Category: Uncategorized

Former Trump White House Counsel Don McGahn’s personal records were subpoenaed from Apple by the Justice Department in 2017.The New York Times has the story.

“You have to appreciate that Trump’s beef with Kemp didn’t start in late 2020. The Georgian managed to annoy his president by failing to follow his erratic lead on reopening businesses in April of 2020. Before that, in late 2019, Kemp refused to take Trump’s advice on an appointee to an open U.S. Senate seat. Clearly Trump considered these acts of ingratitude, certain as he was that his endorsement of Kemp before a 2018 Republican gubernatorial runoff was the only reason the governor was the governor. But Trump is struggling to get someone formidable to run against Kemp in the 2022 Republican primary. Yes, the suddenly Trump-y former Democrat Vernon Jones is in the race, with the former president’s blessing (if not his endorsement, so far). But putting aside the issues with Trump, Kemp is a whole lot closer to the Georgia GOP’s idea of a governor than a Black ex-Democrat who was pro-choice not long ago and has quite a bit of baggage (including a rape allegation he refuted by claiming a consensus three-way sexual encounter).”

“The incumbent made a lot of MAGA hay signing and then defending the recent voter suppression law, and generally returning to the ‘owning the libs’ demeanor he displayed when running as a ‘politically incorrect conservative’ in 2018. At the same state GOP convention that censured Raffensperger, Kemp was met by some boos, but some cheers, too, and no one even proposed any sanction of him for letting down Trump in the election. With time running down before the 2022 cycle gets fully underway, Trump has to be frustrated with the potentially strong challengers to Kemp who have failed to take up his offer of support He was promoting former congressman Doug Collins as a Kemp-beater back in December. But Collins, reportedly exhausted from his unsuccessful 2020 Senate race (he finished third in the special election field to finish Johnny Isakson’s term, behind Loeffler and the eventual winner Raphael Warnock), chose to announce he wouldn’t be running for any office in 2022” – New York Magazine.

In February 2018, Donald Trump’s Department of Justice subpoenaed the phone records of Trump’s White House Counsel Don McGahn and his wife from Apple and barred the company from telling McGahn about the seizure, the New York Time reports.  Apple advised McGahn of the disclosure last month.

The revelation that the Trump administration obtained the phone records of one of the most senior members of the White House staff while he was in a sensitive position comes after disclosures that it also sought records from Apple for Democrats Adam Schiff and Eric Swalwell, members of the House Intelligence Committee, their staff and their families, including a minor; and from journalists working for CNN, the New York Times and the Washington Post.

Although the reason for the records seizure is not clear, the Trump Administration at the time was frantically trying to crack down on leaks to the media regarding investigations into the 2016 Trump campaign’s contacts and possible cooperation with Russian government agents to interfere in the 2016 presidential election. 

Mark Buchanan, Washington Post: “Attempting to communicate with extraterrestrials, if they do exist, could be extremely dangerous for us. We need to figure out whether it’s wise – or safe – and how to handle such attempts in an organized manner. Some scientific circles have already been debating questions around whether to try to contact other civilizations. It’s a topic of profound importance for the entire planet. For 60 years, scientists have been searching with radio telescopes, listening in for possible signals coming from other civilizations on planets orbiting distant stars… The search for aliens has reached a stage of technological sophistication and associated risk that it needs strict regulation at national and international levels. Without oversight, even one person – with access to powerful transmitting technology – could take actions affecting the future of the entire planet. That’s because any aliens we ultimately encounter will likely be far more technologically advanced than we are, for a simple reason: Most stars in our galaxy are much older than the sun. If civilizations arise fairly frequently on some planets, then there ought to be many civilizations in our galaxy millions of years more advanced than our own.”

“Many of these would likely have taken significant steps to begin exploring and possibly colonizing the galaxy. Hence, it’s a profound mystery – known as the Fermi Paradox, after the Italian physicist Enrico Fermi – why we haven’t yet seen any such aliens. Many resolutions of the paradox have been proposed, among them the suggestion that all civilizations, once reaching sufficient technological capacity, eventually destroy themselves. Or perhaps aliens are so alien and unlike humans that we simply cannot interact with them. More alarming is the possibility that alien civilizations are remaining out of contact because they know something: that sending out signals is catastrophically risky. Our history on Earth has given us many examples of what can happen when civilizations with unequal technology meet – generally, the technologically more advanced has destroyed or enslaved the other. A cosmic version of this reality might have convinced many alien civilizations to remain silent. Exposing yourself is an invitation to be preyed upon and devoured.”

“Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel’s longest-serving leader, spent what might be his last minutes in power, at least for now, by defending his record, promising to remain in politics as leader of the opposition, and denouncing his nominated successor, Naftali Bennett. At a parliamentary debate ahead of a vote of confidence in Mr. Bennett’s government, Mr. Netanyahu gave what felt like a valedictory speech, listing what he perceived to be his accomplishments in office.”

