Cryptocurrency, Investing, Money, Economy, and Debt:
New York Judge orders Tether to document USDT backing
Crypto Exchanges Binance and FTX Have Both Bid Roughly $50M for Voyager’s Assets
Coronavirus News, Analysis, and Opinion:
Germany Holds First Oktoberfest Since the Covid Pandemic
’A brazen scheme’: 47 charged with siphoning $250M from COVID-19 child meal program
Politics:
Special Master Expresses Skepticism with Trump Team
The senior federal judge tasked with reviewing the materials seized by the FBI from Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate sharply questioned the former president’s attorneys Tuesday during their first hearing before his courtroom.
Judge Raymond Dearie pushed Trump’s lawyers repeatedly for refusing to back up the former president’s claim that he declassified the highly sensitive national security-related records discovered in his residence.
Special Master Has a Simple Test That May Be Disaster for Trump
The special master, Raymond J. Dearie, said Tuesday that if Trump’s lawyers don't officially counter whether the documents the former president took are classified, then Dearie will side with the DOJ.
“As far as I'm concerned, that's the end of it,” he said.
Dearie, a semi-retired federal judge in Brooklyn who’s playing the role of temporary referee, wants to speed up the process and get federal agents back on track. And while Trump has been alleging on social media that he already declassified the records he swiped from the White House, Dearie is demanding that Trump put up or shut up. The senior judge is asking that Trump’s team assert—in sworn affidavits where lies could mean jail time—whether or not Trump actually declassified them.
Putin mobilizes 300,000 troops for war in Ukraine and warns he’s not bluffing with nuclear threat
Migrants flown to Martha’s Vineyard file class-action suit against DeSantis
Why Trump Is Embracing Openly QAnon Now
Saturday night’s Ohio rally was not a typical Trump carnival, and it was not just ridiculous—it was dangerous. His embrace of the QAnon conspiracy theorists represents a new expansion not only of Trump’s cult of personality, but of his threats to sow violence.
Despite his seeming inability to remember anything from one thought to the next, Trump has a kind of lizard-brain awareness of danger—only to himself, of course—that guides him when he’s faced with threats. His reflex in such situations is to do whatever it takes to survive, including bullying, lying, threatening, and allegedly breaking the law.
He is in political and legal jeopardy now, and he has decided to escalate his war against the rule of law, the American system of government, and the American people by embracing and potentially weaponizing QAnon.
Trump’s Lawyers Are Not Making Arguments About the Law
If there were lawyers concerned about principles of justice participating in his defense, they’d be stridently advising him to work on a plea deal admitting guilt to 18 USC 2071, removing government documents, maybe even agreeing to the probably unconstitutional part of the law that would prohibit him from running for President again, in exchange for removing the more serious 18 USC 793 and 1519 charges from consideration. Such a plea deal is never going to happen.
Win or lose, Trump is pursuing power, not adjudication under the law, not even recognition of the law.
“Perfect phone call”: Trump scrambles after Georgia DA floats “prison sentences” in election probe
Biden leaves no doubt: ‘Strategic ambiguity’ toward Taiwan is dead
How the Second Civil War Could Start
America’s second civil war could start with a bang or with a whimper. It could begin with a skirmish or sneak up on us through a series of small compromises and acts of political cowardice. Civil war could announce itself loudly and bloodily, leaving no doubt as to its awful entrance. Or it could creep in through the back door, only to be recognized in hindsight as a series of seemingly disconnected events that could have and should have been stopped. We may be midstream in such a flow of events already. We now examine this possible future as if we have just emerged from its aftermath.
Videos Show Trump Allies with Georgia Voting Machines
Newly released videos show allies of former President Donald Trump and contractors who were working on his behalf handling sensitive voting equipment in a rural Georgia county weeks after the 2020 election,” the New York Times reports.
The footage, which was made public as part of long-running litigation over Georgia’s voting system, raises new questions about efforts by Trump affiliates in a number of swing states to gain access to and copy sensitive election software, with the help of friendly local election administrators.
Serendipity:
Daily 'breath training' can work as well as medicine to reduce high blood pressure
