News bits: Biden's achievements; QAnon crackpottery; McCarthy flip-flop; Dementia research update

Biden has done some good stuff. Here's some of it.

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Pink News reports about a crackpot fake technology that is probably going to land a jackass in jail:

New Mexico man Michael David Fox was charged based on concerning threats he made against a cis-gender Texas Congressperson because he believed that she was transgender, Satanic, and a pedophile.

When confronted by the FBI on 26 May, Fox immediately confirmed that he had made the phone call, but didn’t recall the specific details of what he had said. However, after hearing back a recording of the call, Fox admitted to making the threats, Advocate  reports.

The [QAnon] group, which originated on 4Chan in 2017, is centered around the belief that there is a society of Satan-worshipping, cannibalistic pedophiles that run the world. 

Fox told authorities that he and other followers believe that transgender people are secretly running the government and major corporations and, after running the unnamed US Rep’s skull features through forensic analysis, he believed that she was transgender. 

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The Huffpo reports that two words, George Santos, got Kevin McCarthy to flip-flop on whether crooked Bob Menendez should resign:

Kevin McCarthy Wanted Bob Menendez To Resign 

Until Someone Mentioned George Santos

The House speaker wanted the New Jersey senator to resign, but he changed his mind after someone asked why he hadn't asked Santos to do the same

Menendez was indicted last week on bribery charges. On Saturday, McCarthy called for the senator’s resignation, saying that the indictment was “very damaging” and that the evidence presented by prosecutors “seems pretty black and white.”

What's surprising is that McCarthy flipped and now says that crooked Bob should have his day in court. He could have just said that the evidence against crooked George is weak and a partisan witch hunt, unlike the evidence against crooked Bob. Will wonders never cease?

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The WaPo reports on new dementia research:

Sitting all day increases dementia risk — even if you exercise

The study, which involved 49,841 men and women aged 60 or older, “supports the idea that more time spent in sedentary behaviors increases one’s risk of dementia,” said Andrew Budson, a professor of neurology at Boston University ....

If the men and women sat for at least 10 hours a day, which many of them did, their risk of developing dementia within the next seven years was 8 percent higher than if they sat for fewer than 10 hours.

The risks ballooned from there, reaching a 63-percent greater risk of dementia for people who spent at least 12 hours chair-bound.

Surprisingly, the researchers found little benefit from exercise.

People who worked out but then plopped into chairs for 10 hours or more were as prone to dementia as people who hadn’t exercised much at all.

The same was true for walking and other short breaks. After adjusting for other factors, the researchers noted few improvements among people who interrupted their sitting time with breaks. If they got up and walked around, but still managed to sit for 10 or more hours a day, their risk didn’t change much. What ultimately mattered was how many hours, in total, a person spent in a chair most days.

The best way to reduce dementia risk, Raichlen said, is to find ways to sit less overall. “People in our study who were sedentary for 9.5 hours a day didn’t have any increased risk,” he said.

Dang, now I've gotta get a standing desk. Crud. I thought exercise would do the trick. 

Trump found liable for fraud

The AP reports:

A judge ruled Tuesday that Donald Trump committed fraud for years while building the real estate empire that catapulted him to fame and the White House.

Judge Arthur Engoron, ruling in a civil lawsuit brought by New York Attorney General Letitia James, found that the former president and his company deceived banks, insurers and others by massively overvaluing his assets and exaggerating his net worth on paperwork used in making deals and securing financing.

Engoron ordered that some of Trump’s business licenses be rescinded as punishment, making it difficult or impossible for them to do business in New York, and said he would continue to have an independent monitor oversee the Trump Organization’s operations.

Beyond mere bragging about his riches, Trump, his company and key executives repeatedly lied about them on his annual financial statements, reaping rewards such as favorable loan terms and lower insurance costs, Engoron found.

Those tactics crossed a line and violated the law, the judge said, rejecting Trump’s contention that a disclaimer on the financial statements absolved him of any wrongdoing.

“In defendants’ world: rent regulated apartments are worth the same as unregulated apartments; restricted land is worth the same as unrestricted land; restrictions can evaporate into thin air; a disclaimer by one party casting responsibility on another party exonerates the other party’s lies,” Engoron wrote in his 35-page ruling. “That is a fantasy world, not the real world.”

