Maggie's Madness Drug War Chronicles Baja California
A continuation of events surrounding the drug war and related social issues of Baja California and Mexico. Keeping an eye on Seig Heil Trump. We are still trying to restore all blogs from 2006 which were hacked by Linton Robinson and his team, famous for supporting the Baja Trump Towers on one of his real estate sites. Highlights of Paris-Simone's favorite music !!
I'm supposed to be resting my eye and staying off the computer, so I'll make this short. Tomorrow I go up for another post-op check up and a mad dash for supplies. Hope y'all had a nice Thanksgiving or as nice as could be expected under the current circumstances. Damn, Trump isn't going away, he's just getting weirder. It's all weird, including down here. Although we haven't hit the 180 executed this month in Tijuana, it's close and AMLO certainly did not receive the warmest of welcomes to Baja California - all reports in the Noticias del Dia.
I've been sneaking down here still looking for that elusive little cottage in Santa Cruz and then somehow I chanced on houses out in Borrego Springs. I remember way back in the mid to late 70's when the "Ram's Hill" project was underway and even then, the experts warned about the water tables not being able to sustain golf courses and housing developments. But no one listened. It was only the very most wealthy who could afford a mansion out in Borrego. I remember the sweet grapefruit from Borrego, don't even know if those exist anymore. Still, mother nature strikes back and even the greedy are still trying to sell...knowing that within a radius other than the water problem (there ain't any) the Salton Sea environmental catastrophe along with the New River cesspool and the all of the folks living in perfect squalor in Coachella under blackened soot air are just a stones throw away.
Watching the news, Mike mentioned that he was wondering in the near future if people around the world are going to start rioting and fighting over who gets the virus vaccine. Great. Let's change the subject.
Meanwhile....
In case you might have missed it, a terrific synopsis of post-election misinformation, because most of these subjects are simply not being covered down here locally:
~ From CNN:
"Misinformation Watch
is your guide to false and misleading content online — how it spreads,
who it impacts, and what the Big Tech platforms are doing (or not) about
it.
Watch this space for regular updates leading up to the election, and through any turmoil after."
Okay I'm sort of back. Paris took my eye patch and I cannot find it. All went well (except for the motel in San Ysidro), have to put eye drops in 4X a day and a follow up appointment next week. So my eye is resting, I'll try to get back here in a few days. We arranged the motel due to the fact that they allowed pets and the pictures looked like it was really nice. By the time we arrived, it was too late to try to find another motel so we wore gloves the whole time, it was scary & we were glad to check out. Not recommended. At least I had a veggie burger at Carls. Kitties coming home tomorrow, Saul says they are being really good.
So I saw this and thought you might like to share it with your pup, Paris loves it.
"Raise the Woof" is billed as the first Christmas single written specifically for our four-legged friends. It was made using scientific research into how dogs interact with sound. And early footage of dogs listening -- shows they love it! (Video: CNN) "
Thrilled over Georgia and of course the over 30 (thirty) Trump Lawsuits thrown out of court due to lack of evidence. Aghast that last night on PBS it was reported from a Yale study that 70% of Trump followers believe and are convinced there was voter fraud. Are these morons brainwashed or what ? Not picking up the sordid details of the pest Trump's recent actions at least locally, wow.
We shouldn't still be here however Rubio decided this morning to do cat things outside, so we had to wait for him to come in and get a snack and go in his carrier. Mike just took both Rubio and Totsie to Dr. Silva's, and they are sharing a bunk with their ruggies, toys and I'll talk about the canned albacore later.
As you know, Trump's BS election lawsuits have been dropped. The last picture I saw of him yesterday with that Ajax clown, he looked sedated. Other than the fact that there was no evidence in any of these cases, we were kind of wondering if the attorneys who have been dropping like flies and withdrawing from representing him might have been pissed off because it is possible they were not being paid (which Trump is famous for).. I don't think any deals were cut, Trump has to face the consequences of his illegal activities unless he pardons himself, right? There are scads of places he could go to and not face extradition, but I don't think he would like any of them, except maybe Russia.
He still refuses to open up the COVID talks between the Biden Transition Team and the White House, he still doesn't get it.
Here is the latest from FirstDogOntheMoon of theFirstdogOnTheMoon Institute...incase you happen to be missing the raccoons and the gang - also with great ideas for Christmas gifts:
"Hello to you From me First Dog on the Moon. Hello indeed!
Welcome to First Dog on the Moon's traditional Christma-adjacent
missive. What a year! Wasn't it! It sure was. I could go into the messy
details but we all know what it was like and I just want you know that
after all we have been through, all the terrifying weirdness and sadness
and all of it, please know that I love you. Thanks for being part of
the First Dog on the Moon Institute. My wish is for safety and peace for
all my readers and all those other people who DON'T read my cartoons as
well. That is how gracious I am. I hope the end of the year is kind to
you and you get at least a few quiet moments. And an emu!
We are incredibly fortunate here at the First Dog on the Moon Institute.
We have been spared the worst of the pandemic and the bushfires haven't
returned (yet). Tasmania always looks nice BUT it is awful and full of
poisonous animals who hate you do not come here. Roy is still with us -
he is a very old dog now and what he lacks in hearing he makes up for
with his quiet inexorable enthusiasm for snacks and sleeping. He is a
very good boy. Don't forget Roy has his own instagram and a hashtag
#dailyroy. For all the Roy content you could ever want.
The good news for 2020 includes MY NEW BOOK! I am extremely EXTREMELY
excited about it. It is called the Carbon Neutral Adventures of the
Indefatigable EnviroTeens and it is for readers who are 10 to 14 or
thereabouts but also anyone who wants to read an hilarious and
informative take on CLIMATE CHANGE from the perspective of THREE TEEN
SUPERHEROES AND A CHICKEN. It has wobbegongs and wicked villains and I
drew all the pictures and I reckon it is one of the best things I have
ever done. You can buy it here from our shop and I will sign your copy/ies OR you can buy it here where it is cheaper but not signed. The launch for this marvellous book is on November 28 if you're in Tassie. All welcome.
