Glenn Kirschner – Trump gets a VERY speedy trial date; Hunter Biden pleads guilty to misdemeanor tax crimes
The Lincoln Project – Rick Reacts: We Made Trump Mad
Farron Balanced – Judge Slaps Down Conspiracy Spewing Capitol Rioter During Hearing
Liberal Redneck – Hunter Biden Pleads Guilty
After his family abandoned him, he didn’t want to live anymore.
Beau – Let’s talk about orcas and needing a bigger boat….
Yesterday, I learned that the SPLC’s latest report on hate groups took the time and space to recognize Faithful America as one of the antidotes to hate. Coming after decades of Christofascists associating the word “Christian” with hatred, this is a refreshing developmen – which would not have been possible without the actions of authentic Chriatians. Thanks, SPLC, andthanks to all who have signed/written/donated to make it kappen.
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Washington Post (no paywall) – FBI resisted opening probe into Trump’s role in Jan. 6 for more than a year
Quote – In the two months since the siege, federal agents had conducted 709 searches, charged 278 rioters and identified 885 likely suspects, said Michael R. Sherwin, then-acting U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, ticking through a slide presentation…. But according to a copy of the briefing document, absent from Sherwin’s 11-page presentation to Garland on March 11, 2021, was any reference to Trump or his advisers — those who did not go to the Capitol riot but orchestrated events that led to it.
Click through for full article. I suppose we could argue forever about whether the “bottom-up” method was the best way to go in this case. It is having results now, but it did take a long time. Too long? Certainly too long for the gut feelings of Democrats and others who value democracy. But we are not out of time yet.
PolitiZoom – Surprise! Judge Cannon Isn’t Running The Trump Documents Trial. Jack Smith Is
Quote – Look, Smith isn’t just running circles around Trump’s defense team, he’s running them around Judge Cannon too. Trump’s defense team wants endless delays and hearings. Smith just deprived them of that oxygen by not giving them any reasons to ask foe hearings on Trump’s bail conditions. And now, Judge Cannon hasn’t even set the preliminary hearing date to open discovery, and Smith is already handing over all of his non classified material for the Trump team to go through. Which makes it harder for the Trump team, 6-8 weeks from now at the preliminary hearing, to ask for 4-6 months for discovery when they’ve already 90% of the stuff for 6-8 weeks.
Click through for article. Murfster does tend to see things others do not, and while no one s perfect, he does have a track record. He sees this trial as a three-way battle of wits in which two of the parties are unarmed. And he does make a case. I hope he’s right -and I think there’s a good chance he is.
Food For Thought
Glenn skipped a day and threw me off balance so I’m using this to gain it back
Talking Feds – BREAKING Hunter Biden News EXPLAINED
The Lincoln Project – When Dems Fight
PBS News – New report looks at the changing face of extremist groups in America
Puppet Regime – More unmanned attacks on the Kremlin?
Mama Cat Does The Cutest Thing While She’s In Labor
Beau – Let’s talk about the Dems ending the influence of MAGA Republicans….
Yesterday, it was reported that charges were filed against Hunter Biden. Also, Axios is reporting that a “prelimiary trial date” has been set in the Trump documments case (I suspect they mean a preliminary hearing) for August 14th. That date is just barely within the first half of August, which is the period for which Fani Willis requested that calendars be cleared, so she may get at least some of her licks in on schedule. Both stories are at the same link, just scroll down from Hunter to see the second story. (I’ll get to the Washington Post’s bombshell tomorrow.)
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AP News – Biden strikes economic populist tone during campaign rally before exuberant union members
Quote – Biden spotlighted the sweeping climate, tax and health care package signed into law last year that cut the cost of prescription drugs and lowered insurance premiums — pocketbook issues that advisers say will be the centerpiece of his argument for a second term. “I’m looking forward to this campaign,” Biden said to cries of “four more years!” before adding, “We’ve got a record to run on.” His choice of Philadelphia and Pennsylvania — and a friendly union audience — as his first official campaign stop reflected their crucial role in his reelection effort.
Click through for story. I see this as being a story about messaging.
Civil Discourse – Discovery in [Federal] Criminal Cases
Quote – What follows is a lot of procedural nitty-gritty, but the details matter. They’ll set the tone for everything to come. This order only covers discovery of unclassified material. The process for classified evidence will be defined consistent with the Classified Information Procedures Act…. Before classified discovery can take place, Trump’s lawyers will have to receive security clearances, so the timeline for that discovery to begin will be a bit longer.
Click through for full explanation. “Discovery” seems to me an odd word for it – but it has probably been used for hundreds of years and likely made more sense when first used. It is definitely critically important. Cases have been overturned for errors in discovery.
Food For Thought
Glenn Kirschner – Republican witnesses like Barr, Esper, Bolton & others will SINK Donald Trump at trial
MSNBC – Atlanta area law enforcement preparing for possible Trump indictment in Georgia
The Lincoln Project – The Breakdown – No Labels Elects Trump**
Armageddon Update – Top Secret Moron
Cop Spends 8 MONTHS Trying To Catch An Escaped Beefalo
Beau – Let’s talk about questions on Trump’s other cases….
