https://youtu.be/T_7c-OKYcSc?t=502

He turned a respected office into a joke.

<ChemMac: <Monoceros> I had, as I posted some time ago, a long conversation with Fischer when he came unexpectedly into the Manhattan Chess Club. This was some months after winning the World Championship. In an hour and a half we talked about a lot, but what is relevant here is that he was (1) completely rational and courteous (2) quite clear about why he had, for the time being anyway, no desire to play. He said that he had achieved everything he had worked for during most of his life...and now, what? I think he was just :"chessed out".>

Across the years, I have oft posted my view that Fischer had, in winning the title, achieved his life's purpose; there was, therefore, nowhere to go from the top of Mt Olympus but to descend into what he regarded as a type of ignominy. If he played no further game after Reykjavik, he could--as he would indeed proclaim, twenty years on--himself as the titleholder, as no-one had beaten him in a championship match.

A powerful lot of those pathological liars display the same lack of skill, despite considerable practice.

<....The latest spin: <my daughters made me do it.> Is quite hillarious. But ir proves one thing, public transportation in Mexico is still working, as he was able to throw his kids under the bus.>

<jimmy77: With a US team composed of 3 in the Top Ten plus 1 in the Top Fifteen and reserves that are 2700 plus rated players, it’s almost a foregone conclusion who will win the next Chess Olympiad.>

(Caruana, Aronian, So, Nakamura + Leinier/Shankland/Xiong)

Or the Chinese. Those are definately the two favorites right now.

Russia looks like the only other team that could compete with those two.

Nepo, Dubov, Karjakin, Grischuk, Svidler, Andreikin, Artemiev, Alekseev is a pretty good pool of players to pick from, too. Oh, there's also Tomashevsky.

https://twitter.com/AsherWhites/sta...

<'We've been doing a lot of winning.'>

Make that 'whingeing' and just once I will agree.

<Five independently elected investigators have turned their attention to former President Donald Trump, a sign his legal woes are mounting as he no longer enjoys the protections once afforded to him by the Oval Office.

Trump is now facing inquiries run by elected officials from Georgia to New York to Washington with only their constituents to answer to. Most are Democrats, but one key investigation was launched by a Georgia Republican who has faced heavy criticism from Trump since the election.

And the former President's actions on his way out of office, including his attempts to overturn the 2020 election results and to stir up his supporters with baseless claims of fraud until they stormed the US Capitol on a harrowing January day, have only added to his legal problems.

"It's never happened in our history but every single one of these prosecutors and attorneys general has more than sufficient predication to investigate what they're investigating," said Daniel R. Alonso, who was a top deputy to Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance from 2010 to 2014.

There are signs the probes are picking up. In New York, investigators recently got their hands on Trump's tax returns and have bolstered their team with a prosecutor who specializes in complex financial cases. In Georgia, another prosecutor plans to begin requesting subpoenas from a grand jury as early as this week.

"The world has changed for Donald Trump, legally, now that he's no longer president," said Elie Honig, a former federal and state prosecutor and a CNN legal analyst. "Donald Trump tried to delay civil suits against him, he tried to delay subpoenas against him while he was president. All of that is gone now, so now we're seeing multiple investigators -- federal and state -- digging in and taking a hard look at Donald Trump."

All eyes on the Empire State

In Manhattan, all eyes are on Vance, who has been investigating Trump's finances for two years and is not expected to run for reelection.

The Democrat has 10 months left in his term -- setting the clock, some said, for him to wrap up his investigation.

"It's likely that the case, if it is charged, would be charged before Vance leaves office," said Anne Milgram, a former attorney general for New Jersey and former federal prosecutor.

"That's because that's 10 months away -- which is a long time in a criminal investigation -- and because the DA's office had previously noted that there were statutes of limitations timing issues," she said.

Prosecutors have already interviewed witnesses, subpoenaed documents from lenders, an insurance broker and others, and last month recruited a former federal prosecutor with a background in complex financial investigations to bolster their team.

Last week investigators also received a trove of records, including tax returns, financial statements, and communications between the Trump Organization and Mazars, Trump's long-time accountant, after the Supreme Court denied Trump's latest bid to block Vance from accessing those records.

"I think the goal will be to move quickly and, if they believe a crime has been committed, they will move to present the case to the grand jury within months, not years," Milgram said....>

<....Vance, the son of a former US secretary of state and Washington insider, spent the better part of his legal career as a white-collar criminal defense lawyer. He ran for district attorney and was sworn into office in 2010 after a more than 30-year run by his predecessor Robert Morgenthau.

He has been innovative in pursuing some cases and in 2019, Vance's office obtained the first conviction on state domestic terrorism charges.

But some of his victories have been tinged by controversy.