The judge fined five of Trump's lawyers $7,500 each for repeating claims that the judge had already rejected. 

Judge obliterates Trump's ridiculous standing defense

Judge obliterates Trump's attempt to protect 

his assts and profits

News bits: DJT policy update; GOP violence watch update; Election subversion update

The New Republic reports on DJT's publicly stated plans if he is re-elected:

Trump Goes Full Deranged, Suggests Charging 

People He Doesn’t Like With Treason

Donald Trump went over the edge over the weekend and began calling for his detractors to be prosecuted or even put to death.

“They are almost all dishonest and corrupt, but Comcast, with its one-side and vicious coverage by NBC NEWS, and in particular MSNBC, often and correctly referred to as MSDNC (Democrat National Committee!), should be investigated for its ‘Country Threatening Treason,’” he wrote on Truth Social Sunday night.

“I say up front, openly, and proudly, that when I WIN the Presidency of the United States … the LameStream Media will be thoroughly scrutinized for their knowingly dishonest and corrupt coverage of people, things, and events,” he said. “They are a true threat to Democracy and are, in fact, THE ENEMY OF THE PEOPLE! The Fake News Media should pay a big price for what they have done to our once great Country!”

MSN commented:

Professor of global politics and political scientist Brian Klass at The Atlantic wrote on Monday that General Milley’s phone call to China “was, in fact, explicitly authorized by Trump-administration officials.”

“And yet,” Klass noted, “none of the nation’s front pages blared ‘Trump Suggests That Top General Deserves Execution’ or ‘Former President Accuses General of Treason.’ Instead, the post barely made the news. Most Americans who don’t follow Trump on social media probably don’t even know it happened.”

“Trump’s rhetoric is dangerous, not just because it is the exact sort that incites violence against public officials but also because it shows just how numb the country has grown toward threats more typical of broken, authoritarian regimes. The United States is not just careening toward a significant risk of political violence around the 2024 presidential election. It’s also mostly oblivious to where it’s headed.”

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LGBQT Nation reports:

GOP congressman calls for execution of “sodomy-promoting” US Army general

Rep. Paul Gosar said that the "homosexual-promoting" general "would be hung" in a better society

Rep. Paul Gosar (R-AZ) called for the execution of General Mark Milley, the chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, in a homophobic tirade this weekend.

In his newsletter this weekend – published to his Congressional website – Gosar accused Milley of being a “homosexual-promoting-BLM-activist” who delayed the military’s response to the January 6 riot. An election denier, Gosar has in the past claimed that he “started the revolution,” referring to the insurrection.  

“In a better society, quislings like the strange sodomy-promoting General Milley would be hung,” Gosar wrote. “He had one boss: President Trump, and instead he was secretly meeting with Pelosi and coordinating with her to hurt Trump. That is, when he wasn’t also secretly coordinating and sharing intelligence with the Chinese military.”

Since the GOP is silent on Gosar's threat, the Republican Party supports Gosar's call for executing Milley.

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Ohio Capitol Journal reports:

In Wisconsin, Republican lawmakers are threatening to impeach both the state’s election administrator, who is highly regarded nationally, and a state Supreme Court justice despite a ruling by the state’s judicial commission that the justice had done nothing wrong — effectively nullifying a recent statewide election she won, Democrats say.

In North Carolina, a bill that would give the legislature control of state and local election boards — potentially allowing lawmakers to overturn results — could soon become law.

Alabama continues to defy the U.S. Supreme Court by refusing to draw a new congressional district with a Black majority.

And after forcing voters to cast ballots in unconstitutionally gerrymandered districts in 2022, Ohio Republicans have recently proposed new maps that retain their gerrymandered supermajority control over the legislature, after enacting one of the most restrictive voter laws in the country earlier this year, and spending the summer campaigning to roll back the constitutional power of Ohio voters.

Other states are seeing efforts by politicians to gain a political advantage by curtailing the power of voters.  

Wisconsin’s legislative maps are among the most heavily gerrymandered in the country — a 2020 Harvard study ranked them as the worst, on par with Jordan, Bahrain, and the Congo. They’ve consistently given the GOP large majorities — currently 22-11 in the Senate and 64-35 in the House — despite the state tilting slightly Democratic in most recent statewide races.  

