Raw Story fucking sucks, particularly with their staple of “take”-based reporting like “Deeply flawed’ MAGA complaints about Trump disqualification shredded by law professor” and “‘Not so fast’: Watergate prosecutor warns Supreme Court is going to hand Trump a shock,” headlines that might as well say “Hey libtards! Here’s some smart guy on MSNBC saying what you want to hear!”

Having qualified doing more or less exactly the same thing, we want to flag this piece by the Daily Beast’s very solid legal correspondent Jose Pagliery, titled “Jack Smith Keeps Telegraphing Some Seriously Scandalous Trump Crimes.” Pagliery tiptoes into and around how Justice Department special counsel Jack Smith’s filings keep bringing up certain crimes like treason and bribery as examples of situations – such as ordering “the FBI Director to plant incriminating evidence on a political enemy,” ordering “the National Guard to murder his most prominent critics,” selling “nuclear secrets to a foreign adversary,” etc – in which Trump should not be entitled to immunity.

So specific is Smith in these filings that Pagliery and other observers can’t help but sense might be hinting at more shit that actually happened, certain episodes that Smith has evidence and testimony supporting but for whatever reasons like time, bandwidth, evidentiary, and/or manpower limitations he hasn’t tried to develop additional cases against the fat orange fuck… at this point.

Big if true, and bigger still if it ends up meaning anything in the middle term of this year before the election is anybody’s guess. There’s no doubt Smith knows of much more than has already been alleged and there’s no doubt the trial will prove very ugly for Donald. Already just last month Smith revealed he has text messages indicating a previously unreported instance of Trump trying to start a riot at the TCF center in Detroit as votes were being counted on November 4th, 2020, which is pretty damning and could’ve been charged separately unto itself. The only real question is how much further down the iceberg is Smith going to go with the evidence at the trial?

A Newark, New Jersey imam was critically wounded in a shooting outside of a mosque near the corner of Camden Street and South Orange Avenue, WCBS reports with very little further detail. In fact it’s in their tweet and not the article itself where the words “imam” and “mosque” appear.

The four-year anniversary of the explosive end of Iranian General Qassem Soleiman, head of the Revolutionary Guard’s elite Quds force, was commemorated Wednesday with more explosions at his gravesite, with at least 73 of his fans exploded too, the AP reports citing Iranian state media.

No group has claimed responsibility yet for the terror attack on the ceremony honoring the terrorist vaporized by an American drone in Baghdad on orders of disgraced former President Trump – who at the time needed a “win” while facing his first impeachment trial in the US Senate.

Wow! It took a while House Majority Whip Tom Emmer, who fat former President Trump absolutely screwed during the Speakership race in October by trashing him on Truth Social with “I have many wonderful friends wanting to be Speaker of the House, and some are truly great Warriors. RINO Tom Emmer, who I do not know well, is not one of them. He never respected the Power of a Trump Endorsement, or the breadth and scope of MAGA – MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!” just actually completely owned Trump with a stinging reply to that undorsement, per the Washington Examiner.

“Democrats have made clear they will use every tool in their arsenal to try and keep Joe Biden and his failed policies in power. We cannot let them. It’s time for Republicans to unite behind our party’s clear front-runner, which is why I am proud to endorse Donald J Trump for president,” Emmer said in a statement showing Americans what he’s made of after Trump disrespected him! Go Tom!

Biden sports apparent sunburn upon return from Caribbean vacation https://t.co/mSSAW66SDo

— The Messenger (@TheMessenger) January 3, 2024

Both Punchbowl and Politico Playbook Wednesday morning editions are dedicated to earning their respective outlets’ access chits with House Republicans by heralding their impeachment efforts once again. This time it’s aimed at Homeland Security Secretary Alex Mayorkas, with Punchbowl especially dedicated to carrying Homeland Security Chair Mark Green’s Kool-Aid.

Said Green in a statement: “Our investigation made clear that this crisis finds its foundation in Secretary Mayorkas’ decision-making and refusal to enforce the laws passed by Congress, and that his failure to fulfill his oath of office demands accountability. The bipartisan House vote in November to refer articles of impeachment to my Committee only served to highlight the importance of our taking up the impeachment process – which is what we will begin doing next Wednesday.”

