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The Horrendous Trump "so-called" presidency still in the news and not for good things

3 hours ago from Business Insider;

In response to:

Donald Trump could be charged with multiple crimes over his attempts to overturn his loss in the state of Georgia, report says

Alia Shoaib and John L. Dorman

Donald Trump could be charged with crimes over Georgia election interference, a new report says.

The report says Trump and his allies pressured Georgia officials to overturn his loss in the state.

Trump is facing several probes in relation to his postelection conduct in Georgia.

Former President Donald Trump could be charged with multiple crimes over election interference in Georgia, a new analysis says.

The report by the Brookings Institution, a leading think tank in Washington, DC, analyzed publicly available evidence which showed that Trump and his allies attempted to pressure Georgia officials to "change the lawful outcome of the election."

A key piece of evidence is the now-infamous call made by Trump to Republican Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger on January 3, where the former president told him to "find 11,780 votes" to overturn now-President Joe Biden's victory in the state.

"There's no way I lost Georgia," Trump repeatedly said throughout the call. "There's no way. We won by hundreds of thousands of votes."

Those assertions were false, as Biden won the state by nearly 12,000 votes, becoming the first Democratic presidential nominee to carry the longtime Republican stronghold since 1992.

The report added that Trump publicly pressured and personally contacted several other Republican officials in Georgia to ask for their help in overturning his electoral loss in the state, including Gov. Brian Kemp and Attorney General Chris Carr. Trump reportedly placed direct calls to the officials in December to urge them to go along with "his increasingly desperate plans to decertify his loss."

"We conclude that Trump's postelection conduct in Georgia leaves him at substantial risk of possible state charges predicated on multiple crimes," the report said. "These charges potentially include criminal solicitation to commit election fraud; intentional interference with performance of election duties; conspiracy to commit election fraud; criminal solicitation; and state RICO violations."

The report also added that criminal liability could extend to some Trump allies, including his former personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani.

Giuliani appeared before committees in the Georgia Capitol with the intent of convincing state lawmakers to "take extraordinary action to reverse Biden's win," the report notes.

In February, Raffensperger's office opened a probe into Trump's efforts to overturn his loss in the state.

Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis also launched a criminal investigation into Trump's conduct related to the election.

The Brookings Institution report analyzed these probes and suggests the crimes that Trump could be charged with, along with his legal defenses.

The report suggests that Trump would likely claim immunity, arguing that he cannot be prosecuted for actions taken while he was in office.

Former presidents enjoy a measure of immunity for actions taken that "fall within the scope of their lawful duties as a federal official," according to the report.

However, in this case, Trump's actions were "well outside the scope of his official duties," the report noted.

For months, Trump has continued to promote debunked claims that the 2020 election was fraudulent, speaking of ballots coming from ceilings and pushing for forensic vote audits in closely-contested states like Arizona and Wisconsin.

The former president is currently facing several criminal probes over his conduct while in office, as well as his personal finances.

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Sep 2021
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Senior al-Qaida leader killed by US military drone strike

Late last night from the Associated Press;

In response to:

US military says it killed al-Qaida leader in drone strike

Fri, October 22, 2021, 11:14 PM

WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. military says it killed a senior al-Qaida leader in an airstrike Friday in northwest Syria.

Army Maj. John Rigsbee, a spokesman for U.S. Central Command, said in a statement that Abdul Hamid al-Matar was killed by a drone strike.

Rigsbee said the killing of al-Matar will disrupt al-Qaida's “ability to further plot and carry out global attacks threatening U.S. citizens, our partners, and innocent civilians."
He said al-Qaida “uses Syria as a base for threats reaching into Syria, Iraq and beyond.”

The drone strike came two days after a U.S. military outpost in southern Syria was hit by a coordinated attack that included drones and rockets. U.S. officials said no American troops stationed there were injured or killed.

From CNN;

In response to:

The military said it has "no indications of civilian casualties as a result of the strike," which was carried out by an MQ-9 drone.

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Oct 2021
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Another Trump Russian connection Convicted !

This afternoon from The Associated Press;

In response to: Giuliani associate convicted of campaign finance crimes

TOM HAYS and LARRY NEUMEISTER

Fri, October 22, 2021, 3:15 PM

NEW YORK (AP) — A Florida businessman who helped Rudy Giuliani’s effort to dig up dirt on Joe Biden in Ukraine was convicted Friday of campaign finance crimes, including funneling a Russian entrepreneur's money to U.S. politicians.

