The Conversation -- May 10, 2024

Impeach Reagan! And Bush I! And Ford! and Ike! Peter Baker of the New York Times: President Ronald "Reagan used the power of American arms several times to influence Israeli war policy, at different points ordering warplanes and cluster munitions to be delayed or withheld.... Dwight D. Eisenhower threatened economic sanctions and an aid cutoff to force Israel to withdraw from the Sinai Peninsula after it invaded Egypt in 1956. Gerald R. Ford warned that he would re-evaluate the entire relationship in 1975 over what he considered Israel's recalcitrance during peace talks with Egypt. George H.W. Bush postponed $10 billion in loan guarantees in 1991 in a dispute over settlements in the West Bank."

Virginia. Nicole Chavez of CNN: "School board members in Virginia's Shenandoah County voted early Friday to restore the names of two schools that previously honored Confederate leaders -- four years after those names had been removed. The 5-1 vote came after hours of public comment during a meeting that began Thursday evening from people speaking on both sides of the issue.... The schools had been named after Confederate Gens. Thomas 'Stonewall' Jackson, Robert E. Lee and Turner Ashby."

Dan Mangan of CNBC: "A federal appeals court on Friday upheld the criminal contempt of Congress conviction of former Trump White House senior aide Steve Bannon for refusing to testify and provide documents to the House committee that investigated the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol.... The ruling by a three-judge panel on the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit makes it more likely that Bannon will soon have to begin serving a sentence of four months in jail for his conviction of two counts of contempt."

No, Trump Is Not the Teflon Don. Jamelle Bouie of the New York Times: "In the folk wisdom of recent American politics, Donald Trump is a figure of herculean invulnerability to traditional scandal.... Despite his best efforts, Trump has not been able to summon the grass-roots activity that signals political strength. There are no febrile crowds demanding justice for him at the courthouse door, no mob poised to wreak havoc in his name -- not that he didn't try to make one appear. And the broader public does not appear to have a problem with either the trial or the prospect of jail time for the former president.... On Tuesday, nearly 22 percent of Republican primary voters in Indiana pulled the proverbial lever for Nikki Haley, who left the race in March.... It is bad, for his political prospects, that Trump is on trial. It hurts him, with voters, to face allegations of criminal wrongdoing and sexual misconduct in a court of law."

It is, thankfully, the last Trumpity Doo-Dah Day of the week, and New York Times reporters are liveblogging developments in the what may be The Last Criminal Trial of Donald Trump. ~~~

Jonah Bromwich: "Madeleine Westerhout is back on the stand. Susan Necheles, one of Trump's lawyers -- whose day ended yesterday with the judge harshly criticizing her performance, saying she did not object as she should have to some of Stormy Daniels's testimony -- is back questioning this witness, who worked for Trump in the White House.... Necheles ... just sought to use Madeleine Westerhout's testimony to suggest that Trump and Allen Weisselberg may not have spoken much in 2017, when the alleged falsification of business records occurred. Prosecutors say that Weisselberg, the former chief financial officer of the Trump Organization, designed the specific way that Michael Cohen would be reimbursed for the hush-money payment he made to Stormy Daniels. Weisselberg worked in coordination with Trump, prosecutors say. Necheles is trying to cast doubt on that."

Susanne Craig: "We are starting to see the 'blame it on Allen Weisselberg' defense emerging."

[MB: The reporters notice that Trump is toting a stack of printouts of news clippings & social media post, so several of them discuss Natalie Harp's job, which is to follow Trump around with a portable printer & run off favorable articles & posts to cheer him up. Some of Trump's staff call poor Natalie "the human printer" on account of her horrible, demeaning job. As for Trump himself, he is our own Pantalone, and the commedia we deserve will not forget to attach Natalie to him in every scene. Akhilleus has mentioned her in Comments.]

Jonathan Swan: "Through a long line of questions, the defense lawyer Susan Necheles is steering the witness, Madeleine Westerhout, toward describing the mailing arrangement for Trump in the White House as a system that was set up merely to get mail to him quickly. She is seeking to suggest that there was nothing nefarious about it."

