Thursday, May 2, 2024

Trump Trial Resumes Today

 



Via CNN, here's what is expected to happen as the 10th day of the Malignant Loser's hush money for porn stars/ election interference/ fraud trial resumes today:

Keith Davidson is scheduled to return to the stand Thursday. He was the lawyer who was at the center of the so-called hush money agreements with Stormy Daniels and Karen McDougal.

The lawyer helped negotiate the deals to silence Daniels and McDougal over their alleged encounters with Donald Trump. Davidson said in an interview with CNN in 2018 that he’d spoken with Michael Cohen on several occasions about the two women.

Davidson also said he called Cohen in the late summer of 2016 to inform him that he’d settled a case involving Playboy model McDougal. McDougal sold the rights to her story to American Media Inc., the parent company of the National Enquirer, for $150,000 and other perks. Davidson said he informed Cohen of the deal as “a professional courtesy.”

During his testimony last week, David Pecker, the former publisher of the National Enquirer, testified about his communications with Davidson throughout the process of negotiating the payments.

First, though, Judge Merchan is holding another gag order hearing to determine whether further sanctions should be applied to the Malignant Loser for additional violations:

... Earlier in the week, the judge levied a $9,000 fine against Trump for multiple violations of the judge’s gag order barring public discussion of witnesses in the case or the jury. Trump was also required to take nine posts down between Truth Social and his campaign website.

The prosecution Thursday will now argue he should be sanctioned for four more allegations.

The toddler/ tyrant with no impulse control, who's coming to realized he's not in charge of the situation, may need the judge to make good on his threat of incarceration if the violations continue.   

(Photo:  Vigorous alpha male Don Snoreleone about to take five (or more) / Jeenah Moon, pool via Reuters)


Outside Agitators Spotted On DC Campus

 


Yesterday, a group of far-right MAGAt Congresscritters cynically descended on the campus of George Washington University in Washington, D.C., to taunt the peaceful encampment of pro- Palestinian demonstrators, likely in an attempt to provoke them to violence. Among these outside agitators was the infamous theater groper Rep. Lauren "Bobo" Boebert (Insurrection - CO), who grabbed a bullhorn and was promptly drowned out by students chanting "Beetlejuice," in reference to the play she and her handsy date were supposed to be watching in a Denver theater last September. Boebert, who is in a tough primary race in her new Colorado district, was caught on camera vaping and stroking the crotch of her date as he groped her. The trashy Boebert's son and ex-husband have both had run-ins with law enforcement recently (family values!).

While Boebert was screeching into the bullhorn, a student managed to get behind her and hold a hand-made sign with "Beetlejuice" on it. Who says these students don't expertly troll?

(photo: "Beetlejuice" sign -- top right -- greets Bobo. Allison Bailey via Getty Images)

 

Wednesday, May 1, 2024

Today's Cartoons

 

(click on images to enlarge)

(Robert Ariail, Spartanburg Herald-Journal, SC)

(Matt Wuerker, Politico)

(Pedro Molina, Counterpoint)

(Garth German, @garthtoons)

(Bill Bramhall, New York Daily News)

(Jeff Stahler, gocomics.com)

(Mike Luckovich, Atlanta Journal-Constitution)

(Kevin Necessary, gocomics.com)

(Ted Littleford, @tedlittleford)

(Christopher Weyant, Boston Globe)

(Asher Perlman, @asherperlman)


QOTD -- May Day (International Workers' Day)

 

"Labor is prior to, and independent of, capital. Capital is only the fruit of labor, and could never have existed if Labor had not first existed. Labor is superior to capital, and deserves much the higher consideration." -- Abraham Lincoln, in his First State of the Union Address, December 3, 1861, the opposite of the principles the Christofascist Republican Party/ cult operates on today ("afflict the afflicted, and comfort the comfortable").


Tweets / Xeets Of The Day

 

The Malignant Loser/ Dementia Don serves more word salad, with a side of lies --

 

 


"Folks ..." --

 

 

Don't engage with the juvenile dead-enders --

 


Republicans' dystopian Florida abortion ban in effect -- 

 


Republicans' racist efforts to dilute black voting power ... --


 

... while claiming taxes are "racial warfare" against white people -- 


 

Panel:  disbar coup plotter Jeffrey Clark --

 


Maybe scratch former spokesliar Gov. Sanders off the Malignant Loser's VP list, too? --

 


Danke!  More please! --

 

 

America's Pastime:  bee guy and "Welcome to Milwaukee!" --

 

 

 

 

Mid-Week Songs: Beginning And End

 

Folk and pop artist Judy Collins celebrates her 85th birthday today. One of the key figures in the American folk revival of the late 1950s and 1960s, Collins recorded numerous hits, including "Both Sides Now," and "Send In The Clowns." We've always loved her cover of the wistful "Who Knows Where The Time Goes," written by the late Sandy Denny of Fairport Convention.

Folk music lost a giant a year ago today with the death of Gordon Lightfoot at the age of 84. His hits included "Sundown," "Carefree Highway," "The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald," and our choice today, "If You Could Read My Mind," his first major hit in 1970.




