DDT Tries to Cover Up His Legal Disasters

Growing more frantic, mob boss Deposed Donald Trump (DDT) threatened Republicans if they don’t impeach President Joe Biden. At a Pennsylvania rally this weekend, he said:

“Any Republican that doesn’t act on Democrat fraud should be immediately primaried and get out—out.”

House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) is leaning toward impeachment to satisfy the far-right members of his caucus, and the less right-wing GOP House members realize that there is no case for any impeachment. The 18 House members in districts that Biden won in 2020 are particularly concerned about supporting his impeachment.

Former New Jersey governor and 2024 GOP presidential candidate Chris Christie called DDT’s indicted allies the “the Corleones with no experience.” He added that the defendants were sent to Mar-a-Lago to delete surveillance tape on the day after a grand jury subpoena asked for it. DDT withheld “confidential classified information from the government for 18 months” after he was asked to return it voluntarily and then lied about having it.  

Before DDT’s weekend demand, he sent a video for the fourth begging attempt to House Republicans since April, demanding they remove all his legal problems.  

DDT’s latest loss came when a federal DDT-appointed judge dismissed his defamation lawsuit against CNN in which DDT said the network connected him to Adolf Hitler. Using the term the “big lie” about DDT’s accusations that the 2020 election was stolen, the network supposedly employed the term repeated by Hitler and Nazi minister of propaganda Joseph Goebbels to make the public believe it:  

“If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it.”

DDT had wanted $475 million from CNN. New York Times Co. v. Sullivan (1964), however, ruled a statement about a public figure must be made with “actual malice” to be considered defamatory. DDT’s attorneys asked that the 1964 Supreme Court be reviewed, an idea that two justices have suggested.

Meanwhile Special Counsel Jack Smith continues to interview numerous witnesses and discovered that DDT privately ridiculed his allies for their “crazy” conspiracy theories about a “stolen” election while he pushed them to use the lies to put him back into the White House. In loyalty to DDT, they made frivolous lawsuits and came up with absurd ideas about calling out the military to college voting machines. Rumors of his perfidy dribbled out at the end of his time in the Oval Office, and many of his employees couldn’t determine what he “believes.”

The news that all the media loved this week, however, was the additional indictments handed down by the grand jury about surveillance tapes on the classified documents at Mar-a-Lago. While the country was on a watch for a new indictment, Smith added a “superseding” indictment with three more charges to the 37 in southern Florida about the classified documents at Mar-a-Lago.

Specifically, the three new criminal charges include two obstruction of justice charges, for “attempting to alter, destroy, mutilate or conceal evidence,” and inducing someone else to do so. DDT also faces another new count of violating the Espionage Act by showing the classified material to people without security clearances. Allegedly, he was part of a scheme to delete security: a newly charged defendant, identified as his Mar-a-Lago property manager, told another employee that “the boss” wanted the server deleted. Carlos De Oliveira, a Mar-a-Lago maintenance supervisor, is charged with obstruction along with DDT and his valet, Walt Nauta.  

New charges may force DDT’s pet judge Aileen Cannon to permit the audio recording from DDT’s resort in New Jersey into evidence. Initially, the taping at Bedminster (NJ) may have caused a venue issue, but the document in question apparently moved from New Jersey to Mar-a-Lago in Florida where the case is being heard.

DDT’s legal fees, already over $40 million in the first half of 2023, have been paid by donations to his PAC, added to $16 million legal costs in the two previous years. Last year, the RNC also ponied up millions for the fees. In addition, the PAC is paying the fees for almost everyone in the investigation who asks for help from DDT and his advisers. DDT now offers to pay De Oliveira’s attorney after Nauta assured DDT De Oliveira is “loyal,” but the newly indicted man can’t find a Florida attorney. His arraignment is on July 31.  

Legal fees are hitting DDT’s Save America PAC so hard that it requested the return of $60 million from another DDT-supporting organization. DDT had moved over $100 million he raised after losing the 2020 election but otherwise spent over $26 million for investigations into him and personal fees. Save America started the year with $18 million cash on hand. Campaign finance authorities are questioning whether DDT can use the PAC for his personal legal bills after he became a candidate last November.

DDT has hired John Tate for his campaign strategist. In 2016, Tate was convicted for campaign finance crimes related to a 2012 bribery scheme supporting then-Rep. Ron Paul’s (R-TX) presidential campaign. DDT pardoned Tate. Another man pardoned by DDT, Eliyahu Weinstein, was again arrested for defrauding investors involving lies about humanitarian supplies destined for Ukraine. Weinstein had been sentenced to 24 years in prison.

DDT is trying to reverse court rulings in two other cases. After a judge in New York refused to move the 34 business fraud and hush money charges from state to federal court, DDT has appeared that decision. The judge determined that the allegations involve no questions of federal law. He wrote:

“The evidence overwhelmingly suggests that the matter was a purely a personal item of the President—a cover-up of an embarrassing event. Hush money paid to an adult film star is not related to a President’s official acts.”

In a RICO lawsuit, DDT relied on Special Counsel John Durham’s report criticizing the FBI’s DDT-Russia probe to bring back his case against Hillary Clinton, the DNC, FBI officials, and over two dozen other individuals and entities. While the federal judge’s dismissal of the case is on appeal at the 11^th Circuit Court, DDT’s attorneys also moved for an indicative ruling, allowing for a trial court to take back jurisdiction of a case already on appeal to consider new evidence or issues not appropriately resolved. DDT claimed a conspiracy among all defendants. Last year, the judge ordered sanctions against DDT’s attorneys because the pleadings “contained factual allegations that were either knowingly false or made in reckless disregard for the truth.”

Federal prosecutors are still investigating DDT for trying to overturn the 2020 election, possibly the subject of a third criminal indictment since March 2023. The target letter to him mentions a civil rights law used to protect elections from interference. The issues include DDT’s pressuring former VP Mike Pence to block the election’s certification before the January 6 insurrection, pushing state and local officials to change election results, and spreading lies about the election.

The law was a provision of the Enforcement Act of 1870, one of several Enforcement Acts nicknamed the Ku Kux Klan Acts, protected the new rights in the 13^th, 14^th, and 15^th Amendments for violation by the KKK. Although poorly enforced since then, laws have been recodified in the past 150 years. Section 241 criminalizes conspiracies to “injure, oppress, threaten, or intimidate any person” from freely exercising a constitutional right. The conspiracy doesn’t need to be successful for it to be a crime. DDT is accused of attempts to threaten the rights of millions of voters by trying to overturn a presidential election outcome, with many of the efforts against Black and Latinx populations.

The barricades going up outside the Fulton County (GA) courthouse indicates the indictments by the grand jury looms. Possible charges against DDT may be accusations that he tried to undermine Georgia’s 2020 elections. DA Fani Willis has announced August 15 as the deadline for the indictments. She may have evidence for racketeering based on influencing witnesses and computer trespass.

No one yet knows whether DDT’s former chief of staff Mark Meadows is rolling on his former boss, but other DDT allies may be helping the feds. Bernard Kerik has given thousands of pages to Smith’s office. He had worked with DDT’s personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani to overturn the election. Giuliani appointed Kerik as New York City police commissioner in 2000 but was then sentenced to four years in prison for pleading guilty to felony charges, including tax fraud and lying to White House officials. DDT pardoned Kerik.

DDT is known for liking shiny objects, and the ancient Jewish artefacts at Mar-a-Lago for the past 18+ months are no different. According to the Israeli daily Haaretz, the ceramic oil lamps and coins, part of the country’s national treasures collection, were only borrowed for Hanukkah in December 2021. They were to be returned within a few weeks, but they were supposedly “stuck” in the U.S because of the pandemic. Saul Fox was to take responsibility for the items, but mysteriously they went to DDT’s Florida residence. Bad publicity likely was responsible for their return.

For years, DDT has bragged about his crimes, and MAGA have delighted in them. DDT’s problem now is his attempted cover-up. Like Richard Nixon, that may be what brings DDT down.

Good News (Mostly) – July 29, 2023

Starting out with the good news, President Joe Biden signed an executive order to change the military’s dealings with sexual assault cases. The order:

• Amends the Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ) by transferring key decision-making powers from commanders to specialized, independent military prosecutors in cases of sexual assault, domestic violence, murder, child abuse, and other serious offenses.
• Sets up rules to govern the new Offices of Special Trial Counsel, the independent military prosecutors who will now decide, in place of commanders, whether to prosecute such offenses.
• Establishes prosecutorial decisions from the special trial counsel that are binding and independent from the military chain of command.
• Better protects victims.
• Promote uniformity and fairness for rape and sexual assault sentencing.
• Guarantees consistency within the military services with a uniform evidence standard for non-judicial punishment actions.
• Advances the core accountability recommendations outlined in a 2021 report by the Independent Review Commission on Sexual Assault in the Military, building on progress that has been already made by the U.S. Department of Defense.

According to last year’s survey by the U.S. Department of Defense, the number of sexual assaults on service members reported in 2021 spiked to a new high of 7,249, a 13 percent increase from the previous year. Despite major efforts to address the issue of sexual assault in the military, including reforms instituted in 2021, women in the military services have significantly lost trust in the military to follow through on their cases or treat them with respect.

A federal judge in Arkansas has temporarily blocked the state from enforcing a new law, due to take effect on August 1, permitting criminal charges against providing “harmful” materials to minors. The preliminary injunction creates a new process challenging library materials and relocate them to areas not accessible by youth. The judge also stopped state prosecuting attorneys from trying to dismiss the case. Booksellers and publishers are also suing to block a new Texas book censorship law, a ratings law that could ban Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet and John Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men” from schools’ classrooms and libraries. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott stated that his signing the law “gets that trash out of our schools.”

Tennessee teachers are fighting back against GOP state laws blocking them from talking about race and forcing them to push “biased” views of history on students. Their lawsuit opposes the deliberately vague law with no definition and making teachers afraid that even neutral mentions of race could cause them to lose their jobs and even go to prison. They claim the law violates the 14th Amendment, requiring laws to be specific.

