“Prosecutors in Donald Trump's criminal hush money case in New York plan to use the former president's own words -- including quotes from books like "Trump: The Art of the Deal" -- against him at trial next month” abcnews.go.com/amp/US/prosecu… “The list of statements came from Trump books including "Trump: The Art of The Deal," his memoir that reached No. 1 on the New York Times best seller list, as well as "Think Like a Billionaire," "How to Get Rich," "Think Big and Kick Ass," and "Great Again."

Where’s Merrick Garland?

1/ “The House Ethics Committee has issued a subpoena for the testimony of a former girlfriend of Rep. Matt Gaetz as part of the panel's ongoing investigation into the Florida Republican.” search.app/zB4iVPACm3xZj5… 2/ “The committee is demanding Gaetz's ex-girlfriend appear before the committee over a Zoom call on Feb. 29, according to a letter sent to the woman's lawyer.”

1/ “On Oct. 15, 2020, in a rare display of humility, Donald Trump told a campaign rally in Greenville, N.C., that he was not as famous as Jesus Christ.” nytimes.com/2024/01/17/opi… 2/ “Somebody said to me the other day, ‘You’re the most famous person in the world, by far.’ I said, ‘No, I’m not.’ They said, ‘Yes, you are.’ I said, ‘No.’ They said, ‘Who’s more famous?’ I said, ‘Jesus Christ.’”

1/ “Israel has the worst leader in its history, maybe in all of Jewish history — who has no will or ability to produce such an initiative.” nytimes.com/2023/11/09/opi… 2/ “Worse, I am stunned at the degree to which that leader, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, continues to put the interests of holding on to the support of his far-right base — and pre-emptively blaming Israel’s security and intelligence services for the war. . .”

And if I don’t want a “Christian government?”

1/ “the most powerful man in Congress is someone who has said that “every Christian should seek to bring industry, government and society as a whole under the sway of the principles of righteousness.” washingtonpost.com/opinions/2023/… 2/ “For Johnson, those principles include protecting not just fertilized eggs and children at risk of learning that gay people exist but also guns. Especially guns.”

Frightening. It’s as if we’re living in The Handmaid’s Tale.

1/ “Speaker Johnson really does provide a near-perfect example of all the different elements of Christian nationalism,” said Andrew Whitehead, a sociologist at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis.” 2/ “He said those included insisting on traditionalist family structures, “being comfortable with authoritarian social control and doing away with democratic values.”

He favors Nazis, Trumpers, and hate. Perhaps that’s why Twitter is failing?

1/ “Musk has rapidly re-engineered who has a voice on a service that used to be the hub of real-time news and global debate.” washingtonpost.com/technology/202… 2/ “ A site that fueled social movements such as the Arab Spring, Black Lives Matter and #MeToo has veered noticeably rightward under Musk, especially in the United States, say organizers from across the political spectrum.”

1/ Trump is currently being booked into the Fulton County Jail.

After he leaves, we can fully expect a typical Trumpian tirade of bravado.

Don’t believe it. 2/ I’m a criminal defense attorney and I’ve represented thousands of people accused of crime.

ALL of them are scared, whether they admit it or not.

It starts with the booking itself, designed perhaps intentionally to be dehumanizing.

1/ “As for seeking to weaponize the Justice Department, there was ample evidence that Mr. Trump sought to do just that while in office.” nytimes.com/2023/06/10/us/… 2/ A Republican accusation is really a confession.

“He openly and aggressively pushed his attorneys general to prosecute his perceived enemies and drop cases against his friends and allies, making no pretense that he was seeking equal and independent justice.”

Prepare for these GOP talking points. I’m already seeing them on Twitter.

1/ “Last week, as the former president’s allies saw reports that Mr. Smith was most likely nearing the end of his investigation. . .” nytimes.com/2023/06/09/us/… 2/ “. . .strategists working with Mr. Trump’s super PAC began drafting a television advertisement to coincide with the anticipated federal indictment.”

Disgusting pigs.
The money, always the money.

