Tom of Temecula
Tom of Temecula's Journal'Partygoers started screaming': Giuliani served with indictment during his birthday party
Former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani was officially served with a felony indictment on Friday night for allegedly interfering in Arizona's 2020 presidential election. Officials with the office of Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes served Giuliani in front of nearly 100 guests at his 80th birthday celebration in the Palm Beach, Florida area.
The New York Post reported early Saturday morning that the former personal attorney to Donald Trump was in high spirits when he was served around 11 PM on Friday at the Lake Clarke Shores home of GOP consultant Caroline Wren. Prior to being served with felony indictment paperwork, Giuliani reportedly "belted" the song "New York, New York" by Frank Sinatra in front of what the Post said was between 80 and 100 guests. Some of the more high-profile attendees of the party were longtime Trump aide Roger Stone and former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon. "Some partygoers started screaming and one woman even cried as Giuliani was served," the Post's Lydia Moynihan wrote.
In a statement to the Post, Wren questioned whether it was "a good use of resources to send multiple agents across the country to storm an 80th birthday party like it was Normandy." Ted Goodman, whom the Post described as a "political advisor" to Giuliani, said it was "unfortunate that they chose to barge up and startle guests during a celebration of this man’s 80th birthday." "They could’ve shown a little more respect for the man who comforted the nation following September 11th and who stands up for law enforcement and the men and women in blue," Goodman said of the man who taunted authorities in a now-deleted tweet.
AG Mayes confirmed Giuliani was served in a tweet sent from her official X account, writing "the final defendant was served moments ago." She quote-tweeted a post Giuliani since deleted in which he wrote, "If Arizona authorities can't find me by tomorrow morning 1. They must dismiss the indictment; 2. They must concede they can't count votes." Mayes posted a screenshot of the tweet after it was deleted.
https://www.alternet.org/giuliani-served-indictment/
Happy birthday, Rudy.
Hakeem Jeffries Calls Justice Alito An Insurrectionist SympathIzer
Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries called Supreme Court Justice Alito an insurrectionist sympathizer and called on Congress to impose an ethical code of conduct on the Supreme Court.
Leader Jeffries said in a statement, “Samuel Alito should apologize immediately for disrespecting the American flag and sympathizing with right-wing violent insurrectionists. He must recuse himself from cases involving the 2020 election and former President Donald Trump. Congress should immediately consider legislation to impose an ethical code of conduct on a runaway Supreme Court. The Constitution demands and the American people deserve more from a justice serving on the highest court in the land than baseless election denial.”
Leader Jeffries was correct on all points. Congress needs to act to control a rogue and corrupt Supreme Court, and just as troubling for the country is the fact that an unrepentant insurrectionist sympathizer sits on the bench.
Alito was the Justice who wrote the majority decision that gutted reproductive freedom rights, and now he is coming after American democracy. Supreme Court reform has never seemed more urgent and vital. The odds of the Republican-controlled House doing something about this crisis are zero, but once Democrats take back the House, fixing the broken and failing Supreme Court majority should be a priority.
https://www.politicususa.com/2024/05/17/hakeem-jeffries-calls-justice-alito-and-insurrectionist-sympathizer.html
Twitter Is Finally Dead - Twitter is fully X.com now
Like a venomous puss moth emerging from its hard cocoon, the social network formerly known as Twitter has fully metamorphosed into X.com. Various elements of Twitter had already embraced the rebranding, and the company has been using X.com links since early April. But now the domain has flipped over entirely, marking the end of a tumultuous transition period—and erasing the last vestiges of the bird app. “We are letting you know that we are changing our URL, but your privacy and data protection settings remain the same,” reads a message at the bottom of the X login and home pages.
The switchover has been a long time coming. X owner Elon Musk announced the shift from Twitter to X last July, a few months after he officially acquired the company. But the billionaire has for decades harbored a dream of creating an “everything app” by that name, and Twitter is his vessel.
“The Twitter name made sense when it was just 140-character messages going back and forth—like birds tweeting—but now you can post almost anything, including several hours of video,” Musk wrote on the newly redubbed X last summer. “In the months to come, we will add comprehensive communications and the ability to conduct your entire financial world. The Twitter name does not make sense in that context, so we must bid adieu to the bird.”
Twitter under Musk has indeed added video and voice calls to its roster of features. It has also replatformed conspiracy theorists like Alex Jones, fostered a welcoming environment for porn spam accounts, made an absolute hash out of verification, introduced a monetization system that encourages rampant engagement farming, gutted its trust and safety team, allowed a surge in hate speech on the platform, designated NPR as “US state-affiliated media,” removed news headlines entirely and then reintroduced them in a weird spot, kneecapped a bunch of fun bots and third-party apps by introducing wildly expensive API changes while giving blue-check verification to AI-generated chum, pivoted to video, introduced an AI model that will help you do crimes, and overseen a decline in usage of more than 20 percent in the US, according to app analytics firm SensorTower.
https://www.wired.com/story/twitter-dead-x-elon-musk/
Johnson's Trump trip unsettles some Republicans: 'Tell me this isn't so'
Speaker Mike Johnson’s (R-La.) decision to appear this week at former President Trump’s hush money trial in Manhattan is sparking new blowback from some House Republicans, who are questioning why he would inject himself so prominently in a case involving an alleged affair with a porn star.
