<<Bloomberg raises $16M to pay fines of 32,000 former felons in Florida so they can vote again>

A majority of voters just might be felons plus crack hos plus high school dropouts plus lazy bums who won't work plus SJWs plus Pussy Hat wearers plus brainwashed beta males plus sluts who use abortion as retrograde birth control plus America hating Blacks. Sad to say.>

<The majority opinion in New York State Rifle & Pistol Association v. Bruen invokes the authority of history but presents a version of the past that is little more than an ideological fantasy, much of it invented by gun-rights advocates and their libertarian allies in the legal academy with the express purpose of bolstering litigation such as Bruen. Rather than applying a history, text, and tradition approach, it would be more accurate to characterize Justice Clarence Thomas' decision as an illustration of the current Supreme Court’s new interpretive model: "Fiction, Fantasy, and Mythology." Indeed, the distortion of the historical record, misreading of evidence, and dismissal of facts that don't fit the gun-rights narrative favored by Thomas are genuinely breathtaking in scope. Thomas has taken law-office history to a new low, even for the Supreme Court, a body whose special brand of "law chambers history" has prompted multiple critiques and been a source of amusement for generations of scholars and court watchers.

It is particularly noteworthy that Justice Stephen Breyer called out his colleagues for engaging in the most rank form of law-office history in his dissent. Although it has become common, almost routine, for scholars to catalog the embarrassing quality of the current Supreme Court’s uses of history, it is unusual to see a sitting justice level this charge against others on the court in a published opinion. It is hard to dispute Breyer’s negative characterization of his colleagues’ tendentious, error-filled, and highly selective culling of evidence to vindicate their gun-rights agenda. Bruen does mark a new low for the court. Indeed, it seems appropriate that Thomas saw fit to quote Dred Scott, the court’s worst decision in history, approvingly. Thomas not only treats the case as good legal authority but suggests the author of the most reviled opinion in American law captured the meaning of the Second Amendment better than any other judicial pronouncement in American history.

To describe the Thomas version of the past as a caricature understates the case. In the Bizzaro constitutional universe inhabited by Thomas, Shakespeare’s England was filled with pistol-packin' peasants, a notion that most English historians would find bonkers. The characterization of early American firearms regulation is equally flawed, and Thomas rests his dismissal of antebellum enforcement of gun laws on an as yet unpublished and error-filled account by one of his former clerks — even as he dismisses the many counter-examples provided by New York as a slender reed upon which to rest their case.

Perhaps the most egregious distortion of the historical record occurs in the majority's false claims about regulation during Reconstruction. Evidence of robust regulation of guns in public featured prominently in the briefs filed in the case, but the majority either dismisses contrary evidence as unrepresentative or simply ignores evidence it finds inconvenient. Here is what Thomas says about Texas, a state whose robust gun laws, he reluctantly concedes, undeniably support New York’s approach to public safety. "We acknowledge," Thomas wrote, "that the Texas cases support New York’s proper-cause requirement, which one can analogize to Texas' 'reasonable grounds' standard. But the Texas statute, and the rationales set forth in English and Duke, are outliers."

The originalist methodology applied by Thomas has one set of rules that apply to interpreting legal texts that support gun rights, and another more demanding set of standards that apply to those that undermine them. The Thomas version of originalism might be summarized as follows: No amount of evidence is enough to support gun control, but no iota of evidence is too little to legitimate gun-rights claims. If one of the goals of originalism was to limit judicial discretion (a value few originalists continue to espouse now that they have a supermajority on the court), then the Thomas rule does the opposite. It provides a license to cherry-pick evidence with reckless abandon if the materials support the ideological agenda of the Federalist Society.>

<Congressional investigator Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA) has called on whistleblowers to come forward following the arrest of Gal Luft, co-director of the Institute for the Analysis of Global Security.

Luft was arrested in Cyprus on an Interpol warrant, but claims it is “political revenge” for providing the FBI with incriminating information about Joe Biden’s ties to his family’s business with a Chinese energy company ahead of the 2020 election.

Bad News for Hunter Biden

According to Israeli international criminal and civil rights lawyer Mordechai Tzivin, who is representing Luft, his client has information that would “bury” Hunter Biden and “shift attention toward the president himself.”

Tzivin has declined to provide documentation to support his claims when contacted by Breitbart News.

Rep. Issa is urging whistleblowers with information that would advance Congressional investigations into the Biden family business scheme and Department of Justice malfeasance to come forward.

He stated, “One never knows where whistleblowers, concerned individuals and the critical information they provide will be found next. But we must always be ready — especially as we uncover more and more Biden family corruption — to receive evidence that advances the cause of accountability and oversight.”

Issa sits on the House Judiciary Committee and the Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government.

Ready to Investigate Further

The congressman has displayed eagerness to investigate election interference with regard to the suppression of information on Biden family business entanglements, sending preservation of documents notices last March to 12 individuals involved in the censorship of the New York Post’s reporting on the Biden scion’s “laptop from hell.”

The House Oversight Committee is aware of Luft’s allegations and will be making contact with his lawyer.

The committee's spokesman said, “Oversight Committee staff are aware of the allegations and will be in touch with the attorney soon.”

Kathy Chung, President Biden’s former “primary gatekeeper,” has agreed to partially comply with the House Oversight Committee’s probe into the classified document scandal and the Biden family’s international business schemes.

Chung’s lawyer, Bill Taylor, told CNN she will hand over some requested documents and sit for an interview with the committee. Hunter Biden’s top financial lieutenant Eric Schwerin is also expected to “soon” provide documents to the Oversight Committee’s investigation of the Biden family.

The arrest of Gal Luft and the claims made by his lawyer have caused a stir in the political world, as Rep. Issa and others urge whistleblowers to come forward with evidence of Biden family corruption.

With Kathy Chung and Eric Schwerin also providing documents to the Oversight Committee, it is clear that the investigation into the Biden family business schemes is far from over.>

<Independents - Can He Win Them Back? Former President Donald J. Trump is riding high. Even after getting indicted (with many other indictments in the offing), his support among likely Republican voters in the 2024 Presidential Election has only increased.

