Turns out, per bombshell segment on CNN‘s NewNight Show (01/30/24) that political action committees (PACs) supporting former President Donald Trump are using the $50 million they have raised, to offset Trump’s personal legal bills. As NewsNight host Abby Phillips hastily points out, as shady as this may appear to the general public, it is apparently totally legal.
One would understand why the public would struggle with the legality of this action by Trump’s PACs, given the myriad news stories out there, of people being criminally prosecuted for starting GoFundMe campaigns to ostensibly raise funds for medical bills, only to turn around and use those funds for personal items like new vehicles, rent, jewellery, etc. If that is illegal, then why should it be perfectly legal for a PAC, which ostensibly raises money for Trump’s campaign for the presidency in 2024, to turn around and use the raised funds to offset his personal legal bills?
Host Abby Phillip (0:15): “Sources tell CNN that $50 million, is how much the PACs supporting Trump, have raised and then donated to the cause of keeping Trump out of jail. Now, mind you, this is all legal, but a spokesman for one of those PACs insists tonight to the New York Times, that every dollar being raised by MAGA Inc is going directly to defeating Joe Biden in November. But at least some of those dollars and cents are as of this moment, being siphoned off for courtroom costs.”
Bottom line folks, reasonable people will agree that there is no difference between the financial fraud that GoFundMe scammers are rightly criminally prosecuted for, and what these Trump PACs are engaged in. Simply put, rather than just throwing up our hands in the air and accepting this cheating by Trump’s PACs as “totally legal”, maybe some legal eagle should embark on a novel federal lawsuit arguing that Trump’s PACs are defrauding their donors, and are in essence, no different than the criminal GoFundMe scammers. While this may not fix the issue during this 2024 election cycle, maybe, just maybe, it may spur members of Congress to come up with a legislative fix for these and other PAC loopholes, for future elections.
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Rep Troy Nehls (R-TX) in a verbal altercation with insurrectionists on 01/06/2021
Rep Troy Nehls (R-TX) has created a reputation for himself as one of former President Donald Trump’s loudest advocates in Congress, right up there with Trump’s most trusted lieutenants Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA), Matt Gaetz (R-FL) and others.
A major part of being one of former President Trump’s trusted lieutenants is of course, one’s willingness to go out in public and declare the 2020 election “rigged/stolen”, and also playing down the violent January 6th insurrection as some kind of “peaceful protest gone wrong”.Rep Troy Nehls has of course, done his part to satisfy the prerequisites for appeasing former President Trump—election denialism and playing down January 6th.
Well, a new video has been released, which exposes Rep Troy Nehl’s shocking hypocrisy regarding the events that happened on January 6th 2021. In the video, Rep Nehls can be seen and heard arguing with some of the January 6th insurrectionists—who are apparently trying to violently break into Congress—and swearing that in his 30 years as a law enforcement officer in Texas, he had never witnessed what he was witnessing that day. Reasonable people will agree that this doesn’t jive with the “peaceful protest” narrative Rep Nehls and other Trump lieutenants have diligently dished out since 01/06/21.
Rep Nehls(0:53): “I’ve been in law enforcement for 30 years, and I’ve never had people like this.” One of the insurrectionists interjected, asking Rep Nehls to speak louder so he/they can hear what he’s trying to say.
Rep Nehls repeated: “I’ve been in law enforcement in Texas for 30 years, and I’ve never seen people act like this…I’m ashamed…” One of the insurrectionists even tells Rep Nehls that if this insurrection doesn’t happen today, there’s going to be a bigger civil war down the road. That clearly doesn’t jive with the “peaceful protest” narrative Rep Nehls, et al, have helped Trump push since 01/06/21.
Bottom line folks, it’s about time the media, and especially the Texas media, start demanding that Rep Nehls come clean and clarify his record regarding the January 6th insurrection. Simply put, he needs to apologize to the public for all the misleading statements he has made, trying to play down the violent January 6th insurrection. Simply put, the good folks of Fort Bend County (TX-22) deserve better.
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In case you missed it, MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough dropped a bombshell on the 01/08/2024 edition of his Morning Joe Show, telling his viewers that back in the day, former President Trump kept Adolf Hitler’s speeches by his bedside.