Bromwich: "Necheles asked if Trump brought up his family in relation to Daniels's claims, but Westerhout said that he did not.... This is important because the defense is seeking to suggest that Trump was motivated to pay hush money because of concerns about his family, not his electoral chances. Westerhout seemed as if she'd be a perfect witness for that.... But here, she did not play along, hurting the defendant she used to work for and still admires."

Swan: Under re-direct examination by prosecutor Becky Mangold, "Westerhout admits that she spoke to the defense lawyer Susan Necheles two nights ago. Another indication that she is trying to be a helpful witness to the defense."

Bromwich: "Briefly, as she concluded re-direct, Mangold sought to show the jury that Westerhout was a Republican loyalist, noting that her current boss, too, is a veteran of the Trump administration.... The next witness, Daniel Dixon, is from Florida. He will be questioned by the prosecutor Christopher Conroy. Dixon testifies that he is an AT&T employee, and that he is a lead compliance analyst at the company."

Kate Christobek: "Daniel Dixon's role while testifying, which he was compelled to do by subpoena, was purely to authenticate phone records...."

Bromwich: "After a brief cross-examination, Dixon is done.... The new witness's name is Jennie Tomalin. She works for Verizon."

Craig: "Jennie Tomalin mentioned the names of two people who factor into the case: Weisselberg ... and Keith Davidson, Stormy Daniels's former lawyer."

Wesley Parnell: "Before our break, the defense sought to exclude an interview with Larry King from 1999 where Trump apparently said he had extensive knowledge of campaign finance law. Emil Bove, one of Trump's lawyers, said finance law had changed since that interview. Becky Mangold, one of the prosecutors, argued that the 'defendant's admission that he had extensive knowledge of campaign finance law is relevant.'"

Bromwich: "Justice Merchan just sided with the defense, and barred this piece of evidence.... Georgia Longstreet, a paralegal at the Manhattan district attorney's office who reviews social media posts as part of her role, is on the stand. This explains [Manhattan D.A.] Alvin Bragg's presence in the courtroom. Longstreet testified about Trump's social media posts once during this trial already.... Georgia Longstreet is reading a series of tweets from Trump, many of them attacks on Michael Cohen. She just read a post in which Trump unfavorably compared Cohen -- who made the hush-money payment to Stormy Daniels and is expected to testify starting Monday -- to Paul Manafort, who pleaded guilty to crimes and was sentenced to seven years in prison but was pardoned by Trump while he was still in office....

"Georgia Longstreet is now guiding the courtroom through a series of texts from 2016 between Dylan Howard, who was the editor of The National Enquirer, and Gina Rodriguez, who was Stormy Daniels's manager. The texts -- between two figures jurors are not expected to hear from directly -- show that representatives for The National Enquirer and Rodriguez were in conversation for months about Daniels's account. This suggests that The Enquirer was monitoring the story, as its publisher, David Pecker, said he had promised to do."

Christobek: "In these texts, Rodriguez tells Howard that Daniels had sex with Trump/ It is another piece of evidence presented by the prosecutors that matches Daniels's story -- a story that Trump denies."

Bromwich: :The text exchange delved deeply into the amounts that Daniels's representatives were asking for. Gina Rodriguez, her manager, originally asked for $250,000 for the story but was bargained down slowly."

Haberman: "Todd Blanche[, Trump's lawyer,] asks Georgia Longstreet about Michael Cohen's use of TikTok, which defense lawyers have been furious about because he's used it to comment on the case."

Bromwich: "Jaden Jarmel-Schneider is expected to be our final witness of the day. Like Longstreet, he is a paralegal at the Manhattan district attorney's office.... Having explained his work, the witness is now certifying specific exhibits: calls between various key witnesses, including Michael Cohen and Trump. They are then offered into evidence, and are accepted."

Parnell: "We are looking at a comprehensive chart that the district attorney's office compiled of the 34 business records that prosecutors say Trump falsified. In total, there are 11 invoices, 11 vouchers and 12 checks, all relating to the reimbursement of Michael Cohen. This is the first time we've seen all of the documents laid out on a single screen."