“His political advisers had been preparing for weeks to exploit the indictment for full effect. His team has come to view law enforcement actions against him as a core part of its fund-raising strategy” nytimes.com/2023/06/09/us/… “Online fund-raising — which has long been the lifeblood of Mr. Trump’s political operation because high-end Republican donors largely shun him — has dried up for all Republican candidates over the past several years, including Mr. Trump.”

#EverythingTrumpTouchesDies

1/ “But no single editorial decision was more contentious than Mr. Licht’s decision to broadcast a live town hall forum with Mr. Trump last month.” nytimes.com/2023/06/07/bus… 2/ “The event proved chaotic: Mr. Trump unleashed a torrent of falsehoods — and even mocked the moderator, Ms. Collins, as a “nasty woman” — to cheers from the studio audience, which was organized by local Republican and civic groups.”

1/ “Do not countenance the ‘big lie.’

No matter how many times Trump says it, it is the media’s job to correct and rebut the lie that Trump won” washingtonpost.com/opinions/2023/… “It behooves the press to remind voters repeatedly: There was never evidence of fraud sufficient to change the result, as Trump’s closest aides testified that they told him and recounts and audits showed.”

“Despite vows from the leaders of the PGA Tour that they would not permit their game to be sullied, men’s professional golf is now in thrall to Saudi Arabia. . .” nytimes.com/2023/06/07/spo… “. . .a nation engaged in a full-tilt attempt to distract the public from the abuse of its citizens through the glitz, gloss and worldwide appeal of sports.”

1/ Biden crushes Trump!

“President Biden would expand his 2020 margin of victory over former President Donald Trump if a rematch were held today, according to a new poll” nypost.com/2023/05/17/bid… 2/ “The WPA Intelligence survey of 1,571 registered voters found Biden, 80, leading 76-year-old Trump 47% to 40%. By comparison, Biden defeated Trump by 4.5 percentage points in the 2020 popular vote. . .”

This was a brilliant idea - and it worked! Will Republicans thank Biden?

1/ “Data . . . suggest Moscow’s revenues have dropped, forcing budget choices that administration officials say could be starting to hamper its war effort.” nytimes.com/2023/05/18/bus… 2/ “Drivers in America and elsewhere are paying far less at the gasoline pump than some analysts feared.”

1/ “No recitation of the number of Americans killed by guns — men, women, and increasingly, children — can carry the emotional power of hearing that three 9-year-olds were just slaughtered in their school, the latest in a long line of such horrors.” washingtonpost.com/opinions/2023/… 2/ “The result for all of us is terror: a state of heightened alertness when we’re out in public, a fear that even if we don’t think about it for a time never quite goes away.”

Prized for its lethality, it was made for the military and was shunned by the public.

1/ But “the U.S. firearms industry came to embrace the gun’s political and cultural significance as a marketing advantage as it grasped for new revenue.” washingtonpost.com/nation/interac… 2/ “The shift began after the 2004 expiration of a federal assault weapons ban that had blocked the sales of many semiautomatic rifles.”

Oh. My. God.

1/ “The legislation would create a whole new crime — dubbed “abortion trafficking” — which is defined in the bill as an “adult who, with the intent to conceal an abortion from the parents or guardian of a pregnant, unemancipated minor. . .” huffpost.com/entry/idaho-ab… 2/ “. . . either procures an abortion … or obtains an abortion-inducing drug” for the minor. “Recruiting, harboring, or transporting the pregnant minor within this state commits the crime of abortion trafficking,” the legislation adds.”

BREAKING (Donald Trump:)

“A majority of Americans (56%) think the investigations into former President Donald Trump are fair. 41%, though, consider the probes to be a “witch hunt.” maristpoll.marist.edu/polls/donald-t… “Most Americans perceive Trump has engaged in improper behavior. A plurality of Americans (46%) think he has done something illegal, and an additional 29% consider Trump to have done something unethical but not illegal. Only 23% of Americans say Trump has done nothing wrong.”

1/ “Rural hospitals are struggling all over the nation because of population declines, soaring labor costs and a long-term shift toward outpatient care.” nytimes.com/2023/03/28/us/… 2/ “But those problems have been magnified by a political choice in Mississippi and nine other states, all with Republican-controlled legislatures.”