tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-275540652024-03-19T04:48:35.566-04:00You Might Notice a TrendA source for opinionated rantings, immeasurable rage against evil, and an honest reckoning of standard craziness...Paul Whttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13092023794397583036noreply@blogger.comBlogger2360125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27554065.post-14832968620582153052024-03-17T18:09:00.001-04:002024-03-18T07:16:46.881-04:00When My Library Closed Four Years Ago<p>If we're looking back to four years ago:</p><p>March 17th 2020 was a Tuesday night, and I work the evening shifts at my library those Tuesdays. That meant I have a desk turn at the Information desk, which also doubles as the checkout desk. There's often two of the part-time Library Assistants working the shift with me: one on desk and the other performing book processing, special project works, or reshelving.</p><p>The library itself was rather quiet. The COVID-19 pandemic had gone global back in January and by February we were seeing the signs in Florida. One interesting thing to note was how most our patrons (library users) are seniors from the surrounding retirement communities, and a lot of them had <i>already</i> begun sheltering at home well before March as the early reports had COVID being near-fatal to older people.</p><p>It may have been quiet but I had been busy all day, handling administrative duties as our Library Director position was vacant since 2018 (My previous experience as head of a library in another county did not go well, so I took it as a temp). I recall working on collection management of one of the non-fiction ranges, and then prepping for a One-On-One tutorial session (duties as the Reference Librarian) that ended up cancelling (they weren't sick, I remember that, they just didn't want to risk it).</p><p>When I started my desk shift at 5:00PM, I checked my work emails. I had two: Library and City. The Library email kept up with staff's last-minute schedule changes, any reports for what our Children's Librarian was lining up for that June's Summer Reading Program, notifications about patron complaints, in-house stuff. The City email was for the directorial duties to the city's operations, any notifications from the Manager, reports from the City Clerk, administrative stuff. The library system for the county used a different network than the city, hence the separate emails.</p><p><b>So it wasn't until 5:20PM when I got to the email from the City Manager's office sent at 4:00PM that everything was shutting down citywide due to the pandemic at 5:00PM.</b></p><p>/headdesk</p><p><--- always the last to know</p><p>I told my part-timers as soon as I read that email. We roamed the library floors informing any remaining patrons - there were two on computers, a mother and child in Children's shelves, one reading in the Magazines area, nobody upstairs - that the library had to close early that night. One of the assistants checked the book drop while I worked on signage for the front doors, and then sent emails to all the staff about our work situation the next morning (library was closed to public, staff still had to work).</p><p>We had been expecting something about closing down. Other city libraries - we have a cooperative system, the cities manage their own library - had already closed a week or two prior. Those were the small libraries, with few staff - some of whom had caught COVID ergo the closings - on hand. They had every reason to close earlier in the month.</p><p>Thing about a library: we were... are a public facility, with hundreds of people going in and out all day, a pandemic hotspot, one of the worst places a virus could spread. As federal and state emergency agencies were begging elected officials to do the right thing, it was just a question of <i>when</i>, and that Tuesday afternoon was it for us.</p><p>By the time we finished locking up and shutting down, it was after 6:00PM. <b>I remember standing in the parking lot, staring at the library and then circling around at everything else - a city lake behind the library, the little league ballpark across the street, the civic center just a ways over, one of those retirement communities to the far side of the ballpark, all part of a small quiet town in the middle of Florida - and just wondered what the hell was going to happen next.</b> There was nobody else outside, even at sunset there were usually families in the surrounding neighborhood walking around the parks but not that night. Everyone was at home (or the grocery stores raiding whatever toilet paper was left), everyone was waiting for the next terrifying thing.</p><p>The day after we got instructions from our city's Emergency team - the firefighters did double-duty on that - about how we had to clean our workplaces, perform daily check-ins for fever and cough, required masking even as we were closed to the public. The plan - the hope - was to reopen to the public by late April, depending on how we could restructure the library to cut down on viral spreads.</p><p>We transferred everything we had on hold to Books-by-Mail as best we could. We started book pickups for drive-thru to the front door. We wiped everything down with cleaning solutions as much as possible. We dealt with co-workers calling in sick - some with COVID itself - though thankfully we never shared an outbreak amongst ourselves. We obeyed the recommendations and performed our duty to the library patrons.</p><p>That was four years ago. Everything changed, and some of it didn't get better.</p><p>Especially as trump - driven by ignorance, desperate to restart a shut-down economy to avoid making himself look bad, and unable to project any semblance of calm leadership - kept getting worse as COVID got worse.</p><p>But that's for another time.</p><p>Four years ago, everything for me shut down.</p>Paul Whttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13092023794397583036noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27554065.post-39958681525223997772024-03-15T18:40:00.000-04:002024-03-15T18:40:00.982-04:00Seriously Can We Hurry This Up<p>Some quick updates about the situation donald trump and his alleged RICO buddies are facing in Fulton County Georgia.</p><p>If there's good news for trump and his cronies, it's that the judge overseeing matters <a href="https://www.npr.org/2024/03/13/1238260873/georgia-trump-case-solicitation-counts-dropped" target="_blank">reduced the overall number of counts they're facing regarding their election interference and fake electors schemes</a> (via Sam Gringlas for NPR):</p><p></p><blockquote><p>The judge overseeing the Georgia election interference case against former President Donald Trump and his allies has thrown out six criminal counts from the indictment.</p><p><b>Trump now faces 10 felony charges in Georgia</b>, instead of 13.</p><p>Fulton County Superior Judge Scott McAfee agreed to grant motions from defendants in the case to quash six counts in the indictment, writing in an order Wednesday that: "The Court's concern is <i>less</i> that the State has failed to allege sufficient conduct of the Defendants – <i>in fact it has alleged an abundance</i>. However, the <i>lack of detail</i> concerning an essential legal element is, in the undersigned's opinion, fatal..."</p></blockquote><p></p><p></p><blockquote><p>McAfee wrote <b>that when prosecutors alleged that the defendants violated their oaths to the Georgia Constitution and the U.S. Constitution, that charge was so broad that it would be impossible for defendants to prepare a defense</b>.</p><p>"On its own, the United States Constitution contains hundreds of clauses, any one of which can be the subject of a lifetime's study," McAfee wrote.</p><p>McAfee wrote that <b>prosecutors could appeal the ruling or ask a grand jury to produce a more specific indictment on those six counts</b>...</p></blockquote><p></p><p>The good news for the rest of us is that <b>the remaining defendants</b> - not the ones who plead already - <b>are still seeing at least one felony charge</b> - such as Mark Meadows, down to a single count of Conspiracy - <b>in a courtroom</b>. Better news is that the infamous audio of trump himself pressuring Georgia's Secretary of State to overturn the vote count is still admissible as evidence in some of the charges trump and others are facing, although McAfee will likely limit its use.</p><p>There is a door left open for DA Fani Willis to bring back the grand jury to refile charges on more specific claims, but given the number of counts still on the table she may decide to proceed with what she has (refiling runs the risk of getting overturned again over those specifics and delaying the trial further).</p><p>Speaking of Willis, she had been facing a disqualification hearing by the defendants over an "inappropriate relationship" with a special prosecutor hired to work on the DA's team. Judge McAfee issued his ruling today on that, <a href="https://www.npr.org/2024/03/15/1232914064/fani-willis-trump-georgia-case-disqualification-ruling" target="_blank">essentially clearing Willis but requiring the man to quit the team to "avoid any impropriety"</a> (also Gringlas for NPR):</p><p></p><blockquote><p>Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis accepted the resignation of Nathan Wade, her top special prosecutor in former President Donald Trump's election interference case, after a Georgia judge made Wade's stepping aside a condition of allowing Willis to remain on the case.</p><p>The decision bolsters chances that 15 defendants including former President Donald Trump will face trial in Georgia for attempting to overturn the 2020 election result.</p><p>In a 23-page ruling that followed hours of dramatic courtroom testimony last month, Fulton Superior Judge Scott McAfee ruled that Willis' romantic relationship with Wade, the top special prosecutor she hired, created the appearance of a conflict of interest, but did not require her disqualification.</p><p>McAfee wrote that, "an outsider could reasonably think that the District Attorney is not exercising her independent professional judgment totally free of any compromising influences. As long as Wade remains on the case, this unnecessary perception will persist."</p><p>McAfee gave prosecutors a choice: If Wade does not resign from the case, Willis must step aside and "refer the prosecution to the Prosecuting Attorneys' Council for reassignment."</p><p>Willis, in a letter accepting Wade's resignation, said she complimented him for "his professionalism and dignity..."</p><p>During a multi-day evidentiary hearing last month, lawyers sparred over when Willis and Wade's relationship began – and over the veracity of their claims that Willis reimbursed Wade in cash.</p><p>As prosecutors fought a subpoena for Willis to take the stand, the district attorney appeared in the courtroom and declared that she wanted to testify. Willis and defense attorneys sparred over intimate personal details, the testimony became so tense that McAfee had to call for a five-minute recess.</p><p><b>In the end, McAfee found that, "the evidence demonstrated that the financial gain flowing from her relationship with Wade was not a motivating factor on the part of the District Attorney to indict and prosecute." And he wrote that the defendants failed to show how Willis' conduct influenced the case.</b></p></blockquote><p></p><p>So Willis stays on as lead prosecutor in the Fulton County matter. And those defendants have to be fully aware that she is going to be <i>pissed</i> at them for dragging her personal life - the primary tactic of conservative wingnuts when deploying the <a href="https://thehill.com/opinion/congress-blog/3845761-that-all-politics-is-personal-cuts-both-ways/" target="_blank">Politics of Personal Destruction</a> - into their political bullshit. Any of them considering getting a plea deal now better do before she gets them on the stand.</p><p>With all this <i>sturm und drang</i> going on there's still a question of <b>when</b> the actual trial in Georgia is going to take place, considering how packed trump's calendar is facing <strike>91</strike> 88 felony charges across four courtrooms. But things are on hold with the federal cases while the Supreme Court considers trump's claims of Absolute Immunity - not until late April, and then further delay until late summer issuing a ruling - and <a href="https://www.npr.org/2024/03/15/1238915986/trump-trial-new-york-delay-judge-stormy-daniels" target="_blank">now with the New York "hush money" trial on a 30-day delay due to a questionably late delivery of thousands of federal documents trump claims is needed for his defense</a>.</p><p><a href="https://noticeatrend.blogspot.com/2024/02/judgment-cometh-and-that-right-soon.html" target="_blank">I may have jinxed things last month</a> when I blogged that trump's judgment was coming, in spite of how trump repeatedly finds ways to delay every court challenge he faces.</p><p>Goddammit, American legal system. You're playing into trump's only legal tactic - Delay, <i>Delay</i>, DELAY - he's got. Stop playing by <i>his</i> rules and get his ass in court.</p>Paul Whttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13092023794397583036noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27554065.post-67253982863438004102024-03-15T09:42:00.000-04:002024-03-15T09:42:35.993-04:00Ides of March, Yet Again. I blame British Theater<p><b>Caesar:</b> Who is it in the press that calls on me?<br />I hear a tongue, shriller than all the music,<br />Cry 'Caesar!' Speak! Caesar is turned to hear!</p><p><b>Soothsayer:</b> Beware the Ides of March.<br /><br /><b>Caesar:</b> What? You again?</p><p><b>Soothsayer:</b> It's March the 15th on the calendar, Caesar.<br />Bloody right I'm here.</p><p><b>Caesar:</b> But you warn me every year!<br />And every year I parade into the Senate,<br />Unarmed like a newish plebe, standing<br />Amid friends now sworn to dire purpose<br />Against me</p><p><b>Soothsayer:</b> And yet, I do warn you<br />Even still that the day is not yet done</p><p><b>Cassius:</b> How many ages hence<br />Shall this our lofty scene be acted over<br />In states unborn and accents yet unknown!</p><p><b>Soothsayer:</b> Oh, many ages foolish lean hungry guy<br />Because this other fellow who<br />Shakes his spear upon the stage<br />Wrote us up a treat <a href="https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Theatre/JuliusCaesar" target="_blank">in this play of his</a><br />In which we do this over and over<br />Mostly in bad English<br />What the hell IS iambic pentameter anyway</p><p><b>Brutus:</b> I do fear this future of yours</p><p><b>Soothsayer:</b> Hey, I see the future I don't write it<br />If I could do anything to stop the foolishness<br />I'd have warned everyone about <br />Trump's vicious ties to Russia decades<br />afore he slouched down that escalator</p><p><b>Caesar:</b> What's this about Trump?</p><p><b>Soothsayer:</b> He lies and bullies his way into<br />the Presidency in the Common Era year <br />of 2016 and worse<br />schemes painfully to regain the office<br />the following 2024 with more<br />destructive ambitions than any<br />you yourselves hold in your hearts<br />all of you</p><p>(long pause among the characters)</p><p><b>Caesar:</b> Know what? Brutus, go ahead<br />with your steely knives, I ain't<br />even bothered anymore.</p><p>(Conspirators stab Caesar)</p><p><b>Caesar:</b> Thank the Gods! I die free of Trump!</p><p>(dies)</p><p><b>Soothsayer:</b> Lucky bastard.<br /><br /></p>Paul Whttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13092023794397583036noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27554065.post-63491082006573851382024-03-13T23:11:00.002-04:002024-03-13T23:11:57.973-04:00Better Off Now<p>It's a question that comes up every Presidential election cycle whenever there's an incumbent running for a second term: "Are you better off now than four years ago?"</p><p>The party in opposition tends to ask that question to highlight how "terrible" the current President is, while the incumbent party asks it while pointing to any signs of economic, social, or international standing improvements.</p><p>It's a question we're getting now, as it becomes official that Joe Biden is the Democratic candidate and donald trump - who was <strike>President</strike> Loser of the Popular Vote four years ago - is the challenger looking to unseat Biden by claiming we are worse off today.</p><p>It's not a smart move by trump or his Republican allies to ask, however: Exactly four years ago the entire planet was in a terrible crisis with a global COVID-19 pandemic crashing into everything - the economy, our society, our health care system, our schools, our families - and leaving us scrambling for basic necessities like <i>toilet paper</i>.</p><p>And it was exactly four years ago this March 13th when donald trump went before the national media and declared he "wasn't responsible for anything at all."</p><blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p dir="ltr" lang="qht"><a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/FourYearsAgoToday?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#FourYearsAgoToday</a> <a href="https://t.co/zyP3iW6bNv">https://t.co/zyP3iW6bNv</a></p>— Emily L. Hauser @emilylhauser.bsky.social 🟣 (@emilylhauser) <a href="https://twitter.com/emilylhauser/status/1768066576270450934?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 14, 2024</a></blockquote> <script async="" charset="utf-8" src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script><p><br /></p><p>What <a href="https://noticeatrend.blogspot.com/2020/03/the-trumpian-failure-at-presidential.html" target="_blank">I wrote back in March 2020 right after that press conference</a>:</p><p></p><blockquote><p>So for this Friday, in order to present himself as in charge and in control, trump scheduled a big televised press conference, timed exactly just as the stock markets were closing... just so he could end up showing how little control he had and even worse openly admit he was in charge of <i>nothing</i>...</p><p>"I'm not taking any responsibility at all." Doesn't matter what he's avoiding responsibility for, the fact that he's AVOIDING responsibility ought to anger every American living and past...</p><p>So here comes trump, facing a global pandemic health care crisis that requires bold thinking, getting out ahead of the problem, staying in touch with all players to make sure things get done properly and to the good of all.</p><p>Unfortunately, trump's spent the last three years dismantling the government systems, understaffing agencies if not outright sabotaging them. Redirecting efforts towards projects that won't help in this crisis or any other. He oversaw the dismantling of a National Security panel tasked with coordinating pandemic responses, which left much of the federal and state agencies in the dark on who was in charge during the first months of this crisis (starting back in December 2019).</p><p>trump's response to all of this? Shifting blame on Obama instead of admitting his own involvement. Arguing that it's Obama's fault there's not enough test kits for this crisis when it should have been something trump's administration ordered done the minute it became clear - mid-January - that the coronavirus was going global. Like Obama would have known <i>back in 2016</i> this particular virus was going to erupt three years after he left office.</p><p><b>"I'm not taking any responsibility at all."</b></p></blockquote><p></p><p>THIS was where our nation was at four years ago. Four long stressful years ago, when the months of March and April felt like years themselves.</p><p>A President takes an oath of office "I do solemnly swear that I will faithfully execute the Office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my Ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States;" and yet four years ago there was trump <b>refusing</b> to faithfully execute his duties, refusing to take charge of a national emergency requiring leadership. Not doing his best at all except shift the blame on everybody else.</p><p>And now here's trump back again, running again for a job he didn't do right the first time around, trying to gaslight and bully and steal his way back into the White House. Not because he wants the responsibility - he never wants <i>that</i> - but because he <i>needs</i> that office's legal immunity to keep his ass out of prison.</p><p>So <i>are we</i> better off now, four years later?</p><p>Four years later, we have a President in Joe Biden who's doing his best to oversee <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2023/01/31/biden-covid-pandemic-national-emergency-end/" target="_blank">an ongoing struggle with COVID's continued presence</a>, to where the pandemic shifted into a shamefully <a href="https://www.bu.edu/articles/2024/is-covid-19-still-a-pandemic/" target="_blank">tolerable endemic to where most Americans</a> try to keep up with vaccines and ignore the relatively high annual death count we've come to accept as normal.</p><p>Four years later, we have a President Joe Biden <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trump_tariffs#Effects" target="_blank">who undid most of the damage of trump's tariff wars with our global trading partners</a>: A <a href="https://www.factcheck.org/2019/05/economists-tariffs-not-boosting-gdp/" target="_blank">tariff fight that negatively affected our own economy</a> and one that trump will insist on restarting should he regain the Presidency.</p><p>Four years later, we have a President Joe Biden <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/dec/04/joe-biden-state-dinner-emmanuel-macron" target="_blank">who restored America's international standing with our allies</a>, who is trying <a href="https://www.defense.gov/News/News-Stories/Article/Article/3615637/biden-pledges-us-will-not-walk-away-from-ukraine/" target="_blank">to support Ukraine's fight</a> against an invading Russian force - something a majority of Americans support - <a href="https://www.wsj.com/livecoverage/biden-state-of-the-union-2024/card/biden-vows-to-work-for-a-gaza-peace-while-defending-israel-s-right-to-exist-I9pxjllkq2PZ1ERfUebT" target="_blank">while trying to manage the bloodshed of the Israeli/Hamas war</a> that's disrupting the Middle East. All of which trump would undo in a reckless raging heartbeat.</p><p>Four years later, we have a President Joe Biden who's presiding <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2024/02/02/us/politics/biden-economy.html" target="_blank">over one of our nation's greatest financial recoveries</a>; with a thriving economy where employment rates are at their best, wages for lower- and middle-income workers are going up, where inflation is currently at an ebb, and a lot of it <a href="https://www.brookings.edu/articles/at-its-two-year-anniversary-the-bipartisan-infrastructure-law-continues-to-rebuild-all-of-america/" target="_blank">tied into Biden's signature infrastructure bill</a>.</p><p><b>Four years later, we have a President Joe Biden who will not avoid or ignore the responsibilities of the office the way donald trump did.</b></p><p>How's that answer, Republicans?</p><p><b>Vote four more years of Joe Biden, thank you</b>.</p>Paul Whttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13092023794397583036noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27554065.post-41261870191219726882024-03-11T20:01:00.000-04:002024-03-11T20:01:15.126-04:00Brief Thoughts About Daylight Savings in America<p>Seriously: If Joe Biden pledges on the 2024 campaign trail that he will force Congress to hold an emergency session to pass legislation ending this travesty of time-wasting called Daylight Savings, and then uses the National Guard to block access to the bathrooms and soda vending machines to ensure both Republicans and recalcitrant Democrats vote passage of this reform, Biden will garner 65 percent of the national vote.</p><p>The whole stress-out over Daylight Savings Time - springing forward an hour in Spring, falling back that hour in Fall - has been a well-documented source of frustration for Americans for decades now, <a href="https://www.sleepfoundation.org/circadian-rhythm/daylight-saving-time" target="_blank">and we keep getting more evidence how it's not really doing us any good</a> (via Danielle Pacheco and Dr. Dustin Coltiar at the Sleep Foundation website):</p><p></p><blockquote><p>Adjusting the time by one hour may not seem like too drastic a change, but sleep experts have noted troubling trends that occur during the transition between Standard Time and DST, particularly in March. These issues include upticks in heart problems, mood disorders, and motor vehicle collisions. <b>Furthermore, DST can cause sleep problems if circadian rhythms are not aligned with natural cycles of light and darkness. Some people also experience insomnia symptoms due to spring time changes</b>...</p><p><b>Humans and other mammals are guided by circadian rhythms, which are 24-hour cycles that regulate sleep and other key bodily functions such as appetite and mood. These rhythms are largely dependent on light exposure.</b> In order to reset each day, they must be synchronized with natural light-darkness cycles in order to ensure healthy, high-quality sleep.</p><p>The transition between DST and Standard Time has darker mornings and more evening light. This can essentially “delay” your sleep-wake cycle, making you feel tired in the morning and alert in the evening. <b>Circadian misalignment can contribute to sleep loss, as well as “sleep debt,” which refers to the cumulative effect of not getting enough sleep on a regular basis</b>...</p><p>While many people adapt to time changes, <b>some studies have suggested the human body never fully acclimates to DST. Rather, their circadian misalignment may become a chronic or permanent condition</b>. This can lead to more serious health problems, especially for those who experience “social jet lag” because their demands at work or school take precedence over a full night’s sleep. Social jet lag has been linked to a higher risk of obesity, depression, and cardiovascular disease. The effects of DST subside gradually after a few weeks...</p></blockquote><p></p><p>There are a number of other things that disrupts a person's normal sleep cycle - travel, uneven work hours (morning / evening shifts), neighbors practicing with their garage band at midnight, similar hazards - but this is one directly caused by government policy. And it's a policy that continues to annoy if not enrage most Americans suffering from it. Nearly every poll out there - <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/daylight-saving-time-polling-shows-americans-utterly-divided-2023-3" target="_blank">like this one in <i>Business Insider</i> - has a majority of people wanting an end</a> to the damn thing.