Death of a War Criminal

Henry Kissinger has died at his home in Connecticut-- the notorious war criminal was 100.

Yale University historian Greg Grandin, author of the biography Kissinger’s Shadow, estimates that Kissinger’s actions from 1969 through 1976 (a period of eight brief years when Kissinger  was National security adviser and secretary of state) resulted in the deaths of between three and four million people. That includes “crimes of commission,” he explained, as in Cambodia and Chile, and omission, like greenlighting Indonesia’s bloodshed in East Timor; Pakistan’s bloodshed in Bangladesh; and the inauguration of an American tradition of using and then abandoning the Kurds.

“The Cubans say there is no evil that lasts a hundred years, and Kissinger is making a run to prove them wrong,” Grandin told Rolling Stone not long before Kissinger died. “There is no doubt he’ll be hailed as a geopolitical grand strategist, even though he bungled most crises, leading to escalation. He’ll get credit for opening China, but that was De Gaulle’s original idea and initiative.  He’ll be praised for detente, and that was a success, but he undermined his own legacy by aligning with the neocons. And of course, he’ll get off scot free from Watergate, even though his obsession with Daniel Ellsberg really drove the crime.”

Anthony Bourdain eloquently condemned Kissinger  when he wrote:

Rich Idiot on Display

With his social media site bleeding cash and advertisers bolting after he amplified antisemitism and a report emerged that claimed ads were placed on the site alongside pro-Nazi content, Elon Musk on Tuesday revisited the conspiracy theory well and fished out ... Pizzagate.

“Does seem at least a little suspicious,” Musk wrote in a social media post-- alongside a meme about the widely discredited 2016-era conspiracy.  In a six-panel image featuring characters from “The Office,” the meme said “Pizzagate is real-- They trafficked children.”  

The widely debunked conspiracy, peddled by far-right personalities like Alex Jones in the final days of the 2016 election, claimed a child sex trafficking ring was operating out of the basement of a D.C.-area pizza shop frequented by high-profile politicians including Hillary Clinton.  Absolutely no evidence supports the claim ― the building doesn’t even have a basement ― though that didn’t stop fringe elements from violently descending upon the establishment.

In December 2016, a 28-year-old man, egged on by YouTube videos about theory, fired an assault rifle inside the restaurant and threatened employees, believing he was “standing up against a corrupt system that kidnaps, tortures and rapes babies.”   He later pleaded guilty to federal charges and acknowledged his “intel” wasn’t “100 percent.”   In a different incident, another man attempted to set fire to the building.

The post is Musk’s second Pizzagate-related missive in a little over a week. Last week, he amplified a message attempting to tie Media Matters to the owner of the pizza restaurant.  Musk is currently suing the media watchdog after it published a report about major brands’ ads appearing alongside posts promoting Nazism.

It’s unclear when (or how) Musk might get his advertisers to come back, but his ongoing flirtation with conspiracy theories and bigots on his platform don’t appear to be helping matters.

 

UK PM Rishi Sunak Digs Himself a Diplomatic Hole

Tory Prime Minister Rishi Sunak unwittingly got himself embroiled in a deepening row with a NATO ally after unexpectedly cancelling a meeting the Greek Prime Minister.  Sunak's government believed it had assurances that Greek PM Kyriakos Mitsotakis would not speak publicly about the Parthenon Sculptures (i.e., the Elgin Marbles) while on his UK visit.  But they were wrong.

On Sunday, Greece's leader said in an interview with the BBC that having some of the treasures in London and others in Athens was like cutting the Mona Lisa in half.   When asked by Laura Kuenssberg during the interview, the Greek PM had called for the sculptures to be returned.  He said they were "essentially stolen" and called for a partnership with the British Museum so people could "appreciate" the works "in their original setting".

In a childish reaction, Sunak's office scrapped the PM's meeting with Mitsotakis at the last minute.  British political observers have described the row as "pathetic".  The Greek government confirmed that there had been no assurances given to the UK over Mitsotakis talking about the sculptures while he was in the UK.

