#trump organization scandal

[dontmean2bepoliticalbut]

Soon...

#us politics #republicans #conservatives #gop #donald trump #trump scandals #memes #shitpost #indictment #hush money #stormy daniels #michael cohen #manhattan grand jury #manhattan district attorney #alvin bragg #georgia election investigation #classified documents probe #captiol riot investigation #trump organization scandal #muller investigation #2023

[dontmeantobepoliticalbut]

A jury in Manhattan has found former President Donald Trump's company guilty of a long-running criminal tax fraud scheme that lasted into his presidency.

Though Trump and his company have repeatedly faced criminal investigations, this case marks the first time his company has been charged, tried, and convicted on criminal charges.

Trump built his political brand, in large part, on his claim that he was an aggressive and successful businessman.

In all, the jury found two entities controlled by Trump guilty on 17 counts of criminal tax fraud and falsifying business records. The maximum penalty is $1.6 million.

Prosecutors had previously secured a guilty plea last summer from Trump's former longtime Chief Financial Officer Allen Weisselberg, who became the star witness for the prosecution in the case.

But Weisselberg's co-defendants, two Trump business entities, remained under indictment.

On Halloween, prosecutors made their opening arguments in the trial of the Trump Corporation (which encompasses most of his business empire) and the Trump Payroll Corporation (which processes payments to staff), arguing that the case was about "greed and cheating."

ASSISTANT DISTRICT ATTORNEY SAID IN SUMMATION THAT TRUMP SANCTIONED TAX FRAUD

Trump Corporation attorney Susan Necheles told jurors in her opening statement that the trial is not a referendum on Trump, and asked them to keep an open mind.

Both sides emphasized that Trump was not a defendant, yet the former president's name came up frequently.

Some of the most attention-grabbing evidence presented to the jury were documents with Trump's signature: a rental agreement for a luxury apartment used by Weisselberg, a private school tuition check written for a grandchild of Weisselberg's. Weisselberg admitted he did not declare these benefits as income, as required by law.

In his summation, Assistant District Attorney Joshua Steinglass pointed a rhetorical finger directly at Trump, saying Trump sanctioned tax fraud. The defense vigorously objected, and the objection was sustained by the judge.

During the course of the trial, outside the four walls of the courtroom, Trump declared he was running for president, and frequently lambasted Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg on social media.

Weisselberg previously pleaded guilty to 15 felony tax charges. He admitted hiding the part of his salary that was paid through untaxed benefits like a luxury apartment, Mercedes-Benz leases for him and his wife, and private school tuition for his grandchildren.

The compensation was never reported to New York State or to the IRS.

As part of his plea deal, Weisselberg agreed to testify truthfully and to serve five months in jail.

During his testimony, which laid out the details of his criminal tax fraud, Weisselberg acknowledged that he still receives a $640,000 salary from the Trump Organization – though he has been placed on leave – and of hopes to receive an end-of year bonus.

At issue in this trial was whether Weisselberg and another top executive, Trump Organization Comptroller Jeffrey McConney acted "in behalf of" the corporate entities when they compensated Weisselberg and other top executives by paying for the apartments and luxury benefits that did not get reported to the tax authorities.

TRIAL UNFOLDED AT A MOMENT OF COMPLEX LEGAL PERIL FOR TRUMP AND HIS BUSINESS

In his instructions to jurors, before they reached a verdict, Judge Juan Merchan said that did not mean Trump's company benefited from the scheme, although there was evidence that it did.

Weisselberg acknowledged knowing taxes were owed on that compensation, but it was never reported.

Prosecutors argued that by compensating top executives in this fashion, the Trump Organization was able to save significant amounts of money.

This trial unfolded at a moment of complex legal peril for Trump and his business, with his attorneys playing defense in recent weeks in three different New York City courtrooms.

Last month, a judge required Trump's firm to submit to an outside monitor as part of an on-going $250 million civil case brought by New York Attorney General Letitia James.

James' lawsuit claims Trump and his children fraudulently manipulated the value of its real estate holdings for more than a decade, deceiving lenders and and cheating tax authorities.

Trump and his attorneys have pushed back, arguing that prosecutors in New York have overstepped their authority and engaged in a a political witch hunt against the former President.

Trump also faces federal probes involving his role in efforts to block the peaceful transfer of power after he lost the 2020 presidential election and his decision to keep classified documents after leaving the White House.

Last month, the U.S. Justice Department appointed a special counsel to oversee those investigations. Trump has also described that process as politically motivated.

#us politics #news #npr news #npr #2022 #trump organization #trump organization scandal #alan weisselberg #criminal tax fraud #guilty #Trump Payroll Corporation #Trump Corporation #Susan Necheles #Joshua Steinglass #Alvin Bragg #Jeffrey McConney #Judge Juan Merchan #letitia james #ag letitia james

[contemplatingoutlander]

This is an excellent summary of research that was done on two major mainstream news publications--The Washington Post and The New York Times--regarding whether the content of their front pages (from Sept. 1 to Nov. 8, 2022) provided readers with information that would help them to better understand policy differences between Democrats and Republicans in the leadup to the 2022 election. Unfortunately, the study discovered that these "liberal" newspapers of record both tended to post entertaining "horse race and campaign palace intrigue" articles rather than articles discussing political party policy differences.

When these two newspapers did report on policy issues, surprisingly (especially given its liberal reputation) the Times covered more topics related to Republican interests (i.e., "China, immigration, and crime"); whereas, the Post covered more topics of greater interest to Democrats (i.e., "affirmative action, police reform, LGBTQ rights")

Below are the opening and closing paragraphs from the article, which sum up the importance of how the mainstream media shapes public perceptions of election issues--often in ways that could wittingly or unwittingly help dangerous politicians like Trump win powerful positions in our government.