Lev Parnas was on trial for more than two weeks as prosecutors accused him of using other people’s money to pose as a powerful political broker and cozy up to some of the nation’s star Republicans.

One part of the case alleged that Parnas and an associate made illegal donations through a corporate entity in 2018 as they tried to jump-start a new energy company, including a $325,000 donation to America First Action, a super PAC supporting former President Donald Trump.

Another part said he used the wealth of a Russian financier, Andrey Muraviev, to donate to Republicans in Nevada, Florida and other states, ostensibly in support of an effort to launch a legal, recreational marijuana business.

Parnas, 49, was convicted on all six counts after about five hours of jury deliberations.

A co-defendant, Ukraine-born investor Andrey Kukushkin, was convicted of being part of the effort to use Muraviev’s money for political contributions.

The case had drawn interest because of the deep involvement of Parnas and a former co-defendant, Igor Fruman, in Giuliani’s efforts to get Ukrainian officials to investigate Joe Biden’s son during Biden’s campaign for president.

Giuliani remains under criminal investigation as authorities decide whether his interactions with Ukraine officials required him to register as a foreign agent, but he wasn’t alleged to have been involved in illegal campaign contributions and wasn’t part of the New York trial.

The case did, though, give an up-close look at how Parnas entered Republican circles in 2018 with a pattern of campaign donations big enough to get him meetings with the party’s stars.

"In order to gain influence with American politicians and candidates, they illegally funneled foreign money into the 2018 midterm elections with an eye toward making huge profits in the cannabis business," U.S. Attorney Damian Williams said in a statement following the verdict. “Campaign finance laws are designed to protect the integrity of our free and fair elections – unencumbered by foreign interests or influence – and safeguarding those laws is essential to preserving the freedoms that Americans hold sacred.”

In addition to the $325,000 donation to America First Action, prosecutors said Parnas and Fruman orchestrated donations to U.S. Rep. Pete Sessions, of Texas, and to other committees supporting House Republicans.

Giuliani and Trump were sparsely mentioned during the trial, although a photograph featuring Parnas with Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, a Republican, was one of the first exhibits shown to jurors during closing arguments.

DeSantis was among those who received campaign contributions that prosecutors said were traced to $1 million that Parnas and Fruman received from Muraviev, who has been involved in several U.S. cannabis ventures.

About $100,000 of Muraviev’s money went toward campaign contributions in what Assistant U.S. Attorney Hagan Scotten called a conspiracy to secretly bring his “wealth and corruption into American politics” in violation of laws barring foreign donations to U.S. political candidates.

“The voters would never know whose money was pouring into our elections,” Scotten said.

Former Nevada Attorney General Adam Laxalt, now a candidate for U.S. Senate, testified during the trial that a blustering Parnas suggested he could raise hundreds of thousands of dollars for him in 2018.

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Oct 2021
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Hillary's comment about 1/2 of Trump supporters being a "basket of deplorables" wasn't harsh enough

This evening from Salon;

In response to:

Hillary Clinton tried to warn us — and paid the price. Let's at least call Republicans what they are

Still, America's political class is unwilling to call the fascist, white supremacist Republicans what they are

By Chauncey DeVega

Published September 22, 2021 5:50AM (EDT)

During a speech in September 2016, Hillary Clinton — then the Democratic presidential nominee — warned the American people and the world of the dangers represented by Donald Trump and his followers. She described the "volatile political environment" of that moment:

"You know, to just be grossly generalistic, you could put half of Trump's supporters into what I call the basket of deplorables. Right? The racist, sexist, homophobic, xenophobic, Islamophobic — you name it. And unfortunately there are people like that. And he has lifted them up. He has given voice to their websites that used to only have 11,000 people, now have 11 million. He tweets and retweets offensive, hateful, mean-spirited rhetoric. Now some of those folks, they are irredeemable, but thankfully they are not America."

In many ways, Clinton was too kind. If anything, she underestimated how many Americans were in fact committed and enthusiastic human deplorables.

After that speech, Clinton was pilloried by the mainstream news media, some leading Democrats, and of course the Republican Party and right-wing propaganda hate machine. Clinton's characterization of Trump's "basket of deplorables" was described as insensitive and unfair to the "white working class" Americans that elites and out-of-touch Democrats had too often ignored.