Election Tea Leaves? Another Dem Outperforms Polls In Special Election

 



When it counts, when the votes are actually cast, the pollsters are ending up with egg on their faces. The latest example being "a massive performance" by a Democrat in a special election for a vacant Congressional seat in upstate New York (our emphasis):

Timothy Kennedy, a Democratic New York state senator, has won the special election for the Congressional seat vacated by the retired Democrat Brian Higgins.

Kennedy easily defeated his Republican opponent Gary Dickson for New York's 26th district seat, which includes Buffalo and Niagara Falls.

While Kennedy's victory was widely anticipated in the left-leaning district, the vote margin between both candidates was much larger than forecast.

Kennedy won by more than 36 percentage points—a massive performance by the Democratic Party. The Cook Political Report, an independent newsletter that analyzes elections and campaigns, had expected Kennedy to win the seat by 9 percentage points.

A former occupational therapist and father of three children, Kennedy has served in the state Senate since 2011. In 2018, when the Democratic Party won the majority in the Senate, he was appointed chair of the Transportation, Infrastructure, and Capital Investment Committee.

With 94 percent of votes counted early on Wednesday, Kennedy had 46,527 votes against Dickson's 21,685, according to data reported by The New York Times.  [snip]

The Democratic senator's triumph to take the temporarily vacant seat means that the Republican Party's narrow majority in the House of Representatives is now even thinner and reduced to a single vote. He will serve until the end of the year and will be then run in the general election...

We don't expect the pollsters to adjust their Republican- skewed algorithms or whatever it is that's making their predictions so wildly off- base.  Their narrative, much like that of the puerile political press is generally that Democrats are struggling and the Malignant Loser is ascendant.  Fortunately, voters are focusing on the stakes, not the polls, and getting out to vote for protecting democracy, reproductive freedom, and our rights, something the chattering class and its adjunct pollsters still don't see and probably never will.  A narrative, like a mind, is a terrible thing to lose.


"Jail May Be Necessary"

 

Stephen Colbert covers the Malignant Loser's trial and consequences for his violation of Judge Merchan's gag order, campus protests, RFK Jr., and bizarre not-Democrat candidate for Senate in West Virginny Don "Big Shit" Blankenship.  What a time.  What a country.

Tuesday, April 30, 2024

Today's Cartoons

 

(click on images to enlarge)

(Tjeerd Royaards, @Newsweek_JAPAN)


(Jeff Darcy, Cleveland Plain Dealer)

(John Deering, Arkansas Democrat Gazette)

(Guy Parsons, politicalcartoons.com)

(Jack Ohman, Tribune Content Agency)

(Nick Anderson, Reform Austin News, TX)

(Frank Hansen, caglecartoons.com)

(Daniel Boris, dailycartoonist.com)


(Andy Marlette, Creators.com)

(Bill Bramhall, New York Daily News)

(Paul Fell, Artizans.com)

(Dan Misdea, @airmailweekly)



Tweets / Xeets Of The Day

 

Hopefully Noem's political obituary is being written --


 

  

 


Judge Merchan fines Trump $9,000 for violating gag order. Jail time coming soon? -- 


 

The Malignant Loser's unbiased "legal scholars" --



Speaking of "legal scholars," wingnut provocateur Charlie Kirk isn't one -- 



Students "liberate" Columbia's Hamilton Hall (armed with Blue Books and backpacks?) -- 



The urgency of rushing anti-missile defenses to a Ukraine under criminal Russian attacks --

 

 

Demagogue Sen. Tom Cotton, another blatant MAGA liar and hypocrite --



Amen. --



No hard seltzer was harmed in the making of this video --

 

 

 

QOTD -- "If He Wins"

 



TIME's Eric Cortellessa conducted a wide- ranging interview of the Malignant Loser/ Don Snoreleone that's out today.  As you might expect, the sociopathic narcissist had a plethora of bizarre, un-American, un-democratic views bolstered by lies and his deranged, disordered "thinking."  One paragraph, which touches on the likelihood of Coup 2.0,  is as illustrative as any:

"... Trump does not dismiss the possibility of political violence around the election. “If we don’t win, you know, it depends,” he tells TIME. “It always depends on the fairness of the election.” When I ask what he meant when he baselessly claimed on Truth Social that a stolen election “allows for the termination of all rules, regulations and articles, even those found in the Constitution,” Trump responded by denying he had said it. He then complained about the “Biden-inspired” court case he faces in New York and suggested that the “fascists” in America’s government were its greatest threat. “I think the enemy from within, in many cases, is much more dangerous for our country than the outside enemies of China, Russia, and various others,” he tells me..."

To quote Colin Jost, "And the race is tied?!?"  Chalk it up to the Malignant Loser's "poorly educated" MAGAts?

If you have the stomach, read the entire interview, then show all or any part of it to anyone you know who is unsure who they'll vote for in November.  

BONUS:  This doesn't end with the Malignant Loser.  His fascist followers are working at the state level to weed out democracy in all it's heinous forms.  If you can't win elections, don't let people vote in them!


