Human Dirtgrub Michael Cohen to Run For Congress

As a Democrat? That fits.

He's got the ethical and psychological profile sought by the Democrat Party.

As Donald Trump's "hush money" trial wound down in Manhattan, his former fixer Michael Cohen made a big bang in the Hamptons over Memorial Day weekend.

Multiple sources said that Cohen is next hatching a run for Congress, and is planning a new book, we hear.

One insider said he was like a "walking reality show" as he hit a series of parties and hotspots in the tony Long Island enclave away from Manhattan court over the weekend, and that he was mobbed.

Cohen -- the prosecution's key witness in the case against Trump -- was branded as "the GLOAT" in court on Tuesday by Trump's lawyers. "He's literally the greatest liar of all time," Trump's attorney, Todd Blanche, reportedly told jurors as the case came to a close in court.

But in the Hamptons over the weekend, Cohen was the talk of the town.

A spy told us that the ex-con was spotted grabbing lunch at 75 Main "three days in a row," and that he was overheard saying he "wants to run for Congress."

...

Apparently at one Hamptons party, a New York socialite was overheard telling Cohen, "If you run I will be your first massive check... I could raise you millions."

...

The insider said that on Long Island's East End, "half the people say he's a delusional liar and the rest say he's saving America from Trump. Everyone has an opinion on this, and Cohen was everywhere this weekend."

At a private party in the area, "Cohen was constantly approached by fans of his performance in court... People were overheard telling him to 'stay strong,' and thanked him for 'telling the truth,'" a source said.

Added the insider: "He lit up like a Christmas tree when strangers approached him and wanted to shake his hand. He stood up and chatted with people and was treated like a celebrity. He is parading around like he doesn't have a care in the world, and is very proud of himself."

The source said, "It was a bit strange to see him marching around smiling and acting like he just won an Oscar."

Added the source, "Cohen clearly wants the attention and adulation, [but some] turned their backs on him and ignored him. He is like a walking reality show... Cohen took top billing in the Hamptons."

Posted by: Disinformation Expert Ace at 05:20 PM | Comments (327) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Biden's Terrorist-Aid Pier Is Now Sinking

The Bee:

Deliveries to Hamas terrorists have been suspended after a piece of Biden's Friendship Dock broke off. Biden's Folly is now sinking.

The U.S. officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said bad weather was believed to be the reason that the part had broken off. They did not say how big the part was or speculate on how long it would take for the pier to resume operations.

The pier was announced by President Joe Biden in March and involved the military assembling the floating structure off the coast. Estimated to cost $320 million for the first 90 days and involve about 1,000 U.S. service members, it went into operation two weeks ago.

The pier's closure came the week after three U.S. service members were injured, one critically, in a forklift accident related to the pier.

You Youngs may not remember Jimmy Carter's ill-fated attempt to rescue his failing 1980 political campaign. At a late hour, he finally gave the greenlight for a special forces operation to rescue the hostages from Iranian Muslim fanatics. But the helicopters crashed in a dust-storm.

It became emblematic of Carter's ineffectual, feckless presidency.

Now Biden's got his own sandstorm.

An American vessel used to unload humanitarian aid from ships into the Gaza Strip via a floating pier disconnected from a small boat tugging it this morning due to stormy seas, leading it to get stuck on the coast of Ashdod, eyewitnesses say.

Another ship was then sent to try and extract the stuck vessel, but also got beached.

Noah Pollak
@NoahPollak

Update on the Biden admin's Gaza pier to nowhere: Parts of it have broken free and washed up in Israel. And virtually all of the aid that was delivered was stolen by Hamas. A $320M fleecing of the US taxpayer. There should be hearings.

Posted by: Disinformation Expert Ace at 04:21 PM | Comments (389) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Former Trump Campaign Spokesman Successfully Primaries National Review-Style "Republican" in Texas Legislative Race

I'm glad to see this guy out of a job.

Don't worry about him -- he'll be headhunted by all the opposition-control grifter organizations. I can see him writing for The Bulwark.

Katrina Pierson, the spokeswoman for former President Donald Trump's 2016 presidential campaign, unseated state Rep. Justin Holland on Tuesday in the primary runoff for Texas State House District 33.

Since no Democrat candidate is in the race in the deep-red district, Pierson, who earned the support of Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, is the presumptive winner of the general election.

...

Holland, who represented the district since 2017, had been targeted over his vote to impeach Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton and failure to support the governor's school voucher program. He also backed legislation last year that would have raised the age to purchase semi-automatic rifles from 18 to 21 years old.

It's time for all these Bush fake Republicans -- these "conscience conservatives" -- to be purged from the party.

If they want to vote for Republicans (which, let's face it, they rarely do), they can do that.

But they can no longer be permitted to work for the Democrats under the GOP banner.

Posted by: Disinformation Expert Ace at 03:22 PM | Comments (356) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Yale Terrorists Call for "Open Intifada" Against the Citizens of the United States

Not a peep of criticism -- much less hysterical alarm -- from those who bleat about "insurrection" and "Muh Normzzz" every single day.

One student group at Yale University called for an "open intifada" and called on its supporters to "escalate disruption" amid Israel's war against Hamas.

The group, Yalies4Palestine, Yale University's Students for Justice in Palestine group, made the comments in an Instagram post on Sunday.

"Escalate disruption and confrontation across historic Palestine, from every checkpoint and street corner to the face of every settler and soldier. Escalate protests to an open intifada in every capital and city in order to deprive the world from its heavy slumber that comes at the expense of the bodies and remains of those who survive; disrupt all facets of daily life until our people can breathe freely without the taint of the Israeli, American, and European war machine," the post states.

The group also called on its supporters to "paralyze" daily life until Israel's war against Hamas ends.

"In every city and street, in every school and university, in every place of work and gathering It is time to paralyze all aspects of normal life-until the massacres stop and Gaza and its people are given the justice they deserve," they wrote.

Trump's eighth order of business -- he has a lot to do before that, unfortunately -- should be to investigate these groups and begin revoking the visas of every single foreign terrorist getting an "education" at American universities.