Unless Florida’s Governor Ron DeSantis can mount an effective challenge to the forty-fifth president’s reelection campaign, Trump will likely walk away with the GOP nomination where he will face off against President Joe Biden.

Winning the Republican Primary, though, is the least of Trump’s problems. Who cares about winning that if he is just going to lose in the General Election as he did in 2020?

Under present conditions, sadly, Donald Trump will likely lose the General Election. The reason that Donald Trump is slated to lose is because he doesn’t poll well with independent voters. Sure, this was the case with his unlikely election bid in 2016.

There is a difference, though, between then and now.

One of These Things Is Not Like the Other…

Back in 2016, people wanted someone different; someone from outside the political class who might be able to solve some problems. What’s more, they wanted a businessman.

With no real political record and with his tough-as-nails, brash business persona cemented in the minds of the public, Donald Trump fit the bill. People were willing to take a chance on him in 2016. Plus, Trump spoke differently from most other Republicans.

He merged the most popular talking points of the Republican with those of the Democrats. That’s how he was able to break the vaunted Blue Wall in 2016 that ultimately defeated Hillary Clinton.

Since that time, though, many voters have soured on Trump—notably independents, college-educated women, and minorities (although it should be noted that Trump in 2020 got more minority votes than any previous Republican president in decades).

In 2018, though he was not on the ballot that year, the midterms were a referendum on Trump. Trump’s preferred candidates and the overall GOP did poorly in that election.

Following that loss, Trump went into the 2020 reelection campaign hobbled by the novel coronavirus which emanated from Wuhan, China.

Whereas before the pandemic, Trump was likely coasting to reelection, the moment the pandemic hit the United States, voters soured on Trump. This is particularly true of the independent voters. Independent voters were never sanguine with Trump’s mad Twitter habit or with his seemingly volatile and intemperate behavior.

They tolerated it because the economy was doing well. COVID-19, though, brought about a massive economic downturn. That fact, coupled with his uneven public response to COVID-19, turned off many voters. It made it that much easier for the Democrats to galvanize their own base and then combine those voters with the disaffected independent voters.

The reason that Joe Biden appealed to independent voters was because, if you can believe it, he came across as the stabler of the two candidates. He was America’s friendly grandpa figure whereas Trump was supposedly America’s crazy, racist uncle....>

More ta come....

<...Donald Trump is Delusional About 2024 The Trump Campaign believes that they can override the factors that contributed to Biden’s victory in 2020 from being advantages for the Democrats in 2024 because COVID-19 is no longer a factor and because the economy is likely to be in the doldrums when voting takes place.

Yet, the Trump Campaign is playing a dangerous and desperate game. The American electorate today is decidedly more left-leaning than it was the last time that a successful candidate made the basis of their presidential campaign predicated on “it’s the economy, stupid!”

Today, we have the rise of chic voters who place a premium value on electing the cooler, more popular candidate. Pop culture loathes Trump much more than they have resented previous Republican presidential candidates.

That, along with the female vote that seems to be simultaneously threatened by Trump’s presence on the ballot and they are under the impression that Trump wants to place them back inside the kitchen…or something.

Why does this matter?

Because the Trump brand has been so badly sullied by his enemies over the last six years and by his own unforced errors that Trump is not going to be able to reverse his unappealing nature to most independent voters.

Trump is Not the Man of the Hour Any Longer

The only real hope that the forty-fifth president has on breaking through resides in the fact that the election will be a binary choice between himself and Joe Biden. If that’s the case, Trump’s team reasons, independents will be forced to choose—and they will likely vote with their wallets after having endured the last four years of Biden’s presidency.

<Donald Trump took to his Truth Social account in the wee hours of Saturday morning to lash out at special counsel Jack Smith as reports grow that he is closing in on witnesses at Mar-a-Lago over the stolen documents recovered by the FBI at Mar-a-Lago.

The former president had a bad week as the E. Jean Carroll rape and defamation trial was wrapping up, it was reported late Friday that 8 accused fake Trump electors in Georgia took immunity deals, and the DOJ investigations into both his activities around the Jan. 6 insurrection and the Mar-a-Lago inquiry are ramping up.

Special counsel Jack Smith took the brunt of the former president's meltdown, with the Trump declaring him a "persecutor."

The former president also ominously warned, "'It is a dangerous time in America!!!"

He first wrote, "The Special 'Prosecutor,' Jack Smith, who is harassing, threatening, and terrorizing people who work for me, probably illegally, and totally at odds with the way Crooked Joe Biden is being treated, will no longer be known as the Special 'Prosecutor,' but rather, the Special 'Persecutor.' He is a Trump Hating SLIMEBALL who is going far beyond the original instructions of the Department of Injustice. The Witch Hunt continues, as it always will, with the Radical Left, Country Destroying, Lunatics!"

Moments later he added, "All of these Fake Prosecutions are merely being done to Interfere with, and Influence, our Elections. It is a dangerous time in America!!!">

<Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) officially launched his re-election campaign this week — and the announcement included one major mistake.

The GOPer will run against Rep. Colin Allred (D-TX) who according to NBC, "raised more than $2 million in the first 36 hours after he launched his campaign Wednesday."

On Saturday, May 6, @MeidasTouch shared a video by On Democracy Podcast host Fred Wellman via Twitter exposing the senator's error, writing, "Yikes. Ted Cruz sent out a text to his supporters about his Senate challenger Democrat Colin Allred. But there was one big problem. He used an image of Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg instead. @FPWellman breaks it down."

In the video, Wellman said Ted Cruz has launched his re-election campaign in the 'most Ted Cruz way' possible.. Check this out. He sent out a text message today to announce that he's got a far-left Democrat ideologue as his opponent.. Ted just wanted you to know exactly who he is — he put his picture in there."