Our chickens are well. As are the sheep. I saw a tiger snake the other
day - it's that time of year. I was standing in the veggie patch the
other day and over in the blue gums I saw a fight between a wedge tailed
eagle and a bunch of currawongs and forest ravens. Very exciting. Then
this morning outside the post office there was a currawong and a lapwing
chasing a goshawk up and down the main street. It's quite nice here at
times. My major project for the year though was this book. If it goes
well I shall write a sequel and if it doesn't go well so be it.
As always it is now time for Chrismerch! All our First Dog on the
Merchandise is sourced as locally, greenly and wokely as possible. We
try to only stock things which are practical - everyone needs tea
towels! Socks! Books! First up remember to buy The Carbon Neutral Adventures of the Indefatigable EnviroTeens!
2020 also sees us with Brenda aprons, tea towels, other books, and of course the 2021 calendar. THE CALENDAR. Why
not buy a calendar or seventy. This year we have gone with an
underwater but still on a distant planet theme. "City of the Wobbegongs"
in honour of Stuart who may or may not save the day in the
EnviroTeens! You can get it at the First Shop on the Moon buy 1 OR buy 4
and get one free (5)!
We have our marvellous Plush Toys which are only $15. And this year we have SOCKS AGAIN!
Fresh from the sock factory, in various sizes - extremely limited
numbers! Be warned last year they sold out in about 12 seconds. There
are Brenda socks and Raccoons of the Resistance socks order now in time for SOCKMAS! Speaking of Christmas and its friends - please get any ordering done asap Auspost
is normally a bin fire and with covid it is even more challenging, slow
and unreliable. Last orders for Australia are December 10 (we will take
orders after that but absolutely no guarantees about delivery
times) closing date for International is probably NOW or thereabouts
also please be patient with completely magical Bronte the First Dog on
the Moon Institute Christmas Elf there is just one of her.
It has been SUCH a long year. Perhaps the change in the USA will bring
us some relief? Who knows. With any luck real life will go back to being
funnier/weirder than the President. Either way thanks for reading all
the cartoons this year, please be safe and have a lovely time when you
can. Also thanks for buying the new book even if you didn't. Looking
forward to seeing you in 2021!
Your friend,
Firstdog Onthemoon"
Have fun shopping !
~~~~~
Okay, we are waiting on Georgia...see ya'll in a few days and stay safe, it's bad out there.
Pro-Trump Rallies Today...Partially Brought To You By Assorted Racists, and...
...Roger Stone, former adviser and confidante to President Donald Trump,
was sentenced on February 20 to 40 months in prison. Trump later
commuted Stone's sentence. Report here.
My pre-surgery Covid test was changed from Friday to today, so once again we were up in the states all day trying to accomplish a million things including taking Paris to the" beauty parlor." That's what she calls it - not the "groomers" or even Pet-Co. This is turning out to be a hassle, and it starts all over again in about 10 to 12 weeks for the other eye. Meanwhile, we didn't even hear about the pro-Trump rallies and anti-Trump demonstrations until after we came home.
Which brings me to what seems to be the defining word of both the GOP party and the Trumpistas: they are a cult.
One of my goals is to read the authors on that last link so I can better understand the concept and know what to expect. Many people are terrified and almost frozen in fear of the possibilities of a never ending and expanding Trump Cult. Many others dismiss the idea totally, believing that he will just fade away. But its existence added with the fact that Trump is playing chess board with the Pentagon, DHS and our National Security, certainly gives reason if not for panic for at least a long pause.
"So many lawsuits have been filed in so many state and federal courts
that no one has an exact number. The campaign has lost nearly all of the
cases that have been decided so far."
"President
Trump’s faltering efforts to challenge the election results suffered
twin blows Friday, as Republicans contended with multiple legal setbacks
and as the final state projections in the White House race gave
President-elect Joe Biden a resounding 306 electoral votes.
In
court, Republicans on Friday faced losses in Michigan, Arizona and
Pennsylvania, while another major law firm withdrew from its
representation of the president.
Meanwhile, Edison Research projected that Biden won in Georgia, while Trump was victorious in North Carolina, the last states to be called in the race.
Together, the latest developments underscore what the president’s advisers have been privately acknowledging
throughout the week: that heading off Biden’s victory is essentially
impossible. To do so, Trump would have to somehow overturn his rival’s
wins in three separate states.
Biden is now projected to have won the same number of electoral college votes as Trump did in 2016, while also defeating the president in the popular vote by more than 5 million votes.
On
Twitter, Trump remained defiant about his unfounded claims that results
around the country were tainted by massive ballot fraud, even after
federal and state government officials issued a joint statement Thursday
saying that this year’s election “was the most secure in American
history.”
The president countered in a tweet Friday: “This Election was Rigged.”
But he appeared subdued at a late-afternoon news conference to discuss progress in the quest for a vaccine for the coronavirus, and at one point he appeared to nearly slip and make reference to a future Biden administration.
“This
administration will not be going to a lockdown. Hopefully the — the, uh
— whatever happens in the future — who knows which administration it
will be, I guess time will tell,” he said.
Throughout the day, Trump and his allies suffered a string of legal defeats.
In
Pennsylvania, the president’s campaign lost six separate efforts to
block the counting of almost 9,000 mail ballots in Philadelphia and
Montgomery counties.
Trump’s
team had asked the courts to toss out the ballots because voters had
not written requested information such as their addresses or the date on
the outer envelopes.
In his
orders rejecting five Trump challenges in Philadelphia, Judge James C.
Crumlish III noted that the campaign was “not contending that there has
been fraud, that there is evidence of fraud or that the ballots in
question were not filled out by the elector in whose name the ballot was
issued.”
In Michigan, meanwhile, a state judge rejected a request by two Republican poll watchersto delay the certification of the vote countin Detroit, saying he saw no convincing evidence of election fraud at the center where workers tallied absentee ballots.