The sculptures are a collection of ancient Greek treasures from the Parthenon in Athens which were stolen by British diplomat Lord Elgin in the early 19th Century. They have been in the British Museum since 1832, aside from a stint in Aldwych Tube station during World War Two to prevent damage and one marble being loaned to a Russian museum in 2014.

A Greek minister branded the row a "bad day" for British-Greek relations.  Adonis Georgiadis told the BBC that Sunak's decision was a "mistake" adding, "What [the Greek PM] mentioned in his interview is not just his own opinion, it is the single one opinion of 11 million Greek people."

Professor Irene Stamatoudi, a former member of the advisory committee for the Greek Minister of Culture, said the row "makes Rishi Sunak look no better than Lord Elgin,"  adding that it was "not possible" for the Greek PM not to respond to questions about the Parthenon Sculptures.

Mitsotakis told reporters he was "deeply disappointed by the abrupt cancellation" of the talks.  Sources with knowledge of the mood in the Greek government have suggested Mitsotakis was both "baffled" and "annoyed".  Greek government spokesperson Pavlos Marinakis said that "Britain's attitude shows no respect for the prime minister and our country."

There is an ongoing wider debate around the place of museums and their collections in a post-colonial world, with Sunak seemingly positioning himself decisively on one side of that argument.   Lord Vaizey, who chairs the advisory board of the Parthenon Project dedicated to returning the Parthenon Sculptures to Greece, said it was "odd" for Sunak  to cancel the meeting. The ex-culture minister said: "It is tied up to a certain extent in the traditional culture wars, where anyone who dares to say that British history wasn't perfect is somehow unpatriotic.   The trouble with that is that, from what I can gather, every opinion poll that surveys the British public says that they do think that the sculptures should be returned."

A Labor Party spokesman told the BBC: "To pick a fight with a NATO ally for the sake of a headline shows just how weak Rishi Sunak is."

 

Thai Groom Kills Wife, In-Laws at Wedding

Thai para-athlete and former soldier shot his bride and three others before killing himself on his wedding day. Groom Chaturong Suksuk, 29 and Kanchana Pachunthuek, 44, were married on Saturday in north-east Thailand.   According to reports, he left the wedding party abruptly and returned with a gun, shooting his wife, her 62-year-old mother and 38-year-old sister.  Stray bullets hit two guests, who were taken to hospital. One of them died.

Police said Chaturong "was quite intoxicated at the time", but his motive remains unclear. He had bought the gun and ammunition legally last year, they added.  Thai media, citing what guests at the party told the police, said the couple had an argument during the party. It also reported that Chaturong had felt insecure about the age gap between him and Kanchana.

Chaturong and Kanchana had lived together for three years before they married, according to Thai media. Chaturong had clinched a silver medal in swimming at the Asean Para Games in Indonesia last year. He was also believed to be on the list of athletes competing in the World Abilitysport Games in Thailand next month.  He had lost his right leg while on duty with the paramilitary light infantry force, which patrols Thailand's borders.

While mass shootings are rare, gun ownership is common in Thailand.  Last month, three people were killed in a shooting in a luxury mall in Bangkok. And last October, a former policeman killed 37 children in a gun and knife attack at a nursery in north-east Thailand. 

 

Divas Doing it Right

Keeping it Real on Black Friday

Thirty Seconds to Mars - Seasons

Happy Thanksgiving to all Hungry Monsters

Tennesse Blazing a Trail to Bigotry

Locals of a Tennessee city are using a recently passed ordinance basically prohibiting homosexuality in public as a loophole to ban library books they consider gay.

Rural town Murfreesboro in June passed an ordinance banning "indecent behavior," which includes "indecent exposure, public indecency, lewd behavior, nudity or sexual conduct." The rule seems overtly targeted at the gay community, as journalist Erin Reed first reported the mention of Section 21-72 in the ordinance, which states that sexual conduct includes homosexuality, essentially banning all forms of public affection for gay couples besides talking

Citizens found violating the new rule will be barred from hosting public events or selling goods and services at them for two years. Those who are caught breaking the ordinance "in the presence of minors" will be barred for five years. Naturally, an ACLU-supported challenge to the restriction has been set into motion, but city officials have gone ahead and ratified the measure.