Seven years ago, in the wake of the 2016 presidential election, media analysts rushed to explain Donald Trump’s victory. Misinformation was to blame, the theory went, fueled by Russian agents and carried on social networks. But as researchers, we wondered if fascination and fear over “fake news” had led people to underestimate the influence of traditional journalism outlets. After all, mainstream news organizations remain an important part of the media ecosystem—they’re widely read and watched; they help set the agenda, including on social networks. We decided to look at what had been featured on the printed front page of the New York Times in the three months leading up to Election Day. Of a hundred and fifty articles that discussed the campaign, only a handful mentioned policy; the vast majority covered horse race politics or personal scandals. Most strikingly, the Times ran ten front-page stories about Hillary Clinton’s email server. “If voters had wanted to educate themselves on issues,” we concluded, “they would not have learned much from reading the Times.” [...] The choices made by major publishers are not wrong, per se, for the same reason that one newsroom cannot objectively know how to cover an issue, or how much to cover it: no one can. Still, editorial choices are undeniably choices—and they will weigh heavily on the upcoming presidential race. Outlets can and should maintain a commitment to truth and accuracy. But absent an earnest and transparent assessment of what they choose to emphasize—and what they choose to ignore—their readers will be left misinformed. [color emphasis added]

[edited]

#mainstream media #political coverage #warped front pages #donald trump #republicans #democrats #the new york times #the washington post #columbia journalism review

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Audrey McCabe at MMFA:

Turning Point Action senior director and Arizona state Rep. Austin Smith was named last week in a complaint alleging that he forged dozens of signatures, names, and addresses on his petitions to qualify for the state’s GOP primary ballot in July, quickly sparking a scandal that led the candidate to drop out of the race and resign from his position at TP Action just days later. Yet, for all of right-wing media’s handwringing about voter fraud in recent election cycles, a Media Matters analysis found no mentions of those allegations between April 15-23 on Fox News, One America News, and Newsmax — conservative cable outlets that have repeatedly peddled and fixated on debunked instances of supposed voter fraud.

An Arizona state representative and Turning Point Action official has been accused of forging signatures on a ballot qualification petition

According to an April 15 complaint filed by one of Smith’s constituents in state Superior Court, the first-term lawmaker “personally circulated multiple petition sheets bearing what appear to be forged voter signatures” in handwriting that bore a “striking resemblance” to his own. Additionally, several purported signers provided declarations claiming that they never signed Smith’s petitions. 

In a statement posted on X (formerly Twitter) on April 18, Smith refuted the allegations and announced that he would withdraw his candidacy to avoid the legal fees required to defend himself in court. (That same day, Smith resigned from his position at Turning Point Action.) He also claimed that the complaint was part of a “coordinated attack” and a “well-organized effort.” But as Arizona Republic columnist Laurie Roberts noted, “If, in fact, this was some Democratic conspiracy to chase an innocent man from the Legislature, it’s curious that Smith wouldn’t defend himself. More curious still is the fact that not a single Republican legislator has called for his resignation in light of his refusal to answer allegations of election fraud.” Smith repeatedly claimed that the 2020 election was stolen from former President Donald Trump, and on the eve of the January 6, 2021, insurrection — in a now-deleted post on X — Smith reportedly urged his followers to not “get comfortable” and “fight like hell.” 

In a recent post, Smith promoted a colleague running against Maricopa County Recorder Stephen Richer, a Republican official scorned by pro-Trump figures for pushing back on false election fraud narratives in his county. 

The same right-wing media outlets who bellyache about supposed "voter fraud" are silent that a TPUSA-affiliated Turning Point Action senior director and Arizona State Rep. Austin Smith (R) forged signatures to get on the ballot.

#Turning Point Action #TPUSA #Turning Point USA #Austin Smith #Voter Fraud #Arizona #Stephen Richer #One America News Network #FNC #Newsmax

[mariacallous]

Moms for Liberty, the extremist “parental rights group,” was supposed to help the Republican Party regain the White House. In July, former president Donald Trump called the anti-LGBTQ group with 300 active chapters across the county a “grassroots juggernaut.” They are credited with forcing schools to lift mask mandates, banning books featuring LGBTQ characters, and supporting anti-trans laws and policies across the country. The group was on track to be instrumental to the GOP in the 2024 election.

But, over the course of the past five months, the group has begun to unravel.

Experts have questioned the claims about the size of the group’s membership, and individual members have been exposed as sex offenders and acolytes of the Proud Boys. Then, last month, Moms for Liberty cofounder Bridget Ziegler admitted in a police interview to being in a relationship with her husband and another woman. The interview was conducted after the woman in question alleged that Ziegler’s husband, Florida GOP chair Christian Ziegler, had raped her.

Ziegler’s husband has denied the allegations and refused to resign from his position as GOP chair, despite calls from Florida governor Ron DeSantis and other state Republicans to do so. Ziegler is also a member of the Sarasota County School Board, and has been instrumental in ushering in Florida’s Don’t Say Gay bill, pushing a Christian agenda in public schools, and banning the teaching of critical race theory. On Tuesday night, the board voted 4–1 in favor of a nonbinding resolution calling for her to resign, marking a rapid fall from grace for Ziegler and a potential fatal blow to Moms for Liberty.

“The impact of the Zeigler scandal has been enormous on the Moms for Liberty structure,” Liz Mikitarian, the founder of the activist group STOP Moms for Liberty, which closely tracks the group’s activities, tells WIRED. “We see chapters moving away or taking a break, chapter leadership questioning their roles and scrambling at the national level to save their ‘mom’ brand. The organization is trying to distance itself from the Zieglers, but this is impossible because the Zieglers are interwoven into the very fabric of Moms for Liberty.”

