It probably sounded like such a good idea when it was pitched: We’ll dress Florida GOP Gov. Ron DeSantis up in fighter pilot gear, put him into a fighter jet, and call it “Top Gov.” Genius! Can’t fail!
Oh, but it has, and the fallout is making DeSantis look even more pathetic than he already was.
“Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, this is your governor speaking. Today’s training evolution — dogfighting, taking on the corporate media,” DeSantis said while wearing a Tom Cruise-style leather jacket.
He then discusses how people should deal with those dreaded journalists who keep asking questions he doesn’t want to answer.
“The rules of engagement are as follows. No. 1: Don’t fire unless fired upon, but when they fire, you fire back with overwhelming force. … No. 2: Never, ever back down from a fight. … No. 3: Don’t accept their narrative.”
Throughout, the ad features clips of him refusing to answer media questions ― as though this were a positive thing.
Top Gov… Dogfighting… Taking on the Corporate Media…
The video has gone viral, but probably not in the way that DeSantis intended, because reaction on social media has been overwhelmingly negative, resulting in lots of mockery aimed directly at the Sunshine State governor.
When FBI agents served a search warrant at his Mar-a-Lago golf resort on Aug. 8, disgraced, one-term, twice-impeached former president Donald Trump said some incredibly nasty things about the agency and agents who had participated in the search.
Specifically, HuffPost notes, Trump used just about every pejorative imaginable to attack FBI:
In days that followed the search, Trump baselessly called it a “sneak attack” and a “raid,” a “siege,” and “corrupt.” He also claimed FBI agents “planted” evidence in his home.
Now, however, as the possibility of being charged with violating the Espionage Act becomes more of a reality, Trump has changed his tune and is praising the FBI:
Now, Trump claims agents are “furious at FBI leadership” for the “political weaponization against a president (me).”
They “don’t like being ’used’ by people they do not agree with, or respect,” he wrote in the post. He went on to add that agents are not “thrilled with the leadership” of the Department of Justice.
Why did Trump make such a dramatic shift? That’s unclear, but it may have something to do with him wanting to appear as supportive of law enforcement even though he clearly thinks he’s above the law and shouldn’t be subjected to a search, even if he has allegedly committed some of the most serious crimes that any president can be suspected of.
Some have suggested that Trump’s verbal attacks on federal agents have led to an uptick in threats against them, and the FBI Agents Association issued a statement which reads:
“FBI Special Agents are dedicated members of the law enforcement community who put their lives on the line every day to protect the public from criminals and terrorists. Special Agents and their families should never be threatened with violence, including for doing their jobs. The threats made recently contribute to an atmosphere where some have, or will, accept violence against law enforcement as appropriate. It is not. This is not a partisan or political issue. It is a matter of public safety and basic decency. Calls for violence against law enforcement are unacceptable, and should be condemned by all leaders.”
It remains to be seen if Trump will still be behind the FBI if and when they show up to arrest him.
Now that he’s facing the greatest legal jeopardy of his entire life on multiple fronts (including from the Justice Department, which almost always wins), failed, one-term twice-impeached president Donald Trump’s so-called legal team is composed of a former right-wing TV host who lost her television gig when her network went belly up and a lawyer who represents a parking garage company.
In other words, Trump is screwed, and it’s all a result of the fact that he doesn’t like to pay his attorneys and is considered to be a “difficult” client.
The Washington Post has a fascinating report on Trump’s lawyers, and they note that most reputable and competent attorneys won’t even take Donald’s phone calls:
Ordinarily, the prestige and publicity of representing a former president, as well as the new and complex legal issues at stake in this case, would attract high-powered attorneys. But Trump’s search is being hampered by his divisiveness, as well as his reputation for stiffing vendors and ignoring advice.
“In olden days, he would tell firms representing him was a benefit because they could advertise off it. Today it’s not the same,” said Michael Cohen, a former lawyer for Trump who was convicted of tax evasion, false statements, campaign finance violations and lying to Congress in 2018. “He’s also a very difficult client in that he’s always pushing the envelope, he rarely listens to sound legal advice, and he wants you to do things that are not appropriate, ethically or legally.”
So who exactly has been Trump been able to get to represent him? It’s almost laughable when you hear the pathetic credentials of his current defense team:
People familiar with the search for legal help said the effort includes Susie Wiles, a close adviser to Trump, and attorney Christina Bobb, who was present at Mar-a-Lago during the search and signed for the list of documents taken. Former campaign adviser Boris Epshteyn is taking a prominent role, and former White House aide Kash Patel is advising informally. Patel is raising money for a “legal offense” fund by selling merchandise such as tank tops and beanies emblazoned with the logo “K$H.”
“You get these guys who just live to be around him, and mistakes get made,” a lawyer who isn’t part of the team said. “These guys just want to make him happy.”
Here’s the Trump “dream team,” which sounds a hell of a lot more like a nightmare:
Christina Bobb: “Bobb was previously a host on the far-right, pro-Trump television network One America News. At OAN, Bobb covered the Arizona Republican Party’s review of 2020 ballots — which ultimately confirmed Joe Biden’s win in the state — while also raising money for the effort and conferring with Trump advisers.”
