ProgressVirginia reported Tuesday afternoon that the Virginia Senate’s Privileges and Elections Committee killed Sen. Charles “Bill” Carrico Sr.’s electoral college-rigging bill, despite an offer by Carrico to amend the bill to award electors in proportion to the state’s popular vote. The vote was 11-4 against the bill, although it will not be official until the close of the committee meeting.
MSNBC's Jen Psaki with a "little trip down memory lane" on Trump and the "but her emails" crowd. After showing numerous clips of Trump back in 2016 ranting and raving about Hillary Clinton, and promising to protect classified information, Psaki reminded everyone why the nonstop deflection to protect Trump we've been hearing from the right is nonsense.
PSAKI: I mean, he sounds pretty protective of classified information. They're committed to it. There is hypocrisy, and there is what you just saw there. Fast forward to present day. This is rhetoric we've continued to hear from the Republican party following Trump's indictment.
What about Hillary Clinton? Or to keep the 2016 rhetoric going, but her emails? Aside from this being hypocritical, which we come to expect from Donald Trump in some members of the Republican party, it is simply inaccurate. It's totally wrong.
Yes Hillary Clinton's case concerned her use of a private email server during her time as Secretary of State, which by the way her predecessors also had, and there was classified information which was found on some of those emails.
But prosecutors concluded there was no evidence that she knew the emails contain classified information at all. Donald Trump admitted he knew he had classified information in documents on a tape. Hillary Clinton also turned over her private email server to the Justice Department as soon as she was asked.
A group of homophobes in Glendale had a horrific meltdown because they didn't like one sentence in one book at one school in the Glendale Unified School District.
LAUSD School District Board member Jackie Goldberg addressed this issue and rained hellfire down upon them, righteously so:
I read you the entire book. It had one sentence. Families can have two parents that are mothers and two parents that are fathers. They were told, the parents at that school, that if it was very difficult for their children to be in that room, they didn't have to be in that room. They announced the assembly, told all the parents if this is a problem for you, we get it. I have been confronting this issue my entire life. I have been threatened, I have been harassed, I have been denied jobs, because of who I am and whom I love. You don't have to love me. You don't have to like me. You can think I am the devil incarnate. But you better treat me like a decent human being because that's how I treat you even though you don't believe I have the right to exist. I am very tired of having young people and adults in the LGBT community hear three days of yelling and screaming about this. What do you think that did to them? What do you think that did to every gay teacher, every gay custodian, every gay person in this city? Every gay kid? IT MADE THEM AFRAID! IT MADE THEM AFRAID! HOW DARE YOU MAKE THEM AFRAID BECAUSE YOU ARE!!
It makes me just want to hop a plane to Los Angeles to thank Ms Goldberg and shake her hand.
At age 37, Kyrylo Budanov is already a two-star general in Ukraine's army and has been the Chief of Intelligence since 2020. He's known for his mordantly funny black humour, unmercifully trolling the Russians on the state of the war and often giving a precise timeline of what will happen, where and when. And he's always right. Next to President Zelensky and General Zaluzhnyi, he's the man the Russians would most like to kill. So the joke of his appearing and not saying anything at all has really struck a chord with Ukrainians.
Source: The New Voice of Ukraine
Ukraine’s top military intelligence officer, Kyrylo Budanov, is known for his cryptic comments — he has frequently dropped hints and clues about the war to tantalize Ukrainians and boggle Russian minds.
But in his latest stunt he has outdone himself by releasing a teaser video in which he says… absolutely nothing at all.
The Ministry of Defense of Ukraine unveiled the cryptic video on June 11, featuring the Chief of the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ministry of Defense sitting behind a desk with a neutral expression on his face as the camera slowly zooms in towards him.
The 33-second clip includes a collage of atmospheric sounds, which towards the end seem to suggest the crash of stormy sea waves on a coastline.
A Ukrainian and a Japanese flag can be seen dimly in the background.