#BREAKING: Morning Joe: "We know Trump LOVES dictators, we know he ADMIRES dictators, we know…#IvanaTrump [told] @VanityFair, that he kept Adolf Hitler's speeches BY HIS BEDSIDE…"😳😳
I didn't know that. Why is Vanity Fair SILENT in light of "poisoning the blood"?🙄 pic.twitter.com/pemyX7pIE2
This bombshell revelation by Scarborough was especially notable because it came on the heels of Trump’s recent statement that migrants “poison the blood” of Americans. Notable historians have pointed out that German dictator Adolf Hitler used similar rhetoric on his way to killing 6 million Jews in the 1930s.
Former President Trump when confronted by the media about his Hitler-sounding rhetoric, dismissed such questions saying he has never read Hitler’s book Mein Kampf. Well, that may be true, but this bombshell revelation by Scarborough certainly raises fresh questions as to his admiration of the ruthless German dictator. Simply put, you don’t keep speeches of somebody you hate/despise on your bedside.
Bottom line as we approach the November 2024 general elections, the Trump-Hitler nexus must be fully explored. Vanity Fair owes the public an explanation as to why they’ve buried this story, even as questions about Trump-Hitler nexus continue to swirl
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An interesting segment on MSNBC’s Alex Wagner Tonight (01/1624) show delved into the strange daliance between Evangelical Christians(predominantly White), and the politics of former President Donald Trump, often referred to as Trumpism, or MAGA Trumpism. The alliance between these two strange bedfellows has led many to question whether MAGA Trumpism has become some sort of political/civil religion.
The MSNBC segment came against the backdrop of Trump’s massive win in the Iowa Republican presidential primary, and specifically, his command of the White Evangelical vote, which polls placed at 53%. Back in 2016, when Trump first ran for president, he only received 21% of the White Evangelical vote in Iowa, a clear sign that he has now consolidated the White Evangelical vote in Iowa, and arguably nationwide.
#BREAKING:🔥Alex: "In the eight years between those two #IowaCaucuses, Donald Trump has not only more than doubled his support from #Evangelicals, he has also REDEFINED what it means to be one."
Host Alex Wagner posed this question to her guest, Author Tim Alberta, who’s also a staff writer at The Atlantic (2:07): “I wonder in your estimation, what it means to be an Evangelical in this country, at this moment?” Tim Alberta responded in relevant part: “We are beginning to flirt with this territory where definitionally speaking, Evangelicalism has far more to do, at least in the perception of the greater public, with political engagement, partisan political identification, than it does with any particular theology or any real religious conviction, and if you take it a step further, if you look at the exit polling, if you look at some of the social science around this, if you look at the fact that during Donald Trump’s presidency, more and more of Donald Trump’s supporters were self-identifying as Evangelicals even though they were simultaneously attending Church less and less often, I think one might reach the uncomfortable conclusion that perhaps the best definition now for what it means to be an Evangelical, is to be a conservative White Republican Trump supporter, and that is a tragedy on any number of different levels, but I think most profoundly, it’s a tragedy for the Gospel of Jesus Christ.”
Host Alex Wagner then interjected with this profound question (3:50): “If the Gospel is no longer part of the equation, what is it replaced by…do you think MAGA-ism has become a placeholder for a certain kind of religion?”
Tim Alberta: “Yes…I don’t want to paint with too broad a brush, the Evangelical community is large, it’s huge, and it’s complicated…but…we are reaching a place where we are being confronted with some uncomfortable realities about what it means to be a part of the Evangelical movement and frankly, where the line blurs between sort of religious identity and political identity, and is there a merging of the two, and frankly I think that there’s always a danger in politics…of sort of turning political conviction into religious conviction, or worshipping at a certain altar that is not an altar to God, but is an altar to political idolatry or to political identity. That is a danger that has always been there, but it is I think uniquely dangerous in this moment, and to be clear…we have examples from the not so distant past, of a sort of political religion, or at least a civil religion, supplanting, competing with actual religion, and I don’t think that we’re all that far removed from that in this country now, looking at just what happened…in Iowa.”