[MB: Testimony has ended for the week.]

Bromwich: "... the lawyers have been arguing about whether or not evidence should be allowed in that relates to Allen Weisselberg..., who is currently on Rikers Island after pleading guilty to perjury. The evidence, Weisselberg's severance agreement, would show that he is still waiting to be paid his full severance by the Trump Organization. The judge is suggesting that prosecutors should, in fact, call Weisselberg as a witness, which appears as if it would be a major shift in their plan....

"We've ended the fourth week of the trial with the judge asking prosecutors to keep Michael Cohen from attacking Trump. Cohen, Trump's former fixer, is expected to begin his testimony Monday.... Joshua Steinglass, a prosecutor, says they have repeatedly asked witnesses, including Cohen, to remain silent but have little control over them."

The New York Times is liveblogging developments in U.S. university campus protests against the conduct of the Israel/Hamas war.

~~~~~~~~~~

We all know, intuitively, that a lot of illegals are voting in federal elections.... This legislation ... will prevent that from happening.... We'll have a mechanism to prove whether they are or not. -- House Speaker Mike Johnson, Wednesday ~~~

~~~ Scott Wong, et al., of NBC News: "Some of the conservative leaders of the effort to overturn the 2020 presidential election gathered in front of the Capitol on Wednesday and called on Congress to pass an 'election integrity' bill to stop noncitizens from voting. Leading the group, Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., acknowledged that undocumented immigrants voting in elections is already illegal under federal law.... But he argued that people know 'intuitively' that noncitizens are voting, even though he could not provide estimates of how many. Multiple studies have shown that noncitizen voting is extremely rare in federal elections." Thanks to Akhilleus for the link. See also his commentary in yesterday's thread. (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: So. Intuition in search of a "mechanism." Why do I think that Mike's proposed mechanism is going to involve accusatory interrogations of every voter whose skin tone isn't as pink as Mike's ass or whose name "sounds foreign"? (Where"sounds foreign" is not Drumpf but is Hernandez?

The Trials of Trump, Ctd.

Jonah Bromwich, et al., of the New York Times: "During Thursday’s grueling cross-examination, [Donald] Trump's lawyers sought to discredit [Stormy] Daniels as a money-grubbing extortionist who used a passing proximity to Mr. Trump to attain fame and riches.... After a shaky performance on the stand earlier in the week, Ms. Daniels on Thursday conceded almost nothing.... The more the defense assailed her self-promoting merchandise and online screeds, the more Ms. Daniels resembled the man she was testifying against: a master of marketing, a savant of social-media scorn. 'Not unlike Mr. Trump,' she said on the stand, though unlike him, she did it without the power and platform of the presidency.... When [Trump attorney Susan] Necheles suggested that the porn star had experience with 'phony stories about sex,' Ms. Daniels responded that the sex in her films was 'very much real, just like what happened to me in that room.' And when Ms. Necheles implied that her experience producing films showed that she knew how to spin fiction, Ms. Daniels replied, 'I would have written it to be a lot better.'... [At the end of the day], the judge, Juan M. Merchan, rejected the [defense's] request [for a mistrial] and rebuked defense lawyers, noting that their decision to deny that the tryst had even occurred had opened the door for much of her explicit testimony....

"After Ms. Daniels left the stand, prosecutors called witnesses more directly related to the records. They questioned Rebecca Manochio, a junior bookkeeper at the Trump Organization, who described mailing Mr. Cohen's checks, his reimbursements for payments to Ms. Daniels, to Washington for Mr. Trump to sign during his presidency. They also called Madeleine Westerhout, one of Mr. Trump's most trusted aides in the early White House years. She sat at a desk right outside the Oval Office and coordinated many of his communications, including a crucial meeting with [Michael] Cohen just weeks into his term."

