Category: Uncategorized

The former federal judge responsible for overseeing the Trump Organization’s finances sent a letter to the judge overseeing the New York State civil fraud lawsuit after she flagged three transactions this year that violated court reporting requirements, Newsweek reports.

Former U.S. District Court Judge Barbara Jones told Judge Arthur Engoron that three transfers from the company to Donald Trump were made over the $5 million level that required reporting to the court to ensure the Trump family isn’t trying to hide assets.  One of the payments, for $5.5 million, was made to an insurance company for the initial losses declared in the E. Jean Carroll defamation suit.  Carroll was initially awarded $5 million in damages, but she is pursuing more damages based on Trump’s continuing to slander her.  Another payment went to additional insurance policies.

The largest payment of the three was $27 million, which Jones noted was for taxes.  In other news, Donald Trump apparently paid millions in taxes in 2023.

A Texas man was sentenced to two years in federal prison for threatening the lives of three Georgia election officials in the months after the 2020 election and just before the January 6th Republican-led domestic terrorist attack on Congress.  Chad Christopher Stark, of Leander, Texas posted a listing on Craigslist on January 5th, 2021 entitled “Georgia Patriots it’s time to kill [one target] the Chinese agent – $10,000.”

The post, most of which is available at the link above, is worth a read if you want to delve into the delusions of an election denier as The Big Lie was going on contemporaneously.   Stark’s text includes: “It’s our duty as American Patriots to put an end to the lives of these traitors and take back our country by force we can no longer wait on the corrupt law enforcement in the corrupt courts. If we want our country back we have to exterminate these people.”

While Stark’s targets are not named in the Justice Department announcement, a good bet would be the ones a MAGAt in Central Texas would hear of:  Gabriel Sterling, Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss, the people being splashed all over conservative and conspiracy media as the center of the so-not-stolen election.

While it’s probably true that anyone who paid attention to politics since before the turn of the millennium probably does their own version, having Fox host and secret Trump advisor Sean Hannity and his TeeVee bud Bret Baier do their impersonations of Henry Kissinger–with Baier’s sounding more like Arnold Schwarzenegger doing a Kissinger imitation–within an hour of the announcement of Kissinger’s death seems a bit tasteless.  But then, that’s Fox.  And Hannity.

Sebastian Stan, perhaps best known to film fans for portraying The Winter Solder–the nom de guerre of Captain America’s best friend Bucky Barnes in the Marvel Universe–will portray Donald Trump in an upcoming film biography by Iranian filmmaker Ali Abbasi, the Guardian reports.

With filming starting this week, the movie, titled The Apprentice, will cover Trump’s life in the 1970s and -80s, when he suffered numerous financial losses and developed a friendship with his mentor, Roy Cohn, before abandoning his businesses and centering on building his brand empire.  Succession’s Jeremy Strong has been cast as Cohn and Oscar nominee Maria Bakalova, known for being the victim of Rudy Giuliani’s pants diddling in a Sasha Baron Cohen movie, will play Trump’s first wife and future golf course fertilizer, Ivana.

After 100 years of mumbling stuff about destabilizing Third World countries to people who would go and destabilize them, former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger has joined other prominent Nixon Administration officials in a warm spot somewhere in the hereafter, the Washington Post reports.

Pro-Trump sandbagging operation No Labels have killed their “nominating convention” planned for Dallas in next spring and will instead throw a virtual-only event like this is still the COVID era and everyone has to pretend doing stuff on Zoom is just as fun as in real life, Axios reports.

Of course this being Axios they act like the scam is legitimate and normal, writing “Canceling its Dallas convention will give No Labels more flexibility – and more time – to make that determination. It will also allow more candidates to potentially emerge and challenge the status quo,” as if “challenging the status quo” is the goal for Trump ballsucker Mark Penn and his scumbag wife.

“No Labels’ goal has always been to get on the ballot and select a Unity ticket that can win outright in the Electoral College,” Axios prints credulously from a No Labels statement.

House Oversight Chairbilly James Comer on Wednesday told Newsmax he was “aware” of the family connection between four year-old American-Israeli hostage Abigail Edan and Hunter Biden art patron/Biden campaign donor Elizabeth Naftali and said “we wanna find out” whether it was some “wild coincidence” that Abigail was the first American officially released from Hamas’s captivity under the terms of the ceasefire agreement with the Israeli Defense Forces, the Messenger reports.

The depravity makes Comer’s simple, basic hypocrisy on the Hunter Biden public hearing vs closed deposition matter totally normal. Almost quaint. “We have mountains of evidence and now we’re ready to bring ’em in. We’re in the downhill phase of this investigation now because we have so many documents and we can bring these people in for depositions or committee hearings, whichever they choose, and we can ask these questions with evidence,” Comer told four-eyed penis MAGA influencer Benny Johnson in an interview just a few weeks ago before reversing on Tuesday.