In Ohio, the Supreme Court has ruled five times that the state’s current legislative maps are unconstitutional gerrymanders favoring Republicans. But the bipartisan commission that’s supposed to draw fair maps waited 16 months before reconvening last week.

It has made almost no progress, because GOP legislative leaders spent the first week infighting over who would co-chair the committee. When they finally did name one this week, the commission met and Republicans used their 5-2 advantage on the commission to establish a proposed working map that could lead to more Republican seats and fewer competitive districts.

Authoritarian radical right Republican efforts to subvert the 2024 elections continue to be a wild card. Biden could win the election but for the effects of those laws. Republicans have tried to suppress non-Republican voters and rig or openly reject election results that the radical right authoritarians dislike. 

I am not aware of any analysis that predicts the likely effects of radical Republican anti-election, pro-tyranny laws in any state. Maybe it's time to start doing some searching to see if I can find anything. 🤨

News bits

The Lever points out why Bob Menendez and other politicians who engage in blatant corruption have a good chance of getting away with it:

But if the alleged facts in the indictment prove true, the big question is: Why would any politician think he could get away with something so brazen? Perhaps because Menendez knows that to secure a conviction, prosecutors will have to prove that it was illegal for him to accept the gifts in exchange for a “performance of an official act,” as the indictment says. And like every American politician, Menendez almost certainly knows that while that may seem straightforward, the corruption-plagued Supreme Court has deliberately made it anything but.  

“Our concern is not with tawdry tales of Ferraris, Rolexes, and ball gowns,” wrote Chief Justice John Roberts at the time. “It is instead with the broader legal implications of the government’s boundless interpretation of the federal bribery statute… Setting up a meeting, calling another public official, or hosting an event does not, standing alone, qualify as an ‘official act.’”  

The problem is that Supreme Court justices have for years been legalizing — and personally engaging in — similar kinds of corruption. At the same time, top Democrats are constantly assuring justices that no matter how repugnant their behavior, there will be no serious challenge to their power.

A bribe has to be proven beyond a reasonable doubt to be in exchange for “performance of an official act.” In essence, that cannot be proven unless the briber or bribee is an idiot and leaves tangible evidence for prosecutors to argue criminal intent. Menendez describes his situation where he as a victim of a “smear campaign” by those who “simply cannot accept that a first-generation Latino American from humble beginnings could rise to be a U.S. Senator and serve with honor and distinction.”  

With the ‘official act’ shield, the odds of convicting Menendez seem to be low.

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The Guardian reports some commentary on the MSM: 

US news organizations have turned Biden’s age into a scandal and continue to cover Trump as an entertaining side show

Christiane Amanpour has reported all over the world, so she recognizes a democracy on the brink when she sees one.

Last week, as she celebrated her 40 years at CNN, she issued a challenge to her fellow journalists in the US by describing how she would cover US politics as a foreign correspondent.

“We have to be truthful, not neutral,” she urged. “I would make sure that you don’t just give a platform … to those who want to crash down the constitution and democracy.”

It’s an important call to action. But so far, the American press is failing to meet its responsibility to adequately emphasize the stakes of the coming election.

That speaks for itself.

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The radical right teaching children traditional family values

Look closely, you'll see the traditional 

family value being expressed

Freaks

OK, I gotta admit I stole this idea from another site but there were some hilarious rebuttals and some very heated ones as well. So let's try this out here and see how it goes.

NOT including Biden or Trump, who do YOU think is the biggest freak in American politics?

No Biden or Trump votes, thanks, that would be WAY TOO EASY.

Surely each one of us has someone else in mind that they think is a freak. So - what's your vote?

AND YES, I am asking for you to explain your choice.

This ought to be fun.

Bits: GOP attacks on the rule of law; GOP attacks on inconvenient truth

As commented on here before, authoritarian radical right Republican (ARR) politicians in Georgia want to get rid of the prosecutor in Trump's election subversion case in that state. That amounts to a direct attack on the rule of law. Another major avenue of attack is coming from ARR Republicans in congress. The Messenger reports:

Trump’s Government Shutdown Push to Starve His 

Criminal Cases Has a Fundamental Flaw

Trump is openly goading his congressional loyalists to shut down the federal government at the end of next week for the explicit purpose of sabotaging his criminal cases.

