December 31, 2021

His spokesperson said he's on vacation

November 6, 2021

Fulton County, Georgia's Trump Investigation (Brookings report)

https://www.brookings.edu/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/Fulton-County-Trump-Investigation_Brookings-Report_October2021.pdf

Executive Summary

On Saturday, January 2, 2021, at around 3:00 p.m., former President Donald J. Trump placed a call to Georgia’s Republican Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger. Throughout the roughly hour-long call, the former president repeatedly insisted that he had won the state of Georgia “by hundreds of thousands of votes.”1 As purported evidence, Trump cited “rally size” and “political people” who he said assured him that “there’s no way they [the Biden campaign] beat me.”2 He cycled through a list of conspiracy theories to explain his loss, covering “3,000 pounds” of shredded ballots; drop boxes “being delivered and delivered late”; a particular “professional vote scammer and hustler” who Trump claimed destroyed no fewer than 18,000 of his votes; and “the other thing, dead people.”3 At one point, when Raffensperger responded to one of Trump’s false claims by cautioning him that “the problem you have with social media [is that]...people can say anything,” Trump answered: “Oh, this isn’t social media. This is Trump media.”4

But Trump did more than merely complain about the election and catalog disinformation. He urged, and ultimately threatened, Raffensperger to reverse the election outcome— culminating in a demand that Raffensperger “find 11,780 votes” that could be deemed fraudulent and tossed out.5 That number mattered to Trump for a single reason: It was exactly one more vote than the margin of Joe Biden’s 11,779-vote victory in the state.6 As Trump apparently saw it, if Raffensperger’s office complied with his request and identified 11,780 votes for
disqualification, Trump would be named the winner of the state’s presidential election (and presumably could use that development to seek a broader unraveling of the certified election results in other states confirming his defeat).

The transcript and audio file were reported by The Washington Post the following day, garnering widespread attention across a nation already aware of Trump’s refusal to accept the certified election results and assent to a peaceful transition of power. But this was no mere transgression of norms alone. Georgia law was also implicated. Trump’s entreaties to Raffensperger on the January 2 call, along with other steps he took to reverse his Georgia election loss, have exposed him and others involved to potential criminal liability in Georgia. On February 8, 2021, Raffensperger’s office opened a probe into Trump’s efforts to overturn his loss in the state.7 Two days later, Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis announced the launch of a criminal investigation into Trump’s conduct vis-à-vis the election.8 At issue was not just Trump’s January 2 call to Raffensperger. The former president had publicly pressured and personally contacted several other officials in Georgia—including the governor, the attorney general, and the secretary of state’s chief investigator—about the election and how they might assist him in flipping the state’s electoral votes over to him even after the results had been duly certified.9

In this report, we consider the relevant facts and context of Donald Trump’s push to overturn the 2020 election results in Georgia. We analyze the extent to which these actions make the former president vulnerable to state criminal liability. We also assess how Trump’s attorneys may defend his conduct in pre- and (if any) post-indictment proceedings, as well as in the court of public opinion.

*snip*

April 7, 2021

Tucker Carlson defends zip tie guy

https://twitter.com/acyn/status/1379587481360756739

April 6, 2021

Abbott: Do as I say, not as I do.

https://twitter.com/byjayroot/status/1379538765052575744

April 6, 2021

This is your brain on Fox News

https://twitter.com/davenewworld_2/status/1379551114400514051

April 6, 2021

Saying the quiet part out loud.....

https://twitter.com/existentialfish/status/1379503337960316932

April 6, 2021

"I'm not talking about political contributions": McConnell adds important caveat to corporate threat

https://twitter.com/realtuckfrumper/status/1379528259419975683


https://www.salon.com/2021/04/06/im-not-talking-about-political-contributions-mcconnell-adds-important-caveat-to-corporate-threat/

Republicans are retaliating against corporations that have condemned Georgia's anti-voting law, launching various pressure campaigns and weaponizing legislative threats that would affect Corporate America's bottom line.