The picture was of Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, who, like Allred, is a Black man.

The podcast host pointed to the picture, saying, "That's Alvin Bragg, the New York DA. Does Ted not know what his opponent looks like?"

He proceeded to compare photos of Allred and Bragg, saying, "Ted don't know which one is which, does he?" before adding, "You're doing great, Ted!"

Earlier this week, Allred, who is also a civil rights attorney, also announced his campaign bid with a video saying, "We don't have to be embarrassed by our senator. We can get a new one.">

<A new bunch of documents from Jeffrey Epstein, including his emails and schedules, obtained by the Wall Street Journal show that a number of businessmen and other big names continued to spend time with Epstein, travel with him and ask for or solicit favors from him long after he was registered as a convicted sex offender.

The documents show that Larry Summers, former Harvard president and Treasury secretary, continued to meet with Epstein more than a dozen times between 2013 and 2016 after Harvard began rejecting Epstein’s donations following his 2008 guilty plea to soliciting and procuring a minor for prostitution, though a spokesperson for him told the Journal he “deeply regrets being in contact with Epstein after his conviction;” Summers said he didn’t fundraise for Harvard or personally get money from Epstein during that time, but the documents show he did receive money for his wife’s nonprofit.

Woody Allen, who had previously been known to be “friendly” with Epstein, actually met with him almost monthly in 2014 and 2015 and had dozens of dinners at Epstein’s home, the documents show, but a spokesperson for Allen told the Journal: “Woody never had a business meeting with Epstein and not once spent time with him without (his wife) also being present.”

Terje Rød-Larsen, a Norwegian diplomat who resigned from his role as president of the International Peace Institute in 2020 after his ties to Epstein were publicized, was at Epstein’s New York townhouse so often from 2013 to 2017 that the staff knew to have cucumbers around for his gin, the Journal reported, and he didn’t answer requests to comment.

After Epstein’s 2019 arrest, co-founder of LinkedIn Reid Hoffman said he had only met with Epstein to help raise funds for MIT, but new documents show Epstein had planned for Hoffman to visit his island twice and that Hoffman was once scheduled to stay at Epstein’s townhouse and attended a “breakfast party;” Hoffman told the Journal he visited the island just once to fundraise for MIT and said he is sorry for his “personal misjudgment” regarding Epstein.

Leon Black, billionaire co-founder of Apollo Global Management who has been accused of raping a woman at Epstein’s estate, had scheduled more than 100 meetings with Epstein from 2013 to 2017, per the documents, and declined to comment to the Journal.

Key Background

Epstein, who was found dead in his jail cell in 2019 after being indicted on federal sex trafficking and sex conspiracy charges, was known to hang around other big names in finance, technology and politics, many of whom have since tried to distance themselves from him. Since news broke of his sex trafficking ring, there have been accusations that Prince Andrew, Bill Gates, Bill Clinton, Alan Dershowitz, Donald Trump and more had close relationships with the financier and may have attended “parties” at Epstein’s homes. Epstein also faced a 2007 federal sex crimes indictment in which he was accused of sexually abusing dozens of underage girls and resulted in a brief stint in a Florida jail and the requirement he register as a sex offender, though the plea deal was criticized as too lenient.>

<Republican House moderates are fuming at House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) for kowtowing to extreme rightwing members of his caucus over his budget deal which they feel has painted them into a corner.

According to a report from Juliegrace Brufke writing for Axios, as the budget deadline approaches members of the moderate wing of the party worry they will be blamed if things fall apart because McCarthy let members of the Freedom Caucus call the shots and likely won't bend as negotiations heat up.

Add to that, the report states, members feel "blindsided" by some of the concessions McCarthy made after telling them there would be no additional changes.

According to the report, "Some House Republicans are fretting about whether they'd be able to pass a watered-down version of their debt ceiling bill once the terms are negotiated with Senate Democrats and the White House."

The report notes that McCarthy and his lieutenants are being accused of not "tamping down" expectations of the extremists in the party which could create chaos during negotiations for the inevitable compromise bill.

Of note, Brufke wrote, "Despite the initial House GOP bill passing, several lawmakers told Axios the process has hurt their ability to move major pieces of legislation moving forward."

Among the GOP "grievances" over how things are going, Axios reports, "Multiple members said they were irritated by promises made to Rep. Nancy Mace (R-S.C.) about movement on bills related to gun control, reproductive health and cannabis laws. They also felt blindsided by changes on ethanol subsidies and work requirements for food stamps and Medicaid, despite repeatedly being told the bill wouldn't be changed."

The report notes that McCarthy has pushed back at complaints over his negotiations, claiming that alterations to his budget bills "were technical fixes to clarify certain provisions.">

<Texas State Representative Jarvis Johnson (D-Houston) stumped State Representative Carrie Isaac (R-Dripping Springs) during last Thursday's debate over a proposal that Isaac sponsored to supposedly shield Texans from California's "tyrannical government."

Chron explained on Friday that "House Bill 3137 stops a municipality from instituting regulations surrounding the transfer, possession, wearing, carrying, ownership, storage, transportation, licensing, or registration of firearms, air guns, knives, ammunition, or firearm-related gun supplies or accessories. At the same time, the bill prohibits local governments from requiring gun owners to get liability insurance for damages resulting from negligent or willful acts involving firearms."

The outlet also noted that "according to a February report by Reuters, the San Jose bill passed in January 2022 with an ordinance requiring gun owners to obtain liability insurance to cover negligence or accidents from using firearms. The San Jose bill also requires gun owners to pay a yearly fee to gun violence prevention organizations the city manager picks. Due to pending litigation, the bill hasn't been enforced in the city yet."

Bit by bit, Johnson poked holes in Isaac's assertions.

"What does your bill specifically do?" Johnson asked Isaac.

"It will not allow municipalities to require insurance on firearms," Isaac replied.

"So otherwise, other words, does your bill prohibit mayors, city councils, and county commissioners from legally governing themselves when it comes to guns?" Johnson wondered.