Last week, the Rutherford County steering committee met to discuss banning all books that may violate the new ordinance, which resulted in public backlash. “When have the people who ban books ever been the good guys?” local activist Keri Lambert exclaimed at the meeting last week.

Four books that possess LGBTQ themes have been removed under the new rule. These include, "Flamer, Let's Talk About It", Queerfully and Wonderfully Made", and "This Book is Gay." 

The new regulations regarding books has worried library director Rita Shacklett who in August voiced concerns about children having access to books they need for class. According to her, many books considered classics in high school English, like "To Kill a Mockingbird," is now considered an adult book, according to The New Republic.

The county steering committee hasn't taken aim at books like "A Song of Ice and Fire series," which depicts multiple instances of heterosexual sexual conduct. Murfreesboro's new ordinance is a small piece of a larger effort to target LGBTQ rights in Tennessee, which was the first state to attempt a ban on drag shows. That law was overturned in court. 

 

Bleachers - Modern Girl

A Tale of Botox, Boots, Blush and Smut

Today, the House Ethics Committee released a report so damning that Santos immediately announced he will not, in fact, run again, claiming the decision is because “my family deserves better than to be under the gun from the press all the time” rather than because, say, the report detailed “substantial evidence” of “uncharged unlawful and unethical conduct” on top of the 23 federal criminal charges Santos already faces.

According to the report Santos blatantly stole from his campaign. He deceived donors into providing what they thought were contributions to his campaign but were in fact payments for his personal benefit. He reported fictitious loans to his political committees to induce donors and party committees to make further contributions to his campaign—and then diverted more campaign money to himself as purported “repayments” of those fictitious loans.

Santos was also using an LLC he had created to collect money that contributors were told was for independent expenditures supporting his campaign—but the money was then transferred to his personal bank account.  On October 21, 2022, RedStone’s bank account received a $25,000 wire from an account affiliated with Contributor 2. From there, $25,000 was transferred from RedStone’s account to Representative Santos’ personal checking account. On October 26, 2022, RedStone’s bank account received a $25,000 wire from an account affiliated with Contributor 1. On the same date, the $25,000 was transferred from RedStone to a different personal checking account owned by Representative Santos. After the $50,000 from RedStone was deposited into Representative Santos’ personal accounts, the funds were used to, among other things: pay down personal credit card bills and other debt; make a $4,127.80 purchase at Hermes; and for smaller purchases at Only Fans; Sephora; and for meals and for parking.

Those are much bigger thefts than simply using campaign funds to live well day to day—which Santos also did. Over the course of two days in July 2022, he spent $2,281.52 in campaign funds in Atlantic City, although his campaign calendar did not list any events. Earlier in the same month, he spent $3,332.81 on an AirBnB in the Hamptons. In December 2021, he told staff he was in Las Vegas for his honeymoon—but put hotel and taxi charges on a campaign credit card.

During the 2020 campaign, a $1,500 purchase on the campaign debit card was made at Mirza Aesthetics; this expense was not reported to the FEC and was noted as “Botox” in expense spreadsheets produced to the ISC by Ms. Marks. Similarly, the $1,400 charge at Virtual Skin Spa was a campaign debit card purchase that was also described as “Botox” in the spreadsheets produced by Ms. Marks. The ISC also identified an unreported PayPal payment of $1,029.30 to an esthetician associated with a spa in Rhinebeck, New York.

Santos has already survived one expulsion vote, in part thanks to Democrats who opposed expelling him before the ethics report was released. But another expulsion attempt is likely coming.  

 

Faithful to the Very End

A 14-year-old Jack Russell terrier named Finney stayed near her owner's body for two months after the pair went missing while hiking in the Rocky Mountains of southern Colorado.  71-year-old Rich Moore was found dead by a hunter the day before Halloween. He was last seen heading into Colorado's San Juan mountains alongside Finney on August 19.  When Moore's body was found, Finney was still alive and waiting nearby.   It remains unclear how Finney managed to survive for so long.