Meanwhile, deranged and vicious leftwing women are laying hands on their political opponents and using their status as the weaker sex as a defense.

These are the same women who want men competing with girls in sports.

I say when someone lays hands on you, they get no Free Pass just because they're a ugly asshole skank.

I say, slap a bitch and rouse her from her hysteria.

Not too hard. She'll sue for "trauma." Just enough to wake her up to a little thing called "Reality."

And maybe educate her about why we have not in all of human history permitted men to compete with women in physical contests.

Posted by: Disinformation Expert Ace at 02:16 PM | Comments (453) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Rep. Stefanik Files Legal Complaint Against Merchan, Alleging His Selection to Judge Three Separate Trump Trials Was Obviously Rigged

There are hundreds and hundreds of criminal judges in Manhattan.

The odds that the same hardcore partisan and corrupt judge gets assigned all three?

Zero point zero percent.

"Hand-picked judge," Jonathan Turley calls him.

Elise Stefanik files complaint against Juan Merchan alleging assignment over Trump case wasn't "random"

MXM Exclusive

Quick Hit:

New York Rep. and House Republican Conference Chair Elise Stefanik has filed a misconduct complaint against New York Judge Juan Merchan, alleging that his assignment to oversee Donald Trump's Manhattan hush money trial and other cases involving Trump's allies is not random. Stefanik's complaint calls for an investigation into whether the required random selection process was followed.

Key Details:

Stefanik's complaint alleges potential misconduct related to the repeated assignment of Justice Merchan, a Democrat Party donor, to criminal cases related to Trump and his allies.

Justice Merchan presides over the criminal case against Trump brought by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, the criminal trial against the Trump Organization, and the upcoming criminal trial of Steve Bannon.

Stefanik argues that the probability of three specific criminal cases being assigned to the same justice is infinitesimally small, suggesting that the selection process may not have been random.

Diving Deeper:

Stefanik's complaint, filed with the inspector general of the New York State Unified Court System, calls for an investigation into whether the required random selection process was followed in assigning Justice Merchan to these cases. She notes that there were at least two dozen sitting justices eligible to oversee the cases, yet Merchan, an acting justice, was selected for all three related to Trump and his allies.

Meanwhile: the impact of this fake trial on the election?

Also zero point zero percent.

Posted by: Disinformation Expert Ace at 01:22 PM | Comments (370) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Cuckold Review: Republicans Have a Sacred Duty to Rewrite Ohio State Law to Put Joe Biden on the Ballot

And also -- if they don't rush to do this, they're terrible hypocrites about "lawfare" and every bit as bad as Alvin Bragg and and Jack Smith.

This is National Review, everyone. America's Conservative Beacon.

The Democratic National Convention does not conclude until August 22, when Joe Biden is formally renominated for president. When the Democrats announced they were scheduling their convention so late in the election cycle, observers immediately noted that the timing fell afoul of two deadlines written into law, those of Alabama and Ohio, which require nominees to be submitted 90 days before Election Day (in other words, the week of August 12).

The matter can be easily fixed; all a legislature need do is pass a technical bill adjusting the date, as legislatures have done frequently in both the past and present, most recently in 2020 during the pandemic. And in fact, one month ago the -- overwhelmingly Republican -- Alabama legislature acted to do just that, sending a bill to Governor Kay Ivey that made sure Joe Biden's name would not be stricken from their voters' ballots.

Ohio's state house, however, has been disconcertingly mulish about acting to fix the state's version of this problem. It adjourned once on May 8, and then again on May 22, without addressing the matter. Republican governor Mike DeWine has now called for a special session of the legislature to convene in order to deal with the issue, saying, "Ohio is running out of time to get Joe Biden, the sitting president of the United States, on the ballot this fall. Failing to do so is simply not acceptable. This is a ridiculous -- this is an absurd situation."

We agree with Governor DeWine --

Redundant! As if National Review ever has to tell you it agrees with ultra-liberal fake Republican Mike DeWine.

Ohio's legislature should pass a bill ensuring the president of the United States' name remains on the ballot this November. We emphasize that this is a matter of the utmost gravity. It is not -- and cannot possibly ever be -- about cheap and temporary partisan advantage. It is a question about the fundamental legitimacy of American elections.

Here they masturbate themselves into ecstatic froth:

Even more appallingly, were Ohio Republicans to deny Biden a spot on November's ballot out of pointless spite, they would be undermining every single argument they -- and Donald Trump -- have been making for the past several years about how government is weaponized against Republicans.

National Review is a Democrat op. Has been for 20 years.

Alex the Chick is a bit miffed:

Posted by: Disinformation Expert Ace at 12:20 PM | Comments (455) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Wednesday Morning Rant

The End of the Road

You know, Paul, Reagan proved that deficits don't matter. We won the mid-term elections, this is our due.

-- Vice President Dick Cheney to Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill, Winter 2002

Per Secretary O'Neill, Vice President Cheney said that to him in the winter of 2002, after the midterms and just before George W. Bush handed him his walking papers at the end of the year. There was no room for anyone remotely hawkish in the Bush 43 administration. They were buying votes, consequences be damned.

Cheney and all like him were wrong about limits. Deficits do matter. There are three unspoken words that must be tacked on to the end of Cheney's statement in order to make it accurate. He should have said, "deficits don't matter for a while." The game can go on for some time - and the US government was able to play a much longer game than most, for a number of reasons - but "for a while" eventually reaches its end.

Posted by: Joe Mannix at 11:00 AM | Comments (353) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Mid-Morning Art Thread [Kris]

Last Breath
Jozef Israels

Israels paints a powerful painting about grief and peppers the scene with symbolic imagery of sudden death and a life cut short before its time. The painting is divided into two halves. On the left is the deathbed and a mourning relative — a mother or wife. It’s difficult to determine her age. The age or sex of the deceased is also uncertain. According to the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the figure is male but doesn’t say what his relationship is to this family. I’ll just refer to him here as “the man”. Anyway, he looks old enough to work and is most likely the breadwinner of the family. Looking around at the state of the room, this family was not well off. This painting shows a great tragedy and implies a depressing future.