Republicans claim that the law allows “impartial” discussion but doesn’t define the term although it prohibits any reference to racial superiority such as the violent nature of slavery. The state says any mention of this could make students—meaning white ones—feel guilt. To solve the “problem,” for example, Tipton County replaced an annual field trip to the National Civil Rights Museum in Memphis with a trip to a baseball game. A choir director in Shelby County fears that his decades-long teaching about the history of spirituals will be “divisive.” State Rep. John Ragan (R) explained that teaching “balance” in teaching about the Holocaust of 9/11 could be done by saying the perpetrators of those events were created “in the image and likeness of God,” just like everybody else.

Another federal judge in Montana put a temporary hold on a new law banning minors “from attending ‘sexually oriented shows,’ including “so-called drag story hours, which the law defines as events hosted ‘by a drag queen or drag king who reads children’s books and engages in other learning activities with minor children present.'” The bill “also bans public ‘sexually oriented performances’—including any involving ‘removal or simulated removal of clothing in a sexual manner’—seen by people under the age of 18.”

The extremist right-wing Florida group Moms for Liberty who partnered with the right-wing violent Proud Boys to elect Republicans, including DeSantis, and organized a book banning movement across the nation is now facing an IRS complaint about being a political educational organization. A Michigan attorney alleges that Moms for Liberty violated its 501(c)4 non-profit status. He also questioned the group’s participation in political campaigns and active recruitment of school board candidates. In 2021, the husband of the organization’s co-founder, chair of the Florida GOP, said:

“I have been trying for a dozen years to get 20- and 30-year old females involved with the Republican Party. But now Moms for Liberty has done it for me.”

Reactions to Florida’s curriculum that students see slavery as a help toward better jobs haven’t calmed down. Gov. Ron DeSantis has failed to avoid controversy although he claims that he didn’t have anything to do with the decision. He handpicked all the people who prepared the materials and led the anti-history movement throughout the U.S. Some Black Republicans are supporting DeSantis’ support of the curriculum, but Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC), presidential candidate, and Rep. Ryan MacDonald (R-FL), a leader in putting Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) into the House Speaker position, criticized the curriculum and agree that DeSantis has gone too far.

Scott said that “slavery was really about separating families, about mutilating humans and even raping their wives.” DeSantis responded that they had joined the liberals like VP Kamala Harris, mispronouncing her first name, who said, “They want to replace history with lies.” The two who spoke out are 40 percent of Black Republicans in the Congress.  

DeSantis’ feud against Disney started after the company’s CEO criticized DeSantis’ “don’t say gay” law; the governor has moved on to defunding the police for Disney’s property. The governor’s handpicked Disney board has removed $8 million from the security budget to lower property taxes. Disney pays $1 billion a year in taxes and has 75,000 employees. Defunding the police is not a good look for DeSantis campaign who also faces other possible legal problems.

DeSantis is taking a campaign tour as a “guest” of the super PAC Never Back Down, which is bound by law to be separate from any candidates. In addition, DeSantis is upsetting Republicans and incurring complaints by the Federal Elections Commission. He is using $100 million from his DDT-backed governor reelection campaign to run against Deposed Donald Trump (DDT) and moved $82.5 million from his state political committee to the federal super PAC. Never Back Down used this transfer to claim it raised $150 million. In March, two months before the transfer, the Florida GOP-led election officials reversed the ruling that blocked the transfer of money from state to federal committees.

The purpose of the Supreme Court, one of government’s three branches, is to enforce checks and balances in the U.S. government, but one justice said that those same checks and balances don’t apply to him or the other Supreme Court justices. In a defensive statement to Rupert Murdoch’s Wall Street Journal, Justice Samuel Alito stated:

“No provision in the Constitution gives them the authority to regulate the Supreme Court—period.”

For the current time, this assertion caps a series of WSJ op-ed pieces defending Alito’s position and justifying his taking financial favors organized by Federalist Society leader Leonard Leo. Alito purports that the Supreme Court controls the other two branches of the government. Those refuting his position cite the Constitution, specifically Article III, Section 2:

“In all cases affecting ambassadors, other public ministers and consuls, and those in which a state shall be party, the Supreme Court shall have original jurisdiction. In all the other cases before mentioned, the Supreme Court shall have appellate jurisdiction, both as to law and fact, with such exceptions, and under such regulations as the Congress shall make.”

Attorney and former judge Bob Vance used other parts of the Constitution to point out that “Congress has the power of the purse, controlling funds allocated to the federal judiciary. It can also alter the size of the Supreme Court, which it has done in the past.” Rep Ted Lieu (D-CA) directly wrote Alito:

“You’re on the Supreme Court in part because Congress expanded the court to nine justices. Congress can impeach justices and can in many cases strip the court of jurisdiction. Congress has always regulated you and will continue to do so. You are not above the law.”

Vox senior correspondent Ian Millhiser wrote:

“For the record, Article III judges are not supposed to issue advisory opinions on constitutional questions that are not presented to them in case or controversy that their court properly has jurisdiction over.”

Alito may have the chance to oppose voting rights again after supporting Alabama’s gerrymandered congressional districts to keep Blacks from voting. The state is refusing to following the directive of the 11^th Circuit Court per the high court’s ruling with a GOP plan to overturn the 1965 Voting Rights Act, according to anonymous sources. If the case returns to SCOTUS, Alabama may find a majority of conservatives to support the state’s gerrymandering as it did in Alabama’s Shelby County v. Holder ruling. Alabama AG Steve Marshall is leading the noncompliance charge.

In Georgia, whites are so opposed to Black officials that the Augusta judicial circuit, home to a three-county criminal justice system for over 150 years, lost its whitest county after a Black was elected district attorney in 2020. The state Supreme Court dismissed the Black Lives Matter Fund’s lawsuit, contending that the old circuit’s Black voters were disenfranchised.

 

Congress leaves for 48 Days, House Accomplishes Little

If you care about literacy, education, knowledge, etc., keep this from happening in your school district. Houston—a major city with a population of over 2 million, 189,000 students, and 274 schools—has a state-appointed school superintendent because one schools struggled to meet state standards. He is closing libraries in 28 schools in the eighth-largest U.S. school district and make them into “discipline centers.” No, it’s not a joke. And it’s not part of his budget cut to fire 600 central office positions.

Thanks to federal monies and denial of state services, Texas has a $32 billion surplus. The superintendent generously offers the opportunity for school librarians to apply to other district positions. He calls the program his New Education System and claims that closing the libraries ensures that “the most disadvantaged students in Houston receive the most support.” He picked libraries because they had “the physical space.” The new superintendent’s predecessor planned to put a librarian at every school in a five-year plan. 

Under the “leadership” of House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA), House GOP members grow more polarized. Their current solution? Go home early.

The House managed to pass an appropriations bill for military construction and the VA by 219-211, primarily on party lines with a 219-211 vote and likely DOA in the Senate. GOP Reps. Tim Burchett (TN) and Ken Buck (CO) voted with Democrats against the measure that included anti-diversity and anti-abortion amendments. Normally the least controversial of the 12 spending measures, this year’s version is filled with conservative policies and cuts military housing money for troops and their families.

GOP internal arguments about funding and policies caused its leadership to postpone plans for a Friday vote on the agriculture/FDA appropriations bill. Instead, House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-LA) announced that the House departs a day early; it doesn’t return for another 48 days—almost seven weeks. The two major arguments are slashing funding far more than the new law passed to raise the debt ceiling and including more “culture wars” amendments in appropriations bills such as banning the sale of the abortion medication mifepristone in pharmacies or by mail, an amendment in the ag/FDA bill.  

The vacation period leaves Congress only 12 working days to pass 12 appropriations before the September 30 deadline. According to McCarthy’s agreement with the conservative Freedom Caucus, each bill must be passed separately. Each one will need agreement with the Senate to be sent to the president for signing. The Senate doesn’t agree with either of the slashed funds or conservative amendments, and far-right House Republicans are already talking about causing a government shutdown, claiming that it wouldn’t negatively affect the U.S. people.

In their march of discrimination, conservative Republicans are inserting anti-transgender amendments into several appropriations bills—defense, aviation, housing development, ag/FDA, and labor/education—which would block insurance and healthcare benefits in blue states which protect access to this care. Other GOP amendments ban funding for contraceptives, mental health and substance abuse services, and HIV prevention.

On its last day before a lengthy vacation, the GOP-led House Judiciary Subcommittee on Constitution and Limited Government (the name changed to remove Civil Rights and Civil Liberties) had a hearing on gender-affirming care. It’s called “The Dangers and Due Process Violations of ‘Gender-Affirming Care’ for Children,” and no doctors providing care for transgener youth were called as witnesses. According to the description, it covers “how children are being coerced by adults in positions of authority into life-altering and medically questionable gender transition procedures without full understanding of the meaning or impact.” Witnesses include a member of the anti-LGBTQ+ hate group the Family Research Council and a representative of the Independent Woman’s Law Center, a “dark money group” which considers trans women a “threat” to women’s sports.

As the House prepared to go home, the Senate passed a defense bill without the culture wars by 86-11. It authorizes $886 billion for fiscal 2024, the amount from the debt ceiling law passed earlier this year. Six Democrats, four Republicans, and one Independent voted against the measure. Military personnel would receive a 5.2 percent pay increase in the bill that provides $9.1 billion for competing with China and $300 million for Ukraine.

All the other appropriations bills, 11 of them, have moved out of the appropriations committee with bipartisan votes for the first time in ten years. The committee hasn’t passed all 12 annual appropriations bills since 2018. Committee leaders Patty Murray (D-WA) and Susan Collins (R-ME) said that this achievement “shows that it is possible for Congress to work together and work through real differences—to find common ground and produce serious, bipartisan bills that can be signed into law.” At least that may be possible in the Senate.

A federal judge, appointed by Ronald Reagan and promoted to chief judge by George W. Bush, has told Mississippi that it cannot ban assistance with absentee voting during this year’s primaries or general election. He ruled that the Mississippi law violates the Voting Rights Act and ruled that any voter who is blind, disabled or unable to read may receive assistance “by a person of the voter’s choice,” other than the voter’s employer or union. The portion of the law banning “ballot harvesting,” ballots mailed or taken to ballot boxes by another person, was also struck down. State defendants trying to protect the law could not give any data to show that “Mississippi has a widespread ballot harvesting problem.” The state already has a highly restrictive law on absentee voting.