Judge
Timothy M. Kenny said the allegations of misconduct, made by the GOP
poll watchers and one Detroit election official, were “not credible.” He
said the plaintiffs’ demand for an outside audit of the election in
Michigan could delay the process so long that the state’s electors might
not be selected in time to vote in the electoral college in
mid-December, when the president is formally elected. Biden now leads in
Michigan by about 148,000 votes.
To grant the plaintiffs’ request, Kenny said, “would undermine faith in the Electoral System.”
A
similar suit filed by the Trump campaign in federal court Tuesday is
still pending. But state judges have rejected several efforts to delay
certification of the vote count.
In a statement, Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel praised the latest ruling.
“Every
one of these attempts is a blatant effort to undermine the voices of a
majority of Michigan voters,” she said. “No party or politician can
steal this election.”
Republican
leaders in Lansing have said they will honor the popular will of voters
in Michigan. But they are continuing to solicit complaints about the
vote-counting process, and several legislators have called for more
scrutiny before the state’s vote is certified. Two Republican state
senators wrote a letter to Nessel late Thursday requesting that the
results first be audited.
Stu
Sandler, a Michigan lawyer and Republican political consultant, said
Friday’s court decision would not deter that effort. “There are some
real credible allegations about flaws in the way the process worked,” he
said.
For
their part, election officials in Georgia on Friday began the laborious
process of recounting by hand every one of the nearly 5 million ballots
cast in the state’s presidential election. Secretary of State Brad
Raffensperger, a Republican, has said that the election was fair and
transparent and that he expects the recount to confirm the results,
which have Biden ahead by more than 14,000 votes.
Meanwhile,
in Arizona, a judge Friday dismissed a lawsuit from the Trump campaign,
the Republican National Committee and the state Republican Party after
lawyers for the plaintiffs acknowledged in a court filing that the suit would make no difference to the result of the presidential election.
The
plaintiffs initially claimed that “up to thousands” of allegedly
mishandled ballots in the state’s most populous county, Maricopa, would
“prove determinative” in the presidential election, and they sought to
delay certification of Arizona’s results until there could be a hand
recount of affected votes.
But the scope of the campaign’s legal action was steadily whittleddown this week in court, particularly aftercounty officials said fewer than 200 votes for president were at stake. Biden leads by 11,000 votes in Arizona.
In
its latest filing Friday, Trump’s team acknowledged that its suit would
have no bearing on the outcome of the presidential election in the
state, writing that “the tabulation of votes statewide has rendered
unnecessary a judicial ruling as to the presidential electors.”
The new
filing came a day after a Maricopa County Superior Court judge held a
day-long hearing in the matter, in which the judge refused to admit some
of the evidence gathered by the campaign, indicating that he found it
untrustworthy.
During
the hearing, an attorney for the president’s campaign, Kory Langhofer,
emphasized that the campaign was not alleging that any fraud took place
in the state,a sharp contrastwith the “stop the steal” protests that outraged Trump supporters have held in Arizona.
“We’re
not alleging that anyone was stealing the election,” Langhofer said,
adding later, “The allegation here is that, in what appears to be a
limited number of cases, there were good-faith errors in operating
machines that should result in further review of certain ballots.”
The
Trump campaign’s lawsuit had alleged that poll workers pressed or told
voters to press a button on a tabulating machine to cast their ballots,
even after those tabulators flagged an apparent “overvote,” in which the
machine believed a voter marked two candidates in the same race. If the
machine reads two votes in the same race, it will not count a vote for
any candidate in that contest.
Tim
Murtaugh, a spokesman for the Trump campaign, said in a statement, “We
continue to explore President Trump’s options in Arizona.”
“Every
state has different laws and therefore different legal approaches,” he
added regarding the campaign’s broader legal setbacks. “We are still
determined to ensure that every legal vote is counted and every illegal
vote is not.”
The courtroom losses came as some prominent law firms have backed away from Trump’s legal efforts.
This
week, the Phoenix-based law firm Snell & Wilmer withdrew from
representing the Republican National Committee in Arizona. With more
than 450 lawyers in 15 cities, the firm is one of the largest in the
western United States.
Jones Day, a prominent Washington-based firm that has represented the Trump campaign since the 2016 election, put out a statement this week emphasizing that it is not representing the campaign in its post-Election Day challenges.
And
two lawyers from Porter Wright Morris & Arthur — a large firm
headquartered in Columbus, Ohio, that had been leading the Trump
campaign’s efforts in Pennsylvania — filed a motion late Thursday to
withdraw from a federal suit challenging the results, just days after
the action was initiated.
“Plaintiffs
and Porter Wright have reached a mutual agreement that Plaintiffs will
be best served if Porter Wright withdraws,” attorneys Ronald L. Hicks
Jr. and Carolyn B. McGee said in their motion.
In response, Murtaugh, of the Trump campaign, said in a statement, “Cancel culture has finally reached the courtroom.”
“Leftist
mobs descended upon some of the lawyers representing the President’s
campaign and they buckled,” he said, adding, “The President’s team is
undeterred and will move forward with rock-solid attorneys to ensure
free and fair elections for all Americans.”
Despite
defeats in state court Friday, Trump’s federal lawsuit in Pennsylvania
is still pending and seeks an emergency injunction preventing state
authorities from certifying the election results. It alleges that
hundreds of thousands of votes cast in Philadelphia and Pittsburgh are
invalid because Trump’s campaign was unable to observe them being
counted, a claim election officials deny.
Secretary
of State Kathy Boockvar on Thursday asked the court to dismiss the
case, describing it as a “desperate and unfounded attempt to interfere”
with the election process.
Boockvar
also said Friday that she will not order a recount in Pennsylvania
because Biden’s margin of victory — more than 59,500 votes — exceeds 0.5
percent, the threshold set in state law that would require a recount."
This is going to be really quick with mostly links - we have been running back and forth to the states, need to go up again tomorrow for knee & blood work, then Friday for my pre-surgury Covid Test, then back for eye surgery, staying overnight in a motel and arrangements for the kitties to stay at Dr. Silva's....wait, I need to scream !