Trump's partner in sedition Steve Bannon ranted to Rudy Giuliani (LOL) that Bill Barr is guilty of treason and he wants to shove Trump's indictments where the sun don't shine.
Barr Barr's Sunday show appearance has made MAGA's head spin 180 degrees like the Exorcist.
"And I think the counts under the Espionage Act that he willfully retained those documents are solid counts," Barr added. "But I do think that even half of what Andy McCarthy said, which is if even half of it is true, then he's toast. I mean, it's a pretty, it's a very detailed indictment, and it's very, very damning."
Bannon has his viewers convinced that Trump was set up by a praetorian guard made up of deep state operatives and the real criminals are Bill Barr and Hunter Biden, instead of the former guy.
“Forget this Trump stuff, that’s all nonsense," Bannon ranted. "We’re gonna get to the heart of the matter."
"And Bill Barr, you can sit up there and say it's a great case," he said. "We’re gonna shove this up your ass, okay? We’re gonna shove it up your ass."
"You are freaking guilty of treason. Big old...You’re guilty of treason -- you had this information and we can prove you had it."
On Fox News Sunday, Trump attorney Alina Habba tried to claim that Trump took and kept nothing from the White House except articles and mementos.
Shannon Bream put forth some of the transcripts of Trump's own words talking about the documents with his lawyers admitting to some of the indictment charges. Habba tried to spin her way out of them.
I can't get into details on TV, obviously, but I can say that we saw a picture that's been widely publicized, right, of a box that's flipped over.
What's in that box?
Newspaper articles, pictures, things that are mementos, things that he has a right to take.
So if I'm someone with documents that I have a right to have as the president who left the White House, do I want people rummaging through my personal items?
No.
Habba then dismissed the visual evidence put forth by Jack Smith.
"Well, first of all, I've never seen anything spilled out," Habba said.
The Trump attorney then tried to insinuate that all visual evidence of top-secret boxes piled high in bathrooms and files strewn all over the floor was a setup because Trump is supposedly a neat person.
Habba then claimed Trump had every right to take hundreds of classified documents, when he does not, and certainly not as "mementos" he could read while sitting on the toilet.
"And while I am certain that the current Grand Wizard — I’m sorry, excuse me, governor — of my home state of Florida…,” she said, as the audience applauded.
Source: The Hollywood Reporter
Broadway actress Denée Benton compared Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis to a Ku Klux Klan leader during Sunday’s Tony Awards.
Benton took the stage during the live broadcast on CBS and Paramount+ to present the Excellence in Theatre Education Award from Carnegie Mellon University. Jason Zembuch Young of South Plantation High School in Plantation, Florida, is the 2023 recipient.
In her remarks, Benton noted that she is not only a CMU alum, but also hails from Florida.
“Earlier tonight, CMU and the Tony Awards presented the 2023 Excellence in Theatre Education Award. And while I am certain that the current Grand Wizard — I’m sorry, excuse me, governor — of my home state of Florida…,” she said, as the audience applauded. “I am sure that he will be changing the name of this following town immediately. We were honored to present this award to the truly incredible and life-changing Jason Zembuch Young, enhancing the lives of students at South Plantation High School in Plantation, Florida.”
Former President Donald Trump on Sunday confirmed the existence of audio recordings that could be used as evidence against him in a case about the mishandling of classified documents.
During an interview on Sunday with host Roger Stone, Trump responded to reports indicating he admitted he did not declassify some documents before leaving office with them. Those recordings are reportedly in the hands of special counsel Jack Smith.
"By the way, the tapes that you read about, those tapes are my tapes," Trump growled. "I gave them very willingly, the tapes."
Trump complained that President Joe Biden "probably doesn't have tapes" incriminating himself.
"I gave them the tapes!" he exclaimed before threatening to release tapes of the FBI searching Mar-a-Lago.
"I have tapes of the FBI during the raid. I didn't put them out because I was asked not to by them," he ranted. "But I have tapes of the raid by FBI. You want to see some tapes? Those are tapes."