</p><p>The problem is nobody can agree to make Standard time - based on the actual solar cycle - or Daylight Savings - which moves ahead an hour and gives businesses more sunlight in afternoon/evenings for work - the national default.</p><p>Considering how the medical experts point to that circadian rhythm as key to our health, <b>I'd argue to keep our hours to the Standard setting. It's how our planet works, how our bodies work</b>, and goddammit we've lived for centuries without springing forward for anything.</p><p>The big reason we went to Daylight Savings was energy conservation during wartimes - First One and Second One - and then even more in the 1970s when <a href="https://www.history.com/topics/1970s/energy-crisis" target="_blank">the energy crisis</a> hit our nation hard. Thing is ever since the 1980s when technology innovations with energy-saving methods improved our usage - even as we've expanded more use with computers, smartphones, and other electronics - the need to enforce energy conservation with summer daylight actually diminished.</p><p>There's a number of other issues with sleep depravation that need resolving, especially the early schooling hours that affect teens when they're forced to attend junior and high schools before dawn. They are at that age - still developing - where disruption of the sleep cycle affects them the most, <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/family/archive/2022/06/american-high-school-later-start-time/661211/" target="_blank">and there's been a huge push to get states to move school hours to later in the day</a>. All this Daylight Saving stuff is making this harder on the kids and their families.</p><p>Standard Time is the way to go.</p><p><b>If you do this, Joe Biden, you will go down in the history books as our greatest President ever.</b></p><p>Do it.</p><p>Save our Sleep Modes!</p><p> </p>Paul Whttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13092023794397583036noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27554065.post-50619200833848317992024-03-06T09:24:00.004-05:002024-03-11T08:58:54.965-04:00The Blind Eye of the Beltway<p><b><i>Update</i></b>: Thank you Steve in Manhattan for including this article in <i>Crooks & Liars'</i> <a href="https://crooksandliars.com/2024/03/mikes-blog-roundup-0" target="_blank">Mike's Blog Round-Up</a>! I hope everyone browses the other articles here and gains enlightenment in some form. Also, why the hell didn't Barbie <a href="https://www.avclub.com/oscars-2024-the-complete-list-of-winners-1851323136" target="_blank">win for Best Set Design</a>?! I mean, they used ALL that pink...! </p><p><br /></p><p>One of the reasons for my apprehension about this 2024 presidential cycle is how the mainstream media - the Beltway (Washington) punditry leading the Fourth Estate that overwhelms our awareness - is mishandling the entire thing as a personality horse race: Between an elderly Democratic white guy the Beltway is deeming too old, and an enraged bullying Republican white guy (who's not that much older, and showing more signs of dementia) facing criminal charges across four different court rooms threatening to impose a dictatorship on Day One.</p><p>Try to guess which issue the esteemed Beltway expresses a more pressing concern. /headdesk</p><p>And try to remember how this all feels so similar to how that Beltway - now older, but still operating with the same hive-mind "Both Sideism" world view - mishandled the 2016 presidential cycle, which proved disastrous. I <a href="https://noticeatrend.blogspot.com/2017/12/fake-news-is-part-of-problem-but-real.html" target="_blank">wrote back in 2017</a> how the prestigious <i>Columbia Journalism Review</i> <a href="https://www.cjr.org/analysis/fake-news-media-election-trump.php" target="_blank">evaluated the media's performance and found it biased</a> - obscenely so - towards donald trump and against Hillary Clinton:</p><p></p><blockquote><p>In other words, the mainstream media - the Beltway pundits that dominate the political discourse - flipped the real world. They focused more on Hillary's "scandals" - which turned out to be nothingburgers, inflated to inflame the voters against her - than on her policy positions to where I guarantee the average voter didn't even know what her policies were. They focused on trump's "policies" - which was BUILD A WALL, Start a TRADE WAR with China, and Shut Down NATO - while ignoring trump's failures, financial scandals, and sexual assaults.</p><p>In short: <b>Hillary got all the bad press, trump got all the good press</b>.</p></blockquote><p></p><p>We're seeing it happen again, especially in the national press like the <i>New York Times</i> and <i>Washington Post</i> (not to mention the 24-hour cable punditry like Fox Not-News (obviously), CNN, and yes even liberal-leaning MSNBC). Most of that mainstream media focusing on narratives over Biden "<a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2024-election/democrats-replace-biden-nominee-rcna138125" target="_blank">needing to step aside for a younger more winnable Democrat</a>" even as the <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2024-primary-elections/south-carolina-president-results" target="_blank">early primary results have Biden body-slamming his opponents by 80-90 percent</a>. Most of that same mainstream media ignoring donald trump's <a href="https://www.vox.com/politics/24080265/trump-immigration-policies-2024" target="_blank">open calls to put immigrants into internment camps</a>, to <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2024/02/10/politics/trump-russia-nato/index.html" target="_blank">destroy NATO as a bulwark against Russia</a>, to <a href="https://apnews.com/article/trump-hannity-dictator-authoritarian-presidential-election-f27e7e9d7c13fabbe3ae7dd7f1235c72" target="_blank">operate as a dictator on Day One "to punish" his enemies</a>; even ignoring the recent reports of how <a href="https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-features/trump-white-house-drugs-speed-xanax-1234979503/" target="_blank">trump's White House staff was pumping themselves full of drugs</a> as a dangerous abuse of power.</p><p>It's that disconnect - especially at the Paper Of Record the New York Times - that is leaving our whole nation vulnerable to disinformation, misplaced outrage, and misled voters. <a href="https://www.salon.com/2024/03/05/there-is-something-at-the-new-york-times/" target="_blank">It's the kind of thing enraging the likes of Lucian K. Truscott IV</a> (a long-tenured reporter and pundit himself) over at <i>Salon</i>:</p><p></p><blockquote><p>Two things — check that, three things — appear to have gone off the rails at the paper we used to call the Gray Lady. First, whoever is in charge of the paper’s polls is not doing their job. <b>Second, whoever is choosing what to emphasize in Times coverage of the campaign for the presidency is showing bias.</b> Third, the Times is obsessed with Joe Biden’s age at the same time they’re leaving evidence of Donald Trump’s mental and verbal stumbles completely out of the news.</p><p>Let’s start right there. At a rally on Saturday night in Virginia, Trump confused Barack Obama, who left office seven years ago, with President Biden for the third time over the last six months. “Putin has so little respect for Obama that he’s starting to throw around the nuclear word,” Trump said, as his crowd of rabid supporters suddenly fell silent. “You heard that. Nuclear. He’s starting to talk nuclear weapons today.” <b>You won’t find that verbal stumble and the crowd’s stunned reaction in the Times coverage of the campaign over the weekend.</b> You’ll have to read other publications — for example, Salon or maybe the Guardian — if you want to learn how often Trump is losing his way mid-sentence at rallies and just mumbling incoherently.</p><p>The Times on Sunday, however, had this headline ready for your morning coffee: “Majority of Biden’s 2020 Voters Now Say He’s Too Old to be Effective.” It’s another grab from the New York Times/Siena College poll they published on Saturday that is so outrageously flawed, a cottage industry has sprung up to pick apart its methodology and point out its glaring contradictions and straight-up bias.</p><p>A favorite of poll skeptics is its sampling bias. <b>How did the New York Times come up with a polling sample that included 36 percent rural voters when the 2020 proportion of rural voters was 19 percent?</b> Somehow, the poll’s sample of female voters was equally skewed. The poll found Trump winning the female vote by one percent, when Biden carried women in 2020 by 11 points. The Times wants you to ignore that in between, all three of Trump’s Supreme Court justices quarterbacked the <i>Dobbs</i> decision overturning women’s constitutional right to abortion, followed almost immediately by states banning abortion all over the country, many with no exceptions for rape or incest. <b>The Times doesn’t say how it squares its poll numbers with the fact that women turned out in huge numbers to help win referendums confirming a right to abortion, including in such Republican strongholds as Kansas and Kentucky, and handed every special election to Democratic candidates in the bargain.</b> They just want you to believe there’s been a 12-point swing toward Trump among women, with no evidence except, <i>poof!</i> It happened!...</p><p><b>Why is the New York Times missing the red flags in its own polls?</b> More important, why has the paper decided to give its own deeply biased poll results such heavy play? I don’t want to bring up but her emails, but for crying out loud, why is the New York Times so clearly making the same mistakes of bias and emphasis they made in 2016 covering Hillary Clinton all over again?... None of the daily drumbeat of manufactured “news” added up to even a pinprick of a scandal, but as the Times did with Whitewater and the rest of the made-up Clinton scandals, <b>the paper simply couldn’t resist filling its front page with negative stories about the Democratic candidate for president</b>...</p></blockquote><p></p><p>If I could answer from my spot on the sidelines, there are several overlapping reasons why the <i>Times</i> - and the <i>Post</i>, and CNN, and everybody else with a free pass to the green rooms of every talking head show out there - are making the same mistakes they made in 2016.</p><p>One of the most obvious reasons the mainstream media behaves this way is the "<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horse_race_journalism" target="_blank">horse race mentality</a>" that a political campaign brings to the public's attention. It's the simplest way to frame and cover an election - This Guy vs. That Guy, let's see who wins! - even at the expense of the practical issues. The media wants this to be a personality contest.</p><p>But part of the problem is <i>how</i> the media frames this personality contest with a mindset of "<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/False_balance" target="_blank">Both Sideism</a>" - that both candidates AND the two major parties they represent have to be balanced in some way - to where they will enlarge or over-report any minor issue for one candidate/party - to the point of fabricating scandal where there is no scandal - in order to balance the open and major flaws of the opponent. We're seeing it now where the Beltway elites are whining over the "scandal" of Biden being "too old" (when he's only three years older, and shows signs of being more fit than trump) while papering over the reality that trump is facing up to 91 felony charges in four different court rooms.</p><p>This is, by the by, <a href="https://noticeatrend.blogspot.com/2023/09/punching-themselves-just-little-bit-more.html" target="_blank">why the House Republicans are <i>still</i> so desperate to dig up dirt on Biden's family</a>: Fresh red meat to feed to a media corps hungry for "Both Sides" scandal reporting.</p><p>A less obvious reason the punditry are acting this way is due to their own world views getting shaped during the Reagan Era of "Sunny Conservative" Born Again Americanism. Much like the punditry and journalism of the Sixties and Seventies shaped by those who grew up to the FDR New Deal experience, today's punditry and media leadership came of age in the Eighties and Nineties, which shapes their bias of today. <a href="https://noticeatrend.blogspot.com/2016/05/let-us-rid-ourselves-of-these-illusions.html" target="_blank">I said this before</a>: </p><p></p><blockquote>What we're getting is this ongoing fantasy, this wish fulfillment, among the Far Right pols and pundits desirous for The Return Of The Reagan Heir: the Prince That Was Promised. We're talking about a set of people pining for the days when it was 1985: when Reagan stomped the hell out of Mondale and his dirty hippie <i>librul</i> army of Electoral College no-shows...</blockquote><p></p><p>Far too many pundits and reporters view modern Democrats as "out of touch" of the "mainstream" American thought, which the media thinks means "Rural" "White" and "Angry". <b><i>This</i> is the reason why the Times/Siena College polling skewed their sample population 36 percent Rural instead of making it 19 percent</b> like the 2020 vote turnout confirmed. The national media EXPECTS this to be fact when instead its their own bias showing.</p><p>This is why the mainstream media <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/newsletters/archive/2024/03/its-time-to-end-the-election-wishcasting/677651/" target="_blank">keeps wishcasting</a> - thank you, Tom Nichols - for The Next Reagan: this charming, wistful, flag-waving pie-loving patron for that Small-Town America where neighbors knew everybody well enough to leave folding chairs along the 4th of July parade route down Broadway Avenue the day before, because they trust each other enough that nobody will go stealing them.</p><p>The media elites kind of know that donald trump cannot be the Reagan figure, he doesn't come from that America - he and his will happily steal or vandalize those folding chairs, and then blame it on immigrants - but the pundits still can't wrap their heads around the possibility that Biden and the Democrats <i>can</i> represent that part of America alongside the 4th of July parade routes down MLK Boulevard in Los Angeles and Chicago and Tampa and San Antonio and Cleveland and every other major metro where most Americans actually reside.</p><p>So they chide the Democratic front-runners for not fulfilling their Reaganesque fantasy - even as Biden, as I've noted before, <a href="https://noticeatrend.blogspot.com/2019/08/predicting-character-again-jocularity.html" target="_blank">is as close a Reagan (Passive-Positive) figure the Democrats have to lead the nation</a> - all the while promoting less-charismatic Republicans - stop making Rubio happen, <a href="https://noticeatrend.blogspot.com/2016/03/face-it-rnc-rubios-not-going-to-happen.html" target="_blank">he's not going to happen!</a> - or worse providing cover for Republicans representing the racism, sexism, greed and violence of America's darker Id - at the expense of the American voters remaining misinformed and disillusioned.</p><p>I'm finishing this up just as the Super Tuesday voting is wrapping up. <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/elections/results/2024/03/05/super-tuesday/" target="_blank">Both Biden and trump won enough states and delegates to effectively wrap up their respective nominations</a>, but with noticeable differences. Biden - again - curb-stomped his primary opponent Dean Phillips to where in most states Phillips was in third place behind "Uncommitted" (which also tended to be in single digits). trump actually lost a state - Vermont - to opponent Nikki Haley; and while he dominated in several states in most others Haley had secured around 30 percent, which is a significant portion of party voters.</p><p><b>Biden is winning big as an incumbent candidate for the Democrats, while trump is struggling as the incumbent candidate for the Republicans.</b></p><p>And yet you'll never see the Beltway Media frame The Narrative of their horse race in that manner.</p><p>The pundits just can't see it that way.</p><p><br /></p>Paul Whttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13092023794397583036noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27554065.post-84700276959066188322024-03-04T21:42:00.000-05:002024-03-04T21:42:17.552-05:00The Limits of the 14th Amendment, and the Need to Get The Damn Vote Out America<p><a href="https://noticeatrend.blogspot.com/2024/02/that-could-have-gone-better.html" target="_blank">Knew this was coming</a> but it still hurts. The Supreme Court ruled today that Colorado - or any other state - <a href="https://www.scotusblog.com/2024/03/supreme-court-rules-states-cannot-remove-trump-from-ballot-for-insurrection/" target="_blank">doesn't have the standing to disqualify donald trump from the 2024 election ballots over his act of insurrection</a> (via Amy Howe at <i>SCOTUSBlog</i>): </p><p></p><blockquote><p>The Supreme Court on Monday ruled that states cannot disqualify former President Donald Trump from the ballot for his role in the Jan. 6, 2021, attacks on the U.S. Capitol. <b>In an unsigned opinion, a majority of the justices held that only Congress – and not the states – can enforce Section 3 of the 14th Amendment</b>, which was enacted in the wake of the Civil War to disqualify individuals from holding office who had previously served in the federal or state government before the war but then supported the Confederacy, against candidates for federal offices. </p><p>All nine justices agreed that Colorado cannot remove Trump from the ballot. But four justices – Justice Amy Coney Barrett in a separate opinion and Justices Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan, and Ketanji Brown Jackson in a joint opinion – argued that their colleagues should have stopped there and not decided anything more...</p><p>In a 13-page unsigned opinion released shortly after 10 a.m., the justices reversed the state supreme court’s decision. <b>The justices explained that the 14th Amendment was intended to expand the federal government’s power at the states’ expense. And in particular, they noted, Section 3 was designed to “help ensure an enduring Union by preventing former Confederates from returning to power in the aftermath of the Civil War.”</b></p><p>But before disqualifying someone under Section 3, the justices observed, <b>there must be a determination that the provision actually applies to that person. And Section 5 of the 14th Amendment gives the power to make that determination to Congress, by authorizing it to pass “appropriate legislation” to “enforce” the 14th Amendment.</b> Nothing in the 14th Amendment, the court stressed, gives states the power to enforce Section 3 against candidates for federal office, nor was there any history of states doing so in the years after the amendment was ratified...</p><p>In their six-page joint opinion, Sotomayor, Kagan, and Jackson agreed with the result that the per curiam opinion reached – that Colorado cannot disqualify Trump – but not its reasoning. The three justices acknowledged that permitting Colorado to remove Trump from the ballot “would … create a chaotic state-by-state patchwork.”</p><p><b>But the majority should not, in their view, have gone on to decide who can enforce Section 3 and how. Nothing in Section 3 indicates that it must be enforced through legislation enacted by Congress pursuant to Section 5, they contended.</b> And by resolving “many unsettled questions about Section 3,” the three justices complained, “the majority goes beyond the necessities of this case to limit how Section 3 can bar an oathbreaking insurrectionist from becoming President...”</p></blockquote><p></p><p>To a layman, it seems confusing how the Supreme Court is arguing that Congress <a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/constitution/amendmentxiv" target="_blank">has to set the law and enforcement of Section 3 through Section 5 of the 14th Amendment</a>, but then arguing over how that has to work in the first place. To someone like me, it's as though the conservative majority was simply trying to keep it safe for trump to stay on the ballot now and then argue over semantics later.</p><p>We need to recognize several points. The Court did not even address the underlying finding of the Colorado courts that trump engaged in insurrection over the January 6th riots and its planning, with the implication that those courts' findings proved trump <i>did</i>. The Court may have ruled in favor of saying Congress has to oversee enforcement of Section 3 of the 14th, but they are divided on how that could get implemented. SCOTUS may have declared Congress has to handle this mess, but they're doing so knowing full well our modern Congress is a hyper-partisan dysfunctional mess, meaning this will not get resolved anytime soon anyway.</p><p>There was a hope that disqualifying trump through the 14th Amendment would end the high risk of trump - facing criminal charges at the state and federal level (depending on how fast this Supreme Court hears trump's Absolute Immunity claim), and threatening to <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/us/payback-time-trump-plans-mass-firings-deportations-second-term-2023-11-14/" target="_blank">unleash plans to behave worse on immigration and foreign policy</a> than he did between 2017 to 2020 - getting anywhere NEAR the White House again. Now that hope is clearly gone.</p><p>We Americans now have to hope that <a href="https://www.cookpolitical.com/2020-national-popular-vote-tracker" target="_blank">the 81.2 million voters who showed up in November 2020 for Biden/Harris</a> will return to vote Biden back to a second term as President; and that trump - whose support is not as strong in the primaries as an 'incumbent' candidate should have - loses a significant chunk of the 74.2 million who showed up for him so there's no fudging or denying Biden's Electoral wins.</p><p>For all the potential schemes that trump and his Republican allies have for this election cycle - the disinformation, the gerrymandering, the voter suppression - all of that can be defeated by honest-to-God voter turnout on a scale they can't suppress.</p><p><b>Democrats, Independent voters who oppose the Far Right's Culture War, even disgruntled Republicans tired of trump's rampages: ALL of us need to show up at the ballot box across all 50 states (and DC) and give all support to Biden and the Democratic ticket down the line</b> (Senate, House, state level elections, state referenda, all of that).</p><p>GET THE DAMN VOTE OUT, AMERICA.</p><p>And for the LOVE OF GOD AND COUNTRY, do NOT vote trump at all.</p>Paul Whttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13092023794397583036noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27554065.post-88101316176448998692024-03-02T18:54:00.002-05:002024-03-02T18:54:44.177-05:00trump Can't Stop from Grifting<p>Even after getting found liable for multiple acts of business fraud, donald trump can't stop himself running more cons. <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2024/02/29/trump-media-sued-over-dwac-merger-share-dilution.html" target="_blank">Just look at the latest lawsuit by his would-be business partners with his personal social media app</a> (via Dan Mangan at CNBC News): </p><p></p><blockquote><p>Former President Donald Trump was accused in a lawsuit on Wednesday of trying to “drastically dilute” the value of stock shares in his social media company held by the firm’s co-founders, potentially depriving them of hundreds of millions of dollars in profits.</p><p>The partnership, United Atlantic Ventures, alleges that Trump Media & Technology Group engaged in “wrongful 11th hour … maneuvering” to dilute UAV’s minority stake in the media company, a court filing says.</p><p>The Delaware Chancery Court lawsuit comes in advance of the planned merger of TMTG with a shell company called Digital World Acquisition Corp, which would result in the shares of the combined entity being publicly traded.</p><p>If DWAC shareholders approve the merger next month, Trump’s 90% stake in TMTG could be valued at more than $3 billion, given DWAC’s current share price...</p></blockquote><p></p><p>Dear DWAC shareholders: <b>Don't.</b> A deal with a devil like trump is no deal at all.</p><p>I'm no expert on stocks and market manipulations, so I hope there's an explanation for what trump was attempting to pull at his end of this "deal":</p><p></p><blockquote><p>UAV is a partnership of Andy Litinsky and Wes Moss, who initially pitched Trump the idea of creating Trump Media in February 2021, after the former president was banned from Twitter and Facebook following the deadly Jan. 6 Capitol riot...</p><p>The planned merger comes as Trump, who is the leading candidate for the Republican presidential nomination, has been ordered to pay more than $500 million in civil judgments in New York, related to trial verdicts for business fraud and the defamation of writer E. Jean Carroll.</p><p>“The attempt here is to deprive them of the deal,” said Christopher Clark, the lawyer for UAV in the partnership’s Delaware lawsuit against TMTG.</p><p>“It’s not like they went out and bought a lottery ticket,” Clark said of the co-founders. “They actually went out and did the work, they created Truth Social, and now the beneficiary of that, Donald Trump, doesn’t want to pay.”</p><p>“Not a unique story, unfortunately,” Clark said, referring to Trump’s infamous practice of contesting bills from contractors and lawyers...</p></blockquote><p></p><p>So trump was attempting to devalue whatever stocks Litinsky and Moss held in the Trump Media corporation, to where they'd get nothing from the buyout while he took it all.</p><p>Their lawyer Clark is pointing - if you'll recall - <a href="https://noticeatrend.blogspot.com/2016/09/telling-tales-out-of-school.html" target="_blank">back to trump's infamous history of being a cheapskate and thief to anybody who did contractual work for him</a>. Decades of trump undercutting and underpaying - if at all - his "people" to where it's a mystery why ANYBODY still wants to do business with this grifter.</p><p>It should be telling that trump allegedly hasn't even paid his best mob lawyers - his personal Roy Cohns - <a href="https://newrepublic.com/post/178874/rudy-giuliani-complains-trump-owes-money" target="_blank">as Giuliani is out here telling the public trump owes him $2 million at least</a>.</p><p>Oh, wait, NOW I get the diluting stock scheme. <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/how-mark-zuckerberg-booted-his-co-founder-out-of-the-company-2012-5" target="_blank">THAT scene from</a> <i>the Social Network</i>:</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/mOMUe26X3mo" width="320" youtube-src-id="mOMUe26X3mo"></iframe></div><br /><p><b>Seriously, who wants to risk working for a con artist - trump</b>, not the guy "who invented Facebook" although the jury's still out on him - <b>who keeps ripping his underlings off</b>?