On Monday, Sen. Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., accused corporations of siding with the Democrats, expressing that there would be "serious consequences" if companies continued to do so.

"So my warning, if you will, to corporate America is to stay out of politics," McConnell told reporters at a news conference on Tuesday. "It's not what you're designed for. And don't be intimidated by the left into taking up causes that put you right in the middle of one of America's greatest political debates."

"I'm not talking about political contributions," he quickly added. "Most of them contribute to both sides, they have political action committees, that's fine. It's legal, it's appropriate, I support that. I'm talking about taking a position on a highly incendiary issue like this and punishing a community or a state, because you don't like a particular law that passed, I just think it's stupid."

McConnell's threats appear anything but idle, with numerous Republicans calling for boycotts of companies that expressed opposition to Georgia's new law.

*snip*

April 6, 2021

Bezos supports a rise in corporate tax rate to help pay for infrastructure investments

https://twitter.com/meridithmcgraw/status/1379528104713060356

April 6, 2021

U.S. considering joining boycott of 2022 Beijing Olympics

https://twitter.com/cnbc/status/1379514633514577927

https://www.cnbc.com/2021/04/06/us-considering-joining-boycott-of-2022-beijing-olympics.html

WASHINGTON – The United States and its allies are considering a joint boycott of the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing, the State Department said Tuesday.

“It [a joint boycott] is something that we certainly wish to discuss,” State spokesman Ned Price told reporters when asked about the Biden administration’s plans ahead of the international games.

“A coordinated approach will not only be in our interest but also in the interest of our allies and partners,” he added.

Price said that the United States has not yet made a decision but was concerned about China’s egregious human rights abuses. The Olympic Games are due to take place between Feb. 4 to Feb. 20.

The potential diplomatic boycott of the Olympic Games comes as the Biden administration works to rally allies to mount international pushback on China.

Last month, the United States sanctioned two Chinese officials, citing their roles in serious human rights abuses against ethnic minorities in Xinjiang. The sanctions by the Biden administration complement actions also taken by the European Union, the United Kingdom and Canada.

*snip*

April 6, 2021

North Las Vegas mayor couldn't figure out why his iPad is full of child porn -- so he had police...

https://twitter.com/patriottakes/status/1379480012047351810


https://www.salon.com/2015/05/08/vegas_mayor_couldnt_figure_out_why_his_ipad_is_full_of_child_porn_so_he_had_police_wipe_it_clean/

Former North Las Vegas police chief Joseph Chronister retired on Thursday -- so, naturally, he's decided to spend his new free time disclosing stories of widespread municipal corruption.

One such story involves North Las Vegas Mayor John Lee, who allegedly received special treatment from law enforcement when he reported that some child pornography mysteriously appeared on his iPad last year. According to Chronister and the Las Vegas Review-Journal, Lee contacted the police for help after receiving (he claims) an email containing "kiddie porn," which he wanted to make go away. So, it seems the police helped the mayor do just that -- despite the fact that, after a day-long investigation, a detective could find no evidence of the email in question.

Via the Review-Journal:

In his report, the detective said he found no emails having to do with porno­graphy of any kind but did find links to three pornographic websites in the iPad’s browser history. Two of the sites were not illegal, the detective determined, but the third showed pornography organized by the country where the images originated. He said the site looked illegal.

“I did locate several possible photos that could be considered child porno­graphy, but since they were in a different country, I could not verify the age of the people pictured,” the detective wrote. [...]

Chronister said his understanding, based on conversations with the detective, is that the mayor’s explanation about pornography associated with an email couldn’t have happened as the mayor described.

Finding nothing he could prove illegal on the iPad, the detective took it to an Apple Store and had it wiped clean the next day, according to the report. In his report, the detective said an Apple employee told him that a deleted email would no longer be on the device.

Former FBI agent and computer crimes expert Joseph Dooley, who spoke with the Review-Journal, was baffled by the series of events, and basically called bullshit on the detective's report. "If he thinks it’s child porn, it’s child porn," Dooley said. "It doesn’t matter what country it’s in. That sentence makes no sense to me."

*snip*