Marie: Alex Wagner of MSNBC described Susan Necheles' cross as nothing less than an attempt at "slut-shaming." Chris Hayes & Harry Litman called it the "nuts and sluts defense." Based on the Times' report of the Q&A, that all sounds about right to me. Although that tactic might work well enough in some communities, my sense is that at least some Manhattan jurors would be more offended than favorably impressed with their attempt to shame and defame a female witness because she works in a sex industry. ~~~

~~~ Jessica Bennett of the New York Times: Stormy "Daniels has largely been unflappable in the face of combative questioning. But that did not stop the defense from pursuing what is perhaps the oldest trope in the book: harping on her sexual history.... The idea that Daniels's pornography career could be equated with making up a story -- or used to undermine it -- might have been convincing in a pre-#MeToo world. But the public perception of sex work has changed a lot since Daniels's initial accusation, as has the way the public understands trauma. Daniels, for her part, was unapologetic: She is a woman who proudly makes pornography for a living and doesn't believe it hurts her credibility one bit."

Kate Christobek & Jesse McKinley of the New York Times report five takeaways from Thursday's proceedings.

Marianne LeVine of the Washington Post: "New York Supreme Court Justice Juan Merchan blamed Donald Trump's attorney Susan Necheles in court Thursday for not sufficiently objecting in real time to adult-film actress Stormy Daniels's detailed testimony this week -- and again said Daniels's testimony does not warrant a mistrial.... In ruling against the defense's motion for a mistrial, Merchan said that prosecutors had the right to 'rehabilitate' Daniels's credibility to the jury, given that Trump's team denies a sexual encounter ever took place. He also criticized the cross-examination for going into 'ad nauseam' details about Daniels's testimony."

Kyle Cheney of Politico: "Justice Juan Merchan's gag order forbids Trump from verbally attacking the prosecutors working for District Attorney Alvin Bragg. It also bars Trump from commenting on the judge's family. But that hasn't stopped some close allies from unleashing rhetoric that Trump himself cannot. Today, that role was filled by Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.), who attended a portion of the trial proceedings and accompanied Trump into the courtroom. Scott went to a Fox News TV camera to mount the very criticisms that Trump is legally barred from making. He suggested the case against Trump is unfair because one of the prosecutors, Matthew Colangelo, used to work in the Justice Department. And he called Merchan's adult daughter a 'political operative,' noting that she has raised money for Democrats. He also swiped at the 'lead prosecutor's wife,' whom he described as a Democratic donor. Those criticisms were then amplified by a Trump-aligned super PAC. Under the gag order, Trump is prohibited from 'making or directing others to make' the forbidden categories of statements." Emphasis added. ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: If I were the prosecution, I certainly would call Rick Scott's courtroom-steps performance to Merchan's attention. And good luck, Trump lawyers, with arguing that Trump doesn't control U.S. senators. That's his M.O.

New York Times reporters were there to guide us through yesterday's testimony. See yesterday's Conversation for many of their live entries. (The liveblog also was linked yesterday.)

Links to the transcripts of the New York criminal trial of Donald Trump -- up through Tuesday -- are here. Links to the prosecution and defense exhibits start here. For instance, the crucial prosecutors' (people's) exhibits Nos. 35 and 36 and here and here. (Also linked yesterday.)

Josh Gerstein of Politico: "... the wave of prosecutions [of Donald Trump] don't seem destined to deliver the kind of legal accountability that Trump's investigators promised -- or the devastating political blow to Trump's presidential prospects that has animated his detractors since the cases were announced with great fanfare over a five-month span last year. That's because Trump has benefited enormously from a pileup of postponements. After a pair of delays this week in Georgia and Florida, the most likely scenario for 2024 is that the only trial that Trump will face before the election is the ongoing one in Manhattan: the hush money case, which many lawyers view as the least serious of the four, both in terms of the severity of the alleged wrongdoing and the prospect of prison time." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Let us acknowledge that the vast right-wing conspiracy is a thing. And it works.

Presidential Race

** Josh Dawsey & Maxine Joselow of the Washington Post: During a meeting with top oil executives last month at Mar-a-Lago, Donald Trump told them, "You all are wealthy enough ... that you should raise $1 billion to return me to the White House. At the dinner [held in a room overlooking the ocean], he vowed to immediately reverse dozens of President Biden's environmental rules and policies and stop new ones from being enacted, according to people with knowledge of the meeting.... Giving $1 billion would be a 'deal,' Trump said, because of the taxation and regulation they would avoid thanks to him.... The contrast between the two candidates on climate policy could not be more stark.... Despite the oil industry's complaints about Biden's policies, the United States is now producing more oil than any country ever has, pumping nearly 13 million barrels per day on average last year." A Guardian story is here. ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: And may the seas rise and flood Mar-a-Lago while Trump is in the basement counting out his money beautiful boxes. P.S. As with all Trump deals, no matter how vile, reckless and corrupt, there's usually a farcical element. In this case, the oil execs think Trump is too incompetent to perform his part of the deal: ~~~