President Joe Biden will mark the third anniversary of the January 6th insurrection with a speech warning of the dangers of MAGA fascism at Valley Forge, Pennsylvania on Saturday, CNN reports.

“The president will make the case directly that democracy and freedom, two powerful ideas that united the 13 colonies and that generations throughout our nation’s history have fought and died for a stone’s throw from where he’ll be Saturday, remains central to the fight we’re in today,” said Biden Deputy Campaign Manager Quentin Fulks in a statement, adding that the president plans another speech Monday at the Charlotte, South Carolina Black church where a MAGA white supremacist gunman slaughtered nine parishioners at a prayer meeting in 2015. “Whether it is White supremacists descending on a historic American city of Charlottesville, the assault on our nation’s capital on January 6, or a White supremacist murdering churchgoers at Mother Emanuel nearly nine years ago, America is worried about the rise in political violence and determined to stand against it.”

Vice President Kamala Harris will separately travel to South Carolina on Saturday to speak at the 7th Episcopal District AME Church Women’s Missionary Society annual retreat in Myrtle Beach.

Disgraced former President Trump’s lawyers early Wednesday filed their final appeal brief to the DC Circuit Court of Appeals in his bullshit “presidential immunity” case, twice citing the insanely stupid and largely debunked “Summary of Election Fraud in the 2020 Presidential Election in the Swing States” PDF the fat bastard posted on Truth Social just hours earlier on Tuesday.

“The government’s brief (at 3) omits the vigorous disputes and questions about the actual outcome of the 2020 Presidential election—disputes that date back to November 2020, continue to this day in our nation’s political discourse, and are based on extensive information about widespread fraud and irregularities in the 2020 election, See, [links to Trump’s Truth Social posts] (published analysis reporting that ‘investigations across the country have uncovered an avalanche of irregularities, unlawful activity, manipulation of election records, destruction of evidence, and fraud’ in the 2020 election),” the literally wrote in a federal appellate case without fear of sanction from the judges.

The son of an indicted rapist, an ambitious Republican governor and a crotch-grabbing washed-up comedian who once butchered the National Anthem walk into a caucus…  The odd trio of proto-supervillians making their way through Iowa is, of course, Eric Trump, the presumptive frontrunner for his VP selection Kristi Noem, and Roseanne Barr, three of the important surrogates Donald Trump is relying on for a victory, according to CBS News.

While Trump is working on various fronts–both legal and political–his campaign in the state is hoping that the constant stream of Trump-pushing… um…. celebrities(?) can keep the excitement up for the January 15th caucus in Iowa, where he’s held a substantial lead over the casting call for a reality show that comprises the rest of the GOP field.

Though Trump didn’t plan many appearances in the state before the holidays, he’ll be in the state more in the next two weeks than he was in the previous 90 days, and then he’ll have to make a push in New Hampshire, where former South Carolina Governor who’s “meh” to slavery Nikki Haley has been pumping money into her campaign hoping for an upset.

“In fact, tonight we are broadcasting from my new home, the great free state of Florida, like so many Americans, I left New York for good and am now in the state with, let’s see, warmer water, law and order, better education, more freedom, ah, better quality of life, and–guess what?–no state income tax.” Fox host Sean Hannity says.

Also in Florida: rising sea levels, hurricanes, sink holes, no home owners insurance, and Florida Men.

The Biden Administration cannot enforce federal guidelines protecting hospitals that provide abortions to patients with life-threatening conditions in areas where abortions are banned, a three-judge panel of GOP nominees–2 from Trump, the other from GW Bush–from the 5th US Circuit Court of Appeals decided, CNN reports.

“The question before the court is whether [the Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act], according to HHS’s Guidance, mandates physicians to provide abortions when that is the necessary stabilizing treatment for an emergency medical condition. It does not. We therefore decline to expand the scope of EMTALA,” Trump appointee Kurt Engelhardt wrote in the unanimous ruling. “EMTALA does not mandate any specific type of medical treatment, let alone abortion.”

The federal guidance was based on a 1986 law requiring hospitals to provide care in life-saving or life-threatening situations regardless of the patient’s ability to pay.  If the abortion would save the patient’s life, the Administration argued, the hospital should provide the service regardless of the state law.  The Republican trio disagreed.

