(click on images to enlarge)
(Jack Ohman, Tribune Content Agency)
(Phil Hands, Wisconsin State Journal)
(Clay Jones, Washington Post)
(Jeff Stahler, gocomics.com)
(Kevin Necessary, gocomics.com)
(Robert Ariail, Spartanburg Herald-Journal, SC)
(John Deering, Arkansas Democrat-Gazette)
(Tim Campbell, Counterpoint)
(Ali Solomon Mainhart, @alisolomain)
The Federal Election Commission will disclose today that political action committees (PACs) linked to the Malignant Loser paid approximately $50 million for his legal expenses in 2023. From the New York Times:
"The exact figure spent on legal bills will be reported on Wednesday in new filings to the Federal Election Commission. But even those totals can be imprecise depending on how certain expense items are categorized by those doing the paperwork. [snip]
Mr. Trump, who has long been loath to pay lawyers himself and has a history of stiffing those who represent him, has used funds in his political action committee, known as Save America, to underwrite his legal bills. The account was originally flooded with donations that were collected during the period immediately after the 2020 election when he was making widespread and false claims of voting fraud.
But with Save America’s coffers nearly drained last year, Mr. Trump sought to refill them through a highly unusual transaction: He asked for a refund of $60 million that he had initially transferred to a different group, a pro-Trump super PAC called MAGA Inc., to support his 2024 campaign.
In addition, Mr. Trump has been directing 10 percent of donations raised online to Save America, meaning 10 cents of every dollar he has received from supporters is going to a PAC that chiefly funds his lawyers." (our emphasis)
One would think a self-described billionaire like the Malignant Loser wouldn't tap his aging cultists for $10 and $20 dollar donations, but of course he believes they owe it to him for whatever reason. We hope his consigliere and depraved bootlicker Rudy "Toot Toot" Giuliani is keeping track of the money, since he claims the Malignant Loser stiffed owes him for his fees.
In a related story, the Malignant Loser appears to be searching for a new lawyer to represent him in the sure-to-fail appeal of the $83.3 million defamation case brought by E. Jean Carroll, shit-posting on his ironically named "Truth Social" media site:
"I am in the process, along with my team, of interviewing various law firms to represent me in an Appeal of one of the most ridiculous and unfair Witch Hunts our Country has ever seen....Any lawyer who takes a TRUMP CASE is either 'CRAZY,' or a TRUE AMERICAN PATRIOT. I will make my decision soon!"
Bye-bye Melania impersonator / Trump mistress wannabe Alina Habba, hello another crazy person, and certainly not a patriot! Say, what about Rudy?
(photo: Habba might want to stay out of the street these days)
The MAGAt morons' Tay Tay freakout, cont. --
Republicans haven’t misread American society this badly since Terri Schaivo https://t.co/sfBsq3q6wg
— Dana Houle (@DanaHoule) January 30, 2024
WOW…thought I’d never be typing this out in my life but here we are….Colin Cowherd is out here dropping truth bombs about Taylor Swift and calling out her haters in a very worthwhile 4 minute segment on @TheHerd today 🔥 pic.twitter.com/rEFafzBSA6
— Wu Tang is for the Children (@WUTangKids) January 30, 2024
I am a MAN! My BRONOUNS are SUCK MY DICK! Libs are all PUSSIES! I am STRONG and TOUGH! I carry GUNS to protect myself from RAINBOWS and TAYLOR SWIFT! VOTE TRUMP!
— The Volatile Mermaid (@OhNoSheTwitnt) January 31, 2024
Uh Oh, shes coming after our truckers next! 🤣 pic.twitter.com/1RjRysb3Di
— Alex Cole (@acnewsitics) January 30, 2024
On the"joke" Mayorkas impeachment, and the same "morons' tanking the immigration deal --
House Republicans have blown up their own border deal and urged Biden to do a bunch of illegal things.
