Less than a month after its launch, the GoFundMe page set up with the goal of funding the entirety of Donald Trump’s “$355 Million Unjust Judgment”–their words, not ours–in the New York civil lawsuit appears to have fallen $354 million short of its goal.”  Launched by the wife of a wealth fund manager who runs 10xGrowthCon–The “con” is right there in the name, people! He’s telling you!–the effort has stalled at around $1.3 million for the last three days.

Rest easy, though: the money will go to Donald Trump, however, as organizer Elena Cardone confirms from the site:  “We are currently in communication with President Donald Trump’s team to ensure that he can and will accept the funds raised. It’s crucial that we navigate this process carefully and legally, and we appreciate your patience as we work through these details.”

Brian Butler, Trump Employee #5, spoke with CNN Monday night, explaining that he came forward for an interview because he wanted to control how his story was released given the potential threat of his identity being revealed by Trump’s lawyers, who moved for the personal information of witnesses in Trump’s Florida documents case be made public.  In this snippet, Butler explains just how transactional Trump was:  an Australian billionaire became a member of Mar-a-Lago to get access to Trump, Butler says, and with that access, he got classified information about US submarine capabilities.

A group from the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom, visiting Saudi Arabia on a good will mission, cut short its trip and is returning to the US after a Jewish member of the delegation was told to remove his head covering before entering a historic site, the Guardian reports.

Upon approaching Diriyah, a world heritage site outside Riyadh to which two members of the delegation had been invited to visit by the government, the commission’s chair, Orthodox Jewish Rabbi Abraham Cooper, was asked to remove his kippah and to keep it off “while at the site and any time he was to be in public, even though the Saudi ministry of foreign affairs had approved the site visit.”

The Commission is a Congressionally-chartered organization designed to help promote religious tolerance and serve in an advisory function to Congress.  Ever the diplomat, Rabbi Cooper noted Saudi Arabia was making progress toward its announced goal of having a more open society by 2030.  “However,” he noted, “especially in a time of raging antisemitism, being asked to remove my kippah made it impossible for us from USCIRF to continue our visit.”

Advising that Republicans should find their “offense talking point” and just hammer away at it even if it has nothing to do with the question asked, former three-ring binder aficionado and Trump Administration spokesliar Kayleigh McEneny advises Republicans that they should duplicate disjointed South Carolina Republican Congresswoman Nancy Mace’s interview with George Stephanopoulos as a model. 

“Not fair that the Radical Left Democrats are attempting to take me to trial right smack in the middle of Election Season. It’s a Political Witch Hunt. This cannot be allowed to happen. ELECTION INTERFERENCE!” writes fat former President Trump on Truth Social after his lawyers tried – and will hopefully fail – to derail this month’s trial using the same “presidential immunity” bullshit that’s been attempted in his vast swath of other civil and criminal cases with varying degrees of success so far.

What’s great about the New York Stormy Daniels hush money case is that, maybe even more so than the other indictments, that every time Trump or his chode-lickers screams that the trial is “election interference” then the response is “well what the hell was he doing when he paid off a pornstar to keep quiet about 45 seconds of sex with just days to go before the 2016 election? Wasn’t that interfering too?” which makes it sound proportionally justified, and thus “fair” by their own zero-sum rules. Right wing nihilists don’t cope well with that sort of situation. Tends to get them upset.

In an interview with disgraced CNN host Chris Cuomo–fired for secretly advising his brother, former Democratic New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, in a sex scandal–Cuomo directly asks former Fox propagandist and resident overt white nationalist Tucker Carlson while Cuomo was the target of Carlson’s on-air ire so frequently.  “‘Cause I’m a dick, probably,” Carlson responds meekly, as bullies do when confronted, before cackling.  “… ’cause it was easy and I don’t like CNN and I really mean that in my heart of heart.”

To settle a lawsuit brought by LGBTQ and civil rights advocates, Florida Republican Governor and guy who named his failed presidential campaign’s PAC “Never Back Down” Ron DeSantis has backed down from his signature culture war piece of legislation–the infamous bill known as the “Don’t Say Gay” law–and will now allow discussions of gender identity and sexual orientation in state schools, the Orlando Sentinel reports.

While the settlement keeps certain parts of the Parental Rights in Education Act such as input on books available in the library–although DeSantis has already said he intends to pare that back to eliminate extremists–it restricts only classroom instruction the particular subjects of “sexual orientation” and “gender identity” but it does not ban discussions on gender or sexual orientation.  It also lifts any bans–real or construed–on literature by LGBTQ authors, reinforces discrimination policies and provides for anti-bullying efforts in schools.

“This settlement … re-establishes the fundamental principle, that I hope all Americans agree with, which is every kid in this country is entitled to an education at a public school where they feel safe, their dignity is respected and where their families and parents are welcomed,” Roberta Kaplan–yes, the E. Jean Carroll lawyer and the lead attorney in this case–told the Associated Press. “This shouldn’t be a controversial thing.”

On their first day in charge at the Republican National Committee, Trump’s hand-picked leadership team has purged its ranks of dozens of executives and staffers, presumably to fill the ranks of the Party with Trump loyalists, Politico reports.

