Last Call For Our Little White Supremacist Domestic Terrorism Problem, Con't

I've talked about Trump White House legal adviser John Eastman before as the author of Trump's "legal strategy" to steal the Oval Office from Joe Biden. Eastman is increasingly looking like the key to Trump's January 6th conspiracy on the White House side, and two big stories today back that up. First, January 6th Committee investigators are taking a very close look at Eastman's relationship with Sen. Ted Cruz and his role in trying to overthrow the election.

An examination by The Washington Post of Cruz’s actions between Election Day and Jan. 6, 2021, shows just how deeply he was involved, working directly with Trump to concoct a plan that came closer than widely realized to keeping him in power. As Cruz went to extraordinary lengths to court Trump’s base and lay the groundwork for his own potential 2024 presidential bid, he also alienated close allies and longtime friends who accused him of abandoning his principles.

Now, Cruz’s efforts are of interest to the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol, in particular whether Cruz was in contact with Trump lawyer John Eastman, a conservative attorney who has been his friend for decades and who wrote key legal memos aimed at denying Biden’s victory.

As Eastman outlined a scenario in which Vice President Mike Pence could deny certifying Biden’s election, Cruz crafted a complementary plan in the Senate. He proposed objecting to the results in six swing states and delaying accepting the electoral college results on Jan. 6 in favor of a 10-day “audit” — thus potentially enabling GOP state legislatures to overturn the result. Ten other senators backed his proposal, which Cruz continued to advocate on the day rioters attacked the Capitol.

The committee’s interest in Cruz is notable as investigators zero in on how closely Trump’s allies coordinated with members of Congress in the attempt to block or delay certifying Biden’s victory. If Cruz’s plan worked, it could have created enough chaos for Trump to remain in power.

“It was a very dangerous proposal, and, you know, could very easily have put us into territory where we got to the inauguration and there was not a president,” Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.), a Jan. 6 committee member, said earlier this year on the podcast “Honestly.” “And I think that Senator Cruz knew exactly what he was doing. I think that Senator Cruz is somebody who knows what the Constitution calls for, knows what his duties and obligations are, and was willing, frankly, to set that aside.”

The Jan. 6 committee’s investigators have recently focused on Eastman’s efforts to pressure Pence to declare Trump the winner, but there has been little public notice that Cruz and Eastman have known each other since they clerked together 27 years ago for then-U.S. Appeals Court Judge J. Michael Luttig. Cruz’s proposal ran on a parallel track to Eastman’s memos.

Luttig told The Post that he believes that Cruz — who once said that Luttig was “like a father to me” — played a paramount role in the events leading to Jan. 6.

“Once Ted Cruz promised to object, January 6 was all but foreordained, because Cruz was the most influential figure in the Congress willing to force a vote on Trump’s claim that the election was stolen,” Luttig said in a statement to The Post. “He was also the most knowledgeable of the intricacies of both the Electoral Count Act and the Constitution, and the ways to exploit the two.”

 

Ted Cruz was the point man in the Senate to execute the Eastman Memo plan once Mike Pence scuttled the elector vote count. He was part and parcel of the conspiracy along with Eastman, and there's no reason he should still be in the Senate, let alone walking around as a free man and not a seditious felon. 

But Eastman's conspiracy problems just got a lot worse for Team Trump.

A federal judge said Monday that former President Donald Trump and right-wing attorney John Eastman may have been planning a crime as they sought to disrupt the January 6 congressional certification of the presidential election. 

"Based on the evidence, the Court finds it more likely than not that President Trump corruptly attempted to obstruct the Joint Session of Congress on January 6, 2021," Judge David Carter wrote Monday. 

Carter, a federal judge in California, ordered Eastman to turn over 101 emails from around January 6, 2021, that he has tried to keep secret from the House select committee investigating the US Capitol attack. 

Carter's reasoning is a startling acknowledgment by a federal court that Trump's interest in overturning the election could be considered criminal. 

Trump has not been charged with any crime nor has Eastman. 

"The illegality of the plan was obvious," Carter writes. "Our nation was founded on the peaceful transition of power, epitomized by George Washington laying down his sword to make way for democratic elections. Ignoring this history, President Trump vigorously campaigned for the Vice President to single-handedly determine the results of the 2020 election ... Every American -- and certainly the President of the United States -- knows that in a democracy, leaders are elected, not installed."

Add more to the evidence against Team Trump...and Ted Cruz.

Rand-Dumb Roadblocks

The House overwhelmingly passed legislation to remove Russia from Most Favored Nation trade status, but in the Senate, Rand Paul is doing everything to block it, and as usual, it's human rights language in the bill that Paul is objecting to, in this case, applying Magnitsky Act reauthorization to Moscow, something Paul has been trying to scuttle for a long time now.

The original Magnitsky bill targeted “gross” violations of human rights. The language in the Russia trade bill would expand that to target “serious” human rights violations, codifying language used in a Trump-era executive order.

But Paul wants language put into the bill that would reinsert “gross” violation of human rights and define that as dealing with torture, cruel and inhumane treatment and indefinite detention, though Paul said he was open to including other actions in the definition.

Paul argued that language as written in the House-passed could be used to sanction individuals who deny access to abortions, a concern echoed by a group of House Republicans.

“It has to be in the body of it. I’m not voting on it. It has to be in the body” of the bill, Paul said about the change.

Senate leadership tried to offer him a vote on his proposal if he would, in exchange, agree to speed up both the trade bill and the energy ban. Schumer said that Paul “appears to be the lone senator demanding this” and that he thought all other 99 senators would approve the deal to let the trade and energy package move quickly.

"The question before Sen. Paul is … is he going to tank PNTR because his interpretation is not forced into his bill? Can Sen. Paul take yes for an answer?" Schumer asked.

Paul, however, rejected that offer.

Paul’s demand has infuriated senators who worked on the sanctions language.

Sen. Ben Cardin (D-Md.) argued that Paul was trying to relitigate a fight that he had already had, and lost, in the Foreign Relations Committee. Cardin also argued that Paul’s amendment would undercut sanction efforts.

