Not enough Whisky for this Tango Foxtrot

[River]

OMG. Last night I was looking at a reddit thread loaded with speculation that the announcement would be a running mate or a bid for House Speaker or a new SuperPAC or something that would trigger civil unrest. Instead it's NFTs.

That aren't being sold through the Trump Organization or by Trump himself. So I guess he's getting royalties for his image. I wonder if the RNC finally cut him off and this is how he's going to pay his legal bills.

[Voronwë the Faithful]

Anthime Joseph "Tim" Gionet more commonly known as Baked Alaska, is an American far-right media personality who livestreamed the 1/6 Capital breach and eventually pleaded guilty to parading, demonstrating or picketing inside a Capitol building, a misdemeanor.

[N.E. Brigand]

Gionet had been suspended from Twitter in 2017 and was only permitted to return five days ago, apparently as part of Elon Musk's "general amnesty" following a user poll that Musk conducted. That's not confirmed because the reporters on that story "contacted the social media platform's new owner Elon Musk for comment as Twitter no longer has a communications department," and Musk didn't respond.

One of Gionet's first tweets upon return to the platform was to poll users with this question: "Should I say the n word?" (By a narrow margin, the result was no.)

[Frelga]

It gets better.

Screenshot_20221215-204737.jpg (54.27 KiB) Viewed 3378 times

[Alatar]

In all its glory. Sweet Jeebus.

[Sunsilver]

Here's a link to the actual tweet from Frelga's post: https://wegotthiscovered.com/social-med ... ed-alaska/

I love what someone put at the bottom: If only someone could have seen this coming! And there's a link to a NYT article: How Donald Trump Bankrupted His Atlantic City Casinos, but Still Earned Millions https://www.nytimes.com/2016/06/12/nyre ... -city.html

Glad to know some of his followers are FINALLY getting to see him for who he really is! It's been a long time coming!

[N.E. Brigand]

The ridiculous cards have apparently sold out. Some Trump supporters are claiming that this is a brilliant campaign fundraising stunt, but the money isn't actually going to his campaign. I wonder how much was purchased by deluded Trump fans and how much was purchased by special interests as a way to bribe him.

[RoseMorninStar]

There are some theories that, because Trump's company is under court mandated monitoring, that the NFT/cards are part of a money laundering scheme. I have no idea whether this theory holds any merit.

[Alatar]

Also, he stole the images...

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics ... MxL55zZVGM

[RoseMorninStar]

... but are we surprised? (no) I truly believe he does not think laws apply to him (as is the case with many narcissists).

[elengil]

... but are we surprised? (no) I truly believe he does not think laws apply to him (as is the case with many narcissists).

Well, and they largely haven't up till now so...

[RoseMorninStar]

... but are we surprised? (no) I truly believe he does not think laws apply to him (as is the case with many narcissists).

Well, and they largely haven't up till now so...

Yeah, they get away with it because people aren't used to dealing with their blatant audacity and their behavior goes unchallenged. It is because of people like this that rules/laws were made (because a great many people do follow most rules). And yet... all such people do is look for loopholes .. and then MORE rules have to be made for things that most people have never thought necessary to have to spell out.

[Dave_LF]

It’s worse than that; he and his whole movement consider the system and its laws to be illegitimate; it’s not just that they don’t apply, they consider it positively heroic to mock and defy the rule of law.

[N.E. Brigand]

The jury found that Alex Jones must pay $4.1 million in compensatory to Neil Heslin and Scarlett Lewis, the parents of Jesse Lewis, who was killed in the Sandy Hook shooting. The jury still has to determine punitive damagers, but because the jury was not unanimous (the vote was 10-2), and because a unanimous decision is required for punitive damages in Texas, it's likely that the punitive damages, which can be as much as twice the compensatory damages plus $750,000 (i.e., another $8.85 million), will be far less (or even nothing at all).

Jones faces two more such trials. Meanwhile, Jones's attorneys have been ordered to appear in Connecticut superior court next week because apparently they also improperly shared confidential medical records when they carelessly provided discovery materials a couple weeks ago.

