Former President Trump flailed and moaned after the November 2020 election — a tantrum of proportions so huge, a federal judge says, that he won’t get the legal immunity that typically protects presidents from lawsuits.
Continue reading “Judge Finds Trump Stepped Outside Presidential Immunity With 2020 Subversion”McCarthy Offers Trump And MTG Same Blanket, Untrue Defense In Wake Of Fuentes Mar-A-Lago Dinner
House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) defended former President Donald Trump and Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) on Tuesday, telling reporters outside the White House that both Republicans condemned far-right leader and white nationalist Nick Fuentes after spending time with him. They did not do that.
Continue reading “McCarthy Offers Trump And MTG Same Blanket, Untrue Defense In Wake Of Fuentes Mar-A-Lago Dinner”Kagan Warns That States Will Have Path To Stop Federal Policy ‘In Its Tracks’ If Court Sides With Texas On Immigration Case
The Supreme Court heard oral arguments Tuesday that drill to the heart of executive branch power and states’ attempts to curtail it.
Continue reading “Kagan Warns That States Will Have Path To Stop Federal Policy ‘In Its Tracks’ If Court Sides With Texas On Immigration Case”Remember Perla?
Remember Perla Huerta? She was “Perla,” the head recruiter in San Antonio, Texas for that DeSantis migrant hoodwinking operation back in September that ended with 50 migrants stranded on Martha’s Vineyard. She, along with DeSantis’s chief of staff, James Uthmeier, and his “pubic safety czar,” Larry Keefe, have had their names added to a federal class action lawsuit which alleges that they and others tricked the migrants into getting on that plane.
DeSantis himself gets top billing. You can see the amended complaint here.
For many this story seems like old news, yet another in the endless stream of outrages or scandals which hold the stage for a few days or weeks only to be replaced by another in endless rotation. It also doesn’t seem like a problem for DeSantis since his target audience is voters who want to stick it to immigrants and the triggered libs who hypocritically come to their defense. After all, he just cruised to a landslide reelection victory, right? But I don’t think either assumption is true. Never did.
Continue reading “Remember Perla?”McCarthy Keeps Up Weak MAGA Staring Contest: If You ‘Play Games’ Dems Will Pick Speaker For Us
House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) dared those in his caucus making noise about opposing his speakership to keep up the act, warning that Democrats could end up picking the next speaker if House Republicans don’t come together.
Continue reading “McCarthy Keeps Up Weak MAGA Staring Contest: If You ‘Play Games’ Dems Will Pick Speaker For Us”Florida Settles Another Case Wound Up In DeSantis’s Political Voter Fraud Stunt
Yet another case involving a Floridian caught up in Florida Gov. Ron Desantis’s voter fraud task force stunt has been settled, but this time DeSantis’s office is counting it as a win.
On Monday, 56-year-old Romona Oliver accepted a plea deal after she was arrested in August for allegedly voting illegally. Because she pleaded no contest, statewide prosecutors have dropped another felony charge against her and credited her for time served after she spent a few hours in Hillsborough County jail on the day she was first arrested.
Continue reading “Florida Settles Another Case Wound Up In DeSantis’s Political Voter Fraud Stunt”The Great Pearl Clutching
TPM Reader JS’s note is very much internal to the world of American Judaism, discussions of Zionism in the context of American politics. If you’re not Jewish, a few of the references may be obscure. (The Zionist Organization of America (ZOA) is a century-old organization once led by Louis Brandeis which for the last thirty years has been owned and controlled by one guy, Morton Klein, who basically uses it as a cudgel for right-wing politics in the U.S.) But the general points should be familiar and they’re correct. A lot of folks have suddenly found out Trump might be a bad guy just as the stink of a loser is all over him.
Continue reading “The Great Pearl Clutching”I’m Not Seeing It
I’m seeing headlines from all the insider newsletters announcing an “avalanche” of criticism of ex-President Trump over the West-Fuentes hoedown at Mar-a-Lago. But somehow I’m not quite seeing it. There does seem to be some mild uptick or rather a continuation of criticism from Republican senators. But they tend to be what remains or are now called middle-of-the-road Republicans — Romney, Moore Capito, Kennedy. I see mean names. Marco Rubio called him an “ass clown.” But the “him” was Nick Fuentes, not Trump. The strongest rebuke appears to be coming from Mike Pence, who has called on Trump to apologize for the meeting, something which in the Trump universe is almost like telling someone to jump off a bridge. But again, it’s Mike Pence.
