Caught the season-ending episode of ‘Hacks’ last night. Man, they stuck the landing. Can’t wait for Season Four. If you haven’t been watching…
Calling All Trolls: The election-year stink-bombing has gotten out of hand. If your posts–and your posting privileges–disappear, just remember: We are the Judge, Jury, And Executioner.
‘Thou Shalt Not Not Post The Ten Commandments”. More Christian Dominionism, this time from Louisiana.
Critics vowed to challenge the law in court, calling it unconstitutional and warning that it will lead to religious coercion of students.
Does anyone have any confidence that the current Supreme Court will overturn this? Nothing is ‘clearly unconstitutional’ if a court dominated by Federalist Society Christian Dominionists deems that said something is constitutional.
Rudy Blowing Up Own Bankruptcy Case? Featuring everything you wanted to know about Rudy Coffee–oh, you didn’t know about Rudy Coffee?:
Incomplete disclosures. Concealing the details of a coffee startup. Blown deadlines. Paying the credit card of a girlfriend. Ignoring pleas from creditors.
This is Rudy Giuliani’s $153 million bankruptcy case, and nearly everyone except him appears to be at a breaking point over it.
Creditors are asking the judge to appoint a trustee who would commandeer Giulaini’s assets; meanwhile, reports said, the U.S. Trustee indicated that it may soon move to dismiss the case, stripping Giuliani of the legal protection offered by Chapter 11 bankruptcy.
And, at a contentious Monday hearing, the judge in the case reportedly suggested that he’s becoming increasingly fed up with Giuliani.
Oh, Rudy Coffee? (I hear it goes really well with Trump Vodka–if you’re looking for a cleanse):
In one episode, Giuliani began to market a coffee brand called Rudy Coffee without telling the creditors. Creditors told Judge Lane in a filing that they did not learn of the coffee deal until one month after Giuliani signed a contract to promote the coffee.
Through discovery, the creditors learned more. Giuliani provided a breakdown of how much it cost to produce a single bag of Rudy Coffee, with the proviso that 80 percent of each sale would go to the bank account of a business belonging to Giuliani.
Man, there’s so much more. Gee, I wonder how many LLC’s Rudy has filed in Delaware. You deserve to read the whole thing. You’ll LOL.
‘Non-Profits’ That Exist Only To Enrich Fund-Raisers:
In September 2020, the Federal Trade Commission joined regulators in four states to sue four men behind a notorious telemarketing company called Outreach Calling. The FTC alleged that the company, which it described as a “sprawling fundraising operation,” had raised millions on the promise of helping the needy — cancer patients, veterans, firefighters — but instead used the money to line its pockets.
The case was meant to put fundraisers on notice. The FTC would not only go after charities that improperly spent donor dollars, but it would “aggressively pursue their fundraisers who participate in the deception,” a news release said.
The executives and corporate entities behind the operation were fined more than $58 million. They were also banned from all charitable fundraising for life. But regulators kept one door open in most of the settlements: the ability to continue fundraising for political purposes.
For Thomas Berkenbush, who was a co-manager at Outreach, that provision would prove to be a windfall.
Before the deal with the FTC was even finalized, Berkenbush filed paperwork to establish a new company, Office Edge LLC. Since then, Office Edge has been paid about $866,000 for fundraising from organizations that similarly claim to be working on behalf of cancer patients, veterans and firefighters. The difference? These groups are not charities, they’re political nonprofits that claim to use donations to influence elections and support broad political causes.
I checked. Doesn’t look like this was a Delaware LLC. More great reporting from Pro Publica.
The Conservative Campaign To Destroy Environmental Regulation. Featuring January 6 defendant John Eastman:
Among the most consequential decisions in the hands of the Supreme Court this term is a pair of lawsuits involving herring fishermen. On the surface, the nearly identical cases are simple disputes about fishing regulations. But they also have the potential to completely rejigger how federal agencies mediate everything from food and agriculture to taxes and air pollution—because they call into question one of the legal field’s most-cited legal precedents, a 40-year-old doctrine called “Chevron deference.” Many conservatives have sought to kill the legal doctrine for over a decade. And within the chorus, one has sung with notable passion: John Eastman.
That’s the same John Eastman who, on January 6, 2021, stood at a podium in DC beside fellow Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani and bellowed to an angry crowd that then–Vice President Mike Pence ought to halt the peaceful transfer of power. About three hours later, rioters breached the Capitol. It was also Eastman, documents show, who drafted the “coup memos,” which included a multistep plan for Pence to hand the election to Trump and declared the vice president the “ultimate arbiter” of elections. (Eastman is believed to be an unindicted co-conspirator in Trump’s federal indictment; he is also facing possible disbarment in California. He declined to comment on either situation.)
What do you want to talk about?