Israeli military leadership on Friday fired two officers and publicly admitted a “grave mistake” led to the Monday strike that killed seven food aid workers on the ground in Gaza with celebrity chef Jose Andres’s World Central Kitchen organization, CNN reports. The three Brits, a Palestinian, a US-Canadian dual citizen, an Australian, and a Pole were somehow “mistaken” for Hamas terrorists when they were slaughtered in a precision strike that very clearly was not just collateral damage.

Israel-Iran tensions rising as IDF pauses leave for all combat units: 'More alert, more ready' https://t.co/zlXNJjbIR4

— Fox News (@FoxNews) April 5, 2024

After dismissing charges against two members of the white nationalist Rise Above Movement last month saying they were unfairly prosecuted, US District Judge for the Central District of California Cormac Carney sentenced a member of the group who accepted a plea deal to time served for assaulting a journalist during a 2017 pro-Trump rally.

The Los Angeles Times reports the defendant, Tyler Laube, admitted to being associated with the Rise Above Movement, which advertises itself as a “combat-ready, militant group of a new nationalist white supremacy and identity movement” as part of his plea deal.  A GW Bush appointee, Carney wrote in his sentencing memo that prosecutors are “ignoring individuals associated with Antifa and related far-left groups,” adding, “Sentencing Mr. Laube to additional incarceration would only increase the disparity between his punishment and the lack of punishment (and prosecution) members of far-left groups who have committed the same violent conduct received.”

This isn’t new with Carney.  In 2019, Carney dismissed criminal conspiracy and rioting charges against Rise Above Movement leader Robert Rundo and three others for their roles in the same riot, saying that the federal statutes were “overly broad” and impinged free speech rights.  The Ninth Circuit reversed his ruling in 2021.

Two candidates in the March 5th “jungle primary” for California’s 16th Congressional District ended in a tie for second place, both drawing 30,249 votes, an unexpected result that will lead an unprecedented election, KQED in San Francisco reports, but there won’t be a recount.  The seat is currently held by incumbent Democrat Anna Eshoo, who is retiring after more than 30 years in Congress.

Instead of undertaking a $300,000 recount for the second-place finisher to former San José Democratic mayor Sam Liccardo, who got 21.1% of the vote, the campaigns and the county commissions agreed that both second-place finishers, Democrats Assemblymember Evan Low and Santa Clara County Supervisor Joe Simitian, at 16.6%, would appear on the November ballot, making it the first three-way general election since California adopted the no-Party open primary system in 2010.

Mar-a-Lago resident who knew nothing… nothing! …about the cache of classified documents scattered about the grounds Melania Trump will hold her first political fundraiser at her residential supper club to benefit Log Cabin Republicans, Politico reports.

The former Third First Lady didn’t really care much about the early stages of her husband’s dual storylines:  his presidential campaign reality show and his multi-chapter legal drama.  But to the chagrin of the bigoted base of the Republican Party and Evangelicals, Melania has maintained a strong connection to the LGBTQ community, perhaps from her days as an international fashion model who (allegedly) merited an “Einstein” visa.

After spending the majority of his first segment pleadingly trying to convince his audience not to vote for Robert Kennedy, Jr.–after he spent weeks touting the campaign of the vanity candidate–Trump advisor and Fox host Sean Hannity awkwardly chirped up when Ari Fleischer tried to make a joke about “most conservative Kennedy.”  Hannity announced he thought John F. Kennedy Jr. was the most conservative; Fleischer’s joke turns out that he was referring to John Kennedy, the Southern-fried Republican Senator from Lousiana.  When Hannity tried to defend his statement, Fleischer cowed Hannity sharply:  “But… but we’re not talking about JFK.  This is not about him.”  And Tomi “Don’t call me Tammy” Lahren appeared to like watching the humiliation.

Sliding into her after-hours gig as co-chair of the Republican National Committee once she wraps up a hard day at the karaoke studio in her basement, oppressed pop superstar Lara Trump explains to third-tier cable news network host Eric Bolling that the melding of the Trump campaign and the Republican National Committee means they can cut down on staff because instead of two people doing the same thing, one person will do it now.  “We really are a cohesive team.  There’s no daylight between the two of us, the Trump campaign and the RNC, and that goes to the advantage of Donald Trump.”  Down-ticket Republicans should be panicking now:  there will be no help from the national Party.  It’s all about Donald.