</p><p><br /></p>Paul Whttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13092023794397583036noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27554065.post-35368437678157296702024-02-29T07:44:00.003-05:002024-02-29T07:44:50.879-05:00It Just Gets Crazy, Repeating the Same Shutdown Madness<p>Oh, with all the craziness going on this month, totally forgot that the House Republicans were threatening ANOTHER government shutdown. <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/congress/government-shutdown-house-returns-likely-short-term-bill-rcna140894" target="_blank">There's supposed to be ANOTHER temporary deal in place, but no guarantee it'll get approved</a> (via Sahil Kapur, Scott Wong, Ryan Nobles, and Rebecca Kaplan at NBC News):</p><p></p><blockquote><p>Bipartisan negotiators announced Wednesday they have struck a deal to avert a partial government shutdown this week, securing agreement on half of the dozen must-pass spending bills and extending a pair of fast-approaching funding deadlines deeper into March to buy Congress more time.</p><p>House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said in a joint statement with appropriators, members charged with crafting spending bills, that they have a deal on six bills that fund several federal agencies, including the departments of Agriculture, Commerce, Energy, Interior, Justice, Transportation and Veterans Affairs. And they've agreed to vote on a short-term bill to avoid a partial government shutdown this weekend, buying more time to pass the funding deal...</p><p>Still, the House and the Senate need to pass the stopgap measure by the end of Friday to avert a partial shutdown. In the Senate, a speedy vote will require consent from all 100 members, which means it's not yet guaranteed they will pass it in time...</p></blockquote><p></p><p>So there's the likelihood a Republican Senator - or either Manchin or Sinema, just for shits and giggles to appease their conservative allies - could hold up the votes and send us into shutdown. As long as enough Democrats and Republicans in the House agree to the measure - something the Not-Really-Freedom Caucus can't delay - it ought to get through that half of Congress.</p><p>It then becomes a question if the UnFreedom Caucus retaliates by holding another Motion to Vacate to punish Johnson for making this deal, which just repeats the cycle of shutdown mania all over again chasing after yet another Speaker replacement.</p><p>I am tired of this staged drama. I am tired of the wingnut hostage-taking that happens every time.</p><p><b>Just stop fucking voting for Republicans, America. Please. For just common decent sanity. Just stop this needless drama. Just stop it.</b></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p>Paul Whttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13092023794397583036noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27554065.post-75172499989437882582024-02-28T22:09:00.002-05:002024-02-28T22:09:53.233-05:00Justice Delayed Becomes Injustice, What the HELL <p>When I heard this (I saw it on Twitter but I'll provide an official report from NPR via Carrie Johnson and Nina Totenberg) <a href="https://www.npr.org/2024/02/28/1231974416/supreme-court-trump-immunity" target="_blank">my first thought was</a> </p><p></p><blockquote><p><b>The U.S. Supreme Court will hear oral arguments the week of April 22 in a high-stakes dispute over whether former President Donald Trump enjoys immunity from federal criminal prosecution.</b></p><p>The order from the court on Wednesday keeps Trump's prosecution in the Jan. 6 case on hold for at least a few more months.</p><p>The justices said, in an unsigned order, that their review would be limited to a single question: "Whether and if so to what extent does a former President enjoy presidential immunity from criminal prosecution for conduct alleged to involve official acts during his tenure in office."</p></blockquote><p></p><p>(deep inhale) "FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKK"</p><p>The good news: I was getting in my car at the workplace parking lot when I checked Twitter so I wasn't upsetting the kids at the library when I dropped that F-Bomb.</p><p>The bad news: JFC WHAT THE HELL HAPPENED</p><p>The <a href="https://noticeatrend.blogspot.com/2024/02/with-all-of-defenses-of-any-other.html" target="_blank">ruling from the U.S. Court of Appeals</a> was supposed to be airtight. That panel of jurists came back with a unanimous ruling that they "cannot accept that the office of the Presidency places its former occupants above the law for all time thereafter... <b>Doing so would collapse our system of separated powers by placing the President beyond the reach of all three branches.</b>"</p><p>Apparently there were at least five Supreme Court Justices who decided "nah" and want to jump into this mudpit to make their own ruling.</p><p>I considered three possible reasons why this is now happening:</p><p>1) <b>This is just the Far Right Conservatives on the Supreme Court</b> - three of them appointed by <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2024/01/05/2-key-points-trumps-lawyer-suggesting-justice-kavanaugh-owes-trump/" target="_blank">trump himself, expecting favors in return</a> - <b>doing what they can to stretch out the calendar on trump's DC felony insurrection trial</b> (and maybe the South Florida classified documents trial) to keep it from even starting before the November general election happens, with Early Voting starting in some states by mid-September. Even if the Supreme Court ultimately affirms the lower court's ruling, it won't be until mid-August when they're expected to make such a ruling and the trial itself is expected to last at least two months (the South Florida trial is expected to last four to six months, it was never expected to wrap up before November). </p><p>This is the most likely reason, as it's the one defense trump truly has: DELAY EVERYTHING. Even then it's such an extreme partisan move that no honest American should ever trust a SCOTUS ruling under the Roberts regime ever again.</p><p>2) The Justices saw something in the Appellate ruling that required either clarification, or they believed that a decision on Presidential Absolute Immunity required a final say from the highest court in the land. This is the least likely reason, because most legal scholars agreed with the Court of Appeals and there was no reason for SCOTUS to rule on this other than ego.</p><p>3) <b>There are at least five Supreme Court Justices</b> - considering <a href="https://www.teenvogue.com/story/what-is-federalist-society" target="_blank">how many of them are members of a Federalist Society</a> that <a href="https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2020/12/10/nathan-simington-christopher-waller-fcc-federal-reserve-appointments-unitary-executive-authority-444136" target="_blank">supports the Unitary Executive Theory that Presidents can wield incredible powers</a> not even allowed in the Constitution - <b>who legitimately think donald trump can claim Absolute Immunity as President</b> and even to keep claiming after leaving office.</p><p><b>This is the nightmare scenario</b>. This possibility would do exactly what the Court of Appeals warned against: Immediately break the Checks and Balances of the Constitution and basically be a suicide note ending any judicial power of the Supreme Court itself.</p><p>You might think even the Far Right Justices would recoil from the reality that granting trump that Absolute Immunity would be the end of their own power of Judicial Review. But remember, those Justices believe it is not only possible under Unitary Executive rules, <i>but necessary</i>. They agree with the idea of a dictator in the Oval Office just as long as it's a conservative standard bearer seizing all that power. It may destroy the Constitutional order we've all lived with for 230-plus years, but it'll give them the excuse to rebuild their conservative utopia on those ashes.</p><p><b>We now are facing the real and serious reality that at least five Justices</b> - Thomas, Alito, Gorsuch, Kavanaugh, and Barrett (with Roberts being the only conservative who might balk at the destruction of his own jurist legacy) - <b>will try to find a way to give trump the "Get Out of Jail Free" card that Absolute Immunity could give him</b>.</p><p>The logical argument that would deter such a ruling - that by agreeing Presidential Absolute Immunity exists, the Supreme Court may be giving current President Joe Biden a literal license to overthrow government himself - ignores the fact that the Republican-backed Justices have twisted rulings and precedent in previous decisions in order to carve out narrow rulings to benefit only a select few. Don't put it past the Far Right Justices to come up with a legal argument that grants that immunity to trump alone. Even though our entire legal system is supposed to be based on "<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Equality_before_the_law" target="_blank">equality before the law</a>" as a rule.</p><p>The Far Right may also be gambling on the possibility that even granted this weapon, Biden's own personal nature would prevent him from wielding it as he sits in the White House right now. But don't count on that. <b>Biden may have no choice but to use such absolute power if it comes to it</b>. <a href="https://noticeatrend.blogspot.com/2024/02/the-real-scandal-republicans-are.html" target="_blank">He's got solid evidence right now that trump and the Republicans are colluding with a hostile foreign power</a> - Russia - to subvert the 2024 elections, and his own intelligence agencies could be telling him by October the only way to save the United States is to declare emergency powers and arrest everybody in the GOP from trump on down. Granted, that move will trigger an open and bloody civil war, but the alternative would be to risk the likelihood that trump and his wingnut allies will sabotage the Electoral College count one way or another. And then trump gets to be dictator on Day One, and the Constitution dies for good.</p><p>Sanity and common sense tells us no one person should hold such absolute power: Not in politics, not in religion, not in law, not in life. But we're not living in sane times, are we. Not since 2015 when trump upturned everything this nation was supposed to stand for.</p><p>I'd been trying <a href="https://noticeatrend.blogspot.com/2022/07/dreading-oncoming-storm.html" target="_blank">to calm other people down over the last few years, people at work and people I know online, trying to get them to hope</a> that the worst can't happen.</p><p><b>Tonight, I am panicking in a way I haven't felt since that terrible night back on November 9 2016.</b></p><p>I am honest-to-God worried now that the worst CAN happen. <a href="https://noticeatrend.blogspot.com/2023/01/why-it-matters.html" target="_blank">That trump will evade justice for his crimes altogether</a>. And that he'll lie and cheat his way back into a White House he will NEVER give up again.</p><p>Even exhorting every American out there to get the vote out this election cycle - <b>which we need to do, anything we can to make it clear the majority of us DO NOT WANT trump BACK IN POWER</b> - doesn't feel like it'll be enough.</p><p>Fuck it. We're going to fight. </p><p><b>Stop trump. That's the mission now. Just fucking STOP trump</b>. </p>Paul Whttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13092023794397583036noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27554065.post-5503677267652721142024-02-27T13:39:00.005-05:002024-02-27T13:39:46.596-05:00The REAL Scandal: Republicans Are Kompromized by the Kremlin<p>If the Republicans' efforts <a href="https://noticeatrend.blogspot.com/2023/05/losing-it-all-in-dirt-digging.html" target="_blank">to dig up scandals on Joe Biden and his son Hunter</a> - in an effort to weaken Biden's standing and cause embarrassment to cover for donald trump's <i>real</i> <a href="https://noticeatrend.blogspot.com/2024/02/judgment-cometh-and-that-right-soon.html" target="_blank">weaknesses and scandals (and upcoming criminal trials)</a> - looked weak and ridiculous on their own, that's because the GOP's efforts to stir up scandal <i>were</i> <a href="https://noticeatrend.blogspot.com/2023/09/punching-themselves-just-little-bit-more.html" target="_blank">weak and ridiculous</a>.</p><p>And now, those Republican efforts have turned into a goddamned John Le Carre spy novel with the revelation that one of their key "witnesses" to Hunter Biden's business shenanigans was not only <a href="https://apnews.com/article/hunter-biden-joe-biden-fbi-informant-ec37a35b808ffedf257bb3cfb3fc9ce2" target="_blank">lying about his testimony but that he was passing along "evidence" <i>fabricated by Russian Intelligence</i></a>.</p><p>It's unsettling enough that the Special Counsel overseeing the investigation in Hunter Biden's potential criminal behavior had to pull a 180 on relying on this "witness" Alexander Smirnov and issue felony charges against him instead. And then, worrying that the Nevada magistrate who handled the bail release on Smirnov was giving Smirnov a chance to flee the country, they recharged Smirnov in a California court with more specific evidence - and that he was a flight risk - to ensure the guy stayed in custody.</p><p>How important was this "witness" to Republicans digging for Biden dirt? <a href="https://apnews.com/article/hunter-biden-joe-biden-fbi-informant-ec37a35b808ffedf257bb3cfb3fc9ce2" target="_blank">According to that AP News report from Lindsay Whitehurst</a>, <i>this</i> important:</p><p></p><blockquote><p>Smirnov’s claims have been central to the Republican effort in Congress to investigate the president and his family and helped spark what is now a House impeachment inquiry into Biden.</p><p><b>They became a flashpoint in Congress in July as Republicans demanded the FBI release the unredacted form, a so-called FD-1023, documenting the unverified allegations. Republican Rep. James Comer of Kentucky had subpoenaed the form as Republicans deepened their probe ahead of the 2024 presidential election.</b> Republicans acknowledged they couldn’t confirm if the allegations were true but said they were significant in their investigation of Hunter Biden.</p><p>The allegations of Russian contact with the source of those allegations should be a death knell for the impeachment inquiry, said Democratic Rep. Jamie Raskin of Maryland. “It appears like the whole thing is not only obviously false and fraudulent but a product of Russian disinformation and propaganda,” he said.</p></blockquote><p></p><p>Of course, the Republican leaders on this - Comer, Jim Jordan, the other clowns in that car - are running away from having Smirnov as their keystone to their entire impeachment effort, except for the fact they've been running away from every other tainted source they tried to rely on over the past year of sham hearings and "rumored" revelations.</p><p>What this twist exposes is not only their failure to find legitimate scandal against their true target Joe Biden (they honestly don't care if Hunter goes to jail or not), but exposes how corrupted and compromised the modern Republican Party leadership is towards a foreign power like Putin's Russia. The nominally conservative pundit at <i>Washington Post</i> Jennifer Rubin <a href="https://wapo.st/49InyBn" target="_blank">spells out the problem</a> (this was via a gift link, don't know if it will paywall):</p><p></p><blockquote><p>Are Republicans easy marks or willing participants in Russian anti-Biden operations? That’s a troubling question raised by the Feb. 14 grand jury indictment of a former FBI informant, Alexander Smirnov, on charges of concocting a tale about President Biden’s supposed involvement in his family members’ business dealings.</p><p><b>Allegations by Smirnov — who appears to have ties to Russian intelligence, according to the federal indictment — have formed the backbone of the House Republicans’ laughable attempt to build an impeachment case against the president. They championed him as their star witness. Now the Republicans’ fact-deficient storyline has been shredded</b>...</p><p>Now Republicans are pretending that Smirnov wasn’t so important after all. They’re vowing to plow ahead on this cock-and-bull mission that never got off the ground. Not only did multiple witnesses testify that Biden had no involvement with his son’s business dealings, but previous allegations that Biden acted on his son’s behalf had also already been thoroughly repudiated...</p><p><b>The current House debacle overlaps with a Russian disinformation project described by the national security specialists Ryan Goodman and Asha Rangappa on the website Just Security in 2020.</b> That scheme enticed Republican Sens. Ron Johnson (Wis.) and Chuck Grassley (Iowa) to buy into the now-discredited scenario that as vice president Biden sought on behalf of his son to stop an investigation of Burisma. (It also added in another phony Ukraine election interference claim.)</p><p><b>And let’s not forget that special counsel Robert S. Mueller III found “sweeping and systematic” Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election on Donald Trump’s behalf.</b></p><p>The current revelations concerning Smirnov should not merely spell the end of the comically inept impeachment proceedings; <b>they should provoke questions about Republicans’ recklessness in peddling claims they apparently knew were unreliable.</b></p><p>At the very least, it is clear that House Republicans had reason to be skeptical of Smirnov’s allegations instead of embracing them. <b>FBI briefers “warned lawmakers that the document, known as a 1023, containing Smirnov’s allegations against the Bidens also included raw, uncorroborated intelligence that should not be made public,”</b> CNN reported on Wednesday. Even if the Republicans did not know Smirnov might have ties to Russian intelligence, they certainly knew the basis for making wild allegations about Biden was extremely shaky...</p><p><b>Republicans’ affinity over multiple elections for Russian-backed plots should warrant wall-to-wall coverage.</b> (Let us not forget Russian efforts detailed in the Mueller report to enlist the Trump campaign and sabotage Hillary Clinton’s campaign in 2016.) <b>Responsible news outlets should press House Republicans to justify their refusal to vote for aid for Ukraine and habit of spreading Russian conspiracy theories.</b></p><p>In short, Trump (enabled by House Republicans) wants Ukraine aid blocked and invites Vladimir Putin to invade NATO countries with military budgets Trump deems insufficient. He already has served as an indispensable helpmate in Putin’s assault on democracy and the international order. No wonder Russia appears yet again ready to pull out all the stops to boost Trump.</p></blockquote><p></p><p>Rubin refers back to a particular matter that obsessed me during the trump years: The Mueller Report. It annoys me to no end that when then-Attorney General Barr - appointed by trump to shut down the Mueller investigation before it closed in on trump himself - ended that grand jury probe, he promoted - and the mainstream media bought into - the lie that the Report "exonerated trump" and that was the end of that. <b>What everyone seemed to ignore were the factual elements Mueller's team found - the first half of his legal objectives - <a href="https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/inside-the-mueller-report-a-sophisticated-russian-interference-campaign" target="_blank">rampant and provable evidence that Russian Intelligence and their oligarch allies actively engaged in election interference in 2016</a>. </b>What Mueller couldn't prove was trump's direct involvement with those efforts (instead Mueller found at least five instances of Obstruction, which he couldn't criminally charge due to Presidential Immunity <a href="https://noticeatrend.blogspot.com/2019/05/short-description-of-muellers-public.html" target="_blank">but tried to get House Democrats to attempt impeachment, which they failed to pursue</a>).</p><p>I remain shocked and angered to this day that Congress both Democrats and Republicans failed to heed Mueller's - and the rest of the U.S. Intelligence agencies - warnings that Russia - above all the other foreign powers looking to interfere like China and Iran - will continue to attack America's electoral systems to force the results - like stealing the presidency AGAIN for trump - that benefits Russia instead of the U.S. and our long-standing European / Middle Eastern / Asian allies. There's been almost no legislation - no priority put to making our elections more secure nor passing legal sanctions and punishments on Russia for their crimes. We're talking about acts of war getting committed on us - our rights as Americans - and nothing, no response.</p><p>Worse: We have had solid evidence for almost a decade that Russia was, is, and will do anything they can to disrupt and divide the United States. And it's getting clearer that the Republican Party as a group are <i>happy to help them</i>.</p><p>I mentioned before how the Republican mindset - <a href="https://noticeatrend.blogspot.com/2023/05/the-sins-of-conservatism.html" target="_blank">drawing from their deep conservative ideology</a> - <a href="https://noticeatrend.blogspot.com/2021/05/the-big-lie-and-one-truth.html" target="_blank">their One Truth is that they view only <i>themselves</i> as True Americans</a>. To do so, everyone else - aka Democrats and those who do not fit in the Republican Culture War like women, Blacks, Latinos, gays and trans, and more - dare not and cannot be considered "American" even though geographically, demographically, philosophically, we are as American as they.</p><p>Their problem is that those conservative Republicans are not in the actual majority of Americans... <a href="https://noticeatrend.blogspot.com/2018/06/the-sins-of-minority-party-rule.html" target="_blank">and they know it</a>. They've been sliding out of contention with the majority of voters since 2008, <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2013/03/what-you-need-to-read-in-the-rnc-election-autopsy-report/274112/" target="_blank">they'd been warned after the 2012 election cycle</a>, and yet instead of moderating themselves to retain broad appeal the conservatives <i>doubled down</i> on Culture War extremism and RINO purging to keep party unity, tied into aggressive state-level and federal-level gerrymandering and voter suppression to skew elections to their favor.</p><p>Thing is, that Game of Demographics can only work for so long, as the Republican extremism on issues like abortion (and related issues like birth control and IVF) and tax cuts for the rich peel away the edges of their GOP voting base to where they can't "win" even with all the gerrymandering and suppression.</p><p>So the Republicans are desperate to get any help from anywhere they can. Even if that help is coming from a foreign power like Russia where their leader Putin and his cronies are openly threatening our allies and our own nation's safety/stability. Even when that help falls under open acts of <i>sedition </i>that rely on corrupted persons like Smirnov. </p><p>Similar to how trump's 2016 campaign met with and tried to coordinate with Russian nationals over getting dirt on Hillary Clinton - in <a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/52/30121" target="_blank">possible violation of 52 US Code sect. 30121</a> - the current House Republican leadership and their allies from trump's Justice Department (looking at you Bill Barr) have come dangerously close to breaking that law getting <i>tampered/manufactured Russian intel</i> just to pursue false claims against Biden. Not to mention more obviously <a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/10/931" target="_blank">legal problems like suborning perjury</a> and presenting false evidence.</p><p>The GOP leaders did all this because they truly believe 1) they're above the law, 2) they're the Real Americans fighting against un-American Democratic "criminals," 3) the Russians are not the bad guys. That last part is important because the modern Republicans driven by their Culture War bullshit truly see Putin - with his open homophobia, his disdain for "librul" Western norms, and "traditionalist" worldview (not to mention his sadism towards his lessers) - as a serious ally in that Culture War.</p><p>I wasn't there to see it, but I read the history books about the Red Scare, the McCarthyism of the 1950s where conservative Republicans openly hunted liberals and left-leaning Americans as Communist threats buddying up to Stalinist Soviet Russia. "Pinko down to their underwear" was the accusations, and anybody who ever expressed solidarity with Soviet Russia were hounded until they were broken or dead. Today, we now see those inheritors of the conservative Republicans happily and publicly embracing a Russian regime that may no longer be Communist but is just as corrupt and tyrannical as anything Stalin ever led.</p><p>The irony of such betrayal is lost on these modern Republicans, too greedy and too desperate to stay in power to see how they've sold their own ideals and their own nation out to a Russian dictator.</p><p><b>This scandal ought to convince every American voter who truly wants what is best for our nation - for <i>our</i> families, for <i>our</i> communities, for <i>our</i> future - to stop voting for a Republican Party corrupted and compromised beyond redemption</b>. </p><p><b>Elections matter, people.</b> There's a reason why Putin wants to corrupt ours this 2024 just like he tried in 2020 and succeeded in back in 2016. Get the vote out, America. For the LOVE OF COUNTRY everybody, do NOT vote <strike>(R)epublican</strike> (R)ussia.</p><p><br /></p>Paul Whttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13092023794397583036noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27554065.post-32554571955592665602024-02-25T20:06:00.000-05:002024-02-25T20:06:51.340-05:00The 2024 U.S. Presidential Primary Checklist<p>Okay, just to help voters keep track of which Presidential candidate has certain issues and concerns as we head into the thick of the 2024 Primary Season:</p><table border="1" bordercolor="#000000" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" style="width: 100%;">
<colgroup><col width="85*"></col>
<col width="85*"></col>
<col width="85*"></col>
</colgroup><tbody><tr valign="TOP">
<td width="33%">
<p align="CENTER"><br />
</p>
</td>
<td width="33%">
<p align="CENTER" style="background: #3333ff;"><span style="color: white;"><b>Joe
Biden</b></span></p>
</td>
<td width="33%">
<p align="CENTER" style="background: #ff3333;"><span style="color: white;"><b>Donald
Trump</b></span></p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td valign="TOP" width="33%">
<p>Is Old</p>
</td>
<td width="33%">