"They do not have this right," Isaac declared.

"They don't have the right to do what?" Johnson followed up.

"To infringe upon our second amendment," Isaac said.

"Who — you mean again, cities, mayors," Johnson clarified.

"Correct," Isaac confirmed.

"Do mayors, city councils, and county commissioners have a right to pass laws that protect the citizens of their community?" Johnson posited.

"As long as it doesn't infringe on our constitutional rights," Isaac responded as her comrades began surrounding her.

"The constitutional right to do what?" Johnson pressed.

"To protect ourselves with our Second Amendment," Isaac proclaimed.

"From what?" Johnson continued.

"From a tyrannical government," Isaac reiterated.

"A tyrannical government. Which government currently is being tyrannical?" Johnson asked.

"Say that again, I'm sorry," Isaac requested.

"Which government is currently being tyrannical?" Johnson repeated.

Isaac struggled to provide a coherent answer.

"Yeah. It would prevent any tyrannical gun, any tyrannical," she said amid whispers from her colleagues.

"Is there a municipality currently that this law is in place?" Johnson asked.

"That's not what this is about," a male voice grumbles.

"Yes, actually there is," Isaac stated.

"Where?" asked Johnson.

"San Jose, California," Isaac said.

"Oh, I, I didn't know we were California. I'm asking in Texas..." Johnson quipped.

"I'm sorry, say that again," Isaac requested again.

"Is there a city in Texas?" Johnson asked more forcefully.

At this point, Isaac was being fed answers.

"Answer every question. Keep saying what you want us say," Isaac was told.

"Um, no, there is not, and that's the, and this still will prevent that from happening here in Texas," Isaac insisted.

"So then that means we're legislating nothing?" Johnson pointed out.

"We're preventing it from happening here in Texas," Isaac shot back.

"So it hasn't happened yet," Johnson said.

"That's correct," Isaac agreed.

"So, again, we're legislating nothing," Johnson added.

"Don't California my Texas," Isaac snapped.

"Are we legislating nothing?" Johnson asked one last time, albeit in vain. "So we're legislating nothing.">

<The shooter suspected of killing five innocent people in a rampage last Friday has finally been apprehended by police in Cleveland, Texas. Francisco Oropesa, 38, who murdered his neighbors in cold blood over a noise dispute, was found hiding beneath a pile of laundry like a rat following a statewide manhunt. A woman thought to be his wife was also taken into custody on the charge of inhibiting the apprehension of a known felon. They deserve every ounce of justice coming to them.

But they are far from the only guilty parties in this story. In the days since the murders, which included an execution-style shooting of a 9-year-old boy above the neck, it has come to light that Oropesa entered the United States illegally and had already been deported at least four times, according to Immigration and Customs Enforcement. The fact that ICE can’t even definitively say how many times he’d been deported, or how long he’s been in the U.S. since his most recent deportation, underlies the terrifying reality that the southern border is wide open. Monsters such as Oropesa are free to come and go with impunity.

Despite attempts to change the subject, the Biden administration is keenly aware of this fact. The recent announcement that an additional 1,500 troops will be deployed to the Mexican border to restore order ahead of an expected surge in migrants following the end of pandemic-era restrictions is an implicit admission of the chaotic and untenable situation. (A similar order made by a Republican administration would doubtless be treated by the legacy press as an admission of xenophobia.) Polls also indicate that the public has come to view immigration, long relegated to the back bench of national priorities, as a top-tier issue.

But despite the urgent nature of the border crisis, the national conversation has once again been derailed by an excruciatingly stupid comment by a leading conservative voice. Speaking on the top-rated show The Five, Fox News host Jesse Watters recounted a time when he claimed to have seen a family of undocumented immigrants rustling through a dumpster. And how did he know they were undocumented?

“You can tell,” Watters said. “I can tell! I’m a city guy. You don’t want me to get into it, but I can tell.”

Sometimes it feels as if conservatives enjoy sabotaging the causes they purport to champion. Thanks to Watters’s ugly and foolish comments, a precious opportunity to make real progress in winning hearts and minds on the matter of this national crisis appears wasted. The remarks only serve to reinforce the Democratic Party’s narrative on immigration politics: that the conservative view is born of racism and xenophobia. It’s incalculable how much damage comments such as these do to conservative causes. And as a result, solving a complex problem such as the border crisis is only made more difficult.

Watters’s comments demand a rebuke, especially in the wake of Tucker Carlson’s sudden axing from the 8 p.m. slot on the Fox News prime-time lineup. The search for Carlson’s replacement has kicked into gear, and Watters’s name is frequently mentioned amid debates over who might fill the highly coveted spot.

However, this incident should disqualify Watters from consideration. As the 2024 election season commences, let us dispense with the farce that cable news channels are somehow disinterested news organizations and not political actors. The choice of Carlson’s replacement has real political consequences.

To be clear, elevating Watters as the face of Fox News, and therefore as one of the principal Republican Party figures in America, will not help Republicans capitalize on their gains with Hispanic voters in recent elections nor help them recapture the suburban women vote. And as a result, GOP priorities will suffer, including solving the crisis at the border.

We can only hope that Fox News looks elsewhere to find its new face.>

<Everybody knows that Rdy has your nose [sic] up perfidious' flower>

<MSNBC host Ayman Mohyeldin showed some of the clips of Donald Trump's deposition in the E. Jean Carroll case and wondered how the jury might react in the trial based on what has been revealed from the tape.

"What do you make of that?" he asked former federal prosecutor Cynthia Alksne. "I mean, based on what you've seen from that day, those three clips we've played for you, the inability to recognize his ex-wife, the stupidity of the second comment about stars have been doing it for a million years, and then that bit where his defense is 'you're not my type,' and attacking the attorney there. Did Trump seemingly make the right decision not to take the stand?"