These Republicans, who requested to speak anonymously to discuss the sensitive topic, are accusing Johnson — a devout Southern Baptist who built a career around the fight for Christian values and moral conservatism — of undermining the party’s family values image simply to ingratiate himself with Trump, the party’s presumptive presidential nominee.
“It’s clear that Johnson thinks that this is to his political advantage to be at the courthouse at the most salacious bits of detained, pornographic testimony. I think he’s got to answer for that,” one House Republican told The Hill. “It seems like an odd place for him to be given what he has said.”
“I was watching the newscast and I saw him in the background, and I thought, ‘Tell me this isn’t so.’ Because there is no debating the fact that Mike Johnson is a devout Christian human being,” said a second Republican lawmaker, who also requested anonymity to speak candidly. “That is not even subject to a debate.” “It’s not a good look — at all,” echoed a third GOP lawmaker.
https://thehill.com/homenews/house/4671263-johnsons-trump-trip-unsettles-some-republicans-tell-me-this-isnt-so/
'Most succential': Trump ridiculed after speech in which he 'confused his criminal cases'
Donald Trump on Friday was ridiculed online following a Minnesota speech during which the former president is said to have confused his own criminal cases.
Trump began his GOP dinner keynote address with complaints about the teleprompters, which he said were "falling down," and continued by whining that the podium itself needed work, as well. During the speech, the ex-president also said that Special Counsel Jack Smith was prosecuting him in New York. In reality, Smith's cases are in D.C. and Florida. "We have deranged Jack Smith in New York. He's a deranged individual, Washington," Trump said Friday.
Popular X account Spiro's Ghost responded to that Trump quote, saying, "Deranged Dementia Donald has confused his criminal cases." @CriticalBill76 wrote, "Jack L. Smith is not adjudicating Donald Trump in SDNY. I feel this needs stating."
Trump also touted his plans for the economy if he wins a second term. "We're gonna have MAGAnomics. We're going to make it the most [garbled]... we will be again the most successful country in the world!" @Acyn quoted Trump's slurred word, suggesting the ex-president claimed he will make the U.S. "succential."
https://twitter.com/Acyn/status/1791645444923339261
https://www.rawstory.com/trump-mocked-succential-confused-cases/
Republican congressman files for divorce amid rumored relationship with House GOP colleague
Rep. Rich McCormick (R-Ga.) filed for divorce earlier this month and is rumored to be romantically involved with House colleague Rep. Beth Van Duyne (R-Texas). The Georgia Republican filed for divorce from his wife of 12 years, Debra Miller, on May 3, Gwinnett County court records show.
A mutual restraining order was also filed, as is standard in all divorce cases in the central Georgia county. McCormick filed for divorce from Debra Miller earlier this month, a court filing shows. McCormick, 55, and Van Duyne, 53, have been rumored to be an item since at least January, one source told The Post.
Another source said they’ve been canoodling for over a year. The Daily Mail first reported McCormick’s breakup and alleged relationship with Van Duyne.
In recent months, the pair were spotted “holding hands under the table” during a Republican Study Committee lunch, a GOP member told the outlet. The Post confirmed this account with a third source.
https://nypost.com/2024/05/16/us-news/republican-congressman-files-for-divorce-amid-rumored-relationship-with-fellow-house-gop-colleague/
Family values from the party that wants to restrict access to divorce.
How Biden deprived Trump of a key debating asset
President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump have agreed to two presidential debates — one hosted by CNN in Atlanta on June 27, the second hosted by ABC News on September 10. One of Biden's conditions for the two debates is that there will be no live audience — just the candidates and the moderators.
According to Politico's Jonathan Lemire, Biden's reelection team believes that an "empty studio" will "deprive their GOP rival of a major advantage when they face off." A Biden adviser, presumably interviewed on condition of anonymity, told Politico, "Trump feeds off the crowd, they give him life. We wanted to take that away." Trump, at his MAGA rallies, loves to work the crowd.
But according to Democratic strategist/consultant and former Barack Obama adviser David Axelrod, a controlled debate environment is an advantage for Biden. Axelrod told Politico, "I think it does matter. I mean, if you watch Trump, that is a big part of how he energizes himself. And so, I think that it will have some impact on him that he can't play to the crowd and doesn't have that kind of energy — that sort of modular energy that a crowd offers."