“That’s a basic question every American family asked around the dinner table both during Thanksgiving and Christmas break,” said Republican Oversight Committee chair Jamie Comer, a man cursed to perpetually imitate Peter Brady while his voice was changing.  “What exactly did the Bidens do to receive this money and why won’t Joe Biden be honest about his involvement in his family’s shady business deals,” of which Comer has presented zero evidence.

Late night talk show host Jimmy Kimmel is threatening broken professional athlete Aaron Rodgers with a lawsuit should Rodgers continue to link Kimmel to Donald Trump’s buddy, pedophile Jeffrey Epstein, per Variety.  Rodgers–an anti-vax, anti-establishment radical NFL football player with a wine cellar–went on an ESPN talk show where he rambled about the passenger list from Epstein’s plane scheduled to be released shortly, claiming, “There’s a lot of people, including Jimmy Kimmel, are really hoping that doesn’t come out.”

Kimmel responded on a social media post in which he included the original clip:  “Dear Aasshole: for the record, I’ve not met, flown with, visited, or had any contact whatsoever with Epstein, nor will you find my name on any “list” other than the clearly-phony nonsense that soft-brained wackos like yourself can’t seem to distinguish from reality. Your reckless words put my family in danger. Keep it up and we will debate the facts further in court.”

A federal judge in DC dismissed three counts in a lawsuit brought against Donald Trump and two other men by the domestic partner of Capitol Police Officer Brian Sicknick, who died in the aftermath of the Republican-led January 6th domestic terrorist attack on Congress, CBS News reports.  The judge, however, allowed three other counts against Trump and two other men to continue.

U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta dismissed the wrongful death suit against Trump and the two men who attacked Sicknick, saying that she was not a spouse and did not meet the legal definition of being a domestic partner under federal law.  Other counts relating to violating Sicknick’s civil rights and a count relating to D.C.’s Survival Act were allowed to continue because Garza is the legal representative of Sicknick’s estate.

“The president is elected by the entire nation and it should be the entire nation who determines who they want for president, whether they are guilty of insurrection or not,” Donald Trump attorney Christina Bobb said, without truly understanding how elections work.

Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold on Tuesday petitioned the US Supreme Court to their review of her state Supreme Court’s decision last month removing disgraced former President Trump from the 2024 ballot for his post-2020 election coup attempt “as expeditiously as possible in light of the upcoming election calendar,” MSNBC’s Kate Phang reports.

Is the Fed lowering rates to get Joe Biden reelected, or is the truth actually much scarier than that? Jeffrey Gundlach explains. pic.twitter.com/2Sko3CFRp9

— Tucker Carlson (@TuckerCarlson) January 2, 2024

Federal prosecutors recommended Roy Epps, the center of SO many conservative conspiracy theories Tucker Carlson probably has his name tattooed on his ass, should get six months incarceration for his role in the January 6th Republican-led domestic terrorist attack on Congress, the maximum of the recommended sentence range.  Epps will also have a $500 fine and one year’s probation if sentenced per the recommendation.

Epps, of course, was the center of Carlson’s theory that the FBI placed plants in the crowd to incite the otherwise peaceful tourist to violence.  (Carlson’s theory doesn’t explain why do many tourists would be carrying bear spray in Washington, DC.) Because he became the focus of MAGA anger, Epps sued Fox for defamation, another in a line of seemingly slam-dunk cases against the network relating to the Big Lie.  And of course, the FBI denies the accusations.  Questions asked into the void of Tucker Carlson’s career have not been answered.

A Pennsylvania 10th District voter on Tuesday sued his congressman, House Freedom Caucasians chair Scott Perry, and Secretary of State Al Schmidt, seeking to force Schmidt to remove Perry from the 2024 ballot under Section III of the 14th Amendment as Perry has been criminally implicated in disgraced former President Trump’s post-2020 election coup attempt.

Federal prosecutors on Tuesday unsealed a second superseding indictment against Dem new Jersey Senator Bob Menendez, charging him with accepting bribes – including luxury watches – from the government of Qatar for publicly making positive comments about them, ABC 7 New York reports.