Alksne laughed: "Yes! That's for sure. But let's remember this when he takes the stand of that deposition; he's talking to the jury. And what we know from the first point, not only does he not identify Carroll, thinking she's Marla Maples, when he is confronted with that, and leaving aside his lawyers' improper coaching of him, when he is confronted with it."

The reference she is making is a moment in the deposition in which Trump is asked about a photo of E. Jean Carroll in which he mistakes her for his second wife.

"It's Marla," Trump says, pointing to the photo. "That's Marla, yeah. That's my wife."

They looked at who Trump was pointing to, and it was Carroll.

"The woman you just pointed to is E. Jean Carroll. And the woman on the right is your wife, Marla," Trump's lawyer coached off camera.

"And when he is cornered like a rat, what does he do?" Alksne continued. "What does he say? He lies. He says, 'Oh, it's blurry.' And here's why that's important: that's because the jury has the photograph. And they know when he is cornered, he lies. Because he lied to them, that's what the deposition is. It's him talking to the jury. And in this case, not only did he not have the guts to come talk to them, he didn't even have the guts to come sit in the courtroom. Instead, he sent a bully to cross-examine this woman. And on the one occasion he was talking to them and was cornered, he lied to them. And I think it's important, and my guess is, in closing, it is highlighted."

Legal analyst Lisa Rubin has sat in on the trial since the start. Speaking on the panel, she recalled, "You could hear a pin drop during that deposition" when it was shown in court.

"And he did not just lie about the photograph being blurry," Rubin explained. "And by the way, the jury has seen that photograph multiple times throughout the trial. I can even tell you what Plantif's [sic] exhibit number it is: it's 1:12. But you could hear a pin drop because he didn't just lie about that. He lied about all sorts of things, big and small, including whether or not he cheated on his first wife, Ivana Trump, when he was seeing Marla Maples. He claimed not to know whether those relationships overlap. He was seen escorting Marla Maples as early as 1989. He wasn't divorced from Ivana Trump until 1992. He couldn't even give [Carroll lawyer] Robbie Kaplan, the lawyer, the dates he was married to Marla Maples. He just continued a pattern of mendacity all throughout that deposition, that the jury is really going to have to think about in confronting whether or not this is a person about whom E. Jean Carroll was telling the truth.">

<House Oversight Committee Chair James Comer (R-KY) claimed that the House has collected evidence showing the Biden family's involvement in a "criminal scheme," which will be presented on Wednesday.

He made the announcement in an appearance on Fox News on Sunday, on Sunday Morning Futures With Maria Bartiromo. During his appearance, Comer alleged that he had compiled evidence purporting to show that President Joe Biden and eight other members of his family had received payments from the Chinese Communist Party in exchange for lobbying for Chinese interests. The payments and lobbying reportedly came during Biden's time as vice president.

"Based on the fact that nine different Biden family members have been receiving payments from a web of LLCs that are receiving payments from adversaries around the world, this fits a pattern of questionable behavior that the Biden family members have been doing to receive funds," Comer said. "So we take this whistleblower claim very seriously. We know it exists. We know the FBI has the document. I can tell you this, the Biden family have received a lot of payments from the Chinese Communist Party, from entities that are state-owned entities"

Comer announced that he had subpoenaed FBI Director Christopher Wray over a document that apparently shows direct evidence of then-Vice President Joe Biden receiving direct payments from a foreign national in exchange for policy decisions.

Joe Biden has periodically denied any wrongdoing in regard to his family's business dealings, specifically regarding China. In March, he denied reports that his son, Hunter Biden, had received $1 million from a Chinese company, despite Hunter Biden's lawyers admitting to the transaction.

The House Oversight Chair went on to say that he and Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) would hold a press conference on Wednesday, where they will present evidence to the public, including bank records, showing the Biden family's dealing with foreign nationals, allegedly in return for influence on the government. He said the documents were obtained from a "highly credible" whistleblower.

"We don’t believe this was just a coincidence that all these Biden family members were receiving money from this web of LLCs into their personal bank accounts," Comer said. "We believe this was done in exchange for something that then-vice President Biden and now-President Biden would have done. So this whistleblower is going to provide some very crucial information to our investigation, and we’ve given the FBI until May the 10th to produce this document. So the ball is in the FBI’s court with respect to this whistleblower."

He added that he is "100%" certain that the document he is seeking exists.

Comer pleaded with the FBI not to indict Hunter Biden before Wednesday's press conference. He believes such an indictment is possible and could be over an illegal weapon possession charge, the punishment for which would only be a "slap on the wrist." Such an indictment would jeopardize the oversight committee's investigation into the larger charge he will put forward on Wednesday.

Comer said that Wednesday's briefing will clear the way for a Department of Justice investigation into the president and his family.

"Well, obviously, the president’s son's committed many crimes, many crimes," he said. "I mean, you’re looking at potential money laundering. Jonathan Turley comes on Fox all the time and talks about how he was essentially a foreign agent for countries like China. He’s an unregistered foreign agent. These are serious crimes. You’ve got the possible racketeering. I mean, the list goes on and on and on.

He continued, "We don’t believe these countries were paying the Biden family for nothing. If we believe they were getting a return on their investment, and the return on investment would have been policy decisions for then-Vice President Joe Biden and current President Joe Biden."

He added that the totals spent in the scheme amounted to "millions and millions."

Comer said that the DOJ has "a whole menu of options to go after this family" but should go after the larger charges, rather than a smaller gun charge, as it seems to be pursuing. He added that he doesn't believe that the DOJ knows the full extent of the crimes.>

<The election and reelection of Lauren Boebert to the U.S. House of Representatives shows how eccentric the right wing of the Republican party has become.

Boebert, who represents Colorado’s 3rd district, is perhaps second in congress to only Marjorie Taylor Greene with respect to overall zaniness. – although measuring zaniness is of course not an exact science. Regardless, Boebert’s viability as an elected official is concerning – more concerning than anything that Trump was ever impeached for, more concerning than any alleged mishandling of classified documents. This is because Boebert’s viability is a projection of the hearts and minds of her constituents.