<p align="CENTER"><span style="color: #009900;"><span style="font-family: Webdings, serif;"><span style="font-size: 20pt;">a</span></span></span></p>
</td>
<td width="33%">
<p align="CENTER"><span style="color: #009900;"><span style="font-family: Webdings, serif;"><span style="font-size: 20pt;">a</span></span></span></p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td valign="TOP" width="33%">
<p>Is Showing Signs of <br />Memory Issues</p>
</td>
<td width="33%">
<p align="CENTER"><span style="color: #009900;"><span style="font-family: Webdings, serif;"><span style="font-size: 20pt;">a</span></span></span></p>
</td>
<td width="33%">
<p align="CENTER"><span style="color: #009900;"><span style="font-family: Webdings, serif;"><span style="font-size: 20pt;">a</span></span></span></p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td valign="TOP" width="33%">
<p>Is Still Screaming about <br />"Stolen Votes" from 2020</p>
</td>
<td valign="TOP" width="33%">
<p align="CENTER"><br />
</p>
</td>
<td width="33%">
<p align="CENTER"><span style="color: #009900;"><span style="font-family: Webdings, serif;"><span style="font-size: 20pt;">a</span></span></span></p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td valign="TOP" width="33%">
<p>Is Threatening to quit NATO</p>
</td>
<td valign="TOP" width="33%">
<p align="CENTER"><br />
</p>
</td>
<td width="33%">
<p align="CENTER"><span style="color: #009900;"><span style="font-family: Webdings, serif;"><span style="font-size: 20pt;">a</span></span></span></p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td valign="TOP" width="33%">
<p>Is Demanding Republicans in Congress Block Any Aid to Ukraine
In Its War Against Russia</p>
</td>
<td valign="TOP" width="33%">
<p align="CENTER"><br />
</p>
</td>
<td width="33%">
<p align="CENTER"><span style="color: #009900;"><span style="font-family: Webdings, serif;"><span style="font-size: 20pt;">a</span></span></span></p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td valign="TOP" width="33%">
<p>Is Gloating about <br />ending Roe V Wade</p>
</td>
<td valign="TOP" width="33%">
<p align="CENTER"><br />
</p>
</td>
<td width="33%">
<p align="CENTER"><span style="color: #009900;"><span style="font-family: Webdings, serif;"><span style="font-size: 20pt;">a</span></span></span></p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td valign="TOP" width="33%">
<p>Found Liable of Sexual Assault in a Court of Law To the Tune of
$88 Million and Counting</p>
</td>
<td valign="TOP" width="33%">
<p align="CENTER"><br />
</p>
</td>
<td width="33%">
<p align="CENTER"><span style="color: #009900;"><span style="font-family: Webdings, serif;"><span style="font-size: 20pt;">a</span></span></span></p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td valign="TOP" width="33%">
<p>Found Liable of Acts of Business Fraud To the Tune of $450
Million Plus Interest</p>
</td>
<td valign="TOP" width="33%">
<p align="CENTER"><br />
</p>
</td>
<td width="33%">
<p align="CENTER"><span style="color: #009900;"><span style="font-family: Webdings, serif;"><span style="font-size: 20pt;">a</span></span></span></p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td valign="TOP" width="33%">
<p>Refuses to Let Congress <br />Pass a Border Reform Bill <br />to
Keep His Opponent From Benefiting Politically</p>
</td>
<td valign="TOP" width="33%">
<p align="CENTER"><br />
</p>
</td>
<td width="33%">
<p align="CENTER"><span style="color: #009900;"><span style="font-family: Webdings, serif;"><span style="font-size: 20pt;">a</span></span></span></p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td valign="TOP" width="33%">
<p>Promoting an <a href="https://plus.thebulwark.com/p/trump-sneakers-are-the-perfect-con" target="_blank">Ugly-Ass Sneaker for $499.00</a> (when it probably
costs $49.00 in real life)</p>
</td>
<td valign="TOP" width="33%">
<p align="CENTER"><br />
</p>
</td>
<td width="33%">
<p align="CENTER"><span style="color: #009900;"><span style="font-family: Webdings, serif;"><span style="font-size: 20pt;">a</span></span></span></p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td valign="TOP" width="33%">
<p>Is Facing Criminal Trial in New York on 34 Counts for
<br />"Election Interference" and Filing False Documents
this March 2024</p>
</td>
<td valign="TOP" width="33%">
<p align="CENTER"><br />
</p>
</td>
<td width="33%">
<p align="CENTER"><span style="color: #009900;"><span style="font-family: Webdings, serif;"><span style="font-size: 20pt;">a</span></span></span></p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td valign="TOP" width="33%">
<p>Is Facing Criminal Trial in DC on Four Felony Counts Concerning
January 6th 2021 Riots as Soon as The Supreme Court Considers an
Appeal Over Absolute Presidential Immunity</p>
</td>
<td valign="TOP" width="33%">
<p align="CENTER"><br />
</p>
</td>
<td width="33%">
<p align="CENTER"><span style="color: #009900;"><span style="font-family: Webdings, serif;"><span style="font-size: 20pt;">a</span></span></span></p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td valign="TOP" width="33%">
<p>Is Facing Criminal Trial in <br />South Florida on Multiple
Counts of Classified Documents Mishandling, Probably by <br />May
2024</p>
</td>
<td valign="TOP" width="33%">
<p align="CENTER"><br />
</p>
</td>
<td width="33%">
<p align="CENTER"><span style="color: #009900;"><span style="font-family: Webdings, serif;"><span style="font-size: 20pt;">a</span></span></span></p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td valign="TOP" width="33%">
<p>Is Facing Criminal Trial in Georgia on Multiple Counts of
Election Interference and Racketeering Related to a Fake Electors
Scheme, TBD</p>
</td>
<td valign="TOP" width="33%">
<p align="CENTER"><br />
</p>
</td>
<td width="33%">
<p align="CENTER"><span style="color: #009900;"><span style="font-family: Webdings, serif;"><span style="font-size: 20pt;">a</span></span></span></p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td valign="TOP" width="33%">
<p>Is Winning the 2024 <br />Party Primaries with <br />90 Percent of
the Vote</p>
</td>
<td width="33%">
<p align="CENTER"><span style="color: #009900;"><span style="font-family: Webdings, serif;"><span style="font-size: 20pt;">a</span></span></span></p>
</td>
<td valign="TOP" width="33%">
<p align="CENTER"><br />
</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td valign="TOP" width="33%">
<p>Is Getting Told By National Media Pundits to "Step Aside"
<br />or Quit Campaigning <br />to Make Room for the Pundit's
Preferred Candidate (TBD) <br />for the "Good of the Party"
<br />and the United States</p>
</td>
<td width="33%">
<p align="CENTER"><span style="color: #009900;"><span style="font-family: Webdings, serif;"><span style="font-size: 20pt;">a</span></span></span></p>
</td>
<td valign="TOP" width="33%">
<p align="CENTER"><br />
</p>
</td>
</tr>
</tbody></table><p> I'm not WRONG, am I?</p>Paul Whttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13092023794397583036noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27554065.post-78561496795415173432024-02-25T13:28:00.003-05:002024-02-25T13:28:44.191-05:00What the Wingnuts REALLY Want: Control of Women, Control of Science, Control of Everything<p>You would think the so-called "pro-life" movement would be thrilled to support something like <a href="https://medlineplus.gov/ency/article/007279.htm" target="_blank">in vitro fertilization</a> (IVF). After all, IVF should be <i>a good thing</i>: It's the active choice to get pregnant and have a baby in spite of various health or physiological factors that were preventing couples (or women) from natural reproduction. It's expensive, and painful, and not always successful: but thousands of people choose it because they want to be good parents. In the opposition to abortion - that it's "baby-killing" or "ending God's gift" - the choice of IVF would reflect that positivity of life.</p><p>And yet, those anti-abortionists - you can't call them "pro-life" in most respects now they're not even "pro-fetus" - are perfectly happy nuking from orbit IVF as a medical option, <a href="https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2024/02/23/1233023637/ivf-alabama-frozen-embryo-personhood-abortion-supreme-court" target="_blank">just like they did in Alabama's Supreme Court ruling earlier last week</a>.</p><p>It has to do - mostly - with <i>how</i> it's done: Harvesting multiple ova and fertilizing each one, freezing the embryos until one is needed, implanting it, and hoping it works. All those extra harvested eggs become troubling to the "pro-fetus" believers because in their world-view <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/24494444/" target="_blank">those embryos are now persons</a>, and any potential destruction of those embryos would be an act of abortion. There's also the problem that an implanted ova may not take, which becomes in their minds an abortion as well.</p><p>I'd also argue the "pro-fetus" people are annoyed - jealous, really - by how instead of relying on God for the miracle of childbirth, people can rely instead on Science and fertility doctors to get it done.</p><p>There's also the rage against feminism, the fear that single women would choose IVF with a random sperm donor and avoid the emotional - and oft-times physical - complications dealing with men. God forbid the Patriarchy - "OBEY your husbands, ladies" - be denied or disturbed in any way.</p><p>But it all boils down to what these wingnuts REALLY want. They want control.</p><p>I <a href="https://noticeatrend.blogspot.com/2015/11/the-pro-fetus-crowds-are-imposters.html" target="_blank">mentioned before how I've seen them in-person protesting at clinics</a>, driven by rage and shilling fearmongering images of bloodied fetuses. Eager to pass "moral" judgment on women and families they didn't know, just so they could have some insane level of control over how the world around them truly works.</p><p><b>In the Religious Right's obsessive need to end abortion as a choice, they will tear down everything else to impose <i>their</i> religious views - their control - on everyone else.</b> They will deny rape and incest as a problem to ensure women can't get abortions from unwanted pregnancies. They will obscure the reality that pregnancies are not 100 percent safe, and deny how miscarriages, stillbirths, and <a href="https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/ectopic-pregnancy/symptoms-causes/syc-20372088" target="_blank">ectopic pregnancies</a> can happen in "God's perfect world." They will <a href="https://apnews.com/article/miscarriage-prosecution-ohio-brittany-watts-68145b3044b3cc61017b71a97f7cc036" target="_blank">demonize women who suffer miscarriages</a> and seek to jail any <a href="https://www.npr.org/2024/02/23/1233355153/obstetricians-in-states-where-abortion-is-mostly-illegal-face-huge-amounts-of-st" target="_blank">doctors foolish enough to provide any kind of prenatal care</a> in these Red States under theocratic misrule.</p><p>The Religious Right are going after IVF because it's still a choice, one they can't control and one that dares question their foundational belief in personhood for embryos.</p><p>The Religious Right are <a href="https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2023/04/birth-control-is-next-republicans-abortion.html" target="_blank">going after birth control</a> - something that actually stops fertilization, so it shouldn't affect "personhood" - because these wingnuts want their control over the reproductive act for <i>every</i> woman, even the ones - liberal Christians, Jewish, Hindu, Muslim - who don't subscribe to their religion.</p><p>The Religious Right will bust down the doors of every house in America to check on your uteri, women, never mind your personal rights. These same enforcers won't lift a finger to go after men who commit <a href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/onanism" target="_blank">onanism</a> and waste all that <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Every_Sperm_Is_Sacred" target="_blank">sacred sperm</a>.</p><p>These same Religious Right will deny you any chance to get pregnant and have families on your own terms, through IVF or through personal use of contraceptives until you're ready - emotionally and financially - to have children. Because they want to control that part of your lives as well.</p><p>As much as they'd love to control your souls, and demand your fealty to their Church (not their God, because they <i>will</i> deny other Christians any say in what God truly is), they know in the end they truly can't. So they want control - political, physical, public - of everything else just so they can make themselves superior to the rest of us. </p><p>The Religious Right are doing all of this so they can sit themselves atop a throne to look down on the rest they view as sinners and un-persons. </p><p><b>Doing all this so they can judge us, before God judges them for the damage they've done to their neighbors</b>.</p><p>God DAMN them, and for the Love of a true and just God drive every one of these Christianist absolutists out of our elected offices and courtrooms.</p>Paul Whttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13092023794397583036noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27554065.post-14532179781341223872024-02-24T21:58:00.001-05:002024-02-24T21:58:43.881-05:00Anniversary: The Fires Of Putin's War Still Burning<p>It's been two years now, and it's not the best possible way to celebrate this anniversary of when Putin sent the full might of his Russian military into all of Ukraine back in February 2022. Looking back at some of what I wrote, <a href="https://noticeatrend.blogspot.com/2022/02/ukrainian-paradox.html" target="_blank">I noticed these observations</a>:</p><p></p><blockquote><p>Russia (Putin) doesn't want Ukraine to go running off to another European alliance like NATO or the EU, but they can't offer anything to Ukraine that would honestly entice Ukrainians to take Russia back as a political/economic partner. So instead, Russia (Putin) will try to "encourage" their relationship by force, not caring that such bullying behavior will only drive Ukrainians more towards joining Western Europe against Russia.</p><p>Ukraine is never going to give in to Russia's demands here, they will not agree to any deal absolutely barring them from even <i>thinking</i> about joining NATO. They dare not. Even the mere threat of joining NATO is the only leverage Ukraine has against outright invasion and occupation. Paradox: <b>Every move Russia makes to stop Ukraine from joining NATO only pushes Ukraine further towards joining NATO</b>.</p></blockquote><p></p><p>It's that fear of NATO - how Putin and his lackeys see that western alliance as a bulwark against Russian dreams of rebirthing their empire - that keeps Russia from just admitting to themselves they screwed up because it's been two years of failure after failure. <a href="https://noticeatrend.blogspot.com/2022/02/where-will-putins-war-lead.html" target="_blank">I noted this five days in</a>:</p><p></p><blockquote><p>What Putin got was a bloody nose, figurately speaking. </p><p>Literally, five days into his ordering the invasion of Ukraine, what Putin has is an international PR nightmare, near-global condemnation of his war, escalating sanctions and lockdowns of every financial avenue Russia has - including cutting off banks from SWIFT, a transactional process that can arguably block the Russian citizenry and businesses from their own accounts - not to mention a tanking stock market, and nothing resembling a cakewalk into Kyiv to set up his puppet state.</p><p>Putin's rival Zelensky failed to flee the capital when the invasion started, instead using his media savvy to go onto social media and make a personal call to arms to every Ukrainian to stop the Russians approaching their major cities. Reported when asked by western powers to evacuate for his own safety, Zelensky answered "I need ammunition, not a ride." Sonofabitch (and I mean this in a cool way) is getting comparisons to freaking Winston Churchill, for God's sake...</p><p>Putin has already shot his load, as it were. Making a grand pronouncement that Ukraine wasn't even a real country and that he was going to make them all happy Russians again, only to have nearly every Ukrainian grab a rifle and fight back. Even grandmothers were tossing sunflower seeds at Russian troops cursing that their bodies will be fertilizer for the flowers that will bloom. </p><p>Putin has already flexed his nation's military might, only to face the possibility that he's going to have to retreat, never a good look for a bullying autocrat. Or worse, double down on the troops and weaponry (that he may not have) and try to overwhelm Ukrainian resistance by sheer numbers, risking the growing anti-war sentiment of the citizenry at home...</p></blockquote><p></p><p>If there <i>has</i> been any noticeable anti-war sentiment - most of Russian media and local police have clamped down on any overt sign of unrest - it's been from the young Russian men <a href="https://noticeatrend.blogspot.com/2022/09/the-great-russian-skedaddle.html" target="_blank">savvy enough to skedaddle - yes still love that word - when they had the chance</a>:</p><p></p><blockquote><p>Putin is doubling down on making this conscription (don't call it a mobilization like it's a good thing, this is forced military servitude) because Ukraine's recent success shredded much of the ground forces he had there and he needs as many bodies as possible to hold onto whatever he can claim. As mentioned earlier, Putin is also forcing the occupied regions of southern Ukraine - the Donbas in particular - to "vote" on a rigged "annexation" so that Russia can claim to the world that it's Ukraine invading Russia, even though most other nations would never recognize such a brazenly illegal move.</p><p><b>Putin is relying on the one last resource he can utilize in his war to conquer Ukraine: Manpower.</b> Russia's overall population at 143 million is 100 million more than Ukraine's (43 million), and just on simple numbers in a slogfest Russia should be able to outlast Ukraine to conquer a bloodied landscape.</p><p>But in his desperation, Putin is overvaluing quantity over quality of armies. By all reports, Russia's armed forces are poorly trained, poorly motivated, poorly supplied... and everything that's happened since this February has proven how poor Russia's performance has been in a straight-up fight with an army that can fight back. While Putin is emphasizing in conscripting men with previous military experience, there's no guarantee those men have good enough experience in the first place, and there's no sign of them having the discipline and motivation to perform any better than the first wave of troops Putin sent in. Most military experts in the West argue that Putin needs to train his conscripts, which would take months... and Putin doesn't have months at this rate. <b>He will send raw untrained victims to the front lines and hope to Zerg Rush Ukrainian forces by sheer attrition</b>...</p></blockquote><p></p><p>It is that - combined with Putin's <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/2/7/russia-hits-targets-across-ukraine-in-massive-missile-drone-strikes" target="_blank">illegal use of artillery and drone attacks on Ukrainian civilian populations</a> - sole advantage of bodies for the meat grinder that has prolonged this war.</p><p>Well, there's actually a second advantage Putin is wielding against Ukraine to prolong this war:<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2024/02/13/us/politics/ukraine-aid-bill-house.html" target="_blank"> A willing faction of Republicans in Congress - bowing not just to trump's demand they appease his puppetmaster Putin, but playing their own game of obstructing Biden to make him look weak - blocking all financial and supply aid to Ukraine as they need it most</a>. The Western European nations making up most of NATO have been providing military aid here and there - surplus of tanks and transports and weapons - but without the military and financial might of the U.S. getting to them, <a href="https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/us-estimates-ukraine-military-shortages-grow-catastrophic-late/story?id=107169502" target="_blank">Ukrainian front line forces are running out of ammo</a>.</p><p>Without that help, Ukraine will enter its third year of survival at their most vulnerable with Putin willing to prolong the attrition until he can be certain of complete victory, which would be if trump steals the electoral results this November. If that happens, <a href="https://noticeatrend.blogspot.com/2024/02/the-shakedown-threat.html" target="_blank">trump's threats to drive the U.S. out of NATO become fact</a>, and NATO is suddenly faced with an emboldened Russian Empire eager to reclaim Eastern Europe and use their influence on internal Far Right political factions to destabilize whatever's left.</p><p>There's a lot of things we as American citizens can do to provide help to Ukraine. <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/12/21/us/politics/russian-assets-ukraine.html" target="_blank">Urging President Biden to transfer the millions in seized Russian assets to fund Ukraine's war effort is one</a>. Stopping trump this November is the other step. For the love of Ukraine, our European allies, and a true end to Russian aggression/war, DO NOT VOTE REPUBLICAN.</p><p><b>Slava Ukraini</b>! </p>Paul Whttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13092023794397583036noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27554065.post-9519525258997539472024-02-23T18:47:00.000-05:002024-02-23T18:47:35.221-05:00Time to Break the NRA, Now That It's Financially Broke<p>I hadn't talked about it much, but the National <strike>Rifle</strike> Body County Association had been facing civil lawsuits in the state of New York - where their organization had been incorporated - and the State AG Letitia James delivered for justice and sanity (again) <a href="https://www.npr.org/2024/02/23/1232229060/nra-wayne-lapierre-corruption-trial-verdict-new-york" target="_blank">when the jury came back this afternoon holding the NRA leaders liable for decades of embezzlement, mismanagement, and corruption</a> (via Emma Bowman and Brian Mann at NPR):</p><p></p><blockquote><p><b>A Manhattan jury found three top executives of the National Rifle Association liable Friday in a lengthy civil trial that focused on alleged corruption and the misspending of millions of dollars.</b></p><p>Longtime NRA leader Wayne LaPierre, a key architect in the nonprofit's hardline gun rights agenda who stepped down as CEO last month, was central to New York state's case.</p><p>Jurors found that LaPierre "violated his statutory obligation to discharge the duties of his position in good faith."</p><p>They concluded that he had caused roughly $5.4 million worth of harm to the nonprofit group's finances — though they also found that LaPierre had already repaid roughly $2 million.</p></blockquote><p></p><p>LaPierre <a href="https://newrepublic.com/post/177904/heinous-things-wayne-lapierre-said-nra-leader" target="_blank">is the same sonofabitch who made the decision after the horrifying Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre to double down on the madness of gun proliferation that has led to more guns and more gun violence</a>. He went out there and claimed "there was no way to end the violence" and that the best way to solve it was "good guys with guns." (Guess what, <a href="https://www.americanprogress.org/article/debunking-the-guns-make-us-safer-myth/" target="_blank">good guys with guns doesn't work</a>) All the while raking in the profits that the NRA succored out of the gun manufacturers - who all had a part of the NRA's leadership - that he then indulged himself.</p><p></p><blockquote><p>The executives were accused of misappropriating and mismanaging funds donated to the gun rights group's members. According to New York state Attorney General Letitia James, who brought the lawsuit, their actions led to "the loss of more than $64 million in just three years."</p><p>During the six-week trial, state lawyers alleged that LaPierre had spent over $11 million for private flights and approved $135 million in NRA contracts in exchange for yacht access and free trips to the Bahamas, Greece and other vacation hotspots, <i>The Associated Press</i> reported.</p></blockquote><p></p><p>All those vacations to overseas nations that have gun control laws in place. Probably made it safe for LaPierre to walk around at night spending more blood money.</p><p></p><blockquote><p><b>LaPierre spent three decades growing the NRA's political and lobbying influence. Even as mass shootings became commonplace, LaPierre rejected attempts to change gun policy, branding gun control proponents as enemies of freedom and using the threat of firearms regulation to fundraise.</b></p><p>His resignation was announced just days before the trial began, with the NRA instead citing health as the reason for his departure.</p><p><b>The NRA's grip on politics has weakened in recent years as it's faced declining membership and revenue, and concerns within the group over leadership's direction and misuse of funds</b>...</p></blockquote><p></p><p>There was a moment, years ago, when <a href="https://noticeatrend.blogspot.com/2018/07/a-spy-in-house-of-guns.html" target="_blank">ties to Russian intelligence exposed the dire financial straits</a> that the organization found itself (It doesn't look like that investigation went far). There had also been <a href="https://noticeatrend.blogspot.com/2019/04/a-lobby-choking-on-its-own-con-game.html" target="_blank">power struggles both behind the doors and on the public stage that exposed how corrupt LaPierre had made himself</a> and the NRA. There'd been complaints the organization <a href="https://www.gq.com/story/nra-takeover-bylaws-leadership" target="_blank">had been rigging their internal elections for decades</a>.</p><p>With any luck, this court ruling breaks all of that. This jury decision will block some of the more corrupt NRA leaders from holding office, hopefully leaving room for reformers to gain meaningful footholds. AG James is looking to install an independent court monitor to oversee the financials, which would go a long way towards clearing out any of the other org leaders unable to bribe or bully their way back into power.</p><p>While I am hopeful of all that, whether this will lead to any sanity on the political stage remains unknown. Far too many politicians - cough Far Right Republicans cough - have built their "brands" on being "gun-toting, 2nd Amendment Loving" psychopaths, and they're not going to change their public image any time soon.