And He is Out

Graham Platner has officially suspended his Senate campaign.

The, "Suspended," rather than, "Ended," is an artifact of campaign finance law.

He ain't coming back.

It appears that the DSCC types are already flocking to Maine in an attempt to ensure that whoever replaces him will be a focus group tested non-entity.

U.S. Senate candidate Graham Platner, the political upstart who overwhelmingly secured the Democratic nomination just one month ago, has ended his candidacy. His withdrawal from the race now sets up a frantic scramble to replace him on the November ballot. 

Platner announced Wednesday that he's quitting the race in a defiant video statement that blamed the political establishment for his downfall, saying that it conspired against him.

"We believe that for the movement to continue, it can't be me," he said. "And for that reason we are suspending campaign operations."

He also framed his plight as one shared with his base of supporters.

"We live in a political system that is not built for normal people. It is built structurally so that movements like ours cannot flourish, that if they begin to succeed they can be crushed," he said. "What we have accomplished here you made possible ... and I have all the faith in the world that we could win if we continue to harness that. But the brutal political reality is that they're going to take everything away from us."

The moves followed a report by POLITICO that detailed allegations that he sexually assaulted a former girlfriend five years ago. The oysterman and combat veteran strongly denied the report, but it quickly led to a cratering of support from national and local Democrats who had endorsed him. That included leaders in the Maine Democratic Party who will now decide who will replace him on the November ballot to run against Republican Sen. Susan Collins.

They need to select a replacement before July 27, so less than 3 weeks. They are planning a state Party convention.

I expect extensive rat-f%$#ery in the process.  Hopefully this will be both sides, and not just exclusively from the Democratic Party establishment (There is no Democratic Party establishment).

The progressives need to play the same hardball that the Schumer wing of the party does. 

Bye, Felicia

And by Felicia, I mean Lawrence Henry Summers, who is is leaving Harvard as a result of the fallout from his close ties to Jeffrey Epstein.

Even if Summers were a co-conspirator with Epstein on trafficking children, and there is NO evidence that he was, that would be a small percentage of damage that he has done as an economist and a political figure.

Former Harvard President Larry Summers will resign from his academic and faculty appointments at Harvard at the end of the academic year, relinquishing his University Professorship — Harvard’s highest faculty distinction — and remaining on leave until that time, a Harvard spokesperson confirmed to The Crimson.

Summers also resigned Wednesday from his role as co-director of the Mossavar-Rahmani Center for Business and Government at the Harvard Kennedy School, a position he has held since 2011, according to the spokesperson. He will not teach or take on new advisees.

The resignation marks an extraordinary unraveling for Summers, long one of the most influential figures in American economics. His career spanned prize-winning research, service as United States Treasury Secretary, and the presidency of Harvard.

………

Summers’ standing began to collapse after a cache of emails disclosed in November revealed details of a long-standing personal relationship between Summers and convicted sex offender Jeffrey E. Epstein.

The correspondence revealed that Summers regularly exchanged messages with Epstein about women, politics, and Harvard-linked projects over at least seven years — staying in contact as late as July 2019, the day before Epstein’s final arrest.

Summers was asking Epstein for dating advice, and how to best seduce one of his subordinates.

Summers is pond scum.  He was pond scum when he shot the breeze with Epstein, and he was pond scum when he covered for another protege, Andrei Shleifer, who was stealing money while he was supervising the privatization of the Russian economy following the collapse of the Soviet Union.

Say, "Hi," to Henry Kissenger when you get to hell. 

If Wednesday is Prince Spaghetti Day, Let's Have Monday be Jeffrey Epstein Day

I'm consuming a whole bunch of stuff about L'Affaire Epstein, I've saved about 20 links, and I have decided that I need to have a regular day to update this, and today is as good a day as any.

First, I want to lead with Trump's bizarre explanation as to why he and Epstein ended their friendship, he is saying that Epstein poached his employees.  

Bullsh%$.  It was a dispute over a real estate deal, which reported extensively at the time.

Note that this is from 2016

BTW, things have to be seriously insane if Luke "Uncle Luke" of 2 Live Crew says that he bailed on a Trump party because there there were underage girls and too many drugs at the at said bash. 

That is a serious Whiskey Tango Foxtrot moment. 

BTW, the WSJ,  which has been all over this story, is reporting that Pam Bondi told Donald Trump that his name was all over the Epstein files,

I've already mentioned that Mike "Tiny Johnson" Johnson adjourned the House of Representatives in an attempt to prevent a vote on releasing the Epstein Files, but he was not fast enough, because subcommittee of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee has voted to subpoena Ghisland Maxwell and question her about the Epstein matter.

Oh, snap! 

Meanwhile, Michael Wolff continues to supply us with salacious revelations about Trump, such as Epstein's testimony about Trump's proclivity to f%$# his friends' wives, but this IMHO is not really important.

What is important though are the calls for the Department of Justice to follow Epstein's money.  In particular, Senator Ron Widen (D-OR) has been pressuring the DoJ to investigate this.

To this day, the public does not know how Epstein made his money. 