— Catherine Rampell (@crampell) January 30, 2024
Maybe they’re trying to sabotage the immigration system. Or maybe they’re just morons? https://t.co/UtrDBSOni2
Mayorkas has made many mistakes, but it is nothing like the slew of illegal, unconstitutional, and immoral actions taken during the 4 years of the Trump admin, which resulted in the total destruction of the immigration system. This case is a joke.
— David J. Bier (@David_J_Bier) January 30, 2024
As I testified: "More than 30 times, courts found that the prior administration’s policies were implemented illegally, but the assault was so relentless that many changes were not stopped. Nearly every single area of immigration law had been shredded." https://t.co/BSECuroYhD
— David J. Bier (@David_J_Bier) January 30, 2024
Says the guy who voted to acquit President Trump—twice. https://t.co/XFZYqu27JY
— Steve Vladeck (@steve_vladeck) January 30, 2024
We hear Budget Suites of America have bedbugs, pass it on --
Exclusive: Hotelier Robert Bigelow told @Reuters he gave Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump $1 million for his legal fees and agreed to donate another $20 million to a pro-Trump outside group for campaign purposes https://t.co/agfKsseys9 pic.twitter.com/rRt898tQXF
— Reuters (@Reuters) January 30, 2024
What's that Musk-y smell? *Somehow* Musk's microchips might be less scary than vaccines to *some* --
— Seth Abramson (@SethAbramson) January 30, 2024
Stick it to the war criminals! --
We’re getting closer by the day to transferring the $300 billion in frozen Russian state assets to Ukraine. Watch this space!https://t.co/pblOuKCn1h
— Laurence Tribe 🇺🇦 ⚖️ (@tribelaw) January 31, 2024
R.I.P. Chita Rivera --
In Memoriam: Chita Rivera (1933-2024), a Broadway legend and trailblazer. In this interview from 2008 Chita reflects on her formative experience in 1957's West Side Story. pic.twitter.com/hGvmyxQ9aD
— American Masters (@PBSAmerMasters) January 30, 2024
X Ambassadors, whose 2015 mega hit "Renegades" put them on the pop / alternative rock map to stay, have a new song "No Strings" that they released a few days ago from their soon-to-be released album "Townie," their fourth studio album. The band, anchored by brothers Sam Harris (lead singer and guitar) and Casey Harris (keyboards and backing vocals) who has been blind since birth, are also active in philanthropy, performing benefits for LGBTQ rights and women's reproductive rights. Enjoy.
Far right-wing conspiracy monger, social media destroyer and crashing car mogul Elon Musk is getting more bad news these days. In addition to falling market values for Tesla and the shrinking value of his vanity project "X" / Twitter, Musk now has taken a hit regarding his massive Tesla pay package, per the Washington Post:
"A Delaware judge on Tuesday ruled that Elon Musk’s generous 2018 compensation package, which helped make the tech entrepreneur the world’s richest person, was unfair and should be undone.
The $56 billion package, advanced by shareholders and Tesla’s board, entitled Musk to stock options in the company as it hit specific performance targets. Shareholders sued Musk, alleging the process that led to the package was improper. [snip]
The ruling comes at a particularly tense juncture for the Tesla CEO. He has asked for 25 percent control over the company — which went on to become the world’s most valuable automaker after the pay package was implemented — after he sold off billions worth of stock to help fund his $44 billion acquisition of Twitter. Investors, including some who were enthusiastic about the 2018 package, are skeptical of Musk’s request for additional control.
Meanwhile, Tesla reported disappointing quarterly financial results last week that stemmed from steep price cuts that increased sales volume but barely grew its revenue. One analyst described the investor call as a 'train wreck.'” (our emphasis)
Tesla is incorporated in Delaware, and is required to follow the state's laws regarding public corporations. The judge, chancellor Kathaleen McCormick, said it is up to Tesla and its stockholders to comply and reduce the greedy Musk's compensation package. In her order, the judge noted the rigged process for the original determination of Musk's compensation:
"The approval process for the compensation package was 'deeply flawed,' she wrote, in part because of Musk’s close ties with the people representing the company, including the chair and another member of the compensation committee.