“The substance of it is that it would not allow us to do what we need to do in regards to Mr. Putin and Russia,” Cardin added.

Senate leadership has started the process of putting both bills on the calendar, which will make them available for a vote. But the Senate is also facing a time crunch that absent a deal with Paul could delay the Russia bills for weeks.

 

Or, you know, never. Paul has blocked legislation for years in some cases, winning concessions. Other times, he has folded. We'll see what happens here, but the bigger question is why would Rand Paul care about Russia denying abortions? 

I mean, it's not like he's a white supremacist misogynist who wants more "correct" white babies to be born, right?

Oh, wait.

The House(s) That The Queen City Built

Mayor Aftab Pureval is getting things done in Cincinnati, finally. After being stalled out for almost four years under former Mayor John Cranley, the city's Affordable Housing Trust Fund is finally getting some attention, and millions in much needed cash.

The group of people putting together a comprehensive plan for housing in Cincinnati met for the first time Friday, nearly a year after Council established its mission.

The Housing Advisory Board will recommend criteria for how to spend the city's Affordable Housing Trust Fund. The fund was established in 2018 and has never been used for its intended purpose: to incentivize the preservation and production of affordable housing through loans and grants.

The fund itself will be managed by the nonprofit Cincinnati Development Fund; one of the board's first tasks will be to determine the parameters of that partnership.

"Our primary function in this relationship is to add back-office capacity, strength of our team who is engaged and embedded in the community, and to be able to maintain regulatory compliance and reporting requirements that the city needs," said CDF President Joe Huber. "This board was specifically chosen by the city because of their expertise and what they brought to affordable housing over the years."

The board will also consider wider issues of affordability, including advising the city manager's office on a review of zoning policy and recommended reforms.

The board consists of 13 people, including former Cincinnati Mayor Roxanne Qualls, who is serving as chair. Other members include representatives from CMHA, The Port, the Cincinnati USA Regional Chamber, LISC Greater Cincinnati, and developers (see a full list of members at the end of this article).

Council Member and Board Member Reggie Harris says one of their first tasks is to define the goals.

"If the housing advisory board is successful, and the trust is working well, what does the city look like?" Harris said.

Recent efforts to bulk up the fund include Mayor Aftab Pureval's plan to add $5 million from federal stimulus and establish an annual revenue source using year-end carryover funds.

An outline provided by city staff Friday shows a breakdown of the $57 million available for distribution in the near future:

• Section 108 loan: $34 million (a revolving loan fund using federal HUD dollars)
• Fund 439 and related capital: $3 million
• Private investments: $12 million
• American Rescue Plan: $5 million
• CDF Leverage: $3 million

This $57 million does not include what was already in the fund (about $2 million). It also seemingly doesn't include the $6.4 million allocated from the American Rescue Plan last year, which is separate from the $5 million in ARP approved this month).

Several board members asked for clarification on how much money is in the Affordable Housing Trust Fund (and related funds) and which parts of that money fall under the advisory board's jurisdiction.

The board will meet monthly. The Department of Community and Economic Development plans to publish meeting minutes on a forthcoming web page.

 

Again, Mayor Cranley had years to get this project going, and he did nothing. Pureval's been in office for a few months, and already affordable housing is a priority. 

I like the look, Cincy.

Last Call For Ukraine In The Membrane, Con't

 A land-for-peace deal in Ukraine may not be that far off, or it could be in the next solar system, depending on which Ukrainian official you talk to.

Ukraine is willing to become neutral and compromise over the status of the eastern Donbass region as part of a peace deal, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Sunday, even as another top Ukrainian official accused Russia of aiming to carve the country in two.

Zelenskiy took his message directly to Russian journalists in a video call that the Kremlin pre-emptively warned Russian media not to report, saying any agreement must be guaranteed by third parties and put to a referendum. read more

"Security guarantees and neutrality, non-nuclear status of our state. We are ready to go for it," he said, speaking in Russian.

But even as Turkey is set to host talks this week, Ukraine's head of military intelligence, Kyrylo Budanov, said Russian President Vladimir Putin was aiming to seize the eastern part of Ukraine.

"In fact, it is an attempt to create North and South Korea in Ukraine," he said, referring to the division of Korea after World War Two. Zelenskiy has urged the West to give Ukraine tanks, planes and missiles to help fend off Russian forces.

In a call with Putin on Sunday, Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan agreed to hold talks this week in Istanbul and called for a ceasefire and better humanitarian conditions, his office said. Ukrainian and Russian negotiators confirmed that in-person talks would take place. read more

Top American officials sought on Sunday to clarify that the United States does not have a policy of regime change in Russia, after President Joe Biden said at the end of a speech in Poland on Saturday that Putin "cannot remain in power".

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Biden had simply meant Putin could not be "empowered to wage war" against Ukraine or anywhere else. read more

After more than four weeks of conflict, Russia has failed to seize any major Ukrainian city and signalled on Friday it was scaling back its ambitions to focus on securing the Donbass region, where Russian-backed separatists have been fighting the Ukrainian army for the past eight years.

 

Ukraine's a mess, and back stateside, the American people are much more worried about paying the bills than pursuing peace in Ukraine.

Amid Europe’s largest land war since World War II, 7 in 10 Americans expressed low confidence in President Joe Biden’s ability to deal with Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in a new NBC News poll, and 8 in 10 voiced worry that the war will increase gas prices and possibly involve nuclear weapons.

And during the nation’s largest inflation spike in 40 years, overwhelming majorities said they believe the country is headed in the wrong direction and disapproved of the president’s handling of the economy.

Those are some of the major findings of the new national NBC News poll, which found that Biden’s overall job approval rating had declined to 40 percent, the lowest level of his presidency. The survey also found that Republicans enjoyed a 2-point lead in answer to which party should control Congress ahead of November’s midterm elections.

“What this poll says is that President Biden and Democrats are headed for a catastrophic election,” said Republican pollster Bill McInturff of Public Opinions Strategy, who conducted this survey with Democratic pollster Jeff Horwitt of Hart Research Associates.

