The Trump Twenty? According to the NYT, about 20 people have been informed by the Fulton County (Ga.) DA that they are targets of a criminal investigation:
In Georgia, however, there is another criminal investigation of Mr. Trump nearing completion, this one also led by a local prosecutor, Fani T. Willis of Fulton County. While nothing is certain, there are numerous signs that she may go big, with a more kaleidoscopic indictment charging not only Mr. Trump, but perhaps a dozen or more of his allies.
Her investigation has targeted a wide range of conduct centered around efforts to subvert the democratic process and overturn Mr. Trump’s 2020 election loss. Nearly 20 people are already known to have been told that they are targets who could face charges, including Rudolph W. Giuliani, Mr. Trump’s former personal lawyer, and David Shafer, the head of the Georgia Republican Party.
In Georgia, the investigation is focused on myriad efforts to overturn Mr. Trump’s narrow loss in Georgia after his 2020 election defeat, including his January 2021 phone call to Brad Raffensperger, the Georgia secretary of state, in which he pressed Mr. Raffensperger, a fellow Republican, to recalculate the results and “find” him enough votes to win.
The wide scope of the investigation has been evident for months, and Ms. Willis has said that seeking an indictment under the state’s Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations, or RICO, statute is an option that she is considering. Like the similar federal law, the Georgia RICO statute allows prosecutors to bundle what may seem to be unrelated crimes committed by a host of different people if those crimes are perceived to be in support of a common objective.
Ms. Willis has extensive experience with racketeering cases, including a case she won involving a group of public-school educators accused of altering students’ standardized tests. Her office is currently pursuing racketeering charges against two gangs connected to the hip-hop world, including one led by the Atlanta rapper Jeffery Williams, who performs as Young Thug.
“I think jurors are very, very intelligent,” Ms. Willis said at a news conference in August, in which she announced a racketeering case against a third Atlanta-area gang known as Drug Rich. “RICO is a tool that allows a prosecutor’s office or law enforcement to tell the whole story. And so we use it as a tool so that they can have all the information they need to make a wise decision.”
Looks like indictments could be handed down as soon as May. I’ll be waiting.
This Harlan Crow Guy Is Weird–Rethuglican Weird. As in a massive Hitler memorabilia collection and, wait for it, statues of dictators in his backyard:
When Republican megadonor Harlan Crow isn’t lavishing Justice Clarence Thomas with free trips on his private plane and yacht (in possible violation of Supreme Court ethics rules), he lives a quiet life in Dallas among his historical collections. These collections include Hitler artifacts—two of his paintings of European cityscapes, a signed copy of Mein Kampf, and assorted Nazi memorabilia—plus a garden full of statues of the 20th century’s worst despots.
“I still can’t get over the collection of Nazi memorabilia,” says one person who attended an event at Crow’s home a few years ago and asked to remain anonymous. “It would have been helpful to have someone explain the significance of all the items. Without that context, you sort of just gasp when you walk into the room.” One memorable aspect was the paintings: “something done by George W. Bush next to a Norman Rockwell (or could it have been–Lincoln Rockwell?) next to one by Hitler.” They also said it was “startling” and “strange” to see the dictator sculptures in the backyard.
It’s official: Satire is dead. All we have are the memories, like this one:
Guess Who Texas Governor Wants To Pardon. If you guessed ‘a US Army Sergeant who murdered a Black Lives Matter’ protestor, you would be correct. More sick shit from Texas:
However, Texas’s Republican extremist governor Greg Abbott said on Saturday on Twitter that he was already working on pardoning Perry from his conviction, which he called an attempted jury nullification of Texas’s self-defense law.
Perry’s attorneys argued their client was forced to shoot Foster five times in self-defense after Foster approached his car with an AK-47 rifle. Meanwhile, prosecutors contended Perry had other options to confront the situation, including driving away before he fired his own gun at Foster.
There were no passengers in Perry’s car at the time of the shooting, which unfolded during nationwide demonstrations prompted by the murder of George Floyd by an on-duty police officer in Minneapolis.
In court, prosecutors brought up Facebook messages that Perry sent prior to Foster’s killing.
In one message, Perry wrote: “No protesters go near me or my car” and “I might go to Dallas to shoot looters,” the Austin television news outlet KTBC reported.
Another message that Perry sent on 31 May 2020 said: “I might have to kill a few people on my way to work they are rioting outside my apartment complex.” A few days later, Perry commented on a Facebook post of a video titled “Protesters Looters Get Shot San Antonio Texas”, writing, “glad someone finally did something”.
Do People Stop Embracing New Music In Their 30’s? If so, and Spotify claims it is, it’s a trend that I’m fighting against. I recommend you do the same. How? Well, binge-blogging my fave songs of the month (just put that in your DL search engine) posts might help you–and me. I’m not saying ‘Don’t enjoy your faves’, of course. I’m saying, “There’s some really great new shit out there. Some of it even sounds like the old shit you like. Why not give it a listen?”
Shooting At Christiana Mall Inevitable Prelude To Soaring Gun Sales In Suxco. Because, wash, rinse, repeat.
What do you want to talk about?