Category: Uncategorized

Donald Trump will be arraigned on August 10th on the three additional counts added in the superseding indictment issued last week, MSNBC producer Kyle Cheney reports.  Codefendant Walt Nauta will be arraigned on the same date; however the status of new co-conspirator Carlos De Oliveira will also be arraigned that day because he still needs to find qualified counsel.

Although he claimed he was a champion for the First Amendment and free speech when he took over last year, “X” chair and oligarch in training Elon Musk has ordered his company to sue a British research company, the Center for Countering Digital Hate, for reporting that hate speech has exploded on the platform since he bought Twitter, CNBC reports.

Although the lawsuit claims CCDH improperly accessed proprietary information, Musk’s obvious goal is to protect his new “X” brand from being branded as a platform for bigoted extremists, something the oligarch seemingly relishes given his own rightwing authoritarian and racist leanings as evidenced in his posts.  CCDH found that Twitter has failed to act on more than 95% of the hate speech complaints it received since Musk’s takeover.

“Elon Musk’s latest legal threat is straight out of the authoritarian playbook,” Imran Ahmed, founder and CEO of the CCDH, said in a statement. “He is now showing he will stop at nothing to silence anyone who criticizes him for his own decisions and actions,” while adding his group’s research “shows that hate and disinformation is spreading like wildfire on the platform under Musk’s ownership and this lawsuit is a direct attempt to silence those efforts.”

Two Michigan Republicans have been arraigned on charges related to tampering with voting machines as part of their attempt to undermine the state’s ballot count in the 2020 presidential election, the Detroit News reports.

Michigan special prosecutor D.J. Hilson has filed charges against former GOP Attorney General candidate Matt DePerno and former state legislator Daire Rendon relating to undue possession of a voting machine and false pretenses.  The prosecutor has not announced any charges, but according to court documents, the pair was arraigned on Tuesday.   They were released on $5,000 bond.

Newsweek reports the Kremlin is dealing with significantly more domestic unrest in the weeks after the mutiny of Wagner forces that were fighting in Ukraine unsettled Russian President Vladimir Putin, with protests springing up in Russian-occupied Crimea.

Ukrainian intelligence officials report that native ethnic Crimean Tatar citizens have been rounded up and imprisoned by Russian occupiers after various protests popped up in the last weeks.  Crimea is primarily populated by Russians and Russia-favoring Ukrainians since the 2014 Russian occupation of the territory when most of the ethnic Tatar and Ukrainians fled the region.

Additionally, no fewer than eight military recruitment offices were set afire throughout Russia since Saturday in overt opposition to Putin’s ongoing conscription orders pulling citizens into the invasion effort.

MSNBC’s Chris Jansing stated that she received reports from producers at the DC courthouse that members of the Jack Smith grand jury looking into Donald Trump’s interference in the 2020 election were seen leaving the building at 2 p.m. ET, two hours before the announced dismissal time.  (CNN’s Manu Raju confirms, noting the foreperson of the jury stayed behind.)

The early departure of grand jurors could mean they have finished their work–meaning they’s already taken a vote on indictments–or that they’re work for the day is done while they wait for new witnesses to testify.  Given that Trump has already been invited to testify–and turned down the offer–the likelihood of new witnesses is low.

The Super PAC supporting the presidential run Florida Republican Governor and malfunctioning Disney animatron Ron DeSantis reported having nearly $100 million cash-on-hand at the end of June, according to federal reporting released this week, the New York Times reports, after spending more than $34 million to boost the struggling campaign.

DeSantis is severely bending campaign finance laws by having his PAC, Never Back Down, pay for and organize events in which the candidate appears as a “special guest” rather than having the campaign itself organize rallies, a potential violation of anti-coordination rules.  Never Back Down reported having $97 million in the bank as of June 30th, but later reporting on fundraising shows donations slowing in July as big money supporters abandon the sinking ship that is the DeSantis campaign.

A Republican former Georgia state senator who heard a presentation by Trump lawyer and hair dye dispenser Rudy Giuliani about the imperative to impanel a set of fake electors to support Donald Trump’s candidacy in the Electoral College has been subpoenaed by Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis, CNN reports.