The group that worked on the compensation package also included the company’s general counsel, who once served as Musk’s divorce attorney and 'whose admiration for Musk moved him to tears during his deposition,' McCormick wrote." (our emphasis)
We trust that this decision will move both Musk's attorney pal and Musk to tears.
(photo: All hat, less compensation)
Jimmy Kimmel covers the Taylor Swift / Biden conspiracy theories rampant in mouth- frothing MAGA world, the cult leader's decline and his "off the rails" behavior, and more.
(click on images to enlarge)
(Gary Markstein, Creators.com)
(Robert Ariail, Spartanburg Herald-Journal, SC)
(Rob Rogers, Tinyview.com)
(Jeff Stahler, gocomics.com)
(John Cole, caglecartoons.com)
(Mike Luckovich, Atlanta Journal-Constitution)
(Matt Wuerker, Politico)
(Dave Whamond, caglecartoons.com)
(Bill Bramhall, New York Daily News)
(John Darkow, Columbia Missourian)
(Clay Jones, claytoonz.com)
(Christopher Weyant, Boston Globe)
(Brendan Loper, @b_loper ; referencing this)
Irony, with a heavy dose of craven MAGA hypocrisy --
Republicans are impeaching Mayorkas but refusing to pass border legislation does anyone see the irony here?
— Molly Jong-Fast (@MollyJongFast) January 30, 2024
The House Freedom Caucus is back to its old playbook–impeachment as a political weapon
— Norm Eisen (norm.eisen on Threads) (@NormEisen) January 30, 2024
They have NO evidence to impeach either Biden or Mayorkas
I explain @MSNBC w/Fred Wertheimer & Sasha Matsukihttps://t.co/2plbmXVpWo
Goldman: Your own party Is sabotaging and undermining this administration's efforts to address the border while you are trying to impeach him by saying that they're not addressing the border The hypocrisy is the least of it. Your attack on the rule of law is the worst of it. pic.twitter.com/8gY8iL2Ion
— Acyn (@Acyn) January 30, 2024
E. Jean Carroll perfectly describes the Malignant Loser --
EJC: And there he was. And he was nothing. Just no power. He was zero. @Acyn
— The Intellectualist (@highbrow_nobrow) January 30, 2024
pic.twitter.com/rUaWTppMF3
E. Jean Carroll via @maddow:
— Rachel Bitecofer 📈🇺🇲🇺🇦🇮🇱 (@RachelBitecofer) January 30, 2024
I was terrified …but [Donald Trump] was nothing…I looked out and he was just nothing. His power comes from those around him. 🎯
And 🎶 tears on their pillow 🎶.... --
MAGA is such a twisted cult. To be a member, you have to hate Taylor Swift, the NFL, Disney, Bud Light, Target, vaccines, higher education ... and the list keeps growing. Soon they'll have nothing left but MyPillow.
— Mark Jacob (@MarkJacob16) January 30, 2024
Give until it hurts, MAGA nation! --
Dear MAGA:
— Tristan Snell (@TristanSnell) January 30, 2024
Now, every time you give money to Trump — you’re really giving it to E. Jean Carroll — and soon, to the state of New York.
Hugs n kisses,
Everyone else
Scotland Yard: please find this little Russian turd, arrest and deport him. --
Londoners, can someone find this guy and have (un)polite talk with him? pic.twitter.com/a04uEIb2Zr
— Saint Javelin (@saintjavelin) January 30, 2024
More First Person View (FPV) drones to Ukraine, stat! --
Artillery systems are one of the most important targets for Ukrainian FPV drones.