“He noted his efforts to keep Iran from becoming a nuclear power and lauded four diplomatic agreements with Arab countries, completed during his tenure, that upended assumptions that Israel would only shore up relations with the Arab world after it had sealed peace with the Palestinians. He also highlighted several favorable moves by the Trump administration that he championed, including American recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, and the installation of an American Embassy in the city. ‘Our successes turned Israel from a fringe state to a leading power,’ Mr. Netanyahu said. Then he warned of the harm that he believes a Bennett-led government poses to Israel, and railed against legislation, proposed by the new government, that would limit the ability of prime ministers to remain in office after eight years in power, as he did. ‘If we have to be in opposition, we will do this standing tall – until we bring down this dangerous government and return to lead the state,’ Mr. Netanyahu said” – New York Times.

Christopher Sign, the reporter who broke the story of the June 2016 “tarmac meeting” between then-Attorney General Loretta Lynch and Former President Bill Clinton which led to Lynch’s recusal for all matters related to the investigation of then-Dem presidential nominee Hillary Clinton’s emails, has died by an apparent suicide, AL.com reports. He was 45.

A Texas native, Sign was the morning news anchor for Birmingham, Alabama Sinclair ABC affiliate WBMA, having moved from KNXV-TV in Phoenix in 2017 where he’d reported on the meeting. National Zero learned of Sign’s death from right wing-ish UFO conspiracy site Disclose.tv on Twitter, the obvious implication that he’d been “Arkancided” like Vince Foster, Seth Rich, and Jeffrey Epstein, so watch out for the MAGA assholes to be pushing this bullshit again over the next few days, despite the fact that the damage is long over and done. They’ll probably say it was mere retribution if they can’t make up a theory that Sign still knew some “secrets” about the Clintons.

The National Suicide Prevention Hotline in the U.S. is available 24 hours a day at 1-800-273-8255. Call them if you need to talk to someone.

AP: “Israel is set to swear in a new government on Sunday that will send Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu into the opposition after a record 12 years in office and a political crisis that sparked four elections in two years. Naftali Bennett, the head of a small ultranationalist party, will take over as prime minister. But if he wants to keep the job, he will have to maintain an unwieldy coalition of parties from the political right, left and center. The eight parties, including a small Arab faction that is making history by sitting in the ruling coalition, are united in their opposition to Netanyahu and new elections but agree on little else. They are likely to pursue a modest agenda that seeks to reduce tensions with the Palestinians and maintain good relations with the U.S. without launching any major initiatives. Netanyahu, who is on trial for corruption, remains the head of the largest party in parliament and is expected to vigorously oppose the new government. If just one faction bolts, it could lose its majority and would be at risk of collapse, giving him an opening to return to power.”

Yes, this was the rant of Mike Lindell, My Pillow founder (and person who has been huffing *a bit* too much Brut aftershave), during his Frank rally, reportedly attended by the same number of people who attend a regional realty conference, claiming that internet monolith Google chose to punish a friend of his by taking away his “gmail and his Google maps”:

“A friend of mine, about a month ago, I was on his radio show, and they put out–he’s sending out the podcast part to all thirty thesla–he emailed it out, 30 thousand emails.  Google took away his Gmails [sic] and his Google map.  I want you to think about that:  they took away his Google maps.”

International shipping problems could last into the Christmas season and beyond as coronavirus outbreaks impact the operations of key ports around the world and lasting effects of supply chain delays, the BBC reports.

A COVID outbreak in Guangdong province in China, one of the key shipping points for good overseas, may mandate a slowdown or a shutdown in operations.  Additionally, the blockage of Suez Canal is still having repercussions on the amount of cargo going through the canal, and what ships might banned from transiting the canal.

Product shortages are impacting a variety of industries, from home building to car manufacturing to computer parts.  Computer chips are in short supply, as are construction materials such as electronic board components and raw materials for things like ducts and piping.

Seriously, what *is it* about the Trump family that they are repeatedly telling people to take up arms to overthrow the government or conduct vigilantism?

On the Judge Jug-O-Wine show on Fox News Saturday, former Senatorial hopeful (and spouse of the dumbest Donald Trump creation since Trump Steaks) Lara Trump said that people along the southern border should take up arms and take matters into their own hands.

This is the latest in a stream of incitement of riots, violence and violations of the Constitution that will define the Trump legacy.

Former Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, who in many ways served as an acting attorney general under Jefferson Beauregard Sessions III because Sessions had to recuse himself from a number of investigations, has reportedly told associated that he had no knowledge of the 2017 subpoenas issues to Apple to obtain the personal communications records of two Democrats on the House Intel Committee, their aides and their families, including one minor, CNN reports.