The group was founded in late 2020 by Ziegler, Tina Descovich, and Tiffany Justice. Ziegler’s close ties to the GOP establishment both locally and nationally helped the group get recognition, propelling their grassroots efforts quickly to the national stage. Initially founded to counter mask mandates during the Covid-19 pandemic, the group’s plans were straightforward: They wanted to support school board candidates who pushed their anti-LGBTQ agenda while advocating for the banning of books that feature people of color or members of the LGBTQ community. The group’s growth was extraordinary. In three years, Moms for Liberty claims to have established 300 chapters in 48 states, with a membership of 130,000 parents. While Ziegler resigned from the group in 2021, she has remained a close ally of the group, speaking at its annual conferences and pushing its agenda from her school board seat.

In a sign of just how coveted an endorsement from the group had become in GOP circles, Trump was joined at their convention this summer by GOP presidential candidates Ron DeSantis, former UN ambassador Nikki Haley, and entrepreneur and great replacement conspiracy proponent Vivek Ramaswamy.

The group’s support from the GOP came despite widespread reports about the harassment and intimidation campaigns that Moms for Liberty members conducted against school board members, teachers, superintendents, and even other parents. These allegations led the Southern Poverty Law Center to label Moms for Liberty an extremist group earlier this year.

But in recent months, controversies and closer scrutiny of the group’s claims have significantly tarnished the group’s image.

Just days after the Moms for Liberty convention in Philadelphia, Heath Brown, a professor of public policy at the City University of New York, wrote on Medium that while Moms for Liberty claims to be a national movement, the vast majority of its membership is concentrated in just four states: South Carolina, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, and Florida.

“This suggests that the political power is considerable and expanding in some states, but nearly absent and even waning in others,” Brown wrote.

Research from the Brookings Institution published in October confirmed this, and found that while Moms for Liberty was attracting members in Democratic strongholds, it was winning school board elections only in staunchly conservative regions of the country.

While its rapid growth may have suggested that Moms for Liberty would sweep school board races nationwide in November, 70 percent of its endorsed candidates lost their races, according to an analysis from the American Federation of Teachers. Weeks after the embarrassing election losses, the group was forced to remove two Kentucky chapter chairs from leadership positions after the women posed for photos with members of the Proud Boys militia. The group has a long history of associating with members of the Proud Boys, and Ziegler herself had to deny links to the group after she posed with two members at a victory party after she was elected to the Sarasota County School Board.

Then, the group removed Phillip Fisher Jr., a pastor who coordinates faith-based outreach for Philadelphia’s Moms for Liberty chapter, after it was revealed he was a registered sex offender.

Then came the revelations about the Zieglers.

Initially, the Moms for Liberty groups circled the wagons and slammed the media attention on the story, claiming in a statement on X that the sexual assault allegation made against Christian Ziegler was ​​”another attempt to ruin the reputation of a strong woman fighting for America.”

But in early December, a chapter chair in Northumberland County, Pennsylvania, who was also the state legislative lead for the group, announced she and the other members were splitting from the national group to form their own organization because of the leadership’s response to the scandal.

In the weeks since, those who are closely tracking the group’s activities say chapters have gone quiet. Some, including several chapters in Maryland, have been removed from the Moms for Liberty website and their online activity has slowed to a crawl.

“Moms for Liberty has been repeatedly exposed as hypocrites over the past months, but I believe these new issues will be insurmountable to them,” Karen Svoboda, cofounder of Defense of Democracy, a group created to counter Moms for Liberty’s actions, tells WIRED. “Moms for Liberty, the powerhouse that wreaked such havoc on our communities and schools, is becoming undone by their own hubris.”

Despite the vote against her on Tuesday night, Ziegler did not resign, and said the resolution “has no teeth” given that the only person who can remove a school board member is the governor. And given that DeSantis has not asked Ziegler to resign from her position on a Disney oversight board he appointed her to, it’s unlikely he will force her to resign from the Sarasota County School Board.

However, Ziegler has resigned from her position as vice president of School Board Leadership Programs at the Leadership Institute, the highly influential conservative group led by Morton Blackwell, who also cofounded the secretive Council for National Policy. The Leadership Institute has been a major funder of Moms for Liberty since its inception, and Blackwell’s apparent lack of faith in Ziegler could spell trouble for her and Moms for Liberty.

“There are a lot of signs that Blackwell holds the ultimate power over Moms for Liberty,” Maurice Cunningham, a former political science professor at the University of Massachusetts Boston who has tracked Moms for Liberty’s growth closely, tells WIRED. “He will decide Moms for Liberty’s future, and Moms for Liberty cannot continue if he pulls the plug.”

Moms for Liberty did not respond to WIRED’s request for comment about the impact the Ziegler scandal is having on the group or on their membership numbers. Instead, a spokesperson for the group pointed WIRED to a statement issued by Descovich and Justice in the days after the Ziegler scandal broke, distancing the group from Ziegler while also praising her for “remaining an avid warrior for parental rights across the country.”

[itsmythang]

The executive director of the North Dakota Republican Party has resigned after less than two weeks on the job following controversy over a series of social media posts denigrating women and Black people, reported KFYR TV on Tuesday.

"I believe the best path forward for the NDGOP is for me to take a different path," said Dave Roetman in a brief statement announcing his resignation. "I wish them all the best."

This comes after extensive reporting at The Forum of Fargo-Moorhead documenting Roetman's controversial escapades on X.

POLL: Should Trump be allowed to run for office?

According to reporter Rob Port, Roetman made "dozens and dozens of ignorant social media posts," including comments leering at scantily clad or undressed women; jokes about women making sandwiches; and a suggestion that Black people should get out of America and move to Wakanda, the fictional East African kingdom that was the setting for Black Panther.

When the original story broke, Roetman refused to apologize, telling Port, "I am a man who stands by his words."

Generally, state party chairs are content to work behind the scenes out of sight, but are sometimes the focus of colorful scandals. In 2021, former Minnesota GOP director Jennifer Carnahan stepped down amid allegations the organization was full of sexual harassment and bullying, including one of her close associates and party donors being arrested for sex trafficking.