The poll was conducted between March 18-22, before the president's overseas trip, where he was to meet with NATO allies, visit with U.S. troops in Poland and deliver a major speech on Russia's war in Ukraine.

 

It's going to take some time for Fed measures to get inflation under control. It's time that Biden and the Democrats don't have, and Republicans continue to block Biden's Build Back Better plan.

 

Unfortunately, Sen. Joe Manchin continues to play games with the bill as well. One of those things has to change in the next few months, or November's going to get ugly.

 

If Ukraine takes a major turn for the worse and Putin decides he's going to go out with a bang, well, all bets are off too.

 

Robin Hood Meets The Merry Manchin

As much as I would love to see America's multi-millionaires and billionaires have to pay, this will never happen in your lifetime.

 

The White House will unveil a new minimum tax targeting billionaires as part of its 2023 budget Monday, proposing a tax on the richest 700 Americans for the first time, according to five people with knowledge of the matter and an administration document obtained by The Washington Post.

The “Billionaire Minimum Income Tax” plan under President Biden would establish a 20 percent minimum tax rate on all American households worth more than $100 million, the document says. The majority of new revenue raised by the tax would come from billionaires.

Biden has long favored higher taxes on the wealthiest Americans, but the White House has not introduced a tax plan specifically designed to hit billionaires until now. The plan comes amid signs that the administration’s negotiations with Sen. Joe Manchin III (D-W.Va.) over stalled White House economic proposal may be reviving. But all previous efforts to tax billionaires have failed amid major political head winds, and it is unclear if Manchin and Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.) will go along with the plan.

Many billionaires can pay far lower tax rates than average Americans because the federal government does not tax the increase in the value of their stock holdings until those assets are sold. Billionaires are able to borrow against their accumulated gains without triggering taxes on capital gains, enabling huge accumulations of wealth to go virtually untaxed by the federal government.

The White House Office of Management and Budget and Council of Economic Advisers estimated this fall that 400 billionaire families paid an average federal tax rate of just over 8 percent of their income between 2010 and 2018. That rate is lower than the rate paid by millions of Americans.

The White House plan would mandate billionaires to pay a tax rate of at least 20 percent on their full income, or the combination of traditional forms of wage income and whatever they may have made in unrealized gains, such as higher stock prices.

Billionaires paying a rate below that will have to pay the difference between what they pay now and the 20 percent rate. Billionaires already paying more than 20 percent would not owe additional taxes. The taxes paid toward the minimum tax would count toward whatever billionaires owe once they have to pay ordinary capital gains taxes.

“The Billionaire Minimum Income Tax will ensure that the very wealthiest Americans pay a tax rate of at least 20 percent on their full income,” the White House document says. “This minimum tax would make sure that the wealthiest Americans no longer pay a tax rate lower than teachers and firefighters.”

White House officials estimate the tax would raise roughly $360 billion in new revenue over the next 10 years if enacted, according to the document. The proposal was developed by Biden aides at the Office of Management and Budget, the Treasury Department and the White House National Economic Council.

The White House is expected to release a budget Monday that includes increases in defense and nondefense spending, with a focus on mental health, child care, other social programs, and reducing the deficit, two other people familiar with the matter said. These people, like the others, spoke on the condition of anonymity to reflect planning not yet made public.

Biden’s budget proposal will also cut the federal deficit by more than $1 trillion over the next decade, according to a White House document. News of the deficit reduction was first reported by the Associated Press.

 

Manchin will have killed this plan on the Sunday shows by next weekend at the latest. 

 

I don't even think the Democrats have the votes to pass something like this in the House, let alone get the 50 votes needed for budget reconciliation, if the Senate Parliamentarian even allowed it, let alone the Roberts Court declaring it a unconstitutional bill of attainder., let alone the reality of the wealthiest 700 Americans simply buying the votes they need to kill this plan.

It's cute, but in this case, Robin Hood Biden is facing down a storm of arrows fired by his own Merry Men, with longbows, crossbows, and probably a few ballistas paid for by Prince John.

Sunday Long Read: The War Correspondent

 This week's Sunday Long Read comes to us from the Associated Press and their team in Maripol, Ukraine. The true story of how Mstyslav Chernov and his colleague, photographer Evgeniy Maloletka got out of the city after three weeks of covering the siege from the inside is a hell of a read.

The Russians were hunting us down. They had a list of names, including ours, and they were closing in.

We were the only international journalists left in the Ukrainian city of Mariupol, and we had been documenting its siege by Russian troops for more than two weeks. We were reporting inside the hospital when gunmen began stalking the corridors. Surgeons gave us white scrubs to wear as camouflage.

Suddenly at dawn, a dozen soldiers burst in: “Where are the journalists, for fuck’s sake?”

I looked at their armbands, blue for Ukraine, and tried to calculate the odds that they were Russians in disguise. I stepped forward to identify myself. “We’re here to get you out,” they said.

The walls of the surgery shook from artillery and machine gun fire outside, and it seemed safer to stay inside. But the Ukrainian soldiers were under orders to take us with them.

We ran into the street, abandoning the doctors who had sheltered us, the pregnant women who had been shelled and the people who slept in the hallways because they had nowhere else to go. I felt terrible leaving them all behind.

Nine minutes, maybe 10, an eternity through roads and bombed-out apartment buildings. As shells crashed nearby, we dropped to the ground. Time was measured from one shell to the next, our bodies tense and breath held. Shockwave after shockwave jolted my chest, and my hands went cold.

We reached an entryway, and armored cars whisked us to a darkened basement. Only then did we learn from a policeman why the Ukrainians had risked the lives of soldiers to extract us from the hospital.

“If they catch you, they will get you on camera and they will make you say that everything you filmed is a lie,” he said. “All your efforts and everything you have done in Mariupol will be in vain.”

 The officer, who had once begged us to show the world his dying city, now pleaded with us to go. He nudged us toward the thousands of battered cars preparing to leave Mariupol.

It was March 15. We had no idea if we would make it out alive.

 

A warning, some of the photos and the account itself may be disturbing, but then again war is not a pretty thing, and we're only weeks into the first major European war of my lifetime, if not a much larger one in the future.