To conclude the segment, Tim Alberta floated this interesting scenario, which gets right to the fallacy of the Evangelical-MAGA Trumpism alliance. He said (8:19): “If during Barack Obama’s presidency, or while he was running for president, if you had heard him talking with, or promoting a video saying that he was a shepherd to all of mankind, the Evangelical movement would have been up in arms [and rightly so], I mean this is heretical, this is blasphemous and yet, Donald Trump seems to get a pass time and time again for doing these things that no other politician, Republican or Democrat frankly, would get a pass for doing, and we should ask ourselves why. If the answer does not at least start to flirt with this terrain of civil religion, or political religion, then I think that we’re not being honest with ourselves, and if we are being honest with ourselves, if we are willing to engage with the very uncomfortable topic around what happens when Trumpism becomes civil religion in this country for millions of millions of people, and what that might imply moving forward, then we are doing a disservice to our prularistic democracy.”
Bottom line folks, we’ve always operated on the separation of church and state doctrine, and have for decades, shunned foreign theocracies like the ones in Afghanistan and Iran. Author Tim Alberta is absolutely correct when he says, we need to be honest with ourselves, and admit that there is no difference between the Evangelical-MAGA dalliance in the American political scene, and the theocracies in Iran and Afghanistan. Simply put, we need to make a decision as to whether we want to continue with the separation of church and state doctrine, or whether, that time-honored tradition has also been sacrificed at the altar of MAGA Trumpism.
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Interesting segment on MSNBC’s Alex Wagner Tonight show (01/19/24) delved into the conspiracy theories currently being spewed out there by right wing activists about the yet unsolved mystery surrounding the January 6th pipe bomb. Apparently, even sitting U.S. Senator Mike Lee (R-UT) is now pertaking in this conspiracy theory, per his recent social media post which Wagner cited.
Host Alex Wagner then dropped a bombshell on “constitutional conservative” Senator Lee’s strange fawning over former President Trump, including his latest endorsement of the former president for the upcoming 2024 election, saying it may all be about Senator Lee’s ambitions for the United States Supreme Court. Yeah, you read that right. Senator Lee may be angling for a Supreme Court seat.
You’ll remember that Senator Lee was also intricately involved in efforts by then outgoing President Trump to overturn the results of the 2020 election using the fake elector scheme.
Host Alex Wagner(2:49): “Senator Lee joins 25 of his Republican colleagues in the Senate, who have endorsed Donald Trump as of this evening, but his special distinction is that he was twice on Trump’s short list to be a Supreme Court justice. In 2018 Senator Lee interviewed for the seat that eventually went to Justice Brett Kavanaugh, and with Justice Clarence Thomas approaching 80, and Justice Samuel Alito hitting 74 this year, who knows, if Donald Trump is re-elected in November, the man who believes January 6th was an inside job could just get another crack at a seat on the highest court in the land.”
Bottom line folks, as much as I have been critical of “constitutional conservative” Senator Lee over his strange support of Trump despite his authoritarian tendencies, I readily admit that this Supreme Court ambition theory makes me ease up on him a little bit. I’m not saying I condone his strange support for authoritarian Trump, but that at least, it makes me understand why he’s doing it.
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Attorney Ana Toledo Addresses A Targeted Individuals Rally From The Steps Of The Historic Houston Courthouse On 301 Fannin Street (01/12/2024)
On Friday 01/12/24, in commemoration of the one year anniversary of the filing of TJ v Garland lawsuit, Attorney Ana Toledo led a targeted individuals rally at the steps of the historic Houston courthouse on 301 Fannin Street. The lawsuit seeks to have 18 plaintiffs, who Ana alleges have been placed there by the FBI under an unconstitutional “secret criteria”, removed from the terrorism watchlist.
Ana Toledo(0:02): “The FBI has abused the watchlist, what’s known as the terrorism watchlist for a long time…and 400,000 targeted individuals in the United States, and indeed around the world, have been put on this list. Today marks one year anniversary since we filed TJ v Garland, an extraordinary lawsuit that seeks to remove the names of innocent listed individuals from the terrorist screening database (TSDB) in two secret categories that are not known to the public, and not even to the people that are in them, because the FBI has admitted, they don’t represent a terrorist threatand they are not screened as such. Therefore these innocent Americans, and innocent civilians around the world, don’t encounter problems when traveling...[the list] of all those innocent people that are labeled as suspected terrorists…is distributed through the national crime information center (NCIC), to 18,000 law enforcement agencies, which translates to over 100,000 agents, to over 532 private corporations such as Air BnB, Western Union and many others that retaliate against people that don’t even know are on the list, and 1440 organizations such as universities that could very well deny entrance to somebody to a university of higher education just because unbeknownst to them, they are on this nefarious watchlist.”