Scratch Another Off Trump's VP List

 


They're falling like rotten apples from a rotten tree:

"Former President Donald Trump has reportedly expressed disappointment in South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem after she revealed that she killed her puppy.

In the upcoming book, Noem wrote about how she was forced to shoot Cricket, her dog, because of its aggressive personality. [snip]

Noem, a Republican Governor, has reportedly lost her opportunity to be Trump's Vice President pick.

The loss comes after an excerpt from her upcoming book, "No Going Back: The Truth on What's Wrong with Politics and How We Move America Forward" was released.

Sources close to Trump revealed to the New York Post that the ex-president's team was shocked to hear of Noem's detailed story about how she shot and killed her dog in the book.

An insider said, 'She was already unlikely to be picked as VP, but had a shot. After this, it's just impossible.' Noem was rumored to be an option for Trump's Vice President position.

Another source told the publication that the former US president 'likes Kristi a lot' but was very 'disappointed' to hear the story about her dog." (our emphasis)

When the zealous, lying loser Kari "Shallow" Lake was banished from Merde O'Lardo (story below), the cruel governor of South Dakota must have thought her chances of being on the Malignant Loser's ticket were improving. Her abject sycophancy was on display a few years ago when she presented the Malignant Loser with a four foot replica of Mt. Rushmore with his face added.  Until her "political suicide" over killing an unruly puppy was published, she was appearing in numerous venues as a Malignant Loser surrogate. The story has outraged most people across the political spectrum, and the fact that she's out defending it tells you everything you need to know about this horrible person.

 

Scratch One Off Trump's VP List

 



Looks like we can scratch failed Arizona MAGAt loon Kari "Shallow" Lake off the Malignant Loser's potential running mate list:

Former president Donald Trump has long had a soft spot for his acolyte Kari Lake, the expected GOP Senate nominee in Arizona, joking that Lake would pivot to his false claims that the 2020 election was stolen even if she was asked about the weather.

But since Lake jumped into the race, Trump has repeatedly expressed skepticism about her political prospects in a state he sees as key to his bid to return to the White House, and has shown annoyance with her frequent presence at his Florida resort, according to five people close to him, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe his comments.

At one point last year, after grumbling for months that she was at his Mar-a-Lago Club too often, Trump gently suggested to Lake that she should leave the club and hit the campaign trail in Arizona, according to a person with direct knowledge of his comments. Trump has also asked others if she can really win in Arizona and if she might drag down his own poll numbers as he seeks the presidency again in 2024, advisers said.

So far, there has been no public schism between Trump and Lake, and the Senate candidate was at Mar-a-Lago again this month for a fundraiser. But Trump’s frustration with Lake has only increased over the past year, heightening the tension between the presumptive GOP presidential nominee and one of his most prominent followers — casting doubt on whether Republicans can present a sufficiently united front to win a key U.S. Senate contest and a presidential battleground state.

Trump has now all but ruled out Lake as a vice-presidential pick, remarking to multiple advisers that he would not choose her as vice president because she lost the 2022 gubernatorial race in Arizona, which he believed was winnable. “She didn’t win,” he told one political ally over dinner at Mar-a-Lago earlier this year...

Spoiler alert:  she won't win again (and neither will the Malignant Loser -- you heard that right).

Overstaying her welcome at Mar-a-Lardo like an impoverished distant relative, Lake was likely hoping for lots of face time to convince the Malignant Loser to pick her as his VP running mate, so she could avoid losing again in Arizona.  Bad gambit!  

With South Dakota's psycho MAGAt Gov. Kristi Noem's self- inflicted wound over the puppy- killing admission in her book, the Malignant Loser's options for a female running mate are running low.  Who next?  Incompetent lawyer Alina Habba (who would prefer to be wife #4)?   Parodied puerile drama queen Sen. Katie Britt (Alabammy)?  Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds (um, she supported Bootsie -- no loyalty!)?   Melania and Ivanka are avoiding him like grim death. 

He may have to run with the next best thing:  Sen. Lindsey "Huckleberry" Graham.

(Photo: a love affair gone sour -- hey, watch those hands!/ Antranik Tavitian, The Republic via USA Today Network)

 

Monday, April 29, 2024

Vid Of The Day: "Partisan Derangement Syndrome"

 

New ad from Republican Voters Against Trump highlights some of the spineless enablers that the Malignant Loser / Al Caporn is counting on to cave and boost his campaign, and put party over country:

Tweets / Xeets Of The Day

 

He must've taken President Biden's WHCA remarks to heart --

 

 

Sunlight is the best disinfectant --

 


Evergreen --

 


It's a conundrum --

 


It might be a conundrum if Thomas had ethics --

 


... or shitstains like Bill "Low" Barr --

 


... or lying MAGAt sleazebags like Santos/ Kitara/ Anthony Devolder --

 


Bootsie kisses the ass ... er, ring.  Weak!  --

 


The MAGAt mindhive is alive and well in Georgia and New Jersey --

 

 


Dem Rep. Moskowitz trolls potential Trump VP pick, puppy killer Noem --