The younger woman (the mourner) has been reading as the man lies on his sickbed. This seems like a vigil. When the man finally dies, the mother rose from her chair and calmly lays her head on the corpse. Notice how the book was laid gently down onto the chair. It wasn’t flung out of her lap. It’s still open. I think she expected him to die, that he had been ill for a while, and he finally took the titular last breath. She reacts, but in a way that won’t scare the children.

The older woman seems to be the main caretaker for the children. Notice how they gather around her, not their mother. To me, this is another sign that the man has been sick for some time. The older woman, maybe a grandmother, has taken on childrearing as the mother tends to the man. The mother sobs but she muffles them to protect the children. Notice how they aren’t crying. Children tend to pick up on cues from the adults. Here, they are quiet and concerned. One sucks its thumb. The other was playing on the floor but left its toys quickly. They are very young and don’t understand what happened. Something made their mother very sad however, so they draw close to the older woman.

I like how the lighting is used here. The sun is shining through the window and lights up the man’s dead, pale face. It also shines on the mother, and the grandmother and children. Israels is highlighting the range of human drama — the tragedy and those that will be affected by it. In the dim light I can also make out objects that symbolize life and mortality. On the left is a clock and an unlit lantern. Clocks and other timekeeping pieces have symbolized the passage of time since ancient times. An unlit lantern can mean that a light has been extinguished. Another unlit candle sits on the right near the window. The book the woman was reading might be a Bible. If you zoom into the painting, one of the pages seems to have a picture of a saint – you can make out the halo around the head. She was finding comfort in The Bible and may be reading to the man as he died.

A dog lies in the bottom center of the painting in shadow near the man’s feet and looks so sad. The internet is full of photographs of dogs at their masters’ funerals and almost every one of them looks just like this. It’s heartbreaking. It too reacts to the death. This dog may also be symbolic. Since ancient times, dogs have symbolized loyalty and their devotion to their humans is cliché. Israels could have included it to represent the love, loyalty, and fidelity within this family unit. They are not well-off, but they had each other. Now one of them is gone.

For me, the dog represents the true emotional weight of this scene. The mother weeps but she is trying to protect the children. The grandmother’s emotions are also subdued for the same reason. The children react to the adults’ emotions, sure, but they cannot fully grasp what is happening so aren’t really doing anything. The dog, however, has no such concerns or responsibilities. Like those dogs from the internet, it stays by its master’s side as the very image of loyalty. It is the Greek chorus for this work, displaying and amplifying pure, raw grief.

Posted by: Open Blogger at 09:30 AM | Comments (331) | Trackbacks (Suck)

The Morning Report — 5/29/24

Good morning, kids. IT's all a titanic dumpster fire of madness. It's hard enough to face things and try to put one's thoughts down in a cogent manner on even an average day. But truth be told, we haven't really had an average day for years already. Yet at the risk of invoking one of the most horrendous individualsever to attain power and influence in this nation, I'm not bitterly clinging onto anything yet desperately clinging to the hope of some sort of deliverance from this nightmare. Faith in the almighty certainly is the rock to base it upon but also for the strength, courage and wisdom to fully understand what can be done that is within our individual pwower to bring about positive change and renewal. ANd as for courage, to understand that fighting for our beliefs and freedom does not and will never come cheaply.

At least the Israelis finally understand this and are now at long last on the offensive in Rafah to clear out the last redoubt of Hamas. Nturally, the world is still in the thrall of Israel as a genocidal illegitimate nation carrying out mass death and atrociities in racist wars of conquest. Like everything else in virtually every other topic both home and abroad, it is the exact diametric opposite of reality.

Compouning my difficulty in putting my thoughts down is my ongoing recuperation gfrom urgery and kind of a nagging suspicion that it has indeed taken a bit of a toll on my spirit and energy, and god-forbid abilities. But over the past three years, sometimes I would feel as if I was kind of writing the same freaking editorial day in and day out. I mean, contrasting the way Trump is being abused and persecuted for imaginary crimes while Biden and every other Democrat skates for actual high crimes, misdemeanors and borderline to actual treasonous behavior gets old real quick.

And while we long for the scales to fall from the eyes of the duped, brainwashed and the clueless, which I do see happening here and there, not just as portents for this upcoming election but as harbingers of some sort of long-term national societal revival.

I see it because of a Hebrew prayer for the healing of the sick. The prayer is not merely about the indvidual but for the community as a whole. It came into sharp focus of course due to my own personal travails, health wise nd an existential crisis about the world as it is and hope for renewal and revival.

We shall overcome. Because we must. Eternal darkness must not become our fate. I believe it won't be. Just stay strong and resist in ways great and small.

ABOVE THE FOLD, BREAKING, NOTEWORTHY
• MICHAEL WALSH: "Not since the British voting public sent Winston Churchill packing right after the end of World War II has there been such a momentous election. Americans still puzzle over why Churchill got the sack in 1945, in part because Churchill's reputation has always been extravagantly overrated in the U.S.
  Good-Bye to All That
  
• Daniel Greenfield: "What happens to a liberal who never gets mugged?"
  The View from Mount Olympus

Posted by: J.J. Sefton at 06:49 AM | Comments (505) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Daily Tech News 29 May 2024

Sorry, no tech thread today. Or not much of one.

Main database at my day job decided to explode.

I de-exploded it, but I have some cleanup work to do.

Posted by: Pixy Misa at 04:00 AM | Comments (100) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Tuesday Overnight Open Thread (5/28/24)

*****

The Quotes of The Day

Quote I

There is nothing better than working at a profession that you enjoy. I treasured the camaraderie of my colleagues and the friendships I have made along the way, including our locker room attendants in all the various cities. MLB Umpire Angel Hernandez

Quote II

“I want to show people worldwide that while the ocean is extremely powerful, it can be wonderful and enjoyable and really kind of life-changing if you go about it the right way,” Billionaire Larry Connor

Quote III

“They want to financially hurt the company and compromise the investments of millions who rely on the dividend as part of their retirement portfolio.” CEO ExxonMobil Darren Woods

Posted by: Misanthropic Humanitarian at 09:55 PM | Comments (559) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Enchantment Under the Sea Cafe

Norway
it's fjords all the way down
by @alex_dawson_photography

Surfin' dog hangs 20.