[simonalkenmayer]

Tucker Carlson out at fox

Don Lemon out at CNN

FOX already blaming Donald Trump for their dominion scandal and it’s spiraling size drawing in Supreme Court Justices

Trump and DeSantis attempting to out-Hitler one another

Courts going to the right

Politicians passing increasingly dangerous laws.

Ukraine attempting to join NATO, as China, who gets most of its oil from Russia, says “post soviet countries (like Ukraine) lack legitimacy in international courts”

India, Israel, and Saudi governments going increasingly right. Fighting in Sudan.

The world is sorting itself into two camps, just as I’d did before WWII.

Watching it implode is comforting insofar as it pleases me to have gotten predictions correct, and no further.

The next 2 years will be some of the most dangerous in the history of the world. Be vigilant. Be kind. Be brave. Be safe.

I am very glad the pandemic happened when it did, because people will know how to shelter.

I am not optimistic. I don’t want to frighten people but I want everyone to be safe.

We have to march and organize and VOTE. That’s the thing that holds it at bay. It’s the only thing that keeps violence from happening—that all peaceful measures are exhausted.

[posttexasstressdisorder]

[artemistartarus]

Still not over this, Elon Musk and Rupert Murdoch are using their money to spit on her grave.

Full article here:

“An award named after Ruth Bader Ginsburg has gone to a slate of accomplished women since it was launched four years ago to honor the legacy of the late Supreme Court justice known for championing women's rights and liberal causes. This year is different.

Next month, the Dwight D. Opperman Foundation will present the Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg Leadership Award to four men and Martha Stewart. Among the winners are two convicted felons, the founder of right-wing Fox News, and Elon Musk.

Stewart, Musk, Rupert Murdoch, Michael Milken and Sylvester Stallone are the five "iconic" and "exceptional" recipients of the 2024 RBG Leadership Award, the organizing foundation said in a news release on Wednesday.

Ginsburg's family is blasting the foundation's selection of this year's recipients, saying the decision is an "affront" to the memory of the late justice and her values.

"This year, the Opperman Foundation has strayed far from the original mission of the award and from what Justice Ginsburg stood for," Jane Ginsburg, daughter of the Supreme Court justice, said in a statement.

The award was conceived in 2019 to recognize "an extraordinary woman who has exercised a positive and notable influence on society and served as an exemplary role model in both principles and practice." Past recipients have included Queen Elizabeth II and Barbra Streisand.

This year, "woman" has been dropped from the name of the award, and the criteria has expanded to include "trailblazing men and women" who "have demonstrated extraordinary accomplishments in their chosen fields," the Opperman Foundation said.

"Justice Ginsburg fought not only for women but for everyone," the foundation's chair, Julie Opperman, said in the news release. "Going forward, to embrace the fullness of Justice Ginsburg's legacy, we honor both women and men who have changed the world by doing what they do best."

The Ginsburg family says it was not informed of the changes in name or criteria for the award. It is pressing Opperman to remove Justice Ginsburg's name from the award "unless the original award criteria, as accepted by Justice Ginsburg, are restored," as Trevor Morrison, Ginsburg's former law clerk, wrote in a letter to the foundation's chair that spoke on behalf of the Ginsburg family.

Until then, Morrison said, the justice's family wishes "to make clear that they do not support using their mother's name to celebrate this slate of awardees, and that the Justice's family has no affiliation with and does not endorse this award."

"Each of this year's awardees has achieved notable success in their careers, and each may well deserve accolades of one form or another. But the decision to bestow upon them the particular honor of the RBG Award is a striking betrayal of the Justice's legacy," he wrote.

Most of the awardees' track records bear controversies and scandals rivaling their achievements.

Milken, an investment banker famous for creating the junk bond market, was arrested in the late '80s for securities fraud. After he was released from prison, he built a reputation on his philanthropy. President Trump pardoned Milken in 2020.

Stewart, who built a multimillion-dollar empire as a homemaking maven, served prison time for lying to investigators about a fishy stock sale.

Murdoch, the retired mogul who leveraged his media outlets to embrace right-wing leaders and views, allowed Fox News stars to promote baseless claims of fraud in the 2020 presidential election.

Musk, the billionaire owner of SpaceX, has been accused of antisemitism and, since taking over Twitter — now known as X — reportedly allowed pro-Nazi content to proliferate on the platform, prompting companies to pull ad revenue.

Actor Stallone of Rocky fame has faced multiple allegations of sexual assault, all of which he denies and for which he's never been charged.

Stallone escorted Justice Ginsburg to the stage — as the franchise's theme song played — during the award's inaugural ceremony in 2020, as Opperman noted at the time.

At that ceremony, Justice Ginsburg stated her hopes for the award: "By honoring brave, strong and resilient women, we will prompt women and men in ever-increasing numbers to help repair tears in their local communities, the nation and the world, so that the long arc of the moral universe will continue to bend toward justice."

In an email to NPR, RBG's son singled out two recipients in his condemnation of the new criteria.

"... that is quite a step down from the original criteria and, apparently, means people like Murdoch and Musk who are antithetical to everything Mom stood for, qualify," Jim Ginsburg said. "Speaking only for myself, I would say that those who foment hatred and undermine democracy do not stand for the ideals of equality, respect, and engagement my mother strived to advance."

The Opperman Foundation has not yet responded to NPR's request for comment.

Copyright 2024 NPR. To see more, visit NPR.”

#ruth bader ginsburg #npr #us politics #american politics #rip rbg #elon musk #rupert murdoch #liberal #librals #news article #full news article

[tomorrowusa]

Is it a coincidence that the election night map on TVN24 in Poland used the colors of the Ukrainian flag to designate which party was ahead in each województwo (province)? 🙂🇺🇦🇵🇱

In any case, here are the final results from the official election authority the Państwowa Komisja Wyborcza.

The official results in the number of seats per party were amazingly close to the exit polls. While the specific number of seats per party differed slightly, the Sunday night Ipsos poll and these official results both give the three pro-democracy parties a total of 248 seats.