“Republicans in Congress can and must defund all aspects of Crooked Joe Biden’s weaponized Government that refuses to close the Border, and treats half the Country as Enemies of the State,” the former president and 2024 Republican frontrunner wrote on his website Truth Social on Thursday morning. “This is also the last chance to defund these political prosecutions against me and other Patriots.”

In the event of a shutdown, the U.S. court system will remain fully funded for up to three weeks. And even after that, the judicial branch of the federal government can tap into “carryover” funds from previous years and fees like the ones charged by Pacer, the online court documents database that costs the public 10 cents a page for downloads.

Special Counsel Jack Smith, whose team works for the Justice Department, has an additional cushion provided by a “permanent, indefinite appropriation,” which will continue to finance the already-charged cases against Trump. The scheduled start dates for the trials in the two federal Trump cases also aren’t scheduled until March and May of 2024 respectively, well beyond the time window that any shutdown is expected to last.  

Republican Rep. Andrew Clyde, a Trump supporter from Georgia, proposed an amendment that would target funding of state and federal prosecutions of the former president, but the special counsel’s office is already funded. There is no evidence that Trump’s criminal prosecutions in New York and Georgia have received any substantial federal financing.

Despite the alleged “fundamental flaw”, one can expect ARR Republicans in congress to do their best to try to protect the traitor Trump from as much prosecution as they can. This is open war on the rule of law by the radicalized, authoritarian Republican Party.

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Remember the successful ARR attack on federal funding for gun violence research that was imposed in 1996 (my 2021 post is here)? That funding ban was triggered by this 1993 research paper that showed that gun ownership was a risk factor for domestic homicide. 27 years later that ban still hampers gun violence research in the US.  As I discussed here in 2015, the ARR has fought against all research that could generate truth that is inconvenient to ARR dogma, wealth and/or power. The ARR tactic of killing inconvenient research is not new.

The ARR Republican Party in congress is now doing the same thing to federally funded research on the effects of online misinformation and lies. The WaPo writes:

Misinformation research is buckling under GOP legal attacks

An escalating campaign, led by Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) and other Republicans, has cast a pall over programs that study political disinformation and the quality of medical information online

Academics, universities and government agencies are overhauling or ending research programs designed to counter the spread of online misinformation amid a legal campaign from conservative politicians and activists who accuse them of colluding with tech companies to censor right-wing views.

Facing litigation, Stanford University officials are discussing how they can continue tracking election-related misinformation through the Election Integrity Partnership (EIP), a prominent consortium that flagged social media conspiracies about voting in 2020 and 2022, several participants told The Washington Post. The coalition of disinformation researchers may shrink and also may stop communicating with X and Facebook about their findings.

The National Institutes of Health froze a $150 million program intended to advance the communication of medical information, citing regulatory and legal threats.  

“If the question relates in any way to misinformation or disinformation, please do not respond,” read the guidance email, sent in July after a Louisiana judge blocked many federal agencies from communicating with social media companies.  

“In the name of protecting free speech, the scientific community is not allowed to speak,” said Dean Schillinger, a health communication scientist who planned to apply to the NIH program to collaborate with a Tagalog-language newspaper to share accurate health information with Filipinos. “Science is being halted in its tracks.”  

Academics and government scientists say the campaign also is successfully throttling the years-long effort to study online falsehoods, which grew after Russian attempts to interfere in the 2016 election caught both social media sites and politicians unawares.

Once again, we clearly see blatant, direct attacks by elite radical Republican Party authoritarians on inconvenient truth and science, and on the public interest. To establish their corrupt dictatorship, Republican politicians attack and subvert the same thing that all or nearly all other dictators, theocrats, plutocrats and kleptocrats target, prominently political opposition, pluralism-tolerance (to have scapegoat groups to attack and fearmonger about), democracy, civil liberties, especially voting rights and elections, and sources of inconvenient truth. None of these tactics are new. Same dictator lies, deceit, slanders, crackpottery. It's just a different day in a different country, now the US.

Note that some government scientists say the Republican dictators' campaign is throttling research on online falsehoods. If Trump or another Republican dictator wannabe is elected president in 2024, those scientists would be searched out and fired as communist deep state enemies. They would replaced by thugs who will deny that online lies are of any consequence, assuming any even exist in view of the reality of post-truth and alt-facts.