Taking your dog sail-boarding.

Polar bear doing some sexy ice-bathing.

Some very skillful drone piloting.

Dog Virtual Reality.

Climbing a towering waterfall in New Zealand.

Biking a steep hill.

Big BMX jump.

A paper plane "bat" with flapping wings.

"The Kardashian," the largest airship in the world.

Posted by: Disinformation Expert Ace at 07:40 PM | Comments (278) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Quick Hits

The Bee:

Trump ripped the sham trial as "election hunting" and accused the judge of corruption.

As closing arguments begin in the trial over Donald Trump's alleged "hush-money" payments to Stormy Daniels, the former president has ripped the proceedings as "election hunting". Trump, who has pleaded not guilty to 34 counts of falsifying business records, argues that the verdict could be a "dangerous day for America".

His lawyers ripped Michael Cohen as "The MVP of liars."

Meanwhile, prosecutors illegally used David Pecker's out-of-court hearsay statements to claim that Trump knew all about the payments to Stormy Daniels.

A James Biden "associate" has pleaded guilty to a $51 million fraud scheme.

Keaton Langston, a former business associate of James Biden, has pleaded guilty to conspiring to defraud Medicare of $51 million through a lab-testing scheme linked to the president's brother. Langston, 39, confessed to using pharmacies, durable medical equipment (DME) companies, and a laboratory in which he had a financial interest to bill for unnecessary tests and medical orders, according to the Justice Department.

Speaking of the Biden family and their white trash escapades, the woman Hunter Biden impregnated is going to release a book about her experiences on August 20th, the second day of the Democrat convention.

A Fauci flunky admitted, in emails, that he deletes any emails that might be sought in a FOIA.

While being questioned by Rep. James Comer, R-Ky.), Morens stammered like Joe Biden at a Girl Scout meeting. He clearly knew Congress had done its homework.

Morens was busted in a big fat felonious lie. Several actually.

"He denied discussing EcoHealth and the WIV (Wuhan Institute of Virology) with Dr. Fauci, but in his emails, he did. He denied conducting official NIAID or NIH (National Institute of Health) business over his personal emails. He did," committee Chairman Brad Wenstrup, (R-Ohio) quipped to the Washington Examiner.

Morens advised his "best friend" on how to get his Wuhan grant back after Trump canceled it in 2020. He also sought help from the "FOIA lady" on how to not get busted.

"I learned from our FOIA lady on how to make emails disappear," Morens emailed to NIH officials.

You can watch the painful testimony below. Feel his pain as Congress reads his emails aloud with his braggadocious quips about how the "FOIA lady" taught him to cover his tracks.

Watch him squirm as Comer reminds him that deleting federal forms is a crime, and laugh as Morens pretends he doesn't know what a federal form is (HINT: it's any email regarding his work).

Laugh with glee as Comer reads Morens' email claiming that "Tony [Fauci] is too smart" to use his NIH email for things he doesn't want to go public.

When pushed as to whether he conducted business on his private email, Morens quaffs, pivots, and panics. My favorite part is when he sheepishly admits some of his emails "looks pretty incriminating."

He shamefully blames "feedback" for not being able to hear questions he desperately wants to avoid.

The juiciest part for me is when Marjorie Taylor-Greene reads his email about how he and Fauci deleted their emails regarding the origins of COVID. And then she mentions kickbacks from EcoHealth Alliance that Morens wrote about in an email.

The evidence is damning. Morens is clearly covering for Fauci.

As mentioned in the previous post, Biden uses this illegal means to keep his own corruption un-searchable.

Former Vice President Joe Biden reportedly received sensitive information and briefings from security advisers via a personal pseudonym email. The National Archives has tens of thousands of such emails from three Biden personal pseudonym accounts used during his vice presidency.

Key Details:

Joe Biden received sensitive communications via his private email accounts created under a fictitious identity, including foreign policy discussions with his national security adviser, schedules of meetings with Cabinet secretaries and a summary of at least one intelligence briefing to President Barack Obama.

Several of the emails included sensitive information transmitted over an insecure Google email account that could be of value to foreign powers and hostile spy agencies.

Biden has not offered any explanation why his private email account was used and the emails were apparently not forwarded to secure government servers.

Despite Biden's impeachable efforts to defeat the FOIA law, documents reveal that he set up a meeting with Hunter, supposedly about the Sandy Creek shootings, to meet with Hunter's Chinese "business" partners.

Hunter Biden allegedly used a Sandy Hook memorial event to arrange a meeting between his father, Joe Biden, and a Chinese business partner, Liu Yadong. This revelation comes from newly released texts by the House Ways and Means Committee.

Key Details:

Hunter Biden messaged Liu Yadong, an executive at CEFC, on December 12, 2017, to arrange a meeting with his father, Joe Biden.

The meeting was to take place during a Sandy Hook memorial event in New York, which Joe Biden was attending.

The texts were obtained by IRS investigators and released by the House Ways and Means Committee.

Meanwhile, a top Biden donor is exposed as a Pakistani government official.

Do you think he donated to Biden because he's just passionate about "a woman's right to choose?"

Right before Election Day, Biden finally released the names of his 'bundlers': the big money fundraisers who backed his 2020 campaign. The David Horowitz Freedom Center's investigative arm did some last minute sleuthing and found some interesting names on that list.

One of them was 'Muhammad' Tahir Javed: a Biden surrogate, Democratic National Committee deputy finance chair, and future Pakistani cabinet member.

Javed bragged that he had "raised over $2M for the Biden Harris transition team" and "recruited 30+ donors to the transition team and general campaign, four of whom were recognized along with myself... to have raised over $100,000 personally." These donors would have likely come through Javed's roles in various Islamic and Pakistani groups operating inside America..