Continue reading “I’m Not Seeing It”GOP Senators Say The Real Problem With Trump Is His Bad Staff
A lot of things happened. Here are some of the things. This is TPM’s Morning Memo.
The Most Mockable Of Trump Defenses
Seven years into the Trump era, and we’re still getting this kind of nonsense from sitting U.S. senators: Whose fault was it that Trump had dinner with Nick Fuentes and Kanye West? Certainly not Trump’s! It was poor staffing!
Sen. John Thune (R-SD): “That’s just a bad idea on every level. I don’t know who was advising him on his staff but I hope that whoever that person was got fired.”
Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC): “If the reports are true and the president didn’t know who he was, whoever let him in the room should be fired.”
A guy whose political career was launched by the catchphrase “You’re fired!” is the victim of his own failure to fire bad staff. Amazing.
For the most credulous audience, this dance lets the senator sidestep any direct criticism of Trump while still handwringing and looking serious.
For the rest of us, the senators look like duplicitous boobs.
Word Of The Year
Trump Rolls Out The Mueller Playbook
The former president has ratcheted up the attacks on the new special counsel, Jack Smith. It worked before, and no surprise he’s using it again.
Asha Rangappa writes about the complicated interplay of Trump’s public attacks and DOJ rules and regs that limit public comment on investigative matters in “Information Asymmetry and the Special Counsel.”
Oh, That’s How It Works?
Trump demands that Kari Lake be “installed” as the governor of Arizona.
Arizona County Refuses To Certify 2022 Election Results
Monday was the deadline for Arizona counties to certify election results. Several GOP-controlled counties dillydallied until the last minute, but only Cochise County blew the deadline. Democratic super lawyer Marc Elias immediately filed a lawsuit against the county, and so did Arizona Secretary of State Katie Hobbs (the Democratic governor-elect).
Refusing to certify the election results is what the NYT calls a “new frontier in the politicization of elections.”
“I don’t think we’ve seen this in modern times before the 2020 election. It all goes back to Trump and election denialism,” UCLA law professor Richard L. Hasen told the Times.
Supreme Court Issues Extraordinary Defense Of Alito
I don’t remember seeing anything quite like this before.
The legal counsel for the Supreme Court has written a letter defending Justice Samuel Alito from the allegations in a NYT story that he may have leaked in advance the results of the court’s 2014 Hobby Lobby decision, which he authored.
“There is nothing to suggest that Justice Alito’s actions violated ethics standards,” Ethan Torrey wrote. The letter was a response to questions from a Democratic senator and congressman raised by the NYT report.
Special Master Nixes Hearing
The special master in the Mar-a-Lago documents case has cancelled a hearing scheduled for Dec. 1 and instructed Trump and the Justice Department to respond in writing to questions he has about the dwindling number of dubious privilege issues being raised by Trump.
The 11th Circuit Court of Appeals could rule at any moment now on the Justice Department appeal that would halt the special master’s review. Stay tuned.
Oath Keepers Jury Sends Note To Judge
The jury deliberating in the trial of the Oath Keepers sent a note to the judge asking for more clarity on the seditious conspiracy charges.
Buffalo Grocery Shooter Pleads Guilty
The 19-year-old white man who killed 10 people at a grocery store in a predominately Black neighborhood of Buffalo pleaded guilty Monday to one count of domestic act of terrorism motivated by hate, 10 counts of first-degree murder, three counts of attempted murder and a weapons possession charge.
Dem Congressman Dies
Rep. Donald McEachin (D-VA), who was just re-elected in the VA-04, died Monday after a long struggle with colorectal cancer.
Volcanoes Are Cool
After sunrise Monday, scientists were able to get into the field and observe more closely the first eruption of Mauna Loa in nearly 40 years.
The locations of the lava extrusion have already changed in the early stages of the eruption from the summit caldera to the Northeast Rift Zone:
Here’s a closer view of the Northeast Rift Zone:
Behold the spectacle of dueling volcanic eruptions on the Island of Hawaii:
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Posting Through It: Trump Spends Two Days Knocking New Fav Punching Bag Jack Smith
Former President Donald Trump has spent the past two days shitposting on his off-brand Twitter app about Special Counsel Jack Smith — who was appointed less than two weeks ago to oversee two federal criminal investigations involving now-candidate Trump.
Continue reading “Posting Through It: Trump Spends Two Days Knocking New Fav Punching Bag Jack Smith”