— Defense of Ukraine (@DefenceU) January 30, 2024
That's how our defenders from the 40th Artillery Brigade hunt for russian artillery. pic.twitter.com/7dLy1f7Qlg
Hidden treasures. --
this is like when you lift up a rock and there’s a bunch of bugs underneath pic.twitter.com/1ETAyZu08w
— cats being weird little guys (@weirdlilguys) January 30, 2024
Choosing to defy a ruling by the Republican (!) Supreme Court as well as the supremacy clause of the Constitution, Texass white nationalist Republican Gov. Greg Abbott is doing his best impersonation of Jefferson Davis:
...What does it look like when secessionist theory is weaponized against a 21st-century president? We have already begun to find out. For months, the Texas National Guard was engaged in an armed standoff with federal law enforcement, as well as active duty service members, at the Rio Grande: Guardsmen used razor wire to fence off the border, preventing federal access to migrants, even those in severe medical distress. On Monday, by a 5–4 vote, the Supreme Court lifted an injunction that prevented federal officers from cutting through this razor wire. But Abbott says his state will “defend and protect itself” by continued use of force, raising the very real possibility of ongoing clashes between state and federal law enforcement. Whether these disputes turn violent is anyone’s guess. The belligerent governor, though, has conspicuously declined to rule out use of force against anyone who stands in his way.
Vicious nativism is certainly not a perfect comparison to the totalitarian white supremacy that drove the slave states to Civil War, but it, too, springs from the diseased roots of bigotry, fear, and rage. It should be no surprise, then, that Abbott and his allies would adopt Confederate rhetoric in his quest to seize control over the border and subject migrants to anguish and death. By embracing the Confederate theory of the nation as a mere compact, he has freed himself to take even more aggressive measures against the federal government. We have been here before. It does not end well.
This ambitious, seditious asshole is dead set on causing a Constitutional confrontation with the Biden Administration (and Supreme Court). Like his cult leader and his Congressional minions, Abbott sees immigration as a hot button issue his nativist party can demagogue on any time there's an election. Abbott is being aided and abetted by the Republican governors of 25 other States, which should be the best indication yet that we're not dealing with a "normal" conservative movement with "moderate" leaders, but rather a neo-Confederate, nativist, fascistic party whose cult leader is fanning the flames of insurrection now even more than he did before and on January 6, 2021.
Abbott, along with fellow nativist Gov. "Bootsie" DeSantis, is notorious for cruelly busing migrants to Democratic- controlled cities just in order to "mess" with them. Maybe it's time to mess with Abbott's Texass.
BONUS: More reading here, here and here.
(Photo: "Securing the border" not really what they're after / USA Today)
Reports from inside European Union leadership indicate that a plan has been mapped out that would punish Victor Orban's regime in Hungary if he vetoes aid to Ukraine. Orban has also been the sole hold out against the accession of Sweden to NATO, and has voiced friendship with Russian thug and war criminal Vladimir Putin. According to Reuters:
"Brussels has outlined a strategy to explicitly target Hungary's economic weaknesses, imperil its currency and drive a collapse in investor confidence in a bid to hurt 'jobs and growth' if Budapest refuses to lift its veto on the aid to Kyiv, the newspaper reported, citing a document drawn up by EU officials.
Notorious for many bitter feuds with the EU during his 13 years in power, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban has become a vocal critic of the bloc's support for Ukraine and boasted about his ties with the Kremlin since Russia went to war in Ukraine in February 2022.
The document seen by FT declares that 'in the case of no agreement in the February 1 [summit], other heads of state and government would publicly declare that in the light of the unconstructive behaviour of the Hungarian PM . . . they cannot imagine that' EU funds would be provided to Budapest." (our emphasis)
Orban's Hungary has to make up its mind whether it wants to be in the orbit of a declining, imperial Russia, with its territorial ambitions aimed at eastern Europe, or whether it wants to be aligned with the West. Orban may find that to be a difficult choice, but the European Union should make it easier for him with pressure on his economy.