The disciplinary hearing in Connecticut for Alex Jones's lawyers, Andino Reynal and Norm Pattis, regarding their accidental and improper sharing of private medical files during the Texas trial of Alex Jones, happened today. Reynal was profusely apologetic. By contrast, Pattis, who apparently was testifying in that hearing while on a break from remotely attending a hearing for one of his clients in D.C. in a January 6th case, Owen Shroyer (one of Jones's associates), invoked his Fifth Amendment right 25 times:

"State Superior Court Judge Barbara Bellis, who suspended jury selection Thursday and Friday in the upcoming Connecticut trial [of Alex Jones] specifically to decide whether to discipline Reynal and Pattis, gave both sides 10 days to make arguments about the implications of Pattis refusing to answer questions in his own disciplinary hearing."

Judge Suspends Law License of Alex Jones' Attorney After Releasing Unauthorized Files (NBC).

The lawyer, Norm Pattis, had his license suspended by a judge in Connecticut.

Pattis is currently in Washington, D.C., where he's defending some of the Proud Boys for their actions on January 6th. He said he's appealing the decision by Judge Bellis in Connecticut and will inform the trial judge in the D.C. case.

[Sunsilver]

I had to double-check this to make sure it was true!

https://www.cnn.com/2023/01/13/politics ... index.html

Missouri legislature now requires women to cover their arms and shoulders:

CNN
—
Lawmakers in the Missouri House of Representatives this week adopted a stricter dress code for women as part of a new rules package, and now requires them to cover their shoulders by wearing a jacket like a blazer, cardigan or knit blazer.

The addition, which was proposed by Republican state Rep. Ann Kelley, sparked outrage from some Democrats who said the change was sexist because the dress code for men was not altered.

Men in the Missouri House of Representatives are required to wear a jacket, shirt and a tie. The previous dress code for women required “dresses or skirts or slacks worn with a blazer or sweater and appropriate dress shoes or boots.”

[N.E. Brigand]

I had to double-check this to make sure it was true!

https://www.cnn.com/2023/01/13/politics ... index.html

Missouri legislature now requires women to cover their arms and shoulders:

CNN
—
Lawmakers in the Missouri House of Representatives this week adopted a stricter dress code for women as part of a new rules package, and now requires them to cover their shoulders by wearing a jacket like a blazer, cardigan or knit blazer.

The addition, which was proposed by Republican state Rep. Ann Kelley, sparked outrage from some Democrats who said the change was sexist because the dress code for men was not altered.

Men in the Missouri House of Representatives are required to wear a jacket, shirt and a tie. The previous dress code for women required “dresses or skirts or slacks worn with a blazer or sweater and appropriate dress shoes or boots.”

Someone must have made a "right to bear / bare arms" joke about this by now.

[RoseMorninStar]

Someone must have made a "right to bear / bare arms" joke about this by now.

*groan* That hadn't occurred to me.

They've been arguing over dress code rules for women in Congress; defining what a cardigan is, and whether velvet & sequins can be worn before 5PM. BUT... they (ie: some men) also rolled back rules against smoking in the Capitol building because.. FREEDOM! This is what the 'adults in the room' .. our elected officials, are consumed by. Some were up in arms (heh) about the wearing of a mask for the safety of all but can't bear (heh) a woman's arm.

[elengil]

Republicans tried to delay release of US hostages to sabotage Carter, ex-aide claims – report

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/202 ... n-connally

A former Texas governor met Middle Eastern leaders in 1980 to convince Iran to delay releasing American hostages as part of a Republican effort to sabotage Jimmy Carter’s re-election campaign, according to a news report.

The New York Times reported on Sunday that John Connally, who served as Texas’s Democratic governor from 1963 to 1969 and ran for the Republican presidential nomination in 1980, traveled to a number of countries in the summer leading up to the 1980 election.

By that time Ronald Reagan had secured the Republican nomination, and the re-election campaign of his Democratic rival Carter was struggling in the midst of the crisis that resulted from more than 50 Americans being taken hostage from the US embassy in Tehran.

In an interview with the Times, a then protege to Connally named Ben Barnes said he was with Connally as he met leaders in Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Israel. Connally was there to deliver a message, the Times reported:

“Don’t release the hostages before the election. Mr Reagan will win and give you a better deal.”

[RoseMorninStar]

That's awful el. I guess I shouldn't be surprised but it's still disappointing.

[Frelga]

North Dakota senators vote to boost their own meal reimbursements after rejecting free school lunch bill

Let no senator go hungry and never mind the children is a great slogan.