Totally Thursday Reads: Karma’s at Bat and Hits Home Runs
Posted: June 8, 2023 Filed under: morning reads, Republican politics, U.S. Politics | Tags: #TrumpIndictmentWatch, Thank you Fleet Street!, Trump Florida Grand Jury, Trump Target 13 Comments
You can have your cake and eat it too. #IndictmentDay #WhichWitchHunt #DingDong John (repeat1968) Buss @repeat1968
Good Day, Sky Dancers!
I get to go to the doctor tomorrow, so BB and I traded days again. Your eyes are not deceiving you! But, wow, did I get a Newsday today. I can’t see what’s going on in the news in the lowest hell realm, but they are celebrating a new denizen.
The New York Times obit for Payable to Pat Robertson is pretty disappointing. It not only displays its typical bothersiderism but acts like everyone loved him but us grumpy feminists and the GLBT community.
Let’s face it. The man was walking evil. I’m happier he’s gone than I was when Phyllis Schafly found her karmic spot in Avīci. There are actually 28 Naraka–hell realms–in Buddhist mythology. None of them are permanent, but then none of them are pleasant either.
Robertson’s run for president basically turned the Republican party into a place where culture war crusaders were welcomed and, dare I say, groomed for candidacy at all levels of government. He also was one of those who got everyone’s granny to give away her bank account by promising all kinds of things. Count me among his detractors.
Witchhunts! Witchcraft! WitchyWomen! Oh My! And the happiest tag of them all #IndictmentWatch!
Two UK newspapers have been on top of the news from yesterday. First, a Grand Jury in Florida is examing charges of espionage and obstruction. This is from the Independent. “Prosecutors ready to ask for Trump indictment on obstruction and Espionage Act charges.” Andrew Feinberg has this excellent bit of reporting. Additionally, it mentions casually that President Biden “laughs off” pardoning Orange Caligula.
The Department of Justice is preparing to ask a Washington, DC grand jury to indict former president Donald Trump for violating the Espionage Act and for obstruction of justice as soon as Thursday, adding further weight to the legal baggage facing Mr Trump as he campaigns for his party’s nomination in next year’s presidential election.
The Independent has learned that prosecutors are ready to ask grand jurors to approve an indictment against Mr Trump for violating a portion of the US criminal code known as Section 793, which prohibits “gathering, transmitting or losing” any “information respecting the national defence”.
The use of Section 793, which does not make reference to classified information, is understood to be a strategic decision by prosecutors that has been made to short-circuit Mr Trump’s ability to claim that he used his authority as president to declassify documents he removed from the White House and kept at his Palm Beach, Florida property long after his term expired on 20 January 2021.
That section of US criminal law is written in a way that could encompass Mr Trump’s conduct even if he was authorised to possess the information as president because it states that anyone who “lawfully having possession of, access to, control over, or being entrusted with any document …relating to the national defence,” and “willfully communicates, delivers, transmits or causes to be communicated, delivered, or transmitted or attempts to communicate, deliver, transmit or cause to be communicated, delivered or transmitted the same to any person not entitled to receive it, or willfully retains the same and fails to deliver it on demand to the officer or employee of the United States entitled to receive it” can be punished by as many as 10 years in prison.
It is understood that prosecutors intend to ask grand jurors to vote on the indictment on Thursday, but that vote could be delayed as much as a week until the next meeting of the grand jury to allow for a complete presentation of evidence, or to allow investigators to gather more evidence for presentation if necessary.
This looks to be a bit of brilliant lawyering. They know Trump will drag things out, and they know he always has arguments that do that. This approach cuts off a lot of legal shenanigans and appeal opportunities. This is also the case with the selection of a Florida venue. They’re going for the quick kill. This is Hugo Lowell’s offering from The Guardian.“Trump’s lawyers told he is target in Mar-a-Lago documents investigation.” And there was much rejoicing in the streets! Lowell appeared on MSNBC with Ari Melber yesterday evening, and wow, did he have the goods!
Federal prosecutors formally informed Donald Trump’s lawyers last week that the former president is a target of the criminal investigation examining his retention of national security materials at his Mar-a-Lago resort and obstruction of justice, according to two people briefed on the matter.
The move – the clearest sign yet that Trump is on course to be indicted – dramatically raises the stakes for Trump, as the investigation nears its conclusion after taking evidence before a grand jury in Washington and a previously unknown grand jury in Florida.
Trump’s lawyers were sent a “target letter” days before they met on Monday with the special counsel Jack Smith, who is leading the Mar-a-Lago documents case, and the senior career official in the deputy attorney general’s office, where they asked prosecutors not to charge the former president.
Trump has reportedly said he had not been personally informed by the justice department that he was a target when asked directly by a New York Times reporter, but demurred when asked whether his legal team had been told about the designation.
