The Good, The Bad, And The Ugly

 

The good:

The star prosecution witness in Donald Trump’s hush money trial is set to take the stand Monday with testimony that could help shape the outcome of the first criminal case against an American president.

Michael Cohen, Trump’s former lawyer and personal fixer, is by far the Manhattan district attorney’s most important witness in the case and his expected appearance signals that the trial is entering its final stretch. Prosecutors say they may wrap up their presentation of evidence by the end of the week.

Cohen is expected to testify about his role in arranging hush money payments on Trump’s behalf during his first presidential campaign, including to porn actor Stormy Daniels, who told jurors last week that the $130,000 that she received in 2016 was meant to prevent her from going public about a sexual encounter she says she had with Trump in a hotel suite a decade earlier.

He also matters because the reimbursements he received form the basis of the charges — 34 felony counts of falsifying business records — against Trump. Prosecutors say the reimbursements were logged as legal expenses to conceal the payments’ true purpose...

Don't be surprised if prosecutors introduce evidence that's not been made public until now that prove the Malignant Loser was directly involved in falsifying business records to hide the hush money payment. Just sayin'.

The bad:

In the past three days, Russian troops, backed by fighter jets, artillery and lethal drones, have poured across Ukraine’s northeastern border and seized at least nine villages and settlements, ­and more square miles per day than at almost any other point in the war, save the very beginning.

In some places, Ukrainian troops are retreating, and Ukrainian commanders are blaming each other for the defeats.

Thousands of Ukrainian civilians are fleeing to Kharkiv, the nearest big city. A reception center that hummed with a sense of order and calm on Saturday had transformed into a totally different scene on Sunday, as exhausted people shouted at each other and families with no place to go spilled out onto the grass.

As anxiety spreads, some hard questions loom: How far will this go? Is it just a momentary setback for the underdog Ukrainians? Or a turning point?

Military experts say the Russian advance has put Ukraine in a very dangerous spot. Ukrainian troops have been complaining for months about severe shortages of ammunition — exacerbated by the tangles in the U.S. Congress that delayed the delivery of key weapons. And Ukrainian soldiers, by all accounts, are exhausted...

Putin must be thrilled by the work done by his House Republican authoritarian caucus to delay aid to Ukraine, at the behest of his agent the Malignant Loser.  Thanks, MAGA Mike Johnson (for foot- dragging), Marjorie Taylor Traitor Greene, Bobo Boebert, Matt "Teen Spirit" Gaetz, and all the rest of the Republican traitors!

The ugly: 

Rudy Giuliani has attacked the WABC radio station for firing him on Friday and is accusing it of axeing him to appease “trailer trash little creep” Joe Biden in an effort to gain favour among Democrats.

Hours after he was fired, the former New York City mayor shared his frustrations on his America’s Mayor Live show on Twitter/X, claiming that WABC’s billionaire owner John Catsimatidis was attempting to keep him from “telling the truth” about the “stolen” 2020 presidential election.

“The Democrat thing has something to do with it. And the fact that the Bidens are really zeroing in, now, on interference with the 2024 election. And remember, we can go right back to the beginning. The first thing Biden did as a candidate is write a letter to the network saying to keep me off,” Mr Giuliani claimed.

“He began as a trailer trash little creep taking little bits with his scummy little brothers. And now he’s a world-class thief. Somehow, strangely, he’s president of the United States.”  [Ed.: said the grifter from the "populist" "working class" party]

Mr Catsimatidis, a Republican donor, told The New York Times that he had fired the former mayor from The Rudy Giuliani Show –  which has since been cancelled – because he had failed to comply with the station’s policy around the election. He also said the former mayor had been given repeated warnings before being ousted...  (our emphasis)

This deranged, perverted shitstain is also still out flapping his wine- stained lips about the Georgia election workers -- Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss -- he defamed over his false election conspiracy fever dreams, to whom he has yet to pay the judgement against him. They've now asked the court to enjoin the shitstain from continuing to defame them.  In a just society, he would not be in jail, he's be under the jail.

Emergency Ukraine Aid Sent, Petition For Vote On Larger Aid Bill Filed

 

Welcome news, but no substitute for the billions in aid Ukraine desperately needs to fight war criminal Putin:

The Biden administration said Tuesday that it will send an additional $300 million in security assistance to Ukraine, an “extraordinary measure” being taken as President Biden’s request for billions of dollars more remains stalled in Congress.

The emergency package, announced by the White House, will be funded by “unanticipated cost savings” from contracts the Pentagon had brokered to replace weapons previously provided to Ukraine, national security adviser Jake Sullivan told reporters. The aid will include artillery shells, anti-armor weapons, antiaircraft Stinger weapons and other arms, as well as spare parts, U.S. officials said.

The munitions include medium-range cluster rounds from the Army Tactical Missile System, or ATACMS, which Ukrainian forces have used repeatedly to target Russian headquarters units and troop formations, a senior U.S. official said, speaking on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue. The United States has previously sent the rounds, which have a range of about 100 miles. U.S. officials declined to say whether they also are sending long-range ATACMs munitions, which Ukrainian officials have sought for months.