After the Federal Reserve raised the prime rate by 0.25 percent on Wednesday, a disgruntled Wall Street caused the stock market to drop. The Dow lost 237 points, perhaps with the Feds’ promise that it had one more increase before it quit. Yet all indicators show that increasing the interest has saved the U.S. economy. The inflation rate has already dropped from 9 percent a year ago to a 3 percent annualized rate this past quarter, close to the goal of 2 percent.

This week, a report shows the economy grew by an annual rate of 2.4 percent, faster than expected and away from a recession with an expanding economy for the fourth consecutive quarter. Salaries are growing faster than prices, people are still spending, and last week’s unemployment benefits’ filing is the lowest level in five months. Biden blocked a crisis by increasing the debt ceiling, and his administrations overcame another crisis with regional banks. Republicans, who discuss only bad news about Democrats, are largely silent after their false claims that Biden is mismanaging the economy.

President Joe Biden’s investments in infrastructure and clean energy also boost the economy with new bridges and roads, airport improvements, and manufacturing plants for electric vehicles inciting widespread private investments far earlier than many had predicted. Business investments in infrastructure rose by 56 percent in the most recent quarter, providing one-third of the economic growth. Morgan Stanley gave these investments in a revision of the year’s GDP at 1.3 percent, triple the previous one. The government has allocated $299 billion in infrastructure projects, and private companies announced another $503 billion in their investments.

These people get paid $174,000 a year to do this:

Rep. Derrick Van Orden (R-WI) swore at a group of teenage Senate pages resting in the Capitol rotunda early Thursday morning after working late the night before on National Defense Authorization Act amendments. One of the pages wrote a transcript of his invective:  

“Wake the f‑‑‑ up you little s‑‑‑‑. … What the f‑‑‑ are you all doing? Get the f‑‑‑ out of here. You are defiling the space you [pieces of s‑‑‑].”

Van Orden asked, “Who the f‑‑‑ are you?” One person said they were Senate pages, and he said:

“I don’t give a f‑‑‑ who you are, get out. You jackasses, get out.”

Senate pages typically rest in the rotunda after a night of hard work. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) defended them later in the day:

“I understand that late last night, a member of the House majority thought it appropriate to curse at some of these young people—these teenagers—in the rotunda. I was shocked when I heard about it, and I am further shocked at his refusal to apologize to these young people. I can’t speak for the House of Representatives, but I do not think that one member’s disrespect is shared by this body, by [Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY)], and myself.”

Van Orden weakly tried to defend himself but has shown his temper before. A 17-year-old library page in his home state told her parents she didn’t feel safe returning to the library after he demanded to know who set up a gay pride display. Van Order, a former Navy Seal, sexually harassed women in the military and attended the January 6 insurrection. A photo of his office showed alcohol and beer for a party before he berated the teens. Thursday was their last day.

In the sharing at presidential candidate Sen. Tim Scott’s (R-SC) prayer breakfast, Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC) told the crowd she gave up having sex with her fiancé so that she could arrive on time. She said, “I know he can wait” to the Christian group who may oppose having sex outside marriage. She added, “I’ll see him later.”

A Shocking Day – July 26, 2023

The biggest shock on Capitol Hill on July 26 came when Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) froze mid-sentence during an opening statement at a leadership press conference, going silent for 20 seconds. One of his aides took the 81-year-old to his office while others finished their remarks and took the first question from reporters, typically McConnell’s role. When he returned, McConnell said he was fine, and an aide said McConnell “felt lightheaded.”

Earlier this year, McConnell was hospitalized for a concussion after a fall and then went to an in-patient rehabilitation facility for 16 days. He returned to work after another three weeks. As a toddler, McConnell suffered from polio which can have late effects from gradual degeneration (breaking down) of nerve cells (motor neurons) in the brainstem or spinal cord damaged by the polio virus.

Recently, McConnell had two additional falls, one in Finland in February just days before the concussion in the March fall and another one this month at Reagan National Airport. In June, he also had trouble hearing questions from reporters at his weekly news conference although they were clear to the senators sitting next to him.

In another eye-catching story, a federal judge appointed by former Dictator Donald Trump (DDT) put Hunter Biden’s agreed-upon plea deal on hold, questioning its constitutionality and indicating it might be approved in the future. To avoid jail time, he agreed to two tax misdemeanors, but federal prosecutors disagreed that he would be protected from additional criminal charges. Biden had not paid his 2017 and 2018 taxes on time.

Prosecutors had also agreed a “diversion agreement” with Biden’s attorneys for him to admit to wrongdoing lying about not using drugs when buying a gun with the agreement he would not purchase a gun and not use drugs in exchange for not being charged with unlawful possession of a firearm. Diversion is typically used for non-violent offenders with substance abuse problems. Gun charges are dismissed after a period of probation if people meet the diversion program conditions. This agreement referenced the tax plea deal, creating a two-part deal, and the judge said she was not party to the diversion agreement. Biden did not agree to an arrangement in which additional charges could be filed against him in the future.

With no evidence, Republicans accuse Biden of extensive wrongdoing in his overseas business deals using two discredited IRS witnesses maintaining that the DOJ had stalled the probe into Biden although the case began with DDT’s appointed AG Bill Barr and continued with DDT’s appointed Delaware AG David Weiss. Republicans plan to continue investigations, social media attacks, and public opinion influence during the campaign of Biden’s father, Joe Biden, for the 2024 presidential election. Rep. Jason T. Smith (R-MO), Ways & Means Committee chair, filed a court brief asking the judge to consider the witnesses’ testimony before accepting Biden’s plea deal.

After Democrats lost the House, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) regained her committee seats and became a defacto House leader. The tipping point for Democrats’ patience with her was her revenge porn display of naked Hunter Biden photographs in a House Oversight Committee hearing, putting them into the House record. Members of the Dems have introduced a censure resolution for her record of “racism, antisemitism, LGBTQ, hate speech, Islamophobia, anti-Asian hate, xenophobia, and other forms of hatred.”

Rep. Becca Balint (D-VT), the resolution’s sponsor, said the censure “is about the health of our democracy and faith in government.” As a privileged bill, she can bring it to the House floor at any time, where it must be considered. Four pages reveal approximately 40 of Greene’s violent, abusive, hateful words, and acts along with her conspiracy theories and calls “for violence against elected representatives and their families.”

The House Republicans are almost guaranteed to vote against censure, but Greene has become too toxic for the ultra-right Freedom Caucus. The GOP has also established a precedent for Greene’s censure when it censured highly-respected Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA) for the false claim that he “lied” about Russia’s involvement in DDT’s 2016 campaign. Greene’s latest bid for attention was to introduce a motion to defund all U.S. contribution to NATO, calling the money “an America-last policy.” Again, she is proving to be the ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Hunter Biden’s court appearance may have overshadowed the House hearing on UFOs in which former intelligence official David Grusch testified to second-hand knowledge of a coverup about aircraft with “nonhuman” origins and accused the military of misappropriating funds to conceal operations into UAPs (Unexplained Anomalous Phenomenon). He said he couldn’t be specific for fear of prosecution in revealing classified information.

In June, Adam Gabbatt reported that Grusch’s assertion about the U.S. collecting non-human craft for “decades” had accelerated after he began receiving attention. His claims face growing skepticism when he suggested the U.S. encountered “malevolent” alien pilots. Grusch has no first-hand knowledge, has seen no photographs, and wasn’t part of the retrieval operation. A conservative skeptic, Ross Douthat, has other reasons for doubting Grusch’s claims, but Tucker Carlson has given credence to Grusch’s claims.

Trying to burnish his image with the military, Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-AL), who never served, is lying about his father’s World War II army service. Factchecker Glenn Kessler points out holes in the stories.

• Tuberville’s father didn’t join at the age of 16, instead registering for the draft at 18, according to law, and was drafted almost four month later.
• Instead of being a “tank commander” who “landed at Normandy Beach on D-Day,” the father’ tombstone lists his highest rank a “TEC 5,” technician fifth grade with no combat leadership. In a 1944 Army memo, TEC 5 jobs were limited to armorer, cook, tank driver, light truck driver, or tank mechanic. The rank for tank commander was sergeant.
• The father did receive a purple heart for being “lightly injured” on April 15, 1945, almost a year after D-Day, but no records show him receiving “five bronze stars,” not even one as Tuberville claimed. A photo submitted for proof shows the father received Bronze service stars indicating a soldier was physically present during a particular military campaign or engagement but not denoting valor in combat.
• He also didn’t drive “a tank through the streets of Paris when the U.S. forces liberated the city”; his battalion was 90 miles northeast with the 28^th Infantry Division marched in Paris on August 29, 1944.

After failing to refute the factcheck, Steven Stafford, Tuberville’s communications director, did not comment.

Tuberville’s recalcitrant arrogance has worsened after his five-month blockade against any promotions in the military. He ignored the offer from Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) to have a floor vote on Tuberville’s demand to prevent the Pentagon from paying travel expenses for abortions from states preventing reproductive care. The Alabama senator said he’d only be satisfied if the Pentagon gave him what he wants and that the administration needs to “find a way” to make him happy. Presidential candidate and Florida governor, Ron DeSantis, has joined the tantrum, endorsing Tuberville’s blockade.

Another blockade opponent has appeared to join U.S. military leaders, veterans, secretaries of Defense, congressional Democrats, and President Joe Biden. Over 500 spouses of active-duty military members have signed a petition calling the hold “highly inappropriate and unpatriotic … using military service members as pawns.” They ask that he stop “playing politics with our military.” Tuberville’s predecessor, former Sen. Doug Jones (D-AL), doubts that the coach-turned-politician “knows or understands” what normal legislative or administrative channels are.

Several Democratic senators have urged McConnell to “prevail” to end Tuberville’s “reckless hold” on military nominations. McConnell’s press secretary sent a snarky message about Democrats in control of the floor. Just one senator can put anything on hold. After McConnell’ frozen 20 seconds, his mental condition might also be questioned.

Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey has told the GOP legislation to disregard court orders in congressional redistricting. The court directive was to have two of seven districts with a majority of minorities. The new map still has only one district for a one-third minority population in the state. Ivey approved the gerrymandered map passed by the GOP legislator and wrote:

“The Legislature knows our state, our people and our districts better than the federal courts or activist groups, and I am pleased that they answered the call, remained focused and produced new districts ahead of the court deadline.”

House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) worked with the legislators to violate the court ruling, saying, “I’m interested in keeping my majority.” A federal court will hold a hearing on the map in mid-August. If a three-judge panel finds that the map violates the VRA, as the same court did before, it can appoint a special master to draw another map. Alabama has a history of resisting government mandates for over a half century.

A bit more about a federal judge rejecting the plea from the “QAnon Shaman,” Jacob Chansley,” who wanted to withdraw his guilty plea for participating in the January 6 insurrection. Chansley, well known for painted face, bare chest, furs, and horns, went into the Senate chamber and left a threatening note for then-VP Mike Pence. He got out of prison after 27 months for a 41-month sentence in committing a felony that should have had 20 years.

Judge Royce Lamberth, the 80-year-old originally appointed by Ronald Reagan to the bench, said he gave Chansley a light sentence because of his “apparent remorse and acceptance of responsibility” but changed his viewpoint after Chansley returned to his conspiracy theories after he was released from prison. Lamberth originally said Chansley’s remarks at sentencing were “the most remarkable I’ve heard in 34 years” and “akin to the kind of thing Martin Luther King would have said.” Now the judge is “disappointed” with “serious doubts on the veracity of any of Mr. Chansley’s claims, here or elsewhere.” Hopefully, the judge’s new insight will apply to other bouts of sympathy for cons.

Two Countries Heading in Opposite Directions – Spain, Israel

An election and a Parliamentary vote have determined two separate countries’ approaches to democracy.   

Election for Spain’s Parliament Fails to Put in Far-Right Government:

In Sunday’s election, Spain’s government kept out the far right, at least temporarily. Prognosticators thought the conservative Popular Party would take the government from the left coalition and govern with the neofascist Vox party. Conservativism would then rule for the first time since the end of the Franco dictatorship almost 50 years ago. The 350-member Spanish parliament requires a majority of 176 votes to form a government; the left has about 153 votes, and the far-right has 169 votes.

Although the right wing has more numbers, the left-wing prime minister can call another election or work out a deal with other parties who are primarily Catalan or Basque separatists, more likely to support the left than the right, either in a coalition or from outside the coalition but allowing Sánchez and the left to govern. The parliament reconvenes on August 17, and King Felipe VI will meet with party leaders to determine which candidate could win enough votes to become the next prime minister. Without a majority, a second vote will be two days later with the majority winning. If that fails, members have two months to appoint a prime minister. Without that success, parliament will be dissolved and a new election called next year.

Before the ultra-rightwing Vox party failed to gain votes in parliament, the “anti-woke” group had been closing bike lanes and banning Pride flags from public buildings in Spanish towns it runs in coordination with the center-right People’s Party. Authoritarian leaders of Italy and Hungary had high hopes for Spain joining them in their goal to dominate the European Union. The backing failed: Vox lost over one-third of the seats it won in 2019. Their personal disaster may make center-right leaders such as the German opposition leader more cautious in following conspiracy theorists. Even the UK Tories have taken some policies from fringe parties and dropped its competent leaders in exchange for Boris Johnson and Liz Truss.

As in the U.S., right-wing members determined to pour gasoline on flames of hatred may bring more moderate voters to oppose them.

Israel Parliament Removes Checks by the Judiciary:

Israel is the other country in crisis. The U.S. has protected the country as the last democracy in the Middle East, but Benjamin Netanyahu’s right-wing resumption of prime minister has allowed the parliament to strip power from the judicial branch. His actions moved Israel from a more secular, pluralist society to an extremist Jewish, religious country. With no written Constitution and a single-chamber Parliament, Israel’s courts were the only protection against unjust rule.

Netanyahu can now use the judiciary to remove the indictments of corruption against him, even replacing the attorney general. He can also accelerate illegal West Bank settlement construction on privately-owned Palestinian land, curb non-Jews’ rights, expand rabbinical leaders’ power, and permit discrimination against women and LGBTQ+ people. A two-tier society among the Jewish Israelis can be created if ultra-Orthodox Jews engaged in religious study avoid military service.

Demonstrators have been protesting the possibility of the judiciary change for months. The new law passed by 64 to 0 after the opposition in the Parliament walked out. Businesses in the country closed in protest, Israel’s biggest labor union threatened to strike, and 10,000 military reservists threatened to resign. The opposition hopes to petition the Supreme Court to strike down the law because the vote amended of Israel’s Basic Laws, which is similar to a constitution. Another idea is requesting President Isaac Herzog to not sign the bill, but his position is largely ceremonial and may not carry any legal weight. Netanyahu failed to calm demonstrators by offering to return to negotiations over further judicial changes until late November, but the street protests only grew.

Palestinians, representing over 20 percent of Israel’s population, considered themselves second-class citizens because of their treatment. The vote may make their lives even worse although the government and police aren’t fighting crime in Arab towns. Since the start of the year, gun violence has left 132 Arabs dead.  

Two New Yorkers from Queens are behind Kohelet, a once-hidden think tank in Jerusalem and principal architect of the overhaul of the conservative court system. Moshe Koppel moved to Israel in 1980 and founded Kohelet in 2012; he has 160 full- and part-time scholars to write conservative policy papers. Multimillionaire Arthur Dantchik has donated millions to Kohelet. Prior to the vote this week, the Israeli parliament passed legislation to change the composition of the committee selecting judges by giving government representatives the majority.

Netanyahu, prime minister for 13 of the past 14 years, strongly defended his nation’s Supreme Court before he was indicted in 2019 on charges of bribery, fraud, and breach of trust. His trial started in 2021. His ruling coalition puts him in charge of both the executive and legislative branches with the judiciary branch the only check. Before the new law, courts could overturn extreme laws failing to pass a “reasonable standard,” meaning they were not made according to a basic standard of fair and just policymaking. New law removing “reasonable standard” puts Netanyahu completely in charge of all decisions.

In mid-June, Netanyahu went to the hospital, supposedly for dehydration after spending a day at the beach. A month later he was fitted with an internal cardiac monitor which indicated a transient heart block leading to his surgery for a pacemaker on July 24. He was in the hospital for the debate and then gave a speech from his office asking for unity and discussion. Opponents who found his statements insincere, promised to continue protesting.

Thousands of protesters continued to march after the law was passed, and one of the groups paid for completely black ads on the front pages at least four large Israeli newspapers—Yediot Aharonot, Calcalist, Israel Hayom, and Haaretz. The only words in the ad were the phrase “a black day for Israeli democracy.” The protest group described itself as “a group composed of hundreds of high-tech companies, entrepreneurs, and investors across Israel, guiding Israel’s advanced technology and feeling a sense of mission and responsibility for the country’s future.” Far-right Minister of National Security, Itamar Ben-Gvir, claimed that foreign organizations have been financing the protests which are actually grassroots efforts.

Shira Rubin, a reporter based in Tel Aviv, questions whether Netanyahu has any control over the conservative factions that returned him to being prime minister. Immediately after his election, he initiated a series of interviews in which he assured U.S. allies that “my hands are firmly on the steering wheel.” Three weeks after he took power at the beginning of January, the parliament’s far-right coalition began its radical moves, rapidly moving measures forward to take over the judiciary and quash any possibilities for a solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The actions were in contrast to Netanyahu’s usual deliberate style.

Analysts believe his extremist religious partners are leveraging him with promises to save him from prosecution if they can follow their own agenda unimpeded. The leader of the ultranationalist Religious Zionism bloc and his allies were appointed to the nation’s security establishment in overseeing civilian dealings in the West Bank that the bloc plans to annex.

Soon after Netanyahu was elected, Ben-Gvir, pushed against Palestinians by visiting the Temple Mount, a holy Islam site in Jerusalem where Jews also pray although it has been under control of Muslims after the 1967 Six Day War. Hamas called on Palestinian youths to “mobilize,” and Ben-Gvir’s hardline base pushed him into the visit although Netanyahu opposed it. The visit set off protests, and Israeli security forces demolished Palestinian buildings. Ben-Gvir’s goal is to take back all Palestinian land for the Jewish people. A timeline of the disasters that Ben-Gvir engendered in 2023.

The current polarization in Israel is between urban middle class including doctors, academic, and business leaders and those who are poorer and more religious, many of them living in West Bank settlements and outlying areas. Many far-right supporters are working-class Jews of Mizrahi, or Middle Eastern, descent who believe themselves marginalized by an Ashkenazi, or European, elite.

Netanyahu defied the U.S. by pushing the new law without political consensus. Israel receives $3.8 billion for annual military assistance and diplomatic backing in international forums. The vote also worsens the rift between the far-right Israel government and the mostly liberal U.S. Jewish community.

Credit rating agency Morgan Stanley has lowered Israel’s sovereign rating, and Moody’s isn’t waiting until October, the time for rating updates, to also deliver a warning. Hundreds of economists, experts, and executives in Israel and throughout the world claim the “judicial reform” will lead to a sharp decline in foreign investment because of economic instability. Sixty-eight percent of start-ups in Israel have begun to withdraw cash reserves, relocate headquarters outside Israel, move employees abroad, and conduct layoffs.

The next few months will give the direction for these two countries with more hope for Spain than Israel.

Russian Invasion of Ukraine – 518 days

In the ongoing Russian invasion of Ukraine, foreign strikes hit the city of Odesa, most recently a Ukrainian Orthodox Church, 25 architectural monuments, and homes. The cathedral destroyed by Russian President Vladimir Putin had been rebuilt after Soviet leader Joseph Stalin demolished the early 19^th-century building in 1936. As usual, Russia’s defense ministry falsely claims that its forces avoid civilian infrastructure cultural and historical objects. The strikes on Odesa is part of Russia’s plan to erase Ukrainian culture and identity. Within the first 15 months of the invasion, Russia has deliberately hit 1,700 museums, archives, and libraries. In the Kharkiv and Zaporizhzhia regions, Russian strikes are killing more people.