The development comes as prosecutors have obtained evidence of criminal conduct occurring at Mar-a-Lago and decided that any indictments should be charged in the southern district of Florida, where the resort is located, rather than in Washington, according to people familiar with the matter.
To that end, prosecutors last month started issuing subpoenas to multiple Trump aides that compelled them to testify before a new grand jury in Florida, impaneled around the time that the grand jury in Washington stopped taking new evidence, the Guardian previously reported.
It’s nice to see Fleet Street give both the New York Times and the Washington Post a comeuppance. Their reporters are more like insiders than journalists on a beat. More from Andrew Feinberg.
Let’s repeat this together. “The Independent has learned that prosecutors are prepared to ask grand jurors to vote on charges as early as Thursday.” #IndictmentWatch.
A separate grand jury that is meeting in Florida has also been hearing evidence in the documents investigation. That grand jury was empaneled in part to overcome legal issues posed by the fact that some of the crimes allegedly committed by Mr Trump took place in that jurisdiction, not in Washington. Under federal law, prosecutors must bring charges against federal defendants in the jurisdiction where the crimes took place.
Even if grand jurors vote to return an indictment against the ex-president this week, it is likely that those charges would remain sealed until both the Washington and Florida grand juries complete their work.
Another source familiar with the matter has said Mr Trump’s team was recently informed that he is a “target” of the Justice Department probe, which began in early 2022 after National Archives and Records Administration officials discovered more than 100 documents bearing classification markings in a set of 15 boxes of Trump administration records retrieved from Mar-a-Lago, the century-old mansion turned private beach club where Mr Trump maintains his primary residence and post-presidential office.
Over the course of the last year, grand jurors have heard testimony from numerous associates of the ex-president, including nearly every employee of Mar-a-Lago, former administration officials who worked in Mr Trump’s post-presidential office and for his political operation, and former high-ranking administration officials such as his final White House chief of staff, Mark Meadows.
Up next on the January 6th DOJ investigation is a subpoena for Steve Bannon. We are going to get subpoenas on some MAGArat congress critters next, and hopefully, Ginnie Thomas. I don’t know if there’s enough popcorn on the planet to carry us through the next few weeks. It’s going to be a glorious Independence Day at this rate!
SCOTUS actually just did something surprising today on a day when everything has not been surprising but long overdue! This is from NBC News, “Supreme Court backs landmark voting rights law, strikes down Alabama congressional map. The justices threw out Republican-drawn congressional districts that a lower court said discriminated against Black voters.” Lawerence Hurley has the lede. Please say this also pertains to the Gret State of Lousyana too!
The Supreme Court on Thursday struck down Republican-drawn congressional districts in Alabama that civil rights activists say discriminated against Black voters in a surprise reaffirmation of the landmark Voting Rights Act.
The court in a 5-4 vote ruled against Alabama, meaning the map of the seven congressional districts, which heavily favors Republicans, will now be redrawn. Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Brett Kavanaugh, both conservatives, joined the court’s three liberals in the majority.
In doing so, the court — which has a 6-3 conservative majority — turned away the state’s effort to make it harder to remedy concerns raised by civil rights advocates that the power of Black voters in states like Alabama is being diluted by dividing voters into districts where white voters dominate.
In the ruling, Roberts, writing for the majority, said a lower court had correctly concluded that the congressional map violated the voting rights law.
In 2013, Roberts authored a ruling that gutted a separate, important provision of the Voting Rights Act and has long argued that various government efforts to address historic racial discrimination are problematic and may exacerbate the situation.
He wrote in Thursday’s ruling that there are genuine fears that the Voting Rights Act “may impermissibly elevate race in the allocation of political power” and that the Alabama ruling “does not diminish or disregard those concerns.”
The court instead “simply holds that a faithful application of our precedents and a fair reading of the record before us do not bear them out here,” Roberts added.
As such, the court left open future challenges to the law, with Kavanaugh writing in a separate opinion that his vote did not rule out challenges to Section 2 based on whether there is a time at which the 1965 law’s authorization of the consideration of race in redistricting is no longer justified.
Civil rights groups and their supporters, including the Biden administration, reveled in a largely unexpected victory.
I’m already in need of a 7th Inning Stretch!
Alright! Let’s get this post published and take it down the thread!
What’s on your reading and blogging list today?
Wednesday Cartoons: Inclusiveness
Posted: June 7, 2023 Filed under: American Gun Fetish, Black Lives Matter, Florida, GLBT Rights, Gun Control, LGBTQIA+, morning reads, open thread, Political and Editorial Cartoons, the GOP | Tags: Ajike AJ Owens 6 Comments
Good morning…before we get to the cartoons, there is a story out of Florida that is getting some attention. It regards the murder of Ajike “AJ” Owens. Some of the links are from instagram so please be sure to go and read them:
This is the latest Year in Hate report from the Southern Poverty Law Center:
The latest from tRump world:
Now the cartoons from Cagle website:
























































Have a safe day today…this is an open thread.