(photo: Putin reaching for a hug with Orban. Alexander Zemlianichenko, AP / pool)
"...Joe Biden by any objective metric has been one of the most successful presidents in modern U.S. history. He has led the creation of more major legislative initiatives benefiting the American people than any president in 60 years. He oversaw the creation of more than 14 million jobs during his first three years in office. He has brought down inflation and reduced the prices of vital medicines to affordable levels. He has restored American leadership worldwide, expanded our vital alliances like NATO, and stood up to our enemies. All presidents face challenges and make missteps. But it is hard to deny that in the wake of the U.S. economic recovery, the passage of the American Rescue Plan, the Bipartisan Infrastructure Bill, the CHIPs and Science Act, and the Inflation Reduction Act, the expansion of NATO, and the creation of new Indo-Pacific alliances, Biden’s record is formidable.
"That a president with this record is in a horse race with a candidate who is a menace to the country, who led an insurrection, who is a pathological liar whom courts have found to be a fraud and a rapist, and who has no real ideas, no credible policy proposals, no record of actually ever achieving anything for the American people is chilling...." -- David Rothkopf, The New Republic, writing that "Trump Is a Combination of Every Threat We Have Ever Faced in Our History." He's voicing what so many of us are witnessing in America: a degenerate menace to our country being supported by a solid 40 percent of its voters (in addition to war criminal Putin and other autocrats worldwide). After detailing the litany of reasons the Malignant Loser is "every threat we have ever faced in our country" (please read as a refresher), he asks,
"So, ask yourself, is that enough to make you do more than you have done? Is that enough to commit for the next 10 months to do more than you have ever done during an election year? To give more? To canvas more? To spread the word more? To help get voters to the polls? To ensure every member of your family, your friends, your co-workers do the same? The stakes are too high to do less than everything you can. The stakes are too high to allow this man to continue to play any role in American public life."
If it's not enough, we don't know what would be.
The Associated Press reports that the Court of Arbitration for Sport has disqualified Russian figure skater Kamila Valieva from her gold medal at the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics due to her use of a banned medication. That will retroactively elevate the U.S. to the gold medal in the team event, having qualified earlier for the silver medal, and move Japan and Canada respectively to silver and bronze medals. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov risibly claimed the decision was "politicized." (As an aside, Russian troops are using drugs in Ukraine to dull the horror of fighting Putin's bloody and illegal war, too).
The Russians are notorious for doping their athletes and trying to rig their tests in order to qualify for Olympic and other international sporting events. They're bad at it, so they get caught and sanctioned. Expect them to try again for the 2024 Paris Olympics because they can't help themselves.
(image: Getty Images)
Dementia Donny, cont. --
If you think a dementia screening test is very difficult, you may have early dementia. https://t.co/djJYJIsSS2
— Jonathan Reiner (@JReinerMD) January 28, 2024
"Grotesque, selfish, rude, and uncontrollable behavior," just the qualities a President needs --
“The jurors’ ability to witness up front and in person, the defendant’s grotesque, selfish, rude, and uncontrollable behavior surely made all the difference in the world.” https://t.co/qifaiHiiXo
— Josh Mankiewicz (@JoshMankiewicz) January 27, 2024
GOP-TV again chooses party over country --
This backfired spectacularly.
— Angry Staffer 🌻 (@Angry_Staffer) January 28, 2024
FOX: Why give Biden this (win) in an election year?