Lindsey Halligan: “Whose practice, according to a professional biography, focuses on insurance claims at residential and commercial properties. She was admitted to the Florida bar in 2014.”
Alina Habba: “Leads a three-attorney firm with an office near Trump’s golf club in Bedminster, N.J. Her professional experience includes serving as general counsel to a parking garage company.”
Former Harvard Law School professor Alan Dershowitz says he’s worried Trump isn’t properly represented:
“Good lawyers should have been working on this case for months. He needs a big and good and very experienced defense team with experience trying cases.”
Problem is, “good lawyers” don’t want a client like Donald Trump. And that could wind up leading to a long prison stay for the disgraced ex-president.
Proving that they’re definitely not the sharpest knives in the drawer, a group of QAnon believers showed in Peterborough, Ontario recently and attempted to conduct citizens arrests of police officers, which got them a free trip to jail for their stupidity.
Romana Didulo has built a sizable following out of the QAnon community by convincing people that she’s the true leader of Canada and waging a secret war against the supposed pedophilic cabal of globalist leaders, like Prime Minister Justin Trudeau or U.S. President Joe Biden. On Saturday, she gathered around 30 of her followers in Peterborough, Ontario, to conduct “citizen’s arrests” on members of the Peterborough Police Service for enforcing COVID-19 restrictions, like mask mandates and business closures.
Didulo announced the event all over social media, creating memes, pages on Telegram, and a website.
But when the QAnon faithful arrived at the local police station, they soon realized they hadn’t thought their plan through all the way and were easily confounded by a locked door at the police station they had marched to:
They've reached the police station where the guy at the centre of it is requesting Didulo bring in the military to remove those "arrested." However, they've encountered a locked door and are mystified at what to do. pic.twitter.com/LRvbkKZMab
Later in the day, after QAnon members told police officers they needed to voluntarily surrender to them, some of the cultists found out that their stupid plan had only resulted in them being put in the slammer:
But by the end of it, one of (Didulo’s followers had been charged with two counts of assaulting police and a second was facing charges of mischief and resisting arrest. A third man was also later arrested and charged with a myriad of charges, including assaulting a peace officer with a weapon.
One of her followers uploaded some footage of their brouhaha with the cops that led to some Romana Didulo followers being arrested. I've embeded it here as not to drive people to the Telegram page. pic.twitter.com/5Q6ywXjf90
When it was all over, Peterborough Mayor Diane Therrien took to Twitter and expressed what most in the town were probably feeling:
“People have been asking me to comment on the events of the past weekend. I hate giving airtime/spotlight to these imbeciles. Here is my comment: f*ck off, you f*ckwads.”
People have been asking me to comment on the events of the past weekend in #ptbo. I hate giving airtime/spotlight to these imbeciles. Here is my comment: fuck off, you fuckwads. 💁🏻♀️
A former FBI agent says he thinks former president Donald Trump kept thousands of classified and top secret documents because he had plans to use them as “leverage” over others.
Peter Strzok, who served in the FBI for 22 years, including as Deputy Assistant Director of the Counterintelligence Division, was asked by MSNBC host Tiffany Cross:
“We know he shares because this guy almost tweeted out major secrets. I want to direct your attention to the Iran missile tweet … there was an image of the Iranian missile blowup, and it was exquisite intelligence, this is all according to a former official. And when they showed it to the president he said I’m tweeting it. And they essentially said, sir, we don’t want to do it because people will understand our capabilities. His response was, I’m the president, I can declassify anything. That blows my mind, and I do wonder what exactly was Merrick Garland mulling over, because we’ve seen how he’s been a threat to us for four years?”
Strzok replied:
“The president has the authority to classify and declassify things while he’s in office, and what’s critical, he’s no longer in office. He was not in office immediately following the inauguration on January 20th, so what you have to do is go back and look, and the biggest question in my mind is why did he have all the information? In the run-up you show former National Security Adviser John Bolton saying he thought it might be neat. In my mind, I would not be surprised, one, not just the material that the FBI recovered in the search warrant but those 15 boxes that the National Archives got much earlier in the year.”
And then Strzok explained why he thinks Trump wanted to keep such highly sensitive information lying around unsecured at Mar-a-Lago:
“I think there’s going to be turn out to be, one, highly, highly classified information, but, two, things that aren’t just things he found neat. I would be surprised if there weren’t things that furthered his business interest, things he could use as leverage over people, things he could use to settle the scores. The biggest question in my mind is why on earth, having been told repeatedly by so many people, that he steadfastly refused to turn these things over and instead carried them all away. You know, I hope DOJ is content now with the FBI that they have recovered everything, but we’re talking about a massive amount of information.”
Greed and revenge. We all know that Trump is rapacious and petty, constantly looking for ways to enrich himself and get payback on others, even at the expense of U.S. national security. He needs to be indicted and tried. If he isn’t, this country will never be safe.