Shooting Toward Congress

One nice thing we can say about Boebert is that she is a high school dropout who later earned her GED. While the increasingly elitist left, a contingency dominated by graduates of Harvard, Yale, Berkeley, NYU, Georgetown, and the like, sneer at Boebert’s educational background, there’s something democratic about a GED-holder in Congress.

Most of the country did not graduate from Yale, or from law school. In fact, most of the country doesn’t have a four-year degree at all. Yet the three branches of government are dominated by advanced-degree graduates of elite institutions. These are people who are not especially inclined to be in touch with the realities of the everyday American.

In theory, a GED-holding member of Congress offers to remedy that out-of-touchness. There should be a wider variety of educational backgrounds represented across our government – and Boebert helps to balance against the Harvard-Yale dominance.

Yet, while Boebert’s educational background is refreshing – and the left should be ashamed for deriding someone who holds a GED – Boebert’s worldview is a hellscape.

Boebert’s rise to political relevance was unorthodox.

After high school, she worked as an assistant manager at a McDonald’s. Later, she worked as a pipeliner for a natural gas drilling company. In 2013, Boebert and her husband opened Shooters Grill, in Rifle, Colorado. Shooters was distinct in that the Boeberts encouraged their patrons to carry guns openly. Despite the appeal to second-amendment devotees, Shooters operated in the red, hemorrhaging over six figures-worth in 2019 and 2020.

Boebert made national headlines in September 2019, when she confronted presidential candidate Beto O’Rourke at a town hall event. O’Rourke was proposing a buy-back program and a ban on assault rifles. Boebert wasn’t impressed with the policy proposal.

Many Coloradans agreed with Boebert. Not long after, she announced her candidacy for Congress.

In 2020, while campaigning for congress, Boebert (and Shooters Grill) tapped into a sort of repressed zeitgeist when she refused the governor’s orders to close shop during the COVID-19 pandemic. In direct defiance of Colorado's stay-at-home orders, Boebert opened Shooter’s for dine-in service. Many Coloradans, who would vote in the upcoming fall elections, loved Boebert’s defiance.

Can 'Normal' Win Out?

Boebert won the election of course, and she was sworn into congress in January 2021. Since entering office, Boebert has given voice to a variety of unattractive political views.

For example: Boebert supports eliminating the U.S. Department of Education; she opposes Colorado’s red flag laws, which allow the police to remove a firearm from someone deemed dangerous to themselves or to others; she believes that the market, not the government, should determine how the energy industry functions; she opposes gay marriage; she opposes the separation of church and state; and she believes in a market-driven health-care system.

Boebert also promotes several conspiracy theories, including QAnon.

Despite her zaniness, Boebert just won another term in Congress - although by a very small margin.>

Next time that urge ta rut overtakes ya, kid, take an aspirin!

<Texas Governor Greg Abbott declined to say whether he would support measures to reduce gun violence during an appearance on Fox News Sunday.

Abbott's remarks come a day after eight people were murdered in Saturday's mass shooting — the 199th so far in 2023 — at the Allen Premium Outlets in Allen, Texas.

Speaking with anchor Shannon Bream, Abbott blamed "the government" for the massacre.

"And I'll be going up to Allen later today to begin the process, uh, providing hope and, and healing. But I gotta tell you that there are questions that are lingering that the families want answers to, and that is, why did this happen? Why did the government do this? How did this happen? And I know that those families need an answer as quickly as possible," Abbott said. "And then the last thing I'll tell you, and, and I just wanna reiterate my gratitude and the gratitude of all Texans for the swift response of that police officer — you had just a single police officer who had to confront, uh, that dangerous gunman — and did the right thing by taking swift action to eliminate the gunman. And we are great for that officer's heroism."

Bream addressed recent Fox News polling showing that reasonable restrictions have enormous public support.

"Just out from Fox News. When you ask people what they would favor, background checks for guns, enforcing existing gun laws, legal age to 21, requiring mental health checks, flagging people for danger to self, all of those score at more than eighty percent. Are there things that you would consider in Texas or that you think Congress should consider at a federal level along those lines?" Bream asked.

"Well, on the federal level, as you know, some laws were passed last year to begin to address this. At the state level, listen, this is something that we've been grappling with over the past year. And there are some potential easy solutions such as passing laws that we're working on right now to get guns out of the hands of dangerous criminals and to criminals into increased penalties for criminals who possess guns," replied Abbott, who has loosened firearm laws in the Lone Star State in spite of the recent spikes in violence.

"But, Shannon, we need to, to recognize a reality. What we've seen across the United States over the past year or two. And that is a, an increased number of shootings in both red states and blue states. Shannon, we've seen an increased number of shootings in states with easy gun laws as well as states with very strict gun laws," Abbott continued. "I think that the state in which the largest number of victims, uh, have occurred this year is in California where they have very tough gun laws where 11 people died."

That statement is demonstrably false. According to WiseVoter.org, California ranks 44th in terms of gun deaths per capita, with 8.5 per 100,000. Texas, however, sits at 26th, with 14.2 per 100,000.

"And so one thing that we can observe very easily, and that is there has been a dramatic increase in the amount of anger and violence that's taking place in America," Abbott stated. "And what Texas is doing in a big-time way, we are working to address that anger and violence by going to its root cause, which is addressing the mental health problems behind it."

But the governor was not quite finished.

"One, one last thing about this, Shannon, and that is, it truly seems today that America is more divided than we've been in decades," he declared, adding that "we gotta find a way in this country where we can once again reunite Americans as Americans and come together as one big family, and in that regard, find ways to reduce violence in our country.">

<MSNBC’s Mehdi Hasan said it’s time to call the Republican Party what it really is as lawmakers on the right reject any attempt at gun control amid a wave of mass shootings.

“In America in 2023 there have been more mass shootings than there have been days,” he said on his show on Sunday evening, citing statistics from the Gun Violence Archive. “This is how we live now.”