Naturally, Trump is causing chaos; but we knew all along he was going to pull his shit. As you probably already know, today he fired Mark Esper who made it to Trump's shitlist when Esper did not agree to pull out the Military to contain Black Lives Matter protestors in Washington D.C. and around the nation, not to mention Esper agreed to the replacement of Confederate Military statues across the country:
"U.S. President Donald Trump announced that he fired long-embattled
Defense Secretary Mark Esper in a tweet on Monday, just two days after
news networks called the U.S. election against the incumbent commander
in chief, another move that current and former officials worry could
upset an already tumultuous transition to a new administration.
The move comes amid lingering tensions between Esper and Trump. The
Department of Defense chief’s decision to publicly oppose using
active-duty U.S. troops to quell protests against racial injustice in
June and his endorsement of renaming military bases that honor
Confederate generals angered Trump and nearly led him to push Esper out
earlier. Top aides and senior Republican lawmakers helped convince him
to keep Esper in place so the administration did not look to be in chaos
ahead of the elections, current and former officials said.
Trump tweeted that Christopher Miller, a former Defense Department
official recently confirmed as director of the National Counterterrorism
Center, would take over as acting secretary of defense. Under federal
vacancies law, the president can appoint another Senate-confirmed
official in place of Esper, who some officials in the Pentagon and on
Capitol Hill had hoped would remain in place after Trump leaves office
to ensure a smooth transfer of power.
“Chris will do a GREAT job! Mark Esper has been terminated. I would like to thank him for his service,” Trump tweeted.
The move marks another Trump firing by tweet, after he removed his
embattled Secretary of State Rex Tillerson by surprise two years ago
while the top diplomat was traveling in Africa.
Veteran Pentagon officials reacted to the sudden news with a mixture of shock and anger.
“It’s unprecedented, it’s absolutely crazy,” said Jim Townsend, a
former deputy assistant secretary of defense who spent decades working
in the Pentagon. “There’s no practical reason to do this, except for
personal vengeance.” A defense official said that White House chief of
staff Mark Meadows informed Esper of his termination before Trump
tweeted the news.
Townsend said Esper’s firing adds a new layer of uncertainty to what
the final months of Trump’s presidency will look like, even as the
president refuses to concede his electoral loss: “What it shows us is we
don’t know what’s going to happen over the next two months when he
begins his transition out of office.”
A Pentagon spokesman referred questions about Esper’s termination to
the White House. A White House official said that Miller is eligible to
serve in the acting role because he is Senate-confirmed.
The plan comes as officials inside the Pentagon and other agencies
have anticipated a spate of potential high-profile firings in the wake
of a possible Trump defeat in the November election—some of which have
already come to pass. The president is also considering sacking his CIA
chief, Gina Haspel, who reportedly fell afoul of the president after she
opposed declassifying
unverified Russian intelligence alleging Democrats tried to create a
scandal about Trump’s ties to Russia ahead of the 2016 elections.
On Friday evening, the White House also forced the resignation of the
deputy head of the top U.S. foreign aid agency, U.S. Agency for
International Development Deputy Administrator Bonnie Glick. Officials
familiar with the matter said that she was fired so that the acting head
of USAID, John Barsa, could take her deputy job and remain de facto
head of the agency to get around time limits for officials serving in
interim, acting capacities set by federal vacancy laws.
It was not immediately clear if Capitol Hill got a heads-up before
the decision, and top Democrats in Congress were quick to slam Trump’s
move. “Dismissing politically appointed national security leaders during
a transition is a destabilizing move that will only embolden our
adversaries and put our country at greater risk,” said House Armed
Services Committee Chairman Rep. Adam Smith, a Democrat. “President
Trump’s decision to fire Secretary Esper out of spite is not just
childish, it’s also reckless. It has long been clear that President
Trump cares about loyalty above all else, often at the expense of
competence, and during a period of presidential transition competence in
government is of the utmost importance.”
Some experts said firing officials out of spite, even at the tail end of an administration, could cause blowback.
“You’re trying to have as seamless a transition as possible. Don’t do
things that make the system more chaotic,” said Mark Jacobson, the
assistant dean for Washington programs at Syracuse University who was a
Defense Department official during the transition between Presidents
Bill Clinton’s and George W. Bush’s administrations. “Our enemies are
going to take note of that, they know that now is a particularly
vulnerable time.”
All of that could have a compounding effect on a possible Biden
administration’s flexibility to set its own course on Pentagon policy
after Inauguration Day. “You don’t want to box them into a corner,”
Jacobson added.
Townsend said that Trump officials may also be reluctant to aid in a
smooth transition to the next administration, for fear of incurring the
White House’s wrath.
“At a time like this, to have [Esper’s] firing happen, it makes the
atmosphere even more uneasy. If you are a Trump political appointee and
you want to do a good transition, you’re going to pull in your reins and
become very conservative because you’re afraid he could do that to
you,” he said. “It just makes everyone walk on eggshells.”
As Esper has fallen out of Trump’s good graces, loyalists to the
president sitting in high-ranking Defense Department roles have
attempted to assert themselves over Pentagon policy.
“They can just do whatever they want,” the former senior Trump official said.
In an exit interview with Military Times,
Esper—whom Trump himself had mockingly called “Yesper” for his
reputation for upholding the White House line—fatefully mused that he
could be replaced by someone much more amenable to the president’s
whims, or worse.
“I could have a fight over anything, and I could make it a big fight,
and I could live with that —why?” Esper said. “Who’s going to come in
behind me? It’s going to be a real ‘yes man.’ And then God help us.”
~~~~~
More Slash & Burn by Trump:
He is on a rampage...now fired top scientist Michael Kuperberg, to be replaced by David Legates:
So here's the latest, I'm going to miss what happens tomorrow. through next week What we know for a fact at this point however is that there was no voter fraud, and history will remember Trump as a black stain, full of vitriol and puss. He already is a laughing stock around the free world, although it seems the populists are in his corner. Ah well, birds of a feather flock together.
"Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The New York County (or Manhattan)
District Attorney, Cyrus Vance, Jr., has been scrutinizing Donald
Trump’s illegalities for some years now, but appears to have been
reluctant to lodge charges while Trump was president. The Barr
Department of Justice maintains that a sitting president cannot be
indicted, though such a policy runs counter to the whole notion that in a
republic, the leader is just a first among equals and not a king who
rules by divine right. Vance, since he works for New York State, is not
bound by DOJ federal rules, but appears not to have wished to get tied
up in court over this procedural issue.
Vance no longer has to worry about that problem. Donald Trump will
be a private citizen on January 20. Moreover, Trump cannot seek
preemptively to pardon himself from a crime brought in a state court,
nor could President Biden pardon The Donald for crimes against the state
of New York. Only Governor Andrew Cuomo could pardon Trump if he were
convicted in state court. What do you think? Would he do it?
The Manhattan District has empaneled a grand jury to consider the
proceedings designated Trump v. Vance, 19-cv-08694. The grand jury
proceedings are secret, but Manhattan DA Vance has indicated that it is looking into a number of matters, including Trump’s payoff to porn star Stephanie “Stormy Daniels” Clifford, but also “bank, tax and insurance fraud, as well as falsification of business records.”
DA Vance has sought 8 years worth of Trump, Inc. tax returns, and
while Trump has fought the subpoena, his challenge has been consistently
turned back by several courts. It seems likely that he will now get
these records. There is evidence that Trump undervalued his New York
properties in order to avoid taxes.
Me, I think the state prosecution of Trump for the Stormy Daniels
payoff is the most potentially explosive case, precisely because no
pardon could be proffered by President Biden in the genteel tradition of
keeping presidents out of jail. Moreover, it would be great legal
theater, in a way that dry business or tax fraud would not. I hope the
judge allows cameras. Imagine Ms. Clifford’s testimony on national
television.
Trump paid Ms. Clifford for sex in 2006 while he was married to
Melania. On the eve of the 2016 election he directed his attorney,
Michael Cohen, to conclude a non-disclosure agreement with Ms. Clifford
for $130,000. Cohen was reimbursed by Trump, Inc. via a dummy
corporation Cohen set up for the purpose. It is not clear whether
campaign funds were used, but that would be a further illegality. Trump
was afraid that Ms. Clifford might reveal the tawdry incident of
prostitution by a married man to the press, which might sink his
presidential bid if it offended the party’s evangelicals and little old
ladies (“blue hairs” in campaign parlance).
If things unfolded in this way, Trump was guilty of election fraud,
since he knowingly spent money on a “good” for his campaign and did not
report it. Nor were donation limits observed. He could be fined
$260,000 and sent to prison for 5 years.
The case would be relatively easy to prove, since the government
raided Cohen’s office for records, and Cohen himself is willing to
testify.
If Trump were convicted of election law violations for trying to
cover up paid-for sex, I think that would do more to hurt Trumpism than
anything else. His fanatical followers would be put in the position of
trying to deny that Trump had sex with a porn star, or to deny that he
illegally paid hush money to cover it up, and that is a hard defense to
make among evangelicals, just because it would be hard to talk about
these matters. Somewhere along in Trump’s third year in Rikers, my
guess is that the sheen would be permanently off him."
Yep.
~~~~~
Sonow neither Jair Bolsonaro or AMLO have congratulated our new President-elect, Joe Biden or Vice-President -elect Kamala Harris on their win. What's up with that...yea, yea, yea, I know I've read that AMLO says he is waiting for authoritative affirmation. Do I have a comment on this behavior? Nope, I cannot comment because I live here. But I think you can guess what I am thinking, no matter what excuses are being made.
"The "Lorica" ( or in Latin,"Breastplate") is an ancient Celtic prayer attributed to Saint Patrick. Part of the Benedictus or song of Zachary from Luke 1:68-79 it is a morning prayer for the day when God's compassion like the dawn from on high shall break upon us, to shine on those who dwell in darkness and the shadow of death, and to guide our feet into the way of peace."
Primarily, the Lorica is a protection prayer, "...in which the petioner invokes all the power of God as a safeguard against evil in its many forms."
This version comes from the Benedictine Prince of Peace Abbey in Oceanside:
I arise today
through the strength of heaven,
light of the sun,
radiance of the moon,
splendor of fire,
speed of lightning,
swiftness of the wind,
depth of the sea,
stability of the earth,
firmness of the rock.
I arise today
through God's strength to pilot me,
God's might to uphold me,
God's wisdom to guide me,
God's eye to look before me,
God's ear to hear me,
God's word to speak for me,
God's hand to guard me,
God's way to lie before me,
God's shield to protect me,
God's hosts to save me
from the snares of the devil,
from everyone who desires me ill,
afar and near,
alone or in a multitude.
Christ in the heart
of every man who thinks of me,
Christ in the mouth
of every man who speaks to me,
Christ in the eye
of every man that sees me,
Christ in the ear
of every man that hears me.
Christ with me, Christ before me, Christ behind me,
So ridiculous. Donald must work on his Anger
Management problem, then go to a good old fashioned movie with a friend!
Chill Donald, Chill! https://t.co/4RNVBqRYBA
Hmmmm...other than beat his fists on the desk; watch out Melania,
even though you lied your ass off for your sweetie on the campaign
trail, he could even possibly throw you through the window out onto your bungled
Rose Garden project...you can always get a backdoor man honey...
We
caught up with Barton Gellman, who warned earlier this year that this
election could break down into chaos, to discuss how messy things could
get in the coming days.
The conversation that follows has been edited and condensed.
Caroline
Mimbs Nyce: You predicted that Donald Trump would not concede this
election, no matter the outcome. His speech and tweets early this
morning suggest that you could be right. What will it mean if he
doesn't?
Barton
Gellman: It’s not quite time for a concession speech, because the first
vote count is still under way. What Trump is doing now is making
spurious claims of victory and fabricating claims of fraud. There is
nothing abnormal about counting votes until the count is done, and I
expect the extended count to favor Biden. If Trump refuses to concede
when the count is complete, he can throw sand in the gears with
litigation and rouse his supporters into the streets. I expect things to
get much worse before they get better.