Lankford then breaks down how the bill *would* solve a lot of the issues, and reminds the host that they all took an oath to the constitution, even in election years.
pic.twitter.com/qKTGMPAxpx
More media malpractice and a lame linkage exposed --
See, it's not the media's job to report objectively that a bipartisan deal on the border is getting put on ice b/c Trump doesn't like it, no, DEMOCRATS have to do that job b/c the media will just "both sides" things 🙃 https://t.co/edRpP9neho
— scary lawyerguy (@scarylawyerguy) January 29, 2024
Many Republicans now say border deal not needed, because Biden already has all authority needed to "close the border." Great! That destroys already lame rationale for linking border and Ukraine aid. Pass Ukraine funding WITHOUT any border tie-ins. https://t.co/wegzTiMHTV
— Ilya Somin (@IlyaSomin) January 28, 2024
Bye-bye Boebert? --
Before I go to bed, I thought it would only be fitting to send “thoughts & prayers” to my colleague, Lauren Boebert. It’s my understanding that she placed 5th in her first straw poll of the election cycle. Now how many of y’all think BoBo gonna try to convince us that polls don’t…
— Jasmine Crockett (@JasmineForUS) January 29, 2024
Right-wing radio rat's hot take got cold fast, and the lizard brain right's Tay Tay conspiracy theories --
Any update Clay? https://t.co/tjlrPURRiS
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) January 28, 2024
Yep.
— Michael Harriot (@michaelharriot) January 29, 2024
The NFL is totally rigged against Republican strongholds like Baltimore https://t.co/zqJDPSsyT4
Taylor Swift dates a football player and the MAGA Snowflakes are struggling to cope. pic.twitter.com/mvh5kVnzBV
— Ron Filipkowski (@RonFilipkowski) January 29, 2024
The Republicans’ palpable fear of a fairly predictable celebrity endorsement has been especially sweaty these last several days. https://t.co/kZSmdh64lW
— southpaw (@nycsouthpaw) January 29, 2024
Grounded after a glorious mission --
Ingenuity, the Mars helicopter, has been grounded. The aerial robot was initially meant to fly several times over 30 days. Instead, it undertook 72 flights, traveling 14 times farther than planned and logging more than two hours of total flight time.https://t.co/dyNvSMSpj5
— Science News (@ScienceNews) January 29, 2024
We have excerpts from an op-ed article in this morning's Washington Post by the admirable Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD), providing a manual for Republicans' responses following a mass shooting in the U.S. He ends with what they must not say for fear of losing the National Rifle Association's support and blood money:
"In the immediate aftermath of the mass shooting, you say:
“Prayer is appropriate in a time like this, that the evil can end and this senseless violence can stop.”
If the mass shooter uses an AR-15 to kill children in a public school, you say:
“We had AR-15s in the 1960s. [But] we didn’t have those mass school shootings. … We actually had prayer in school during those days.” [snip]
If the killer’s weapons were legally obtained, you say:
“I stand behind efforts to enforce our existing laws better.”
But if anyone suggests the existing laws are not sufficient, you say:
“Criminals and mass murderers will ignore any new gun-control law just as they ignore the strict gun control laws in our nation’s most violent cities.”
If you are asked why the United States is a global outlier in gun violence, you say:
“I’m sorry you think American exceptionalism is awful. You’ve got your political agenda.” [snip]
But after any firearm massacre, you never say:
America has more firearms than people, a gun homicide rate 26 times the rate of other high-income countries and notoriously weak gun laws that make us a global outlier. The United States stands alone among peer nations in the number of children dying by firearms, and guns are now the No. 1 leading cause of death of children under 18 in our country. Ninety-seven percent of Americans support a universal criminal background check on all gun purchases, a measure that could save a lot of lives.
It’s time to pass the universal background check and restore the expired ban on military-style assault rifles, which was constitutional and effective...."
Until NRA-controlled Republicans are voted out of office, their manual will continue to be used after each mass shooting event.
(click to enlarge)
Since 2020, the United States has powered through a once-in-a-century pandemic, the highest inflation in 40 years and fallout from two foreign wars. Now, after posting faster annual growth last year than in 2022, the U.S. economy is quashing fears of a new recession while offering lessons for future crisis-fighting.
“The U.S. has really come out of this into a place of strength and is moving forward like covid never happened,” said Claudia Sahm, a former Federal Reserve economist who now runs an eponymous consulting firm. “We earned this; it wasn’t just a fluke.”
