Tracker

Mark Meadows Could Be Going To Prison For A Very Long Time Former Trump Chief of Staff Mark Meadows took classified documents home with him, made copies, and handed them out to other people. From the 1/6 Committee report: Oof — Devin Nunes – Mark Meadows, classified documents given to reporters, including Jon Solomon — here about page 142 https://t.co/jBIHnpVybA pic.twitter.com/Ypos5QFH2f — Outspoken™️ (@Out5p0ken) December 27, 2022

Judge Orders Another Long Prison Term In Whitmer Kidnap Plot GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (AP) — A Delaware trucker described as a co-leader of the conspiracy to kidnap Michigan’s governor has been sentenced to more than 19 years in prison. Barry Croft Jr. was the fourth and final federal defendant to learn his fate, a day after ally Adam Fox was sentenced to 16 years in prison. The two men were convicted in August of conspiracy charges at a second trial in Grand Rapids.

Given all the pathos in Regina, I would think that the Riders will have no end of problems recruiting CFL free agents. They will have to rely heavily on those who cannot catch on anywhere else and American newbies.

With any luck, the soft-core Republicans who still have a functioning cerebral cortex will realize that Trump is a shameless grifter, serving only himself.

Trump’s Tax Returns Will Be Made Public On Friday Morning Donald Trump's tax returns will be made public for the American people to see on Friday morning.

Co-Leader Of Whitmer Kidnapping Plot Gets 16 Years In Prison GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (AP) — The co-leader of a plot to kidnap Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer was sentenced Wednesday to 16 years in prison for conspiring to abduct the Democrat and blow up a bridge to ease an escape. Adam Fox returned to federal court Tuesday, four months after he and Barry Croft Jr. were convicted of conspiracy charges at a second trial in Grand Rapids, Michigan. They were accused of being at the helm of a wild plot to whip up anti-government extremists just before the 2020 presidential election. Their arrest, as well as the capture of 12 others, was a stunning coda to a tumultuous year of racial strife and political turmoil in the U.S.

'Our children have the right to live': Record 6,036 American kids killed or injured by gunfire in 2022' With just a few days left until the new year, 2022 has already set a grim record: so far at least 6,036 children across the United States have been killed or injured by gunfire, according to the Gun Violence Archive. As of Tuesday, 306 children under age 12 were killed by guns and another 668 were injured nationwide. For those ages 12-17, 1,328 were killed and 3,734 were injured. Those figures include the 19 kids—but not the two adults—killed in the May 24 mass shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, and come just a few weeks after the nation marked the 10th anniversary of the massacre of 20 children and six adults at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut. https://www.alternet.org/6036-kids-killed-injured-guns/

Watched it last night. It was a fun romp for both audiences and probably the actors, but many plot holes.

Trump's world and his imagined immunity from prosecution is crumbling around him. Like all malignant narcissists, his response is and will continue to be bluster and threat.

Putin is re-creating the paranoid furore of Joseph Stalin. On the eve of the Germans turning on Russia after the partition of Poland, Stalin was so insane that he order the execution of dozens of his top generals, and when the Germans invaded, there was such turmoil in the military that the Russian response was piecemeal and weak, to say the least. The whole Russian central command was almost nonexistent and the Germans went where they pleased with the only limiting factor being their supply lines. Putin is killing off some powerful people and even those who have been loyal to him have to start wondering when it will their turn to have an accident. This will lead them to doing whatever is necessary to survive, even if it means deposing or killing Putin. That may be a lot closer that you might think. Russians cannot access the banked money and many will start to become desperate. All this on top of even more bad news in Ukraine, as Ukrainian forces have retaken another key city and are near to taking yet another. If the Wagner group of mercenaries are not being paid, as some reports say, their loyalty will evaporate, leaving a bloodied and broken military who no longer have any faith in their commanders,

Netanyahu’s Right-Wing Blitz Is the ‘Most Corrupt’ Day in Israeli History JERUSALEM—Israel’s parliament, now with a majority of legislators promising to back incoming Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, is on a radical right-wing “legislative blitz” ahead of his anticipated installation on Thursday. The House has effectively been commandeered to enable Netanyahu’s sixth government by passing laws required to tie up coalition deals with his radical new partners. Without a series of laws fundamentally transforming Israel’s judicial landscape, Netanyahu has no way of forming a governing coalition, and Israel would be launched towards new elections. A law passed in the early hours of Tuesday permits the reinstatement of Aryeh Deri, a former interior minister, who resigned from the Knesset last year as part of a plea deal in which he admitted to defrauding the state of $152,365 in taxes, and agreed to leave public life. That was Deri’s second entanglement with the law: in 2000 he was convicted of accepting bribes and was sentenced to three years in jail, of which he served two. Netanyahu—don’t forget—is himself on trial for bribery, fraud and breach of trust, and does not have the parliamentary votes to form a coalition government without Deri’s Shas party. Ergo, the law which allows Deri to become a minister in the Netanyau’s latest coalition. Baruch Kra, legal analyst for Israel's Channel 13 television, tweeted that “this morning, December 27, 2022, with the passage of the Deri Law, will be remembered as the most corrupt in the history of the Israeli parliament.” Another law passed under cover of night will benefit Bezalel Smotrich, a nationalist theocrat who hopes to impose “Torah law” on Israel, and a self-described “proud homophobe” slated to become Israel’s finance minister in the new coalition. The law will allow him to take a huge amount of control over the occupied West Bank, which was previously under the sole purview of Israel’s army. It even explicitly limits Netanyahu’s ability to direct policy over the occupied territory. https://www.thedailybeast.com/netanyahus-right-wing-blitz-is-the-most-corrupt-day-in-israeli-history?ref=home

