News bits: Crooks and liars update; History bit - American fascism; Proxima B; Swamp monster

The Messenger writes about the corruption of Allen Weisselberg by a $2 million payoff from Trump: 

Ex-Trump Org CFO Allen Weisselberg Draws a Blank on More Than 90 Questions 

Before Lunch in Civil Fraud Trial

Ex-Trump Org CFO Allen Weisselberg signed a $2 million severance agreement right before his five-month tax fraud sentencing, evidence showed

Allen Weisselberg, the former Trump Organization chief financial officer is now a key witness and co-defendant in the former president's civil fraud trial.

Throughout his questioning early on Tuesday, Weisselberg came up empty in his responses to more than 90 questions before the lunch break in Trump's civil fraud trial. He answered more than 60 of those questions with some variation of "I don't recall," "I just don't recall," or "I don't remember." He responded to more than 30 inquiries with "I don't know."

If it was up to me, he would spend the rest of his worse than worthless, corrupt life in the slammer. This is what kleptocratic plutocracy and Republican Party elites act and look like. We better get used to it. 

Update: The Messenger reports that Weisselberg has gone quiet after emails from Forbes contradict his testimony:

Ex-Trump Organization CFO Allen Weisselberg’s Testimony Abruptly Ended 

After Forbes Story Accused Him of Perjury

A source close to New York Attorney General Letitia James confirmed that her office is looking into the latest report about the former Trump CFO's testimony

The Trump Organization’s former chief financial officer Allen Weisselberg’s testimony reached an abrupt and unexpected end on Thursday afternoon, just hours after Forbes magazine accused the convicted tax cheat of perjuring himself during an earlier stint as a witness.

Weisselberg insisted on Tuesday from the witness stand that he “never focused” on calculating the square footage of the former president’s Trump Tower triplex, a three-floor penthouse in his namesake skyscraper.

Two days later, on Thursday, Forbes reported that emails not currently in the attorney general’s possession show otherwise.  

Forbes senior editor Dan Alexander wrote that his old emails and reporter notes contradict those denials, pointing out in his story that "Weisselberg absolutely thought about Trump’s apartment—and played a key role in trying to convince Forbes over the course of several years that it was worth more than it really was."

"Given the fact that these discussions continued for years, and that Weisselberg took a very detailed approach in reviewing Trump’s assets with Forbes, it defies all logic to think he truly believes what he is now saying in court," Alexander added.

So much blatant lying by Trump and the people around him. It's insulting. 

Lock 'em up, lock 'em up, lock 'em up! 

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Some history about American fascism in the 1930s rehashed, just for the memories:

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Sci & Universe writes:

Researchers have confirmed the existence of a SECOND Earth located in the Proxima Centauri System. The planet is believed to have oceans just like Earth and may host alien life.

In the past, thousands of exoplanets have been discovered in the universe, but none of them is like Proxima B.

Researchers have discovered a planet located in the Proxima Centauri system, one of the closest stars to Earth which they believe harbors liquid water and potentially alien life.

 
The planet, named Proxima B is believed to be around 1.3 times the size of our planet and has the ideal temperature on the surface for water in a liquid state to exist.

Proxima B is located four light years away from Earth –over 25 TRILLION MILES—meaning that to visit the planet in the near future, future generation would have to come up with super-fast spacecraft that would allow them to travel to the Proxima Centauri system with ease.

If the planet proves to be ‘a SECOND Earth’ it could become one of the best options for future human colonization.

Researchers believe that the temperature on the surface of the planet could be between -90 degrees Celsius and 30 degrees Celsius. 

The planet which has already been dubbed ‘a second Earth’ is located at an ideal distance from its host star for liquid water to exist, which means that life as we know it is very likely to exist.

Proxima Centauri is a red dwarf located in the constellation Centaurus. The star itself is too weak to be observed with the naked eye, but in recent months, scientists have not taken their eyes off of it.

In fact, during the first half of this year, Proxima Centauri was followed regularly with the HARPS spectrograph installed on the 3.6-meter telescope of the European Southern Observatory (ESO) in La Silla (Chile) and monitored simultaneously with other instruments from around the world. 

Future observations, for example using the 39-m ESO E-ELT telescope under construction in Chile, will allow further investigation of Proxima b and of the hypothetical presence of a thick atmosphere and a liquid water reservoir. If this turned out to be the case, it would be very exciting that the nearest star to the Sun also hosts the nearest habitable (perhaps inhabited?) planet.

Go ESO E-ELT telescope! 

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The Lever writes about the authoritarian radical right Republicans’ temporary speaker swamp beast, Patrick McHenry: 

Swamp Thing

Few Americans knew Rep. Patrick McHenry (R-N.C.) before he took over last week as the temporary U.S. House Speaker — and if they know him now, it’s probably for swinging a gavel harder than you might expect, or for sporting a bow tie.

One reason regular people don’t know McHenry is because he hardly represents them. The 10-term congressman projects and personifies the cold, corporate Washington, D.C. politics that systematically preference donors’ interests over those of the public.

McHenry only reported raising $856 from small donors (those giving less than $200) in the first half of the year — or a paltry 0.06 percent of the $1.5 million he collected. According to a Lever review, roughly 90 percent of the campaign cash McHenry has raised this year came from executives in the financial, banking, cryptocurrency, and real estate industries; lobbyists and political action committees (PACs); and payday lenders and debt collectors.

These donations have coincided with McHenry, as chairman of the House Financial Services Committee this year, pushing to weaken regulations designed to rein in some of these industries — part of his long history of repeatedly going to bat for the financial sector throughout his time in Congress.  

While McHenry is ostensibly the financial industry’s chief regulator in Congress, he has instead acted as its top booster.

McHenry has spoken out against a new rule from the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to block alternative investment firms, like private equity and hedge funds, from giving special rights and privileges to certain favored investors and not to others who have invested in the same funds.

DRAIN THAT SWAMP!! DRAIN THAT SWAMP!! DRAIN THAT SWAMP!! 

Yeah right. The swamp will drain when pigs fly.

Bang that gavel harder!