On Friday, President Biden hailed fresh government data showing that annual inflation over the second half of 2023 fell back to the Federal Reserve’s 2 percent target. Coupled with Thursday’s news that the economy grew by 3.1 percent over the past 12 months, the Commerce Department report showed that the United States appears to have achieved an economic soft landing.
The post-pandemic recovery challenged long-standing economic beliefs, such as the idea of an inverse relationship between unemployment and inflation. (As one rose, the other was expected to fall.) Expressed in what economists call the Phillips curve, this nostrum proved nearly useless in explaining the economy’s recent behavior.
Washington’s success in reviving the economy also suggests a new approach to future downturns, one that relies more on the government’s power of the purse and less on the Federal Reserve’s control of the cost of credit... (our emphasis)
The "feels" vs. "real" dynamic is beginning to change, with fears of a recession subsiding and consumer confidence rebounding sharply. We've had the best recovery from the Covid pandemic downturn of any other nation in the world. It's not a story the Christofascist Republicans want you to hear, but it's going to be heard, and more importantly felt in yet another existential election year.
Officials in Moscow point to growing trade with China, military cooperation with Iran, diplomatic outreach in the Arab world and the expansion of the BRICS grouping of major emerging economies — Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa — to include Iran, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Egypt and Ethiopia.
The BRICS expansion demonstrated the group’s “growing authority and role in world affairs,” and its work will focus on “sovereign equality,” Russian President Vladimir Putin said in a Jan. 1 statement as Russia assumed the chairmanship of the group. The Kremlin has begun to refer to itself as part of the “Global Majority.”
Internal Russian Security Council documents obtained by a European intelligence service and reviewed by The Washington Post, show that the Kremlin convened meetings in 2022 and 2023 on ways to undermine the dollar’s role as the world’s reserve currency. The ultimate goal, one of the documents stated, was to dismantle the post-World War II global financial system and the power it gives Washington. [snip]
European security officials said that Moscow is very much Beijing’s junior partner and that it is unclear China has any real interest in aligning with the Kremlin’s grandiose visions. But Russia’s focus on using its global position to disrupt the West is intensifying, the officials said, including in the Middle East.
Russia is “not omnipotent, but they try to use all possibilities. They are very consistent and systematic,” said one senior European official who, like others, spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive matters...
Putin's "grandiose visions" are of the same cloth as his imperialistic designs on Ukraine and other parts of the former Soviet Union and beyond. Just as his "3-day war" on Ukraine was foiled, so will his other "grandiose visions" as long as the West stays united. The smaller the man, the bigger the ambitions.
One of the fondest bits of resistance fantasy has been the notion that the nation’s economic elites — the titans of Wall Street, the beautiful people of Davos, the economic masters of the universe— would, in our moment of peril, mount the barricades to defend democracy.
To which a reasonable person might have responded: Have you met these guys?
For about five minutes after January 6, it seemed that the business community had, in fact, found or fabricated a moral compass. “There are some members who, by their actions, will have forfeited the support of the US Chamber of Commerce. Period. Full stop,” the chamber’s vice-president, Neil Bradley, declared when the group announced a ban on contributions to representatives who had voted against certifying Joe Biden’s win.
There were full-page ads and ringing declarations. “This is not who we are as a people or a country,” insisted Jamie Dimon, the chief executive of JPMorgan.
Ah, but.
The chamber quietly dropped its ban on election deniers. The cash still flows. And last week in Davos, we found out how far Dimon had evolved on extraneous details like the peaceful transfer of power and attempted insurrections. Dimon now says that Donald Trump was right about lots of things and, like other moguls, is now okay with either Biden or Trump.
“My company,” he said, “will survive and thrive in both.” ...
