Categories
Crime Donald Trump Donald Trump Jr.

Donald And Don Jr. Having To Lawyer Up As Insurrection Lawsuit Against Them Draws Closer

Failed, one-term former President Donald Trump (along with his eldest son, Donald Trump Jr.) is facing even more legal problems and is now having to lawyer up as the result of a civil lawsuit filed by Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-CA) earlier this month.

The lawsuit, the Washington Post reported on March 5, would hold the former president and his son liable for the injuries and destruction that resulted from their incitement of the insurrection which took place at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6.:

“Swalwell … alleged the former president and his fellow speakers at a rally near the White House that day were directly responsible for mobilizing a crowd of tens of thousands of pro-Trump supporters to march on the Capitol and priming them for violence.

“The lawsuit claims the (Trumps) violated the Reconstruction-era Ku Klux Klan Act by conspiring to violently interfere in Congress’s constitutional duties and failing to act to stop the mob. It also accuses them of multiple counts of negligence under both federal and D.C. law, aiding and abetting, and infliction of emotional distress.”

And that has led the two Trumps to seek cover by acquiring one of the few attorneys willing to represent them, according to The Daily Beast:

“Former President Donald Trump, as well as his eldest son, Donald Trump Jr., have retained attorney Jesse Binnall to represent each of them.

“Binnall, a Republican attorney based in Virginia, previously represented former Trump national security adviser Mike Flynn, alongside attorney Sidney Powell, after prosecutors charged him with lying to the FBI about his communications with Russia’s ambassador to the U.S.”

Be sure and note what that second paragraph references regarding Binnall’s former client: Mike Flynn, who pled guilty to lying under oath and had to be pardoned by Trump in the final days of his administration. Flynn is still facing penalties from the Department of Defense for accepting large sums of money from Russia to attend a dinner in Moscow and sit next to Russian President/mass murderer Vladimir Putin. That alone suggests that Binnall isn’t exactly the sort of lawyer who makes the A-list of legal minds.

More recently, Binnall made a fool of himself by working for Trump’s 2020 campaign in their pointless lawsuits seeking to overturn the will of the American voters:

“Binnall filed a lawsuit in Nevada on behalf of the Trump campaign which sought to overturn President Joe Biden’s electoral victory there, and he has also repped Defending the Republic, a legal group founded in part by Powell, in a defamation suit filed by Dominion Voting Systems.”

In other words, Binnall is a loser who associates himself with cases he cannot possibly win. Apparently, some attorneys prefer to be on the losing side of every issue.

The Swalwell lawsuit is a clear and present legal danger to Trump and Don Jr. Let’s hope they lose and wind up having to answer for the domestic terrorism that took place back in January.

 

Categories
Gun Crime Gun Nuts U.S. Senate WTF?!

Ted Cruz’s Solution To The Mass Shooting Problem: Imprison The Mentally Ill

Now that the problem of mass shootings and gun violence are back on the front page as a result of what transpired in Boulder, Colorado, on Monday, the debate has begun once again on the issue of sensible gun control.

During a Senate hearing on Tuesday, there was a great deal of talk about possibly banning assault weapons such as the one used by the Boulder shooter, strengthening background checks for gun buyers, and other reforms that have sadly been discussed thousands of times before whenever innocent people are slain by a weapon of mass murder.

But something Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) said during the hearing was especially chilling, not only because it suggested just how deeply in debt Cruz is to the gun lobby, but also because it called for putting people with mental illness into prison if they are caught with a gun.

Specifically, Cruz remarked:

“The senator from Connecticut knows that is false, and he knows that’s false, because Sen. [Chuck] Grassley and I together introduced legislation … targeted at violent criminals, targeted at felons, targeted at fugitives, targeted at those with serious mental disease to stop them from getting firearms and put them in prison when they try to illegally buy guns.”

So now mental illness will be a crime instead of a disease? On antidepressants? You can buy a gun, but you’ll be sent to prison if you do under Cruz’s deeply flawed logic.

Also, Cruz’s comments completely ignore the real problem that exists in this country: There’s too many damn guns! Does anyone actually believe that more guns is the answer to the problem of gun violence? That’s absurd! It makes no damn sense whatsoever. But it does allow Cruz and his GOP colleagues to continually suck on the teat of big gunmakers who are only too happy to buy U.S. senators if that’s what it takes for them to remain in business. Apparently, money trumps human life when it comes to Cruz and his ilk.

If Republicans cannot rationally discuss the gun problem in this country, maybe it’s time we make them the permanent minority party.

 

Categories
GOP History Racism

Mitch McConnell Gets Taken To The Woodshed For Trying To Paper Over The GOP’s Racist History

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) thought he’d try and rewrite the history of his party on Tuesday, but he immediately got smacked down by the facts about the GOP which are written in bigotry and hatred.

During a debate on whether or not to eliminate the filibuster in the U.S. Senate, McConnell said the procedure — through which one senator can bring all business in the upper chamber to a screeching halt — had not been used in the past (by Republicans) to delay passage of civil rights legislation in the 1950s:

“It has no racial history at all. None. There’s no dispute among historians about that.”

That’s a lie, and McConnell said it knowing damn well it was a lie.