“It is assistance that Ukraine desperately needs to hold the line against Russian attacks and to push back against the continued Russian onslaught in the east and in other parts of Ukraine,” Sullivan said.

A pause to remember how we got here:

Ukraine’s momentum in the war, now in its third year, has begun to flag as its front-line units face dwindling weapons supplies and Russian forces make a renewed push to break through defensive positions. In his State of the Union address last week, Biden implored lawmakers to pass legislation that would unlock an additional $60 billion to assist the government in Kyiv, but the bill, which also includes money meant to help Israel and counter China, has stalled amid a bitter debate in the Republican-led House.

The $95 billion measure passed the Senate on a bipartisan basis in February, but House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) has refused to hold a vote on it. His tenuous hold on the speakership has come under threat from members of his party who have sought to condition any additional aid for Ukraine on the adoption of new immigration measures that Democrats say are too severe. Former president Donald Trump also has encouraged House Republicans not to pass the bill, despite the significant bipartisan support it has in the Senate...  (our emphasis)

Smarmy Christian nationalist Speaker MAGA Mike Johnson and his Republican Putin caucus have played with Ukraine's desperate need for munitions for far too long.  Democrats are now moving forward with a discharge petition to force a vote in the House:

U.S. House of Representatives Democrats began collecting signatures on Tuesday for a potential bid to sidestep Republican Speaker Mike Johnson and force a vote on a $95 billion security assistance package for Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan.

A spokesperson for Representative Jim McGovern, the top Democrat on the powerful House Rules Committee, said he had filed a discharge petition on Tuesday morning and had started to collect signatures.

McGovern filed legislation on Feb. 15 that could be used as a vehicle for the discharge petition, a rarely used procedural tool that eventually could force a vote on the bill if at least 218 House members - a majority of the chamber's 435 voting members - sign it.

Months after Democratic President Joe Biden asked Congress to approve more foreign security assistance, the Senate last month approved the package for Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan and to replenish U.S. weapons stocks by an overwhelming 70-30 vote. Twenty-two Republicans joined most Democrats in voting "aye."...

Time to get it done. 

 

(Photo:  more, please! / Claire Harbage, NPR)

QOTD -- Appease Putin, Lose Freedom

 

"...Within months of my release, during the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics, Putin invaded Ukraine. He could not tolerate the emergence of a vibrant, young democracy aligned with European values on his doorstep, so he attacked, seizing Crimea, backing separatists in Donbas and spreading lies, disinformation and confusion. The West’s woefully inadequate response meant that Putin thought he could get away with more and paved the way for the full-scale invasion of 2022.

"Putin must be defeated in Ukraine, or he will not stop there. Western powers have armed Ukraine just enough for it not to lose but not enough for it to win decisively. President Biden recognized the insufficiency of this approach when he announced a $61 billion military aid package for Ukraine in October.

"When Congress stepped in to play politics with global security, delaying the aid package, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Putin was seeing his “dreams come true.” And Putin’s dream today will be the West’s nightmare tomorrow..." -- Mikhail Khodorkovsky, former head of Russian oil company Yukos, addressing the House Republican Putin caucus in an op/ ed in the Washington Post.  That collection of seditionists and coup participants has fled town, gathering its strength not for shoring up democracy here and in Ukraine, but in pursuing a bogus impeachment inquiry into President Biden at the behest of their demagogic cult leader. Because playing politics with our national security is all they can or want to do.

House's Putin Caucus Votes To Protect Russia

Yesterday afternoon, the House of Representatives voted overwhelmingly to stop normal trade relations with Putin's Russia and its puppet ally Belarus under the "most favored nation" designation for favorable tariff and trade terms. The vote was a bipartisan 424 to 8, the eight being the usual suspects of hard core authoritarian, neo-fascist Republicans:  Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida, Rep. Lauren Boebert of Colorado, Rep. Thomas Massie of Kentucky, Rep. Andy Biggs of Arizona, Rep. Dan Bishop of North Carolina, Rep. Glenn Grothman of Wisconsin, and Rep. Chip Roy of Texas. What's surprising is that a few more far-right Putin caucus Republicans didn't join them, like Rep. Madison Cawthorn of North Carolina, Rep. Paul Gosar of Arizona, Rep. Scott Perry of Pennsylvania, and Rep. Jim "Gym" Jordan of Ohio.

The bill would further isolate and damage Russia's economy by imposing higher tariffs on its goods, although with severe sanctions already in place, the additional tariff sanctions will have limited effect. The legislation moves to the Senate, where last week 31 Republicans voted against providing $13.6 billion in military and humanitarian aid to Ukraine, and then hypocritically said the U.S. should be providing more aid to Ukraine, hoping their voters wouldn't notice.

BONUS:   Regardless of his vote yesterday, Rep. Cawthorn has been on heavy rotation on Russian state media for his attack on Ukrainian President Zelenskyy earlier this month.

(photo: Four of the Putin Caucus, l. to r., Boebert, Gaetz, Taylor Greene, Massie.  Getty Images / Anna Moneymaker)