The records–for then-Intel minority chair (and current committee chair) Adam Schiff and Congressman Eric Swalwell–were part of a broad subpoena the Justice Department reported served on Apple for a information on a number of phone numbers and email accounts.  Apple has said it did not know the numbers were for politicians.  The feds then applied a strict gag order preventing Apple from disclosing the subpoena to anyone.

Rosenstein’s denial of knowledge about the subpoena follows both Sessions and Trump’s fourth Attorney General, Bill Barr, claiming they didn’t know anything about the subpoenas.  Additional subpoenas were issued while Barr was AG for the communications records of reporters working for CNN, the Washington Post and the New York Times in 2017 and 2018.

When literally phoning in a speech to the Frank Rally in Eastern Northwest Bunghole, Wisconsin, a slouched and sedate Donald Trump claims that the construction contractors he’s hired for some unspecified construction project are illiterate.  “I know contractors better than anyone.  They’re very brilliant.  They may not read and write in some cases, but ya know what, they’re smarter than the rest.”  His video then freezes.

The assertion would likely be challenged by people in the building trades, general contracting, architecture and other building industries, given that they’re working with autocad, prefabricated parts, and complex inventory and ordering systems.

And yes, Trump’s video did freeze in the middle.  He didn’t stroke out.

“The G7 group of rich nations has agreed plans to set up an alternative to China’s belt and road initiative as part of a broad push back against Beijing covering human rights, supply chains, support for Taiwan and demands to reveal more about the origins of the Covid-19 pandemic,” reports the Guardian.

“The EU is also pressing the US to back a legally binding code of conduct for the South China Sea that Beijing has been negotiating with regional powers.”

When West Point High School in Mississippi named Ikeria Washington and Layla Temple, two Black female students, as the Class of 2021’s valedictorian and salutatorian respectively, the crowd let out an audible gasp and then burst out in applause, the New York Time reported.  It was the first time in anyone’s memory that the school had had two Black students take the school’s top honors, even though the town is majority Black.

Within days, however, school administrators had modified their rankings, breaking decades of tradition by naming two other students as co-valedictorian and co-salutatorian, Emma Berry and Dominic Borgioli, both of whom are white.  Administrators say the addition was made because of a calculation error by a school counselor.

The decision to strip Ikeria and Layla of their solo honors has torn the northwest Mississippi town of West Point apart, largely along racial lines, though school officials have said race had nothing to do with their decision. 

On the fifth anniversary of the mass shooting there that took 49 lives and wounded 53 others, President Joe Biden announced that he would designate the site of the Pulse Nightclub in Orlando a national memorial, the Associated Press reports.

The city of Orlando attempted to purchase the site about six months after the 2016 massacre, but the owner declined, citing an emotional attachment to the club.  The owner was going to use a portion of the property to build a memorial and museum to the massacre and to the local LGBTQ community; that project is set to open in 2022.

Biden, calling the site “hallowed ground,” said in a statement Saturday that he had “stayed in touch with families of the victims and with the survivors who have turned their pain into purpose” for the cause to advance LGBTQ rights and equality.

The chief operating officer of an Atlanta-based cybersecurity start-up has been charged with a 2018 ransomware attack on a Georgia hospital at a time when US companies and organizations are being hit with a rash of such attacks.  He entered a preliminary plea of guilty with a federal court, pending sentencing.

According to the Associated Press, Vikas Singla, the 45-year-old COO of Securolytics, was charged with 17 counts of intentional damage to a protected computer and one count of obtaining information from a protected computer.

The attack allegedly undertaken by Singla caused disruption to the hospital’s phone systems and printer systems, and taking information from the hospital’s digital systems. 

As the Southern Baptists prepare for their meeting next week in Nashville, the various churches that make up the Southern Baptist Convention stand at a crossroads in coming to terms with questions regarding the role of women in the church and how to address racial issues, USA Today reports.

The Convention, which has seen a steep decline in member over the last 15 years, is again facing a cleave due to conflicting opinions caused by a shift some member churches have taken to elevate women into leadership position and to teach critical race theory.

The official position of the Convention is that women cannot be pastors in the church, relegating them to support roles.  But some larger congregations, including the high-profile Saddleback Church in California, have ordained female pastors, forcing the national organization to rethink its positions.

Video posted by Twitter user “FrankySpeech” of the Saturday FrankSpeech rally in East Jesusville, Wisconsin, taken during Trump’s video address to the crowd. MyPillow dipshit Mike Lindell is still speaking but the “rally” is just about to wrap up. Salon’s Zach Petrizzo is on the scene and estimates about 1,000 people showed up, well short of the 30,000 or so Lindell had predicted.