The GOP Grift Actually Stopped For Once

 Nebraska Congressman and now convicted felon Jeff Fortenberry is resigning from the House.

 

Republican U.S. Rep. Jeff Fortenberry of Nebraska on Saturday resigned from office after a California jury convicted him of lying to federal authorities about an illegal campaign donation from a foreign national.

In a letter to the House, Fortenberry said he was resigning from Congress, effective March 31.

Fortenberry’s announcement followed concerted pressure from political leaders in Nebraska and Washington for him to step down. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy on Friday urged Fortenberry to resign. Nebraska Republican Gov. Pete Ricketts said Fortenberry should “do the right thing for his constituents” and leave the office he has held since 2005.

Fortenberry’s withdrawal from the primary leaves state Sen. Mike Flood as the likely GOP nominee. The former speaker of the Nebraska Legislature, who has won endorsements from Ricketts and former Gov. Dave Heineman, has a strong advantage in the Republican-leaning 1st Congressional District. State Sen. Patty Pansing Brooks, a Democrat from Lincoln, is also running for the seat.

Pansing Brooks said Fortenberry’s conviction is a “wake-up call” that the district needs a change.

 

We'll see if Brooks can convince voters that Mike Flood is as bad or worse than Fortenberry, but I suspect Fortenberry's going to have much bigger problems come June and his sentencing hearing.

 

Of course, this means I was extremely wrong about Fortenberry remaining in office in a Trump-like stand that would last months, and I don't honestly know why the party ejected Fortenberry for his felony conviction, but continues to tolerate racists like Marjorie Taylor Greene and Paul Gosar.

 

Oh, wait, we all know why.

 

 

The Nameless Fox In The Henhouse

It was fine for Wyoming GOP Rep. Liz Cheney to risk her seat by joining the January 6th House Committee, but people seem to forget that Cheney's role as co-chair is to take swings at Trump-era Republicans so that the GOP can get back to being evil Dubya-era Republicans again, and nothing demonstrates this more than her reluctance to drag Ginni Thomas into the legal spotlight.

 

Buried in the thousands of documents that Mark Meadows, former President Donald J. Trump’s final White House chief of staff, turned over late last year to the House committee examining the Jan. 6 attack were text messages that presented the panel with a political land mine: what to do about Virginia Thomas, the wife of Justice Clarence Thomas.

The messages showed that Ms. Thomas relentlessly urged Mr. Meadows to overturn the 2020 presidential election, which she called a “heist,” and indicated that she reached out to Jared Kushner, the president’s son-in-law, about Mr. Trump’s legal efforts to keep power. She even suggested the lawyer who should be put in charge of that effort.

The public disclosure of the messages on Thursday focused new attention on one avenue of the investigation and risked creating a rare rift within the committee about how aggressively to pursue it, including whether to seek testimony from Ms. Thomas, who goes by Ginni.

In the Thomases, the committee is up against a couple that has deep networks of support across the conservative movement and Washington, including inside the committee. The panel’s Republican vice chairwoman, Representative Liz Cheney of Wyoming, has led the charge in holding Mr. Trump to account for his efforts to overturn the election, but has wanted to avoid any aggressive effort that, in her view, could unfairly target Justice Thomas, the senior member of the Supreme Court.

So although a debate has broken out inside the committee about summoning Ms. Thomas to testify, the panel at this point has no plans to do so, leaving some Democrats frustrated. That could change, however: On Friday, despite the potential for political backlash, Ms. Cheney indicated she has no objection to the panel asking Ms. Thomas for a voluntary interview.

A New York Times Magazine investigation last month examined the political and personal history of Ms. Thomas and her husband. That included her role in efforts to overturn the election from her perch on the nine-member board of CNP Action, a conservative group that helped advance the “Stop the Steal” movement, and in mediating between feuding factions of organizers “so that there wouldn’t be any division around Jan. 6,” as one organizer put it.

During that period, the Supreme Court was considering a number of cases related to the election, with Justice Thomas taking positions at times sympathetic to Mr. Trump’s efforts to challenge the outcome.

This month, Ms. Thomas acknowledged attending the rally that preceded the violence in an interview with a conservative news outlet, but otherwise downplayed her role. Then came disclosure of the texts to Mr. Meadows, the contents of which were earlier reported by The Washington Post and CBS News.

If the committee does not summon Ms. Thomas, some legal analysts said, it runs the risk of appearing to have a double standard. The panel has taken an aggressive posture toward many other potential witnesses, issuing subpoenas for bank and phone records of both high-ranking allies of the former president and low-level aides with only a tangential connection to the events of Jan. 6.

“I think it would be a dereliction not to bring her in and talk to her,” said Kimberly Wehle, a University of Baltimore law professor who has closely tracked the committee’s work. “It certainly is inconsistent with their neutral, ‘find the facts where they go’ type of approach to this.”

 

Cheney will never allow Ginni Thomas to be subpoenaed, and expecting Thomas to "voluntarily" do anything to help the January 6th Committee is a joke. If you want to know why Cheney accepted the role on the committee, it was in case the investigation turned up real evidence against somebody the GOP needs post-Trump, in this case, the wife of their most reliably partisan Supreme Court justice.

 

Mark this one down, because if it turns out this is when the committee loses its credibility, and America loses its democracy., you were warned.

Last Call For Culture Warriors, Con't

Republicans continue to target trans folks in women's sports, with several states adding to the ridiculous pain this week. Utah GOP Gov. Spencer Cox's veto of a ban on trans folk in women's sports was meaningless as Republican bigots were able to override his veto. 

GOP lawmakers in Utah pushed through a ban on transgender youth athletes playing on girls teams Friday, overriding a veto and joining 11 other states with similar laws amid a nationwide culture war.

A veto letter from Gov. Spencer Cox drew national attention with a poignant argument that such laws target vulnerable transgender kids already at high suicide risk.

Business leaders also sounded the alarm that the ban could have a multimillion-dollar economic impact on Utah, including the possible loss of the NBA All-Star Game next year. The Utah Jazz called the ban “discriminatory legislation” and opposed it.