More than 60 employees were let go on Monday, mainly in the political, communications and data teams; the RNC should expect more staff to quit as those fired get hired by campaign teams that need to bulk up given new co-chair Lara Trump’s promise to put “every dollar” into Donald Trump’s personal legal and political efforts.

Firing such a large portion of the national team as campaign season heats up and primaries are still occurring undermines long-standing relationships those staff had with key figures, be they in the local organizing efforts or with local and national outlets.  In the last few election cycles, the RNC has typically hit a peak of 1,000 paid employees, but with the national committee raising just $73 million in 2023–even though outgoing chair Ronna Romney McDaniel claimed a record $23 million haul in January and February–the national coffers are still too light to help failing operations in Michigan, Arizona and Minnesota, key states for the GOP in 2024.

The Long Island Roller Rebels, a roller derby league part of the Women’s Flat Track Derby Association, asked a New York court to overturn a Nassau County executive’s order banning transgender athletes from playing on women’s sports teams, saying the regulation violates state civil rights laws, NBC 4 in New York reports.

Founded in 2005, the Roller Rebels has hosted try-outs, exhibitions and competitions in parks around Nassau County for the last number of years, but now that Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman signed the ban last month, the league believes it will be refused a permit to operate on park grounds because it does not discriminate if a prospective skater is nonbinary or trans.  Park applications demand permit applicants specify if an organization that will use public facilities be for “male,” “female,” or “co-ed” teams.  The league, represented by the New York Civil Liberties Union, said the county regulation violates the Gender Expression Non-Discrimination Act and numerous state regulations regarding public lands.

“This cruel policy sends the dangerous message that trans people don’t belong in Nassau County,” Roller Rebels member Amanda “Curly Fry” Urena said in a statement. “We hope the court sees this policy for what it is — transphobic and unjust — and makes sure Nassau County is a safe space for trans, non-binary, and gender-expansive people.”

Fascinated by all the Leftist homophobes celebrating rape. Remember:

“Under a government which imprisons any unjustly, the true place for a just man is also a prison” ― Henry David Thoreau https://t.co/cs6TV8yuG2

— Peter Navarro (@RealPNavarro) March 11, 2024

We missed this earlier on Monday, but a DC judge ruled Navarro has to go to prison next week. Too bad he’s probably not going to be allowed to keep tweeting while he’s behind bars.

Brian Butler, the man identified as “Trump Employee 5” in Justice Department special counsel Jack Smith’s indictment of the disgraced former president for stealing classified documents from the White House and refusing a lawful subpoena for their return, sat down for an interview with CNN’s Kaitlan Collins and revealed that he unknowingly helped Donald’s top minion Walt Nauta load boxes full of classified documents onto Trump’s plane in June 2022 – the same day that federal prosecutors were meeting with the fat fuck’s lawyers to try to defuse the standoff.

Having since left his job running the motor pool at Mar-a-Lago after 20+ years, Buter said Nauta was acting weird that day as Trump was also preparing to move to Bedminster, New Jersey for the summer, but Butler didn’t see anything inside the banker’s boxes. A few weeks later Nauta had flown back down to Florida but other co-conspirator Carlos De Olivera told Butler that the visit was a secret. Butler later learned that Nauta was there to delete the surveillance footage.

Butler said the investigation into De Olivera “was a total no-win situation for me. I mean, they’re asking me questions about one of my best friends. I’m being honest. But I also have a bad feeling that what I’m saying is getting him into trouble. Nobody should have to go through that. And for him (Trump) to get up there all the time and say the things he says about this being a witch hunt and everything… He just can’t take responsibility for anything.”

Less is more sometimes, but if you must know more then check out Business Insider’s story about “Mohammed” the allegedly “fully autonomous” human-like robot designed by Saudi firm QSS.

Beavers munching their way into Northern Alaska: Wildlife experts tell the Anchorage Daily News that, as global warming increases the spread of trees into what had been bare tundra in recent years, beavers have expanded their natural habitat as well. University of Alaska Fairbanks ecology Professor Ken Tape, who really likes looking at beavers, has even gone to far as to establish the Arctic Beaver Observation Network, which is something of a command center for Alaskan beaver watching. “It basically changes from a little stream into a sprawling wetlands,” Tape said, pointing to satellite images of one site where beavers have had major impacts on local ecosystems.

Rats getting high as fuck in the Big Easy: New Orleans Police Department Superintendent Anne Kirkpatrick on Monday told a city council meeting that the force’s aging headquarters building on Orleans Avenue and Broad Street is falling apart and infested with rats – that have started eating the stored weed in the evidence locker, NOLA.com reports. “The rats are eating our marijuana,” said Kirkpatrick at a Criminal Justice Committee meeting on Monday. “They’re all high.”