An update…Susan Lorincz has been arrested in the fatal shooting of AJ Owens.
Tuesday Reads
Posted: June 6, 2023 Filed under: just because | Tags: D-Day 79the anniversary, RFK assassination 55th anniversary 24 CommentsGood Day, Sky Dancers!!
Today I want to highlight two important days in our country’s history. Today is the 79th anniversary of D-Day, and yesterday was the 55th anniversary of the assassination of Robert F. Kennedy.
D-Day, June 6, 1944
From PBS News Hour: Here are some key facts about D-Day ahead of the 79th anniversary of the World War II invasion.
Nearly 160,000 Allied troops landed in Normandy on June 6, 1944. Of those, 73,000 were from the United States, 83,000 from Britain and Canada. Forces from several other countries were also involved, including French troops fighting with Gen. Charles de Gaulle against the Nazi occupation.
They faced around 50,000 German forces.
More than 2 million Allied soldiers, sailors, pilots, medics and other people from a dozen countries were involved in the overall Operation Overlord, the battle to wrest western France from Nazi control that started on D-Day….
The sea landings started at 6:30 a.m. local time, just after dawn, targeting five code-named beaches, one after the other: Omaha, Utah, Gold, Sword, Juno.
The operation also included actions inland, including overnight parachute landings on strategic German sites and U.S. Army Rangers scaling cliffs to take out German gun positions.
Around 11,000 Allied aircraft, 7,000 ships and boats, and thousands of other vehicles were involved in the invasion….
A total of 4,414 Allied troops were killed on D-Day itself, including 2,501 Americans. More than 5,000 were wounded.
In the ensuing Battle of Normandy, 73,000 Allied forces were killed and 153,000 wounded. The battle — and especially Allied bombings of French villages and cities — killed around 20,000 French civilians.
The Assassination of Robert F. Kennedy, June 5, 1968
From NPR: Robert Kennedy was killed 55 years ago. How should he be remembered?
Just after midnight on June 5, 1968, in a ballroom in the ornate Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles, a packed crowd watched charismatic presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy give a victory speech after winning the California primary.
Almost five years after his older brother John F. Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas, Robert Kennedy was making his own run for the White House. America was divided over the Civil Rights Movement and the war in Vietnam.
The New York senator was gaining momentum to potentially secure the Democratic nomination. But that night — 55 years ago today — was the last time he would address the public….
As Kennedy walked off stage at the Ambassador Hotel through a pack of eager reporters, the crowd chanted his name.
“We want Bobby,” they cheered.
Kennedy shook hands with supporters and exited the ballroom through the kitchen. Then, the crowd heard what witnesses would later describe as the sound of firecrackers. A gunman fired a .22 caliber revolver, hitting Kennedy and injuring five others.
Olympic gold medalist Rafer Johnson — one of Kennedy’s friends who worked on his campaign — wrestled the gunman to the ground and tried to disarm him….
Kennedy died the next day. He was 42. His widow, Ethel, was pregnant with their 11th child….
Mourners lined up before dawn outside New York City’s St. Patrick’s Cathedral for Kennedy’s funeral mass. Inside the church, Sen. Ted Kennedy delivered the eulogy.
“As he said many times in many parts of this nation: Some men see things as they are and say ‘Why?’ ” Kennedy said. “I dream things that never were and say ‘Why not?’ “
Read more about Kennedy’s 1968 campaign at the NPR link.
Of course, that was not the only assassination in 1968. The Rev. Martin Luther King was murdered on April 4th. A highlight of Robert Kennedy’s campaign was the speech he gave in Indianapolis after informing the audience of King’s death.
At Esquire, Charles Pierce writes about that misbegotten year, 1968: It’s Been 55 Years Since This Country Lost RFK. In the litany of lousy American years, 1968 is right up there.
Every five years, we drag ourselves through a year of melancholy anniversaries. For some reason, we tend to account for these things in five-year increments, like college reunion cycles. And, in the litany of lousy American years, 1968 is right up there with 1860-1865, 1929, and 1941. And the sad and mournful commemorations are not limited to this country, or even to this side of the Atlantic. It was 55 ago this May that Paris erupted in riots and a nationwide wildcat strike. It was 55 years ago this August 20th that the Warsaw Pact tanks rolled into Prague to crush the promise of the Prague Spring.
Over here, the 55th anniversaries of that misbegotten year began in January, with the 55th anniversary of the Tet Offensive in Vietnam, in which the American public got a good look at the lies it had been fed about that war for years. It would be the deadliest year for the U.S, military of the entire conflict and, 55 years ago this past March, elements of the 20th and 23rd U.S, Infantry marched into Quang Ngai province toward the hamlet of My Lai.