That reaction to Clinton's truth-telling helped to legitimate Trumpism and American neofascism (operating under the mask of "populism") as something that was reasonable and understandable, rather than as a manifestation of racial resentment, a racist temper tantrum and a declaration of white supremacy. This reflected our society's deep investment in a narrative of white racial innocence. In that logic, America is a great and exceptional country, and by implication, this is especially true of white people — especially those "real Americans" whose supposed patriotism and presumed Christian values render them a bit more American than anyone else.

Many members of the news media likely agreed with Clinton's warnings in private, but the institution as a whole had been beaten into submission by Republican fictions about so-called liberal bias. So it was that Clinton's warning about Trump and his "deplorables" — and their embrace of fascism — was deemed to be outside the limits of approved public discourse.

If Clinton's warnings had been heeded in 2016, we might be living in a quite different country today. America would not necessarily be drowning under a fascist tide which has imperiled our democracy and our future. Had Hillary Clinton been elected president, it's also likely that far fewer Americans would have been killed by the coronavirus pandemic, and the nation's economy might not have been pushed to the edge of a second Great Depression.

Matters are now so dire that it is now not a question of whether American democracy will succumb to a nightmare reign of full-on fascism but rather when that will happen. If America's neofascist movement continues to gain momentum, Joe Biden will be relegated to the role of a speed bump or an asterisk in American history.

In the five years since the 2016 election, Hillary Clinton has continued her efforts to rally America's pro-democracy forces against the right-wing and its fascist assaults. Last Tuesday, during a Guardian Live interview, she continued her warnings. The Guardian summarized her interview:

(continued in my first comment below)

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Sep 2021
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Terrific responses by Adam Schiff on 'Face The Nation' today. Clearly telling it, like it is.

The following from CBS News is the transcript of that interview;

In response to:

Transcript: Adam Schiff on "Face the Nation"

CBSNews Sunday, October 10, 2021, 11:12 AM

MARGARET BRENNAN: We go now to California Democrat Adam Schiff, chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, he is also on the panel investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol. And the author of a new book, Midnight in Washington: How We Almost Lost Our Democracy and Still Could. We'll get into all of that shortly. But Congressman, I want to start on the economy. You just heard the public doesn't really know what's in this massive spending bill Democrats are trying to muscle through along party lines. Isn't this a significant problem for the party?

REP. ADAM SCHIFF : I can't quarrel with any of the polling results. I think I hear the same thing that not enough Americans know what's in this bill, but when they find out they really applaud what's in it, in particular, expanding Medicare to cover hearing and dental and vision care, lowering prescription drug prices, expanding family and paid medical leave, as well as childcare and lifting children out of poverty. So, the provisions of the bill are hugely popular, but there's been so much fixation on what's the number that the House and Senate are going to agree to, what's the number that Democrats can come together on? I do think this is a very short-lived problem. We're going to get both of these bills passed. They're going to be enormously important to the economy. And once we do, we're not going to make the mistake I think we did with the Affordable Care Act. We're going to go out and we're going to promote this and let people know how it's directly impacting them.

MARGARET BRENNAN: But don't Democrats need to get ahead of that messaging now? I mean, you have unified control. This is going- you need to show you can govern.

REP. SCHIFF: Well, that's exactly right. And we do. And one thing that I think President Biden has been pitch perfect on that all of us need to amplify is, this is- you know, first and foremost about helping Americans get through this awful pandemic and helping their families cope and survive economically. But it is also key to the pro-democracy agenda that we have, and that is we have to show that our democracy can deliver. ....

(Continued below)

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Oct 2021
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Recent Admission by Republicans about other Republicans both Shocking and Accurate....

,,,,,and what needs to be done to rectify this situation.

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Oct 2021
in Opinionated
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Newest Nature photos + 1

Here are 5 of the 12 photos that I presented last week in my photo club.
They loved them. Perhaps you might enjoy one of them too.
All were taken with my Canon T6i and a Sigma 50 to 500 mm lens.

The first 3 are somewhat difficult. They are of a flying hummingbird feeding from a flower.
They were at a huge garden, where there were literally thousands of flowers.
So, one has little idea as to when the bird would appear, or which flower the bird would feed from. In addition one needs to choose a very high shutter speed (these were taken at 1/3200 of a second) and thus a high ISO ( = 3200).

The next one was of a Monarch Butterfly.
However, while I was just about to press the shutter button, I noticed (something?)
out of the corner of my eye to the right of the butterfly.
So, I shifted the camera a bit to the right to include it in the picture.
I was very happy that the butterfly turned out very well and the other
tiny insect turned out well enough to at least get a look at it.
However, I still don't know what the heck that tiny insect is.

