Day: June 2, 2024

Regretful Wisconsin fake elector says he was tricked into signing phony document claiming Trump won in 2020  CBS News

Donald Trump and his lawyer, Todd Blanche, were laughing uproariously about something. No one knew what it was about or why they were laughing so hard, but Trump was showing a side he rarely (or never?) showed. Trump, who lacks most ordinary human qualities, appeared to be displaying actual humour.

I don’t know for sure what was going on either, but I think I have a pretty good guess. It goes like this. I think Trump’s lawyer told Trump that if the jury got to the end of the second day of deliberations without a verdict, that meant they might be having trouble. That meant the jury just might be deadlocked. And if they could safely get to the weekend …

Whatever they were actually laughing about was incidental, really. Trump wasn’t so much showing humour as supreme relief. In the wake of that relief anything would seem funnier than it actually was. He thought he was just about out of the woods. It was a quarter past four in the afternoon of the second day of jury deliberations and Judge Juan Merchan was about to send the jury home.

Then came the shock. At four twenty the jury rang the bell. They had reached a unanimous verdict. That was very bad news for Trump. Both Trump and Blanche, er, blanched. Their demeanour abruptly changed and became grave. They braced themselves for the bad news, and the news was supremely bad indeed. Guilty. Guilty, guilty, guilty. Guilty on all 34 felony counts.

After what seemed like a thousand years, Trump and Blanche disconsolately filed out of the courtroom. Face contorted in hate, Trump performed his usual monologue for the press waiting outside. I won’t quote him directly because by now you can already guess what he said. He’s that predictable. It was a disgrace. It was rigged. It was a rigged disgrace. It was a disgraceful rigging. Trump blamed Biden. He pronounced the President’s name with twisted hate, with the same bizarre, two-syllable singsong cadence he uses to pronounce the word “China.” Then he abruptly turned on his heels and left, with reporters shouting questions after him.

Then came the smug talking heads. After marvelling over the history-making fact that a former president of the United States was now a convicted felon, the talking heads came out with the usual bland, temporising analysis. Judge Juan Merchan had scheduled sentencing for July, and whatever that sentence was going to be, it was “very, very unlikely” going to include jail time.

I think they’re wrong, and I’ll tell you why. First of all, statistics show that in cases involving class E felonies, where the defendant has no previous convictions, jail time is only given about one time in ten. Ten percent is not exactly what I’d call “very, very unlikely.” Ten percent is a scary percentage for anyone facing possible prison, especially when there are so many extenuating circumstances. And those extenuating circumstances will continue to toll between now and July 11th, sentencing day.

Trump has tremendous power to do harm, more power than any criminal defendant cum convicted felon has ever wielded. He has the power to make the lives of every witness, every officer of the court, every prosecutor and every judge presiding over his fate a living hell. And he will employ that power viciously, relentlessly and mercilessly between now and the day he is sentenced.

Moreover, while it’s true that Donald Trump has no criminal convictions per se, he has left in his considerable wake a string of civil court losses involving rape, fraud and malfeasance amounting to fines of at least half a billion dollars. That makes his ten percent chance of going to jail look like the world’s biggest miscalculation.

And while he has no technical previous convictions, Trump has serious and numerous summary convictions in the form of repeated violations of his gag order. That gag order will remain in force until July 11th. At that point the court will sentence Donald Trump for his crimes, and only then will the jurisdiction of the court and the gag order come to an end. So he has lots of time to accumulate further gag order violations, and as sure as I’m typing this, he will.

If you think otherwise, if you think the gag order violations won’t amount to much, just ask New York County District Attorney Alvin Bragg. When asked by reporters about Trump’s gag order violations, Mr Bragg told them to wait until the sentencing in July. In other words, Trump’s gag order violations will be dealt with then. That’s an ominous warning that everyone has seemed to miss. Judge Merchan promised Trump that his gag order violations could result in prison time. So just keep talking, Donald.

So don’t write off the possibility that Trump will be sentenced to prison, brothers and sisters. From where I’m sitting that ten percent is looking more and more like 99 percent. Meanwhile, Trump’s attorneys are probably once again telling him what he wants to hear, and Trump and Blanche are probably laughing. I think that laughter will meet the same fate it met when they mistakenly thought the jury was deadlocked. I think we, the people, are the ones who will have the last laugh. And, as ever, ladies and gentlemen, brothers and sisters, comrades and friends, stay safe.

The post Why I believe the talking heads are wrong appeared first on Palmer Report.

New York — Marchers chanted for the release of hostages in Gaza on Sunday at a New York City parade for Israel that drew thousands of people under heightened security.

The parade was held almost eight months after the Oct. 7 Hamas attack in southern Israel that triggered the war in Gaza. Hamas militants killed around 1,200 people — mostly civilians — and abducted about 250. About 100 hostages remain in Gaza, along with the bodies of around 30 more.

Dubbed “Celebrate Israel,” the annual parade’s normally exuberant atmosphere was markedly toned down this year. People chanted “Bring them home now!” and waved Israeli flags as they marched up Fifth Avenue in Manhattan for what this year was called “Israel Day on Fifth.”

Crowds of spectators and hundreds of police officers lined the route, and steel barricades were installed along the sidewalk. One sign read: “From the river to the sea, Hamas will cease to be.”

“Especially this year, after Oct. 7, it’s especially important to have this show of unity,” said Rena Orman, a Bronx native who took part in the parade as part of Mothers Against College Antisemitism. “Everybody wants [the] hostages back. Everyone wants this to end. No one is cheering for this. Everyone wants peace.”

Mark Treyger, CEO of the Jewish Community Relations Council, said earlier this week that the event would focus on solidarity, strength and resilience.