After heavy diplomatic pressure from the Biden Administration to address the increasing humanitarian crisis in Gaza, the Israeli government of Benjamin Netanyahu has agreed to open a second border crossing into the besieged area, the New York Times reports.

An announcement by the National Security Council states that “at the President’s request,” Israel agreed to open a border crossing in northern Gaza and allow access to the port at Ashdod for humanitarian shipments.  Netanyahu reportedly agreed to the actions after Biden said further aid to Israel would be conditioned on how Israel handled its response to getting aid to the people in Gaza, who have suffered with shortages of food and water since Hamas attacked Israel on October 7th.

The federal judge overseeing disgraced landscaping company promoter Rudy Giuliani’s bankruptcy warned the suspended Trump lawyer that prevailing in a creditors’ motion to force him to sell his $3.5 million Florida condo would lead to “far more draconian requests for relief in the future,” Reuters reports.

Saying he could achieve a “pyrrhic victory” by temporarily holding on to the Florida property, US Bankruptcy Judge Sean Lane told Giuliani, “This is a warning shot across the bow,” and that his creditors would be more stringent and less likely to negotiate with Giuliani on future terms.

After a $148 million defamation to two Georgia election workers, Giuliani declared bankruptcy claiming assets of less than $10 million with debts between $100- and $500 million.  Giuliani says he intends to sell his Manhattan apartment, which was initially put on the market since last August for $6.5 million, does not currently have an active listing, and move to his Florida condo.

The US Army Corps of Engineers released a plan to clear the shipping channel blocked by the collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge by the end of May, a schedule that would require the reloading of hundreds of containers that remain on the MV Dali onto barges and then removing the wreckage, the Baltimore Banner reports.

“We are working quickly and safely to clear the channel and restore full service at this port that is so vital to the nation. At the same time, we continue to keep faith with the families of the missing and are working with our partners to help locate and recover their loved ones,” Corps Commanding General Lt. Gen. Scott A. Spellmon said.

The opening of the shipping lanes means thousands of port workers in Baltimore would be able to return to work within two months, and other operations–from car imports to sugar processing–could resume.  The schedule for replacing the bridge is unknown.

The New York Attorney General’s office asked Judge Arthur Engoron to expand the authority of the state-appointed monitor overseeing the Trump organization to include a possible investigation into former CFO Allen Weisselberg’s admitted perjury to see if there was additional perjury.

Weisselburg pleaded guilty in March to perjury related to testimony he gave in the civil financial fraud case which was recently decided in the State’s favor, forcing Donald Trump to disgorge nearly half a billion dollars (for now) in ill-gotten gains.  AG Letitia James’s office now wants the Monitor to have the authority to (1) share docs and data with other agencies and (2) investigate whether the information Weisselberg provided the State AG’s office on behalf of the company matched the information given to the Manhattan district attorney’s office.  The result of such an investigation could lead to additional charges for Weisselberg.

We’re getting sick of writing “But sure, tell us how RFK Jr is much more of a threat to Biden than Trump” at the end of pretty much every article here about him. So this time we switched it up and put it at the beginning. NBC News reports Bobby Jr’s campaign in Thursday emailed fans to hit them up for cash by telling them “political prisoner Julian Assange,” should be exonerated and that such “persecution” is “the reality that every American Citizen faces – from Ed Snowden, to Julian Assange to the J6 activists sitting in a Washington DC jail cell stripped of their Constitutional liberties. Please help our campaign call out the illiberal actions of our very own government.”

Manhattan Judge Arthur Engoron on Thursday scheduled an April 22 hearing to determine whether the $175 million bond disgraced former President Trump filed to appeal his defeat in the lawsuit against his corrupt business empire to meets minimum qualifications as AG Letitia James informed the judge that payday loan hustler Don Hankey’s paperwork may not be on the up-and-up.

Because if Engoron rules it isn’t then that’s probably (hopefully) going to be the end of the line and James can start seizing his assets as the ten day clock expired Thursday afternoon.