Speaking specifically about the TJ v Garland lawsuit, Ana said(2:21): “We urge you to look at the appeal pending before the 5th Circuit[Court of Appeal], TJ v Garland case. It’s case #23-23402. It’s fully briefed and we’re ready for oral argumentation…The single remedy we seek, is the removal of the 18 plaintiffs from the TSDB categories 3 & 4, that are secret categories that the FBI has admitted, they put people on that list under secret criteria. That is not the America we were born into. That is not what the constitution provides. Please be aware, the watchlist in not the entire list. Pursuant to DOJ, the watchlist–the known and suspected terrorist list–comprises 0.5% of the entire list, so if that list is at two million, we don’t want to know how many innocent civilians have been placed secretly under codes 3 & 4, which represents 97% of the terrorist screening database pursuant to DOJ, not pursuant to Targeted Justice.”
Apparently, per Ana, an investigation by the DOJ Inspector-General recently found that the FBI doesn’t even follow its own regulations regarding watchlisting. Ana specifically said: “One of the most nefarious conclusions of an audit report by DOJ Inspector-General, report 08-16, is that the FBI field offices nominate and place people on the terrorist screening database without complying with agency regulations, now let that sink in. Innocent Americans that have never been arrested, tried, or convicted of any terrorist offense, and that by FBI’s own admission, do not meet the reasonable suspicion criteria, are secretly placed on this list. The labeling of innocent Americans, and people around the world, as suspected terrorists, deprives them of basic rights, constitutional and human rights. This has got to stop.”
Ana also took issue with the mainstream media’s strange silence regarding this issue, saying(6:34): “The evidence that the U.S. government is suppressing any dialogue about this, [targeted individuals], any discussion about it, is that despite the distribution of the press release on social media and through email, the press did not come here today. They are not interested in the freedom that second class citizens, targeted individuals, have a right to.”
It’s important to note that Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) has recently expressed similar watchlisting concerns, and is asking President Biden and the DOJ to address these problems.
The terrorist watchlist is rampant with inaccuracies and fuels discriminatory profiling.
I'm fighting to protect due process and civil rights for Americans who are wrongfully watchlisted. https://t.co/CXJ3LZO333
No reasonable person looking at the people standing behind Attorney Ana Toledo at the downtown Houston courthouse steps, would conclude that these were the kind of people the terrorist screening database was originally meant to weed out. Sadly, however, it’s normal people like these–your mother, sister, uncle, cousin, who maybe said the wrong/inflammatory thing on social media or elsewhere, or complained about some corruption in high places–who end up getting ensnared by these watchlists/targeting lists, and are then punished in ways regular Americans will never comprehend, up to and including using military assets. Its a total travesty that needs to be fixed and those responsible held to account. In other words, the grave injustice here is not just the malicious watchlisting, but also, the unconstitutional torture that goes with it–organized stalking, financial sabotage, assaults/experiments using DEWs, remote neuromonitoring…the quintessential weaponization of government, which in many cases, constitute violations of the Geneva Conventions against Torture(CAT)
Bottom line folks, this rally at the steps of the historic Houston courthouse marks a watershed moment for the struggle to free targeted individuals in that it officially takes the fight from the dark corners of social media, where often severely shadowbanned TIs anonymously scream from X(formerly Twitter), Facebook, Reddit, Tik Tok and other social media platforms, to real life activism. Put another way, it is very different, much more effective when real, normal people show up and cogently make their grievances known in public. It becomes very hard for the abusers to use their tried and true defense–“Oh, TIs are just a bunch of loons on social media.”
Hopefully we get to see more of these rallies and importantly, a meaningful response from authorities regarding the serious allegations Attorney Ana Toledo and her Targeted Justice are making. Oh and the mainstream media, both nationally and locally(Houston), it’s about time you started doing your jobs. The public deserves to get answers to these serious questions regarding the abuse of the watchlisting system.
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