Alex Jones and Roger Stone were furious that Donald Trump is sucking up all the MAGA money fundraising off his indictments, while Jones is getting attaboys, but can't pay his legal bills.
There's this weird paradox where I get more verbal support in the street and more attaboys than ever and so do you.
But it's like, yeah, we already know you're right about everything so let's just move on.
No, and it's great that Trump's getting record donations, that's wonderful.
But and I'm not complaining at the audience, but I'm barely paying the bills here at Free Speech Systems.
I'm barely paying my legal bills.
Our enemies keep doubling down.
That means you just keep doubling down.
Jones and many other MAGA miscreants are not happy that the cockwombler is soaking up all the MAGA grift money.
Jones finally exploded.
"Roger Stone, people like Tucker Carlson, we're the tip of the damn spear, people," Jones said while pounding the table. "We're the ones they're coming after."
Then Jones admitted to being a loser, I think.
"So if you want to know what horse to bet on, bet on the one that keeps winning, but the one that's bleeding fricking snot out of its mouth and got blood coming out of its ass, because I'm not ever giving up, but I will give out if you don't support us," he exclaimed.
"So belly up or roll over, give us the goddamn money," he screamed.
ABC News contributor Dan Abrams claimed by Florida picking Judge Aileen Cannon to oversee the beginnings of the Trump trail, it was a good thing because then the MAGA cult won't just focus on the judge.
Has Abrams been really paying attention to the way the Republican Party, Trump, his supporters in and out of Congress and in the media have acted since 2016?
Here's the transcript from ABC's This Week:
STEPHANOPOULOS: Dan, let's talk about how this case is likely to play out. One of the first things we've found out, it's been assigned to this judge. You've had jurisdiction over the Trump case earlier.
ABRAMS: Yeah, Aileen Cannon. We don't know if she's going to actually have the trial itself. We know she's going to have the early portion of this case.
STEPHANOPOULOS: What would prevent her from having the trial there?
ABRAMS: Well, look, they're going to determine down the road who the judge is going to be in the case. But for now, she's handling the first hearing in the case. And look, and I think that's a good thing. It's a good thing because at least the focus won't be on who the judge is, right? Because in a lot of these cases you see Donald Trump is saying, this judge is biased against me. There's no way he can argue this judge is biased against him. He appointed this judge. This judge had a favorable ruling to him. It was ultimately overruled by the appellate court. And these initial proceedings I don't think are going to make or break the case either.
The liars on Fox & Friends were on a roll this Sunday with their defense of Donald Trump following his indictment for mishandling of classified documents at Mar-a-Lago. After playing footage of Trump at an event in Columbus the prior evening, where he griped that every time he flies over a blue state, he gets a subpoena, co-host Rachel Campos-Duffy repeated Cain's assertion that what Trump did was just like "a traffic incident having the book thrown at it," before launching into a lie-filled tirade about Hillary Clinton's emails and Joe Biden supposedly taking bribes from Ukraine while he was Vice President:
CAMPOS-DUFFY: To your point, Will, you're right, it is like a traffic incident having the book thrown at it, but also, you cannot look at this, what they're doing to the Trump, without looking at what they didn't do to Hillary Clinton who bleached 30,000 e-mails and said, don't worry, I went through and made sure that those that I deleted were not, you know, classified or not involved with the Clinton Foundation.
Michael Cohen spoke to Rev. Al Sharpton this weekend about Trump facing federal charges over keeping classified documents, the threat of violence at his upcoming arraignment in Florida, and why he believes Trump will throw Jared Kushner under the bus to save himself.
Cohen told Sharpton this is about only the documents the feds know of.
"I have said on your show a long time ago, they need to play, like, the 'Where's Waldo' game. And you need to go to every single location that Donald has been to -- his kids, wherever he went," he said.
"You need to follow the Donald trail because I am certain, knowing what he does, that there must be files someplace over there."