Yesterday was Juneteenth – a day to take a victory lap and celebrate one achievement in our history. And therefore today is a day to get back to work. Very few people can say that as well as John Pavlovitz (although the FFT, a cartoon originally published in 1876, is strong.) I hope your Juneteenth was pleasant and refreshing, since we all need to be refreshed periodically.
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John Pavlovitz – Are we there yet?
Quote – Yesterday, a friend who is a rabbi called to tell me that the Black Lives Matter flag in his yard had been ripped down, placed against their family’s car and set on fire. He and his family were of course devastated, but not just for his family but for what acts of violence like this represent and mean. In the fight against the cancer of racism, we are not there yet. But many people, like my friend and his family, people like you aren’t going to rest or be driven off course. We’re awake and alive in this day and that makes us dangerous to those still warring against equity…. Are we there yet? Not yet. Don’t let that truth dishearten you, let it move you.
Clck through for full column. Not much, if anything , I can add.
The 19th – What a teacher’s little red book taught the world about the Tulsa massacre
Quote – “Parrish’s work became a vital primary source for other people’s writings,” journalist Victor Luckerson wrote in his recently released book, “Built From the Fire.” “Yet her life remained unknown, even as the facts that she had gathered — such as several firsthand accounts of airplanes being used to surveil or attack Greenwood — became foundational to the nation’s understanding of the massacre. She was, quite literally, relegated to the footnotes of history.” Parrish’s great-granddaughter Anneliese Bruner is following in her footsteps as a writer and editor but didn’t learn of her connection to Parrish — or the events of Tulsa — until she was in her 30s.
Click through for story. Someone recently said that MAGA Republicans have the minds of toddlers – up to and including an obsession with genitalia. How many violent crimes have been based on lies involving genitalia?
The New Yorker – The Celebration of Juneteenth in Ralph Ellison’s “Juneteenth”
Quote – “We were owned and faced with the awe-inspiring labor of transforming God’s Word into a lantern so that in the darkness we’d know where we were. Oh God hasn’t been easy with us because He always plans for the loooong haul. He’s looking far ahead and this time He wants a well-tested people to work his will. . . . He’s tired of untempered tools and half-blind masons! Therefore, He’s going to keep on testing us against the rocks and in the fires. He’s going to plunge us into the ice-cold water. And each time we come out we’ll be blue and as tough as cold-blue steel! Ah yes! He means for us to be a new kind of human. Maybe we won’t be that people but we’ll be a part of that people, we’ll be an element in them, amen!”
Click through for details. I hope you can stand one more article about Juneteenth. Ralph Ellison is best known for “The Invisible Man.” When he died, he left a good deal of unfinished work, including “Juneteenth,” which was put together by an editor, but most of it is pure Ellison. If you are paywalled out, I’ll send it in an email if you let me know.
Food For Thought
This is long – but he missed a day and has multiple topics.
Glenn Kirschner – Will Trump’s crimes at Bedminster, NJ, be the next federal indictment pursued by Jack Smith
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The Lincoln Project – They Will Never Quit Trump
Thom Hartmann – Words a U.S. President Will Never Say Again! JFK’s Powerful Speech You NEED To Hear
Rocky Mountain Mike – The Shower’s Where Secrets Were Stuffed By Trump (lyrics provided @ YouTube)
This Kitten Was Obsessed With Her Mom’s Baby Bump
Beau – Let’s talk about Montana and constitutional case….
Yesterday, I got to see Virgil, and passed on to him all greetings, all of which he returns. He did say that being with me was the best Fathers Day gift he could have received. We got in four games of Scrabble (using all letters, not scoring) although the fourth one by the end of it we were ignoring a bunch of rules. We finished it 3 minutes before visitation ended. The weather was about perfect both ways – warm (but the air conditioner was working) and just enough cloud cover to minimize glare.
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Today’s Edition Newsletter (Robert Hubbell) – A tactical retreat by the Supreme Court?
Quote – A string of surprising Supreme Court decisions has caused some people (i.e., me) to wonder if the Court’s conservative majority is engaged in a tactical retreat to prevent further damage to the Court’s legitimacy…. If that interpretation is correct—even in part—it should spur us to greater efforts to reform and enlarge the Court. Why? Because the reactionary majority may have changed course because it believed that the calls for reform are likely to succeed. If so, the worst thing we could do is to relent merely because the Court followed precedent in a handful of cases—something it should do in all cases.
Click trough for article. Emphasis is the author’s, but if he hadn’t, I would have.
The Daily Beast – Jack Smith Should Have Waited a Week to Indict Donald Trump
Quote – [O]n Thursday—one week after Trump was charged in Florida—the U.S. Supreme Court handed down the decision in Smith v. United States, a case that decided whether the wrong choice of venue in a criminal case would not only be reversible error but also irreparable error—meaning that the case could not be re-tried in the correct venue. In many ways, this decision is no surprise because, as the unanimous Supreme Court opinion stated, there is no reason to treat a mistake in venue any differently than any other violation of Constitutional rights—meaning it can be remedied. Per the Smith decision, a case that resulted in conviction but was brought in the wrong venue would have to be re-tried in the right place.
Click through for opinion. All that waiting would have accomplished (assuming the charges had then been filed in DC) the only result would have been delay. The document charges would still have had to be filed in South Florida eventually. But this decision does open up some possibiities. (Emphasis mine.)
Food For Thought