The day after the discovery, a search and rescue team flew to the site to recover Moore's body.  Finney received treatment at a veterinary hospital, then was reunited with Moore's family.  Archuleta County Coroner Brad Hunt said that Moore died of hypothermia. "Basically, he got up into the area hiking and looked as though he had gotten disoriented," Hunt added.

Moore was attempting to summit the 12,500-foot Blackhead Peak, located about 20 miles outside his home in Pagosa Springs.  He was reported missing after he failed to return home later that evening. Authorities spent about 2,000 hours searching for him but were unsuccessful.  Taos Search and Rescue (TSAR), a volunteer group that helps locate people missing in remote areas, said in a Facebook post it too had conducted a search with a sniffer dog between the summit and the area where Moore's car was parked.

TSAR member Delinda Vanne-Brightyn added that the area was so steep that she had to be taken in via helicopter.  Moore's body was found in a drainage basin about 2.5 miles east of the mountaintop.  "So sad, and yet so beautiful that the little Jack Russell stayed with him for all these weeks," one user wrote on the TSAR Facebook post. "Sometimes tragedies remind us of the bond between man and his best friend."

"There is no love like the unconditional love of dogs," another added. "Such faithfulness."  Officials haven't announced Moore's cause of death but do not suspect foul play, the Denver Gazette reported.

 

Shocking Death of LGBTQ Activist Judge in Mexico

Mexico's first openly non-binary member of the judiciary and prominent LGBTQ+ activist Jesús Ociel Baena has been found dead, after receiving death threats because of Baena's gender identity, authorities said.  The body of the magistrate was discovered in the central city of Aguascalientes, in the home Baena shared with a partner.

Security Minister Rosa Icela Rodriguez said it was unclear if it was a homicide or some kind of accident.  According to a statement from the state attorney-general's Office, there was no sign that a third person had entered the house. Authorities said that a sharp object had been found and that preliminary findings suggested the incident could have been a personal matter.  Many murder investigations in Mexico have a history of being quickly minimized by authorities as crimes of passion.

The LGBTQ+ rights group Letra S has urged local authorities to investigate the deaths thoroughly and without prejudice.  Alejandro Brito, the group's director, said that Baena had received "many hate messages, and even threats of violence and death."   Brito added that Baena had been "breaking through the invisible barriers that closed in the nonbinary community".

The 38-year-old became a magistrate for the Aguascalientes state electoral court in October 2022 and was thought to be the first non-binary person in Latin America to take up a judicial position.  In June, Baena was among the first group of people to be issued gender-neutral passports.  "I am a non-binary person, I am not interested in seeing myself as a woman or a man," Baena wrote on social media the same month.  "This is an identity, it is mine and for me, for no one else."  Baena would regularly publish photos and videos dressed in skirts, heels and toting a rainbow fan in court offices while advocating for LGBTQ+ issues.

A vigil was held for Baena by other LGBTQ+ activists in the capital, Mexico City.  "We are heirs to a struggle that Ociel inherited from us," one person said.  "We must not let Ociel's death pass in vain and we must carry on the legacy Ociel left us."   The former chief justice of Mexico's Supreme Court, Arturo Zaldivar, wrote on social media that he deeply regretted the magistrate's death. "We lost a strong voice for equality and the rights of LGBTI+ people," he said. 

 

Toxic Haze in Dehli After Diwali Festival

Residents of India's capital, Delhi, woke up to smoky skies as air quality dropped after the festival of Diwali.  People in the city had set off fire crackes late into Sunday night despite a ban on fireworks due to high pollution levels. Delhi has been battling toxic air for weeks, with the government announcing an early winter break for schools in an effort to protect children.  The city has high pollution through the year due to factors including vehicular emissions and dust.

But the problem becomes worse in winter as farmers in neighboring states burn crop stubble. Low wind speeds also trap pollutants - such as those produced by firecrackers - in the lower atmosphere, making it hard to breathe.