Lastly, I went to a jazz festival last month. Got right up front, center stage and met
a couple of the band leaders. One a female singer and the other one a terrific guitarist,
that I own several CDs of. His name is Mark Whitfield.

While I was taking photos, I sat right next to the guy the festival hired to take photos of the
event. I asked him if he was familiar with Mark Whitfield. He was not. I told him, that I had
never seen him in person, but I owned several of his CDs and that he is an excellent guitarist.

We both took hundreds of photos of each band. After Mark Winfield's band was done, the other photographer commented to me, "Man, he just gave us his all." I said, "Yeah. But the challenge with him, as I saw it, was that whenever he plays, he plays with his eyes closed." He responded with, "Well, I took a lot of photos of him. I'm sure I got several with his eyes open."

I then saw him go through all 84 photos he took of Mark, and not a single one had him with his eyes open. Because I noticed the challenge early on during his set, I got 11 photos of him with his eyes open. While I got plenty of his eyes closed while playing, I intentionally waited to the exact moment that he opened his eyes, to get several of those too, giving options for perhaps a CD cover. I did hand Mark my business card after the concert.

What the other photographer said next, made absolutely no sense. He said, "Well, we just looked at the JPEG photos. Some of the RAW ones probably have his eyes open."
I did not reply, because the RAW and the JPEG photos are exactly the same photos,
simultaneously stored onto the same memory card, except the way the image is stored is different.
I just let him 'save face' (pun intended).

Here's one of the photos of Mark, with his eyes & mouth open.

And here's a short little taste of some of his solo guitar work;

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Oct 2021
in Photography
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Well, it's over.

Yeah, I knew it couldn't last forever.
Some said it lasted longer than they expected.
To be honest I just knew it would end.
Still, there's some lament in the finality of it.

Sure, there will be others in the future.
But, probably not for a while.
I'd like to take a break and not get involved right now.

Regardless, I have to face it, whether I like it or not.
I have to accept it.

The softball season is now over for this year.

No big deal. I can use the break until next spring.

What ?

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Oct 2021
in Lifestyle
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'There's Something Very Fishy About This Photo'

Or suggest your own caption for the following photo, if you like.
Or simply enjoy the captions eventually submitted by others.

Here's the photo;

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Oct 2021
in Photography
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Heard moments ago on 'Funny You Ahould Ask'

The following were the joke answers given by comedians, before attempting the correct answer;

Question = If you want to be liked by your boss, where should you sit, relative to your boss ?

Joke Answer by Whitney Cummings = "On his lap."

Question = True or false, the number one most popular drug being smuggled into jails last year was Viagra ?

Joke Answer by Byron Allen = "Oh man ! That's truly doing hard time."

Question = True or false, when conversing with someone you like, you generally blink more often ?

Joke Answer by John Lovitz = "Yeah, but that's due to the pepper spray."

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Oct 2021
in Comedy
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Look ! Up in the sky ! It's......

Heads up ! Tonight & tomorrow night, look for the moon.
But, that's not all.
Close to the moon you will see 2 other bright objects.
Those 2 other objects are the planets, Saturn and Jupiter.

Enjoy !

Today from The Weather Network;

In response to:

Watch tonight as the Waxing Moon teams up with Jupiter and Saturn in the sky

Scott Sutherland

Thu, October 14, 2021, 1:57 PM

You don't need to seek out exceptional dark skies to view every event astronomical event this season. Tonight and Friday night, you can witness a celestial trio crossing the sky.

After sunset tonight, pause for a moment in whatever you're doing to take in the night sky. If your skies are clear, or there are some breaks in the clouds, you may spot bright Venus off towards the western horizon, but the real 'stars' of the show will be to the southeast.

Already high above the horizon as the Sun sets, the Waxing Gibbous Moon will be shining brightly, but it won't be alone. Off to either side of it, two other bright points will be visible. These aren't stars, though. Instead, they're the two largest planets in our solar system — Jupiter and Saturn.

The Moon and Jupiter are bright enough to be visible from pretty much anywhere, even from the most light-polluted streets of Canada's largest cities. Saturn, on the other hand, can be a bit more of a challenge. Since it is more distant than Jupiter, it doesn't shine as brightly. Thus, if you're looking up from an urban setting, give yourself a moment to see if you can spot it. Maybe even try gazing slightly off to one side to bring your more sensitive peripheral vision into play (a technique called "averted vision").

