- In: 2016 Election | 2020 Election | 2021 | Biden | Current Events | Donald Trump | Hillary Clinton | Open Thread | Republicans
- 110 Comments
It’s hard to imagine two attorneys who have been more harmful to the United States of America than Rudy “New York’s Nosferatu” Giuliani and Faux News’ Victoria Toensing. Between the two of them, they have helped Republicans perpetrate numerous and deadly crimes against this country.
Let’s start with Rudy. As we have talked about for years at TW, Rudy was THE CAUSE of the terrible fallout of the attack on the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001. Countless first responders died on that day, and became ill and died later, because he moved the city’s Disaster Response Center out of Brooklyn and into the WTC. He, of course, did this because he wanted to be closer to his mistress when he was doing the serious business of Mayorin’. And since then, this goo-oozing sycophant has done nothing but dive head down into the muck of wingnuttery and just keep swimming. He’s been the mover and shaker behind so much evil:
The faux Hunter Biden story (now being used to justify his FBI-raided apartment)
The Big Lie that Drumpf won in 2021
Collusion with Russia in 2019 and 2020
Four Seasons Total Landscaping (okay, that one was just funny)
Yes, Rudy is a well-known and well-recognized goon for the Republican Crime Syndicate. But Victoria Toensing – she’s flown a bit more under the radar. Here are some of her (and her husband’s!) greatest hits. (Wonder what hubby’s up to these days?)
You might not know them well, but without Toensing and diGenova, the most outlandish theories might not have found their way into the ether. Toensing’s client and longtime friend John Solomon is the one who spread the rumor that Marie Yovanovitch, the former US ambassador to Ukraine, hated Trump; so-called “documentary evidence” of Joe Biden firing a Ukrainian prosecutor to protect his son had emerged in a case that both Toensing and diGenova are working on; and the couple have also alluded to the conspiracy theory that it was Ukraine — and not Russia — that meddled in the 2016 election by seeking to help Hillary Clinton. Often lording over the whole spectacle, in their telling, was Soros — the billionaire who has become a bogeyman for the right. (The line that he is seeking to run Ukraine, for one, could have come straight out of the mouth of Vladimir Putin.)
[snip]
Toensing and diGenova fortified their conservative bonafides throughout the Bush and Obama years, with Toensing particularly active. She penned op-eds in favor of the Patriot Act and in defense of the reporter who outed CIA agent Valerie Plame. She lobbied for the MEK, a violent fringe Iranian group, just as Giuliani has, as it sought to get off the US list of terrorist groups. She represented “whistleblowers” in the Benghazi hearings who accused Hillary Clinton, then secretary of state, of refusing to let them testify, as well as an informant who claimed to have information that Clinton had orchestrated the sale of part of Uranium One to a Russian company in exchange for donations to the Clinton Foundation (she didn’t). She picked up Erik Prince as a client and took part in numerous Judicial Watch panels devoted to the subject of Clinton’s missing emails. As the Trump era approached, both Toensing and diGenova found themselves more and more on Fox News, regulars on Sean Hannity (another Toensing and diGenova client) and Lou Dobbs.
I’ll tell you, I am absolutely over the moon that these two traitorous morons are finally getting investigated by the FBI, now overseen at DOJ by the brilliant and most importantly, honest, Merrick Garland. Now all the crimes they were committing in plain sight will be thoroughly investigated.
Let’s have the last Drumpf attorney who was investigated by the FBI, Michael Cohen, give the last word.
Open thread, as always.
- In: 2020 Election | Biden | Kamala Harris | Music | racism
- 62 Comments
Happy Weekend Widdershins!
So we are hitting 100 days since Biden took office. And frankly, he’s managed to do an impressive amount of good things, despite unprecedented (certainly in modern politics) obstruction from the QOP. Rethuglicans just can’t find a way to attack him. They are so desperate. And if it wasn’t for 2 awful Senators (rhymes with “Manchin” and “Sinema”), so much more would already be done to improve Americans’ lives…
This report from CBS this morning is a fascinating look the song “Strange Fruit,” made famous by Billie Holiday. Specifically this ties to Manchin and Sinema in their refusal to recognize how the filibuster has kept racist laws in America on the books. And continue to this day. I just saw a statistic: in the 24 hrs after the Derek Chauvin verdict, 6 people were fatally shot by cops. Meanwhile, cops in Newark, NJ, did not fire a single shot in all of 2020. It is possible to police without shooting people. We know because Newark, NJ has done it.
Here is a fascinating segment from CBS This Morning about the song “Strange Fruit,” immortalized by Billie Holiday. A song that in effect destroyed her life because she refused to stop singing it and the Federal government thought the song was dangerous. There is an interesting plot-twist half-way (at least a plot-twist for me because I was not familiar with the background on the song.) This is an open thread.