Meanwhile, in furtherance of a Trump coverup, Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, who was also Donald Trump's boutique defense attorney until his appointment, is interviewing Ghislane Maxwell and has granted her use immunity for whatever she says.

This means that she cannot be directly prosecuted for what she says, though she could be prosecuted if crimes are determined by another avenue.

It seems to me likely that Blanche will attempt to pressure to lie about Trump and Epstein.

Busy week. 

(On Edit)

Forgot to add, it looks like the FBI put somewhere around 1,000 agents on going through Epstein court documents looking for references to Donald Trump. likely with an eye to suppressing or redacting these these documents.

Gee, corruption much? 

Shut Up Nancy

In response to the furor over Trump and the Epstein files, Nancy Pelosi has called the whole thing a distraction.

If you are so concerned about being seen as the adult in the room that you are using Donald Trump's framing, you are neither an adult nor in the room:

Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi doesn’t have much in common with Donald Trump, but they can agree on a few things. Like the president, the California Democrat wishes the Jeffrey Epstein controversy would hurry up and go away.

In an interview with MSNBC on Thursday, Pelosi dismissed the buzz around the late sex trafficker as a “distraction.”

The Department of Justice’s refusal to release case files or a long-promised “client list” related to Epstein has torn MAGA apart in recent days. When asked about her take, Pelosi said there are more important things for lawmakers to worry about.

“I’ll leave it up to them to talk it out. But again, whether it’s Jeffrey Epstein or Alcatraz, it’s all off the subject of what they’re doing with this budget that is harmful to the kitchen table, meeting the kitchen-table needs of the American people,” Pelosi said.

Nancy Pelosi says the Epstein files are a distraction pic.twitter.com/KMpxSDDtcG

— Ken Klippenstein (@kenklippenstein) July 17, 2025

After all of that talk about Biden's mental acuity, I'm thinking that we should have been worrying about Pelosi.

She is so far past her sell-by date that it's not funny. 

Pass the Popcorn

The House Ethics Committee will be releasing its report on Matt Gaetz.

So, we are going to be reading stories about his drug fueled exploits with young (underage?) girls shortly.

I am amused:

The US House of Representatives ethics committee has reportedly voted to release a report on sexual misconduct allegations against Matt Gaetz, the former Republican representative who was forced to drop his bid to become Donald Trump’s attorney general amid fallout over the accusations.

According to CNN, the House ethics committee voted earlier this month to release the report, which is expected to be made public after the chamber’s final votes of the year later this week.

The news comes a month after the committee deadlocked on whether to release the report, as members fell along party lines in the private vote. The recent decision now suggests that at least one Republican member of the panel has joined Democrats in supporting its publication.

I think that Gaetz underestimated just how much he is loathed by fellow members of the Republican House Caucus.

May Be Replaced by Something Even More Bizarre and Inexplicable

There are now reports that Donald Trump is considering replacing Pete Hegseth with Ron DeSantis for Secretary of state Defense.

Donald, you do know that DeSantis declared war on a mouse (Disney) and lost, don't you?

Normally, When You Say That a Newsie Is in Bed With Their Sources………

It is not meant literally, but it appears that Olivia Nuzzi (Pronounced, "Newsie," As Anna Russel would say, "I'm not making this up, you know.") has been suspended from New York Magazine for sexting RFK, Jr.

No seriously.  Don't make me quote Anna Russel again:

New York magazine on Thursday said its Washington correspondent, Olivia Nuzzi, is on leave after learning the star journalist had allegedly engaged in an inappropriate relationship with a reporting subject. That person is Robert F. Kennedy Jr., according to people familiar with the matter.

"Recently our Washington Correspondent Olivia Nuzzi acknowledged to the magazine’s editors that she had engaged in a personal relationship with a former subject relevant to the 2024 campaign while she was reporting on the campaign, a violation of the magazine’s standards around conflicts of interest and disclosures," a spokesperson for New York magazine said in a statement in response to questions from Status.

"Had the magazine been aware of this relationship, she would not have continued to cover the presidential campaign," the spokesperson added. "An internal review of her published work has found no inaccuracies nor evidence of bias. She is currently on leave from the magazine, and the magazine is conducting a more thorough third-party review. We regret this violation of our readers’ trust." 

 In her own statement, provided to Status after this story initially published, Nuzzi confirmed that “earlier this year, the nature of some communication” between herself “and a former reporting subject turned personal.”

“During that time, I did not directly report on the subject nor use them as a source,” Nuzzi added. “The relationship was never physical but should have been disclosed to prevent the appearance of a conflict. I deeply regret not doing so immediately and apologize to those I’ve disappointed, especially my colleagues at New York.” 

Two interesting things, first, it appears that Ryan Lizza is now her EX fiancee, and the fact that Ryan Lizza is the less hackish journalist in a journalism power couple is kind of mind blowing.

Second, it appears that this story broke because RFK, Jr. was bragging about it to his friends.

Mr. Kennedy, that is JD Vance f%$#ing a couch creepy.

I'm Matthew Saroff, and I Approve of That Message

Someone is renting space on billboards throughout the south showing an image of from one of the many times that Jeffrey Epstein and Donald Trump hanging out at a party.