On Monday afternoon, the Air Quality Index (AQI) in Delhi was 445, with some places recording readings above 520. The AQI measures the level of PM 2.5 particulates in the air-- particulates that can clog lungs and cause a host of diseases.  Levels between 101 and 200 are considered moderate, while those between 201 and 300 are poor. Between 301 and 400 is categorised as "very poor" and a figure higher than 400 is considered "severe".

India's Supreme Court has banned the use of firecrackers during Diwali, only allowing "green crackers" or those with reduced emissions. The Delhi government has also banned firecrackers during Diwali for the past few years, but there is little enforcement of the rule.

The ban on fireworks took on political tones when Hindu nationalist argued that the Supreme Court ban was an attempt to target Hindu festivals.  Delhi's environment minister Gopal Rai alleged that leaders from Modi's Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)  had "incited" people to light firecrackers.  "The bursting of firecrackers has increased pollution levels in Delhi. Not many people have burst firecrackers but it was done in some places in a targeted manner," said Mr Rai, who is from the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP).  Virendra Sachdeva, the BJP's Delhi president, told local media that it wasn't right to blame people celebrating the festival for the rise in pollution levels. He said that instead, the AAP was to blame for not having a concrete plan to deal with the issue.

 In the meantime, the residents of Dehli suffer from the airborne pollutants.  The World Health Organization's guidelines say that exposure to PM 2.5 particulates over a 24-hour-period should be limited to 15 micro grams per cubic meter - but Delhi's AQI in some parts has been 30 times higher than the recommended level.  Lung specialists say breathing the capital's toxic air is akin to smoking 25-30 cigarettes a day. Prolonged exposure to high levels of pollution can cause discomfort and breathing difficulties for people. It can also trigger skin and eye irritation and cause severe neurological, cardiovascular and respiratory diseases like asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, bronchitis, lung capacity loss, emphysema, cancer, and increased mortality rates.

 

Son of Hollywood Agent Arrested After Discovery of Headless Torso in Dumpster

The search is on for a missing Los Angeles woman and her parents after her husband was arrested on suspicion of murder after a body part was found in a dumpster in back to their home. 35-year-old Samuel Haskell is in custody after someone looking through a dumpster found a bag containing an unidentified female torso, the Los Angeles Police Department said.

Investigators say they tracked the headless torso back to the home Haskell shared with his 37-year-old wife Mei Li and her parents Gaoshan Li and Yanxiang Wang.  When officers went to the home, police say they discovered blood and other evidence inside the residence, CNN affiliate KABC reported.  Samuel Haskell is being held on $2,000,000 bail, police said. The couple's three childrenn are being cared for by family members, according to police.

Haskell is the son of Emmy-winning producer and Hollywood agent Sam Haskell, who has served as an agent for Kathie Lee Gifford, Whoopi Goldberg, Dolly Parton, George Clooney and others.

Investigators told KABC that no additional body parts beyond the torso have been discovered and that DNA results from the torso are pending, but Los Angeles Police Department Capt. Scot Williams said the torso is presumed to be Mei Li Haskell, the Los Angeles Times reports.

“Typically if someone, a murder suspect, is dismembering a body, it’s to delay identification,” LAPD Detective Efren Gutierrez told CNN affiliate KCBS Wednesday. “So that by implication would mean that they may have been known to each other.” 

 

Happy Veterans Day

Jimmy Buffett - Bubbles Up

52-Year Mystery of the Man on Led Zeppelin Cover

The image should be familiar to millions, and iconic to a generation of rock fans.  But it's also the subject of a 52-year mystery that has finally been solved. The old, bearded, hunched-over man toting a big bundle of sticks as seen on the cover of the 1971 album known as Led Zeppelin IV is none other than Lot Long.  That name won’t ring a bell to anyone in these days, but if you needed your Wiltshire cottage roof thatched back in the 1890s, the guy just might have been your go-to dude.