As a member of the Georgia Senate Judiciary subcommittee, Jen Jordan sat through a presentation by Guiliani and associates in which the Trump representatives presented their flimsy evidence of voter fraud and ballot forgery, including previously debunked claims that workers in Fulton County pulled out and tallied bins full of fake ballots to throw the election to Joe Biden.  The subpoena specifies Jordan will be called to testify before the grand jury in the month of August.

Along with another one for an independent journalist who walked into the organizing meeting for the fake electors at the capitol where Republicans lied about the meeting in a sign that they knew its illegality, the subpoena for Jordan demonstrates Willis’s investigation is going far beyond the direct efforts of Donald Trump to pressure elected officials to change the vote count.

In comments that reflect conservatives’ tendency toward hyperbole and deceit, Russian officials said continuing Ukrainian drone attacks are equivalent to al Qaeda’s unprovoked 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center in New York that killed close to 3,000 people, USA Today reports.

After a new wave of attacks early Wednesday morning, Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said that the latest attack, in which no one was injured, was aimed at location “that have nothing to do with the military,” without noting the Kremlin’s increasing intense attacks on Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s hometown, which has little military importance.  “The 9/11 attack on the Twin Towers caused an enormous number of casualties, but the methods were the same,” she said. “We are seeing the same picture now, as if it is repeating itself.”

After three days of silence, NASA scientists on Monday morning picked up a faint “heartbeat signal” from the Voyager 2 probe, traveling about 12 million miles from Earth, giving hope that astronomers will be able to reorient the craft to communicate with operators, the Associated Press reports.

A programming error tilted the antenna two percent more than intended, causing operators to fear that the new position of the antenna would make it impossible for the craft to receive signals from Earth.  After enlisting the assistance of NASA’s Deep Space Network of telescopes to listen for the craft, engineers will now flood the craft with radio signals, which take 18 hours to reach Voyager 2, to get the craft to reorient itself into a correct position.

Sheila Oliver, the Democratic Lt. Governor of New Jersey, has died of an undisclosed condition after being hospitalized Tuesday, a statement from the family released Wednesday confirmed.  She was 71.  The Associated Press reports Oliver was taken to the hospital Monday, with her staff saying she was seeking “medical care.”

Oliver was serving in the governor’s capacity as Democratic New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy is vacationing out of the country.  Until Murphy’s return, Democratic Senate President Nicholas Scutari will assume the duties of governor.

The day conservatives have long-feared has arrived:  the end of the incandescent light bulb in the United States.  Except not really.  According to CNN, the long-planned end of manufacturing most incandescent light bulbs in the United States takes effect Wednesday, the first day of August.

Originally proposed during the George W. Bush administration, the ban pushed consumers to adopt higher-efficiency, longer-lasting LED bulbs.  The new rule bans the manufacture of bulbs that produce less than 45 lumens per watt; LED bulbs typically produce 75 lumens per watt, while incandescent bulbs produce 15 lumens per watt.  When fully adopted, switching to LED bulbs will save consumers an estimated $3 billion per year in US versus using incandescent bulbs.

Sources tell Rolling Stone that disgraced former President Trump’s defense in any potential trial on charges over his failed attempt to overturn the 2020 election will center on an “advice of counsel” argument blaming dickhead lawyers John Eastman and Rudy Giuliani for the treason.

Evidently lost on the current Trump lawyers formulating this defense is that, even if it’s not the worst idea since Eastman and Rudy are indeed guilty as fuck and almost certainly going to end up getting disbarred for their bullshit anyway, that it probably won’t be enough to save Donald – and more importantly they might do well to avoid encouraging their deranged client to throw fellow members of their profession under the bus. They just might end up in the same spot sometime down the road.

The uninspiredly-named Super PAC supporting former Republican South Carolina Governor Nimrata “Nikki” Haley is planning a $13 million spend in early primary states like Iowa and New Hampshire starting this month as she gears up for an early campaign push, the New York Times reports.

Wallowing at around 3-4% in national polls, Haley stands in fifth place in most polls of Iowa and New Hampshire voters.  She’s yet to blaze a path with signature policy initiatives, something common among GOP candidates who concentrate on attacking Joe Biden, LGBTQ people, voting rights and the results of the 2016 election rather than promoting programs that would benefit voters.

