DL Open Thread Monday, March 25, 2024
Today’s the deadline for Trump to come up with the cash or equivalent in New York, but he took time last night to go to his West Palm Beach golf club to celebrate his victory in – here, I’ll let him tell it: “THE CLUB CHAMPIONSHIP TROPHY & THE SENIOR CLUB CHAMPIONSHIP TROPHY.I WON BOTH!” He’s still miles behind Kim Jong Il’s record of a 38-under-par score of 34, a round that included 11 holes in one.
New Jersey politics would make a great reality cable TV reality series. The latest plot twist in the race to replace “Gold Bar Bob” Menendez in the U.S. Senate has the wife of the current governor dropping out of a primary fight against three-term Congressman Andy Kim (no relation to the Canadian singer who wrote and sang on “Sugar, Sugar” as one of the Archies). Tammy Murphy said she was unwilling to wage what would be a“very divisive and negative campaign.” True, in that Kim would have pointed out how incredibly crooked it looks to run the governor’s wife for a Senate seat.
The media world is abuzz with fallout from the NBC hire of election denier Ronna McDaniel – is she Romney again? – especially Chuck Todd’s strong on-air criticism of his bosses for hiring someone whose job was lying. So the Overton window has shifted so far to the right Chuck Todd fell out of it.
Getting less attention is Israel’s blockade of UN food aid to northern Gaza. If there’s a meaningful difference between starving people en masse and putting them in concentration camps, I’m not seeing it.
The death toll in the Moscow concert massacre reached 139 as Putin tries to blame Ukraine, despite the Islamic State claiming responsibility. Russia is the birthplace of alternate facts – it’s where a lot of MAGA’s were born.
The autocrats who hijacked the federal judiciary fight off reformers like wasps protecting their nest. When Washington, D.C., Attorney General Brian Schwalb started investigating Leonard Leo’s network of non-profits for tax violations, House GOPers launched an investigation of Schwalb. Like Trump, they know they’re guilty, and they’ll do anything and everything to make sure you can’t prove it.
The floor’s yours.
The Pa. Rethug Billionaire Behind The Shell Company Behind The Truth Social Merger. Yet more proof that the Citizens United decision was one of the worst in US history:
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/03/24/business/jeff-yass-shares-trump-media-merger.html
If the name Peter Yass appears to be everywhere, it’s because he’s behind every Rethug scheme to destroy democracy.
NY Appeals Court Gives Trump More Time To Pay Less.
Because there is no justice:
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/03/25/nyregion/trump-bond-reduced.html
Instead of a deadline of today to pay $450 mill, he now has ten more days to come up with $175 mill.
Some more dopes got roped.
…it might come as a surprise that, in just over three years in office, Biden has cut taxes overall. […]
An analysis prepared for The New York Times by the Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center, a Washington think tank that studies fiscal issues, shows that the tax cuts Biden has signed for individuals and corporations are larger than the tax increases he has imposed on big corporations and their shareholders.
The analysis estimates that the tax changes Biden has ushered into law will amount to a net cut of about $600 billion over four years and slightly more than that over a full decade.
Whenever I think, “You know, Biden is actually pretty good.” I the think of the Merrick Garland appointment and I’m reminded of how utterly terrible Biden is at being President.
What’s the actual point of saving the economy just to have Garland turn it over to Trump because not doing so would be bad sportsmanship?
Point taken. If Biden loses, history will see the Merrick Garland appointment as the reason. But if Biden manages to win, nobody will care about Merrick Garland.
Slightly OT, but I have Shohei Ohtani on my fantasy baseball team.
Looks like he could be involved in a gambling scheme.
I hope that MLB turns the investigation over to DOJ so I don’t have to worry about Ohtani being suspended this year…
Judge In Stormy Daniels Hush Money Case Rules That Jury Selection Will Begin On April 15. No further delays. Don’t know if Trump will appeal.
He says he will, claims it’s ‘election interference’.
Sorry to say it, but if anyone thinks that DJT will be held legally accountable for anything, you’ve got a screw loose.
“There’s little actual justification for lowering the amount, as James again noted in her most recent response to Trump’s delaying tactics, but if you’ve been paying any attention at all to the current state of the American legal system you’ll know that courts generally despise the thought of handing out big penalties to wealthy financial crooks. It’s simply not something our “justice” system can stomach, not with its innate presumptions about the importance of the rich.” https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2024/3/25/2231478/-Trump-s-Hail-Mary-to-avoid-coughing-up-all-that-cash-works-for-now?pm_campaign=front_page&pm_source=top_news_slot_1&pm_medium=web
True. Shielding rich people from punishments and accountability is as important to our legal system as inflicting punishments on poor people. Maybe more important.