In a story of coincidence and happenstance, the identity of the Victorian-era roof-thatcher has finally been established, more than a half-century since a colorized copy of the original black-and-white photo captured the attention of Led Zeppelin guitarist Jimmy Page and singer Robert Plant. Neither of them knew who the man was when they came across the colorized photo while browsing an antique shop outside London way back when.   Previously believed to be a painting, the cover art features a Victorian thatcher depicted in the English countryside in 1892.  The photograph was taken by Ernest Howard Farmer, and depicts a man from the picturesque town of Mere in Wiltshire. At the time of the photo being taken in 1892, Long was a widower residing in a modest cottage on Shaftesbury Road in Mere.

The intriguing story of the photo’s identification has been revealed in a New York Times story from London correspondent Claire Moses. The big reveal comes exactly 52 years to the day since the November 8, 1971, release of the album many consider Zeppelin’s masterpiece, the album containing the FM radio standard Stairway to Heaven.”

The most recent chapter of the story begins with Brian Edwards, a visiting research fellow at the University of the West of England who was scouring the internet for new releases at auction houses. Edwards came across a Victorian photo album of landscapes and houses. Flipping through, he came across an image he first saw when he bought Led Zeppelin IV the year it was released.

“There was something familiar about it straight away,” Edwards said. He made a quick phone call to his wife – for a “sanity check,” he says – and concluded that yes, the photo was the guy on the album cover, albeit a black-and-white version as opposed to the colorized version on the album.

Edwards’ next call was to the Wiltshire Museum, where the Victorian photo album was up for auction. Edwards, who had curated an exhibit at the museum in 2021, learned that the photo album, titled Reminiscences of a visit to Shaftesbury, was the work of a man named Ernest Howard Farmer, who had taken, compiled and inscribed the photo album sometime during the Victorian Era as a gift for his aunt.  The man in the photo was identified as Lot Long, a 69-year-old man who thatched roofs for cottages in rural Wiltshire, a county in southwestern England, in the 1890s.

As for how the image ended up on the cover of Led Zeppelin IV, apparently Page and Plant were browsing an antique shop in Pangbourne, a village about 50 miles west of London along the River Thames, when they spotted a colorized version of the photo. Edwards theorizes that the photographer, who also taught photography, had used a black and white print of the image to teach students how to colorize photos.  The colorized print purchased by Page and Plant has long since been lost.  As for the solving of the mystery, Edwards admitted, “It sounds like good detective work, but in truth there was a lot of luck involved. I caught a few good breaks.”

 

The GOP is an All Around Loser on Election Day

The GOP was a big time loser in yesterday's elections-- striking out across multiple fronts.

Ohio voters easily passed the measure enshrining abortion rights in the state constitution, as expected, by a double-digit margin.

Kentucky Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear won his reelection fight in one of the reddest states in the country (and the one with the most evangelical voters) by forcefully defending both trans and abortion rights. 

In a race with clear relevance to 2024, Democrats won a key open seat on the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, maintaining their 5-2 majority. Republicans ran a 2020 election denier, who told The Philadelphia Inquirer editorial board, “I have no idea" whether Joe Biden won the presidential race. 

Democrats expanded their leads in both the New Jersey state Senate (+1) and House (+3), and exonerated “Central Park Five” member Yusef Salaam won a New York City Council seat.

And finally . . . in Virginia, Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin-- who had been in a practical love fest with the media (and generating lots of buzz as a potential late presidential challenger)-- claimed Republicans were on their way to a "trifecta." With the red-vested wonderboy sitting as governor, the GOP was looking to hold their advantage in the House of Delegates, and then flip the state Senate-- giving Youngkin the ability to pass his silly agenda (including restrictions on abortion).  Sadly, his hopes and dreams all came crashing down as Democrats held the Senate and flipped the House—which is now on the verge of electing its first Black speaker.

 

Just Keeping it Real

Meadows Learning That Kharma's a Bitch

All Seasons Press is a publishing company that paid Meadows a $350,000 advance to write his smarmy supposed tell-all book about his time in Donald Trump's White House. Now they're suing him for that money back and a whole lot more.