The official turnout (74.38%) was more than a percentage point higher than the already high exit poll estimate. This is the highest turnout since the 1989 election which saw the end of communism in Poland.

When you vote, you win.

People who have lived under authoritarianism don't need to be prodded into voting.

Tim Mak is an American journalist in Ukraine. He tells about Marcin Banasiak, a Polish citizen who is doing humanitarian work in Eastern Ukraine. Long story short: Just to vote in Sunday's election, Marcin spent 26 hours traveling from Kharkiv to Warsaw. That required traveling almost the entire length of Ukraine and then over to Warsaw via the border city of Chełm.

Read Tim's account of Marcin's vote quest at Mastodon.

If Marcin can spend 26 hours (traveling one way) to help rescue democracy in Poland, we should not complain about the minor inconveniences related to voting in the US.

American historian and journalist Anne Applebaum lives in Poland with her husband Radek Sikorski who happens to be an MEP and former cabinet member in the previous Donald Tusk government. In The Atlantic (archived) on Monday she wrote about what led to the pro-democracy victory at the polls.

[A]bout 73 percent of Poles voted across the country, far more than the number that voted in 1989, and in some places the turnout was higher than 80 percent. In Warsaw, Gdansk, Lublin, and Wroclaw, as well as some European cities, voters stood in line for many hours, polling stations ran out of ballots, and some people were able to vote only long after the polls had been scheduled to close. At one Warsaw polling station near midnight, an election worker wept on live television, thanking her compatriots for showing up in such large numbers. How did they do it? Anger is a powerful emotion, and over the past year, PiS made a lot of people angry. Repeated PiS corruption scandals—corruption being one of the inevitable results of politicized judges, police, and prosecutors—certainly helped the opposition. So did high inflation, partly created by PiS’s decision to spend heavily on social programs as the election approached. So did the decision by PKN Orlen, a state-owned oil company, to lower gasoline prices in advance of the vote, thereby causing shortages around the country, as well as general mockery. But this turnout was produced by positive emotions too. Donald Tusk, the leader of the Civic Coalition, pointedly used the language of civic patriotism rather than angry nationalism. Thousands of volunteers came together to organize election-monitoring teams. Hundreds of thousands of people marched in two major demonstrations in Warsaw, carrying Polish and European Union flags; others joined a series of big public meetings around the country.

The new government, when it assumes office, won't be perfect – because no humans are perfect. But it will be enormously better. And similar to Democrats in the US after Trump, the presumed three-party coalition in Poland will spend a lot of time repairing democratic institutions degraded by PiS.

#poland #election results from poland #polska #wybory #wyniki #sejm #państwowa komisja wyborcza #victory for democracy #marcin banasiak #tim mak #ukraine #anne applebaum #radek sikorski #koalicja obywatelska #pis #register and vote

[dontmean2bepoliticalbut]

#us politics #2022 #memes #shitpost #monopoly #republicans #conservatives #donald trump #mar a lago #Trump's fucked #later bozo #department of justice #sdny #trump organization scandal #trump organization #georgia election investigation #fbi raid

[dontmeantobepoliticalbut]

Former President Donald Trump loves calling for other people to be charged with crimes. Instead, today, he’ll be formally accused of committing a few himself.

Trump told his 2016 Democratic opponent, Hillary Clinton, she’d “be in jail” if he won the election, in the middle of a presidential debate. He accused former President Barack Obama of committing “treason.” He slammed President Joe Biden’s “crime family.” He called a journalist a “criminal” for failing to report news Trump wanted to hear.

But today, Trump will be arraigned in a Manhattan courtroom shortly after 2:00 p.m. EST, on charges widely expected to arise from a $130,000 hush money payment to porn star Stormy Daniels.

Now that Trump is the one being charged with a crime, Trump and his allies are blasting the move as an unacceptable politicization of the criminal justice system, overlooking the many times Trump lobbied, inside and outside the White House, for his political opponents to be investigated and criminally charged.

They’re also glossing over the fact that Trump is hardly alone among his friends: A truly staggering number of people Trump likes to pal around with—including his advisors, lawyers and top supporters—have also been found guilty of committing a wide variety of crimes, from financial fraud to lying under oath and more.

Viewed in that light, Trump is just the latest of his friend group to catch a case.

Trump’s longtime Chief Financial Officer, Allen Weisselberg, is currently wrapping up a five-month sentence in the notorious Rikers Island prison complex after entering a guilty plea on 15 criminal counts ranging from grand larceny to tax fraud.

Trump’s personal attorney Michael Cohen is now expected to be a prime witness against Trump at the former president’s upcoming criminal trial. Cohen was sentenced to three years in federal prison after pleading guilty to eight criminal counts, including tax evasion and orchestrating unlawful contributions to Trump’s presidential campaign. Cohen said he was directed by Trump to set up hush money payments to women who said they slept with Trump before the 2016 election. (Trump denies all charges, and has repeatedly insisted he did nothing wrong.)

Trump’s former campaign and White House advisor, Steve Bannon, was convicted of contempt of Congress last summer, and is now defending himself from a new round of criminal fraud charges related to a private non-profit group that aimed to build a wall on the U.S.-Mexico border. New York prosecutors accuse Bannon of defrauding donors to a charity We Build The Wall. Bannon has pleaded not guilty.

Then there’s Paul Manafort, Trump’s former campaign chairman, who was sentenced to seven years following his convictions for financial crimes, only to be pardoned by Trump. Trump also pardoned his longtime political advisor Roger Stone, who’d been convicted at a jury trial on charges of obstruction, false statements, and witness tampering relating to the Congressional investigation of Russia’s interference in the 2016 election.

Even Trump’s business has been found guilty of committing crimes.

Trump’s company was convicted of all 17 criminal counts against it during a trial in late 2022, which took place in the very same courtroom where Trump’s personal criminal case is now set to play out. He’ll even have the same New York Supreme Court Judge Juan Merchan overseeing his personal case.