"Now, you said moments ago investigators should be looking everywhere that Trump has been and everyone he has met since leaving the White House," Sharpton said.
"But based on your experience with Trump, your own experience, do you think there could be more damaging revelations to come?"
"Oh, I'm certain of it," Cohen said.
"It is the same way I said on this show a year ago, and in six months when they raided Mar-A-Lago. I said that is not where the only documents are. On top of that, I believe there will be revelations to come that deal with Jared Kushner and his unholy relationship with the Saudi Arabian government, with Mohammed Bin Salman.
Katy Phang talked to Rick Wilson yesterday about the Trump indictment, pointing out that experts are concerned about the threat of violence from supporters.
"Katy, it is enormously significant," Wilson said.
"Look, we ended up in January 6th of 2021 with a mob destroying the Capitol. Trying to kill people. We ended up with a mob at Donald Trump's direct order, trying to overthrow an election. You have got Clay Higgins, you've got Kari Lake. You've got all these other folks who are now saying the quiet part out loud. 'If you try to hold Trump to standards of accountability and justice, we will kill you.'
"That's what they are saying. We should take it seriously. The Department of Justice should take it seriously. Law enforcement should take it seriously. These are people who are not doing it rhetorically," he said.
"There will be violence. Take the promise seriously. We are in the late stage of American democracy right now, and there is an authoritarian movement that understands the force of action through -- willing to use and they believe it is politically consequential for them, and that there will not be repercussions in the political space."
Phang asked if the conviction of people like the Oath Keepers and Proud Boys would act as a deterrent.
Wilson pointed out that ordinary foot soldiers are the people who went to jail.
He said people like Clay Higgins and Kari Lake are "more than willing to have lower tier people engage in stochastic violence against the country to protect Donald Trump."
Ben Shapiro really doesn't like Pride Month. He has some bizarre thoughts about it. If you've read any of his work, you'd think, 'Wow, he had a great education, and yet, he's still stupid."
Shapiro's Twitter feed is typically a hot mess, too. He lost it over the Biden White House hanging a Pride flag/banner to honor equality and the 1969 Stonewall Uprising in Manhattan.
Ben couldn't handle it.
"Not one American soldier fought and bled for this flag," he tweeted."Not one American taxpayer paid taxes to the government of this flag. Not one law has been passed under a government elected under this flag. The ideological coup is complete."
Not one American soldier fought and bled for this flag. Not one American taxpayer paid taxes to the government of this flag. Not one law has been passed under a government elected under under this flag. The ideological coup is complete. https://t.co/Sl2pURwID1
— Ben Shapiro (@benshapiro) June 11, 2023
Twitter wasn't having it.
I got calls from friends all over the country yesterday, asking about the I-95 collapse.
Well, it ain't pretty. I know the section where the fire happened, and I'm assuming (based on my own experience) the tanker went around the ramp just a little too fast. (Just as a point of interest for history buffs, you will have a lot of trouble getting anywhere near Four Seasons Total Landscaping.)
the philly i-95 bridge collapse happened right next to four seasons total landscaping pic.twitter.com/9v3UQIQ92X
— Justin Sink (@justinsink) June 11, 2023
A section of northbound I-95 in Philadelphia collapsed Sunday after a tanker truck caught fire underneath the highway. The southbound side is also “compromised by heavy fire,” city officials said Sunday.
I-95 is an important artery for not only the East Coast, but for regional transportation and commuters in Philadelphia. The affected portion of I-95 carries about 150,000 vehicles per day, of which 14,000 are trucks, the Delaware Valley Regional Planning Commission said Sunday.
The "Cracker Barrel Has Fallen!!" Edition
The people are revolting! Disgusting & stupid, too. P.M. Carpenter doesn't think we're after the right people.
Yastreblyansky started a Substack: "It wasn't just Trump who was stealing classified documents".