Trump-Appointed Judge Shoots Down Trump's Bid to Dismiss Classified Docs Case https://t.co/yTKWWXN3yf

— Mediaite (@Mediaite) April 4, 2024

True to fashion, the “journalism” practiced by popular yet middling-at-best quality sites on Thursday made a ruling from MAGA Judge Aileen Cannon seem like a “defeat” for fat former President Trump without properly qualifying the more significant part of her ruling: Cannon also denied Justice Department special counsel Jack Smith’s motion asking her to rule on an issue of the jury instructions and basically positioned it in a way that she can rig the trial in Trump’s favor when it’s already started… Not only acquitting the fat fuck but making it impossible to refile the charges.

The DC Bar Association’s disciplinary panel on Thursday made a preliminary, non-binding determination Trump toady Jeffrey Clark violated at least one rule of professional conduct during his January 2021 palace coup attempt at the Justice Department, Lawfare’s Anna Bower reports.

White nationalist Arizona MAGA Congressmen Andy Biggs and Paul Gosar have been subpoenaed by prosecutors investigating the post-2020 election coup attempt in the Grand Canyon State, though there are no indications yet either of the two shitbags are facing charges, Politico reports.

Indicting them will probably be a tall order considering that Fulton County, Georgia District Attorney Fani Willis ended up declining a special grand jury’s recommendation that she charge current and former US Senators Lindsey Graham, David Perdue, and Kelly Loeffler for their role in the similar criminal conspiracy in that state, almost certainly owing to the difficulties posed by the Speech and Debate clause. On the flip side the special grand jury’s subpoena to Lindsey Graham that the fucking weasel fought all the way to the Supreme Court before losing and finally showing up to testify makes any similar resistance from the two Arizona Republicans futile… If they even did.

Politico’s reporting cites a letter Gosar sent to Speaker Mike Johnson notifying him of the subpoena on February 16th. Secrecy laws in Arizona make the situation opaque and for all we know the two scumbags have already showed up to the grand jury and pleaded the Fifth a bunch of times.

LOL. Trump ballsucker Mark Penn’s bullshit scam operation No Labels have officially given up on their plan for a “2024 presidential unity ticket” and will not be part of the effort to split off centrist independent voters from Joe Biden’s coalition, CBS’s Scott MacFarlane reports.

“I respect Marjorie. She will always have an open door to the Speaker’s office. We do have honest differences on strategy sometimes but share the same conservative beliefs. In spite of our Republican majority of just a single seat in just one chamber of Congress, we are still fighting this administration every day to make policy changes. A shutdown would not serve our party or assist us in our mission of saving the republic by growing our majority, nor will another motion to vacate.”

“As I have always said, national security starts at our southern border. Any funding of the President’s supplemental request should be premised on meaningful policy to help the American people and finally address the invasion at our southern border,” says Speaker Mike Johnson to CNN’s Manu Raju, hoping to stave off destruction of his political career at the hooves of demented Marjorie.

“The State has alleged more than mere expressions of a political nature. Rather, the indictment charges the Defendants with knowingly and willfully making false statements to public officers and knowingly and willfully filing documents containing false statements and misrepresentations within the jurisdiction of state departments and agencies. The defense has not presented, nor is the Court able to find, any authority that the speech and conduct alleged is protected political speech.”

“Although the Defendants characterize the relevant speech or actions as petitions to Congress regarding the validity of electors which must be afforded constitutional protection, at this stage the Court must consider the method and manner of the criminal enterprise as alleged in the indictment. Having done so, the Court concludes that the Petition Clause’s protections do not extend to the facts presently before the Court,” writes Fulton County Judge Scott McAfee in his order tossing disgraced former President Trump’s bullshit “free speech”-based motion to dismiss.

The fat fuck tried to argue that because the Supreme Court overturned a law criminalizing lying about military service and honors he was entitled to make up whatever bullshit he wanted. So really he just wasted time and legal fees while admitting that he was making false claims.

Biden is 'p—-d' at Netanyahu as 'frustration' in White House grows over death of aid workers: report https://t.co/t5kCQwO6GP

— Fox News (@FoxNews) April 4, 2024