As the opposition to the war exploded, President Lyndon Johnson’s political support began to disintegrate. In January. Senator Eugene McCarthy ran him a close race in the New Hampshire Democratic primary and shook up all political expectations for that fall’s presidential election. And then, 55 years ago this past March 16, Senator Robert F. Kennedy announced his campaign for president. Two weeks later, Johnson dropped out.
Kennedy’s campaign may have peaked 55 years ago this April 4. He was in Indianapolis. In Memphis, Dr. Martin Luther King. Jr. stepped out onto a motel balcony into a soft spring evening and a sniper shot him in the face. It was a crime almost unthinkable, but, sadly, not unanticipated. Kennedy got word of the murder on his way to a rally in a largely black section of Indianapolis. It would be up to him to deliver the news to his supporters already gathered there, most of whom had not yet heard it. Kennedy got up on the back of a truck and delivered one of the most remarkable spontaneous political speeches in the country’s history. He ended his address by summoning the year’s dark angels.
“We can do well in this country. We will have difficult times; we’ve had difficult times in the past; we will have difficult times in the future. It is not the end of violence; it is not the end of lawlessness; it is not the end of disorder. But the vast majority of white people and the vast majority of black people in this country want to live together, want to improve the quality of our life, and want justice for all human beings who abide in our land. Let us dedicate ourselves to what the Greeks wrote so many years ago: to tame the savageness of man and make gentle the life of this world. Let us dedicate ourselves to that, and say a prayer for our country and for our people.”
Read the rest at the Esquire link.
Today’s News
Miami Herald: Texas sheriff recommends criminal charges in DeSantis’ migrant flights to Martha’s Vineyard.
Los Angeles Times: Newsom threatens DeSantis with kidnapping charges after migrants flown to Sacramento.
Newsweek: Republicans Urge Immigrants to Stay in Florida, Fearing New Law’s Impact.
The New York Times: Trump Lawyers Visit Justice Dept. as Classified Documents Inquiry Nears End.
The Washington Post: Russia and Ukraine trade blame for destruction of Kakhovka dam, power plant.
The New York Times: Robert Kennedy Jr., With Musk, Pushes Right-Wing Ideas and Misinformation.
Rolling Stone: RFK Jr. Blames Anti-Depressants for School Shootings.
The Washington Post: FBI had reviewed, closed inquiry into Biden claims at center of Hill fight.
Have a great Tuesday, everyone!! This is an open thread.
Sunday Cartoons: It is a Rainbow 🌈 Morning!
Posted: June 4, 2023 Filed under: abortion rights, American Fascists, Bodily Autonomy, Drag, GLBT Rights, Human Rights, LGBTQIA+, morning reads, Political and Editorial Cartoons 19 Comments
So. As you can see, this post will focus on the #Pride month that is going on right now. I want to say straight off, today will be a safe day for all…and that is all LGBTQIA+ people. (And I am including Drag performers in this as well…of all sexes!)
I (JJ) am writing the post today, and I will not abide any comments that demean any of my 🏳️🌈🏳️⚧️ 🌈💛🧡❤️🩷💚💙🩵💜🖤🤎🤍🩶family and friends, who are celebrating with their #Pride families.
On Sunday and Wednesday…those days when I write the post. Don’t make derogatory comments or remarks or post anti -trans, anti-drag propaganda. Do not post hate filled statements that are also used by the right wing Christian fanatics that are taking away abortion rights…birth control and even divorce for people all over the US.
I will not accept any reference or comparisons to “black face” and drag. As I think it is a disgusting form of Christofascist rhetoric that has no place on this blog. I consider those kind of statements a form of hate speech. And if you need an explanation of this…then maybe you have become too radicalized to realize what ideals you are pushing.
I give fair warning, I will close the comments on my blog threads if there is any issues.
I want a safe place here. I am a fierce ally and supporter for all LGBTQIA+ peoples.

This is my Uncle John…and his cat Clio.

This is what John was going to take when he walked at Yuma’s Pride parade on Friday night with his husband Steve and their trans friend Danielle…you see Clio is a fierce LGBTQIA+ ally too!
I love my family and friends who are part of the LGBTQIA+ community…and I will do anything for them. I cannot sit here…at least on the days I write my post, and see the people I love be treated with such disrespect.
If you have a problem with that, I suggest you just don’t comment at all regarding this particular issue.
And now for the cartoons via Cagle:





























































Bodily autonomy is a human right.
#BodilyAutonomyForAll














Just a couple more things…
Give that a few minutes of your time…again that link is as follows:
And here is a few more news items about it:
Ok, that is it for today. Be safe and take care.
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