The Iranian national team players have decided to donate their World Cup prize money to freeing prisoners. Yesterday, 20 prisoners were freed in Ardabil, and others will be freed in Bushehr, Lorestan, Kashan, and other cities across Iran. Great act of charity by the players.

Considering the turmoil that accompanied the first half of filming and the resultant canning of the original director and the return of Peter Jackson, the trilogy turned out rather well. The purists were greatly displeased, though. For fans of Middle-Earth, I suggest you read "The Children of Hurrin"- the prequel to the lord of the rings. Rather grim but worth a read.

Russian State TV Hails Lauren Boebert For Refusing To Stand For War Hero Volodymyr Zelensky Right-wing Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.) won a significant new fan — Kremlin state TV — for refusing to stand and applaud Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky when he spoke to Congress in Washington, D.C., last Wednesday. It hailed her as “brave” for failing to honor Zelensky, who has led his nation against a bloody, brutal invasion by Russia. The broadcast also gave shout outs to Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Florida) and far-right Fox News host Tucker Carlson for dissing the leader considered a hero by his country. https://www.huffpost.com/entry/lauren-boebert-stand-ukrainina-president-zelensky-congress_n_63a9227be4b0ae9de1b18566

Europe has no real option to providing Ukraine with everything they need to fight the war. Putin is a monomanaical tyrant who will stop at nothing. He has gambled everything on grinding the Ukrainians into submission by destroying their infrastructure and making them so economically devastated that (in Putin's plans) Europe will see them as unworthy to join them. Simultaneously, Putin has gambled that the people of Europe will tire of the economic hardships and pressure their leaders to abandon Ukraine to its fate. So far, the US has expended about 5% of its military budget to stalemate Russia and effectively destroy half of its military. A small price to pay. European leaders have to remind their voters that Russia's ambitions will not stop at Ukrainian borders.

I knew it!!!!

Trump Calls Himself “Clairvoyant” in Unhinged Christmas Message The mind that brought you “very stable genius” has taken self-praise to a whole new plane of existence. Former President Donald Trump gave us the Christmas present we didn’t ask for in the form of a rambling post on Truth Social, in which he took swipes at the usual suspects—the “Radical Left,” “LameStream Media,” Department of Justice, and Federal Bureau of Investigation looking into his multiple alleged Espionage Act violations. Having taken to referring to himself in the third person, Trump posted in part that the media is pushing for President Joe Biden over “Brilliant, Clairvoyant, and USA LOVING Donald J. Trump,” apparently referring to the magical ability to see into the future or communicate with the nonliving. “LOVE TO ALL!” the post concluded. https://www.thedailybeast.com/former-president-donald-trump-calls-himself-clairvoyant-in-unhinged-truth-social-christmas-message?ref=home

Trump’s bigoted dinner guest Nick Fuentes favors burning women alive Nick Fuentes, the 24-year-old white Christian nationalist who dined last month with former President Donald Trump (R) and anti-Semitic rapper Ye at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort, is using misogyny to build a large “incel” following of angry men advocating violence women, Mother Jones reports. “I’m a proud incel,” Fuentes declared in January on his nightly America First podcast. Incel means “involuntary celibate,” a group of men who blame overprivileged feminist women for disempowering them and denying them sex. Fuentes said he refrained from sex with women because, “I’m choosing instead to lead a historical right-wing movement.” Right Wing Watch noted that in June, Fuentes said on his podcast, “We need to go back to burning women alive more” when they’re convicted of crimes. He lamented that “everything went all out of control” when women stopped being burned as witches during the medieval period. He said women are now casting spells, molesting children in schools, and falsely accusing men of rape while also raping men. In January 2022, Fuentes launched Cozy.tv, a streaming platform that he said would be “anti-gay, anti-woman, anti-Black, [and] antisemitic.” A month after launching the platform, he said women aren’t “as rational as men” and should be beaten by their partners. He added a racist twist by saying that Black men understand this. https://www.alternet.org/nick-fuentes-2659009391/