There needs to be a reckoning some day for these amoral leeches. A second Biden term might be the only opportunity for that to occur. And, no, we don't mean "revenge;" we mean strengthening regulations on the banking, private fund and securities world (if the Republican Supreme Court doesn't overturn or weaken Chevron v. Natural Resources Defense Council this term). Allowing these amoral anti-democracy "titans" so much power is a recipe for more disasters.
(click on image to enlarge)
Lepus is one of the 88 constellations that are officially recognised by the International Astronomical Union (IAU). It is worth clarifying that, whilst the actual constellations themselves only comprise a handful of stars, the area of sky covered by those stars is often referred to using the name of the constellation. For example, when we say that IC 438 is in Lepus, we do not mean that the galaxy is part of the constellation — perhaps obviously, as it is not a single star, but an entire galaxy! Rather, we mean that it falls in the region of sky covered by the Lepus constellation stars.
The IAU’s 88 official constellations are by no means the only constellations ever described by humanity. Humans have been studying and naming the stars for a very long time, and different cultures of course have their own constellations. The IAU constellations are Eurocentric, with many taken from Ptolemy’s list of constellations. Collectively, the 88 constellations divide the night sky into 88 regions which completely cover it, so that the approximate location of any celestial object can be described using one of the 88.
The impetus behind Hubble examining this galaxy was a type Iax supernova that took place in 2017, a kind of supernova that arises from a binary system of two stars. While this data was obtained over three years after the supernova occurred, and so it’s not visible in this image, there’s still a lot to learn from studying the aftermath of supernovae like this one.[Image Description: A large spiral galaxy seen close-up. The left side of the image shows the galaxy's core and its tightly-curled inner spiral arms. On the right side, one of the arms reaches down from above, curving across the dark background. There is a bright star inside the arc of the arm, and a couple more next to the galaxy.]
Credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA, R. J. Foley (UC Santa Cruz)
(click on images to enlarge)
(Clay Bennett, Chattanooga Times Free Press)
(Paul Fell, politicalcartoons.com)
(Gary Markstein, Creators.com)
(John Darkow, Columbia Missourian)
(Adam Zyglis, The Buffalo News)
(John Auchter, MichiganPublic.com)
(Morten Morland, The Times, London)
(David Horsey, The Seattle Times)
(Paul Noth, The New Yorker)
Nashville attorney Brian Manookian, commenting on his "X" account about the non-existent prospects for an appeal of the E. Jean Carroll verdict that will strip the Malignant Loser of $83 million for his continued, vicious defamation of her, with the incompetent assistance of his attorney Alina Habba:
"To have a meritorious appeal, you have to preserve a reversible error at the trial level. This is why you hire competent counsel. You need someone who actually knows the rules of evidence and procedure.
Alina Habba had no clue what was occurring throughout the trial. She not only failed to preserve any remote grounds for appeal, like a moron, she repeatedly and unintentionally waived them over and over.
For example, she kept saying "no objection" as exhibits were entered into evidence.
It appeared to me that she was saying that because that's something she had heard real lawyers say before.
Unfortunately for Mr. Trump, what she was doing over and over was waiving his ability to appeal over those evidentiary issues. Because she is a moron who would rather *play* lawyer than do the research to *be* a lawyer.
There's no appeal here. And because people have asked me in the past, no, there is no such thing as an incompetent counsel defense in civil cases. That's for criminal matters.
Take this verdict to the bank." (our emphasis)
Habba, who seems to be mimicking the appearance of the Malignant Loser's current wife, was on a right-wing podcast earlier this month and said that she'd rather be pretty than smart because "I can fake being smart." Riiiiight! And when do you start?
No one doubts that the sexual predator that she represented picked Habba primarily for her appearance and her rabid MAGA loyalty, not her lawyerly bona fides. But that pick contributed to him losing $83 million for starters. We'll see what Justice Engoron rules in the coming days in his business fraud case, where the Malignant Loser's defense was also mishandled by Habba, and where the potential penalty is far greater.
(photo: Habba, not looking smart. Tom Brenner / Washington Post via Getty Images)