The Congressional Pakistan Caucus Foundation, founded by Javed, was announced at an event with Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, Rep. Eric Swalwell (who was later caught having relations with a Chinese Communist spy) and Rep. Henry Cuellar (currently indicted for bribery) with the expectation that another 37 members of Congress would also join.a Pakistani 'caucus'. Javed had donated around $15,000 to Rep. Jackson Lee, and around $9,000 to Swalwell and Cuellar.

"Overseas Pakistanis are more loyal to their homeland," Javed had stated as a caucus official.

Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan, who called Osama bin Laden a "martyr", declared, "Tahir Javed has been instrumental in setting up a Pakistan Congress Foundation that has played a key role in revival and activation of Congressional Pakistan Caucus at the 116th Congress".

Posted by: Disinformation Expert Ace at 06:35 PM | Comments (170) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Witness Tampering? Joe Biden Drops In For Surprise Visit on Beau Biden's Ex-Wife and Hunter's Former Slam-Piece Hallie Biden, Just Before Trial In Which She Will be a Key Witness

And when I say "key" witness I mean like a "key" of cocaine, like they used to say on Miami Vice.

Hunter Biden started banging Hallie Biden shortly after -- at least, the official story is "shortly after" -- Beau Biden died due to being exposed to burn pits while leading top secret commandos in Ukraine.

President Biden made a surprise nighttime visit to the Delaware home of Hallie Biden on Sunday -- just before she's due to serve as one of the most important witnesses at first son Hunter Biden's federal trial for alleged gun crimes.

Biden stopped by Hallie's home around 8 p.m. for a brief private talk eight days before the 54-year-old first son's trial is scheduled to stand trial beginning June 3.

Hallie dated Hunter at the time of his alleged gun crimes and is one of a dozen expected witnesses.

"Dated." How delicate.

She was married to the president's son Beau Biden, who died in 2015 of brain cancer, before her relationship with his troubled younger brother.

Prosecutors allege Hunter lied about his drug use on gun purchase forms and then briefly illegally possessed at least one weapon -- which Hallie disposed of in a public dumpster in 2018.

Although many commentators noted the awkward optics due to the looming trial, the visit came four days before the anniversary of Beau's death.

White House spokesman Andrew Bates told The Post that the president didn't discuss the trial with Hallie Biden during the visit.

"No," he replied. "He visited her because of the approaching 9th anniversary of Beau's passing."

Sure.

We can't check that because Joe Biden illegally uses pseudonymous accounts to avoid any documents being FOIA'd.

Posted by: Disinformation Expert Ace at 05:45 PM | Comments (143) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Hollywood Sees Worst Memorial Day Weekend Takings -- Excluding 2020, When Most Theaters Were Shut Down Due to the Fauci-Funded Pandemic -- In Nearly Thirty Years

The Mad-Max-but-without-Mad-Max sequel Furiosa just barely edged out the nth reboot of Garfield to take the box office prize -- but it was no prize at all. It was the weakest Memorial Day opening since Casper in 1995.

[I]t's the worst Memorial Day weekend in nearly three decades -- excluding 2020 when theaters were entirely closed due to COVID. Box office comparisons to the same holiday weekend in 2023 are particularly tough -- down by nearly 36% -- given that Disney's "The Little Mermaid" remake took the crown with $118 million, one of the best debuts for the holiday. Overall, this Memorial Day stretch adds to Hollywood's summer woes as ticket sales remain 22% behind 2023 and a concerning 41% behind 2019, according to Comscore.

It's a particularly disappointing showing for "Furiosa," the fifth entry in director George Miller's post-apocalyptic "Mad Max" series. The R-rated film, which stars Anya Taylor-Joy and Chris Hemsworth, was expected to lead with $40 million to $45 million over the holiday stretch. And even that wouldn't have been a stellar start given the film's $168 million price tag. Globally, "Furiosa" has earned $65 million. At this rate, it'll struggle to live up to the franchise's previous entry, 2015's "Mad Max: Fury Road," starring Tom Hardy and Charlize Theron, which opened to $45 million (not during a holiday weekend) and ultimately grossed a modest $380 million globally. Despite great reviews, analysts believe that "Furiosa" faltered because prequels rarely do as well as direct sequels, especially when they don't have the original stars. And this action epic failed to expand beyond its core demographic of older male moviegoers.

For "Garfield," which cost $60 million, it's a decent start for a family film while arriving on the lower end of projections of $30 million to $35 million. The movie has already generated $66.3 million overseas and $91.1 million globally, so it's well positioned in its theatrical run. Chris Pratt voices the titular cat who hates Mondays and loves lasagna in "The Garfield Movie," which was financed and produced by Alcon Entertainment.

This is all actually worse than reported, because none of these box-office figures are inflation-adjusted. That is, tickets cost more now due to simple inflation, and we're comparing 1995 dollars to today's dollars without boosting the older dollars to reflect their greater worth.

The media is trying to cope with the public's rejection of the media.

Heading into Memorial Day weekend, it was already expected that the box office would see the lowest totals from this holiday since the turn of the century. The final results have fallen even below that.

The No. 1 film for this weekend, "Furiosa," made just $32 million over the four-day period, making it the lowest No. 1 Memorial Day release since 1995, when the family film "Casper" opened to $22 million before inflation adjustment.

Box office analysis company Nash Information Systems, operator of The Numbers, had projected a $160 million 4-day total prior to the start of the weekend. That would have been enough to make it the lowest Memorial Day weekend since at least 1999. But the final total has clocked in at $128 million, down 37% from last year and the lowest in 26 years.

This dramatic a low could suggest a real tipping point for the theatrical movie business. What are the implications for the future of a theatrical business when Memorial Day, with well-reviewed movies, hit a 26-year low? And having chosen to embrace streaming while producing movies for theaters, what changes might studios need to make to adjust to the new reality?

Maybe people just aren't going to theaters any longer, and will wait to see movies at home.