Trump’s criminal drama in Manhattan, of course, isn’t the only legal jeopardy he’s facing.

He’s also being investigated by an Atlanta-area prosecutor for his attempts to reverse his 2020 election defeat in Georgia. And a federal special counsel named Jack Smith is overseeing two investigations. One concerns whether Trump broke the law by stashing secret government documents at his Mar-a-Lago club in Palm Beach, Florida; and the other concerns whether Trump committed crimes while trying to stay in power despite losing the 2020 election.

#us politics #news #vice news #2023 #donald trump #republicans #conservatives #gop #manhattan grand jury #indicted #hush money #Stormy Daniels #michael cohen #Allen Weisselberg #trump organization scandal #trump organization #Steve Bannon #Paul Manafort #Roger Stone #Judge Juan Merchan #new york #georgia election investigation #classified documents probe #YouTube #videos

[cipheramnesia]

I know that thing with JKR being stupid about people who menstruate is over 2 years ago, but you seem knowledgeable about the subject and did anyone ever point out that, given the original article was about specifc problems THE PANDEMIC caused for menstruating people, and given her age, JKR likely didn't even menstruate any more at that point, she was literally inserting herself into a Discussion about/for a group she wasn't part of...?

Here's the thing about conservatives like JKR, really most people who are against social progress. They don't care about hypocrisy.

Conservatives don't care about hypocrisy. Republicans don't care about hypocrisy. Tories don't care about hypocrisy. No one puts themselves in between social progress who cares about hypocrisy.

I'm repeating this because all of us who are leftist or want equality or inclusion need to hammer that home internally so we can stop trying to use it as a rhetorical tactic.

Rowling has never written a woman who is particularly aspirational in her life, essentially has written zero queer people, and knows almost no trans people. She's perfectly happy to talk about women and lesbians and trans people all day long despite her writing setting all those people back a few decades.

Every conservative politician pushing family values has fucked dozens of people on the side and usually has multiple marriages. They work against any and all programs designed to feed or house children. Their constituency knows this and cheers them on with gusto.

Supporters of trump with blue lives matter flags and punisher skull bumper stickers are out in droves demanding we defund the FBI. I guarantee you they will be back to support whatever cop shoots an innocent person next week.

There are white women right now crying into their Facebook pages about the loss of Roe v Wade who are without doubt paying into campaigns for forced birthing candidates and calling anyone who needs abortion access sluts damned to hell.

What I'm getting at here is fuck Rowling for her miserable, pathetic, sycophantic hypocrisy but that's not important. Observation of hypocrisy while eminently enjoyable changes nothing.

JKR off her shits again? Maybe donate to Mermaids UK. Forced birthers in office in your area? Donate to Planned Parenthood and vote em out or maybe even run for office if you got the resources. Volunteer at soup kitchens or homeless shelters, donate to organizations for feeding the poor.

Like no one person can do all of this all the time and maybe not even a lot of the time, but that doesn't matter. Do what you can when you can, try and be better. If you have a chance to make a difference to someone take it, just try and do kind things that give people help or hope or homes or hands y'know?

I promise not a single one of these hypocritical bastards is gonna be undone by sex scandals or bad optics, and we're lucky if they even face legal consequences for blatantly violating the law and order they love to tout so proudly. So, y'know, it's fun, but also fuck it. Put down the dancing crabs and do something helpful.

[aerial-jace]

The June 25th Guatemalan election and why it's kind of a Big Deal

This last Sunday Guatemala had an election, an election I can't help but have a lot of thoughts about as it's shaping up to be the culmination of a story arc of sorts of Guatemalan politics that has been running since I first became aware of politics essentially. The results, particularly in the presidential, were shocking to say the least. By writing up this post I'm hoping not only to inform those who might be curious of what's going on in my little corner of the world but also to organize my own thoughts.

More under the cut...

So, what went down with the prsidency? At first it may seem like a routine presidential election. An overabundance of candidates, 21 total, ensured no one got to the winning threshold of 1 vote above 50%, so we're going into run-offs next August 20th between the two most voted candidates. One of the candidates who advanced into the run-offs in fact is a pretty well known face, having ran twice before, ex-first lady Sandra Torres.

The party she leads is called Unidad National de la Esperanza (National Unit of Hope or UNE for its Spanish acronym), easily the most well-established Guatemalan party, with both a strong voter base and an impressive longevity considering how easy our parties crumble within a single election cycle.

Though she was a politician in her own right from before, her big break didn't come until her ex-husband and former UNE leader Álvaro Colom reached the presidency during the 2007 election. As first lady she was the face of her husband's welfare programs as well as being one of the key bureaucrats administering them. With all these accomplishments it's easy to see why she has become so beloved.

Unsurprisingly though she's also severely maligned by more conservative-minded people. All the typical right wing clichés apply to her, that she's promoting laziness, that she's vote buying, that she's encouraging the (mostly indigenous and rural) population to breed like rabbits to get welfare money, and so on and so forth.

She's also had personal scandals clouding her image, such as her divorce in 2011, right before the presidential election. Guatemalan law prohibits not only second terms but also prohibits the immediate family of current presidents from seeking to be elected. All this with the aim of preventing them from entrenching themselves or a dynastic structure into power. The timing her seemed to a lot of people quite the convenient way to skirt these laws and because of it the Tribunal Supremo Electoral (Supreme Electoral Tribunal or TSE) rejected her candidacy.

However, it would not be accurate to dismiss all critique of her as baseless propagandizing or a focus on personality over policy. UNE over the years has had a myriad controversies, involving links to drug trafficking, illegal campaign financing, misappropriation and mismanagement of government funds, and all manners of corruption which is depressingly common in the Guatemalan Congress. As consistently one of the major voting blocs and an entrenched party, UNE as a whole, and Sandra Torres as their leader, has repeatedly acted to perpetuate the political ill that hangs most heavy in the consciousness of the Guatemalan electorate.