Best thing about web-logs? Excerpts from behind paywall & subscription censorship. Hullabaloo violates the NYRB's copyright to share "why Trump did it".
Off the Kuff reports charges have been filed concerning Florida's shipping asylum seekers to Massachusetts from San Antonio last Sep't. No individual suspects have been named yet.
M. Bouffant did this. He already checked mbru@crooksandliars.com, & was very disappointed.
I live in a very progressive congressional district in Los Angeles, CA-30. It includes, Hollywood, Burbank, Los Feliz, Silverlake, West Hollywood, East Hollywood, Atwater, Hancock Park and Glendale. The PVI is D+23 and the partisan lean is D+45. Biden beat Trump 72.2% to 26.0%.
In the 2022 congressional race, two Democrats won slots in the run-off— incumbent Adam Schiff and progressive challenger Maebe A. Girl, beating out Republican Ronda Kennedy. Maebe brought in over 21,000 votes in that primary.
Nationally, Democratic primary winners in that year’s primary who won included these 5 who were all heavily favored by the establishment and went on to lose in November: We can't let this happen again in #CA30.
• Robert Zimmerman in NY-03 with 9,482 votes
• Lauren Gillan in NY-04 with 12,432 votes
• Max Rose, a former Congressman, in NY-11 with 15,871 votes
• Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney in NY-17 with 21,525 votes
• Francis Conole in NY-22 with 10,644 votes
Dan Goldman is now serving in Congress but when he ran in 2022, he took just 16,686 votes to win. And Hakeem Jeffries, now the top Democrat in the House had a contested primary, which he won— with 22,196 votes, approximately the same number of votes as Maebe.
Our favorite teacher is back to work with her most troublesome friend, who has gotten himself into hot water again by taking papers that did not belong to him, even though he put his name on it with a Sharpie. But accountability is such a foreign concept to her friend that she has had to give him two lessons about it already with more to come I'm sure.
Her is her second attempt to get through to her friend:
[embed eid="56000" /]
Open thread below...
Alina Habba, an attorney for Donald Trump, said that her client is still grappling with the possibility that he could spend "decades in jail" after being hit with a federal indictment.
"I know you've been with the president," Fox News host Shannon Bream told Habba on Sunday. "What is his mood? I mean, a conviction here on any number or multiple of these charges could be decades in jail. Has that sunk in?"
"No, I don't think he's thinking of it that way, and I don't really think that's a realistic way to think about this case," Habba replied. "He's done nothing wrong. He said that this is completely politically motivated. It's election interference at its best by a political opponent."
"So to his credit, and the world should understand, an indictment is a one-sided document," she added. "He has a defense. The defense is real."
Habba suggested Trump's legal team would argue the former president is innocent because he had a right to have classified documents under the Presidential Records Act.
"Hillary Clinton didn't have that," she insisted. "Biden didn't have that. And we'll put that defense on. The team he's going to have will be strong and knows exactly what they're doing."
The propagandists on the Fox "news" channel continue to prove that there's no lie too big or too small they'd be unwilling to tell in the service of Dear Leader. Here's Fox & Friends Weekend host Will Cain likening the charges in the indictment of Donald Trump to a mere "traffic fine" and hoping that none of the lemmings that watch his show ever bother to actually go read what's in it.
CAIN: I went through this story. I went through the legal implications of this entire indictment, the Presidential Records Act, whether or not it holds, versus the Espionage Act. I went through the history of where this has been done in the United States and where it's been done across the world, and I went through the severity of the allegations of the indictment, of the charges.
And the bottom line is, the takeaway is one that I'll share with you this morning. What I think this is, is this is the equivalent of throwing the book at a traffic fine.
This is not... we cannot look at this situation and go, wow, it's clear that president Trump crossed all his t's and dotted his i's, but when it comes to these documents, they just don't amount, in a political atmosphere, in a free democracy, they do not amount to throwing the book at a person who is your primary political rival, because that is the stuff that puts us in the same category as third world countries. *