Chuck Todd doesn’t have anything to say about Biden’s State of The Union Address: Former Meet The Press anchor (but still employed by NBC) Chuck Todd on Thursday afternoon tweeted “If you don’t think the SOTU matters, then don’t waste my time emailing multiple press releases, substacks and columns telling me that the SOTU doesn’t matter. Here’s a crazy idea: maybe simply write about something else,” then retweeted two other guys and hasn’t posted anything since. Seems almost like he’s disappointed or something. Like if it was that important why didn’t he follow up?

The committee investigating the House January 6th Select Committee’s investigation of January 6th, led by credibly suspected traitor Georgia MAGA Congressman Barry Loudermilk, will attempt to debunk the infamous “steering wheel grab incident” from the day – in which fat former President Trump threw a tantrum and assaulted Secret Service agents in the presidential SUV when they told him they could not and would not drive him to the Capitol just as the riot was starting – as part of a “sweeping” report to be released on Monday, according to an excerpt obtained by NBC News.

“None of the White House Employees corroborated Hutchinson’s sensational story about President Trump lunging for the steering wheel of the Beast. However, some witnesses did describe the President’s mood after the speech at the Ellipse,” the excerpt says, detailing that although another White House employee described Trump as “irate” upon his return from the Ellipse rally, “it is highly improbable that the other White House Employees would have heard about the President’s mood in the SUV following his speech at the Ellipse but not heard the sensational story that Hutchinson claims [Tony] Ornato told her after returning to the White House on January 6.”

For those keeping score at home this is what House Republicans are slapping together to help Trump squeak out a win in the Electoral College: A report that says it’s “highly unlikely” that he tried to choke a Secret Service agent and then grabbed the steering wheel of the SUV when they told him he couldn’t join a violent mob that was then minutes away from sacking the US Capitol.

Not sure which part is funnier, Kayleigh McEnany acting like she’s disgusted by a living Greek sculpture or the women teasing morning host Brian Kilmeade over how closely he examined him.

Housing and Urban Development Secretary Marcia Fudge is resigning from her post in the Biden Administration, USA Today reports and what the hell did you think the headline meant? You weirdos.

Fat former President Trump’s lawyers on Monday filed a motion seeking adjournment of his upcoming trial on charges he falsified business records in 2016 and 2017 when he paid off a porn star to stay quiet over their 45 second sexual encounter in 2006, claiming “presidential immunity” for a state-level crime that started before he was even elected under questionable circumstances.

“The Court must preclude the People from offering evidence at trial of President Trump’s official acts as the Commander in Chief, which the People have not yet specified as the existing trial date approaches. However, in motions in limine recently filed on February 22, 2024, the People argued that they should be permitted to offer evidence at trial concerning a fictitious socalled ‘pressure campaign’ by President Trump in 2018 relating to Michael Cohen. Although the People did not describe the evidence they intend to offer in detail, it appears that the evidence includes public statements by President Trump and posts to his official Twitter account, as well as testimony from unspecified witnesses. The People’s recent proffer implicates presidential immunity because President Trump was President of the United States at the time of those actions in 2018.”

“He made at least some of the 2018 statements at issue – and potentially all of them, though it is hard to be sure in light of the People’s vague in limine description – in his official capacity as the nation’s Chief Executive. Moreover, while it is clear that the People intend to offer documents and testimony relating to the period in 2017 when President Trump was in office, they have not provided sufficiently specific notice of the nature and extent of that evidence to allow President Trump or the Court to distinguish between personal and official acts,” Trump’s lawyers wrote.

Congressidiot Nancy Mace continued her anti-George Stephanopoulos crusade on Monday, calling in to Fox News after audio issues derailed her on-camera interview, demanding to speak to the female managers at ABC about the treatment she got Sunday morning from the former Clintonite.

“Today, the US Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) imposed sanctions on 16 entities and individuals who compose an expansive business network spanning the Horn of Africa, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), and Cyprus that raises and launders funds for Al-Shabaab, a terrorist group affiliated with Al-Qaeda. Individuals within this network include influential businesspeople in the region that lend financial backing to Al-Shabaab, a terrorist group responsible for some of the worst terrorist attacks in East Africa’s modern history.”

“These attacks have claimed the lives of thousands of innocent civilians. These individuals and entities are being designated pursuant to Executive Order (EO) 13224, as amended, which targets terrorist groups and their enablers. Al-Shabaab generates over $100 million per year by extorting local businesses and individuals, as well as through the financial support of affiliated businesspeople. The threat posed by Al-Shabaab is not limited to Somalia. Al-Shabaab’s revenues are disbursed to other Al-Qaeda-supported groups worldwide and help fund Al Qaeda’s global ambitions to sow discord and undermine good governance. This action continues Treasury’s efforts to disrupt Al-Shabaab’s abuse of the regional financial system and builds on OFAC’s October 2022 designation of a network of Al-Shabaab financial facilitators who served as key interlocutors between Al-Shabaab and local businesses in Somalia” says a Treasury Department press release.

“The statute of limitations for defamation in most jurisdictions is between one and three years. As we said after the last jury verdict, we continue to monitor every statement that Donald Trump makes about our client, E Jean Carroll,” Carroll lawyer Robbie Kaplan tells New York Times reporter Maggie Haberman after the Orange Degenerate continued to defame her client on Monday.