Before the veto, the ban received support from a majority of Utah lawmakers, but fell short of the two-thirds needed to override it. Its sponsors on Friday flipped 10 Republicans in the House and five in the Senate who had previously voted against the proposal.

Cox was the second GOP governor this week to overrule lawmakers on a sports-participation ban, but the proposal won support from a vocal conservative base that has particular sway in Utah’s state primary season. Even with those contests looming, however, some Republicans stood with Cox to reject the ban.

“I cannot support this bill. I cannot support the veto override and if it costs me my seat so be it. I will do the right thing, as I always do,” said Republican Sen. Daniel Thatcher.

With the override of Cox’s veto, a dozen states have some sort of ban on transgender kids in school sports. Utah’s law takes effect July 1.

Not long ago efforts to regulate transgender kids’ participation in sports failed to gain traction in statehouses, but in the past two years groups like the American Principles Project began a well-coordinated effort to promote the legislation throughout the country. Since last year, bans have been introduced in at least 25 states, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. This week, lawmakers in Arizona and Oklahoma passed bans.

“You start these fights and inject them into politics,” said Terry Schilling, president of the American Principles Project. “You pass them in a few states and it starts to take on a life of its own and becomes organic. We helped start this fight and we’re helping carry it through, but a lot of this is coming from the local level.”

Leaders in the deeply conservative Utah say they need the law to protect women’s sports. The lawmakers argue that more transgender athletes with possible physical advantages could eventually dominate the field and change the nature of women’s sports without legal intervention.

Utah has only one transgender girl playing in K-12 sports who would be affected by the ban. There have been no allegations of any of the four transgender youth athletes in Utah having competitive advantages.

 

Can't wait until the tall Black person ban in school basketball. It puts short white kids at a competitive disadvantage that eventually could lead to tall Black kids dominating the sport.

 

Oh wait.

 

Hell, that's probably coming next once the Supreme Court strikes down most equal rights laws.  And then we'll be targeting a new bunch of kids for not being white, straight, and Christian.

Good Ol' Rotten Top, Rotten Top Tennessee

Rotten at the top, Tennessee.

 

Tennessee House Speaker Cameron Sexton has been subpoenaed to appear before a federal grand jury as part of an ongoing FBI investigation into Capitol Hill corruption.

Legislative sources had suggested they believed that as many as 10-12 other House Republicans were also served Tuesday with grand jury subpoenas, although NewsChannel 5 Investigates has not been able to confirm that number.

Connie Ridley, director of legislative administration, confirmed Wednesday that she received a subpoena to testify, as did Rep. Bud Hulsey, R-Kingsport. Hulsey said he had not been able to determine why federal prosecutors might be interested in his testimony.

“We have been fully cooperating with the federal authorities since I became speaker in 2019," Sexton said in a statement, confirming his own grand jury subpoena.

"It is not unexpected that I and other members would be called to appear before a grand jury to provide factual statements as part of this ongoing investigation.”

A spokesperson for Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee told NewsChannel 5 Investigates that "no one from the governor's office has been subpoenaed."

This dramatic development follows the recent guilty plea of now-former Rep. Robin Smith, R-Hixson, to federal wire fraud charges relating to a shadowy company that provided mailing services to Republican lawmakers, using both campaign money and taxpayer funding.

As part of her plea, Smith admitted that she and former House Speaker Glen Casada, R-Franklin, received kickbacks from that company, Phoenix Solutions, in exchange for using their positions to steer business to that company.

Phoenix Solutions, according to federal prosecutors, was really controlled by former Casada aide Cade Cothren.

Smith's plea bargain required her to assist the FBI as it continues its investigation.

Sources had told NewsChannel 5 that it was expected that individuals who had contact with Smith and/or Casada regarding Phoenix Solutions would be subpoenaed.

 

Volunteer State Republicans making the case as to why they're the most corrupt GOP state legislature in America, along with Ohio, Florida and Texas.  Ohio Republicans got rid of Larry Householder and then all of them were reelected after the billion-dollar First Energy bribery mess, so it's probably not going to affect much in 2022 in Tennessee.  We'll see.

The GOP Grift Never Stops, Con't

Six months ago I noted that Nebraska Congressman Jeff Fortenberry had been caught up in the illegal donation scandal involving Lebanese-Nigerian Billionaire Gilbert Chagoury, and his straw donations to several Republicans in 2020. Fortenberry went to trial this week, and now the hammer has come down on Fortenberry, as a jury took all of two hours to ring him up on all three charges.

History hit Jeff Fortenberry with a devastating blow Thursday.

A federal jury deliberated less than two hours before convicting the nine-term Nebraska congressman on one count of concealing conduit campaign contributions and two counts of lying to federal agents.

Fortenberry, a 61-year-old Republican, is the highest-ranking elected official to be convicted of a felony in Nebraska history.

Fortenberry betrayed little emotion as the verdict was read. After the guilty verdict was read on the concealment charge, Fortenberry closed his eyes and kept them closed for at least a minute.

His youngest daughter dropped her head into her hands and heaved. His oldest daughter doubled over in the courtroom gallery, her boyfriend comforting her.

Celeste Fortenberry, who had testified earlier Thursday, remained mostly stoic. She comforted her daughters, then her husband, cupping his face with her hands and giving her husband of 26 years a kiss.

U.S. District Judge Stanley Blumenfeld Jr. set sentencing for June 28. The congressman faces up to five years in prison on each count, although he could also receive supervised release.

Ironically, he does not have to give up his congressional seat. Federal law requires members of Congress to give up their seats only for crimes that are tied to treason.

It is unclear whether Fortenberry’s campaign will continue. He faces a Republican challenger in the May primary: State Sen. Mike Flood. Two Democrats, including State Sen. Patty Pansing Brooks, are also vying for the seat.

Fortenberry’s staff, including his current chief of staff Andy Braner, sat outside a courtroom, stunned. Braner left the courthouse with his hands stuffed in his suit pockets.

Fortenberry exited the courtroom to a gaggle of about seven members of the Nebraska press corps.