Her two defeats, first against comedian Jimmy Morales in 2015 in what I'd call a cheap imitation of Trump's rise to power had it not happened first and the second against our current president Alejandro Giammatei, reflect precisely this deep-seated aversion towards her. The electorate voted against her more than in favor of them to catastrophic results.

That first one is particularly notable because even though he sold himself as an anti-corruption candidate, the main achievement of the Morales government was the dismantlement of the Comisión Internacional Contra la Impunidad en Guatemala (International Commission Against Impunity in Guatemala, CICIG), a well regarded UN overseer body instrumental in exposing the corruption Morales's predecessor Otto Pérez Molina which led to his resignation and arrest.

(The Giammatei government's main policy achievement is massively fucking up the Covid response in just about every aspect.)

Now, to explain the origins of Sandra Torres and UNE's main opponent we have to zoom into that particular event. So! In 2014, as a response to a massive recently uncovered corruption case involving bribes and extortion at La Aurora Inernational Airport, Guatemala City residents began to protest at the central plaza of the city. The protestors rallied under the cry of #RenunciaYa (Resign Already) and as the modest protest movement that organized primarily through Twitter grew it became a focal point of anti-establishment sentiment rallying people of all sorts of different backgrounds.

As the CICIG investigation on the case proceeded and it became untenable for the government to let this grow, Congress voted to revoke political immunity to the president and the very next day he was arrested. He remains under custody to this very day. The very successful citizen activist campaign soon morphed into the #JusticiaYa (Justice Already) movement aiming to call out corruption and bring all politicians furthering the institutional rot of the Guatemalan government to justice.

From the leadership of #JusticiaYa would emerge Movimiento Semilla (Seed Movement), a social democratic party billing itself as primarily an anti-corruption force in Congress and secondarily as a more principled alternative to the rotten UNE. The niche they fill right now is one that used to be filled by Encuentro por Guatemala (Encounter for Guatemala), an older more established party that was dissolved due to not reaching the vote threshold to remain as an active party after 2019.

The reason Encuentro lost so many voters is because many of them thought it would be a good idea to give the fresh, young Semilla candidates a chance under the assumption Encuentro would eventually absorb them. My mom did precisely that, in fact, and when the desired outcome did not materialize it left other Encuentro voters like myself feeling pretty miffed.

Semilla had intended to put forward our ex-attorney general Thelma Aldana, another key figure in the Pérez Molina downfall, as candidate in 2019 but her candidacy was rejected by the TSE and so they didn't put forward a presidential until this year with their leader Bernardo Arévalo. For his very first electoral showing they managed an impressive 11.77% compared to Sandra Torres's 15.86% and the spoilt ballots' 17.39%. With this he has well and truly established himself as the dark horse on this race.

In terms of congressmen, Semilla has also managed some fairly good numbers, positioned as the 3rd largest party with 23 out of 120 representatives, up from a measly 7 last election. They're only behind UNE's 28 and Vamos por una Guatemala Differente's (Let's go for a different Guatemala, the incumbent president's party) 38. It is not the best result they could have gotten, it will still be quite the uphill battle to get anything done if they win the presidency, specially since their main ally in Congress right now is the coalition between the indigenous issues parties Winaq and URNG-Maiz, both of which only managed 1 representative sent by their joint delegation down from 6, 3 and 3 each, in the current congress. (The party I voted for this time, I just can't win can I?) But it is at least very encouraging to Semilla voters.

Arévalo is in an interesting position as leader and presidential candidate of a social democratic party allied with two historically very leftist --outright communist in URNG's case!-- indigenous issues parties. For years the right wing line has been to demonize Sandra Torres but it seems her more centrist and socially conservative tendencies make her seem like the most pallatable option of the two at the moment. It will be hard, however, to get the right wing base to unlearn all their vitriol against her.

In economic policy Semilla seems to be much more vague than UNE, only mentioning more public spending in aspirational terms rather than concrete policies, possibly to avoid alienating voters or distracting from their main objective of bringing accountability to Guatemalan institutions. Although they are not my first choice I am very much supporting them this second round. Their alliance with Winaq and URNG-Maiz has the potential to bring more leftist positions into the mainstream. Plus they are the single openly pro-LGBT party in the running which is neat.

My biggest hope right now is that a succesful Semilla government will open up the possibility of closer collaboration with a stronger Winaq and URNG-Maiz. I'm particularly hoping Semilla, Winaq, and URNG-Maiz run a joint candidacy for mayor of Guatemala City and that it can finally topple the dominance of the Partido Unionista (Unionist Party) candidate. The Semilla-Winaq-URNG candidate this year was excellent and had the objectively correct urban planning takes.

So, yeah, that's what's been happening over here.

#guatemala #politics #guatpol #<- maybe a tag I could use? #it'd be nice if I could have more of a community for this on Tumblr hahahah

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

* * * * *

Meanwhile, the struggle in the House of Representatives today looked like a preview of the 2024 election. 

Representative Jim Jordan (R-OH), a staunch supporter of former president Trump and a key figure in the attempt to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election, is pushing hard for election as speaker, emphasizing how imperative it is for the House Republicans to enable the House to get back to business. As Karoun Demirjian outlined in the New York Times, Jordan and his allies have deployed a pressure campaign against those Republicans opposed to him, as she puts it, “working to unleash the rage of the party’s base voters against any lawmaker standing in his way.” 

This is the same tactic that the extremists have used for decades to move the Republican Party to the right. But there is a different dynamic at play in this speakership crisis. Jordan and his allies created the crisis in the first place by supporting Trump’s demands to shut down the government, tossing out former speaker Kevin McCarthy because he would not agree to shut down the government, and refusing to abide by the vote of the Republican conference to accept the choice of the majority: first McCarthy and then Representative Steve Scalise (R-LA).