~~~ Ben Lefebvre of Politico: "The U.S. oil industry is drawing up ready-to-sign executive orders for Donald Trump aimed at pushing natural gas exports, cutting drilling costs and increasing offshore oil leases in case he wins a second term, according to energy executives with direct knowledge of the work. The effort stems from the industry's skepticism that the Trump campaign will be able to focus on energy issues as Election Day draws closer -- and worries that the former president is too distracted to prepare a quick reversal of the Biden administration's green policies. Oil executives also worry that a second Trump administration won't attract staff skillful enough to roll back President Joe Biden's regulations or craft new ones favoring the industry, these people added."

Jessica Schulberg of the Huffington Post: Donald Trump "has openly fantasized about executing drug dealers and human traffickers. He reportedly suggested that officials who leak information to the press should be executed, too. And behind the scenes, there's a team of pro-Trump conservatives who are pushing for a second Trump term that involves even more state-sponsored killing than the first. Last year, a coalition effort by conservative groups known as Project 2025 released an 887-page document that lays out policy goals and recommendations for each part of the federal government. Buried on page 554 is a directive to execute every remaining federal death row prisoner -- and to persuade the Supreme Court to expand the types of crimes that can be punished with death sentences." ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: In case you are repulsed by this blood lust, I wish to inform you that in this matter the Project 2025 report is a model of fastidious expression. It's not that they're hanging, poisoning or electrocuting criminals; rather they are "obtaining finality." The Bowdler family would be pleased.

Marshall Cohen of CNN: "Hunter Biden's latest attempts to throw out his federal gun case were rejected in back-to-back rulings Thursday, teeing up a high-stakes criminal trial next month in Delaware. The president's son had asked the 3rd US Circuit Court of Appeals to dismiss the charges by overturning prior decisions from the trial judge that let the case move forward. But the appellate panel instead rejected Hunter Biden's appeals, which related to his defunct plea deal and his claims that the case was tainted by political bias. Hours later, the trial judge, Maryellen Noreika, rejected Hunter Biden's remaining motion to dismiss the case based on Second Amendment grounds." MB: Noreika is a Trump appointee, as is the prosecutor David Weiss, although Merrick Garland gave Weiss his current job as special counsel in order to broaden Weiss's authority over Hunter Biden's activities.

~~~~~~~~~~

Julie Rovner & Rachana Pradhan of NPR: "According to new statistics from the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC), for the second year in a row, students graduating from U.S. medical schools this year were less likely to apply for residency positions in states with abortion bans and other significant abortion restrictions.... The organization tracked a larger decrease in interest in residencies in states with abortion restrictions not only among those in specialties most likely to treat pregnant patients, like OB-GYNs and emergency room doctors, but also among aspiring doctors in other specialties.... 'People don't want to go to a place where evidence-based practice and human rights in general are curtailed,' said Beverly Gray, an associate professor of obstetrics and gynecology at Duke University School of Medicine."

~~~~~~~~~~

Israel/Palestine, et al.