Hasan systemically dismantled the usual right-wing talking points after mass shootings, including the notion that nothing can be done.

“They’re lying to you,” he said. “This isn’t about mental health, which every other country has problems with. It isn’t drugs, which every other country struggles with. It isn’t computer games, which every other country has. It’s the guns. It’s obviously the guns.”

He said it’s high time to place the blame where it belongs: On Republicans.

“Let’s stop saying ‘Congress must act’ and start saying ‘the Republican Party must act’,” he said. “Let’s stop treating the GOP as the party of law and order and treat them, more accurately, as the party of gun violence, of school shootings, of mall massacres.”

He called for a ban an assault weapons:

Hasan also ripped into another common GOP talking point after each mass shooting: the notion that the answer is in “thoughts and prayers” or that God has to provide the solution>

<Texas US senator Ted Cruz’s comment Saturday that he was “praying” for families of the eight victims killed in a shooting at a shopping mall in his state has sparked outrage as many critics say the Republican should advocate for meaningful gun control rather than repeatedly invoke prayer after mass, deadly violence.

Cruz and other fellow Texas Republicans have faced similar backlash for citing general emotional support, thoughts, prayers, or a combination thereof after the slayings in Allen, Texas, on Saturday.

Criticism of Cruz grew several hours after the shooting when he tweeted: “Heidi and I are praying for the families of the victims of the horrific mall shooting in Allen, Texas. We pray also for the broader Collin county [sic] community that’s in shock from this tragedy.”

Shannon Watts, founder of gun safety group Moms Demand Action, said on Twitter: “YOU helped arm him with guns, ammo and tactical gear. He did exactly what you knew he’d do. Spare us your prayers and talk of justice for a gunman who is … dead”.

“The only accountability we can hope for is that gun extremists like you are thrown into the ash heap of history.”

Star Trek actor George Takei added: “You’re worse than useless.”

Another Twitter user said thoughts and prayers “are nothing but blasphemy and evil”. Yet another quipped: “Have you tried turning the prayer machine off and back on again.”

Cruz has received more than $442,000 from organization which support keeping guns as accessible as possible, according to Axios and Open Secrets. He has used language referring to thought and prayers rather than restrictions on guns in reaction to other previous mass shootings in his state.

After a gunman killed 19 children and two teachers at the Robb Elementary school in Uvalde, Texas, on 24 May 2022, Cruz commented: “Heidi and I are lifting up in prayer the entire … community during this devastating time and we mourn the lives that were taken by this act of evil. None of us can imagine the anguish the parents in Uvalde are going through. Our hearts go out to them.”

In response to a racist shooting at an El Paso Walmart that left 23 dead in August 2019, Cruz similarly said: “Heidi & I are praying for everyone in El Paso. As events continue to unfold, please heed any warnings from local authorities and law enforcement and stay safe. #Pray4ElPaso.”

Cruz’s comment on a shooting that left two dead near one of his state’s universities a couple of months later was: “Heidi and I are lifting up in prayer those who were killed and injured in last night’s shooting at an off-campus party at Texas A&M Commerce @tamuc.”...>

Many more will die, yet Second Amendment whack jobs will continue to maintain their right to be stupid and dead.

Rest is a-comin'....

<....Cruz has offered more than prayers in response to certain mass shootings, though, such as commentary on immigration policy. After authorities said that a Mexican national who had previously been deported shot five neighbors to death last month, Cruz tweeted: “Thank you to the brave men and women of law enforcement who worked tirelessly to apprehend this mass murdering illegal alien who killed 5 innocent people. The victims deserve justice. And this monster when convicted deserves the death penalty.”

In the hours and days leading up to Saturday’s shooting in Allen, Cruz touted his support of gun rights. Early Saturday afternoon, he retweeted a Senate Republicans post stating: “Ted Cruz’s challenger said he wishes the second amendment wasn’t written. Beto 2.0?”

Early on Saturday, Cruz said of declared 2024 challenger Colin Allred, a Democratic congressman: “Wow. This guy wants to represent Texas??” quoting him saying “Would it be better if [the second amendment] had not been written? Of course. But there’s no chance that we’re going to repeal” it.

Cruz used googly eyes in his tweet, which referred to the constitutional right for Americans to bear arms.

Republican US congressman Keith Self, whose district includes Allen, bristled on Sunday when asked about invoking spirituality after mass shootings like the one a day earlier.

“Those are people that don’t believe in an almighty God who is absolutely in control of our lives. Self said on CNN. “I’m a Christian – I believe that he is.”

Self went on to argue that the US’s lack of adequate mental health treatment was to blame for mass shootings. And then he said that the country’s focus should be on praying for the Allen victims’ families.

Texas’s Republican governor, Greg Abbott, also sought to redirect the public conversation about the Allen mall shooting to mental health. Eve

“People want a quick solution,” Abbott said on Fox News Sunday. “The long-term solution here is to address the mental health issue.”

Abbott’s comment on mental health came after host Shannon Bream noted that a Fox News poll revealed that 80% of participants supported gun control measures, such as raising the minimum age to buy a firearm and mental health checks. Fox News’s viewers are largely Republican.

Neither Cruz, Abbott nor Self immediately responded to requests for comment.

<Rightwing election lawyer Cleta Mitchell, a key ally of Donald Trump as he pushed bogus claims of fraud to overturn Joe Biden’s 2020 win, is facing intense fire from voting watchdogs and bipartisan criticism for urging curbs on college student voting, same day voter registration and absentee voting.

The scrutiny of Mitchell, who runs the Election Integrity Network at the pro-Trump Conservative Partnership Institute to which a Trump Pac donated $1m dollars, was sparked by recent comments Mitchell made to Republican donors, and a watchdog report criticizing her advisory role with a federal election panel.

Long known for advocating stricter voting rules that are often premised on unsupported allegations of sizable voting fraud, Mitchell last month promoted new voting curbs on students in a talk to a group of wealthy donors to the Republican National Committee, efforts that critics call partisan and undemocratic.