“This is not a mood of confetti and music,” Treyger said. “This is more of a mood of unwavering, ironclad solidarity with hostages to bring them home, and also our unwavering love and pride in our Jewish identity.”

The parade, in its 59th year, kicked off late Sunday morning with Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul and Mayor Eric Adams among the elected officials attending.

“I think it’s important — especially with what’s going on in the Middle East, in Israel with the war going on — to show our support and to show that the hostages aren’t forgotten and the country itself is not forgotten,” said participant Michael Garber of New Jersey.

New York Police Department officials employed measures typically used for high-profile events such as New Year’s Eve and July 4. That included drones, K-9 units, bike patrols, fencing and barriers and designated entry points for spectators along the parade route. Backpacks, large bags and coolers were prohibited, and spectators had to pass through metal detectors.

Police did not report any parade-related arrests by late Sunday afternoon. The parade represents the first large-scale Jewish event in the city since the war started, although there have been roughly 2,800 protests in the city, with about 1,300 of them related to the conflict, the Democrat said.

Over 36,430 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza by Israel’s offensive, according to the Hamas-run, Gaza Health Ministry. Its count doesn’t differentiate between civilians and combatants. Israel blames Hamas for civilian deaths, accusing it of operating from dense residential areas.

Johannesburg — The Electoral Commission of South Africa Sunday night announced official results that marked the start of a new era in the country’s politics. 

Official results from Wednesday’s historic election showed the governing African National Congress, ANC, had lost its absolute majority for the first time.

The ANC won 159 seats in the 400-member National Assembly — about 40% of the vote — a huge drop of 71 seats since winning 57% of the ballot in the last elections in 2019.

The chairman of the Electoral Commission, Mosotho Moepya, acknowledged the election had been fiercely contested.

“These elections were undoubtedly the most difficult and the most hotly contested,” he said.However, he added that they were free and fair and represented “the collective voice of the nation.”

While the ANC still received the largest number of seats by far, it will now have to enter a coalition with opposition parties.

The business-friendly Democratic Alliance, or DA, took the second-largest share of the vote, with 87 seats.

It was followed with 58 seats for uMkhonto we Sizwe, or MK, a newly formed party led by former President Jacob Zuma. The radical left, Economic Freedom Fighters party, overtaken by upstart MK, came in fourth, with 39 seats. Smaller parties took the remaining seats.

Analysts say corruption, high unemployment and general failure to do more to improve the lives of poor Black South Africans was why many South Africans turned on the ANC, 30 years after it brought about the end of apartheid.

After Sunday’s announcement, President Cyril Ramaphosa took to the podium to accept the results.

“Our people have spoken whether we like it or not …. Through their votes they have demonstrated clearly and plainly that our democracy is strong, that our democracy is robust, and it is enduring.”

Zuma’s MK said the day before the results announcement that it doesn’t accept the results and wants a recount. Zuma intimated violence could ensue if it didn’t get its way.

However, Defense Minister Thandi Modise told VOA at the results ceremony that she was not worried.

“Well, we have not necessarily taken extra measures…. We have begged all political parties to be calm…. We hope that there will not be any necessity for any of us in the security sector to come in and interfere,” she said.

The ANC now has 14 days in which to form a coalition government, so negotiations with the other parties will be getting underway.

Atlanta, Georgia — Hilbert Margol says he didn’t look on himself as a hero when his U.S. Army artillery unit fought its way across Europe during World War II. But he will be feted in France as one of 60 American veterans of that conflict traveling to Normandy to mark the 80th anniversary of the D-Day landings.

“I know my brother and I never looked at it as we were any kind of heroes, nothing like that,” Margol said recently of himself and his twin brother Howard, who served with him. “It was just our time. That we were asked to serve. And we did.”

The 100-year-old Margol, who lives in suburban Atlanta, is among the dwindling band of veterans of the conflict leaving Atlanta on Sunday on a chartered flight for Deauville, Normandy. The veterans will take part in parades, school visits and ceremonies — including the official June 6 commemoration of the landings by soldiers from across the United States, Britain, Canada and other Allied nations on five beaches.

Margol didn’t land at D-Day, but the Jacksonville, Florida, native was among those that liberated the Dachau Concentration Camp on April 29, 1945.

The trip also includes high school and college students selected to escort the veterans and learn about their experiences.

Charter flights also took veterans from Atlanta to France in 2022 and 2023.

Andy Negra of Helen, Georgia, came ashore with the 6th Armored Division at Utah Beach on July 18, 1944, about six weeks after D-Day. It’s his second trip back to France after also taking part in last year’s flight.

“Well to me, we fought for freedom, and we fought for peace, and we fought for a good life,” Negra, a native of Avella, Pennsylvania, said in a recent interview.

The trip is being organized by Atlanta-based Delta Air Lines, the Best Defense Foundation and the North American branch of French tire maker Michelin.

“It is our privilege to celebrate and honor these heroes by flying them directly to Normandy and recognizing their incredible sacrifices and contributions to the world,” Delta CEO Ed Bastian said in a statement.

A man might be safe or dangerous, but it is the weighing up of risks that keeps women vigilant

“Aren’t you afraid of sharks?” the man asks.

We have just met and we’re talking about ocean swimming, which I have practised for a few years now. I started my forays into the ocean with the women I normally run with. Two have bronze medallions, so if I struggle there will be not one, but two people to save me.

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Canadian killed in Florida collapse condo identified; 3 more Canadians still missing  Yahoo Movies Canada

Democrats wanted an agreement on using artificial intelligence. It went nowhere  Times Daily