When Vance brought criminal charges against Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein for sexual assault following the rise of the #metoo movement, Weinstein's conviction was hailed as a "new era of justice" by Time's Up, a women's advocacy group. But it came only after an earlier decision in 2015 to decline to prosecute Weinstein after an Italian model accused him of groping her and recorded Weinstein on tape saying, "I won't do it again."

Vance was also criticized for not prosecuting Donald Trump Jr. and Ivanka Trump, who were investigated in 2012 for allegedly misleading potential buyers for units in the Trump SoHo, a New York hotel property. In both instances, lawyers for the individuals had donated to Vance's campaign.

Vance defended himself, telling reporters in 2017 that the donations had no impact on his thinking. His office said the allegations against Weinstein were "horrifying" but there was not sufficient evidence to charge him.

"At the end of the day, we operate in the courtroom of the law, not the courtroom of public opinion," Vance said.

Alonso, the former Vance deputy, has previously said sometimes a district attorney is successful by deciding not to file charges.

On the Trump investigation, he said, Vance will not be political.

"He knows that the job is not to lick your finger and hold it up to the wind and decide which way the wind is blowing before you make a decision," Alonso said. "He will look at the evidence and decide who he believes is guilty and whether he can prove it."...>

<....Another New York investigation

One of the biggest thorns in Trump's side has been New York Attorney General Letitia James.

When James was running for office in 2018, she campaigned on a pledge to investigate everything from Trump's policies to his finances.

"I'm running for attorney general because I will never be afraid to challenge this illegitimate president when our fundamental rights are at stake," James said at the time.

Her record since has shown that she meant it: She challenged the Trump administration's addition of a citizen question to the US census, pushed for the New York legislature to pass a law to close a presidential pardon loophole, and wrapped up a lawsuit brought by her predecessor that led to the dissolution of the Trump Foundation.

Now her office is digging into Trump's business and personal finances, exploring whether assets were improperly valued and if banks or tax authorities were defrauded. James has won court victories with a judge compelling Eric Trump, who co-runs the day-to-day operations of Trump Organization, to sit for a deposition and ordering Trump's tax lawyer to turn over reams of documents.

James has been a trailblazer, becoming the first African American woman to hold city-wide office when she was elected New York City's public advocate in 2013 and then the first woman elected to serve as New York's attorney general and first African American woman to hold statewide office. Her political ambitions are not limited to the AG's office. She has mused about running for mayor and some have speculated she could make a bid for governor if Andrew Cuomo does not run again for office.

Cuomo backed James in her bid for attorney general but their ties have recently been tested. James issued a scathing report in January finding the New York Department of Health undercounted Covid-19 deaths among nursing home residents by about 50%, setting off a political crisis for Cuomo.

Over the weekend, she publicly pushed back on Cuomo's plans to investigate sexual harassment claims brought against him. Cuomo initially said he would appoint a retired federal judge to investigate the claims by two women. When that move was met with harsh criticism, he then said he would ask James and the chief judge in New York to appoint an independent investigator. Ultimately, he ceded ground to James who alone will select an independent law firm to investigate the allegations against the governor.

Cuomo says he never inappropriately touched or propositioned anyone, but did apologize to anyone who may have misinterpreted his comments in the workplace as unwanted flirtation.

"She's been a strong independent voice throughout her career," said Robert Abrams, New York attorney general from 1978-1994 and a member of James' transition team. "All of this demonstrates that she has shown courage and tenacity for what she believes is right, what is her duty and responsibility."

Trump has seized on James' past comments, saying her actions against him are politically motivated. In a court filing challenging Vance's subpoena for his tax returns, Trump's lawyers quoted James nine times, including when she said, "I will be shining a bright light into every dark corner of his real estate dealings."

James said Trump is wrong about her.

<Georgia's GOP investigator

Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger's office is also investigating Trump, for his attempts to overturn the state's election results.

When Trump lost the presidential election, no state official was in his crosshairs more than Raffensperger, a lifelong Republican. Even as tension and pressure from Trump were on public display, Georgia's top election official said he had supported Trump and publicly stated multiple times that he wished Trump had won.

But while saying he was personally disappointed in the results as a conservative Republican, Raffensperger steadfastly refused to give credence to a litany of conspiracy theories bolstered by the then-President alleging election fraud in Georgia.

Since the rioting at the US Capitol on January 6, Raffensperger has offered a more critical take on Trump's actions.

"Many of the actions that he's taken since then are not what you would expect from a president," Raffensperger told CNN in January. "I've said from day one that we have to be really mindful of our speech because we can't spin people up and play people and get them into an emotional frenzy."

Raffensperger's is the rare Republican-led investigation, made more awkward by the fact that Raffensperger was a direct witness to Trump's attempts to influence the outcome of the election.