History shows that the longest filibuster ever held in the Senate was made by the blatantly racist GOP Sen. Strom Thurmond in opposition to the Civil Rights Act of 1957, speaking continuously for 24 hours and 15 minutes to prevent black Americans from having the same rights as whites.

Steven S. Smith, a political scientist at Washington University in St. Louis, explained the use of the filibuster by Republicans during the bad old days:

“The histories of the filibuster, civil and voting rights, and race in America are intertwined.”

How racist is the history of the Senate filibuster? It was once used to block anti-lynching bills. That is the shameful past of the procedure McConnell tried to paper over.

Fortunately, however, former U.S. Attorney Joyce Vance of Alabama was quick to counter McConnell, noting:

When he started getting criticism, McConnell’s office tried to walk back what he’d said:

For those who aren’t familiar with the full history of the Republican Party, it was once the Party of Lincoln. But then Richard Nixon was elected, followed by Ronald Reagan (who railed against “welfare queens” in a blatant attack on African-American women), and later was the party of choice for Donald Trump, who called Mexican immigrants “rapists” and suggested that anyone who dared to protest was a hoodlum or an “animal.” The GOP has become the party of bigotry and racial hatred. And the filibuster is part of that legacy, despite what McConnell or any other revisionist historian tries to assert.

How can you tell when someone is a racist? When they deny their own past, their support of bigots, and their cozy relationship with neo-Nazis, white supremacists, and white separatists.

Nice try, Mitch, but you’re just as full of shit as ever. And you’re also a terrible liar.

Categories
Climate Change U.S. Senate WTF?!

Ron Johnson Proves His Complete Ignorance Of Geography In Disastrous NY Times Interview

Proving yet again that he’s an empty suit with an even emptier skull, Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI) is making national news as the result of a disastrous interview he gave to the New York Times, expounding on climate change (which he doesn’t understand) and even world geography (which he must have flunked in school).

Attempting to make a point about climate change, Johnson told the Times:

“You know, there’s a reason Greenland was called Greenland. It was actually green at one point in time. And it’s been, you know, since, it’s a whole lot whiter now so we’ve experienced climate change throughout geologic time.”

The Times quickly fact-checked the Wisconsin Republican, noting:

“In the interview on Thursday, Mr. Johnson was still misinformed about the etymology of Greenland, which got its name from the explorer Erik the Red’s attempt to lure settlers to the ice-covered island,” adding Johnson continued, ‘I could be wrong there, but that’s always been my assumption that, at some point in time, those early explorers saw green. I have no idea.'”

No idea? That’s an understatement. Even those who have worked with Johnson acknowledge that he’s a fool, with a former campaign worker pointing to what he called the senator’s “muscular ignorance” and a critic laughing about Johnson being a “gullible rube.”

Johnson is even being compared to an infamous Wisconsin senator who preceded him: Joe McCarthy:

“The drumbeat of distortions, false theories and lies reminds some Wisconsin Republicans of a figure from the state’s past who also rarely let facts get in the way of his agenda: Senator Joseph McCarthy, whose witch hunt for communists in and out of government in the 1950s ruined lives and bitterly divided the country.”

Hopefully Johnson will meet a similar fate as McCarthy and wind up a defeated, broken man.

Categories
Donald Trump Jr. Russia Social Media WTF?!

Junior Sides With Putin Over Biden And Sets Off A Wave Of Anger And Revulsion

For years now, members of the Trump family have repeatedly denied they have any ties to Russia or Russian President Vladimir Putin, even though evidence to the contrary can be found everywhere you look, including the four years of Donald Trump’s failed, one-term presidency, when he refused to criticize Putin for anything, even when evidence pointed directly to the Russian leader.

Now, however, under President Joe Biden, the tone has changed, with the current president making it clear the United States government will no longer coddle the mass murdering thug who currently rules the nation of Russia.

Just this week, Biden was asked if he considered Putin to be a killer. He replied:

“Mm-hmm, I do.”

And that wasn’t all President Biden had to say about the Russian president:

“The president also said Putin would ‘pay a price’ after U.S. intelligence released a report that found the Kremlin had tried to help former President Donald Trump win reelection last year.”

Contrast that with what Trump said when he was asked the same question by former Fox host Bill O’Reilly in 2017:

“There are a lot of killers. Do you think our country is so innocent?”

For his part, when Putin was asked about President Biden’s comments that he was killer, he lamely told a reporter:

“It takes one to know one.”

Putin also challenged Biden to an unscripted debate, which Biden wisely refused. Why in the hell would you debate a man who has repeatedly tried to interfere with our elections?

Into this back-and-forth steps Donald Trump Jr. Yes, the same Don Jr. who met with Russian officials at Trump Tower during the 2016 presidential race to obtain “dirt” on Hillary Clinton.

Junior posted this on Twitter:

As if the United States looked any weaker than it did with Don Jr.’s old man in the White House.

That was all it took for social media to light up with anger and outright revulsion:

https://twitter.com/RoArquette/status/1372679598463352832?s=20
https://twitter.com/Pellemoe/status/1372702872534708225?s=20
https://twitter.com/pcrritesgood/status/1372659046604488706?s=20

Here’s a bit of advice for Don Jr.: If Putin is such great guy, why don’t you move to Moscow and renounce your U.S. citizenship? That way you could be closer to the object of your man crush.