</p><p>It's up to the voters - now without the NRA funneling their blood money into the electoral process - to hear the calls for gun reforms more clearly, and to vote appropriately for the federal and state officials who will do something - banning the assault rifles that make up most of our mass shootings; reinstating gun safety regulations like waiting periods, registration and training; and stopping the intentional market glut of cheap guns; things like that - to stop our streets - and our schools, and our stores, and our churches, and our movie theaters, and our concerts - filling with innocent blood.</p><p>Hope you go to Hell broke, Wayne. <i>You earned that</i>.</p>Paul Whttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13092023794397583036noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27554065.post-28872694035432686532024-02-22T09:11:00.007-05:002024-02-22T21:20:59.195-05:00This Is What Censorship and Whitewashing Look Like<p>So this Sunday, <i>Doonesbury</i> <a href="https://www.gocomics.com/doonesbury/2024/02/18" target="_blank">ran a comic strip that directly attacked Ron DeSantis' attempt in Florida to whitewash American History</a>: (edit, I had a bad link earlier. second edit: <b>where are all the views coming from?</b> please comment below...)</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjDTpEXgQB01vwG_JDee7_hSS5M9tSiDzms-onJMPnYiYrdxP0QlBqC0DETLqXOn0CoXuhpi8hkh4hUYwirBJAtyT5_RyuybXs4ZwiaMWqPl8waxz0Kc2pSlvqa0_lM0p2JZP9D4b8UI4m7U0NIz7aHdu6HzvOXpOSxa1QKQWXVqi6UP88PyYKF/s733/doonesbury_021824.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="505" data-original-width="733" height="281" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjDTpEXgQB01vwG_JDee7_hSS5M9tSiDzms-onJMPnYiYrdxP0QlBqC0DETLqXOn0CoXuhpi8hkh4hUYwirBJAtyT5_RyuybXs4ZwiaMWqPl8waxz0Kc2pSlvqa0_lM0p2JZP9D4b8UI4m7U0NIz7aHdu6HzvOXpOSxa1QKQWXVqi6UP88PyYKF/w408-h281/doonesbury_021824.JPG" width="408" /></a></div><br /><p>I can't show the whole strip (copyright), but you can click the link to see it. While Trudeau is usually good on research - when he states a fact in his strips, he can vouch for the sources - he does make a mistake claiming that I-95 is the best escape route to take. Christ, I-95 is a parking lot just like I-4! The teacher will never make it. Take the backroads like Highway 441!</p><p>All kidding aside, the story doesn't end with this strip angering up DeSantis or any "Lost Cause" wingnut. Because it angered up a major media conglomerate instead, <a href="https://www.cracked.com/article_41196_conservative-newspaper-conglomerate-proved-their-opponents-point-when-they-banned-this-doonesbury-comic-strip.html" target="_blank">as the Gannett newspaper chain decided not to run the strip as though they could hide it</a> (via Keegan Kelly at <i>Cracked.com</i>):</p><p></p><blockquote><p>This past Sunday, many readers whose regional newspapers are owned by the multi-billion dollar, conservative-leaning mass media holding company Gannett flipped to the funny pages to find that Doonesbury was conspicuously missing from its usual position in the printing. Former Iowa State Representative and president of the Veterans National Recovery Center Bob Krause noticed that absence and made sure to show Twitter what Gannett hid from them.</p><p><b>Gannett owns almost 400 newspapers in the United States, including the national publication USA Today and local papers in 44 states, among which is Krause's Iowa, where the Des Moines Register followed company protocol and cut out the above strip from circulation.</b> Apparently, Gannett didn't want its readers knowing that seven of the states in the U.S. Confederacy explicitly cited the issue of slavery in their declarations of secession. Gannett also doesn't want comic strip fans learning about how almost 100,000 white southerners chose loyalty to their country over preserving slavery as they fought for the Union during the Civil War.</p><p>Many conservative-dominated states have passed legislation designed to prevent education about historical topics such as slavery and civil rights, but the state that Trudeau name-drops in Sunday's censored Doonesbury strip has drawn the most attention for how hilariously absurd its lengthy ban list stretches – a school district in Florida even made national headlines this past summer for banning an Arthur book from the school library...</p></blockquote><p></p><p>I'd written before about how <i>Doonesbury</i> <a href="https://noticeatrend.blogspot.com/2023/05/anniversary-when-doonesbury-dropped.html" target="_blank">sits on the edge of controversy and how newspapers try to find a balance to ensure First Amendment rights aren't violated</a> (often by putting the comic on the Op-Ed page). Here, the Gannett media corporation couldn't be bothered with that, and just straight up banned the Sunday comic. Gannett however forgot that <i>Doonesbury</i> is available through other sources - such as the GoComics archive - and that too many people would notice that void in the Sunday funnies.</p><p><b>What we're seeing here in real time is the Far Right Republican effort - led by DeSantis and a dozen-plus Republican governors - to whitewash American history to hide the "shame" of slavery, civil war, and racism from the schoolbooks in order to "protect the sensitivities of privileged Whites."</b> They're getting help by these media empires - mostly owned by conservative rich folk, and owning most of our newspapers, radios, and local television stations - who want to pander to the wingnut Narrative of White Victimhood and the avoidance of literal centuries of racism and sexism that underlines our nation's history. (It ought to horrify everyone to realize <i>how much</i> control over our media that's held by <i>so few</i> corporations)</p><p>These history deniers, these panderers, these censors are incapable of even debating what it is <i>they're</i> trying to shove down the throats of our school-age children, <b>and so they will resort to silence because they cannot convince. </b>And this wasn't censored just in Florida: it reached as far as Iowa (a Union state) showing how far the company's - and the wingnut conservatives' - reach was on this.</p><p>All these wingnut deniers are doing is highlighting their own fear, their own ignorance, their own racism.</p><p>Shame on Gannett corporation for violating the First Amendment. Shame on DeSantis and every Florida Republican who cannot accept the racist history of our state and our nation. Shame on them for failing to recognize their sins and work to improve themselves by, you know, being less racist and less sexist.</p><p>I hope to God Trudeau sues Gannett on free speech rights. I hope to God the Republicans lose the next ten election cycles so their inept and racist legislation gets flushed out of our legal codes.</p><p><b>Stop voting Republican, Florida. Stop voting Republican, America. They don't want people to know the facts about our history, about our current economic and social inequalities, they don't want people to think period.</b></p><p><b><i>Update</i>: </b>I received a follow-up tweet from Ruben Bolling (aka Tom The Dancing Bug creator) on Bluesky - wait do we call them tweets there? - <a href="https://bsky.app/profile/rubenbolling.bsky.social/post/3klzabo4m7o27" target="_blank">that he had done some digging into the matter, and had spoken to someone from Doonesbury's publisher</a> that Gannett Media had "simply canceled" their subscription to the strip. Bolling considers it "not censorship, but a bad business decision."</p><p>I dunno. It depends a little bit on <i>when</i> the Gannett owners decided to drop Doonesbury. It just seems a little too coincidental that they drop the strip for ALL their papers - even in places where it's still popular - as this particular comic was getting prepped for print.</p><p><b>One of my core arguments remain: Florida Republicans are whitewashing our state's and nation's history, to the detriment of ALL our youth and adults who need the facts from the past to understand what needs repair in our society to improve our future.</b> The corporate media is doing nothing to fight against that censorship, no matter how this looks.</p>Paul Whttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13092023794397583036noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27554065.post-70427578236058901602024-02-19T07:07:00.001-05:002024-02-19T07:07:24.092-05:00trump STILL The Worst Person America Ever Knew: 2024 Edition<p>Just as a reminder this Presidents' Day in the United States <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2024/02/18/us/politics/biden-trump-presidential-rankings.html" target="_blank">that donald trump was one of the worst to ever sit in the Executive office</a> (via Peter Baker at the <i>New York Times</i> (paywalled)): </p><p></p><blockquote><p>A <a href="http://www.brandonrottinghaus.com/uploads/1/0/8/7/108798321/presidential_greatness_white_paper_2024.pdf" target="_blank">new poll of historians</a> coming out on Presidents’ Day weekend ranks Mr. Biden as the 14th-best president in American history, just ahead of Woodrow Wilson, Ronald Reagan and Ulysses S. Grant. While that may not get Mr. Biden a spot on Mount Rushmore, it certainly puts him well ahead of Mr. Trump, who places dead last as the worst president ever.</p><p>Indeed, Mr. Biden may owe his place in the top third in part to Mr. Trump. Although he has claims to a historical legacy by managing the end of the Covid pandemic; rebuilding the nation’s roads, bridges and other infrastructure; and leading an international coalition against Russian aggression, Mr. Biden’s signature accomplishment, according to the historians, was evicting Mr. Trump from the Oval Office.</p></blockquote><p></p><p>trump was already having a bad month, so... this just piles it on.</p><p></p><blockquote>“<b>Biden’s most important achievements may be that he rescued the presidency from Trump</b>, resumed a more traditional style of presidential leadership and is gearing up to keep the office out of his predecessor’s hands this fall,” wrote Justin Vaughn and Brandon Rottinghaus, the college professors who conducted the survey and announced the results in The Los Angeles Times.</blockquote><p></p><p></p><blockquote>Mr. Trump might not care much what a bunch of academics think...</blockquote><p></p><p>Trust me, Pete, trump is a raging self-absorbed narcissist. <i>Of course</i> he cares what other people think, it's what drives his fear and his anger.</p><p></p><blockquote>...but for what it’s worth he fares badly even among the self-identified Republican historians. Finishing 45th overall, Mr. Trump trails even the mid-19th-century failures who blundered the country into a civil war or botched its aftermath like James Buchanan, Franklin Pierce and Andrew Johnson.</blockquote><p></p><p>This poll is a follow-up of sorts <a href="https://noticeatrend.blogspot.com/2021/06/history-is-already-judging-trump.html" target="_blank">to the one that came out in 2021</a>, when trump fled from the Oval Office and the damage of his tenure more tangible. It's telling that in the brief period of reflection of the last three years, few if any historians are willing to give trump some credit or improvement over the terrible mediocrities - the 19th Century disasters that were Buchanan, Pierce, and Johnson (no, the first one) - that are long gone.</p><p>There are no signs in the United States of long-term effects remaining from trump's misrule (other than the madness of his rabid MAGA base escalating their Culture War on our schools). Of the things he did that left an impact - <a href="https://noticeatrend.blogspot.com/2021/08/what-to-say-about-afghanistan-in.html" target="_blank">such as signing away Afghanistan to the Taliban at the very end of his presidency</a> - <i>none</i> of it was for the better.</p><p>That trump is eagerly running again for the Presidency bodes ill for the nation. It's not because trump wants to undo his terrible legacy, <i>he wants to add to it</i>. And he's not running for the benefit of his followers or even the nation as a whole: <b>trump is running this 2024 so he can use the legal immunity of the Executive office to keep his orange ass out of jail</b>.</p><p>Gods help us. We dare not let him back into the Oval Office. <b>trump will be worse than he was before</b>. And that term of office was shockingly bad.</p><p>For the LOVE OF GOD AND COUNTRY, America. Vote Biden. Vote Democratic Party in every spot on the ballot.</p>Paul Whttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13092023794397583036noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27554065.post-34182440472136255392024-02-16T20:15:00.002-05:002024-02-17T21:03:43.772-05:00Judgment Cometh and That Right Soon: trump is Toast (and Now Broke)<p>We were waiting for this. <a href="https://www.npr.org/2024/02/16/1226294071/trump-fined-fraud-trial-ny" target="_blank">trump's civil case over tax evasion and acts of fraud came due today</a> (via Ximena Bustillo at NPR): </p><p></p><blockquote><p>The Friday decision from Judge Arthur Engoron orders Trump and his flagship organization to pay the bulk of that amount: nearly $355 million. Trump's two sons and co-defendants, Eric Trump and Donald Trump Jr., are each liable for $4 million. Allen Weisselberg, a former Trump Organization executive, is liable for $1 million. The total is even higher with interest — more than $450 million overall, according to the attorney general's office.</p><p>"<b>Their complete lack of contrition and remorse borders on pathological. They are accused only of inflating asset values to make more money. The documents prove this over and over again. This is a venial sin, not a mortal sin," Engoron wrote in the court filing. "Yet, defendants are incapable of admitting the error of their ways</b>..."</p></blockquote><p></p><p>trump is <i>of course</i> not admitting to his errors and is screaming on his social media bubble about how unfair this is, A TOTAL WITCH HUNT, <a href="https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Bananas_(film)" target="_blank">it's a travesty of a mockery of a sham of a mockery of a travesty of two mockeries of a sham</a>. etc.</p><p>If you want to view the full travesty of a mockery of a sham, <a href="https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/24432597-452564_2022_people_of_the_state_of_v_people_of_the_state_of_decision_after_trial_1688?responsive=1&title=1" target="_blank">the court filing should be here</a>.</p><p>If you want popcorn, that should be in Aisle 9 at your local Publix. If you don't have a local Publix I assure you there will soon be one. (evil laughter from Publix HQ in Lakeland FL)</p><p></p><blockquote><p>The judge also decided to limit Trump and his co-defendants' ability to do business in the Empire State. <b>Trump and his companies are prohibited from serving as an officer or director of any New York business or applying for loans for three years. His sons are limited from similar leadership roles for two years.</b></p><p>Jeffrey McConney, ex-controller of the Trump Organization and also a defendant, was not ordered to pay any amount, but he and Weisselberg are permanently barred from serving in the financial control function of any New York corporation or similar business entity registered or licensed in New York state.</p></blockquote><p></p><p>One of the thing trump - and his sons - can't do is get any loans from banks that do business in New York, which was one of the ways he'd been inflating his personal wealth and perpetuating his ongoing grifts over the decades. Considering New York City is the financial capital of the world - well, it's one of the major centers along with London, Tokyo, Hong Kong and (checks notes) that one nation-state that allows shell companies to money-launder off-shore accounts - this is tossing a wooden shoe into trump's gears real quick. If trump is trying scheme up anything else to make money down the road... he might not be able to. At least not for the next three years.</p><p>This is also going to put a crimp on trump's ability to pay not only the penalties in this case but <a href="https://noticeatrend.blogspot.com/2024/01/trumps-refuge-in-vulgarity-now-costs.html" target="_blank">also the fines and penalties in the Carroll defamation and sexual assault decisions</a> (add in another $88 million to trump's bill).</p><p>I mentioned earlier that trump - like most rich folk - doesn't have a lot of real cash on hand to be able to pay these kinds of fines. Most of the wealth is on paper, on the estimated values on properties and businesses owned, and on the amounts floating around in investment portfolios and the stock markets. Either trump is going to be forced to sell a number of properties - at fair market value, NOT the inflated prices trump claimed - or use other people's money. There's a reason why a lot of people - myself included - viewed <a href="https://noticeatrend.blogspot.com/2024/02/trumps-hostile-takeover-of-gop.html" target="_blank">trump's effort to claim control of the RNC this week was to claim the revenues flowing in</a> to the party organization's campaign coffers.</p><p>It's going to be a question of how trump can get to any of that RNC money, <a href="https://thehill.com/regulation/court-battles/4473534-trump-new-york-civil-fraud-trial-key-takeaways/" target="_blank">if the court-appointed oversight by judge Barbara Jones is expanding over the next 14 months to ensure this order gets enforced</a> (even during the appeal process, by the looks of it).</p><p>And he doesn't have that time afforded to him. trump is facing more court trials, specifically the criminal cases. A quick update on those:</p><p></p><blockquote><p>The ruling comes at a crucial time for Trump, the front-runner for the Republican presidential nomination. Engoron's decision comes a day after another judge set the date for what could be Trump's first criminal trial, related to hush money payments issued during the 2016 election.</p><p>He is facing a combined 91 state and federal charges, including several related to his role to stay in office after he lost the 2020 presidential election to Joe Biden...</p></blockquote><p></p><p>Just this week, the judge overseeing that Hush Money trial - the DA is trying to claim it's an "election interference" trial because trump evaded campaign finance rules and lied to voters about the matter, but seriously it's <i>the Hush Money To Stormy Daniels</i> case - <a href="https://www.npr.org/2024/02/15/1231707111/trump-hush-money-case-new-york-trial" target="_blank">ruled against trump's bid to have the case dismissed and set the jury selection to start March 25, 2024</a> (it's also Bustillo but it's a different NPR article, well that IS her beat):</p><p></p><blockquote><p>New York Judge Juan Merchan has rejected an attempt to dismiss the charges in the hush money case against former President Donald Trump, and a jury trial will begin as originally scheduled on March 25.</p><p>The case was brought by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, who <b>charged Trump with 34 felony counts last year, alleging he falsified New York business records in order to conceal damaging information before the 2016 presidential election. That included hush money payments to adult film star Stormy Daniels, who was threatening to go public with charges that she had had an affair with Trump not long after he married Melania Trump</b>. Trump, who was present for Thursday's court hearing before Merchan, has denied the affair.</p></blockquote><p></p><p>You should remember, this is the matter that brought "bagman" lawyer Michael Cohen to the national stage ("<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kXIF2FQpgjM" target="_blank">I have a hard drive just labeled 'YIKES'!</a>"), and there was <a href="https://noticeatrend.blogspot.com/2018/12/unavoidable-conclusions-to-ongoing.html" target="_blank">enough proof back then - with trump as un-indicted co-conspirator Individual-One - to get Cohen to plead out</a>. It took awhile - and Bragg overcoming his initial reluctance when he took office - for these charges to come out, but it's here now, it's starting in March and should be finished in four weeks, meaning in late April we'll see if trump gets convicted on even one count or survives his first criminal trial.</p><p>The next trial was technically the matter in DC federal court regarding trump's involvement in the January 6th insurrection, with four felony counts there. However, <a href="https://www.npr.org/2024/02/02/1228826808/federal-judge-postpones-trump-march-election-interference-trial" target="_blank">Judge Chutkan postponed that trial awaiting the ruling</a> on trump's claim of Absolute Immunity, <a href="https://noticeatrend.blogspot.com/2024/02/with-all-of-defenses-of-any-other.html" target="_blank">which an appellate court rebuked</a> and which the Supreme Court received this week to determine if <i>they</i> need to hear the matter.</p><p>A number of legal experts <a href="https://www.thedailybeast.com/supreme-court-shouldnt-even-hear-trumps-appeal-on-immunity-ruling" target="_blank">are arguing SCOTUS doesn't even need to hear the appeal</a>, and that is a choice the justices can make. They <i>could</i> still take it, and deliberate the matter in order to give trump what he REALLY wants - more delay - but they'd still have to make a ruling on it this term year (by late summer if they pad it out). If they dismiss trump's appeal, this trial could start as early as mid-May (depending on another trial): If SCOTUS takes it, they still have to rule on it by August (and like the 11th District of Appeals, they dare not approve in favor of absolute presidential immunity, it would literally kill the Constitution) and the trial could start by September (cutting it close to Election Day).</p><p>That other trial that could skew the DC trial schedule is the one in South Florida regarding trump's mishandling of federal classified documents at Mar-A-Lago. Ostensibly it's set for late May, but Judge Cannon overseeing that matter has been causing havoc with the pre-trial elements - <a href="https://newrepublic.com/post/178922/jack-smith-judge-cannon-dangerous-order-trump-classified-documents" target="_blank">such as wanting to expose the Justice Department's witness list to trump's lawyers earlier than usual, and against Special Counsel Jack Smith's wishes</a> - that a potential delay could be happening in that trial as the appeals courts straighten the mess. <a href="https://www.salon.com/2024/02/08/awful-and-unethical-legal-experts-say-cannon-could-face-removal-for-disturbing-order/" target="_blank">Outside legal experts -some of them former federal prosecutors - argue Cannon should be removed from this case considering how she's risking witness safety</a>, but that could delay the start of trial as well.</p><p>If by some miracle the Mar-A-Lago trial does start by May, it's still expected to take two or three months to complete considering the sheer amount of classified documents - and their mishandling - to go through. It would affect whenever the DC trial starts, which I would argue deserves to go first because of its immediacy and its importance in confirming trump's culpability over the nightmare of January 6th. Hopefully this will get straightened out soon.</p><p>Thrown into this mix is the fourth criminal matter trump faces in Fulton County, Georgia... which hit a huge delay when one of the co-defendants filed a complaint against DA Fani Willis over possible misconduct with an affair with one of the special investigators hired by the DA's office. <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2024/02/15/trump-georgia-fani-willis-hearing-new-york-hush-money/" target="_blank">The judge overseeing that trial held a hearing the last two days</a>, during which the worst part of trumpian (damn you Roy Cohn) legal tactics - public smearing of opponents - was on full display.</p><p>Igor Derysh at <i>Salon</i> <a href="https://www.salon.com/2024/02/16/spectacle-legal-experts-say-messy-hearing-shows-fani-willis-scandal-is-a-big-nothingburger/" target="_blank">has more details</a>:</p><p></p><blockquote><p>Thursday’s evidentiary hearing on the misconduct claim against Fulton County, Ga., District Attorney Fani Willis yielded a lot of drama but little evidence of wrongdoing, legal experts say.</p><p>Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee held a hearing after Ashleigh Merchant, an attorney for Trump co-defendant Mike Roman, alleged an improper relationship between Willis and top prosecutor Nathan Wade and claimed that Wade used his earnings from the case to fund trips for the pair...</p><p>“I simply don’t see any new evidence that requires disqualification. It’s a credibility pissing match so far. Ugly. Dramatic. But the needle hasn’t moved,” tweeted Georgia State University Law Prof. Anthony Michael Kreis.</p><p>“As an excavation of a now-defunct relationship, it was Bravo-worthy (and frankly, sad). But as an evidentiary hearing, it wasn’t the win the defense promised, especially under the governing legal standard,” agreed MSNBC legal analyst Lisa Rubin...</p><p>Former U.S. Attorney Joyce Vance told MSNBC that the hearing featured “a lot of spectacle but not very much substance.”</p><p>"Ultimately, at the end of the day yesterday, it was just a big nothingburger," she said. "There was nothing to show that Fani Willis and Nathan Wade had the financial conflict of interest that Georgia law recognizes, something akin to a prosecutor who only gets paid if they win a case. That's the classic case in Georgia law where there is a conflict that results in disqualification. That wasn't there yesterday in the courtroom..."</p></blockquote><p></p><p>If trump and his co-defendants were hoping to throw the whole prosecution out, that wasn't going to happen. At the least, the judge could have removed Willis from overseeing the matter and handing it off to another prosecutor in the DA's office. Whether it delays this trial any further - which legal experts considered an open-shut case because of so much direct evidence against trump including that audio tape - is unlikely, because it's all the other trials' schedules that's interfering when this one starts.</p><p>Again, to all the Republican voters out there, to all the Republican Party leaders out there: You could have avoided all this. trump was dirty and corrupt and vulgar in the years before 2016. You had all the warning signs when he first campaigned - the failed casinos, the civil trial involving trump's university scam, the reports of sexual assault, the open racism and sexism - that trump was going to be a disaster of a human being. AND YOU STILL VOTED FOR THAT.</p><p>We've had other corrupt men in high office before, just that none of them reached the criminal lows that trump has. trump's not facing criminal trials because he's a "great conservative American," he's facing criminal trials <i>now</i> because 40 years of bills over his bullshit are finally coming due.</p><p>The civil trials are mostly done, and trump has to pay those dues soon. The criminal trials start March, and the countdown to just even ONE felony conviction begins.</p><p>Tick fucking tock, trump.