THE PERSON who MAKES the FIRST COMMENT WILL GET TWO CRITTERS
EVERY PERSON WHO COMMENTS WILL GET A CRITTER
RULES IN THE DIARY
WHEN YOU FIND SOMETHING in the DIARY that you LIKE
YOU CAN REPOST IT AS COMMENT in the DIARY
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Trump sentenced to unconditional discharge in New York hush money case. www.msnbc.com/…
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Out of options, Trump faced the one thing he desperately tries to avoid: accountability for wrongdoing.
Judge Juan Merchan delivered an unconditional discharge sentence to the president-elect on Friday morning, making him a convicted felon in the eyes of New York state law, while wishing the defendant "godspeed" in his second term.
The night before sentencing, by way of his social media platform, the president-elect vowed to appeal the verdict.
Stepping back, it's worth appreciating the fact that Trump has racked up an amazing number of firsts during his relatively brief political career. The Republican is, for example, the first president to be impeached twice. He’s also the first candidate to ever win the presidency despite never having served the public in any way.
Trump is the first former president to have been held liable for sexual abuse. He was the first president to get caught overseeing a fraudulent charity. And a fraudulent university. And a business that was found to have repeatedly committed fraud.
In 2021, Trump became the first president to deny his successor a peaceful transition of power in the wake of his defeat. He was similarly the first president to try to hold onto power in defiance of election voters.
That's serious': Ex-judge promises Trump's sentence isn't a 'slap on the wrist.'
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Hey Amy, how's your face feeling these days? 'Traitors!' MAGA directs fury at Amy Coney Barrett as Trump becomes convicted felon. www.rawstory.com/…
Donald Trump’s devotees are furious at Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett, accusing the conservative of betraying the next president by allowing his criminal sentencing to go ahead.
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Tom Fitton, the president of Judicial Watch, wrote, "Chief Justice Roberts and Justice Amy Coney Barrett joined with their leftist colleagues to allow this unprecedented abuse. The ruling makes no sense…"
And “Ultra MAGA” X user @JamesMo97816813, wrote, "Chief Justice Roberts and Amy Comey Barrett joined with their leftist colleagues Judge Merchan and Alvin Bragg to allow this unprecedented abuse," the user posted. "The ruling makes no sense … Barrett received threats early on and she has let it control her decisions. TRAITORS."
I wonder if they'll demand FIDJT "fire" her and appoint Judge Loose-y Cannon in her place..?
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Meanwhile, Giuliani found in contempt of court for continued defamation of Georgia women. www.msnbc.com/…
A federal judge on Friday found Rudy Giuliani in contempt of court for his continued defamation of two former Georgia election workers, just days after a different federal judge held him in contempt for failing to turn over his assets to them as ordered.
In a courtroom in Washington, D.C., U.S. District Judge Beryl Howell excoriated Giuliani for continuing to defame Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss, noting multiple statements he made on his online show that she found had violated a permanent injunction he agreed to in May.
Howell ordered Giuliani to sign a sworn declaration that affirms he has seen all the evidence refuting his claims against the Georgia women, giving him 10 days to do so, with a penalty of $200 a day and potential jail time if he fails to complete it.
In issuing her ruling, the judge pointed to complaints Giuliani made on his show that the injunction was unfair, calling it “outrageous and shameful that Mr. Giuliani suggests that he is the one being treated unfairly.”
“This takes real chutzpah, Mr. Giuliani,” Howell told him.
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In a timely FOIA Files, @jasonleopold.bsky.social liberates an email between Kash Patel and Will Levi (the guy Alito called Trump about) about declassifying things to try to prove the Russian story is a hoax.
Plus a bunch of other emails from Kash.
www.bloomberg.com/news/newslet...
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— emptywheel (@emptywheel.bsky.social) January 10, 2025 at 7:42 AM
From the article: Kash Patel’s Emails Offer Insight Into How He Might Run the FBI. www.bloomberg.com/…
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As somebody who regularly battles government secrecy, I agree that forcing government agencies to be transparent is a good thing. It’s a fact that intelligence agencies overclassify records, often citing questionable “risks” to national security. I have a big stack of documents obtained after lengthy court battles to back that up. A couple of years ago, bipartisan legislation was even introduced to overhaul the classification system with the goal of reducing the number of classified records that would never see the light of day.