Both The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare and The Fall Guy are already available on Video on Demand, albeit at too-high prices, $20 to rent, $25 to buy. (I'll have to wait a few months before the prices come down to a more reasonable level, like $15 to buy.)

This is terrible for Hollywood -- and it's just going to get worse and worse, because they have very few movies ready for the next year, due to the actors' and writers' strikes.

There is going to be an enormous collapse of movie theaters. One quarter, one third, who knows how many theaters will be shut down over the next year.

Did the public tune out of Furiosa because we're just sick of Girl Bosses? Maybe. Girl Boss movies are no longer a gimmick, they're now the rule, and we're all pretty tired of them.

Did people just stay away because -- well, who cares about Furiosa, anyway? I was disappointed with Fury Road because Mad Max was very decidedly a co-star or second banana. I'm not really into the "Mad Max extended universe" -- I'm a fan of the character. (And the car.) This movie jettisons Max completely.

Reviewers I trust say that Furiosa is a pretty good movie (though not as good as Fury Road) and has good action.

But maybe people are just sick of female-led action movies, period. Even if you don't object to the obvious pandering feminist politics-- the female badass action hero is now a huge cliche. What else ya got?

And let me be like the millionth person to ask this -- if "Muh Representation" is so, so important in a customer's decision whether or not to consume a particular piece of media, then where, may I ask, is the representation for the men in what are traditionally movies for men?

On the other hand, The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare, which I heard was okay if a bit disappointing, and The Fall Guy, which I heard was silly but a lot of fun, also both bombed.

(The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare might partly be a victim of the anti-Girlboss sentiment, because I've heard that about half the movie follows a female spy and her black partner, who are in a different storyline the male-heavy, action-heavy storyline promised in the advertisements.)

An even worse scenario for Hollywood is if this isn't about a public sick of the endless parade of masculine girlbosses. At least if the problem is girlbosses, Hollywood could, theoretically, stop making every male franchise into a female one. (Though if they were capable of making such a change, you'd think they'd have done so in 2018, after The Last Jedi.)

At least they could fix that. If they wanted. Which they don't want.

But maybe this has less to do with Girl Boss heroines, and more with the fact that Gen Z just doesn't seem to want to go to any movies at all. They just want to watch TikTok and Youtube.

And of course Hollywood's primary audience for 60 or 80 years have been young people aged 15 to 29.

Hollywood (and every other entertainment industry) has been chasing them hard, believing, insanely, that young people just want to see entertainment with extremist leftwing politics and lots of gays and transgenders.

But that's not working. (Obviously.)

It could just be that this audience is all-but-unreachable, and Hollywood needs to start playing more to older audiences. Which is a much smaller audience -- older people don't like going to theaters, either -- but at least they'll show up for big movies on occasion.

How can Hollywood continue if young people just aren't interested in theatrically-exhibited movies any longer?

It probably can't. Not without a dramatic downsizing.

Movie theaters saw audiences abandoning them, and started upgrading their theaters. A lot of theaters now have reclining chairs that let you lay nearly completely flat, like you're watching a movie from your bed at home.

And that was a nice, though late, investment.

But that won't help if no one feels like seeing movies in a theater. Plus, all of these theaters certainly went into longterm debt to install all of these pricey motor-driven Lay-Z-Boys.

I don't see how the theaters can survive, except as a niche, nostalgia-based thing.

Below, Midnight's Edge discusses the probably-doomed Furiosa film. You won't be surprised to find out this film was greenlighted by the same female executive who had the Galaxy-Brained idea to get rid of the main male DC heroes -- Batman and Superman -- and replace them with their female derivative characters, Batgirl and Supergirl.

George Miller, by the way, had been working on Mad Max scripts which actually -- get this! -- featured Mad Max as the main character.

But this is the one she greenlighted.

Posted by: Disinformation Expert Ace at 04:30 PM | Comments (368) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Judge Merchan Violates the Constitution Again, Instructs Jury That They Don't Need to be Unanimous About Which Mystery Crime Constitutes the Legal Predicate for the Trump Prosecution

Hey, hit Trump with a gag order about mentioning this in his appeal. His appeal might endanger Merchan and his Democrat whore daughter.

The prosecution wants a Choose Your Own Adventure style verdict -- jurors can pick from three offered predicate crimes. And they don't even have to agree on which of the three possibilities they're convicting Trump under; five jurors can pick Possible Predicate #1, four can pick Possible Predicate #2, two can pick Possible Predicate #3, and one can even make up his own predicate. As long as they all say that some predicate is present, they can convict.

This is against the law. The Supreme Court has ruled that juries must be unanimous about all elements of a crime to convict.

udge Juan Merchan ruled that the jury does not need to unanimously agree on the specific 'predicate' crime Donald Trump committed to convict him of felony-level falsification of business records. Legal experts, including Greta Van Susteren, have pointed to a Supreme Court case that contradicts this ruling.

Key Details:

Judge's Ruling: Judge Juan Merchan ruled that for a felony conviction, the jury need not unanimously agree on which specific crime Trump intended to cover up by falsifying business records.

Legal Precedent: Legal analyst Greta Van Susteren highlighted a Supreme Court case, Richardson v. United States, which emphasizes the need for jury unanimity on underlying offenses.

Defense Argument: Trump's defense argued for unanimity on the 'predicate' crime, but the prosecution maintained that the law does not require such agreement.

Diving Deeper:

In a significant ruling, Judge Juan Merchan determined that the jury in Donald Trump's hush money trial does not need to unanimously agree on the specific 'predicate' crime Trump allegedly committed to secure a conviction for felony-level falsification of business records. This decision plays a crucial role in the prosecution's strategy to elevate the charges against Trump.

According to the ruling, while the jury must unanimously agree that Trump falsified business documents to commit or conceal another crime, they do not need to concur on what that specific crime was. This ruling sparked controversy and drew criticism from legal experts, including Greta Van Susteren, who cited the Supreme Court case Richardson v. United States. In that 1999 case, the Court ruled that jurors must unanimously agree on the specific underlying offenses in a Continuing Criminal Enterprise (CCE) prosecution.