Russia is building a new Gulag system for Ukrainians—journalists, war-crimes investigators, and specialized groups—employing arrest, murder, imprisonment, and torture chambers in Ukrainian territories under Russian occupation. With no connection to Russia’s invasion, the gulag is part of a long-term plan. Thus far at least 40 prison camps are located in Russia and Belarus along with 63 formal and informal prisons in occupied Ukraine containing about 10,000 Ukrainians. Russia plans 25 new prison colonies and six detention centers in occupied Ukrainian territory by 2026.

Most of the current ones contain civilians arrested or abducted in occupied territory. The Gulag’s major purpose is slave labor: Ukrainians are forced to dig trenches and graves while building fortifications for Russian troops. Civilian arrests can be for tying Ukrainian colors to a bicycle or for no reason at alls; occupants may be forced to fight for Russia on the front lines.

In 2014, four years after Putin occupied Crimea, the southern peninsula of Ukraine, he completed the 12-mile-long Kerch bridge, a critical land route to provide Russian invaders with troops, weapons, and fuel. The bridge was closed on July 17 after two Ukrainian drones struck it, collapsing part of the roadway structure. A re-opened lane was closed four days later after another Ukrainian drone strike.

Meanwhile Ukraine hit Russian ammo dumps in Crimea, forcing evacuations and canceling train services. Ukrainian security officials also took credit for two drones hitting non-residential buildings in Moscow. In retaliation, Russians has launched its sixth air attack on Kyiv this month with Iranian-made Shahed drones. Ukraine downed all the drones with its air defense systems.

Moscow officially withdrew from its agreement to allow the shipping of Ukrainian grain across the Black Sea to food-deprived parts of the world after delaying the process with naval blockade and long inspections. The 33 million tons which left Ukraine were about one-third of the country’s normal exports. The withdrawal, likely exacerbated by the damage to the bridge built by Russians, was followed by Russian strikes, one of them on a grain terminal. Estimates of over 60,000 tons of grain were destroyed last week, and grain export will probably drop by another 50 percent. Global market prices for grain increased by 8 percent while Ukrainian farmers are selling products at 20 percent below cost.

Russian drones also destroyed a grain hanger on the Danube River in Ukraine’s port town of Reni, across from NATO member Romania. It is the closest Putin has come to hitting alliance territory.

Hours after Russia blocked shipments of grain, its ambassador to Kenya wrote an opinion piece, blaming the U.S. and European Union for the collapse of the agreement while claiming that they had “used every trick” to keep Russian grain and fertilizer from the global markets:

“Now, my dear Kenyan friends, you know the whole truth about who is weaponizing food.”

Russia also invited almost 50 African countries to its second Russia-Africa Summit on Friday, hosting regions heavily relying on Ukraine for agricultural products and security. Africa’s 54 nations, the largest UN voting bloc, are the most divided about the invasion. Putin keeps saying that he will give free grain to low-income African countries. Meanwhile, the Wagner group will continue to obtain gold from countries such as Sudan and Mali. Putin uses the same appeal that he takes with China, appealing to their rejection of global powers dictating to them.

Russia may not be as successful as it wishes; polling shows positive ratings toward Russians among only a third of Africans. Despite its high profile in Africa, Russia invests relatively little in it. In 2019, Putin promised to double Russia’s trade within five years but stalled at about $14 billion in 2022. Under one percent of direct foreign investment into Africa comes from Russia and almost no humanitarian aid. Russia’s biggest connection with African countries is its “Christian” rejection of LGBTQ+ people, but it growing influence comes from Wagner mercenaries, election interference, disinformation, and arms sales. The Kremlin exchange in scholarships and cultural by the Soviet Union has almost completely disappeared.

Moscow’s rejection of the grain corridor deal also endangers Russian shipping because it turns the Black Sea into a war zone with Turkey no longer protecting shipping lanes. Russia now considers “all ships en route to Ukrainian ports in the Black Sea waters … potential carriers of military cargo. The flag countries of such vessels will be considered involved in the Ukrainian conflict on the side of the Kyiv regime.” Russia is laying sea mines in the Black Sea to interfere with grain exports and blame Ukraine.

As alternatives, Ukraine uses road and rail transport through neighbors such as Romania and Poland, annoying their farmers by driving down prices. Two million tons of grain was also shipped on the River Danube, compared to 600,000 tons the year before. 

Lithuania asked the EU to use Baltic ports for exporting Ukrainian grain. Officials think that they could annually transport 25 million tons of grain. The EU supports Ukraine’s exports of agricultural products on the “solidarity lanes” established over a year ago, moving over 45 million tons of grain, oilseed, and other products. Croatia also offered its rail network and ports on the Adriatic Sea, and Bulgaria and Greece may send Ukrainian agricultural produce by Bulgarian trains to Greek ports. The problem is Poland’s wish to ban the sale of wheat, maize, rapeseed, and sunflower seeds, starting in May, until the end of 2023.

Experts from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) found directional anti-personnel mines on the edges of the Zaporozhe Nuclear Power Plant (ZNPP) in a buffer zone between the site’s internal and external perimeter barriers. Mines were in a restricted area blocking access by plant personnel; none was within the site.

Putin is working on a partnership with Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko, a Putin “puppet” described as the “last European dictator,” supposedly to provide security guarantees while he increases the number of number of Russian military forces in Belarus. The strategy allows Russia to use the country in military operations against Ukraine, including air attacks and possibly nuclear weapons Putin is sending to Ukraine’s neighbor.

Wagner paramilitary personnel who moved into “temporary” camps are training the Belarus military. Lukashenko said Wagner fighters want to move into NATO member Poland. Lukashenko welcomed about 3,500 Wagner group mercenaries to Belarus to a camp about 140 miles north of the Ukrainian border. About 700 vehicles and construction equipment came with the Wagner convoys.

Putin won’t attend the BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa) summit in Johannesburg, South Africa, making him an even greater outcast. He faces arrest and extradition from a large number of countries, including South Africa, after the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued a warrant for Putin’s arrest. Foreign minister Sergey Lavrov will attend the summit in lieu of Putin.

Russia planted sea mines in the waters around Ukrainian ports outside the safe channels. Now the White House has warned that U.S. officials have information that Russia has added more mines in those waters with the intention of blaming Ukraine if those mines cause damage to foreign ships.

Putin’s declared he might target the civilian ships of foreign powers, threatening to escalate the war but backed down on that threat. Russia’s ambassador to the U.S. said Russia is not preparing to attack civilian ships. The U.S. Treasury and the U.S. State Department today announced additional sanctions on companies that have given Russia access to products that feed the war, provide revenue from minerals and mining, give it access to the international financial system, or provide military technology.

Russia is receiving Chinese drones labeled as heavy-duty crop-dusters for $14,000 each with potential military use, according to Russia’s government after it seized four of the same model last year in eastern Ukraine. At that time, Russia said that Ukraine planned to use them for chemical warfare. They carry payloads of almost 70 pounds and can glide at treetop level trailing a fog of liquid chemicals.

Customs officers intercepted the shipment to Russia near the border between Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan. Usually, shipments of this type are not interrupted. Kyrgyzstan is considered a conduit for military goods from Western countries for Russia. Officials say that many Russia drones have Western parts, sensitive electronics including hundreds of thousands of dollars’ worth of specialized semiconductors and voltage amplifiers from Chinese and South Korean companies in February and March.

Russia is demanding a relaxation of Western sanctions to permit a major bank into a global payment system, Russian fertilizer companies’ restrictions lifted, and full access to insurance and foreign ports for its ships. He’s unlikely to be granted these requirements. 

Secretary of State Antony Blinken said that Ukraine has recovered 50 percent of territory seized by Russia, but the war is far from over.

Another Sunday, More DDT Cult Issues

Deposed Donald Trump (DDT) keeps his polling figures much higher than his dozen opponents despite 71 charges in two indictments; a target letter, indicating more charges in another indictment; and the threat of more legal charges from a Georgia grand jury. Even after a federal judge confirmed that DDT is a rapist, MAGA loves DDT.

In a civil suit, a jury awarded $5 million to E. Jean Carroll for DDT’s sexual abuse and defamation. DDT claimed the jury didn’t find him guilty of rape, but the judge explained that the New York Penal Code uses a 1927 description of rape as “forcible male penile penetration of a female vagina,” which is “far narrower” than “in common modern parlance.” He stated:  

“The proof convincingly established, and the jury implicitly found, that Mr. Trump deliberately and forcibly penetrated Ms. Carroll’s vagina with his fingers, causing immediate pain and long lasting emotional and psychological harm.”

The confirmation of DDT as a rapist doesn’t change his supporters’ adoration. He seems to have so numbed millions of people in the U.S. that they either deny he could have “raped” anyone or don’t care. GOP congressional members zealous defend him or remain silent because while one of them enters purported photos of the president’s son involved in consensual sex into the House record with no consequences.

Knowing that nothing he does can offend his supporters, DDT is becoming more and more violent, recently reposting a video on Truth Social in which he states:

“If you (expletive) around with us, if you do something bad to us, we are going to do things to you that have never been done before.”

DDT threatened his going to jail would be “very dangerous” because of his fan base’s “passion.”

My nickname for DDT uses the term “dictator”: his policies follow those of Russian President Vladimir Putin who also didn’t start as a dictator. If DDT wins the 2024 election, he plans a purge of the federal government, leaving only his loyalists, and “law” through hundreds of his executive orders. DDT’s appointments to the Supreme Court have started his dictatorship. Conservative justices follow his ideology without requiring plaintiffs to have any standing to bring lawsuits, and DDT creates “Project 2025” to completely control the government.

If elected, DDT will take over all government agencies identified as “independent,” defund any programs not in accord with his wishes, and fire any federal employee who isn’t ideologically in accord with him. The U.S. will match other authoritarian governments throughout the world. Russell Vought, a former DDT official wants to “seize” “the pockets of independence.” Heritage Foundation president Kevin Roberts wants to prevent “independent federal agencies or federal employees who don’t answer to the president.” 