Caroline: In the worst-case scenario, could Trump use force to retain his power if he loses the Electoral College?
Bart:
Trump is talking like a dictator, but he doesn’t have the muscle to act
like one—not completely. He did not send troops or law-enforcement
agents to take control of the ballots, and if he had tried they probably
would have balked. But if Attorney General Bill Barr throws the weight
of the Justice Department behind Trump’s false claims, he can write a
legal document that orders the federal government to treat Trump as
president-elect. Trump could try to issue an executive order to the same
effect. Whether government agencies would go along with orders like
that, which are ordinarily binding but would be transparently unlawful
now, remains to be seen.
Caroline: Should this contest devolve into a court battle, can you give us a quick preview of what to expect?
Bart:
There is no precedent for litigation that tries to prevent an ordinary,
orderly account of ballots cast. But good lawyers are paid to find
ambiguity where none has been detected before. The Trump campaign will
look for any technical flaw in the procedures or in the mail ballots yet
to be counted. The Supreme Court conservatives have signaled that they
may give primacy to the exact words of state statutes, and Trump will
look for interpretations of those that conflict with the current
practices of election authorities.
Caroline: How might team Biden respond?
Bart:
The Biden team has the easier task in court: to defend a normal vote
count that is proceeding normally. Biden’s lawyers have gamed out every
argument they can imagine Trump making, and have pre-drafted legal
responses.
Bob
Bauer, a former White House counsel who is helping lead Biden’s legal
team, said that Trump is heading for one of the most embarrassing
defeats ever suffered by an American president if this election reaches
the Supreme Court.
Caroline: What's your best advice to Americans right now?
Bart:
Take a deep breath, be very cautious about believing sensational
reports on social media, and insist that our democracy follow normal
procedures. We count every vote, always have, and the election is not
over until that happens.
More reading from our reporters:
The nightmare is here, David A. Graham wrote early this morning.
If public-opinion data are unreliable, American democracy is flying blind, he argues.
The president confirmed the world's fears, our staff writer Tom McTague writes from London. "
~~~~~
~ From Foreign Policy: Check out the sidebar on the link !
"U.S. President Donald Trump, in
his campaign event at the White House in the early hours of Wednesday
morning, sought to freeze the U.S. election in its tracks, declaring the
counting of ballots to be “fraud.” As the ongoing vote count enters its
second day, many Americans have their bleary eyes glued to Electoral
College maps, where the race is neck and neck, with key battleground
states like Pennsylvania not likely to have full returns until Friday.
But as it turns out, international readers are also glued to the refresh
button. Below, we’ve rounded up some of the morning’s leading headlines
from newspapers and magazines around the world.
United Kingdom: Although the Times of London
didn’t evaluate Trump’s claims in a headline on Wednesday
morning—“Trump claims victory and demands end to vote count”—the paper
clarified in the article that the race is “still wide open” in key
states. The claims, the Times’
U.S. editor and Washington correspondent reported, amounted to a
“baseless allegation.” Meanwhile, the front page of the tabloid Daily Mail,
Britain’s highest-circulation paper, juxtaposed Biden’s growing lead in
Michigan and Wisconsin with Trump’s unfounded allegations of “surprise
ballot dumps.”
Ireland: “Fintan O’Toole: At 2.23am today, the US president launched an attempted coup,” reads the front page of the Irish Times.
O’Toole, a columnist at the paper, wrote that “Close to half of
Americans voted for him in the full knowledge that he was going to do
it.” The irony of this, given incoming election results, is that Trump
“behaved like an autocrat even when it was quite possible that he could
still win by being a democrat,” O’Toole wrote. Elsewhere in the paper,
the Washington correspondent reported that despite Trump’s claims of victory and fraud, the election is “too close to call.”
Germany: The German newsmagazine Der Spiegel
prefaced its coverage of Tuesday’s U.S. presidential election—which it
called “an attack on the nerves” —with two caveats. First, the contest’s
results won’t be clear for a while. Second, and perhaps more jarring
for a readership that gives Trump low marks, Spiegel
reported that more U.S. voters have already cast their ballots for the
Republican nominee than four years ago. The magazine added that this
trend follows an overall uptick in voter turnout, conceding that “at
least that is good news.”
By contrast, the Bild
tabloid—Germany’s most widely read publication—went the clickbait
route, quoting Trump’s unfounded claim that his lead “magically
disappeared” and describing the election as a “thriller.” It also pasted
a photo of the controversial new Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney
Barrett to its homepage, with an all-caps title asking, “WILL SHE DECIDE THE ELECTION FOR TRUMP?”
France: “Donald Trump and Joe Biden neck and neck, the United States is tearing itself apart,” read the front page of Le Monde
on Wednesday morning. The paper’s correspondent in Washington, favoring
straightforward analysis, wrote that the race saw “echoes” of 2016,
with the country’s fate resting on a handful of states. The main
difference from four years ago, Le Monde reported, is the delay in the vote count.
Spain: El PaÃs,
read widely throughout the Spanish-speaking world, declared that the
United States is facing an “institutional crisis” on its front page. The
paper’s lead election story focuses primarily on Trump’s accusations of
fraud and assertions that he won, even though key swing states are
still counting votes. “Election night has entered the most-feared
scenario,” the early morning Wednesday story begins, quoting Trump at
length throughout.
Lebanon: On the morning after the U.S. presidential election, Lebanon’s Daily Star
said, “the rest of the world was none the wiser.” The paper referenced
Trump’s “pre-emptive declaration of victory” overnight, citing civil
rights groups that view the move as “trampling of long-standing
democratic norms.” After reviewing international leaders’ mixed
reactions to the too-close-to-call election, the Star rehashed Bush v. Gore, referencing Trump’s promises to bring the 2020 election before the U.S. Supreme Court.
Japan: As the presidential contest narrows, the English-language Japan Times
notes that the U.S.-Japan relationship hangs in the balance—with the
Japanese government yet to comment on the election. In Japan, concerns
are rising that the “political crisis” in the United States sends a
message of uncertainty to its allies. The results of the election are
likely to shape new Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga’s first visit to the
United States as Japan’s leader, the paper reports.