“Thank you all for coming out here; this is important to Nebraska,” Fortenberry said. “We always thought it was going to be hard to get a fair process out here. This appeal starts immediately.”

Actually, any appeals typically would have to wait until after the June sentencing, although attorneys can ask for a new trial before then.

Fortenberry — the judge determined he was not a flight risk and allowed him to remain free pending sentencing — said his phone was buzzing off the hook. One of the texts: a note from one of his five daughters.

“She said ‘I love you Daddy, no matter what anyone else accuses you of,’” Fortenberry said. “Just remember so many other people do too.”

Asked if he would continue his campaign, Fortenberry said his family is going to sit down and evaluate next steps.

The jury of four men and eight women convicted the congressman after watching several tapes of him making incriminating statements.

The investigation ramped up when the FBI discovered that a Nigerian billionaire, Gilbert Chagoury, had been funneling cash into the campaigns of four Republican politicians: former presidential candidate Mitt Romney, current California Rep. Darrell Issa, former Nebraska Rep. Lee Terry and Fortenberry.

It is illegal for U.S. elected officials to accept foreign money.

 

You'd think that would be it, but as the article points out, being convicted of a felony is no guarantee of being expelled or even being voted out of office.  Remember, former Democratic Rep. Katie Hill resigned over a relationship with a staffer that happened before she was in office, and this guy is frankly going to get another term.

 

Why? Kevin McCarthy thinks he should resign, and nobody in the GOP cares about what he has to say anymore.

House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy on Friday suggested Rep. Jeff Fortenberry should resign from Congress, hours after the Nebraska Republican was convicted of lying to the FBI over illegal campaign contributions.

“I think when someone’s convicted, it’s time to resign, ” McCarthy told reporters at a press conference on the final day of the House GOP retreat.

“I am going to discuss with him today. I think he had his day in court. I think if he wants to appeal he can do that as a private citizen,” McCarthy added, noting that he had texted Fortenberry late last night after the conviction.

Minutes after McCarthy’s remarks, Speaker Nancy Pelosi issued a more declarative statement on the matter, calling on Fortenberry to immediately resign.

“Congressman Fortenberry’s conviction represents a breach of the public trust and confidence in his ability to serve. No one is above the law,” she said.

But that's how Republicans work, Nancy. Laws only apply to Democrats and their voters.

I fully expect Fortenberry to simply walk this off.

Last Call For Our Little White Supremacist Domestic Terrorism Problem, Con't

As the January 6th Committee continues to investigate the seditious conspiracy that led to the attack on the US Capitol, we learn today that Trump's former Chief of Staff Mark Meadows was in direct contact with Ginni Thomas, wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, with text messages supporting the Trump coup attempt to overthrow the Biden administration through both legal trickery and violence.

Virginia Thomas, a conservative activist married to Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, repeatedly pressed White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows to pursue unrelenting efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election in a series of urgent text exchanges in the critical weeks after the vote, according to copies of the messages obtained by The Washington Post and CBS News.

The messages – 29 in all – reveal an extraordinary pipeline between Virginia Thomas, who goes by Ginni, and President Donald Trump’s top aide during a period when Trump and his allies were vowing to go to the Supreme Court in an effort to negate the election results.

On Nov. 10, after news organizations had projected Joe Biden the winner based on state vote totals, Thomas wrote to Meadows: “Help This Great President stand firm, Mark!!!...You are the leader, with him, who is standing for America’s constitutional governance at the precipice. The majority knows Biden and the Left is attempting the greatest Heist of our History.”

When Meadows wrote to Thomas on Nov. 24, the White House chief of staff invoked God to describe the effort to overturn the election. “This is a fight of good versus evil,” Meadows wrote. “Evil always looks like the victor until the King of Kings triumphs. Do not grow weary in well doing. The fight continues. I have staked my career on it. Well at least my time in DC on it.”

Thomas replied: “Thank you!! Needed that! This plus a conversation with my best friend just now… I will try to keep holding on. America is worth it!”

It is unclear to whom Thomas was referring.

The messages, which do not directly reference Justice Thomas or the Supreme Court, show for the first time how Ginni Thomas used her access to Trump’s inner circle to promote and seek to guide the president’s strategy to overturn the election results – and how receptive and grateful Meadows said he was to receive her advice. Among Thomas’s stated goals in the messages was for lawyer Sidney Powell, who promoted incendiary and unsupported claims about the election, to be “the lead and the face” of Trump’s legal team.

The text messages were among 2,320 that Meadows provided to the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol. The content of messages between Thomas and Meadows – 21 sent by her, eight by him – has not previously been reported. They were reviewed by The Post and CBS News and then confirmed by five people who have seen the committee’s documents.

Meadows’s attorney, George Terwilliger III, confirmed the existence of the 29 messages between his client and Thomas. In reviewing the substance of the messages Wednesday, he said that neither he nor Meadows would comment on individual texts. But, Terwilliger added, “nothing about the text messages presents any legal issues.”

Ginni Thomas did not respond to multiple requests for comment made Thursday by email and phone. Justice Thomas, who has been hospitalized for treatment of an infection, did not respond to a request for comment made through the Supreme Court’s public information office.

It is unknown whether Ginni Thomas and Meadows exchanged additional messages between the election and Biden’s inauguration beyond the 29 received by the committee. Shortly after providing the 2,320 messages, Meadows ceased cooperating with the committee, arguing that any further engagement could violate Trump’s claims of executive privilege. Committee members and aides said they believe the messages may be just a portion of the pair’s total exchanges.

A spokesman for the committee declined to comment. The revelation of Thomas’s messages with Meadows comes three weeks after lawyers for the committee said in a court filing that the panel has “a good-faith basis for concluding that the President and members of his Campaign engaged in a criminal conspiracy to defraud the United States” and obstruct the counting of electoral votes by Congress.

 

 To recap, the wife of a sitting Supreme Court justice was smack in the middle of a seditious conspiracy to overthrow the duly elected President of the United States in Joe Biden, and wanted to help Donald Trump to illegally stay in office, telling Trump's Chief of Staff that Trump should not concede.