Mitchell’s private RNC address to rich donors zeroed in on curbing college campus voting rules, automatic mailing of ballots to registered voters and same-day voter registration, as the Washington Post first reported.

The talk by Mitchell, who has done legal work for Republican committees, members of Congress and conservative groups such as the National Rifle Association, focused on college campuses in key swing states including Arizona, Georgia, Nevada, Virginia and Wisconsin, all of which have large college campuses.

In an audio of her remarks obtained by liberal journalist Lauren Windsor, Mitchell slammed college voting procedures.

“What are these college campus locations? What is this young people effort that they do? They basically put the polling place next to the student dorm so they just have to roll out of bed, vote, and go back to bed.”

Further in one part of her presentation cited by the Post, Mitchell charged blithely that “the Left has manipulated the electoral systems to favor one side … theirs. Our constitutional republic’s survival is at stake.”

It’s unclear if the RNC will back the latest proposals made by Mitchell, who the committee has worked with previously. But an RNC spokesperson offered effusive praise of Mitchell to the Post, saying: “As the RNC continues to strengthen our Election Integrity program, we are thankful for leaders like Cleta Mitchell who do important work for the Republican ecosystem.”

But voting rights watchdogs voice alarm at Mitchell’s proposals to the RNC donor crowd.

“Mitchell’s comments behind closed doors give up the game,” said Danielle Lang, the lead voting rights litigator with the nonpartisan Campaign Legal Center. “The current wave of additional voter restrictions is about only one thing: punishing disfavored populations of voters.”

Lang added: “Sadly, we should not be surprised that Mitchell, who was central to attempts to overturn the will of the people in 2020, speaks so blithely about attacking voters she dislikes.”

Similarly, Republicans and Democrats alike deplore Mitchell’s comments to the RNC contributors.

“It’s absurd for Cleta Mitchell or others to suggest our path to victory is by making it harder for young people to vote,” said ex-Republican congressman Charlie Dent. “Republicans should not fear how people vote. Good candidates with good messages should resonate with voters.”

Key Democrats agree.

“Mitchell seems to have a very difficult time separating her partisan agenda from the responsibility we all have to uphold a basic democratic respect for the right to vote,” Democrat House member Jamie Raskin told the Guardian.

Mitchell didn’t respond to a Guardian request for comment about her RNC remarks.

Besides the firestorm over Mitchell’s RNC remarks, she is facing more heat related to other recent efforts she has made to restrict voting rights.

Mitchell has served for over a year on a bipartisan advisory board for the federal Election Assistance Commission, a post that she’s used to promote curbs on mail in voting, voter registration and student voting, according to an April report from the watchdog group American Oversight.

American Oversight’s study, which came after it obtained Mitchell emails from 2020- 2022 using the Freedom of information Act, included some exchanges where Mitchell suggested legal challenges to absentee voting rules and attacked a voting rights group while serving on the EAC advisory board....>

<....“Cleta Mitchell played a central role in former President Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election,” said American Oversight executive director Heather Sawyer “So it isn’t surprising that she has used her role as an advisor to the Election Assistance Commission to push an explicitly anti-voting agenda.”

“She has disparaged voting rights organizations, called for challenging absentee voting procedures, and is urging new rules that would make voting harder for students and working people. Mitchell’s partisan and ideological commitment to restricting ballot access has no place at an agency tasked with helping states administer free and fair elections.”

The fears over Mitchell’s blunt advocacy for curbing student and other voting rights, comes after her role advising Trump as he tried to overturn Biden’s win in 2020 has received legal scrutiny in Georgia. It also comes amid criticism of aggressive poll watching drives she pushed for in 2022 through her Election Integrity Network.

Mitchell was subpoenaed last year, along with several other key Trump lawyers and allies including Rudy Giuliani and John Eastman, by a special grand jury in Georgia in a wide ranging criminal probe by Fulton county district attorney Fani Willis into efforts by Trump and his allies to thwart Biden’s win in the state.

A major focus of that inquiry is Trump’s hour-long conference call on 2 January 2021, which Mitchell participated in, pressuring Georgia’s Republican secretary of state Brad Raffensperger to just “find” him 11,780 votes to block Biden’s win there.

Trump falsely claimed that “we won by hundreds of thousands of votes” and vaguely warned Raffensperger of a “criminal offense” to which the Georgia official replied “the data you have is wrong”.

The Fulton county inquiry is widely expected to lead to several indictments including quite possibly Trump, and Willis has said she will make final decisions about who will be charged this summer.

Just days after the 2021 call with Raffensperger, Mitchell abruptly left her long time law firm Foley & Lardner, and soon joined the Conservative Partnership Institute as senior legal fellow, where she has led its self styled Election Integrity Network and advocated for curb voting rights.

CPI has flourished financially since Mitchell and Trump’s former chief of staff Mark Meadows, CPI’s senior partner, joined in early 2021.

CPI’s tax filings for 2021 showed grants and contributions of $45m up from $7.1m the prior year.

In other conservative circles, Mitchell wields considerable influence as a board member of the right wing Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation and as chair of the Public Interest Legal Foundation’s board.

Now though, Mitchell’s latest attacks on student voting rules are viewed by watchdog groups and some members of Congress as badly misguided, and emblematic of her partisan agenda.

“We should applaud, not bemoan, equitable access to voting for students.Our young people will inherit our democracy but participate at some of the lowest rates,” Lang of the Campaign Legal Center said. “While that is improving, young people still face disproportionate burdens in voter registration and voter access.”

In a similar vein, Raskin said: “Mitchell’s attacks on college student voting are directly reflective of the GOP’s increasing electoral losses among young people.”

Mitchell and Republicans, he added, ought to focus on policies and candidates that “actually appeal to young voters, rather than a legislative program to stop them from voting.”>

Now there's a thought....

< perfidious: While you have named one of the four novellas from <Different Seasons>, two of the three others feature violence and one ends in a blaze of gunp>lay by the chief character.