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/kE5NkP4VL4Y" width="320" youtube-src-id="kE5NkP4VL4Y"></iframe></div><br /><p>Update: <a href="https://twitter.com/PaulWartenberg/status/1758655676119916788" target="_blank">This got to be a very popular tweet</a>.</p><blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p dir="ltr" lang="en">at this rate, trump should raise the $355 million in 30,527 days. <br />That's almost 83 years.<br />It could work.</p>— Witty Librarian 2024 (@PaulWartenberg) <a href="https://twitter.com/PaulWartenberg/status/1758655676119916788?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 17, 2024</a></blockquote> <script async="" charset="utf-8" src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js"></script><p><br /></p>Paul Whttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13092023794397583036noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27554065.post-58085198748320070202024-02-15T10:01:00.004-05:002024-02-20T08:10:03.490-05:00trump's Hostile Takeover of the GOP<p><b><i>Update</i></b>: Thank you Batocchio for sharing this article at the <i>Crooks & Liars</i> <a href="https://crooksandliars.com/2024/02/mikes-blog-round-7" target="_blank">Mike's Blog Round-Up</a>. To the visitors, <i>please</i> take the time to leave comments below, and check out the more recent articles I've posted here!</p><p><br /></p><p>Considering how much Republicans love the idea of running government - and apparently political parties - like a business, <i>of course</i> there was a hostile takeover of the Republican Party itself. donald trump effectively hijacked the organization in toto this week <a href="https://www.politico.com/news/2024/02/13/trump-ronna-mcdaniel-rnc-00141209" target="_blank">by ousting RNC Chair Ronna McDaniel because she wasn't giving him all the power (and money) he wanted</a> (via Lara Priluck at <i>Politico</i>):</p><p></p><blockquote><p>Trump has been increasingly public about his mounting discontent with the committee and with McDaniel in particular.</p><p>But it wasn’t always this way. McDaniel, who is the niece of retiring Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah), first captured Trump’s attention when she held the role of chair of the Michigan Republican Party in 2016. Trump rewarded McDaniel after his historic win in the state by installing her as RNC chair...</p></blockquote><p></p><p>Most of Priluck's article covers how often McDaniel as RNC chair would rise to trump's defense as various scandals arose. It especially points out how McDaniel teamed up with trump's handlers to throw out the legal results of the 2020 elections:</p><p></p><blockquote><p>McDaniel was also one of the many Republicans called to testify before the Jan. 6 select committee.</p><p>Her deposition footage revealed that — after the 2020 election — Trump connected her with John Eastman. Eastman is the architect of the fringe legal theory that the vice president had the power to swap official electors with ones who supported Trump during the certification process.</p><p>“He turned the call over to John Eastman, who then proceeded to talk about the importance of the RNC helping the campaign gather these contingent electors in case any of the legal challenges that were ongoing changed the result of any of the states,” McDaniel said in the deposition video.</p><p>She then confirmed the RNC helped the Trump campaign assemble “contingent” electors...</p></blockquote><p></p><p>Yet even with all that legal help to commit a serious act of illegality, trump came to blame the RNC - and thus McDaniel - for failing to help him get the courts into accepting his baseless claims of "stolen" ballots. After all, trump can't blame <i>himself</i> for not having any evidence behind his Big Lie.</p><p>It hasn't helped McDaniel's case that the Republican Party has been struggling since 2016 to pull off any major electoral gains. Even the <a href="https://noticeatrend.blogspot.com/2022/12/thoughts-about-2022-midterms.html" target="_blank">major victory of flipping the US House to the GOP in 2022 wasn't enough because it left them</a> with <a href="https://noticeatrend.blogspot.com/2023/10/it-begins-gaetz-folly-to-vacate.html" target="_blank">a disorganized and fractious House</a> unable to do anything <a href="https://noticeatrend.blogspot.com/2024/02/the-mock-trials-of-mockable-republican.html" target="_blank">except grandstand on Fox Not-News</a>.</p><p>It's been clear to <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2023/12/16/politics/donald-trump-republican-establishment/index.html" target="_blank">a number of observers that the power struggle between the Establishment faction of the Republicans and the invasive trumpian force</a> were coming to a head. <b>This is the most public sign that trump decisively won that battle.</b> It wasn't enough that trump held the power with the GOP voting base: trump wanted control of every possible decision-making role in the party so he can effectively raid it like a vulture capitalist, strip it for parts, keep the good stuff for himself, and abandon the husk when he moves on.</p><p>They're not even hiding it. trump is putting in control of the RNC a family member - Lara Trump, Eric's wife - <a href="https://www.huffpost.com/entry/stephen-colbert-lara-trump-tom-petty-cover_n_651f7f59e4b0049f8b6daaf1" target="_blank">whose only skill set is mangling Tom Petty songs</a>. And Lara's making it clear <a href="https://www.salon.com/2024/02/14/personal-slush-fund-lara-vows-every-penny-at-rnc-will-go-to-help/?in_brief=true" target="_blank">that her father-in-law is after every penny in the GOP he can take</a> (via Gabriella Ferrigine at <i>Salon</i>):</p><p></p><blockquote><p>Lara Trump, the wife of Eric Trump and the daughter-in-law of former president Donald Trump, promised on Tuesday that she would use "every single penny" of Republican National Committee (RNC) funds to see Trump back in the White House if she becomes co-chair of the party.</p><p>During a recent appearance on the conservative network Newsmax, Trump claimed that “the RNC needs to be the leanest, most lethal political fighting machine we’ve ever seen in American history..." </p><p>"No one tell her the RNC is supposed to be in charge of assisting the entire party at the federal, state and local level. Not just Trump’s personal slush fund," quipped attorney Bradley Moss on X/Twitter. </p><p>Republican strategist Bobby Trivett, a self-acknowledged Nikki Haley supporter argued that Lara Trump has "no interest in Republican Victory up and down the ballot, she just wants Trump legal fees paid."</p><p>Former Department of Defense official Mike Walker seemed to posit that Lara Trump's claim of financial support for MAGA might not be politically aligned with other conservatives, tweeting that her assertion will likely come as a "surprise GOP candidates for the House and Senate and other offices..."</p></blockquote><p></p><p>While individual candidates and state-level organizations of the GOP can make their own fundraising, they need the foundational support of the national party to ensure they keep their budgets in the black. <b>The way Lara's talking about it - and how the other campaign experts are interpreting it - is that trump will ensure the RNC won't pay out, it'll vacuum up.</b></p><p>And as Trivett noted, a lot of evidence is out there that trump <a href="https://apnews.com/article/trump-lawyers-millions-payments-2024-campaign-2e06de2a8a90b3752e7758dfea56a509" target="_blank">has been using his own campaign funds to pay for all of the expensive legal bills and court cases</a> he's endured over the last three years. With a massive <a href="https://noticeatrend.blogspot.com/2024/01/trumps-refuge-in-vulgarity-now-costs.html" target="_blank">civil case ruling just last month over his sexual assault and defaming of Carroll costing him $88 million</a> - and with the <a href="https://noticeatrend.blogspot.com/2023/09/and-trump-keeps-losing-like-drunken.html" target="_blank">expected NY civil case ruling this Friday over his business and tax frauds costing him $250 million <i>at the least</i></a> - trump is going to vacuum up all the money he can get his hand on as soon as possible.</p><p>For all of trump's talk about being a big billionaire, the truth is that on his person he barely has any wealth at all. Most of a billionaire's wealth is on paper: That is, the expected value of various properties, corporations, investments, and financial papers they have on them at any given time. Elon Musk for example may be the richest man on the planet, but most of that wealth is tied up in stock holdings and investments he can't easily liquidate to put more money in his pocket right at this moment.</p><p>And in trump's case, a lot of that wealth was a lie (hence the New York civil case). <b>trump doesn't have that much money for real</b>.</p><p>For trump to pay off - or place in escrow for the courts while he fights his appeals - that much money would require him to either sell off a number of his properties and financial holdings - which weakens his overall claim to power and cuts into future grifting and emolument schemes - or gain access to on-hand cash, which is where the campaign donations come in. Knowing trump, he'll steal other people's money first before using his own.</p><p>Most of the other deep-pocket fundraisers for the Republican Party are the same way. Their wealth is mostly on paper as well, <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2023/11/27/republican-party-finances-election/" target="_blank">which was one of the reasons why the GOP across the board has been struggling with campaign fundraising the last year or so</a> as those deep pockets are evaluating the Return On Investments their money <i>isn't</i> achieving. While the SuperPACs are still out there, how many of them are going to share their money with an RNC organization that's not going to help with the costs of campaigning - the ads, the office staffing, the signs, the rallies, the snacks - heading into 2024?</p><p><b>This is going to get messy as trump and his lackeys clean out the Republican Party vault to pay off his debts</b> (and whatever indulgences trump still enjoys).</p><p>This is what running a business looks like, Republicans, if the aim is to crash and burn everything and move on to the next victim. Congratulations, GOP, <a href="https://fortune.com/longform/sears-self-destruction/" target="_blank">you're now Sears</a>.</p>Paul Whttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13092023794397583036noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27554065.post-73346199927988046142024-02-14T20:22:00.002-05:002024-02-14T20:22:24.789-05:00Blood in the Streets of Kansas City<p>So there was a Super Bowl recently, and the <a href="https://www.cbssports.com/nfl/news/2024-super-bowl-chiefs-vs-49ers-score-patrick-mahomes-leads-ot-comeback-as-k-c-wins-back-to-back-titles/live/" target="_blank">Kansas City Chiefs won a back-to-back title in overtime</a> over the San Francisco 49ers, and as usual there was a parade in the team's honor through the streets of Kansas City, Missouri (it's not in Kansas itself just on the state border, weird I know) and even with all the police and private security forces in place to manage the parade route and celebration sites, <a href="https://www.npr.org/2024/02/14/1231494234/shooting-kansas-city-chiefs-super-bowl-rally" target="_blank"><strike>two</strike> three gun nuts were able to open fire and give our nation yet another mass shooting</a> (via Jaclyn Diaz at NPR):</p><p></p><blockquote><p>One person was killed and up to 21 others were injured after shots were fired Wednesday afternoon outside Union Station in Kansas City, Mo., at the conclusion of a celebration for the Kansas City Chiefs' Super Bowl win, officials said.</p><p>The number of victims from this shooting is still evolving as law enforcement continues their investigation.</p><p><b>Officers took three individuals into custody</b>, Kansas City Police Chief Stacey Graves said during the day's second news conference, <b>updating the previous tally of two suspects</b> brought in.</p><p>One suspect was captured after a foot chase with officers, she said...</p><p>In preparation for the expected crowd size, 800 law enforcement officers were on scene for the parade, Graves said. The heavy police presence helped in getting fans to safety once the shooting began and in administering life-saving aid to gunshot victims, she said...</p></blockquote><p></p><p>Even with all those good guys with guns, gun violence still happened.</p><p></p><blockquote>But KCUR reported that Children's Mercy Hospital received 12 patients from the rally, <b>11 of them children and nine of those with gunshot wounds</b>. Fire Chief Ross Grundyson couldn't immediately confirm the ages of the victims.</blockquote><p></p><p>Children.</p><p>The gunmen FIRED AT CHILDREN.</p><p>It is too early to speculate what the motive of the gunmen were, but the fact <b>they opened fire with children present spells out that these sons of bitches didn't give a damn who they were hurting</b>.</p><p>And there's one more event in public that we can't dare attend without risk of getting shot at.</p><p>We can't go <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/las-vegas-shooting/las-vegas-police-investigating-shooting-mandalay-bay-n806461" target="_blank">to open-air music concerts</a>.</p><p>We can't go <a href="https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/survivors-of-aurora-colorado-mass-shooting-still-haunted-10-years-later" target="_blank">to movie theaters</a>.</p><p>We can't go <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2019/08/06/us/gilroy-festival-shooting/index.html" target="_blank">to food festivals</a>.</p><p>We can't go <a href="https://noticeatrend.blogspot.com/2019/05/blood-on-streets-of-virginia-beach.html" target="_blank">to our city halls</a>.</p><p>We can't go <a href="https://apnews.com/article/buffalo-supermarket-shooting-crime-shootings-race-and-ethnicity-4a4dcf6e12c598d1f0a372227760b93f" target="_blank">to grocery stores</a>. Or <a href="https://www.texastribune.org/2023/02/08/el-paso-walmart-shooting-pleads-guilty/" target="_blank">Wal-Marts</a>.</p><p>We can't go to malls (TOO MANY TO LINK HERE).</p><p>We sure as hell can't send our kids to schools - we haven't been able to for decades <a href="https://noticeatrend.blogspot.com/2019/04/anniversary-columbine.html" target="_blank">since Columbine in 1999</a> - <a href="https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/gunman-kills-students-and-adults-at-newtown-connecticut-elementary-school" target="_blank">without the risk</a> of them <a href="https://noticeatrend.blogspot.com/2018/02/bad-news-from-florida-blood-on-streets.html" target="_blank">never coming back</a>.</p><p><b>We as a nation cannot peaceably assemble</b> - we cannot celebrate, we cannot convocate, we cannot be a community - <b>because the ongoing threat by the National <strike>Rifle</strike> Body Count Association's public demands that <i>their</i> rights to carry murder weapons everywhere at all times shall not be infringed</b>.</p><p>It's just that the gun nuts' right to carry assault rifles and semi-automatic handguns stocked with high-capacity magazines requires the rest of us to pay in <i>our</i> blood.</p><p>We in the majority are dying so that the paranoid, armed-to-the-teeth minority can fantasize to their <i>Turner Diaries</i> cosplay bullshit.</p><p>Goddamn the NRA. Goddamn the politicians who let them rack up these body counts.</p><p>We need gun reform NOW, before every street in America drowns in the blood of our children.</p>Paul Whttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13092023794397583036noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27554065.post-74836094387616529592024-02-12T22:03:00.003-05:002024-02-12T22:03:51.644-05:00The Shakedown Threat<p>Over the weekend, <a href="https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2024/02/trump-russia-comment-nato-biggest-problem.html" target="_blank">donald trump essentially threatened the survival of NATO - basically all of Europe - in the face of Vladimir Putin's aggressive push to rebuild a Russian empire</a>. If we take a look at what foreign policy pundit Fred Kaplan notes over at <i>Slate</i> (paywalled):</p><p></p><blockquote><p>Did Trump just encourage Russia to invade U.S. allies in Europe if they don’t spend more on defense? It seems so. At a campaign rally on Saturday, he recounted a story about a NATO summit he attended while he was president:</p><p><i>One of the presidents of a big country stood up and said, “Well, sir, if we don’t pay and we’re attacked by Russia, will you protect us?” I said, “You didn’t pay, you’re delinquent?” He said, “Yes, let’s say that happened.” “No, I would not protect you. In fact, I would encourage them [presumably the Russians] to do whatever the hell they want.”</i></p><p>In one aspect, this remark—widely reported in news media the past few days—has been taken a bit out of context. Trump cited the story as an example of how his tough-guy tactics were effective. He got the allies, he claimed, to “pay up”—to boost their defense spending after years of shirking their obligations...</p><p>Yet, more broadly, the remark is just as alarming and dangerous as Trump’s critics and many European officials are interpreting it. <b>It reflects a long-standing attitude of indifference and borderline hostility to allies, of viewing them the same way that a Mafia boss regards his capos or clients in a protection racket.</b></p><p>There is no question: When—not if—Vladimir Putin read that remark, he mused that he might get away with intimidating or invading Poland, the Baltic nations, or some other nearby countries if Trump wins the 2024 election. Ditto for Xi Jinping and Taiwan...</p></blockquote><p></p><p>Much like Kaplan, I'm viewing trump's public ire towards NATO not as trump as a landlord upset about rent not getting paid but as a mob boss demanding his payoff for protection by his victims. Try to remember, one of the things trump kept insisting to our NATO allies wasn't to increase their defense spending <a href="https://www.npr.org/2018/07/11/628137185/fact-check-trumps-claims-on-nato-spending" target="_blank">but to pay the United States - to pay him, hint hint - over what trump saw as "unpaid bills"</a>.</p><p>Which, of course, is not how diplomacy and military alliances work. But donald trump doesn't care about what works, he only cares about what profits donald trump. And he's perfectly willing to break everything to profit from it. Back to Kaplan:</p><p></p><blockquote>Trump’s purely transactional view of alliances is nothing new. It was widely reported that, as president, he told his aides several times that he wanted to pull out of NATO. In 2020 he told the European Union’s president, Ursula von der Leyen, “You need to understand that if Europe is under attack, we will never come to help you,” adding, “By the way, NATO is dead and we will leave.” After he left office, some of his top aides said that if he had been reelected in 2020, Trump would have definitely quit the alliance...</blockquote><p></p><p>This was a legitimate fear for me back in 2018: Even before matters escalated over Ukraine in 2022, trump's disdain for NATO - and open willingness to pander to Putin - threatened to break the alliance in ways <a href="https://noticeatrend.blogspot.com/2018/07/one-step-away-from-end-of-united-states.html" target="_blank">that would have harmed America's global standing as well as expose Eastern Europe to immediate threat from Russia</a>:</p><p></p><blockquote><p>Under other circumstances, it would be hilarious to watch all the hardened foreign policy wizards of the Republican Party - all of them perfectly aware of how the U.S. has benefited in both military and political matters being united with the other Western democracies during the Cold War and Global War on Terror decades - suddenly switch their worldviews from "Europe good, Putin bad" to "OMG Putin is just the best BFF ever!" Under other circumstances, most of those intelligent, well-studied thinkers of realpolitik would argue against any ill-advised ignorant demolition of a stable, valuable alliance. But we no longer live in that world: This is the World of Fox Not-News, and if you can't help shill the Narrative of the hour/month/year which happens to be whatever is in trump's head that very moment, you are persona non grata to the GOP...</p><p>We will see a near-immediate end to foreign sharing of intel: What is the likelihood the UK or France is willing to share data with a nation that could easily hand it over to Russia without batting an eye? NATO's efforts to stop Russia from a full-out invasion of Ukraine falls apart. Half of Central Europe - bizarrely under the political sway of right-wing Nationalist governments more friendly to Putin than they should - could well cut out of any NATO or shared alliance with Western Europe and turn most of Eastern Europe back into a Russian playground...</p></blockquote><p></p><p>Which - again - is exactly what <i>Putin</i> wants.</p><p>We're getting into the second full year of Russia's full-out war on Ukraine, which followed eight years of border clashes after 2014 when Ukraine threw out their corrupt pro-Russian government. For all of Russia's military might on paper, <a href="https://noticeatrend.blogspot.com/2022/12/putins-mistakes.html" target="_blank">it's been an utter disaster for Putin</a>. While Ukraine hasn't succeeded in a major counteroffensive since autumn of 2022, Russia shows no sign of claiming more territory. All Russia has done well during this campaign has been targeting civilian centers to terrorize the populace and adding to their long list of war crimes. The only advantage Putin has - the manpower to conscript millions more of his people than Ukraine can - is the one resource keeping Russia in this quagmire.</p><p>Putin's hope is clear: If trump wins the November election, any potential American support to Ukraine - which has been tied up by trump's Republican allies in Congress - officially ends. Up until then, Putin can throw more Russians into the meat grinder and never care for the bloodshed he's spilling of both Russian and Ukrainian alike.</p><p>trump isn't even hiding how he's eager to play his part. <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/sep/16/donald-trump-putin-praise-nbc-interview" target="_blank">He's made it clear he views Putin as a personal ally</a> and would happily convert American foreign/military interests to align with Putin's. If that means using Russia as a threat to bully Europe into submitting to trump's demands, trump would love it. But trump would also cheer on letting not only Ukraine fall to Putin but also the Baltics and arguably Poland as well. <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2024/feb/06/vladimir-putin-donald-trump-europe-defence-community" target="_blank">There's a reason why Russians are starting to issue warnings to Germany, and it's because they're confident trump will help them squeeze Europe by next year</a>.</p><p>The underlying message trump is getting out there is that he doesn't care one whit about the United States' obligations to long-standing treaties that have kept the peace with our most powerful allies for more than 60 years. And it's not even trump using Russia as a boogeyman to scare NATO into being more compliant. This is trump signaling to <i>his</i> mob boss Putin that Europe will be easy pickings should trump regain the White House in 2024.</p><p>If you genuinely want world peace, you have to realize that Putin is the greatest threat to world peace in our lifetime. You have to realize trump is just one of Putin's pawns to keep war and chaos going so Putin can reclaim his dreams of empire.</p><p>You have to, for the love of ALL that's holy, vote against trump and make sure he never gets anywhere near the Oval Office again.</p>Paul Whttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13092023794397583036noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27554065.post-55951414091574380912024-02-08T21:25:00.004-05:002024-02-11T09:38:09.008-05:00That Could Have Gone Better<p><b><i>Update</i></b>: Thank you Steve for including this article in <i>Crooks & Liars'</i> <a href="https://crooksandliars.com/2024/02/mikes-blog-roundup-5" target="_blank">Mike's Blog Round-Up</a>! I would say GO BUCS but they're not in this year's Super Bowl alas. In the meantime do sing Happy Birthday to my cat Mal the Krazy Panfurr who was born on a Super Bowl night 10 years ago! ;-)</p><p><br /></p><p>The U.S. Supreme Court heard the matter of Colorado Supreme Court's decision to ban donald trump from the 2024 ballots over his January 6th insurrection, and by most accounts the Justices came out swift and painful against anyone in favor of a 14th Amendment Solution. Mark Joseph Stern over at <i>Slate</i> <a href="https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2024/02/ketanji-brown-jackson-trump-supreme-court-ballot.html?pay=1707443466987&support_journalism=please" target="_blank">pretty much noted the "goose is cooked" regarding SCOTUS' view on the matter</a>:</p><p></p><blockquote><p>The Supreme Court is not going to let Colorado, or any other state, remove Donald Trump from the ballot in 2024. That’s the upshot of Thursday’s arguments in <i>Trump v. Anderson</i>, the blockbuster case contesting the former president’s constitutional ability to run for office. A clear majority of justices expressed overwhelming skepticism toward the plaintiffs’ claim that Trump is disqualified under Section 3 of the 14th Amendment because he “engaged in insurrection.” The only real question is what rationale the court will use to reject that theory—though one emerged as a probable consensus: <b>Justices across the ideological spectrum suggested that individual states cannot enforce Section 3 against federal candidates, at least not without congressional approval</b>...</p><p>The notion that individual states can’t take unilateral action to strip federal candidates from the ballot has immense practical appeal, and arguably aligns with broader constitutional principles. But it is not what Section 3 says on its face, nor is it clearly borne out by the original meaning of the amendment. Many of the justices’ questions on Thursday amounted to policy arguments thinly cloaked in the language of textualism and originalism...</p></blockquote><p></p><p>Amy Howe over at <i>SCOTUSBlog</i> covered how much of the <a href="https://www.scotusblog.com/2024/02/supreme-court-appears-unlikely-to-kick-trump-off-colorado-ballot/" target="_blank">conservative Justices looked at the matter, arguing over the history of the 14th Amendment's actual implementation</a>:</p><p></p><blockquote><p><b>A central issue at Thursday’s argument was whether the question of how Section 3’s ban on government service by individuals who have “engaged in insurrection” can be enforced – do states like Colorado have the power to enforce it themselves, as the voters contend, or (as Trump argues) can it only be enforced through laws passed by Congress?