Surely if Trump's coup would have been heard by the Supreme Court, Justice Thomas would have been directly involved.

 

And let's remember, Thomas was the only SCOTUS Justice to vote to block the release of the January 6th evidence from the House Committee.  Not only did Thomas not recuse himself where his own wife was directly involved in evidence in question, he voted against its release.

A whole lot of people need to end up in prison, folks.  And a Supreme Court justice and his wife need to be among them.

Speaking of that, where is Clarence Thomas, anyway? Nobody seems to know.

The Supreme Court has remained silent on the condition of 73-year-old Justice Clarence Thomas since it announced his hospitalization earlier this week and said he was on the mend.

Thomas was admitted to Sibley Memorial Hospital in Washington, D.C. Friday night where he was being treated for an infection, the court said in a statement released Sunday.

The statement also said Thomas’ “symptoms are abating” after receiving antibiotics and he expected to “be released from the hospital in a day or two.”

But the court hasn’t provided an update since Sunday, and didn’t respond to multiple messages seeking comment Thursday.

 

Justice Thomas vanishing the same week his wife's text messages putting her square in the crossfire of the January 6th Committee end up being public?

 

There's way too many coincidences here.

Ridin' With Biden, Con't

Oliver Willis reports that this week's new jobless claim numbers are the lowest since 1969.

The Department of Labor announced on Thursday that initial unemployment claims for the week ending March 19 had decreased by 28,000 from the previous week to 187,000. That figure is the lowest number of applications since 1969, and lower than at any time during the four-year presidency of former President Donald Trump.

"This morning, we learned that new unemployment claims are now at a level not seen since 1969. America's historic economic recovery is strong. Americans are getting back to work," President Joe Biden wrote on Twitter in response to the news.

The number of unemployment claims was below the 210,000 predicted by a Bloomberg survey of economists. Additionally, continuing claims for state unemployment benefits numbered 1.35 million, the lowest that figure has been since the 1970s.

During Trump's time in office, Republicans in Congress praised his leadership for levels of unemployment claims that were above those reported under Biden.

In May 2018, House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy touted jobless claims for being at their "lowest level since 1973" and argued that the figure was evidence that the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act passed under Republicans in 2017 was working. That policy significantly added to the national deficit, overwhelmingly benefitted large corporations, and failed to prevent an economic downturn after the COVID-19 pandemic hit the country.

Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) praised the level of jobless claims under Trump in April 2019, while Rep. Jason Smith (R-MO) hailed "good economic news" in response to jobless claims reports in November 2017.

In contrast to their years of praise for Trump, as of this writing, Republican members of Congress were silent on the latest unemployment claims.

 

Republicans are silent because them admitting that Biden and the Federal Reserve are actually getting positive results out of this economy and not just inflation rampant corporate greed and profit taking would destroy the "worst economy in your lifetime" idiocy. Gallup finds that Americans believe the economy is as bad now as it was during the Trump Recession last year and a vast majority, 71%, expect the economy to get worse.

That's not the truth, but nobody seems to care about that.

The Case Against Trump

Last month, Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg all but killed the state's criminal investigation into Donald Trump, halting grand jury procedures and resulting in the two lead prosecutors to resign in protest. Bragg thought the case could not possibly be won because the evidence wasn't there.

 

This looks like a case where Bragg said that he wasn't going forward with the case after the previous DA, Cy Vance, empaneled a grand jury.  The lead prosecutors obviously wanted to continue. Whatever the conflict was, it's gotten so bad that both lead prosecutors have resigned.

This reeks. All of it. No wonder then that the NY state case against Trump has moved into a much more aggressive phase. Tish James's office would have been working with the Manhattan DA on this. Surely they got wind that Bragg was going to all but shut the federal case down.

 

I don't know who got to Bragg, or to Justice, but both lead prosecutors resigning means that can't be swept away easily.  There's a lot more to this story.

How much of it we'll ever know, I have no idea.

 

Now we know: A month later, we find out exactly why the lead prosecutors resigned, because they absolutely had a criminal case and it was scuttled by Bragg himself.

One of the senior Manhattan prosecutors who investigated Donald J. Trump believed that the former president was “guilty of numerous felony violations” and that it was “a grave failure of justice” not to hold him accountable, according to a copy of his resignation letter.

The prosecutor, Mark F. Pomerantz, submitted his resignation last month after the Manhattan district attorney, Alvin Bragg, abruptly stopped pursuing an indictment of Mr. Trump.

Mr. Pomerantz, 70, a prominent former federal prosecutor and white-collar defense lawyer who came out of retirement to work on the Trump investigation, resigned on the same day as Carey R. Dunne, another senior prosecutor leading the inquiry.

Mr. Pomerantz’s Feb. 23 letter, obtained by The New York Times, offers a personal account of his decision to resign and for the first time states explicitly his belief that the office could have convicted the former president. Mr. Bragg’s decision was “contrary to the public interest,” he wrote.

“The team that has been investigating Mr. Trump harbors no doubt about whether he committed crimes — he did,” Mr. Pomerantz wrote.

Mr. Pomerantz and Mr. Dunne planned to charge Mr. Trump with falsifying business records, specifically his annual financial statements — a felony in New York State.

Mr. Bragg’s decision not to pursue charges then — and the resignations that followed — threw the fate of the long-running investigation into serious doubt. If the prosecutors had secured an indictment of Mr. Trump, it would have been the highest-profile case ever brought by the Manhattan district attorney’s office and would have made Mr. Trump the first American president to face criminal charges.

Earlier this month, The Times reported that the investigation unraveled after weeks of escalating disagreement between the veteran prosecutors overseeing the case and the new district attorney. Much of the debate centered on whether the prosecutors could prove that Mr. Trump knowingly falsified the value of his assets on annual financial statements, The Times found, a necessary element to proving the case.

While Mr. Dunne and Mr. Pomerantz were confident that the office could demonstrate that the former president had intended to inflate the value of his golf clubs, hotels and office buildings, Mr. Bragg was not. He balked at pursuing an indictment against Mr. Trump, a decision that shut down Mr. Pomerantz’s and Mr. Dunne’s presentation of evidence to a grand jury and prompted their resignations.