There is another way in which this moment is different. Jordan is a flamethrower who was one of the original organizers of the right-wing Freedom Caucus. Republicans saw McCarthy, who was an excellent fundraiser, as a pro-business Republican who worked with the far right, but Jordan is the real deal: a far-right extremist. Republican donors have already suggested they are not enthusiastic about working with him to fund Republican candidates.

The third way this moment is different is that putting Jordan in the speaker’s chair makes him, along with Trump, the face of the Republican Party going into the 2024 election. Representative Pete Aguilar (D-CA) previewed the many downsides of Jordan as speaker when he nominated Democratic minority leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) for the speaker’s chair. Aguilar blamed extremism and partisanship for the unprecedented chaos of the House and urged the Republicans to embrace bipartisanship to do the work the American people had sent them to Washington, D.C., to conduct. 

Aguilar noted that Jordan was “the architect of a nationwide abortion ban, a vocal election denier, and an insurrection inciter.” He has “spent his entire career trying to hold our country back, putting our national security in danger, attempting government shutdown after government shutdown, wasting taxpayer dollars on baseless investigations with dead ends, authoring the very bill that would ban abortion nationwide without exceptions, and inciting violence on this chamber. Even leaders of his own party have called him ‘a legislative terrorist.’” 

Aguilar pointed out Jordan’s opposition to disaster relief, veterans’ relief, support for Ukraine, and military aid to our allies, including Israel, and added: “This body is debating elevating a speaker nominee who has not passed a single bill in 16 years. These are not the actions of someone interested in governing or bettering the lives of everyday Americans.” Jordan as speaker would mean the Republican Party would “continue taking marching orders from a twice-impeached former president with more than 90 pending felony charges.”

Even without mentioning Jordan’s involvement with the cover-up of a sexual assault scandal at Ohio State, Aguilar put Republicans on notice that placing Jordan at the head of the party would have brutal consequences in Democratic campaign ads. 

When House members voted for speaker, the Democrats were unified behind Jeffries, who won all 212 of their votes. Jordan won only 200 of the 217 votes necessary to become speaker, with 20 Republicans voting for someone else. His allies initially said they would call a second vote tonight but changed their minds, apparently realizing that another loss would weaken his candidacy significantly. They say they will hold another vote tomorrow.

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

HEATHER COX RICHARDSON

#clown car #Marshall ramsey #Jim “Gym” Jordan #dysfunctional GOP #Letters From An American #US House of Representatives #the people's business #GOP extremism #women's rights #human rights #MAGA extremism

[posttexasstressdisorder]

IT’S DONE! TRUMP INDICTED!

The unprecedented case against Trump will have wide-ranging implications.

A Manhattan grand jury voted to indict Donald J. Trump on Thursday for his role in paying hush money to a porn star, according to five people with knowledge of the matter, a historic development that will shake up the 2024 presidential race and forever mark him as the nation’s first former president to face criminal charges.

In the coming days, prosecutors working for the district attorney, Alvin L. Bragg, will likely ask Mr. Trump to surrender and to face arraignment. The specific charges will be announced when he is arraigned.

Mr. Trump has for decades avoided criminal charges despite persistent scrutiny and repeated investigations, creating an aura of legal invincibility that the vote to indict now threatens to puncture.

His actions surrounding his 2020 electoral defeat are now the focus of a separate federal investigation, and a Georgia prosecutor is in the final stages of an investigation into Mr. Trump’s attempts to reverse the election results in that state.

But unlike the investigations that arose from his time in the White House, this case is built around a tawdry episode that predates Mr. Trump’s presidency. The reality star turned presidential candidate who shocked the political establishment by winning the White House now faces a reckoning for a hush money payment that buried a sex scandal in the final days of the 2016 campaign.

On Thursday, the three lead prosecutors on the Trump investigation walked into the building where the grand jury was sitting in the minutes before the panel was scheduled to meet at 2 p.m. One of them carried a copy of the penal law — with Post-it notes visible — which was likely used to read the criminal statutes to the grand jurors before they voted. About three hours later, the prosecutors walked into the court clerk’s office through a back door to begin the process of filing the indictment.

For weeks, the atmosphere outside of the district attorney’s office had resembled a circus. But the fervor had cooled in recent days, and the outskirts of the office were emptier on Thursday than they have been in weeks.

Mr. Trump has consistently denied all wrongdoing and attacked Mr. Bragg, a Democrat, accusing him of leading a politically motivated prosecution. He has also denied any affair with the porn star, Stormy Daniels, who had been looking to sell her story of a tryst with Mr. Trump during the campaign.

Here’s what else you need to know:

Mr. Bragg and his lawyers will likely attempt to negotiate Mr. Trump’s surrender. If he agrees, it will raise the prospect of a former president, with the Secret Service in tow, being photographed and fingerprinted in the bowels of a New York State courthouse.

The prosecution’s star witness is Michael D. Cohen, Mr. Trump’s former fixer who paid the $130,000 to keep Ms. Daniels quiet. Mr. Cohen has said that Mr. Trump directed him to buy Ms. Daniels’s silence, and that Mr. Trump and his family business, the Trump Organization, helped cover the whole thing up. The company’s internal records falsely identified the reimbursements as legal expenses, which helped conceal the purpose of the payments.

Although the specific charges remain unknown, Mr. Bragg’s prosecutors have zeroed in on that hush money payment and the false records created by Mr. Trump’s company. A conviction is not a sure thing: An attempt to combine a charge relating to the false records with an election violation relating to the payment to Ms. Daniels would be based on a legal theory that has yet to be evaluated by judges, raising the possibility that a court could throw out or limit the charges.

The vote to indict, the product of a nearly five-year investigation, kicks off a new and volatile phase in Mr. Trump’s post-presidential life as he makes a third run for the White House. And it could throw the race for the Republican nomination — which he leads in most polls — into uncharted territory.

Mr. Bragg is the first prosecutor to lead an indictment of Mr. Trump. He is now likely to become a national figure enduring a harsh political spotlight.

WE ARE LIVING HISTORY RIGHT NOW!