A source familiar with the Georgia secretary of state's investigation confirmed officials are looking at two calls. One is the January phone call, of which CNN obtained the audio. In it,Trump pushed Raffensperger to "find" votes to overturn the election results after his loss to Biden. The other involves a call Trump made on December 23, to a Georgia election investigator in the secretary of state's office who was leading a probe into allegations of ballot fraud in Cobb County. Trump is heard asking the chief investigator with Raffensperger's office to "find the fraud," saying the official would be a "national hero," according to a source with knowledge of the call.

Trump's senior adviser, Jason Miller, said in a statement last month that there was nothing "improper or untoward" about the call between Trump and Raffensperger.

"And the only reason the call became public was because Mr. Raffensperger leaked it in an attempt to score political points," Miller's statement said.

Raffensperger's office declined to comment, saying they don't comment on active investigations.

<....The office investigates every complaint it receives and described the investigations as "fact-finding and administrative in nature," according to a statement on February 8, the day it opened an inquiry into the infamous calls.

Once Raffensperger's office completes its investigation, the findings will be reported to the state election board, which may decide that probable cause merits there was a violation, and that the case should be referred to Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis or additionally, Georgia's attorney general for further investigation, according to two people familiar with the process.

Georgia digs in on election meddling

In addition to the investigation by Raffensperger's office, Willis is looking into Trump's call to the Georgia secretary of state, looking to sway Georgia's election results in his favor.

When that call took place on January 2, Willis had only been in office one day. By early February, her office began firing off letters to Georgia officials asking them to preserve documents related to attempts to influence the state's election as she investigates potential crimes including the solicitation of election fraud, conspiracy and racketeering. According to the letters, none of the Georgia officials are targets of the investigation.

The probe instantly elevated the newly elected prosecutor's national profile. But it also irked some Georgia residents who believe the focus on Trump will drain attention and resources from local issues in Fulton County, which includes much of the city of Atlanta.

Those who know Willis, though, were unsurprised to see her forge ahead.

"There's some evidence saying a law might've been broken. It might've been done in her jurisdiction, she's going to investigate it," said Charlie Bailey, who previously worked closely with Willis in the district attorney's office and is running for state attorney general in 2022. "I know it is different because it's a former president. I do realize that, and I know she realizes that too, but she takes that very seriously."

Willis, a Democrat and a longtime prosecutor, ousted her former boss to become the county's first female district attorney in January. She and her staff have been juggling an avalanche of interest in the Trump investigation with an office that was already buckling under its caseload, according to a source familiar with the investigation.

One of her first moves was asking the state attorney general to reassign two high-profile cases against Atlanta police officers for alleged use of excessive force, including in the shooting death of Rayshard Brooks. Her critics believe it's a sign her priorities are elsewhere.

"If the DA's office has time and the resources and all the time and manpower to do that -- go after Trump for this election stuff or whatever -- just make sure that the civil rights cases that are in her county are treated equally and take the same kind of priority," said Chris Stewart, a lawyer for the Brooks family.

"What do we do now?" Stewart asked. "Families are stuck in the middle."

Meantime, Willis has said her Trump investigation will stretch beyond Trump's call with Raffensperger to include any efforts to influence the election in Georgia.

She has said in interviews she may begin requesting subpoenas from a grand jury as early as March. And that grand jury will draw from a pool of constituents in Fulton County unlikely to be sympathetic to Trump: President Joe Biden won the county with nearly 73% of the vote in November.

"I have no idea what I'm going to find," Willis told CNN affiliate WSB last month. "A good law enforcement officer, a good prosecutor, you walk in with an open mind."

Willis is perhaps best known in Georgia for her role in the 2014 prosecution of a dozen educators accused of being involved in a cheating scandal. Eleven were convicted on racketeering charges.

Her former colleagues said she's unlikely to be intimidated by taking on the former President. But she has acknowledged doubling her security amid threats.

Racine did reveal in January that his office was "collaborating at a high level with federal prosecutors.">

<Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, one of former President Donald Trump's closest allies in Congress, recently earned four Pinocchios from the Washington Post's fact checker over his false claim that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi denied a request for National Guard troops prior to the Jan. 6 Capitol riot.

But Jordan has been far from the only Republican or prominent conservative voice to pretend that such a baseless assertion is reality on Twitter, the social media site where such falsehoods have spread like wildfire. Several other Republicans and Trump allies have circulated — or at least appeared to entertain — the same narrative.

The top Republicans on the House Administration, Intelligence and Oversight Committees — Reps. Rodney Davis of Illinois, Devin Nunes of California and James Comer of Kentucky, respectively — signed onto a Feb. 15 letter to Pelosi along with Jordan, the ranking member of the House Judiciary Committee.

The letter, which came the same day as Jordan's false tweet about Pelosi delaying the National Guard, speculated by suggesting that then-House Sergeant-at-Arms Paul Irving had been concerned about the "optics" because of Pelosi.

Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., and Madison Cawthorn, R-N.C., spread the same notion this past weekend in separate tweets.