The heart of Project 2025 is “Schedule F,” formulated during DDT’s last two years in the White House, launched 13 days before the 2020 presidential election, and centered on DDT’s revenge against his perceived or real enemies to protect DDT from investigation or prosecution. His policies will be more successful with his loyalists packing the judicial system, and he has a coalition of conservative organizations to implement his ideas by taking senior roles in a new administration. Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH), leader of weaponizing the government, is DDT’s closest confidant in Congress, and the Heritage Foundation is serving DDT’s goals. Ginni Thomas, wife of Justice Thomas, has prepared detailed of government officials supposedly disloyal to DDT who should be fired. Other “loyalists” are described here.

DDT decreased his inner circle of advisers and dropped almost all former aides who don’t agree that the 2020 election was “stolen.” He spends much of his time with Stop the Steal leaders attorney Boris Epshteyn and the pillow entrepreneur Mike Lindell, and his loyal and courageous group includes Dan Scavino, Stephen Miller, John McEntee, and former chief of staff Mark Meadows. Former VP Mike Pence, who still defends DDT from time to time during his presidential campaign, is in the enemy category.

Legally, DDT is struggling. Aileen Cannon, DDT’s appointed judge, failed to grant his request to postpone his trial for mishandling classified documents until after the 2024 election, instead scheduling it on May 20, 2024, four months after Special Council Jack Smith requested. Scheduling will be complicated: DDT will stand trial in New York for state charges in March. A judge won’t move DDT’s case about hush money and business fraud from state to federal court, meaning DDT can’t pardon himself if he is convicted. He also faces civil lawsuits in New York during October and January as well as the potential of a trial in Fulton County (GA) for trying to overturn the state’s 2020 presidential election.

For Cannon’s trial, prosecutors must submit a proposed agreement signed by DDT and his attorneys by July 27 before they can see any classified materials as part of the discovery process. Defense attorneys have until August 25 to file a motion in opposition and will get the discovery classified materials by September 7 although DDT’s and co-defendant Walt Nauta’s attorneys already have much of the nonclassified evidence.

DDT has found a new lawyer for his team. Former federal prosecutor John Lauro represented DDT’s attorneys Christina Bobb and Alina Habba. Earlier he defended a former NBA referee who pleaded guilty to taking payoffs from gamblers and betting on games himself and then a Florida county commissioner involved in an anonymous donation to a county-owned park before the purchase of beachfront property for never-constructed condominiums. Laura also defended company executives found guilty of health care fraud, cheating patients of $30 million in care, by submitting false expenditure reports to Florida’s Medicaid program.

Lauro told Fox network that DDT didn’t need to appear before a federal grand jury because he “did absolutely nothing wrong.” This was in response to the target letter Special Counsel Jack Smith sent DDT, telling him that he is an investigation target and inviting him to appear. DDT chose to be absent. Laura also echoed the lie that the DOJ is politicized to target a political opponent, asserting that DDT had only asked for an audit. The target letter cites potential charges against DDT in three statutes: deprivation of rights, conspiracy to commit an offense against or defraud the United States, and tampering with a witness.

According to sources, Fulton County DA Fani Willis is preparing evidence for a racketeering indictment in August. State law, more expansive than the federal one, requires proof of an “enterprise” and pattern of activity of at least two “qualifying” crimes. The charges may include DDT’s telephone call with Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger to “find” 11,780 votes intended to swing the state’s 2020 vote for DDT. A computer trespass charge could include the Coffee County voting machines’ breach by a group of DDT operatives and paid by then DDT lawyer Sidney Powell that copied sensitive voting system data tryingto prove the election was rigged.  

DDT always bragged about how he has few lawsuits because he never settles, but he recently settled with Michael Cohen, his former lawyer and fixer, who filed a civil lawsuit to obtain past wages. The terms of the deal for $1.3 million in legal fees from the Trump Organization are being worked out in the New York state Supreme Court in Manhattan. Without a settlement, the trial starts this week. Last fall, DDT settled with protesters claiming his security guards assaulted them outside Trump Tower, and three years ago, he paid $2 million in penalties for his fraudulent charitable foundation which has been closed. That was after the $25 million for settling the Trump University case for DDT’s running a “school” as a scam.  

The Securities and Exchange Commission state DDT’s top financial partner in his media company violated antifraud provisions, misleading investors about taking the website Truth Social website public. Digital World told investors in September 2021 that the company had no merger discussions with any companies, but, planning to merge with DDT’s Media & Technology Group (M&T), it discussed the merger seven months earlier. M&T may have to leave the deal if it isn’t finished by September 8, 2023. Digital shares plunged from $175 to $13, and it must pay a penalty of $18 million within 14 days of the merger. Federal prosecutors charged a Digital board member and two other men of illegally earning $22 million in profits as part of an insider-trading scheme before the merger proposal was announced. M&T told investors in 2021 that it would reach 56 million users by 2024; it’s presently at 5 million and has earned only $1.2 million in advertising. The head engineer for Truth Social has also resigned.

The House Republicans are protecting DDT and campaigning for him in official proceedings, but DDT has upped the ante, continuing to call House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) and House GOP Conference Chair Elise Stefanik (R-NY) for help. He posted on Truth Social that his rescue is the GOP’s “# 1 ISSUE!!!”

Congressional support in committees for his grievances doesn’t solve his legal issues, thus he also wants them to defund special counsels’ investigation. His trusted loyalist, Matt Gaetz (FL), introduced legislation to block all investigation and grand jury funding for the January 6 insurrection and other attempts to overturn the 2020 presidential win for Joe Biden. Gaetz has yet to get cosponsors for the measure. People believed McCarthy wouldn’t support the proposed legislation, but they didn’t think he would support Marjorie Taylor Greene’s (GA) attempt to erase any mention of DDT’s two impeachments from history. Or turn over all sensitive insurrection footage to Tucker Carlson. Or impeach Merrick Garland and make the defense appropriation bill into a “culture war.”

McCarthy’s biggest disloyal act is to not endorse DDT for president. He even said in a press conference that DDT might not be the best candidate so he’s making up for that by trying to expunge DDT’s impeachments. Meanwhile House Republicans just continue with wacky offensive partisan hearings and add amendments to anything approaching the floor.

Joyce Vance describes DDT’s bad week. And it’s the tip of the iceberg.

 

Republicans Squeal at Backlash

House hearings have come and gone, but two in the last week are particularly memorable.

Robert F. Kenney Jr. – Censorhip

RFK Jr. got the publicity he wants for his insane ideas while front and center in a House hearing supposedly for censorship. He went overboard by stating criticism of him is actually “censorship” although no one tried to keep him from speaking. Chair Jim Jordan (R-OH), chair of the House weaponization subcommittee, treated him kindly, unlike his treatment of other witnesses such as FBI Director Christopher Wray, who Jordan attacked.

Fortunately, CNN’s Dana Bash factchecked RFK Jr.’s lies at the hearing including his denial about statements provable on video. He accused journalists who quote him as trying to “twist” his words to make him look like a “madman,” but in his refutation of their statements, he repeats his earlier claims. The backlash is becoming home to roost. His popularity in polling for president has dropped as people learn about him, decreasing from 20 percent in April to a current 14 percent with two-thirds of them Republicans. He’s more popular among GOP members than several of their own candidates, and more Republicans donate to his campaign than Democrats.

Nephew of the revered president assassinated in 1963, RFK Jr. changed from an environmental lawyer to a vaccine conspiracist in the 1990s. Wanting more attention for himself, he adopted the lie that Bill Gates implanted microchips into patients with vaccines to track their movements before moving onto the falsehood that the Gates Foundation paralyzed 496,000 children in India during a polio vaccine trial instead of the 17 cases of vaccine-derived polio there since 2000. About the Covid restrictions, he lauded “Hitler’s German [where] you could hide in an attic like Anne Frank did.” The teenager was captured and died in a Holocaust concentration camp. His disinformation is so dangerous to lives that he has been banned from Instagram and Facebook, allowing him to become a martyr to Republicans.

Despite RFK Jr.’s belief that vaccines cause autism, all his children have been vaccinated, as Rep. Stacey Plaskett (D-Virgin Islands) pointed out during the hearing. He also required a vaccination for a guest invited to his party.

Since Russia invaded Ukraine, RFK Jr. praised blamed the U.S. for the invasion and asserted that Russian President Vladimir Putin acted in “good faith.” He also falsely stated that the U.S. and Ukrainian “ultra-nationalists” pressured Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky into not making peace with Russia although Putin wanted to end the “conflict.”

More of his lies that he freely shares on an extensive number of conservative podcasts including some statements about vaccines:

• 5G networks change human DNA, cause cancer and “leaky brain,” and are used to “harvest our data and control our behavior.”
• “Wi-Fi radiation opens up your blood-brain barrier, and so all these toxins that are in your body can now go into your brain,” according to RFK, Jr.
• Antidepressants are to blame for school shootings.
• Chemicals in the water supply could turn children transgender.    
• The U.S. should “seal the [U.S.-Mexico] border permanently.” (In fact, unlawful entries along the southern border decreased 70 percent from record highs since the end of Title 42 on May 11, and industry desperately needs immigrant labor.) 
• Covid was “ethnically targeted” to do more harm to white and Black people than to Ashkenazi Jews and Chinese people.
• Vaccine research created HIV, the Spanish flu, and Lyme disease.
• Ivermectin and hydroxychloroquine, a useless treatment, should be used to cure Covid.
• “Infectious disease is [not] an enormous threat to human health” (despite over one million excess deaths in the U.S. during the first two years of Covid.)

RFK, Jr. and his organization Children’s Health Defense are promoters of James Corbett, a Sandy Hook and 9/11 conspiracy theorist who, like RFK Jr., is an anti-vaxxer. Corbett’s lies:

He praised “articles documenting the discrepancies and outright lies in the official narrative of the Sandy Hook shooting.”

He stated that the 9/11 attack on New York’s World Trade Center was actually a “false flag” event and “the official story of 9/11 is a lie.”