Singapore: “Too close to call, Biden bats away Trump victory claim,” reads the front page of the Straits Times,
Singapore’s major English-language daily, which also points to the
president’s lack of evidence of any fraud despite his late-night press
conference. The paper’s U.S. correspondent notes the potential for
online misinformation in the days ahead as Biden calls for patience with
counting mail ballots.
Australia: The Sydney Morning Herald’s
North America correspondent called Trump’s premature declaration of
victory a “dark, disturbing moment in American history” in a dispatch
from Washington, raising concerns about potential unrest and the
integrity of U.S. democratic institutions over the next few days. “A
nation with widespread gun ownership, a polarised population, tribal
media outlets and a reckless president has to muddle its way through as
all the votes are counted,” he reports.
Chloe Hadavas is an editorial fellow at Foreign Policy. Twitter: @Hadavas
Audrey Wilson is an associate editor at Foreign Policy. Twitter: @audreybwilson
Allison Meakem is an editorial fellow at Foreign Policy. Twitter: @allisonmeakem
~~~~~
Well, there's more, and these issues are what face us now.
~ From Foreign Policy - with many more outstanding reports on the sidebar. Click the link !
"Whoever ends up winning the U.S. election—an answer we may get
tonight, or not for weeks if some state results get bogged down in
litigation—one of the most important takeaways from the race is that it
was so close. Far from the landslide that polls seemed to predict, it’s
come down to a nail-biter.
The big question now is what these results mean for the country.
Pundits have tried to explain away President Donald Trump’s show of
strength by pointing to lockdown fatigue or voters’ appreciation for his
perceived success on the economy—at least until the pandemic came along
and cratered it.
But these rationalizations don’t tell the whole story. Most
important, they don’t account for the fact that, whoever ultimately wins
the White House, nearly half of all U.S. voters endorsed a
white-nationalist serial liar who has spectacularly botched the most
serious health crisis in a century. They also knowingly ignored, or
willingly embraced, Trump’s flagrant cruelty and sexism, his lack of
curiosity or knowledge about the government and the world, his disdain
for traditional U.S. values such as fair play and the rule of law, and
his eagerness to tear down the institutions of governance at home and
abroad—institutions that, while flawed, have provided much peace and
prosperity over the years. Back in 2016, some Republicans voted for
Trump because they didn’t know much about him, or because they hoped
that the responsibilities of the office would transform him into a
statesman. No one can make that argument today. We all now know exactly
who Trump is.
When you factor in the facts that Trump has won more votes this time than in 2016, that he improved his standing among Latino and Black
voters, and that the Republican Party may well hold the Senate, you’re
left with one conclusion: 2016 was no fluke. Whoever wins this one,
we’re all living in Trump’s America now.
Why do I say that? For starters, Trump and his party’s show of
strength means that win or lose, Trump isn’t going away and the GOP
won’t abandon him after all. Before the election, the end of Trumpism
seemed like a sure thing. More and more Republicans were arguing,
quietly, that the party needed reform and that four more years of Trump
would doom them all. Even stalwart supporters such as Sen. John Cornyn
were starting to edge away from the president. Now that Trump, and
those supporters, have done so well, it’s hard to imagine many
Republicans giving up on Trump or Trumpism anytime soon.
With his party and close to half the public behind him, an empowered
Trump—whether as president, opposition leader, or freelance tweeter and
media star—will continue to draw huge levels of attention and support,
which he’ll use to hector and undermine Democrats and to push the same
peevish, counterfactual, us-versus-the-experts-and-everybody-else
message that he has for the past four years. Republican “Never
Trumpers”—former GOP officials dedicated to process, competent
governance, the importance of institutions, and at least some basic form
of national unity—will remain marginalized or will leave the party
altogether.
The results will be dire. Should the GOP win the White House, or lose
it but hold the Senate, the policy paralysis of the past four years
will continue—or even worsen. And things may not be much better under
former Vice President Joe Biden. Even presidents who control Congress
rarely get more than one or two big things done before their first
midterm election, when they often lose legislative support. It’s hard to
imagine that a President Biden, should he earn that title, will get
even that far unless he manages to eke out a Senate victory (which, as
of this writing, seems unlikely).
That’s a recipe for big trouble ahead. While Biden may seek to change
the tone in Washington, the years of Barack Obama’s presidency showed
that despite Biden’s lifelong dedication to bipartisanship, so long as
Republicans remain the party of no, the chances of achieving it are
close to zero. Under a divided government, we’re likely to see more
inaction on huge problems such as the pandemic (though Biden could make
some improvements using his executive authority) and the economy (where
he can’t do much without Congress). Should Biden fail to pass major
pandemic relief and other government spending, markets will flounder and
financial instability will increase. Without coordinated action by all branches of the U.S. government, the pandemic will get much worse.
Thus no matter who wins the White House, Trump’s America—a country
that has now spurned its best chance to resoundingly repudiate him—will
mean more self-perpetuating dysfunction. Rage at the failure of
government to help, or Republicans’ rage at the government’s attempts
to help (through restrictions meant to limit the spread of the virus)
will only intensify the country’s already vicious polarization, further
reducing the chances for bipartisan cooperation and possibly leading to
violence.
Biden’s goal of healing the nation’s divisions and governing in a way
that brings everyone together seems like a very tall order now. Obama’s
attempts to do the same only fueled Republicans’ obstreperousness and
drove a large share of the public into the dangerous fantasy land of
birtherism and other conspiracy theories (some of which ultimately
morphed into QAnon). Now that Trump’s approach, for all its ugliness,
has received a dramatic embrace from nearly half the country, it’s hard
to imagine a President Biden making things better enough to make a
difference. And it’s impossible to imagine a President Trump even
trying.
Jonathan Tepperman is the editor in chief of Foreign Policy.
"The final results of the 2020 presidential and congressional
elections remain unresolved this morning. Even absent an outcome, there
are many in the U.S. and around the world who will call Tuesday’s
closer-than-expected election a disaster, an abject national
humiliation, and a punch in the throat to every medical professional who
waded into Donald Trump’s pandemic wearing trash bags and masks dipped
in Lysol so they could help save lives.