After Meadows got limited immunity in order to compel his testimony to a grand jury investigating Donald Trump's attempts to nullify his 2020 presidential election loss, Meadows testified under oath that there was no evidence of "fraud" that would have put the election's results in doubt, that he repeatedly told Trump that the claims were baseless, and that Trump was "dishonest" when he claimed to have won the election.

The problem for All Seasons Press is that all of this directly conflicts with what Meadows claimed in his book had happened. In other words, Meadows lied his ass off when writing the book.  According to All Seasons' court filing, "Meadows’ reported statements to the Special Prosecutor and/or his staff and his reported grand jury testimony squarely contradict the statements in his Book, one central theme of which is that President Trump was the true winner of the 2020 Presidential Election and that election was ‘stolen’ and ‘rigged’ with the help from ‘allies in the liberal media,’ who ignored ‘actual evidence of fraud.’”

When you pay a habitual liar $350,000 to write a book, you can hardly act surprised when it turns out to be riddled with lies. It was fine when Meadows was lying but nobody could prove it; having him testify that his book was full of made-up bullshit makes all the other criticism irrelevant.

The company is asking for the $350,000 it paid Meadows as an advance for the book, $600,000 in out-of-pocket damages, and at least $1 million each for reputational damage suffered by the company and loss of expected profits for the book, which they argue plummeted given Meadows’s involvement in numerous investigations regarding Jan. 6.  Meadows did apparently sign a contract claiming that "all statements contained in the Work are true," so it's likely that they'll probably get their $350,000 back, 

 

Things Aren't Going Well For Trump in New York

So where are we with Donald Trump's New York fraud trial?  Let's catch up with Lawrence O'Donnell:

"When you think "construction guy"-- do you think Eric Trump?  That's what he wants you to think when he said, "I'm an operator, I'm a construction guy.  I build projects  I don't focus on appraisals."  That's what Eric Trump, witness #23 said  under oath today in a Manhattan courtroom today as he answered questions in the civil fraud trial brought by New York Attorney General Letitia James against Donald Trump and his two co-defendant sons-- Donald Jr. and Eric.  Donald Trump's daughter Ivanka avoided being a co-defendant because of the statute of limitations.

Eric Trump spent the day trying to say that he has no idea what any parts of the Trump business are worth even thought he has made many many public statements over the years about exactly that.  The judge in the case has already ruled that the Trumps used fraudulent valuations of their  assets-- and so each Trump who has taken the stand so far has tried has tried to avoid any connection to those fraudulent valuations.  Eric Trump said under oath, "I never had anything to do with the statements of financial condition."  But when he was shown emails indicating he was consulted about such valuations, he admitted "It appears that way."  Donald Trump Jr. finished his testimony today before his younger brother Eric took the witness stand.  Their father did not bother to come to the courtroom in their support today-- instead, he posted this; "So sad to see my sons being persucuted by a Trump-hating judge." 

Donald Trump biographer Tim O'Brien (who won in court when he was sued by Trump) delivered his own assessment of the single most important witness in the trial so far-- that of Eric Trump:

"It's [all] just so absurd.  You know, Eric Trump does not have callouses on his hands.  Eric Trump has never labored in the hot sun on a highway making sure it's smooth, or on the driveway going to Bedminster [golf course] or wherever else he's talking about.    And it sort of highlights the fact that in a family full of people who dissemble and are profoundly unsophisticated and ignorant, Eric Trump is unusually ignorant and unusually unsophisticated.  They had someone on the stand today who once said, "We don't need to borrow money from banks-- we can get all the money we need from Russia." 

And he is-- like the other Trump children--now in a court of law having years, months and days of dissembling tested against the documents, tested against his own testimony-- and he's left to his own devices, cause his father's not there. So all of these years of sitting at their father's knee and learning that you can try to spin the media, or try to spin the banks, or try to spin the taxman without being held accountable, is actually coming home to roost now in a courtroom-- and the father's not there. So good job, dad!  You've led your children through life teaching them that they can try to get by on spin and they can try to get by on falsehoods.  But at the end of the day, you're going to be left alone like everyone around Donald Trump is-- because loyalty is a one-way street in the Trump universe and he's even leaving his son hanging here.