Activist Wednesday: The Verdict
Posted on: April 21, 2021
- In: Biden | Civil Rights | Congress | Current Events | Democrats | Equality | Human Rights | Open Thread | racism
- 68 Comments
Widdershins, something truly extraordinary happened yesterday. Derek Chauvin, the psychopathic cop who was caught on video killing a Black man in cold blood, was found guilty of second-degree murder, third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter. Across the country, but especially in Minneapolis, the celebration and relief were palpable. Even though the officer’s guilt was documented clearly for all the world to see, and was not questionable by any seeing human being, most people were cautious in their hopes for accountability.
After all, murdering police officers are so rarely convicted for their crimes.
Garrett said there are hundreds of instances where police use deadly force each year but despite the fatality, very few of those incidents result in an officer facing criminal charges.
In the aftermath of Chauvin’s guilty verdict, Garrett believes there will continue to be a “rethinking” of how and when officers should be held civilly and criminally liable when they cause a death. The problem is that there is very little data available on deadly force used by police.
In police brutality cases, the question is whether the officer accused of misconduct acted “reasonably” and their behavior was necessary under the circumstances — but how “reasonable” is defined remains largely elusive.
“There are so few cases that tell us what reasonable is, and that’s why a conviction in the Derek Chauvin trial would set a standard for reasonable that we didn’t have before,” said Gloria Browne-Marshall, professor of constitutional law at John Jay College of Criminal Justice and civil rights attorney.
The Chauvin trial is a rare example of “zealous prosecution” in hundreds of years where prosecutors have failed to prosecute White people for crimes against Black people, Browne-Marshall said.
So the Chauvin trial turned out the way it should have, which is a rare victory for the forces of social justice. But not everyone felt that way. Some seemed to feel that Chauvin, as a white man, should have had the right to kill George Floyd however and whenever he wanted to. (No wonder the Republican House voted against Kamala’s anti-lynching law in 2019!) If you look over at Foxnews.com (don’t worry – I did it for you and I need disinfectant), you’ll see some normal-seeming headlines surrounded by batshittery: a straightforward description of the verdict is in the same space as accusations of “mob justice” from Candace Owens and Democratic extremism from some random Black guy in a MAGA hat. (I don’t know who he is, and my life is better for it.)
As so many have said, this is one very tiny step towards a better world, and it wouldn’t have happened if some very brave people didn’t record the murder on their phones. What will happen to the police officers who murdered a 15-year-old girl in Columbus on the same day the verdict was returned (yes this really f*cking happened)? What about Chauvin’s fellow officers who helped him – what will become of them when they are tried in August? Will the Senate be able to pass the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act now? (I predict no, not without reforming the filibuster!)
So many questions about what comes next…at least we’re asking them knowing George Floyd’s killer will be held accountable.
Ze thread, she is ouverte.
Lazy Weekend: April Snow
Posted on: April 17, 2021
Happy Weekend Widdershins!
The weather upstate NY has been bananas. Over the last couple of days we got a few inches of snow. Then it melted overnight. Then it snowed again in the morning. And then rained in the afternoon. Before snowing again in the evening. Things are so crazy even Lindsey Graham says he now believes in climate change! Plot twist!
This past week we also saw the meteoric rise and fall of Marjorie Taylor Greene’s KKK caucus. They were so nuts even the Freedom Caucus said they wanted no part of it. The only person who joined were Paul Gossar and Matt Gaetz. Before Gossar said he changed his mind and then Greene said she never read the proposal her white-people-only caucus and the media just blew it all out of proportion. So back to the drawing table for the KKK.
How was your week everyone?
This is an open thread!
Here is Madonna with Rain (featuring her long-term back-up singers/dancers Nikki Harris and Donna DeLory) during “The Girlie Show” live from Australia. The choreography in the second half of the song is by Gene Kelly.
Lazy Weekend: Vacation!
Posted on: April 10, 2021
Hello Widdershins! Yes, it’s me, MB. Dmitry is relocating again so I’m taking his spot temporarily.
As of this morning, I am officially on vacation for the first time since January 4th. I can’t tell you the relief I feel. After the vaccine this week and all the months of scare and stress, from the failed insurrection at the Capitol to the ever-looming shadow of COVID, it will be great to drive up to Sacramento, go see my dad, go play the slots, and have a couple of days at home to relax.
When was your last vacation? Are you planning one soon? Now that 30% of America has been vaccinated I know I’m starting to plan a longer one in late July.
Let’s post our favorite songs either related to vacation, or that we like to listen to while on vacation.
Open thread as always.
Comments