“After talking with my family. I have decided to run for reelection in Wisconsin’s Seventh District. While Tammy Baldwin is vulnerable due to her record as a rubber stamp for President Biden, I can make the greatest impact continuing to serve the great people of Wisconsin in the House of Representatives. Let there be no doubt, I will continue to hold the Biden administration accountable for their fiscal recklessness, open border disaster, and the weaponization of the Justice Department against the American people. America and Wisconsin can do better than the current status quo. I look forward to working with our nominees for President and U.S. Senate to turn Wisconsin red in 2024,” says right wing Wisconsin Congressman Tom Tiffany in a statement.

The US continues to have a strong market for job seekers, with the Department of Labor showing 9.582 million jobs open across the country, or 1.6 openings for every worker, CNN reports.  The number of openings decreased slightly from the previous month and was effectively on-target for estimates.

Other factors listed:  job “quits”–people voluntarily leaving their jobs–dropped about 8% to 3.722 million, with new hires dropping about 5% to 5.91 million, and layoff dropped minimally.  Worker shortages are one of the factors driving inflation, as wages increase with employers recruiting new staff.

The grand jury that could soon end up handing down an indictment of fat former President Trump and his minions for their attempt at overturning his humiliating defeat to Joe Biden in the 2020 election were spotted entering the DC federal courthouse by CNN’s Casey Gannon on Tuesday.

I have never called my dad & put him on speakerphone during a business meeting to talk about the weather. In fact, I’ve never called my dad during any business meeting in my life & had him talk to the people in the meeting. How about y’all?

— Clay Travis (@ClayTravis) July 31, 2023

Looking at the freakout after Hunter Biden’s former business partner Devon Archer told the House Oversight Committee that Hunter had called his dad Joe about 20 times during their meetings and put him on speaker about a decade ago it seems the fanboys really want it both ways: They love the part about the “20 times” but not the rest where Archer said that they talked about boring shit like the weather and not anything at all about business, much less taking bribes from foreign scumbags.

Does it need to be said that if they’re going to make the testimony of this Archer guy (a convicted felon who ripped off Native American tribes) the center of all their “Biden Crime Family” bullshit that they kind of need to take all of it as credible, not just the parts that they want to believe? We guess so considering this Clay Travis wiener’s ongoing meltdown over the outcome of the interview.

Tuesday’s edition of Politico Playbook points out two major problems for disgraced former President Trump with the amount his PAC has been pissing away on legal fees. The first is that the spikes in his fundraising on each indictment diminished from when he was charged in New York over the Stormy Daniels shitshow and when he was hit federally in Florida because of his theft and hoarding of classified government documents – down two thirds from the first hit in late March to the second in early June, which Playbook writes “His greatest fundraising asset – the ongoing state and federal prosecutions targeting him – may be losing potency” in scamming his fans for money.

Worse – actually far worse – is that what’s true now in the primary since Donald doesn’t need to spend much if anything to curb stomp DeSantis, Pence, and the other future has-beens in the GOP field will not be in the general against Biden who will have an absolute shit ton of money to spend on actual campaigning. Remember the Trump 2020 campaign was basically broke in the final September-October stretch because of former manager Brad Parscale’s terrible budgeting. Millions upon millions in TV ad buys in crucial swing states had to be canceled because of shortfalls. How much that sort of shit actually really mattered is unknown and maybe unknowable but being at a severe disadvantage in spending power versus an incumbent Biden certainly will not help in 2024.

A New York Times/Siena College survey finds President Bidens and fat former President Trump tied at 43 in the 2024 election, numbers that Times egghead Nate Cohn says actually isn’t at all indicative of strength for the twice-impeached loser in a rematch against his 2024 rival.

“Trump’s resilience is not necessarily an indication of his strength. In most respects, he appears to be a badly wounded general election candidate. Just 41 percent of registered voters say they have a favorable view of him, while a majority believe he committed serious federal crimes and say his conduct after the last election went so far that it threatened American democracy,” wrote Cohn.

State Department officials on Tuesday imposed new travel restrictions on Hungarian citizens after determining that as many as 1 million visitors from the fascist Central European state were not sufficiently verified over the last nine years, the AP reports. Dictator Viktor Orban’s regime opened the doors to naturalize any person claiming Hungarian ancestry with basically no verification process back in 2011, regardless of whether they even intended to live in the country or not. The scam was meant to give Orban’s Fidesz party an electoral edge… which obviously worked because the asshole’s still in power. The upshot was allowing all sorts of scumbags and criminals from neighboring countries an easy path to the US visa waiver program afforded to EU members.