Accelerating his self-destruction due to entertaining antisemitism and other hateful shit on Wednesday, LSD-brained billionaire Elon Musk told Disney CEO Bob Iger and other corporate leaders who have pulled ads from Twitter to go fuck themselves for “blackmail” over the ongoing exodus from the platform… on stage at the Times Dealbook Summit, the Daily Beast reports.

If you’re wondering what this Antebellum-brained drawler Clay Higgins is fuming over with this “list” nonsense then let us not shock you at all with this crazy stupid bullshit: Part of Justice Department special counsel Jack Smith’s subpoena to Twitter for all data associated with fat former President Trump’s account specified it include “the content of all tweets created, drafted, favorited/liked, or retweeted.” This was extensively reported on last August after Trump was indicted for his post-2020 election coup attempt, but the unsealing of a largely redacted search warrant this week prompted fucking idiot Federalist writer Mollie Hemingway to claim “Jack Smith collected info on any American who retweeted or favorited Trump tweets. This is such a dystopic nightmare, as is the way it’s calmly accepted by so much of the country,” prompting predictable MAGA outrage.

The problem, and there’s always a problem, is that Smith very obviously meant which tweets Trump liked, not who liked or retweeted his tweets. On top of that, such data is public for all Twitter users to see by simply clicking the “interactions” tab on a tweet and it does not take an exceptional level of technical skill to slap together a crawler to collect it in a database. No search warrant required. All of which means the Newsmax chyron claiming “DOJ: JACK SMITH SOUGHT LIST OF USERS THAT ‘LIKED’ TRUMP TWEETS” is pretty fucking stupid in addition to being completely false.

Dual American-Israeli citizen Liat Beinin Atzili was among the 12 hostages released from Hamas captivity in Gaza following their abduction during the October 7th attack, the Messenger reports.

Beinin Atzili, 49, is the fourth American released from the terrorist group’s captivity since the attack, following the October 20th release of mother and daughter Judith and Natalie Raanan who were let go unconditionally for what Hamas claimed were humanitarian reasons, and four year-old Abigail Edan, released on Sunday as part of an organized exchange for Palestinians held in Israeli prisons. Beinin Atzili’s husband Aviv was also abducted and remains in captivity, per the Messenger.

It’s not known yet if any relatives of the Beinin Atzilis or the Raanans donated money to Joe Biden in 2020 or bought paintings from Hunter but we’re sure the right wing media are looking into it.

An abusive Connecticut husband found out the hard way on Saturday that leaf blowers aren’t just for annoying the shit out of neighbors – they can beat the shit out of them too. Fox News reports that 66 year-old Kevin Conway has been charged with first-degree assault, attempted murder, violation of a protective order, and second-degree threatening after stabbing his wife and chasing her down the street in suburban Milford, a chase that ended abruptly when an unnamed neighbor stepped in and cracked Conway in the face with a leaf blower, sending him crumpling to the pavement.

The victim, who already had a restraining order out against her husband after he bit her during a March attack, was hospitalized with wounds to the “upper torso by the right shoulder and upper chest” as was Conway with a “bleeding head wound.” The brand of leaf blower was not available.

Imagine being afraid to question him in public 👇😂

The spineless cowards in the GOP never disappoint.

Please let me question him, if you're so afraid. pic.twitter.com/d99B0FNsTZ

— Catturd ™ (@catturd2) November 29, 2023

“Spoke with Mark Fisher yesterday, a great guy, very honored to have his and BLM’s support. I have done more for Black people than any other President (Lincoln?), including 10 year funding for Historically Black Colleges and Universities, where they had none, Opportunity Zones, Criminal Justice Reform, and much more. Thank you to Mark!” writes fat former President Trump about his speaking with a co-founder of the Rhode Island chapter of Black Lives Matter, who’s support he’s happy to have three years after he called the slogan a “symbol of hate” and its members “thugs.”

“Attorney General Kris Mayes today announced that the State Grand Jury has returned an indictment charging Peggy Suzanne Judd, age 61, of Willcox, and Terry Thomas ‘Tom’ Crosby, age 64, of Sierra Vista with the felony offenses of Interference with an Election Officer and Conspiracy. The indictment filed November 27, 2023, in Maricopa County Superior Court alleges that on or between October 11, 2022, and December 1, 2022, Judd and Crosby conspired to delay the canvass of votes cast in Cochise County in the November 2022 General Election. The Indictment further alleges that Judd and Crosby knowingly interfered with the Arizona Secretary of State’s ability to complete the statewide canvass for the 2022 General Election, by preventing the canvass of votes from Cochise County from occurring during the time period required by Arizona law. Defendants Judd and Crosby are currently serving as Cochise County Supervisors,” says a press release from Mayes’s office.

This is some really textbook fucking around and finding out. Beautiful, really. These assholes were warned again and again and again to stop the horseshit and conduct elections like adults but they thought Jesus or Trump or Q were in control of the situation and they could do as they pleased. Now they’re going to have to roll the dice in court and hope for a mistrial or jury nullification.

A Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad-linked Twitter account called “Quds News” on Wednesday evidently pretty happily reported that white nationalist QAnon freak Georgia Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene for coming out against House Republicans’ $14 billion aid package to Israel, writing “Georgia Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene votes against $14 billion aid to Israel, citing concerns over escalating conflicts and emphasizing Israel’s strength. Congresswoman Greene on X states that supporting Israel may lead the US into external conflicts in the Middle East and emphasizes that Israel is a nuclear-powered country, not a weak one in need of help.”

On a related note, isn’t it interesting that we haven’t heard the “Twitter banned Trump but let the Taliban stay” song-and-dance from the fanboys since Elon Musk took over? Like we were to understand that was less a free-speech maximalist battle cry than them calling out a perceived hypocrisy, that the Dorsey-era Twitter’s priorities were backwards and Trump should’ve been allowed back on while the Taliban got Tali-banned from the platform. Seems like they kind of forgot about the other side of that equivalence ever since Trump is now (sort of) back on Twitter.

It is incredibly hard to find a straight answer on the identities of and how many Americans are still currently held hostage by Hamas and other associated terrorist organizations in Gaza. The best we have is a Daily Beast list last updated November 9th – on which four year-old Abigail Edan, who was released on Sunday, does not appear – so obviously it was not comprehensive. Our understanding is that women and children were to be prioritized as part of the ceasefire negotiations.

Save for Chen Goldshtein Almog and her three kids: daughter Agam, 17, and her sons Gal, 11, and Tal, 9, all the rest of the Americans on the Beast’s list are grown men who would not qualify for release yet. Of course this dumb piece of shit Bartiromo does not acknowledge that prioritization while “just asking questions” that there was some sort of shady deal for Hunter’s art patron and Biden campaign donor Elizabeth Naftali to get her now-orphaned niece back from those animals.

“Real gross domestic product (GDP) increased at an annual rate of 5.2 percent in the third quarter of 2023, according to the ‘second’ estimate released by the Bureau of Economic Analysis. In the second quarter, real GDP increased 2.1 percent. The GDP estimate released today is based on more complete source data than were available for the ‘advance’ estimate issued last month.”

“In the advance estimate, the increase in real GDP was 4.9 percent. The update primarily reflected upward revisions to nonresidential fixed investment and state and local government spending that were partly offset by a downward revision to consumer spending. Imports, which are a subtraction in the calculation of GDP, were revised down. The increase in real GDP reflected increases in consumer spending, private inventory investment, exports, state and local government spending, federal government spending, residential fixed investment, and nonresidential fixed investment.”

“Compared to the second quarter, the acceleration in real GDP in the third quarter primarily reflected accelerations in consumer spending and private inventory investment and an upturn in exports that were partly offset by a deceleration in nonresidential fixed investment. Imports turned up,” says the US Bureau of Economic Analysis in a statement that doesn’t mean anything because it just feels like the GDP is down and the American economy is worse than Argentina and Zimbabwe’s combined.

“Today in the Southern District of New York, a superseding indictment was unsealed alleging murder-for-hire charges against Indian national Nikhil Gupta, aka Nick, 52, in connection with his participation in a foiled plot to assassinate a US citizen in New York City. Czech authorities arrested and detained Gupta on June 30, 2023 pursuant to the bilateral extradition treaty between the United States and the Czech Republic. According to court documents, earlier this year, an Indian government employee (CC-1), working together with others, including Gupta, in India and elsewhere, directed a plot to assassinate on US soil an attorney and political activist who is a US citizen of Indian origin residing in New York City (the Victim),” says a Wednesday DOJ press release.

Continued: “Gupta is an Indian national who resides in India, is an associate of CC-1 and has described his involvement in international narcotics and weapons trafficking in his communications with CC-1 and others. CC-1 is an Indian government agency employee who has variously described himself as a ‘Senior Field Officer’ with responsibilities in ‘Security Management’ and ‘Intelligence,’ and who also has referenced previously serving in India’s Central Reserve Police Force and receiving ‘officer training’ in ‘battle craft’ and ‘weapons.’ CC-1 directed the assassination plot from India.”

The release – which tracks with a Financial Times report from last week on the foiled assassination plot – goes on for quite a bit longer and does not sound good for bilateral US-India relations. Neither was trying to kill a guy on American soil, so fuck Modi for even thinking about trying to do it.

House Republican leadership will on Wednesday hold a Capitol news conference which, though the PBS Newshour embed above bills it as focused on funding Israel aid, the Messenger’s Congress guy Stephen Neukam reports is “a general update” on the Biden impeachment inquiry. Corroborating this is the media notice listing Hunter Biden Special Investigations Unit chiefs James Comer, Jim Jordan, and Jason Smith as present, so get ready for some sputtering defensiveness and weaseling.

This comes just after Punchbowl’s Jake Sherman reports that Republican Whip Tom Emmer told the caucus in a closed meeting that at some point within the next few weeks they could finally grab their balls and vote to formalize the impeachment inquiry because of White House “stonewalling,” lol.