The Washington Post's live updates of developments Friday in the Israel/Hamas war are here: "Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel is prepared to 'stand alone' against its enemies, after President Biden warned that he would halt the flow of certain weapons should Israel invade the city of Rafah. Cease-fire talks aimed at pausing the fighting and freeing hostages still held by Hamas have stalled, as the latest round of negotiations in Cairo ended without a breakthrough.... In a later interview on U.S. television, Netanyahu said he hoped that he and Biden could overcome their disagreements. The Israeli prime minister also said that in his vision of a post-Hamas Gaza there would need to be 'continuous demilitarization' in the Strip, with a civilian government that is not committed to Israel's destruction.... Hamas said it was sending its delegation back to the Qatari capital, Doha, and remained committed to the cease-fire proposal it received last week, The Washington Post reported. Israel has said the proposal Hamas agreed to differed from the version it reviewed. An Israeli official ... said the Israeli team left Cairo on Thursday evening." ~~~

     ~~~ The New York Times' live updates Friday are here.

Kirby Wilson of the Tampa Bay Times: "Republican U.S. Rep. Cory Mills (Fla.) says he is going to file articles of impeachment against Joe Biden over the president's decision to withhold munitions from Israel.... '(Biden is) threatening our ally Israel after funding approvals in Congress if they do not stop operations to target Hamas,' Mills posted to X Wednesday. 'These types of actions are what President Trump was accused of and impeached over by Democrats. They called it "Quid Pro Quo."' Mills added that perhaps the phrase should be renamed 'Quid Pro Joe.'" Thanks to Bobby Lee for the lead. ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: I have no idea if Mills is just plain stupid or is pretending to be just plain stupid. Trump was not impeached for a policy decision arising out of altered circumstances. He was impeached for soliciting foreign interference in the 2020 presidential election and for inciting an insurrection. Anyhow, nice try, Cory, you lying (or maybe just stupid) SOS.

News Ledes

Friday Night Lights. Washington Post: "Multiple outbursts from the sun could trigger magnificent auroras in many parts of the United States this weekend. A severe geomagnetic storm is expected to hit Earth on Friday, triggering colorful nighttime auroras, or the northern lights. People in the United States could see moderate to strong geomagnetic activity starting around 11 p.m. and lasting through Saturday."

Washington Post: "Jack Quinn, a high-powered lobbyist and lawyer who served as White House counsel under President Bill Clinton and later represented Marc Rich, the fugitive financier who received a controversial pardon during Clinton's final hours in office, died May 8 at his home in Washington. He was 74."

Comments

[Akhilleus]

A slut-shaming, or a little nutty, a little slutty tactic on the part of the defense is rich considering their client. It’s like defending a gangster by trying to paint a witness for the prosecution as a terrible person who breaks the law now and then.

So the defense is saying someone who’s a nut and a slut can’t be trusted? Who better to describe as an out of control person who says crazy things and pursues sexual encounters with abandon, than Donald Trump?

The difference being, a slutty woman doesn’t coerce others by using force, the way a sexual predator or rapist does, the preferred method of this defense team’s client.

[Bobby Lee]

From the Tampa Bay Times: Representative Cory Mills (R-Fl) will be filing impeachment papers on President Biden over his suspension of offensive arms to Israel.

[Marie Burns]

@Bobby Lee: Thanks for the heads-up. When you share a news story, please copy and paste the URL into your comment, so I don't have to look it up. That is, block the URL by clicking on it three times, copy it (Control key + C), then paste it (Control + V) into the Comments block. So in this case, you would have left us with this:

https://www.tampabay.com/news/2024/05/09/florida-republican-says-he-will-file-impeachment-articles-against-joe-biden/

[Ken Winkes]

I understand that today Speaker Johnson, who owes his Speakership to the Dems, will surround himself with other Republican reps and hold a presser announcing that the sun's rise this morning was wholly due to Republican intercession.

Thank the R's who saved the day. The Dems, of course, were against it.

[Jack Mahoney]

The 2025 GOP filling offices with incompetent toadies will be nothing new. The Bush administration applied an abortion litmus test to candidates whose jobs would have nothing to do with healthcare.

Furthermore, Bush sent Christian zealots barely out of college to Iraq to do jobs for which they weren't qualified, thus transforming an immoral invasion into a public relations nightmare, notwithstanding the live bombing of other people on CNN, which apparently was really popular.