“Hitler was a Rothschild [a Jewish banking family]. Hitler and the Nazis were one hundred percent completely and utterly set up … by the international banking community and the international crony capitalists.”

In 2021, RFK Jr. spoke at the ReAwaken America tour organized by Michael Flynn, conspiracy theorist and DDT’s former national security adviser. DDT’s ally Steve Bannon has been “supportive of Mr. Kennedy’s campaign” and “float[ed] the idea of a Trump-Kennedy ticket,” while convicted conspiracy theorist Alex Jones “also expressed enthusiasm.”

DDT called RFK, Jr. “a very smart person,” and RFK Jr. is proud of DDT’s praise in a mutual admiration society. RFK Jr. compared DDT and Abraham Lincoln on Fox & Friends:

“Trump is probably the most successful debater in this country since Lincoln-Douglas.”

If elected, he plans to gut the Food and Drug Administration and order the independent DOJ to investigate medical journals for “lying to the public.” After an interview with RFK Jr. for the New York Intelligencer, Rebecca Traister wrote:  

“Kennedy crowed to me about his horseshoe coalition gathered round a campaign he views as fundamentally populist. And it’s quite a band he has put together: crunchy Whole Foods–shopping anti-vaxxers, paunchy architects of hard-right authoritarianism looking to boost a chaos agent, Nader-Stein third-party perma-gremlins, some Kennedy-family superfans, and rich tech bros seeking a lone wolf to legitimize them.”

Fox’s Sean Hannity is having another one of his infamous town halls on July, this one with RFK Jr., in a push to make the conspiracy theorists a viable opponent for Biden.

President Joe Biden and Son’s Crimes – Hunter Biden

In another embarrassment for House Republicans, the Oversight Committee’s hearing failed to provide a case against Hunter Biden, President Joe Biden’s son, with no evidence. Chair James Comer’s hearing was to prove AG Merrick Garland protected Hunter, but the media focused a peep show by a salacious Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) showing nude photographs of Hunter, supposedly from his laptop.

Hunter’s lawyer filed a complaint against Greene, demanding that the House ethics panel take action for her display of sexually explicit photos now put into the Congressional record. The filing is an update from an earlier request in April seeking a probe into Greene’s baseless accusations on social media posts linking Hunter with “an Eastern prostitution or human trafficking ring.” Greene’s photos did not black out Hunter’s faces as she did those of everyone else in the photographs, taken when Hunter suffered from drug addiction after the 2015 death of his older brother, Beau. Photographs were not related to the hearing topic, DOJ’s investigating his tax returns.

In addition, Greene used the photos in fundraising emails, sending them to minors with no age screening. Her actions may also violate D.C.’s revenge porn law. With no evidence, the mailings also claimed that Hunter is guilty of sex trafficking and tax fraud. Although Greene claimed that Hunter deducted payments to prostitutes, the GOP witness who formerly investigated Hunter for tax issues would not confirm her accusation.

In other inappropriate GOP behavior, Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) published a years-old “uncorroborated FBI record” from an unnamed source with a second-hand unverified tip that former Dictator Donald Trump’s (DDT) AG Bill Barr debunked. It claimed corruption on the part of both Hunter and Joe Biden that DDT’s former personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani had spread four years ago. On June 1, Grassley said he didn’t care if the statements were true or not. 

Last month, Christopher Dunham, FBI Acting Assistant Director of Congressional Affairs, criticized Oversight Committee chair James Comer for ignoring “security restrictions,” allowing details to be made public after promising he would not do so. Greene has also violated the agreement by announcing details after she saw them in the highly secure SCIF. The unproven form is the basis for Comer’s and other Republicans’ investigation into Biden and his family’s business deals.

Comer also went on Sen. Ted Cruz’s (R-TX) podcast to claim, with no evidence, that Biden has been selling access to enemies for decades. Asked for proof, Comer said that Biden “never had a successful career in investing” but he’s accumulated assets. Biden’s tax returns and financial disclosures show that his reported $8 million comes primarily from public speaking engagements and book royalties after he was no longer VP with $15 million in book royalties. Unlike DDT, Biden posts this information on his website.

GOP Senators Want No Ethics for Justices:

The Senate Judiciary Committee voted 11-10 along party lines to advance a bill requiring the Supreme Court develop a code of conduct with a transparent process for submission of ethics complaints against justices within 180 days. The measure also mandates the high court adopt disclosure rules for gifts, travel, and income received by justices and law clerks as rigorous as Senate and House disclosure rules. Recognizing the corruption of some conservative justices, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) accused Democrats of trying to “destroy” the conservative court although the bill refers to all justices. Graham already stated that justices need to “get their house in order.”  

SCOTUS, unlike other judiciary, lacks any code of ethics. Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL) began to urge Chief Justice Robert Roberts for ethics reform 11 years ago, but Roberts ignored all pleas while DDT’s appointments have dropped the confidence in the Supreme Court to an all-time low. In a survey, 70 percent, that rarely agrees about anything, believe justices are too influenced by politics.

Republicans may be in the majority, but they’re squealing like stuck pigs because of their failure.

Republicans Find New Lows

Republicans keep sinking to new lows. The latest one may be new standards for “education” in Florida, a state that allows nothing in the curriculum that makes students uncomfortable. Public middle schools are now required to teach that slavery personally benefited some Blacks because it taught them useful skills. It also requires that Black people were perpetrators of violence during race massacres, including the 1921 Tulsa killings intended by white people to eradicate a middle-class Black neighborhood after a Black man rode in an elevator with a white woman. White vigilantes killed about 300 Blacks and burned down a 35-square-block area. In the 1920 Ocoee Massacre, at least 30 Blacks were killed because they tried to vote.

The state board of education is using this type of information instead of its rejected Advanced Placement court on Black history. Florida rejected 35 percent of social studies textbooks, including those referencing the police murder of George Floyd and the movement for Black Lives, and a law blocks diversity programs at state colleges and universities. 

Florida’s governor, Ron DeSantis is losing again.  For the second time, a federal judge has ruled against his ban on drag shows. When he lost a lawsuit from Hamburger Mary’s, he tried to convince the court that he could ban drag shows everywhere else. The federal judge, however, determined that the “vague and overbroad” law was not constitutional anywhere in the state because Florida has obscenity laws protecting children from sexually explicit live performances. His original ruling stated that the laws protecting children “ring hollow” because they can “attend an R-rated film at a movie theater if accompanied by a parent or guardian.” Officials are appealing. In early June, a federal judge in Tennessee overturned the state’s drag ban, ruling it violated “constitutionally-protected” speech.

In his brief high school teaching career over 20 years ago just after graduating from Yale, students did not remember him fondly although he partied and drank with them. One student recalls him justifying slavery in a Civil War unit, saying “that the South had good reason to fight that war, to kill other people, over owning people—Black people.” She said that he was “mean and hostile” to her, “not aggressively, but passively because I was Black.” Another student pointed out DeSantis, a history major, had problem with facts such as his assertion that “every city in the South had burned.”

In a blow to DeSantis, Disney, which canceled a $1 billion project adding 2,000 jobs in Florida and shuttered a luxury hotel in Orlando opened only last year, is putting that money into the California economy. The company’s growth at two Anaheim theme parks will annually generate $253 million and add over 2,200 new jobs. 

DeSantis allows abuse even out of state on his campaign. He threw out a group of protesters for holding a Pride flag; they were violently attacked by the flailing presidential candidate while they were escorted out of the South Carolina event. As they left, DeSantis shouted, “We don’t want you indoctrinating our children. Leave our kids alone.” Two 19-year-olds were pushed to the ground and kicked, one of them “violently dragged downstairs.” A 16-year-old girl was forced out of her wheelchair and made to walk out. They were residents of the small town of under 13,000 where DeSantis was speaking. DeSantis’ slogan is “Make America Florida.”

Jake Tapper’s 15-minute of DeSantis was finally broadcast after the initial focus on the target letter that Deposed Donald Trump (DDT) received, possibly leading to an indictment. DeSantis commented that Special Counsel Jack Smith’s letter shows that “this country is going down the road of criminalizing differences.” In response, Kevin Kruse, Princeton University professor, tweeted:

“So holding a public official accountable for breaking the law is “criminalizing political differences” … but waging war on “the woke mind virus” with the full might of your state government is not?”

In another “anti-Woke” move, DeSantis wants to sue Bud Light for its association “with radical social ideologies” for using a transgender woman for a sponsor. The pension has $46 million in funds from Anheuser-Busch a part of its $180 billion pension funds.

Nearly five years after Floridians voted to allow people with felony convictions to restore their voting rights, the Florida Rights Restoration Coalition is suing the state. It argues that Florida created a system that impeding the will of the voters. 

There must be something in the Florida water that makes conservatives terrified of LGBTQ+ people. Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) and his wife Ginger looked really cute in pink outfits at the red carpet premiere of the new Barbie movie at the British Embassy in Washington, D.C. That was when Ginger whined that Ken—a doll without genitalia!—was “low T” and the film “neglects to address any notion of faith or family” about the doll always considered high-femme and lived in sin with Ken in their “dream house.” Then she called for a boycott of the movie because one of the multiple Barbies is played by a trans woman. Barbie was modeled after a sex-worker in a German comic strip. 

Another Florida story: four members of a family were convicted of selling toxic industrial bleach as a fake Covid cure through their online church—a 65-year-old father with three adult sons. They represented themselves but refused to speak until afterward when one son said they would appeal the verdict. They made $1 million with the product, called Miracle Mineral Solution, as a cure not only for Covid but 95 percent of known diseases including Alheimer’s, autism, brain cancer, HIV/AIDS, and multiple sclerosis. When ingested, the chlorine dioxide becomes a bleach used for treating textiles, industrial water, pulp, and paper—with fatal results. The family refused a 2020 order from a federal judge to stop selling the product.

A few victories:

The Missouri Supreme Court unanimously ordered the state AG Andrew Bailey to permit the citizens’ initiative for abortion rights to be certified for the ballot.

In Michigan, AG Dana filed eight felony charges against 16 fake electors who signed false statements claiming DDT had won the popular vote in the state in 2020. They include conspiracy to commit forgery, forgery, conspiracy to commit election law forgery, and election law forgery. They met in the basement of the GOP headquarters in Lansing and lied in signing certificates that they were the “duly elected and qualified electors.”