However, the farther away from city lights you are, the brighter this trio will be in the sky.

Cloud conditions will be the most significant factor in determining who will see this celestial trio tonight.

Don't worry, though! If you miss it on Thursday night, either due to your schedule or an overcast sky, try again on Friday night. Since the Moon rises later every night, it will be shifted over to the left of Jupiter as they cross the sky. However, the trio will likely still look just as spectacular.

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Oct 2021
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9 Lawsuits Trump will be slammed with as soon as he leaves office

Yesterday in Business Insider;

In response to:

Trump could be slammed with a pile of personal lawsuits once he leaves office. Here are 9 major ones he'll have to face.

by Connor Perrett

Mon, October 12, 2020, 10:16 AM EDT

While in office, President Donald Trump has largely evaded the civil suits against him.

That could change once he leaves office, which would be in January if former Vice President Joe Biden wins the election on November 3.

Legal experts previously told Business Insider that Trump could face several legal headaches if he is voted out of office.

There are at least nine major ongoing lawsuits involving the president, including defamation cases and allegations that he and his children misled people into selling goods for a multilevel marketing company.

Donald Trump has been sued dozens of times, in lawsuits involving everything from business deals gone wrong to allegations of s*xual assault.

Some cases have been resolved or dismissed. But several are active, suspended, or slowed until he leaves office. He's likely to face an onslaught of lawsuits if he loses reelection and becomes a private citizen once again.

As Business Insider's Dave Levinthal previously reported, Trump is likely to face a litany of federal investigations if he loses to former Vice President Joe Biden next month. He may also be indicted for his role in covering up hush-money payments to Karen McDougal, a plot that sent his former lawyer Michael Cohen to prison.

Norm Eisen, a senior fellow in governance studies at the Brookings Institution, told Business Insider there were several reasons Trump had been successful in avoiding court appearances.

"Part of it is the power of the presidency," he said. "Part of it is the slowness of the system. He is the target of a number of litigation matters and investigations, but he's been able to take advantage, for example, in the Vance case, of the extreme slowness of the system."

Some legal actions against Trump and his web of organizations have been successful. He and his children agreed to dissolve the Donald J. Trump Foundation after a New York state investigation found it had repeatedly lied about charity work.

Some have been settled in arbitration, like the 2018 lawsuit from Noel Cintron, Trump's longtime driver, who alleged he was owed $200,000 in unpaid overtime. Other plaintiffs, like Alva Johnson, who said Trump kissed her without her consent at a rally in Florida in 2016, have dropped their lawsuits. "I'm fighting against a person with unlimited resources," she told The Daily Beast after dropping the case in 2019.

"There's going to be an accumulating number of these legal actions that are going to squeeze him more and more," Eisen said. "It will be more intense if he's not in the office and does not have the excuses of the presidency to block things. But in any event, he's facing accountability."

Here are nine ongoing lawsuits Trump still has to deal with.

Trump faces a defamation lawsuit from Summer Zervos, a contestant on "The Apprentice."

Zervos, a contestant during the 2005 season of Trump's reality-TV show, sued Trump in 2017, accusing him of defaming her by denying her allegations that he sexually assaulted her in 2007.

In 2019, Zervos said she had evidence, including calendar entries and emails, to back up her allegations.

Trump was given a deadline to provide a deposition before the end of January, but the case has been paused.

The attorney general in Washington, DC, alleged that the Trump Organization knowingly overcharged for services at the president's hotel.

In September, a federal judge in Washington, DC, denied Trump's request to dismiss a lawsuit alleging that the Trump Organization improperly used nonprofit funds to enrich Trump's businesses, NBC News reported. ....

(continued below)

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Oct 2020
in News
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This is a list of JimNastics's Blogs. Click here for JimNastics's Blog List

JimNastics Blog (1,965)

The Horrendous Trump "so-called" presidency still in the news and not for good things

Senior al-Qaida leader killed by US military drone strike

Another Trump Russian connection Convicted !

Hillary's comment about 1/2 of Trump supporters being a "basket of deplorables" wasn't harsh enough

Terrific responses by Adam Schiff on 'Face The Nation' today. Clearly telling it, like it is.

Recent Admission by Republicans about other Republicans both Shocking and Accurate....

Newest Nature photos + 1

Well, it's over.

'There's Something Very Fishy About This Photo'

Heard moments ago on 'Funny You Ahould Ask'

Look ! Up in the sky ! It's......

9 Lawsuits Trump will be slammed with as soon as he leaves office

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