But what the emails show pretty clearly is that Patel politicized the process. In particular, they show he coordinated efforts with high-ranking officials at the White House, Department of Justice and Republican lawmakers to declassify documents he believed were favorable to Trump. His motive appeared to be convincing the public that Trump’s narrative on Russia—that it was a “hoax” motivated by hatred of the president—was correct.
I encourage you to read the whole thing.
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Appeals court rules Fox must face Smartmatic’s defamation lawsuit. www.msnbc.com/…
The Dominion Voting Systems defamation case against Fox News was brutal for the network in a variety of ways, not least of which was the evidence that reached the public. We learned, for example, that the conservative outlet apparently promoted bogus election claims it knew to be false, on purpose, in order to placate its audience and make money.
The good news for the network is that Dominion’s case is over, resolved in April 2023 with a $787.5 million settlement. The bad news for Fox is that this wasn’t the only case of its kind.
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Time will tell what becomes of the case — another settlement remains a distinct possibility — but as the legal process advances, it’s worth keeping in mind that Smartmatic’s lawsuit poses real dangers for Fox. The Washington Post published an analysis a while back that helped summarize the significance of the dispute.
Many of the allegations against Smartmatic were similar to those against Dominion, and Smartmatic was often lumped in with Dominion in the same allegation. They included the false claims that Dominion machines used Smartmatic software to rig the election. They included the claim that Smartmatic was used to rig elections before and that its purported foreign ties demonstrated that. Smartmatic’s software was also cast as eminently flawed and even deliberately hackable. Indeed, Smartmatic was often cast as the actual conduit for stealing the election.
The Post’s report quoted University of Utah law professor RonNell Andersen Jones who said, “Smartmatic’s suit is in many respects even more compelling as a David-and-Goliath argument to put before a jury. Its complaint emphasizes that it played a totally small and uncontroversial role in the election and that these damaging lies from Fox catapulted it to fame by catapulting it to undeserved infamy.”
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Carl Bergstrom is a Biology Professor at the University of Washington. You can click the link in the Bluesky if you want to read Peter Thiel's Op-Ed, it's downright Qray-Qray.
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Every now and then my mail includes a bizarre screed, sometimes typed on a blank postcard and heavily annotated in pen afterwards, always with strange capitalization, seldom with a return address. I remember one claiming proof that the pope and Mossad created HIV.
Anyway, here’s Peter Thiel.
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— Carl T. Bergstrom (@carlbergstrom.com) January 10, 2025 at 7:54 AM
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FIDJT may not be pleased. Supreme Court leans toward upholding law that could ban TikTok. www.nbcnews.com/…
WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court on Friday appeared likely to uphold a law that would effectively ban social media platform TikTok in the United States.
The nine justices on the conservative-majority court heard oral arguments from lawyers for TikTok, some of its users and the Biden administration, with at least a preliminary decision likely in days, if not hours.
Although the justices did not appear convinced by TikTok's free speech arguments, there remains some uncertainty over how the court will handle the case, especially with President-elect Donald Trump taking office a day after the Jan. 19 deadline for the law to take effect. The court has the authority to temporarily block the law even if it ultimately rules against TikTok.
Trump filed an unusual brief at the Supreme Court asking the justices to temporarily block the law so that when he takes office, he can “pursue a political resolution” to the dispute.
The law in question, enacted with broad bipartisan support, requires China-based TikTok owner ByteDance to divest itself of the company. If no sale takes place, the platform used by millions of Americans would "go dark," according to the company's lawyer, Noel Francisco.
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Evening Shade Seekers! Happy National Save The Eagles Day!
Happy National Oyster's Rockerfeller Day!
Happy National Cut Your Energy Costs Day!
Happy National Houseplant Appreciation Day!
AND Happy National Bittersweet cChocolate Day!
Tomorrow is National Milk Day!