But it's also (I think) another moment in which you have this accrual of information that's all  consistent across every day of testimony-- that the Trumps routinely were not truthful about how much their assets were worth.   They were not ever really truthful about the nature of their business-- and that's the core prosecution here.  It's that they lied to banks; they lied to tax authorities about the value of what they owned-- and they're now being held accountable for it in a public forum.  And they have the worst (the worst!) witness you could ever have in a scenario like that-- which is Eric.  Who, even among his siblings (even among his siblings!)  was routinely derided as being incapable and a bit of a doofus.  And no one's around to back him up-- including Trump's own lawyers, and the father himself."

The Beatles - Now and Then

What is Going On With this Weirdo the GOP Elected as House Speaker?

Louisiana's Mike Johnson was a back-benching nobody until he was suddenly elected speaker of the House. Because of his low profile, you’d expect Republicans to have vetted him more. But day by day, new information keeps bubbling up about his long history of bigotry and deep involvement with a conversion therapy-backing “ex-gay” group that launched a campaign to bully LGBTQ+ kids.

If that weren’t enough, Johnson’s personal finances are now under scrutiny. In financial disclosures, the Johnsons have reported for years that they have no savings accounts, no checking accounts, and no retirement accounts. Needless to say, red flags abound.   That's right--according to a report from The Daily Beast, newly elected Speaker of the House Mike Johnson (a guy who makes over $170K a year and has a mortgage) has no assets. Or at least, no assets that he notes on his required annual financial disclosures. That means he has no savings account. No checking account. No retirement account. And neither does his wife.

As the director of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington told The Daily Beast, “It’s strange to see Speaker Johnson disclose no assets. He made over $200,000 last year, and his wife took home salary from two employers as well, so why isn’t there a bank account or any form of savings listed?”  The simplest explanation is that Johnson is hiding his assets.

In the last few days, Johnson’s wife, Kelly, has taken down the website of her “counseling” business that compared being gay to bestiality and incest. Both husband and wife appear to have spent time scrubbing their past social media posts. And the new speaker appears unable to remember his many scathing editorials and past attempts at anti-LGBTQ+ legislation. And there’s the ongoing mystery over the whereabouts of the man Johnson insists is his adopted Black son.

 

GOP in Favor of Giving Mentally Ill Veterans an Easier Path to Suicide

The Senate approved a measure that would make it easier for veterans with mental issues to get a gun, brushing aside objections from most Democrats and the Department of Veterans Affairs that doing so could hinder suicide prevention efforts. The vote came hours before at least 18 people were killed in a mass shooting in Maine, where authorities have identified an Army reservist as a person of interest.

The legislation would prohibit the VA from reporting veterans who are found incapable of managing their own finances to the FBI's national background check database without first getting a judge's consent. The Senate passed the measure by Sen. John Kennedy, R-La., in a 53-45 vote Wednesday afternoon.

The VA reports the names of veterans who are deemed mentally incompetent to a national criminal background check database used during the purchase of firearms, but the practice has drawn criticism from gun rights advocates in Congress. 

GOP Chairman of the House Veterans Affairs Committee Mike Bost said one of his top priorities was to pass a bill to bar the VA from reporting someone to NICS solely on the basis that they were appointed a fiduciary -- without a judge's order saying the veteran is a danger to themselves and others.

The VA, though, has firmly opposed the bill, pointing to statistics that show a correlation between suicidal ideation and financial issues, and that show suicide attempts involving firearms are more lethal than other methods.

The program at issue "protects some of our most vulnerable veterans, and we do believe that taking firearms away -- not us, but the process -- does protect our veterans," Ron Burke, the VA's deputy under secretary for policy and oversight, testified at a House hearing earlier this year. "Preventing veterans suicide is the No. 1 clinical focus for VA, and we believe that the process works."