According to the Democracy Now! web site, "In 'Imperial Life in the Emerald City: Inside Iraq’s Green Zone,' Washington Post Assistant Managing Editor and former Baghdad bureau chief Rajiv Chandrasekaran provided a behind-the-scenes account of the Bush administration appointees who ran Iraq after the US invasion. Invoking the embattled ex-Director of FEMA, Chandrasekaran calls them 'Michael Brown x100.' [For anyone who's forgotten, Michael Brown was the Bush horse-show crony who was inexplicably put in charge of the FEMA response to Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans.]

"[In Congressional testimony, a government] inspector, Stuart Bowen, criticized three companies in particular: Parsons, Bechtel and the Halliburton subsidiary KBR. Bowen said that of the fourteen major projects built by Parsons in Iraq, 13 of them were substandard with construction deficiencies and other serious problems. At the police college in Baghdad, the plumbing done by Parsons was so poor that the pipes burst, dumping urine and fecal matter throughout the college’s buildings. Democratic Congressman Henry Waxman said: 'This debacle is not just a waste of taxpayers' funds, and it doesn’t just impact the reconstruction. It impedes the entire effort in Iraq. This is the lens in which the Iraqis will view America.'”

Those who don't remember the past ...

[Akhilleus]

So we continue to hear Mr. Tiny Mushroom Head and his acolytes and apologists whine about how his First Amendment rights have been “illegally” and “unconstitutionally” taken away. Waaaahh!

We also hear him whine about how he is “Soooo innocent” (seriously, who says stuff like this?).

Okay, okay. There’s an easy solution to all of these phony complaints. And we all know how much Tiny Mushroom Head likes EZ.

Testify.

Sit your fat ass in the witness stand and you can say whatever you want. On the record. Under oath. Stormy Daniels is lying? She made it all up? You never answered the door in your rubber ducky PJs? Never insinuated that she could get on your half-assed unreality show If she agreed to have (very quick) sex? Never pooh-poohed your wife who was home taking care of your baby?

Great. Get on the stand. Tell us all about it. First Amendment up the wazoo.

No? You won’t testify under oath on pain of perjury if you lie?

Such a coward.

Such a fraud.

Such a whiny, petulant little boy.

Either get up and testify, or shut your fucking mouth.

There. How’s that for EZ?

[ForrestMorris]

I've been trying to contact Vlad's friends in Congress to find out if
their friends nuclear threat has been upgraded.
We're seeing military jets and helicopters flying up and down the
coast of Lake Michigan like in the cold war days.
One helicopter came so close to my roof it shook dishes. Scary.

[Marie Burns]

@Forrest: Uh, are you sure those aren't Canadian aircraft? Could be an invasion.

I'm not too far from Canada myself. If Trudeau could guarantee to rid us of that meddlesome Trump AND lower the price of maple syrup, I'll wave the white flag.

[RAS]

The hungry caterpillar

[RAS]

I saw it pointed out that Republicans have been spending months holding up the Israel and Ukraine military aid. The obvious solution here is self-impeachment. And the way the Republicans hate each other right now you might actually be able to get a few of those charges for Republicans to the Senate.

[Akhilleus]

Question: will the DOC allow the convict Bannon to wear three shirts?

Will he be allowed to bellow his bullshit from lock up?

And how much will he grift from the moron MAGAts after he gets out, he being the latest Trumpy martyr?

[Akhilleus]

Disgraced NYC mayor and ongoing Trump flunky, Rudy Giuliani burns another bridge with his continued lying about the 2020 election which the Fat Fascist lost badly.

Runny Hair Dye Man used to have a radio show on WABC (must have been a pip. Sorry I missed it) in New York, but after refusing to stop promoting the Big Lie, he finally got the boot.

“John Catsimatidis, a New York billionaire, Republican donor and owner of WABC, told the New York Times: ‘We’re not going to talk about fallacies of the November 2020 election. We warned him once. We warned him twice. And I get a text from him last night, and I get a text from him this morning that he refuses not to talk about it.
So he left me no option. I suspended him.’”

Rudy even lied about his suspension, whining that he was fired.

“Claiming ‘a clear violation of free speech’, Giuliani said he would address the situation further on social media on Friday night.”

Social media? What happened to the Four Seasons?

Another Trump loser.