Mr. Bragg has said that his office continues to conduct the investigation. For that reason, Mr. Bragg, a former federal prosecutor and deputy New York State attorney general who became district attorney in January, is barred from commenting on its specifics.

 

Not much at the core has changed: I told you then that Bragg decided there was no case and no prosecution, and that part remains. What's new is that we now have confirmation that at least one of the lead prosecutors believed Trump has committed a felony and were going to charge him.

 

I've laid out my reasons why Bragg killed the investigation, because there's no reason to believe his office is pursuing charges anymore, despite the office saying "they are continuing" the probe. It's as dead as Richard Nixon.

 

Bragg is probably right about not being able to get a conviction, and that's because while finding 12 people in Manhattan who would send Trump to Mars in a coffin is easy, finding 12 people who want to risk being hunted down like dogs by corrupt NYPD Trumpers is going to be next to impossible. The Trumpies will do everything they can to threaten the jurors and end the trial.

Do we really think Trump wouldn't order the jurors harmed or worse? C'mon. He wouldn't have to.

But the fact remains Trump is facing corporate fraud. Here's hoping that AG Tish James and her civil case can get the goods still.

Last Call For The Big Lie, Con't

Alabama GOP Sen. Mo Brooks will almost certainly not be a US senator for much longer.

Former President Donald Trump yanked his endorsement from Alabama Senate hopeful Mo Brooks on Wednesday, promising to make a new endorsement in the race before the May 24 primary. 

Trump's stunning decision to untether himself from a candidate who became the first Republican congressman to vote against certifying the 2020 election results on January 6, 2021, comes amid several dismissive comments that Brooks recently made about the election. Brooks was booed at a rally last August upon telling the crowd they should look beyond the last presidential contest. And in the last two weeks, he has publicly accused Trump of asking him to break the law by exploring ways to reinstall him as commander-in-chief. 

"Mo Brooks of Alabama made a horrible mistake recently when he went 'woke' and stated, referring to the 2020 Presidential Election Scam, 'Put that behind you, put that behind you,'" Trump said in a statement. 

He continued, "When I heard this statement, I said, 'Mo, you just blew the Election, and there's nothing you can do about it.'" 

Brooks will stay in the Senate race despite Trump's decision, according to a source close to the congressman. 

Trump, who vowed to throw his weight behind a different candidate in the "near future," met with Army veteran Mike Durant at Mar-a-Lago on Monday to discuss the race and get a better feel for the candidate, according to a person familiar with the meeting. He had previously told aides he is skeptical of Durant, who received a major boost in the race in the form of spending by More Perfect Union, an outside group that has committed to supporting moderate candidates in red and blue races. 

Trump also met with former Alabama Business Council president Katie Britt earlier this year amid his frustrations over Brooks' lackluster performance. As CNN has previously reported, Trump has told allies he's impressed with Britt's fundraising and has taken a liking to her husband, Wesley Britt, who played for the New England Patriots.
Britt served as chief of staff to retiring Sen. Richard Shelby.

 

So there's plenty of Alabama Republicans who will come to Dear Leader Trump asking for his blessing, and the only question he will ask is "Do you believe Joe Biden stole the election from me and will you help me now get  the White House back?"

 

Because that's what Brooks says Trump asked him to do.

In a statement Wednesday morning, Brooks accused Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Kentucky, of manipulating him and said Trump had asked him to work to "immediately rescind" the November 2020 election and hold a special election to re-elect Trump. Brooks said he had repeatedly told Trump that the election could not be overturned after Jan. 6.

“I’ve told President Trump the truth knowing full well that it might cause President Trump to rescind his endorsement," the statement said. "But I took a sworn oath to defend and protect the U.S. Constitution. I honor my oath. That is the way I am. I break my sworn oath for no man."

 

Brooks tried to play both sides of the road and got run over standing in the middle. The lesson here is that the only thing that matters in Republican primaries is loyalty to Donald Trump, not to fact or America or your constituents. Brooks is done. He will not win the primary, especially in a state that elected Tommy Tuberville, the dumbest dirt clod in the entire Senate right now.

A state poll taken this week finds Brooks now in a distant third behind both Durant and Britt. 

 

In a race drawing national attention and millions of dollars already spent on ads, our new exclusive Gray TV/Alabama Daily News poll shows the Republican primary for the chance to replace retiring Senator Richard Shelby is a close contest, but with some eye-catching movement. Our polling shows businessman Mike Durant with a 6 point lead over former Shelby Chief of Staff Katie Britt, and both well clear of Congressman Mo Brooks.

Gray TV/AL Daily News Poll by Cygnal, +/-4%

Mike Durant - 34.6%

Katie Britt - 28.4%

Mo Brooks - 16.1%

Lillie Boddie - 6.5%

Karla Dupriest - 0%

Jake Schafer - 0%

Undecided - 14.4%

“It’s hard to ignore the real story here, Mo Brooks sliding,” says Alabama Daily News Publisher Todd Stacy. “Only 16% in this poll, that’s down from 40% of the electorate in August, that’s an incredible slide that I have you to attribute to him not getting his message out--he’s not had a whole lot of ads that really support his campaign, but more importantly he’s had about $1.5 million dollars of ads spent from PACS attacking him.”

 

No, as a Republican elected, your one job is to help the GOP steal the 2024 election and crown Dear Leader Trump as dictator, and everyone knows it.And while Durant and Britt are in the lead, Trump's made it clear that he favors someone completely loyal to his regime.

Show-Me-State, 👀 here!⁦

Congressman Billy Long ⁦@auctnr1⁩ just got a huge boost from President Trump in the race for #USSenate in #Missouri pic.twitter.com/VWdVc1n6bc

— Kellyanne Conway (@KellyannePolls) March 23, 2022

Rep. Billy Long now the odds on favorite, and Mo Brooks's political career has been crucified on a national stage, and he serves as a warning to others: you serve Donald J. Trump or you are destroyed.