All the proposed order seeks to prevent is the improper dissemination or use of discovery materials, including to the public. Such a restriction is particularly important in this case because the defendant has previously issued public statements on social media regarding witnesses, judges, attorneys, and others associated with legal matters pending against him. And in recent days, regarding this case, the defendant has issued multiple posts—either specifically or by implication—including the following, which the defendant posted just hours ago:

 If the defendant were to begin issuing public posts using details—or, for example, grand jury transcripts—obtained in discovery here, it could have a harmful chilling effect on witnesses or adversely affect the fair administration of justice in this case."

Smith’s team included a proposed order for Federal District Judge Tanya Chutkan to sign if she approves it, which reads, in part: "The defendant and defense counsel shall not disclose the Materials or their contents directly or indirectly to any person or entity other than persons employed to assist in the defense, persons who are interviewed as potential witnesses, counsel for potential witnesses, and other persons to whom the Court may authorize disclosure (collectively, “Authorized Persons”). Potential witnesses and their counsel may be shown copies of the Materials as necessary to prepare the defense, but they may not retain copies without prior permission of the Court."

On Saturday, Judge Chutkan ordered Trump’s team to file a response, as well as their own version of a proposed order. The judge wrote: "MINUTE ORDER as to DONALD J. TRUMP: It is hereby ORDERED that by 5:00 PM on August 7, 2023, Defendant shall file a response to the government’s 10 Motion for Protective Order, stating Defendant’s position on the Motion. If Defendant disagrees with any portion of the government’s proposed Protective Order, ECF No. 10-1, his response shall include a revised version of that Protective Order with any modifications in redline. Signed by Judge Tanya S. Chutkan on 08/05/2023"