How very quickly we forget.
No, this is not 2016, when half the country voted “couch” instead of
heading out to their polling places. In fact, one of the bright spots of
the night is that turnout was the highest
it has been in 120 years. Just under 67 percent, the country
outperformed its turnout mark for the 1960 Kennedy/Nixon election. You
can’t, and won’t, do much better than that these days.
And right there comes the nasty little turn. Many devoutly believed
Trump needed to be thoroughly and unquestionably routed last night, and
not just to avoid a protracted and messy legal battle that could wind up
before a badly compromised Supreme Court. More than that, the hope for a
full Trump routing last night was also a hope that the entire
grotesquerie that is Trumpism itself might be torn down, burned and
buried under salted earth before the watching eyes of the whole wide
world.
Well, after a huge turnout, that did not happen. Instead, an election
that many expected to be a Democratic “Blue Wave” has become a nip and
tuck affair that has seen Democrats actually lose seats in the House of
Representatives. Democrats still hold the majority in that chamber, but
it is a slimmer one today, and the GOP minority will surely be
emboldened after outstripping expectations. Dreams of a Democratic
Senate majority are slowly but surely falling to dust.
Ah, yes. Expectations, otherwise known as “polls,” form an entire industry that has once again proven itself unequal to the task
it claims expertise in. I’m not one to casually quote neoconservative
fiends like John Podhoretz, but in this specific instance, he cuts it
right down to the bone.
“Political polling is a fraud,” Podhoretz correctly declares.
“It claims to measure something that, it is now unmistakably clear,
cannot be accurately measured. Polling’s seductive promise is that it
will take the guesswork out of understanding a complex and changing set
of circumstances and replace that uncertainly with something that looks
like science. But it’s less like the physics that helps us shoot rockets
into space and more like the set of the spaceship on ‘Star Trek.’ It’s
shiny. It has a lot of dials and lights. Things beep. But if you put it
on the Cape Canaveral launchpad and lit it on fire, you would just burn
to death.”
I pledge to you upon this day, November 4, 2020, that I will never
again stain this page with numbers from a poll, and I apologize abjectly
for having done so in the past. Polls are the Wonder Bread of political
journalism; they help fatten articles and hit deadlines, but as far as
valuable information goes, they have the caloric equivalent of gravel.
Never again, you have my word.
The race at present is down to a white-knuckle clutch of seven
states: Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Michigan, Georgia, Wisconsin,
Nevada and Arizona. The last of those, Arizona, was called late last
night by Fox News in favor of Joe Biden, which motivated Trump to erupt in a frenzy of fraud accusations
and authoritarian victory declarations that, impossibly but surely,
stained this elaborate debacle even more deeply. “We’ll be going to the
U.S. Supreme Court,” he railed. “We want all voting to stop.”
The outstanding districts in those states are almost all urban
centers that contain millions of uncounted votes. Tallying those ballots
is what Trump wants stopped, and what will likely motivate him to bring
this election to court if Biden eventually prevails. At the end of that
path lies the Supreme Court, clearly what Trump is hoping for.
To be sure, there were a great many joyful victories recorded last
night. Reps. Ilhan Omar and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez obliterated their
opponents to secure a second term for themselves, and Jamaal Bowman won
the seat for New York’s 16th district. Sarah McBride won her race for
Delaware state senate, making her the highest-ranking transgender
official in government.
All small-time drug possession in Oregon has been decriminalized.
Arizona, Montana, New Jersey and South Dakota legalized marijuana.
Mississippi approved the removal of the Confederate banner from its
state flag. Florida passed a $15 minimum wage. Nebraska and Utah passed
measures closing the loophole that allowed slavery to continue for those
convicted of a crime.
But Lindsey Graham still has a job, as does Mitch
McConnell, and probably as majority leader to boot. The “Blue Wave” was
transmogrified into lost ground in both the House and Senate, and if
Biden wins this thing, it will be by a whisper-thin margin that can
fully expect to spend the next couple of months in court. In any event,
the counting goes on and it will probably be days before a final result
is reached.
We will be spending a long time picking apart the details that led to
last night, the missed clues and overstated chances. Was Joe Biden the
best choice as a nominee, or just another in a seemingly endless line of
doomed DNC Dembots straight out of central casting? Certainly, Biden
has not lost yet, and may well prevail… but the moment begs a question:
Would we be here if Bernie Sanders or Elizabeth Warren were standing in
Biden’s place? We will never know, and now we wait.
Two facts stand out: First, the urban/rural voter split is more
pronounced than ever, and the urban voters are surprisingly evenly
matched in numbers with their rural brethren. There is no blaming
turnout this time, not after matching a 120-year-old high mark. We
appear to be as evenly divided a nation as we’ve been hearing we are,
and this newest nose count underscores the grim truth of it.
Second, and more importantly: Despite the horrors of the COVID-19
pandemic and his ridiculous handling of the crisis, despite the
shattered economy, the ceaseless bombast, the overt racism, all of it,
Donald Trump remains popular enough to make a razor-thin contest out of
what many (hand raised) expected would be a blowout. More people voted
in this election than ever before in all our history, and at least half
of them think Trump is worthy of a second term. Maybe more, if the deal
goes down his way.
As election officials steadily process the ballots before them, I am
processing the meaning of last night’s results. I gravely misunderstood
the nature of my country coming into this contest, something I felt I’ve
had a handle on for years. Nearly 66 million people surveyed the
roiling, hateful, plague-raddled disaster zone the nation has become
under Trump’s administration and decided he should have another four
years to do more of the same.
It’s not over yet, but no matter the final outcome, this feels very
much like a resounding setback, if not a defeat in its own right. Even
if Biden wins, he would need a Democratic majority in the Senate in
order to effectively govern. The ground was ripe for the Democrats to do
much better last night, with the surrounding circumstances altogether
vehement in their pressing relevance… and then, this.
It is going to be a very long week, again. Stout hearts."