The prosecution initially presented four possible predicate crimes, one of which was dismissed by the judge. The remaining possibilities include a tax crime and violations of state or federal election law. Trump's defense, led by lawyer Emil Bove, argued that unanimity on the predicate crime is essential for a felony conviction. However, prosecutor Matthew Colangelo contended that the law does not mandate such agreement.

"The importance of the case is not a basis for deviating from the standard application of the law," Colangelo stated. "There's no reason to rewrite the law for this case."

The Democrats have decided to abandon longstanding Supreme Court rulings to Save Democracy.

Posted by: Disinformation Expert Ace at 03:28 PM | Comments (407) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Judge Cannon Blasts Democrat Prosecutor Jack Smith For Unprofessionalism in Seeking Gag Orders on Trump

Jack Smith, in a nakedly political move, demanded that Judge Cannon hit Trump with a gag order for... tweeting that FBI agents were permitted to shoot to kill in executing the search warrant.

That is true. They were so authorized. It's true that this is a routine boilerplate instruction, and that Trump wasn't home, but it is true that they had permission to shoot to kill if they encountered resistance in executing the warrant.

Trump's statements are protected first amendment speech, even if his claims are contentious. In no world does a prosecutor have any business seeking a gag order to stop a presidential candidate from making politically-charged claims.

Except when the prosecutor is just a campaign worker for Biden 2024.

Politico whines about Judge Cannon, yet again:

The judge overseeing the criminal case against Donald Trump for hoarding classified documents at his Florida home has again chided special counsel Jack Smith's team for its tactics -- this time over a request for an order preventing Trump from repeating baseless claims that FBI agents carrying out a search at Mar-a-Lago last year were authorized to kill him.

Even if these claims are "baseless" -- and they're not; they're true (if misleading) -- what business is it of a court or prosecutor to act as a Twitter Content Moderator regarding Trump's claims?

Will Jack Smith likewise ask for gag orders on Biden for repeating the "9% interest" lie? Why not? He has as much authority to seek a gag order about that as about Trump's claim.

U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon turned down the gag order request Tuesday as she delivered another sharp warning to prosecutors that they need to make more concerted efforts at dialogue with Trump's counsel before bringing disputes to the court.

"The Court finds the Special Counsel's pro forma 'conferral' [with the defense] to be B? wrote Cannon, a Trump appointee. "It should go without saying that meaningful conferral is not a perfunctory exercise."

Cannon didn't rule out granting the request in the future, but she said prosecutors would need to to further engage with Trump's side over the issue before she will take it up again. She also questioned Smith's claim of urgency to file the gag order request, noting that prosecutors filed it on a "non-emergency" basis. It was submitted on the Friday evening before the Memorial Day weekend, leading Trump lawyers to complain that they were being rushed into responding.

So they lied.

In addition, Cannon appeared to fault Smith's attorneys for skewing how they described the stance that Trump's lawyers had taken on the proposed gag order. The judge suggested prosecutors had relegated Trump's response to "editorialized footnotes," rather than just reciting it neutrally to the court. She directed both sides to provide her with more details in the future on their attempts to work out such disputes and to do so "in objective terms."

While the judge seemed piqued by the prosecutors' actions, she turned down a request from Trump's defense to impose sanctions on the prosecution for allegedly defying court rules and her previous orders. However, Cannon said that was possible if her rulings aren't obeyed.

"Failure to comply with these requirements may result in sanctions," the judge wrote in the brief order posted to the south Florida federal court's online docket Tuesday morning.

...

Prosecutors have indicated they needed to move quickly with the gag request because of a series of inflammatory public statements by Trump claiming that FBI officials had given the OK to kill him during the court-ordered raid at Mar-a-Lago in May 2022. The claim stems from the inclusion of a policy on use of deadly force included in the operations plan given to agents prior to the search.

They're claiming that Trump's remarks may endanger law enforcement officials... um, what authority does a prosecutor have to stop speech he doesn't like?

His only authority over Trump's speech (debatedly!) is if Trump's speech interferes with the administration of justice in this one case -- he does not have limitless authority to gag Trump whenever Trump is disputing Democrat/Government Party dogmas.

Will he similarly seek a gag order on Cori Bush to stop lying about the death of Michael Brown -- an absolute lie that definitely puts cops' lives in danger?

Nah, of course not.

But we have to protect those dear, dear FBI agents from mere reputational damage.

Posted by: Disinformation Expert Ace at 02:14 PM | Comments (432) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Politico Headline: "Democrats in full-blown 'freak-out' over Biden"

Obviously, the Robert DeNiro stunt is motivated by this "freak-out." Democrats need a momentum shift. They had been counting on the four (FOUR!) lawfare trials to provide this shift. But Fani Willis reduced her effort to low comedy and the Supreme Court is examining issues (such as presidential immunity) which may delay the two federal cases.

And this current trial has been a complete disaster. Even if a rigged jury delivers a guilty verdict, the country has heard enough details about Stormy Daniels' and Michael Cohen's absurd testimony to discount the entire case.

So professional make-up wearer Robert DeNiro tries doing something he's failed at in his last ten movies, injecting drama and drawing an audience.

The article notes that donors keep asking insiders what their sense of the election is. That is, they want reassurance that they are not just wasting their money backing a sure loser.

DeNiro's stunt is probably more about giving donors a plausible comeback story than winning actual votes.

I don't think this is going to be enough, with Biden's own bagman son going on trial in June.

(During Pride Month?! DURING PRIDE MONTH?!!)

A pervasive sense of fear has settled in at the highest levels of the Democratic Party over President Joe Biden's reelection prospects, even among officeholders and strategists who had previously expressed confidence about the coming battle with Donald Trump.

Keep talkin' that sexy talk, baby.

All year, Democrats had been on a joyless and exhausting grind through the 2024 election. But now, nearly five months from the election, anxiety has morphed into palpable trepidation, according to more than a dozen party leaders and operatives. And the gap between what Democrats will say on TV or in print, and what they'll text their friends, has only grown as worries have surged about Biden's prospects.