"It's finally come out that Nancy Pelosi specifically directed National Guard to stay off Capitol grounds on January 6th because of 'optics,'" Cawthorn wrote. "Pelosi was more concerned about optics than the safety of her colleagues and the American people."

".@SpeakerPelosi," Greene posted, sharing a Daily Caller story that echoed the GOP letter about optics," did you deny National Guard at the Capitol???"

The claims have been undercut, most notably by public testimony from Irving, former Senate Sergeant-at-Arms Michael Stenger and former U.S. Capitol Police Chief Steven Sund on Feb. 23 before a Senate committee. Pelosi's office has also said that the speaker approved National Guard troops — a topic not discussed with her prior to the riot — as soon as Irving made the request when the Capitol was being overrun.

Irving testified that deploying National Guard troops was not discussed with congressional leadership until Jan. 6, and that "optics as portrayed in the media played no role whatsoever in my decisions about security." Stenger confirmed that he had also not discussed the matter with Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., who at the time was majority leader, before that day.

None of the Republican offices whose members have circulated the Pelosi narrative immediately responded to requests for comment. Jordan's office had pointed the Post to the Feb. 15 letter he signed.

Despite evidence to the contrary, the idea that Pelosi delayed federal assistance to the building where lawmakers, staff and journalists were hiding for their lives continues to be circulated. Now, Trump himself has even helped disseminate the baseless claim.

In an interview with Fox News late Sunday, Trump falsely said he "requested" 10,000 National Guard troops, an assertion that earned him four Pinocchios from the Washington Post.

"I requested … I definitely gave the number of 10,000 National Guardsmen, and [said] I think you should have 10,000 of the National Guard ready," Trump said. "They took that number. From what I understand, they gave it to the people at the Capitol, which is controlled by Pelosi. And I heard they rejected it because they didn't think it would look good. So, you know, that was a big mistake."

An official Defense Department planning and execution memo makes no mention of the supposed troop order, and a Pentagon spokesperson confirmed on the record to The Post that the agency had "no record of such an order being given."

It was not the first time that Trump mentioned a 10,000-troop order. It was first documented in a Vanity Fair story from January. But as the Post highlighted, simply referencing the idea is not the same as acting on it, as the then-president did when he ordered troops to be stationed throughout the nation's capital last summer amid unrest in the wake of George Floyd's killing. >

Speaking of the devil.

<SCOOP: TRUMPS SENDS CEASE-AND-DESIST TO RNC, NRCC AND NRSC. Lawyers for former President DONALD TRUMP sent out cease-and-desist letters Friday to the three largest fundraising entities for the Republican Party — the RNC, NRCC and NRSC — for using his name and likeness on fundraising emails and merchandise, a Trump adviser tells Playbook.

We reported yesterday that Trump was furious that his name has been bandied about by organizations that help Republicans who voted to impeach him — without his permission. Trump, who made his fortune in licensing, has always been sensitive to how his name has been used to fundraise and support members, even while in office.

On Friday, the RNC sent out two emails asking supporters to donate as a way to add their name to a “thank you” card for Trump. “President Trump will ALWAYS stand up for the American People, and I just thought of the perfect way for you to show that you support him!” the email states. “As one of President Trump’s MOST LOYAL supporters, I think that YOU, deserve the great honor of adding your name to the Official Trump ‘Thank You’ Card.” A follow-up email was sent hours later to “President Trump’s TOP supporters” warning of a deadline of 10 hours to get their names on the card.

None of the committees returned a request for comment. But privately GOP campaign types say it’s impossible not to use Trump’s name, as his policies are so popular with the base. If Trump really wants to help flip Congress, they argue he should be more generous. His team, however, sees this differently.

“President Trump remains committed to the Republican Party and electing America First conservatives, but that doesn’t give anyone - friend or foe - permission to use his likeness without explicit approval,” said a Trump adviser.>

George Wallace: Don't mind me, I'm just running his underwear up the flagpole.>

Plus both <george wallace> and <big pawn> do not understand philosophy of Absolute , let alone understanding refutation of <omv argument> based on Absolute.

What a coincidence!>

To say 'interested' is a colossal understatement, come to that crashing bore>

Yes. It is way more/beyond than mere 'interested' - <george wallace>/<big pawn> has invested too much of his identity/self worth in it. And that is why he is finding it so hard to come to terms with his crushing defeat in debate on omv argument to me.

Yesterday , he went completely nuts - for fours hours , he threw all kinds of vulgarity and abuses at me as he became very frustrated at his inability to answer refutation of omv argument.

It was very painful to see him suffer like that - out of compassion for his suffering , i remained steadfastly civil to him as he hurled vulgarity and abuses at me for four hours non stop.

I hope <george wallace>/<big pawn> finds some peace and heals from his trauma.