</b></p><p>Some justices looked to history, pressing Murray to provide examples of other scenarios in which states have relied on Section 3 to disqualify candidates for federal office. Murray pointed to an 1868 congressional election in Georgia, as well as to state elections and candidates disqualified by Congress, and he noted that the dearth of examples was “not surprising” because elections operated differently then, with ballots for political parties rather than individual candidates. Therefore, he reasoned, “there wouldn’t have been a process for determining before an election whether a candidate was qualified.”</p><p>But that answer did not mollify Justice Clarence Thomas, who observed that the “plethora of Confederates” still present in public life in the post-Civil War era would suggest that this issue would come up.</p><p>Justice Brett Kavanaugh echoed Thomas’ emphasis on the absence of any historical examples as evidence that states do not have the standalone power to disqualify candidates under Section 3. He cited Griffin’s Case, an 1869 decision by Chief Justice Salmon Chase, serving on a lower court. In that case, Chase ruled, Section 3 can only be enforced through laws passed by Congress.</p><p>Although the decision is not binding on the Supreme Court, Kavanaugh suggested that one year later Congress had Griffin’s Case in mind when it enacted the Enforcement Act of 1870, which gave the Department of Justice the power to bring lawsuits seeking to disqualify federal officials. For 155 years, Kavanaugh concluded, no state has attempted to disqualify a federal officer from the ballot under Section 3 because “there’s been a settled understanding” that states don’t have that power. Moreover, he added, “Congress can change that” but hasn’t done so.</p><p>Murray pushed back, suggesting that no state had tried to disqualify candidates for federal office because there had not been a need to do so. Virtually all former Confederates had received amnesty by 1876, so that there would no longer be a need to disqualify them from the ballot, he observed. And since then, he contended, there had been no reason to invoke Section 3 because the country had not previously experienced anything like the Jan. 6 attacks...</p><p><b>But on the question of enforcement, the court focused even more specifically on the possible implications of upholding the Colorado Supreme Court’s decision. Justice Elena Kagan was among the most vocal in expressing her concerns. Why, she queried, should one state be able to disqualify a candidate from the ballot and, in so doing, effectively determine who becomes the president of the United States?</b> Rather than sounding like an issue for an individual state to decide, she said, that “sounds awfully national to me.”</p><p>Justice Amy Coney Barrett appeared to agree. If the court upholds the Colorado ruling, she posited, it will as a practical matter decide the issue for all the other states. Like some of her colleagues, she envisioned possible logistical problems, observing that the court would have to make its decision using the facts developed in whatever state-court case made its way to them first. In a scenario in which the factual record isn’t well developed, she asked, how should the court review those findings? It “just doesn’t seem like a state call,” she concluded...</p></blockquote><p></p><p>When the liberal-leaning Justices are questioning the validity of a matter alongside the conservative ones, it doesn't look good. That Kagan was looking at the question of jurisdiction - and that <a href="https://thehill.com/homenews/4457029-supreme-court-trump-insurrection-ketanji-brown-jackson/" target="_blank">Jackson was looking at the historic element that the 14th Amendment focused on ex-Confederates reaching Congress</a> instead of the presidency - suggests that applying Section 3 to trump running for the White House - for the moment - won't happen.</p><p>The way SCOTUS is framing the debate, they could well make it that the 14th Amendment could apply but that it's up to Congress at the federal level to enforce it. The issue of what "insurrection" actually is - Jackson did berate trump's lawyer over whether an insurrection can be "organized" or not - could also get applied to the final ruling here, although it may force a set of concurrent rulings that would muddle things further.</p><p>I had <a href="https://noticeatrend.blogspot.com/2024/01/dare-call-it-insurrection-what-trump.html" target="_blank">hoped earlier last month when Colorado Supreme Court made their ruling</a> that this would be the way to prevent a violent, vulgar force like trump from regaining presidential power. I did fear that the conservative-controlled U.S. Supreme Court would try to find a way to excuse trump's behavior in some way: Thing is, the point of contention that today's arguments aimed for - the question of who has the power to enforce the 14th Amendment - did reach valid conclusions. I have to admit that banning trump from the ballot over his calls for insurrection on January 6th may not work after all.</p><p>There is still the matter of the federal court case charging trump on four counts over his misdeeds that day, with the question of <a href="https://noticeatrend.blogspot.com/2024/02/with-all-of-defenses-of-any-other.html" target="_blank">trump's efforts to delay that trial set to get resolved soon</a> - this Monday at least - and whether the Supreme Court will hear that and rewrite all of reality to grant trump his request for Absolute Immunity. THAT seems less likely to pass judicial scrutiny even for the conservative justices like Roberts.</p><p>But then again...</p><p><b>We voters have to take into consideration that the legal system is not going to let us off the hook anytime soon. It is up to us - to the 81 millions who voted for Biden in 2020, and any newer voters rising to join those ranks - to return to the ballot box this November and ensure trump and his Republican lackeys get denied any claim to power by <i>our</i> power to vote.</b></p><p>For the LOVE OF GOD AND COUNTRY, America. Do not vote trump, at all.</p>Paul Whttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13092023794397583036noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27554065.post-35574357204741525802024-02-06T22:42:00.002-05:002024-02-06T22:42:31.436-05:00With All of the Defenses of Any Other Criminal Defendant: AKA Trump Is Toast<p>After a month of waiting, the <a href="https://noticeatrend.blogspot.com/2024/01/just-let-me-and-me-alone-get-away-with.html" target="_blank">U.S. Court of Appeals hearing donald trump's claim of "absolute immunity"</a> reached a verdict and <a href="https://www.npr.org/2024/02/06/1223904739/trump-immunity-ruling" target="_blank">dropped it this morning... right on top of trump's head like a 16-ton weight</a>. Via Carrie Johnson at NPR:</p><p></p><blockquote><p>A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit has ruled that Donald Trump does not enjoy broad immunity from federal prosecution, a major legal setback for the former president, who said he will appeal.</p><p>They wrote that for the purposes of this criminal case, "former President Trump has become citizen Trump, with all of the defenses of any other criminal defendant."</p><p>The ruling comes a month after lawyers for Trump made sweeping claims that he enjoyed immunity from federal prosecution, claims that lawyers for the special counsel said would "undermine democracy" and give presidents license to commit crimes while in the White House, such as accepting bribes for directing government contracts or selling nuclear secrets to a foreign adversary.</p><p>It would be "a striking paradox," the judges wrote, if the president, who alone has the constitutional duty to ensure that laws be faithfully executed, "were the sole officer capable of defying those laws with impunity."</p></blockquote><p></p><p>Excuse me for a moment. (Runs around the room squeeing like it's another Fitzmas morning) Okay.</p><p></p><blockquote>"<b>We cannot accept that the office of the Presidency places its former occupants above the law for all time thereafter,</b>" the judges wrote. Doing so, they said, "would collapse our system of separated powers by placing the President beyond the reach of all three branches..."</blockquote><p></p><p>As part of their ruling, the judges granted trump's team to file appeal up to the Supreme Court, but gave him a strict deadline of NEXT MONDAY, implying that they want this legal matter resolved quickly. Experts are pointing to the quick turnaround if SCOTUS hears the appeal that the highest court in the land would have to issue a ruling this summer at the latest, hopefully with trump facing his DC trial involving his efforts to undermine the 2020 election results well before 2024 Election Day.</p><p>If you want to read the ruling, the <a href="https://www.cadc.uscourts.gov/internet/opinions.nsf/1AC5A0E7090A350785258ABB0052D942/$file/23-3228-2039001.pdf" target="_blank">link to it is here</a>.</p><p>Referring to Marcy Wheeler over at her <i>Emptywheel</i> blog, <a href="https://www.emptywheel.net/2024/02/06/dc-circuit-go-big-and-in-a-footnote-go-blassingame/" target="_blank">this is some of her takeaway from this ruling</a>:</p><p></p><blockquote><p>Let’s start with the last one, what I called posture. Judge Henderson had originally not favored an expedited review. <b>This order forces Trump into an expedited appeals process</b>.</p><p><i>The Clerk is directed to withhold issuance of the mandate through February 12, 2024. If, within that period, Appellant notifies the Clerk in writing that he has filed an application with the Supreme Court for a stay of the mandate pending the filing of a petition for a writ of certiorari, the Clerk is directed to withhold issuance of the mandate pending the Supreme Court’s final disposition of the application. The filing of a petition for rehearing or rehearing en banc will not result in any withholding of the mandate, although the grant of rehearing or rehearing en banc would result in a recall of the mandate if the mandate has already issued.</i></p><p>The only way he can stop Judge Chutkan from issuing opinions on the remaining motions to dismiss filed last fall is if he immediately appeals to SCOTUS for a stay pending appeal, which he has already said he’d done. The only way he can get that stay is if five Justices say they think Trump will succeed on the merits and vote to grant the stay.</p><p>Steve Vladeck says that SCOTUS has a lot of options, but the two most likely are to deny the stay or to grant an appeal in this term, committing to an opinion by June...</p><p>Finally, I noted that Judge Henderson seemed to have concerns about the scope of their decision — what she described “floodgates” of follow-on charges. She at least considered the wisdom of limiting this opinion to a former President’s unofficial acts — in this case, defined as those of an office-seeker under Blassingame.</p><p>Rather than going Blassingame, though, the panel’s top line holding went Big.</p><p>The operative language in this opinion rejects the notion of Presidential immunity categorically as a violation of separation of powers.</p><p><i>At bottom, <b>former President Trump’s stance would collapse our system of separated powers by placing the President beyond the reach of all three Branches</b>. Presidential immunity against federal indictment would mean that, as to the President, the Congress could not legislate, the Executive could not prosecute and the Judiciary could not review. <b>We cannot accept that the office of the Presidency places its former occupants above the law for all time thereafter</b>. Careful evaluation of these concerns leads us to conclude that there is no functional justification for immunizing former Presidents from federal prosecution in general or for immunizing former President Trump from the specific charges in the Indictment. In so holding, we act, “not in derogation of the separation of powers, but to maintain their proper balance.” See Fitzgerald, 457 U.S. at 754</i>...</p></blockquote><p></p><p>Without any specific exemptions to relate, Wheeler is pointing out the appellate judges are leaving little wiggle room for the Supreme Court justices to give trump an escape route:</p><p></p><blockquote><p>But they say if they did have to review whether the indictment charged Trump for official acts, the fact that so many of the alleged acts in the indictment pertain to Trump’s role as an office-seeker, and because Presidents have no role in election certifications, the indictment would survive that more particular review anyway.</p><p>This is the kind of out that Justice Kavanaugh took on a related issue, whether the interests of Congress in reviewing an attack on the election certification preempted any Executive Privilege claims.</p><p>That is, both the District and Circuit have already said that, if they were asked to consider whether this indictment withstands an immunity claim, it substantially would.</p><p>I have no idea what SCOTUS will do. But by producing a unanimous opinion with little surface area for Justices to grab hold, Judges Henderson, Pan, and Childs may have ended up producing the most expeditious result...</p></blockquote><p></p><p>For myself, this is the <a href="https://www.cadc.uscourts.gov/internet/opinions.nsf/1AC5A0E7090A350785258ABB0052D942/$file/23-3228-2039001.pdf" target="_blank">key paragraph in the ruling</a> (pg. 3) that underscores just how deep in trouble trump is:</p><p></p><blockquote>Since then, hundreds of people who breached the Capitol on January 6, 2021, have been prosecuted and imprisoned. And on August 1, 2023, in Washington, D.C., former President Trump was charged in a four-count Indictment as a result of his actions challenging the election results and interfering with the sequence set forth in the Constitution for the transfer of power from one President to the next. Former President Trump moved to dismiss the Indictment and the district court denied his motion. Today, we affirm the denial. <b>For the purpose of this criminal case, former President Trump has become citizen Trump, with all of the defenses of any other criminal defendant.</b> But any executive immunity that may have protected him while he served as President no longer protects him against this prosecution.</blockquote><p></p><p>You can spot where the three judges are spelling out trump's culpability in the January 6th riots, by highlighting how the hundreds who rioted on his behalf have already faced justice themselves, and that trump is now due to face justice as well.</p><p>Best possible situation now is that the Supreme Court - lacking any legal loophole they can bring up in trump's defense - denies the appeal and lets the lower court ruling stand. They are well within their power to do so. They <i>could</i> still pick up this hot potato if they wanted to have the Highest Court In the Land put their imprint on the legal matter, but they would risk undermining the entire Constitution - destroying the checks and balances between the three branches - as the appellate court points out. And no matter what, they can't delay their ruling to save trump, as they're bound by the rules to get their decisions finalized by summer. Either they let trump run free - and destroy the rule of law altogether - or they let him face trial before the November elections.</p><p>Let justice be done. Let SCOTUS stand with the lower court ruling. Let trump face his day in federal court as soon as possible.</p><p>Preferably with a jury ruling on July 3rd so we can celebrate the next day with additional fervor.</p>Paul Whttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13092023794397583036noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27554065.post-89421589724669174992024-02-04T19:15:00.001-05:002024-02-04T19:16:57.513-05:00Painful Way to Kill Your Political Career, Dean<p>Oh, while I was surviving MegaCon yesterday, apparently the Democratic Party officially started their Presidential primarying in South Carolina, <a href="https://www.npr.org/2024/02/03/1228592039/biden-south-carolina-primary-2024-election" target="_blank">with incumbent Joe Biden stomping hard on his primary opponents</a> with 95 percent of the vote across the entire state (via Asma Khalid at NPR):</p><p></p><blockquote><p>President Biden won the South Carolina Democratic primary on Saturday, according to The Associated Press. It is the first official nominating contest for the party, and one that Democrats hope sends a message to Black voters.</p><p>As the incumbent president, Biden had been widely expected to carry the primary. Rep. Dean Phillips, D-Minn., and author Marianne Williamson were also on the ballot...</p></blockquote><p></p><p>The Democrats are changing up the order of primaries this cycle, trying to shift away from the small populated states like Iowa and New Hampshire that also don't display the demographic diversity of the party itself. South Carolina isn't a major population state like California, New York, or Illinois - Democratic-leaning states - but it's big enough to matter.</p><p>Unwilling to play by the new rules, New Hampshire still held an unsanctioned primary last month allowing write-ins to happen for the Democrats while the Republicans held theirs officially. <a href="https://www.npr.org/2024/01/23/1225663027/joe-biden-wins-nh-primary-results" target="_blank">Biden STILL cleaned up there without campaigning a single day there</a> while his opponents Williamson - <a href="https://noticeatrend.blogspot.com/2019/06/i-know-2020-is-coming-soon-i-just-wish.html" target="_blank">you might remember her from last time</a> - and Phillips showed up and begged for votes. </p><p>You might notice I haven't run a Character profile - based on Professor Barber's work - on Dean Phillips even though he threw his hat into the Democratic primaries months ago: Mostly because I viewed Phillips attempts to kneecap the incumbent candidate Biden was doomed to failure. In the modern era of presidential elections - I would say turn of the 20th Century with McKinely (not Teddy!) - there hasn't been a successful challenge against a first-term President within the party. Teddy Roosevelt tried to against his successor Taft but failed (running third-party instead). Truman and LBJ technically quit their campaigns for re-election when they saw the writing on the wall, so we can't be certain how those would have turned out. Thing is, Phillips was in no position - he was a literal unknown backbencher congresscritter with no national profile; he lacks the natural charisma any challenger needs to prevail; and Gods know what he was actually campaigning <i>for</i> - to challenge a well-known relatively popular figure like Biden who isn't quitting any time soon. </p><p>If I can quote from Tori Otten at <i>New Republic</i>:</p><p></p><blockquote><p><a href="https://newrepublic.com/post/178386/dean-phillips-dumb-electoral-map" target="_blank">Phillips is running a long-shot campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination against President Biden</a>. If you’re wondering how that’s going for him, Phillips won just 19.6 percent of votes during New Hampshire’s unofficial Democratic primary on Tuesday. Biden won 55.8 percent—as a write-in candidate.</p><p>Following his New Hampshire loss, Phillips revealed Wednesday morning on Fox & Friends that he had attended one of Donald Trump’s rallies to try to connect with far-right voters. When his actions prompted backlash, Phillips spoke out against political divisions...</p></blockquote><p></p><p>Phillips then tried to point to the 2016 Electoral College map which shows a lot of Republican Red. But he erred by thinking geography matters instead of actual population density: Online critics hit Phillips by pointing out the Democratic Blue places on the map have more people who actually matter ("Land doesn't vote, people do!")</p><p></p><blockquote>“There was probably a lane for someone to do reasonably well against Biden,” tweeted Osita Nwanevu, a columnist for <i>The Guardian</i> and contributing editor for <i>The New Republic</i>, “but being maximally annoying to every constituency in the Democratic Party at once wasn’t it, obviously.”</blockquote><p></p><p>I exaggerated a bit earlier when I said nobody know what Phillips is campaigning for: He's actually campaigning on the belief that Biden is old, and that Biden's too unpopular to both the Democratic voting base and the independent voters overall.</p><p>Depending on which poll you're looking at, Biden's popularity isn't as healthy as it ought to be - <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2024/02/02/us/politics/biden-economy.html" target="_blank">considering the positive economic news Biden keeps generating over the past year</a> thanks to his Infrastructure Bill efforts - but then again polls this far out from November are unpredictable as hell.</p><p>And regarding Biden's popularity with the Democratic voting base, those massive wins in New Hampshire (unofficially) and South Carolina - where Williamson beat out Phillips by a percent - ought to bury <i>that</i> particular narrative right quick.</p><p>Democratic voters <i>will</i> support their incumbent candidate, especially considering how Biden seems to be the only candidate who can keep donald trump at bay. It's likely - again, no guarantees - that the Indy voters who turned out against trump in 2020 will do so again in 2024 and vote for Joe. Phillips is essentially committing political suicide doing all this.</p><p>How Phillips got talked into thinking he could be a savior candidate to outduel Biden and then defeat trump remains a scandal of its own. Approached by a "political strategist" in Steve Schmidt, a campaign advisor most famous for talking John McCain into taking Sarah Palin as his Veep running mate, who claims he's "worried" about Dems relying on an aging President Biden (as though trump is any healthier three years younger and clearly more physically and mentally unfit). You have to look at <i>who's paying Schmidt</i> - <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/elections/2024/01/18/ai-tech-biden/" target="_blank">deep-pocket "technocrat" billionaires worried about their tax cuts and Biden's pro-union stances</a> - to get an idea of who's really worried about 2024 (and <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2024/02/capital-loves-trump/677317/" target="_blank">who they <i>really</i> want to win, which is trump</a>). Schmidt basically went fishing for an egocentric millionaire among the Democratic ranks to be the stalking horse to weaken Biden's standing within the party itself.</p><p>Good news is, that's not working.</p><p>Bad news is, we're getting a clearer picture of how the <i>real</i> Political Establishment - not just the deep-pocket billionaires paying for everything, but also the "expert consultant" class and the upper-income media punditry - don't view trump as the dictatorial, openly destructive force that he is.</p><p>Gods help us. This 2024 election is going to be a war, with disinformation coming from every media outlet "convinced" that Biden can't win... even though Biden is winning the primaries and proving his popularity with actual voters with barely a finger lifted.</p><p><b>Get out the vote, America. Support Biden. Stop trump (and his billionaire buddies)</b>.</p><p>And let Dean Phillips crawl back to some state college on a guest lecturer gig for the rest of his life. His political career is toast. If he thinks he can make a comeback in 2028 based on his dismal performance <i>this</i> year, he's more delusional that trump.</p>Paul Whttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13092023794397583036noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27554065.post-36084049512395173112024-02-04T14:08:00.000-05:002024-02-04T14:08:01.963-05:00I Survived Orlando Megacon 2024<div class="separator"><br /></div><p>You regular readers know I indulge in attending the local (Central Florida) comic cons as I grew up on science fiction, comic books superheroes, anime, and general geekery.</p><p>This year for some reason, Orlando hosted their MegaCon in early February (they've usually been in May). While I missed attending last year's, I decided to attend this year as there were a couple of celebrities I hoped to see during the Q&A sessions and because I am trying to get into <i>Magic The Gathering</i> gaming and was hoping there would be an open table session for beginners to attend.</p><p>So I braved the I-4 Saturday traffic in relatively cool weather - yes, it drops below 60 F in Florida - and made reasonable time to get to the South Concourse parking lot to get on a shuttle bus to circle five blocks over to the West Concourse (the LOOOOOONG part of the Orange County Convention Center) and begin my day's journey.</p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhT-5ZzM1vT4WI668C4TGtMi-uJ4Kxi8nYLEaxJeiSoITHiXohz0rmNsucYxAffFBX5BxNbX_4yCQk2fi0hOeBealLK4Z1Xksvcca1r6qndsMHUY9J_PX0wi9gXflWqh0Rp5JW4DK2GOES_ZMxokYXIUlfvjFM8LbcsBmejSsLL19mIIImVbVFs/s4032/20240203_082109.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2268" data-original-width="4032" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhT-5ZzM1vT4WI668C4TGtMi-uJ4Kxi8nYLEaxJeiSoITHiXohz0rmNsucYxAffFBX5BxNbX_4yCQk2fi0hOeBealLK4Z1Xksvcca1r6qndsMHUY9J_PX0wi9gXflWqh0Rp5JW4DK2GOES_ZMxokYXIUlfvjFM8LbcsBmejSsLL19mIIImVbVFs/s320/20240203_082109.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">This is actually the South Convention Center Concourse, where most of the<br />day parking is located. There are buses running shuttle service all<br />comiccon long. Seriously though, Orange County needs<br />to build an elevated rail between the Concourses to free up the<br />regular traffic on International Drive.</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-y3auhtMvsmWfNeqJnJu16qguc0Ur1A01F6Qe0DkUtRCO37Hp5NN3MVRc4MclcLf0PdZ3bX5gil8hSFWJ8gX_kGJUxyq0oA8FL4V11_NqNVa3P7rtnXItbczrd-mIot7m1FwDMXcs7dsHkQfqoaksrMG4wMJb81-a1YrYEIGP0-8MlXFqJaDz/s4032/20240203_084014.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4032" data-original-width="2268" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-y3auhtMvsmWfNeqJnJu16qguc0Ur1A01F6Qe0DkUtRCO37Hp5NN3MVRc4MclcLf0PdZ3bX5gil8hSFWJ8gX_kGJUxyq0oA8FL4V11_NqNVa3P7rtnXItbczrd-mIot7m1FwDMXcs7dsHkQfqoaksrMG4wMJb81-a1YrYEIGP0-8MlXFqJaDz/s320/20240203_084014.jpg" width="180" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Getting into a comic con nowadays is a convoluted affair.<br />They give you a badge with a microchip in it, so you<br />HAVE to "activate" the card using the con's App. It takes forever<br />if you're not tech-savvy, and about 10 minutes if you ARE.</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhPpg0ry0sg4Xzn5pOtfEO09wbUlrs6a7Hw76RH7GPQblBrxsK0CXqSLt3YjkBMcG33bJfdm-m8HKnSi0kaAt36Uzx119uonAachgJ0JM11BaNqODWfXgDupmZ5mx7SwawpuMQ9fwviNwgcO_k6a-TKC064s8xkWS893x0ujOLfrJZN8nRWWgIQ/s4032/20240203_084447.