Temecula Valley Unified School District board rejected a social studies text used by hundreds of thousands of students in the nation in favor of one from 17 years ago because it mentioned gay rights activist Harvey Milk. California  purchased textbooks for $1.6 million for the district and will bill the district as well as fining it $1.5 million for violating statelaws.

The DOJ is looking into Texas’ orders to not to give migrants water in the heat wave and to push them back into the razor wire the state put into the Rio Grande River. Texas and its governor, Greg Abbott, are also being sued for its installation of a marine floating barrier to block migrant crossings. Last year, the DOJ sued Arizona for putting shipping container along the U.S. southern border as a “wall”; Arizona decided to remove them.

A federal judge rejected the bid from Jacob Chansley, known as the “QAnon Shaman” during his participation in the January 6 insurrection, to withdraw his guilty plea to the felony of obstructing Congress in the attack. He also rebuked the insurrectionist for his use of an edited video from the Tucker Carlson program giving a distorted view of the riot. Chansley finished his sentence in March.

Even in his second term, Rep. Tim Burchett (R-TN), who claims that legislation can’t fix school shootings and refused to sign a two-sentence statement denouncing white supremacy, doesn’t understand how Congress works. In a press conference he ranted against the “intelligence community” who prevented a vote on an amendment to require the FAA reporting all sighting of Unidentified Aerial Phenomenon (UAP). Rep. Jim McGovern (D-MA) explained that Burchett voted against the amendment himself, but the angry Republican disputed his statement. McGovern had to explain to Burchett that he had voted for a rule blocking his own “late” amendment.

The following exchange between president Joe Biden and Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) has gone viral, but it’s worth repeating. “I approve this message.” That was Biden’s caption at the end of on his ad on Instagram account with a video of Greene’s rant to her audience at the recent Faith and Family conference she thought was insulting:

“[Biden] “had the largest public investment in social infrastructure and environmental programs that is actually finishing what FDR started, that LBJ expanded on … Programs to address education, medical care, urban problems, rural poverty, transportation, Medicare,Medicaid, labor unions.”

Within one day, the ad had 35 million views, second only to the 45 million views for his April announcement that he was running for relection.  Before Biden posted the ad this week, the White House tweeted:

“Caught us. President Biden is working to make life easier for hardworking families.”

In another ad for Biden, Greene made this statement during a House Oversight Committee. She wasn’t talking about DDT, but it fits:

“[W]hen evidence and proof of a crime is presented, no prosecution should be denied, no matter who the person is.”

The really good news is that Congress goes on vacation in another week until September.

Heat Wave, More Issues

During the past 39 days, a relentless heat wave has broken 2,300 records across the southern U.S., including the 20^th consecutive day over 110 degrees in Phoenix (AZ) and shows no immediate letting up. A shift to the west means that new areas as far north as Montana can see hot days such as 99 degrees on Saturday. This map gives an idea of how dire the temperatures are.

No climate warming?

• June was the hottest month in NOAA’s 174-year global climate record, 1.89 degrees above average, the 47^th-consecutive June and 532^nd-consecuritive month above the 20^th-century average.
• The past seven years have been the hottest on the Earth “by a clear margin, according to the Copernicus Change service.
• The year 2023 could be the warmest on record, surpassing 2016 at 58.69 degrees over global land and ocean. Last year was 58.44 degrees.
• Atlantic Ocean temperatures are the highest since record-keeping became in 1850 with surface temperatures almost three degrees warmer than typical.
• Heat waves, once considered typical, are hotter and more frequent. Temperatures in Spain and Portugal were 36 degrees higher than average during May.

As record heat and wildfire smoke engulf huge swaths of the country, President Joe Biden could free up disaster relief funds and slash carbon emissions by declaring a climate emergency — a move Democratic lawmakers have repeatedly called on him to make.

The Republicans response to the disaster from climate warming is introducing a bill blocking President Joe Biden from declaring a climate emergency, despite almost one-third of people in the U.S. suffering from heat alerts. Rep. August Pfluger (R-TX) and Sen. Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV) mocked the current crisis by naming the bill the “Real Emergencies Act” which would prevent the president from declaring a national emergency “on the premise of climate change” under any of three laws. Executive emergency powers could provide FEMA funds for disaster relief and mitigation.

A leaked email describes mandatory brutality ordered by Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s “Operation Lone Star” initiative toward migrants at the southern state border—push them back into the water when they reach the U.S. border and don’t give them any medical care for issues, including broken bones, when they try to circumvent razor wire in the Rio Grande River or survive the intense heat. The author, a medic, wrote:

“I truly believe in the mission of Operation Lone Star; I believe we have stepped over a line into the inhumane. We need to operate it correctly in the eyes of God. We need to recognize that these are people who are made in the image of God and need to be treated as such.”

Another trooper supported the statement, but Abbott claims that his policies would not mistreat people attempting to cross without legal authorization. Congressional Democrats have called the floating barrier in the international barrier both illegal and inhumane. Rep. Joaquin Castro asked that Abbott stop his Operation Lone Star until the situation has been investigated.

In one case a woman with two children had a miscarriage while she was caught in the wire. One of her children later died at the hospital; the other one “was never found,” according to the trooper. A pecan farm owner said that officials working for Abbott’s border security operation refused to remove the razor wire from his property despite his multiple requests. He said that several people had been injured by the state-installed by the state that can use private property without the owner’s permission after a 2021 law which appropriate almost $10 million for the initiative.

Actors and other film industry union workers have joined writers in striking for better conditions, and Universal picked that time to cut all the foliage off the trees they used for shade during their pickets in the 90+ degree heat. The city, which manages the trees, said that they are “essential to providing Angelenos with significant environmental and public health benefits, especially during a heatwave.” Universal claimed they trim the trees every year during July and August, a time when no trees should be trimmed. According to city laws, trees are trimmed either by a city crew or a third-party crew hired by a local business with the correct permit.  

The union, SAG-AFTRA said that its members can no longer picket at NBCUniversal after the tree trimming and “suspiciously timed construction that has forced picketers into streets without proper safety rails.” Studio executives spoke anonymously about how major studios are set on “[breaking] the WGA”; they plan “to allow things to drag on until union members start losing their apartments and losing their houses.” In the studios, CEO pay grew by 1,480 percent since 1978; typical worker pay increased by 18 percent in that time.

In a victory for disabled children, a federal court ruled that Florida violated the Americans with Disabilities Act by unnecessarily institutionalizing children with complex health needs, placing them in nursing homes instead of providing community health services in their homes. About 140 children in Florida’s Medicaid programs live in nursing homes within three counties, and approximately 1,800 children are at risk of being similarly institutionalized. The ruling orders the state to improve care coordination and fund more at-home nursing for children with increased access to medical support and service. Throughout Florida, nursing homes have been criticized for health and safety issues, with a high number of Covid deaths and now expectations of climate change to harm disabled and aging residents in largely underprepared facilities.

Like DDT, Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-AL) fails to keep his promises. While campaigning, he said he would “donate every dime I make when I’m in Washington, D.C., to the veterans of the state of Alabama.” He created a charity, Tommy Tuberville Foundation, in 2014 as part of his requirement to donate $5,000 a month of his annual salary of $1.6 million to the athletics department. In 2016, he gave 150 season tickets to veterans. The IRS, however, shows very little of his money spent on charitable causes, especially after he was elected as senator. In 2021, the foundation had $74,101 in revenue with $32,000 spent for administrative costs. Gross receipts the next year were $50,000 with no requirement to provide details. Tuberville’s spokesperson did not report any donations from his $174,000 annual salary.

Infamous for his blockade against military promotions, Tuberville now claims it has nothing to do with abortion although his reason is that the military provides time off and travel expenses if military members must travel outside the large number of states blocking the procedure. Forty percent of female service members—80,000 on active duty—are stationed in states with no or severely restricted access to abortion services in the U.S. These women are already more likely to leave the military because of its lack of family planning service and discrimination. The military also funds abortion only in cases of rape or incest and to protect the health of the mother. For the procedure, troops must obtain civilian care, but Tuberville accuses the Pentagon of paying for abortions.

Even ultra-conservative Hugh Hewett is lambasting Tuberville for his boycott, writing that it isn’t “pro-life” to damage military lives. Hewett wrote:

“Uncertainty is just paralysis, and paralysis in the military can be deadly. On every level, this action by the Alabama senator is morally and strategically wrong…. Stop playing with the lives of U.S. military personnel.”

Alabama is also playing games with the Supreme Court’s order to redraw its congressional district map to have two of seven districts with a majority of Black voters. Its new map, due on Friday, has even fewer Blacks that the one that SCOTUS sent back to the state, meaning it still violates the Voting Rights Act. With the GOP maps, minorities have a strong voice only in one district although they comprise almost one-third of the population.

Rep. George Santos (R-NY), facing 13 charges in an indictment and an investigation from the House Ethics Committee, represents third wealthiest district in New York and the fourth-wealthiest in the country. Only three of his constituents have donated to his campaign in 2023 with most of the over $6,000 coming from one person. In January, 78 percent of the district voters, including 71 percent of Republicans, want him to resign. In his first term, Santos had said that he would leave office “if 142,000 voters who voted for me” decided not to vote for him again. That’s 97.4 percent of the 145,824 who voted for him in 2022 before they knew anything about him.

Known for sexist, racist, homophobic, and election-denying statements, Jesse Watters has taken over Tucker Carlson’s prime Fox spot, and his mother is very proud, so proud that she called into his show on the first night. All went well at first while she praised him, but then she segued into “suggestions” of the practical (progressive?) kind so he would keep his job. She started with an obvious reference to Carlson’s firing and Fox’s lawsuit settlement of over $787 million:

“Do not tumble into any conspiracy rabbit holes. We do not want to lose you and we want no lawsuits, OK? I want you to seek solutions, versus fanning the flames.”

More of her comments are here as if the two-minute video. Delightful!

There’s far more news, but that’s enough for tonight. More tomorrow and the DDT roundup on Cult Sunday.