"You don't want to be that guy who is on the record saying we're doomed, or the campaign's bad or Biden's making mistakes. Nobody wants to be that guy," said a Democratic operative in close touch with the White House and granted anonymity to speak freely.

But Biden's stubbornly poor polling and the stakes of the election "are creating the freakout," he said.

"This isn't, 'Oh my God, Mitt Romney might become president.' It's 'Oh my God, the democracy might end.'"

BRB, batin'

... Democratic critics of the campaign's approach -- while agreeing that abortion should be a winning issue -- said they're challenged when pressed by friends to make the case for why Biden will win.

"There's still a path to win this, but they don't look like a campaign that's embarking on that path right now," said Pete Giangreco, a longtime Democratic strategist who's worked on multiple presidential campaigns. "If the frame of this race is, 'What was better, the 3.5 years under Biden or four years under Trump,' we lose that every day of the week and twice on Sunday."

In the swing state of Michigan, Democratic state Rep. Laurie Pohutsky suggested Biden's standing is so tenuous that down-ballot Democrats can't rely in November "on the top of the ticket to pull us along."

...

Whatever the Biden campaign has been doing over the past two months -- and it's a lot of activity, including $25 million in swing-state ad spending, according to AdImpact -- it has had only a limited effect. According to FiveThirtyEight, Biden's average job-approval rating on March 7, the date of his State of the Union Address, was 38.1 percent. As of Friday, it's 38.4 percent.

Posted by: Disinformation Expert Ace at 12:55 PM | Comments (560) | Trackbacks (Suck)

Biden Makes It Clear That the Persecutions Are Political and Coordinated by the White House

The Biden campaign arranged a stunt press conference from outside the courtroom where the fake Trump trial is taking place featuring anger junkie and has-been Robert DeNiro.

Subtle as a car crash.

The Biden campaign rolled out "masked" and "delusional" actor Robert De Niro for a staged media stunt outside former President Donald Trump's New York City criminal trial Tuesday. De Niro--drowned out by a car alarm and protestors--took the opportunity to call Trump a "tyrant" and his supporters "clowns."

Key Details:

Biden's team, which had largely ignored the trial, sent actor Robert De Niro to the event, where he seemingly became agitated by protestors chanting "F*** Joe Biden!"

The campaign's communication director, Michael Tyler, stated that their presence was not about the trial, though Trump senior advisor Jason Miller commented on the stunt saying, "Joe's crookeds aren't in PA, MI, WI, NV, AZ or GA - they're outside the Biden Trial against President Trump. It's always been about politics."

Donald Trump Jr. also chimed in, adding, "In case you needed more evidence that all of these BS cases were quarterbacked by Team Biden to interfere in the 2024 election, the Biden campaign is now showing up in NYC to explicitly cheerlead the political persecution of my father."

Posted by: Disinformation Expert Ace at 12:03 PM | Comments (362) | Trackbacks (Suck)

The Morning Rant: Minimalist Edition

The cowardly, soft, mush-headed intellectuals, commentators, celebrities, athletes and others with even the tiniest bully pulpit are always challenged by the left when they speak out of turn. Of course speaking out of turn means disagreeing with the left cant that has overwhelmed social, political and intellectual discourse in America. Even a tiny deviation from the orthodoxy will result in a massive attack from all parts of the left. Their useful idiots in the media, their so-called intellectuals, their compliant academics, and their legion of brain-dead celebrities and athletes mouthing the talking points will unite in their condemnation.

And it has gotten worse. Now the passport of the interlocutor is proof of badspeak. Specifically? Israel.

But it can be managed. In fact, it can be a powerful tool to turn the tables on the left, because they are unused to counter-attacks.

Do you want to see how it's done?

Jewish Author Delivers Blistering Response When Forced to Answer Where She Stands on "Israeli-Palestinian Conflict" Before Scheduled Speaking Event

Russian Israeli author Dina Rubina was scheduled for an event to discuss her books at Pushkin House in London in collaboration with the University of London.

Before she was “allowed” to speak, however, event moderator Nataliya Rulyova demanded she clarify “her position on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict,” saying other invited participants needed to “understand your position on this issue before responding.”

Rubina spends many paragraphs eviscerating the request, explaining the real situation in Israel with respect to Gaza, and mocking the literary community.

There is no apology. No backing down from a considered, rational, well-thought-out moral stance. There is no backing down from her political philosophy. There is not an iota of defense. It is a powerful attack, backed by facts.

And this wonderful woman saves the best for last!

As you know, I have been a professional writer for over 50 years. My novels have been translated into 40 languages, including Albanian, Turkish, Chinese, Esperanto, and many more.

Now, with great pleasure, without choosing my expressions too much, I sincerely and with all the strength of my soul send to all the brainless “intellectuals” who are interested in my position to go fuck themselves.

This is how to fight.

We need more of these principled women and men. And we need more of the quiet, unassuming men and women with the same strength of character to step forward and fulfill their destiny as protectors of Judeo-Christian culture and the uniquely Western concept of freedom and liberty.

And that doesn't mean fighting in the streets or protesting. It means a very simple thing. Take what many consider to be private and personal...our ideas and moral code, and express them when necessary. At a school board meeting. At a village council meeting. At a backyard barbecue when someone is spouting the leftist cant about X or Y or Z. Letters to the local paper. Anywhere that the leftists feel safe to spout their manipulative evil.

But we must defend our unique, wonderful, civilization-creating culture against those who wish to drag it into the muck of a post-modern world, devoid of God, of honor, of integrity, of freedom and liberty and, most of all, devoid of the individual.

Because we are merely cogs in the great and terrible machine that grinds humanity down into the muck of collectivism or globalism or whatever those who mean to destroy us are calling it.

[Hat Tip: Sharon(willow's apprentice)]

[Crossposted at CutJibNewsletter]

Posted by: CBD at 11:00 AM | Comments (373) | Trackbacks (Suck)