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4032" data-original-width="2268" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhPpg0ry0sg4Xzn5pOtfEO09wbUlrs6a7Hw76RH7GPQblBrxsK0CXqSLt3YjkBMcG33bJfdm-m8HKnSi0kaAt36Uzx119uonAachgJ0JM11BaNqODWfXgDupmZ5mx7SwawpuMQ9fwviNwgcO_k6a-TKC064s8xkWS893x0ujOLfrJZN8nRWWgIQ/s320/20240203_084447.jpg" width="180" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">And this was the badge they gave me. Chewie Einstein.</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyijX0Y2wK3TggQ0YzjBa-ktIEcatOp4T2Ty3Mk7tw-NkzTlUzP8qCGBcxejkAlNkPwzGg8-rgDiWME05Cg69kU3DqEb-Z-SAFAjNV2Ii8_Wm-GOue5xXaShydK5KZUnrIExkT_aLGiMiXmRvtez4b-hI68e08CCN5zlT8peqn__HaLjrFw0z7/s4032/20240203_084502.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2268" data-original-width="4032" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyijX0Y2wK3TggQ0YzjBa-ktIEcatOp4T2Ty3Mk7tw-NkzTlUzP8qCGBcxejkAlNkPwzGg8-rgDiWME05Cg69kU3DqEb-Z-SAFAjNV2Ii8_Wm-GOue5xXaShydK5KZUnrIExkT_aLGiMiXmRvtez4b-hI68e08CCN5zlT8peqn__HaLjrFw0z7/s320/20240203_084502.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjcmDZ5pOMmactaxZKQv5XWttZ_5havgiUTMhKft2hTxkTvz1MwBn2zc0B7ET4paBTkIC0DvR96EiWBjr3ivP6IesL_QIfG0A8lB56Ux6yfGax43SIYnfc-gy-WZdqckdE069E0x0_z5FN0BsaEXXM-KGLLm9k4Oxa3WSDNnXB42SJkI1NzBpe9/s4032/20240203_084508.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2268" data-original-width="4032" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjcmDZ5pOMmactaxZKQv5XWttZ_5havgiUTMhKft2hTxkTvz1MwBn2zc0B7ET4paBTkIC0DvR96EiWBjr3ivP6IesL_QIfG0A8lB56Ux6yfGax43SIYnfc-gy-WZdqckdE069E0x0_z5FN0BsaEXXM-KGLLm9k4Oxa3WSDNnXB42SJkI1NzBpe9/s320/20240203_084508.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">This is the part of walking through a massive empty space<br />to get to the part of the West Concourse where the vendors set up.</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQeLYK3-vMgacJwErr_04K_hNB0kIXE3lidz94tPFuGE9J1AmGmfjmCK_4dWizFkElLJYLmKnEQWsGbSiVqf4MlSLtgNsAIfkMhHVrENcndLZkgzsd7WtzJTAY2UxAb88aRiFrRTTVT-dU8f0Q_3vAQvg9rXs-sS0nIfXfDCFCD9RQccGDyThp/s4032/20240203_113110.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2268" data-original-width="4032" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQeLYK3-vMgacJwErr_04K_hNB0kIXE3lidz94tPFuGE9J1AmGmfjmCK_4dWizFkElLJYLmKnEQWsGbSiVqf4MlSLtgNsAIfkMhHVrENcndLZkgzsd7WtzJTAY2UxAb88aRiFrRTTVT-dU8f0Q_3vAQvg9rXs-sS0nIfXfDCFCD9RQccGDyThp/s320/20240203_113110.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Once you get inside, you then have to find your events between<br />three (or in some places four) levels. This was still early in the morning<br />before noontime as more people got inside Megacon.</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgKs-lcpeCgTFQbNZq3Odro81UqnobkhlMV-ni8UsRpj2v4mqbWCHVhmgVqogHVpEcMO-ApXkw10c7yD5fwmwFFvLeCmUElEZGILNZiHIA7hzy3DWTqLdWCVGVW0dpXcq695islk4msJeOa0hUd9RumHE9laPhm5pSWgpDXYV69vgmemVhfEkZD/s4032/20240203_113224.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4032" data-original-width="2268" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgKs-lcpeCgTFQbNZq3Odro81UqnobkhlMV-ni8UsRpj2v4mqbWCHVhmgVqogHVpEcMO-ApXkw10c7yD5fwmwFFvLeCmUElEZGILNZiHIA7hzy3DWTqLdWCVGVW0dpXcq695islk4msJeOa0hUd9RumHE9laPhm5pSWgpDXYV69vgmemVhfEkZD/s320/20240203_113224.jpg" width="180" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">At least I found the LEGO Club display room!!! Thank you<br /><a href="https://gflug.org/" target="_blank">Greater Florida Lego Users Group</a>!</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgWoD_Pl1fNKy8XzmGUbBoVo3x8RgGX_dBWEhuxQSk_ZB1k6aVIeCWc5OXkL0BoUQshnDovu7fTn-e04mIOXwOQvRjvZyTZu_bMq5la42AWx1a5Sh61nwVlT5LhgjCO4iI7pC1oGhQFo9ML_r9AW5kcGuozm2m40kTrYakILgUsY3x0m0yt5-Z8/s4032/20240203_113252.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2268" data-original-width="4032" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgWoD_Pl1fNKy8XzmGUbBoVo3x8RgGX_dBWEhuxQSk_ZB1k6aVIeCWc5OXkL0BoUQshnDovu7fTn-e04mIOXwOQvRjvZyTZu_bMq5la42AWx1a5Sh61nwVlT5LhgjCO4iI7pC1oGhQFo9ML_r9AW5kcGuozm2m40kTrYakILgUsY3x0m0yt5-Z8/s320/20240203_113252.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhWZLtkRXm7HA09B97_Dm0xZ6XzpWXB4bt34LUHNGvZFOWadSEYEdVkm95LnowAGbFcjmsBeqZasPGriKnG-VBjNR2fl01GWjtriFzcfPQ8SZGg00Pf6W2CdTDVo8grMAW2doQ6oGDBWCWrdmXO-WqVkdsZIYI_IW0V0bTz3RwzQZX7IYKKnyPR/s4032/20240203_113303.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2268" data-original-width="4032" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhWZLtkRXm7HA09B97_Dm0xZ6XzpWXB4bt34LUHNGvZFOWadSEYEdVkm95LnowAGbFcjmsBeqZasPGriKnG-VBjNR2fl01GWjtriFzcfPQ8SZGg00Pf6W2CdTDVo8grMAW2doQ6oGDBWCWrdmXO-WqVkdsZIYI_IW0V0bTz3RwzQZX7IYKKnyPR/s320/20240203_113303.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj8LM6HUqiNxUFGgb1oE3Nqr_2t5mn_R1Ww8MCkdQYWc6Bt-dokm3IhIMwXNmuCt4PTQJBwX0ForaEomJ0-Sur8FFp7j5z4TF8FKIqB-eTg5G20lIUVAy4nl8Tq4zLqVllkRJGOGk-taBJLRcZygxDYj2rWeU0K6HOadQw_-fmXOQdEfhAajUXi/s4032/20240203_113315.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2268" data-original-width="4032" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj8LM6HUqiNxUFGgb1oE3Nqr_2t5mn_R1Ww8MCkdQYWc6Bt-dokm3IhIMwXNmuCt4PTQJBwX0ForaEomJ0-Sur8FFp7j5z4TF8FKIqB-eTg5G20lIUVAy4nl8Tq4zLqVllkRJGOGk-taBJLRcZygxDYj2rWeU0K6HOadQw_-fmXOQdEfhAajUXi/s320/20240203_113315.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Give me a minute or twelve to upload video of a working<br />LEGO City!</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj1Z7_iwXjshm7nN_99C5OcNyeuxW3x5j8ZT5wAPe_fa7h9vcacTchDXJ1QNzfjx8vj87dD26G8NNgWCcve2KffDgC6rlSqjQbspyTDVgpVgvdnppTXvPS5qJBG2aDf2SQuJdpOIre6V3oO7TxeTrYKqlAB4-QXpI2oyBTHukWl9sHzGkuQniHX/s4032/20240203_123415.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2268" data-original-width="4032" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj1Z7_iwXjshm7nN_99C5OcNyeuxW3x5j8ZT5wAPe_fa7h9vcacTchDXJ1QNzfjx8vj87dD26G8NNgWCcve2KffDgC6rlSqjQbspyTDVgpVgvdnppTXvPS5qJBG2aDf2SQuJdpOIre6V3oO7TxeTrYKqlAB4-QXpI2oyBTHukWl9sHzGkuQniHX/s320/20240203_123415.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">I showed up for Paul Bettany's Q&A session on the <br />slight possibility his wife Jennifer Connelly would show up<br />and keep him in line. Alas.</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiTaN40BTLzn5asHV-Fkq7cGCqmoxuq1mbohXocCw9bvwlK9HuZ-Qxi4GznUtpaLjWhe0E9ItFk7LbmT7JsrTKuGg20M8ZM9nF-u_NW4JMiXh_7YrEHed8qYRG59tbeoax1YY5HhMV4063x-u6YQ4QEkYyy9do7Ph-3Ft54gAeLzb9NjZfZnFHZ/s4032/20240203_123446.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2268" data-original-width="4032" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiTaN40BTLzn5asHV-Fkq7cGCqmoxuq1mbohXocCw9bvwlK9HuZ-Qxi4GznUtpaLjWhe0E9ItFk7LbmT7JsrTKuGg20M8ZM9nF-u_NW4JMiXh_7YrEHed8qYRG59tbeoax1YY5HhMV4063x-u6YQ4QEkYyy9do7Ph-3Ft54gAeLzb9NjZfZnFHZ/s320/20240203_123446.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">This is in the Chapin Theater, an auditorium where the comic con<br />holds a number of A-lister interviews. I was last in here for<br />Hayley Atwell's appearance, if I recall it properly.</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgqCv0qMdBvQ4KB8_6duJWrakrz5LfEdNkbdhh3i2G-9pdUtz6c7jcgw4duiwUX8AzrpH9wtRBfTuCVBu7OYcdc9_POLo15UIBlw-kzc6GP45WmhHhUzPFqm5GCfK0yf73wgCaityS-Bi-ewWajhtHKKWAZVCJ9Tc9NkA8vfh3D7I9uekiE94fm/s4032/20240203_123513.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4032" data-original-width="2268" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgqCv0qMdBvQ4KB8_6duJWrakrz5LfEdNkbdhh3i2G-9pdUtz6c7jcgw4duiwUX8AzrpH9wtRBfTuCVBu7OYcdc9_POLo15UIBlw-kzc6GP45WmhHhUzPFqm5GCfK0yf73wgCaityS-Bi-ewWajhtHKKWAZVCJ9Tc9NkA8vfh3D7I9uekiE94fm/s320/20240203_123513.jpg" width="180" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">You'd be amazed how many of the fans gushed over<br />Bettany's work in <i>A Knight's Tale</i> instead of his work as<br />The MCU's Vision.</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhNsfivcsxiPRCj_5anfZvvDPm5zekALecxp1xsFfnWBuQUBqrB2LO_8YTWFTewGmBee7Rh-WlYI-3kwytQ9dA5pbREjZls-4A_oxXY4-kUhqtUyCYh8hgqotCmj9xKOwDN7W7gHGGYsTqjza9UFOs5sM8mYZnXMt7aHkth76PvjBiHaiAhZ0RK/s4032/20240203_133303.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4032" data-original-width="2268" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhNsfivcsxiPRCj_5anfZvvDPm5zekALecxp1xsFfnWBuQUBqrB2LO_8YTWFTewGmBee7Rh-WlYI-3kwytQ9dA5pbREjZls-4A_oxXY4-kUhqtUyCYh8hgqotCmj9xKOwDN7W7gHGGYsTqjza9UFOs5sM8mYZnXMt7aHkth76PvjBiHaiAhZ0RK/s320/20240203_133303.jpg" width="180" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">This was around 2:00 PM as the crowds were clearly<br />packing the main floor.</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiy7QwgELjaetZ4qbzN0mpxXRJ5dqUqakg3ZsmK3OP0cLKfyFfNLSiXQPuACD1ZRjI10PAm7ZEiTgIqAkfiez12tGpOLdLgTcx-3JZGKjDNyTm_EKFWDcNo5P4TMldZj4tlOv93ZobC7rGR246e66tsRLN84xsFLi77n7uZGA1IbuHkG9-w7ewe/s4032/20240203_145800.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4032" data-original-width="2268" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiy7QwgELjaetZ4qbzN0mpxXRJ5dqUqakg3ZsmK3OP0cLKfyFfNLSiXQPuACD1ZRjI10PAm7ZEiTgIqAkfiez12tGpOLdLgTcx-3JZGKjDNyTm_EKFWDcNo5P4TMldZj4tlOv93ZobC7rGR246e66tsRLN84xsFLi77n7uZGA1IbuHkG9-w7ewe/s320/20240203_145800.jpg" width="180" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">It's R2D2, rolling like a boss!!!</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjwRMQMyL-UTtNZVBvT_DW4joMAxzsRI9xqjGIZ8NIGAxailMXhS3U5mHkCH0GQjVKptZn_8xyfWTxIq00UoYVWZGRo-rNiRql3Sidgik0ifSfp40HwynQ88qYuf1dQEQWzCIIcJjHfEhnaEuQd3102EOcNnO4hFbuTZWblIhjahicx6MvLn00P/s4032/20240203_152801.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4032" data-original-width="2268" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjwRMQMyL-UTtNZVBvT_DW4joMAxzsRI9xqjGIZ8NIGAxailMXhS3U5mHkCH0GQjVKptZn_8xyfWTxIq00UoYVWZGRo-rNiRql3Sidgik0ifSfp40HwynQ88qYuf1dQEQWzCIIcJjHfEhnaEuQd3102EOcNnO4hFbuTZWblIhjahicx6MvLn00P/s320/20240203_152801.jpg" width="180" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Got to sit in on a panel for <a href="https://www.lambiek.net/artists/c/cho_f.htm" target="_blank">Frank Cho</a>, one of the better-known<br />"<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Good_girl_art" target="_blank">Good Girl</a>" artists in the comics industry. It's more than just fanservice though, as<br />Cho is regarded as one of the best illustrators, period.<br />I got into him through his <i><a href="https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/ComicStrip/LibertyMeadows" target="_blank">Liberty Meadows</a></i> work (a cartoon strip in the vein of<br /><i>Bloom County</i> but with more gratuitous sex and violence as part of the absurdist humor).</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgax0bCXQvdHpiyk8jTIjzyUeoLRqt1t5ajJvyhxs6DlwlVOnM-uxSwqXvd3jW6WwGEwJq37AoEK4PYjaS6vQH94U_mIbaz4Q_KvfytExoby46uXMLP6dCfpsGuRb7HNtKIAnBvBIWrzalCroJekdQN9D5hNOwt5OzAFWxVIgU4r6eS11y553kg/s4032/20240203_152814.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4032" data-original-width="2268" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgax0bCXQvdHpiyk8jTIjzyUeoLRqt1t5ajJvyhxs6DlwlVOnM-uxSwqXvd3jW6WwGEwJq37AoEK4PYjaS6vQH94U_mIbaz4Q_KvfytExoby46uXMLP6dCfpsGuRb7HNtKIAnBvBIWrzalCroJekdQN9D5hNOwt5OzAFWxVIgU4r6eS11y553kg/s320/20240203_152814.jpg" width="180" /></a></div><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEihDORVivHIgEzbGfpsf-kuEPC6mU7RWGwRSIJ8RzB9fGj1tQKVWdAFSb0WNPRaZ3rpWOPAia2xYqrGVhQrmjg5WYQqzbp4YsCZ-pxPC2fjnc_fUGGceTHqsavx1ykWQRfynvyQkguTeg06tNTkOmPhc96gXXPi7grwoK4PR4gpPiidB8GkMu2P/s4032/20240203_153233.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4032" data-original-width="2268" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEihDORVivHIgEzbGfpsf-kuEPC6mU7RWGwRSIJ8RzB9fGj1tQKVWdAFSb0WNPRaZ3rpWOPAia2xYqrGVhQrmjg5WYQqzbp4YsCZ-pxPC2fjnc_fUGGceTHqsavx1ykWQRfynvyQkguTeg06tNTkOmPhc96gXXPi7grwoK4PR4gpPiidB8GkMu2P/s320/20240203_153233.jpg" width="180" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">They had a camera set up to focus on Cho's penciling as<br />he demonstrated the illustrator's work creating a comic book scene.</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJYiSUWYMTWBCI-WuP7dPgmy5cp2lhmiHO_qwvJ82B6PPRPX29X-aLFhPB_LRloWbYkf2hX-6uT7MPb6nYEJ9DoFVq-82t-zkJoEaoxFLjFZMwr9RHhx_y5um29qSSYxaWd-N9h3zTpnpwJ8b4FDbSUvJAFfBhXlzp1hpp-mm-z15V30O4eIwT/s4032/20240203_153345.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4032" data-original-width="2268" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJYiSUWYMTWBCI-WuP7dPgmy5cp2lhmiHO_qwvJ82B6PPRPX29X-aLFhPB_LRloWbYkf2hX-6uT7MPb6nYEJ9DoFVq-82t-zkJoEaoxFLjFZMwr9RHhx_y5um29qSSYxaWd-N9h3zTpnpwJ8b4FDbSUvJAFfBhXlzp1hpp-mm-z15V30O4eIwT/s320/20240203_153345.jpg" width="180" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Cho took suggestions from the room, which bounced between<br />Wolverine to <a href="https://bleedingcool.com/comics/frank-cho-new-fan-wonder-woman-art/" target="_blank">Wonder Woman</a> to dinosaurs. I suggested "Wolverine<br />dancing with Wonder Woman with a T-Rex playing bass guitar<br />in the background" and Cho immediately called for security<br />to escort me out.</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjvhHtSDQxdZn4Xf5oycaDSTwBIubzvDGV3KYohkFxBIA4DUC1WqcwmYStP2OGVW4uNLLi1fbAn_tIfOnGi4PdpXX6V35wHnaZ211EQ8f25Pxf-pz47glzod36snY36otitoq0VsWHZVd1R148Sg7w11dBE39NVolOBLyZW3RlfMlcuNQ6rdZK1/s4032/20240203_155102.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2268" data-original-width="4032" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjvhHtSDQxdZn4Xf5oycaDSTwBIubzvDGV3KYohkFxBIA4DUC1WqcwmYStP2OGVW4uNLLi1fbAn_tIfOnGi4PdpXX6V35wHnaZ211EQ8f25Pxf-pz47glzod36snY36otitoq0VsWHZVd1R148Sg7w11dBE39NVolOBLyZW3RlfMlcuNQ6rdZK1/s320/20240203_155102.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">So as you can see he's drawing Wolverine.</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhf3s2-LvR8OH4VjWEVSkU5Z_gWq-N9yN4pzLWAhmUI9T1YReZzOOHTn9d09dWKrDidM9QNa4YJwmkT_wv5GhwZHhJBtLWSgm2g9shyOjbDKSzsv0RDR890WOCWARVXeQoSUnDt6o3-KtaLoQ3w-HXL6ixUXECzZQXmm-B3w5ZzwE-23HoThyqE/s4032/20240203_160004.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2268" data-original-width="4032" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhf3s2-LvR8OH4VjWEVSkU5Z_gWq-N9yN4pzLWAhmUI9T1YReZzOOHTn9d09dWKrDidM9QNa4YJwmkT_wv5GhwZHhJBtLWSgm2g9shyOjbDKSzsv0RDR890WOCWARVXeQoSUnDt6o3-KtaLoQ3w-HXL6ixUXECzZQXmm-B3w5ZzwE-23HoThyqE/s320/20240203_160004.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Cho is using the mid-90s outfit that was more <a href="https://www.ign.com/articles/wolverine-every-costume-ever-many-looks-x-men" target="_blank">dark browns<br />and more shading than the famous bright yellow uniform</a><br />of the 70s-80s.</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgGT6fINKY-TKTzXi5u37pRGJEUiWn92wus8DXXORQvhFH4Lk5pbDFezIacIAnFXJqbBmX_DRaZ495he3j8f3p8adr4i32BpYAXw7PctUOLXIdrhyphenhyphenhdT7UVlq8_hLLmuVKjKMGafxekh5nw-32C4F-VDfT7gxgP3SFjug3fUHn9V4WllrqNZ4pM/s4032/20240203_160241.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2268" data-original-width="4032" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgGT6fINKY-TKTzXi5u37pRGJEUiWn92wus8DXXORQvhFH4Lk5pbDFezIacIAnFXJqbBmX_DRaZ495he3j8f3p8adr4i32BpYAXw7PctUOLXIdrhyphenhyphenhdT7UVlq8_hLLmuVKjKMGafxekh5nw-32C4F-VDfT7gxgP3SFjug3fUHn9V4WllrqNZ4pM/s320/20240203_160241.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">So it looks like Wolverine is punching somebody.<br />'Cause that's what Wolverine DOES...</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgVSiMKN0Gg5xUCGiHFQ0lS6PfZrX7fkoPWZDO9z65Hw4L2ICmjSkKR2_pG9VWCIJuaq3Z2eoO2kIFVYNcBx0UprHj3wedDyeB3Lf92ALppDYl93MIKNmb7u5Kz1yVJvpr4waC1IVVMGbj_v0R3whSaZ1nBqdKuGpER07uf8wF2J6SoCK-vBMy5/s4032/20240203_160525.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2268" data-original-width="4032" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgVSiMKN0Gg5xUCGiHFQ0lS6PfZrX7fkoPWZDO9z65Hw4L2ICmjSkKR2_pG9VWCIJuaq3Z2eoO2kIFVYNcBx0UprHj3wedDyeB3Lf92ALppDYl93MIKNmb7u5Kz1yVJvpr4waC1IVVMGbj_v0R3whSaZ1nBqdKuGpER07uf8wF2J6SoCK-vBMy5/s320/20240203_160525.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Hey wait a second...</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6ys9ttEZ6m0U8oBVMBPZA_UmwCa0fjwqn-ka3EB9l6lrpyiCdZgrql-0qJbc9sz_YWp-xDLfoPHYpxNnRyZ5t7FPBS3LEr5julMGCxqo61UV53SllB0mTe3uUIOQtmAzPtj3o-oDAU2iGD_TSqzenamZzT4lw5JPpnwimNNBRfWgzERdi-Vbr/s4032/20240203_160953.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2268" data-original-width="4032" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6ys9ttEZ6m0U8oBVMBPZA_UmwCa0fjwqn-ka3EB9l6lrpyiCdZgrql-0qJbc9sz_YWp-xDLfoPHYpxNnRyZ5t7FPBS3LEr5julMGCxqo61UV53SllB0mTe3uUIOQtmAzPtj3o-oDAU2iGD_TSqzenamZzT4lw5JPpnwimNNBRfWgzERdi-Vbr/s320/20240203_160953.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Is that...?</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEicDcDK0meje9QX7j-WFDzBsxh3BVjxieFCPa73puexKeKcgXctqd7Q1FlPnkSUw9_FZ9TkEYYvW1EJO0HxlpHGQt_VflpjOPFNnIDehcZYPBxaaQ213ZPIEhu3F8b76dmDqQg8l6gSPzitdKCApH8pCvY1_wobdsDavB3PzkC4gnk5JLjsjrlb/s4032/20240203_161025.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2268" data-original-width="4032" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEicDcDK0meje9QX7j-WFDzBsxh3BVjxieFCPa73puexKeKcgXctqd7Q1FlPnkSUw9_FZ9TkEYYvW1EJO0HxlpHGQt_VflpjOPFNnIDehcZYPBxaaQ213ZPIEhu3F8b76dmDqQg8l6gSPzitdKCApH8pCvY1_wobdsDavB3PzkC4gnk5JLjsjrlb/s320/20240203_161025.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Oh no...</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgntb-qA_65ZrX-kBBmIMs0h5fZTBnzjliqtIIIPa82DeAaaOO63PXg6pvUOp8KQSiNhTFL3u5T2GnEZtrkBGDjtwdb84zmqJRagkPHT0OIriv6Sb58KNSMj-2fU60bchUzxRqAuGe5_hOV0FTqUC5xo6qv9T8Xxyredbsg02UPr23VhKmvSgrG/s4032/20240203_161453.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2268" data-original-width="4032" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgntb-qA_65ZrX-kBBmIMs0h5fZTBnzjliqtIIIPa82DeAaaOO63PXg6pvUOp8KQSiNhTFL3u5T2GnEZtrkBGDjtwdb84zmqJRagkPHT0OIriv6Sb58KNSMj-2fU60bchUzxRqAuGe5_hOV0FTqUC5xo6qv9T8Xxyredbsg02UPr23VhKmvSgrG/s320/20240203_161453.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">WOLVERINE JUST GUTTED <a href="https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/ComicBook/HowardTheDuck" target="_blank">HOWARD THE DUCK</a>!!!<br />AAAAAAaaaaaaaa!</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><div style="text-align: left;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhMbZYmGSqYC7xNRGQG1iwUd7Wgku-7OVGcw1Xc-jn_k3JXoH8q4HxY-hFmdtuTFwo-jbgSdGDSzGH7Tgj_8OhesNoMq_QqKJUjKROXLmWdaHR_-Mi-7v7qli2DD9Ar-yuFjGZLM74C8CojFmu0S3zUJJP69yn-n43u5pVWydUfowzeouXRQbtE/s1127/FrankCho_WW_05242016.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1127" data-original-width="743" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhMbZYmGSqYC7xNRGQG1iwUd7Wgku-7OVGcw1Xc-jn_k3JXoH8q4HxY-hFmdtuTFwo-jbgSdGDSzGH7Tgj_8OhesNoMq_QqKJUjKROXLmWdaHR_-Mi-7v7qli2DD9Ar-yuFjGZLM74C8CojFmu0S3zUJJP69yn-n43u5pVWydUfowzeouXRQbtE/s320/FrankCho_WW_05242016.jpg" width="211" /></a>This is one of the prints I bought from Cho at his artist's booth, to give you an idea of what he draws. I also bought a Liberty Meadows and a Batman/Catwoman prints.</div><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCFCojlkz6O4SzSyf7qUbnMBeh5ro1ikRLtTlxvx3BQ-KEhQGHKcxzkOEq-JB5O58D9FG9dl-0CFmuJtk7kpBOf3S_JpD432Tw_ijyRMn2Wm4nvVEFAY3mGTQfdSbvndbiq6v84-4hndbDapV4ohbNKDR3efOmE94jU9nEvXi7VFrPyEs6DJ18/s4032/20240203_162709.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2268" data-original-width="4032" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCFCojlkz6O4SzSyf7qUbnMBeh5ro1ikRLtTlxvx3BQ-KEhQGHKcxzkOEq-JB5O58D9FG9dl-0CFmuJtk7kpBOf3S_JpD432Tw_ijyRMn2Wm4nvVEFAY3mGTQfdSbvndbiq6v84-4hndbDapV4ohbNKDR3efOmE94jU9nEvXi7VFrPyEs6DJ18/s320/20240203_162709.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Speaking of artists, a number of famous comics artists were in Artist' Alley this MegaCon,<br />including a rare visit from Frank Miller, one of the creative forces from the late 1970s-<br />early 1980s who contributed to the massive culture boom - <i><a href="https://www.vox.com/2016/3/29/11323132/frank-miller-best-batman" target="_blank">The Dark Knight Returns</a></i> - of graphic narratives/superhero stories in the mainstream.<br />I took this picture late in the day to demonstrate the line that had been ongoing since 11:00AM...<br />which stretched across the open footpath to <i>another line</i> you can kind of see stretching off<br />to the right of the photo. If I had joined that line at 11, I would have arguably gotten to <br />meet Mr. Miller and get an autographed poster or some such... <i>in about two hours of waiting</i>!<br />I'd have missed half of everything else I wanted to do at the con. NONE of the other<br />major artists had a waiting line that long. </td></tr></tbody></table><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEivUWoo1pClSIy_SnTw3NM_h4ViFQcnMVqBGJ37vcCOjkWUpYmCl6L1qH5UA3DIykT1DTaVQnYZe22JqPNhP5PhieNdWTL2FL6kOqXvToAjIm_gaRWypcwfVPR51ogkPr1DMNn2ZDo056HZYCdmrlFJhzMqzosdU4rMoplXxjxn4qPFL0oVMZDm/s4032/20240203_171944.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2268" data-original-width="4032" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEivUWoo1pClSIy_SnTw3NM_h4ViFQcnMVqBGJ37vcCOjkWUpYmCl6L1qH5UA3DIykT1DTaVQnYZe22JqPNhP5PhieNdWTL2FL6kOqXvToAjIm_gaRWypcwfVPR51ogkPr1DMNn2ZDo056HZYCdmrlFJhzMqzosdU4rMoplXxjxn4qPFL0oVMZDm/s320/20240203_171944.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Speaking of long lines, THIS awaited me as I walked over to the Chapin Theater part<br />of the complex in hopes of attending the big celebrity draw of the day:<br />Ewan McGregor (Obi Wan) and Hayden Christensen (Anakin), both insanely hot Star Wars<br />fandom draws <a href="https://fandomwire.com/hayden-christensen-reportedly-returning-as-fan-favorite-character-in-ahsoka-season-2/" target="_blank">due to their return</a> in popular Disney-Plus series. </td></tr></tbody></table><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQBpZCs1XVLYa74IhyOpu6AAn0OAjJKVwWAGYElKq868VSZaZfXuVsCVRA_c7ZZ3EpghGMvp4GCX_La1Hvmpb1RvtTDhLKrmhzaRIMsJlRRzSeO4VJeU7QVXZ_oev5CAWhyphenhyphenRtP_1IP1o59mRF5oOb7HH7kctPgJ9ekr8JyHwIyUn1sBlJ5h4aU/s4032/20240203_172727.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2268" data-original-width="4032" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQBpZCs1XVLYa74IhyOpu6AAn0OAjJKVwWAGYElKq868VSZaZfXuVsCVRA_c7ZZ3EpghGMvp4GCX_La1Hvmpb1RvtTDhLKrmhzaRIMsJlRRzSeO4VJeU7QVXZ_oev5CAWhyphenhyphenRtP_1IP1o59mRF5oOb7HH7kctPgJ9ekr8JyHwIyUn1sBlJ5h4aU/s320/20240203_172727.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">This is the Fourth floor entrance to Chapin Theater... packed wall to wall with fans many of<br />whom started forming the line at 2:00PM (!). I got there about 5:15PM... only to get the <br />word from the con's security handlers announcing to the whole floor that they've already<br />reached max capacity for the auditorium and the cutoff was... can you see that one white hat<br />to the middle left of the photo? Yeah. That was the cutoff. Everybody else between that hat<br />and me were doomed. DOOMED I SAY.<br />That was kind of the last thing on my to-do list, and unable to do that I headed to the shuttle buses...<br /></td></tr></tbody></table><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiDpEmTzLSQ_i9_SbMfobS-3-97gd8YzU36-d43H3QG1rDhzrNaK0_hDdHZUB-A95kT_eI-rTGVaXNbbrLUhd2nVq5IAmvPA1pH_Nxfl0x2y5zC13fSpn1wlZkrysyoJooIRJkT2kWCaLQqmOTUw0zokGX4OokVQzmIBhuu1ye8MDsNtxkzzyB_/s4032/20240203_174610.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2268" data-original-width="4032" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiDpEmTzLSQ_i9_SbMfobS-3-97gd8YzU36-d43H3QG1rDhzrNaK0_hDdHZUB-A95kT_eI-rTGVaXNbbrLUhd2nVq5IAmvPA1pH_Nxfl0x2y5zC13fSpn1wlZkrysyoJooIRJkT2kWCaLQqmOTUw0zokGX4OokVQzmIBhuu1ye8MDsNtxkzzyB_/s320/20240203_174610.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Except when I got to the buses they were coded by color routes instead of parking lots, and I had<br />no idea which color route went back to the South parking lot! /rage<br />Instead of waiting for the bus, I dared to walk back across a sky bridge between the Concourses<br />(See? The county at least did THAT! They should put in rail lines instead...). On the way back <br />I decided to get a photo of the Orlando Eye that's up the road on International Drive.</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQpGjQn136sOTScqC3MY0YiYvxcpUTplben4llveq96HMAsWZlyWqfor5Epr5l6oo8bb9dWjRSLSSYVsMUtSe1fCMl2Kg75WV_etGA633PkjM7dllhZu5kDONEiyCDwOxMFUZV3x6QeYaKl60IMkWj4k8fsJdM5r9eKU6ULcI6mwjOe38KZAmM/s4032/20240203_181313.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2268" data-original-width="4032" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQpGjQn136sOTScqC3MY0YiYvxcpUTplben4llveq96HMAsWZlyWqfor5Epr5l6oo8bb9dWjRSLSSYVsMUtSe1fCMl2Kg75WV_etGA633PkjM7dllhZu5kDONEiyCDwOxMFUZV3x6QeYaKl60IMkWj4k8fsJdM5r9eKU6ULcI6mwjOe38KZAmM/s320/20240203_181313.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">And here's a closer shot of it at a traffic stop as I drove to where all the restaurants are north<br />of the convention center. 'Cause after a full day of walking, I <i>earned</i> that pizza for dinner!</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjas1JLGFr77IrzgxtXyltBT58gv_lBLm6WtCyc6sGTnDXLjTqWiMSXeod7w3gePZWM2Zz7xcXMK416FKF-j6yf8nf7Ar8EARRUDBqmu4IZAWTwrRm4RhEE-hgnsYALMStzYStZdCif3q6E7XZKpDI0PmlHZ6IF-01ycGUHT5vDWGAyRkyMWAxQ/s4032/20240203_214057.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4032" data-original-width="2268" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjas1JLGFr77IrzgxtXyltBT58gv_lBLm6WtCyc6sGTnDXLjTqWiMSXeod7w3gePZWM2Zz7xcXMK416FKF-j6yf8nf7Ar8EARRUDBqmu4IZAWTwrRm4RhEE-hgnsYALMStzYStZdCif3q6E7XZKpDI0PmlHZ6IF-01ycGUHT5vDWGAyRkyMWAxQ/s320/20240203_214057.jpg" width="180" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">It took another three hours to get back home - an hour and an half getting off a packed<br />International Drive coping with merging traffic, escapees from the MegaCon, and idiot drivers, THIS<br />is why I scream about Orlando/Orange County needing an elevated rail system - <br />just so I could get in a head rub with Mal the Panfurr who turns 10 years old this weekend!</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><p>And so that was my comic con adventure. I've gotten a little weary of attending these things - yes, I am getting too old to walk across half the landscape, and there aren't enough chairs and benches to go around - unless I can scare up any friends or family who might want to attend any cons in the future, this might be my last one. Who knows? A future MegaCon may entice with a can't miss celebrity (but it would involve me risking the entire day getting in line and waiting, sigh).</p><p><br /></p>Paul Whttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13092023794397583036noreply@blogger.com0