Axelrod continued, "I think that the Biden people, they won in negotiations on three points: It's a debate without a crowd, it's a debate without any third-party candidates, and it's an early debate. And those three things make it about as good a situation as he's gonna get."
https://www.alternet.org/Bank/biden-trump-debates-politico/
Michael Cohen Buries Trump in One Exchange on Hush-Money Trial
Michael Cohen’s latest testimony just added another dent to Donald Trump’s crumbling legal defense in his hush-money case. While on the stand Thursday, Cohen revealed that he didn’t do anything without Trump’s knowledge and his send-off, even if the excessive measures infuriated his campaign. That extra insurance was largely out of fear of any repercussions for doing or saying something on Trump’s behalf that the testy former reality TV star might not approve of.
During a string of questions probing Cohen’s relationship with the press, Trump attorney Todd Blanche asked if Cohen had ever answered a question without first checking in with Trump. “It was my routine to ask him,” Cohen said, noting that Trump would “blow up” at him if Cohen got something incorrect, potentially costing him his job. “So over the course of nine and a half years, you never commented on a story on your own?” continued Blanche. Cohen testified that, for an initial comment on the story, he would “always get a comment to something” from Trump. But after that, he would effectively copy and paste the response to subsequent outlets running similar stories.
It’s just another instance in which Cohen has undercut Trump’s legal defense, which has attempted to frame Trump as a boss totally unaware of the hush-money payments and that the funds for the payments came from Cohen alone. Instead, Cohen has repeatedly outed Trump as a “micromanager” who was aware of his every move, telling the court on Monday that the pair spoke “every single day, and multiple times a day.”
And, if they weren’t able to communicate one-on-one, Cohen said he would often communicate with Trump via one of his other close confidants, including his former assistant Rhona Graff, Trump Organization employee turned director of Oval Office operations Keith Schiller, Trump’s children, or Hope Hicks.
https://newrepublic.com/post/181672/michael-cohen-buries-trump-involvement-hush-money
Trump lawyer's 'meaningless' grilling of witness had 'little bearing on the facts': expert
Former President Donald Trump's defense lawyer Todd Blanche is engaging in "meaningless" histrionics with his latest cross-examination of Michael Cohen, argued Pace University law professor and former New York prosecutor Bennett Gershman in conversation with Salon's Marina Villeneuve.
Cohen, Trump's former attorney and fixer, has been the star witness of the Manhattan criminal hush money trial, and has been subject to several days of intense cross-examination.
“The defense is engaged in a theatrical play that has little bearing on the facts,” said Gershman. “The heavy-throttled attack by the defense on Cohen’s credibility, his motives for testifying against Trump, and his despising Trump, is really meaningless, as the prosecutors will argue in summation to the jury. Everything Cohen says about adulating, and then despising Trump, is bolstered and corroborated by massive other evidence.”
Moreover, Gershman, added, Cohen was really just an "extra" whose centrality to the trial is a bit overstated: jurors already have “the ‘catch and kill’ scheme to bury the Stormy Daniels story by buying her off; the payment to Daniels; the voluminous records showing the way the payment was falsely disguised as a legitimate business expense; the fact that the payments were legally required to be documented as political campaign expenses” — all through independent evidence unrelated to Cohen.
https://www.rawstory.com/trump-blanche-cohen-meaningless/
Bobo Brags That Trump Was Tested For 'His Cognitive Dissonance' Or 'Dissidence' -- Or Something
I never knew that a regular session of the House Oversight Committee could be so entertaining but that was because I was born too many years before the Era of Trump. If I was about 12 years old right now, this would make total sense to me. Lauren Boebert already regaled the House with her opinion on how “pretty” Donald Trump looks when he sleeps (you’re right, I should have issued a trigger warning. I’m sorry you threw up on your laptop just now. Forgive me.) but that was just the warmup.
Then the 4-time GED taker displayed exactly the qualities that earned her that title. She’s too damn ignorant to know (or care) that she even said something stupid. And then there are those who wonder if she said “dissidence” and that’s a whopper, too. Dissidence is protest against official policy and Trump breaks laws like other people breathe. That’s in his nature.
“Dis” something. Disappear, disco, disaster. Sheesh, you guys are soooooo picky! Lauren’s doing her best! Maybe Bobo is kissing ass this heavy in order to be considered for VP. Ya spose? My God, that would be the Ticket From Hell. But hey, it could happen. Remember, there is no low they won’t go, and it always gets worse. Those are the two guiding principles of Trump world.
Uh, they do cognitive testing. Cognitive dissonance is when someone holds conflicting beliefs. And once again, let us rejoice that the GOP candidate for president in 2024 passed the same cognitive test as Koko the Gorilla. Do you suppose we could give the nuclear codes to Koko?
https://twitter.com/CryptidPolitics/status/1791287446686015601
https://politizoom.com/bobo-brags-that-trump-was-tested-for-his-cognitive-dissonance-or-dissidence-or-something/
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Member since: Tue Oct 31, 2023, 11:15 AMNumber of posts: 1,309