Needless to say, I am amused:

Residents of North Carolina began noticing the mysterious billboards days before this month’s Super Tuesday primaries.

Across Winston-Salem, Charlotte, Greensboro, and beyond, digital posters displaying the smiling faces of former President Donald Trump and his old friend, the notorious sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, greeted drivers as they traveled highways and busy intersections.

Soon after, the Trump-Epstein signs popped up in Georgia.

“I live in this little tiny Trump town and there’s one person here that I want to be friends with,” said liberal Jeff Wagenius in a TikTok documenting the enigma. He added, “Cuz this right here deserves the best beer we have in town on me, I swear to God.”

It appears that the advertisements have been paid for by a group calling itself, "ProtectChildrenQ LLC," which is listed on the attribution statement attached.

Someone needs to find whoever did this, and hire them to manage their campaign.

Dick Tuck would be proud.

Republican Family Values

The Speaker of the North Carolina House has been sued for alienation of affection, which means that he is accused f%$#ing someone else's wife and causing their divorce.  (It is a tort where you sue the person for destroying your marriage for whacking said spouse's porcupine.)

It gets better.  The woman (A straight Republican?  How odd!) was executive director of the N.C. Conference of Clerks of Superior Court, which makes her a public official, and there are reports that he used his position to coerce her into, among other things, group sex, using the threat of defunding the conference.

Just to be clear, these are only allegations, and has not been proven in court nor has any detailed information been released to the public yet.

A lawsuit against one of North Carolina’s top Republican leaders, House Speaker Tim Moore, claims he had a years-long affair with a married woman, using “his position as one of the most powerful elected officials” in the state to “entice” her into an “illicit relationship.”

“This was more than the ordinary dalliance of an unfaithful spouse and an unscrupulous paramour,” the lawsuit says.

Scott Lassiter, a former Apex councilman, is suing Moore and seeks more than $25,000 in damages. Among other claims, the suit accuses Moore of “alienation of affection.” North Carolina is one of a small number of states that allow spouses to sue people for wrecking marriages, The News & Observer previously reported.

………

Court documents show the lawsuit was filed electronically in court on Sunday.

The lawsuit claims that Lassiter’s wife, Jamie Liles Lassiter, the executive director of the N.C. Conference of Clerks of Superior Court, hoped her “acquiescence” to Moore’s demands would benefit her employer. It claims that Moore “aggressively pursued a sexual relationship” with her.

………

The lawsuit says that Moore’s conduct “revealed a perverse form of symbiosis in which he persuaded her to engage in degrading acts to satisfy his desires, recognizing that Mrs. Lassiter hoped her acquiescence to his demands would result in Defendant Tim Moore supporting favorable action for the organization she represents.”

The conference, created in 2006 by the legislature, consists of the 100 elected clerks from across the state, according to the state’s Judicial Branch’s website. The executive director and staff “serve as a resource for the clerks in key areas of court administration” and ”act as a liaison on behalf of all elected clerks of Superior Court to both governmental and non-governmental stakeholders,” the website states. ………

According to the court documents, after hearing rumors, Scott Lassiter “surveilled” Liles Lassiter in December, finding she had dinner with and spent hours with Moore.

Scott Lassiter said he confronted his wife, who told him that she could not end her relationship with Moore for fear it would result in losing her job and retaliation. The lawsuit also claims that Scott Lassiter confronted Moore at a Biscuitville restaurant in Raleigh and Moore asked him if there was anything he could do for him, “implying that he could use the power he held as Speaker in some way to benefit Plaintiff.”

The case alleges Moore convinced Liles Lassiter “to engage in degrading sexual acts with him, including group sexual activity with others over whom he had power or influence.”

The case is also filed against a “John Doe,” an unidentified individual who “conspired” with Moore. The case documents have an exhibit claiming to be a photo of this person on Scott Lassiter’s front porch without authorization.

It should be noted here that this is a schadenfreude rich environment, particularly given that there have been a number of attempts to repeal this archaic practice in North Carolina which have died in committee, indicating (at least) an ambivalence by Speaker Moore toward abolition of this law.

I am amused.

And It Is On

After years of Republicans in Texas looking the other way when they saw clear and convincing evidence of criminality and corruption by Texas Attorney General, it appears that paying out $3,300,000.00 in state funds to former staffers who accused him of corruption was a bridge too far.

The Texas state house has voted 121-23 to impeach Paxton.

In a monumental decision that threatens to divide the powerful Texas Republican Party, the House of Representatives voted to impeach Attorney General Ken Paxton on Saturday after a scandal-plagued decade in which he has been accused in multiple investigations of misusing his office and of retaliating against those who've exposed his misdeeds.

Paxton's impeachment, triggered by a 121-23 vote with overwhelming Republican support, removes the 60-year-old attorney general from office pending a trial in the Senate. An interim replacement must be named by Gov. Greg Abbott.

The impeachment, just the third in Texas history and the first in nearly 50 years, punctuates a whirlwind week in the House that began with the three-term attorney general accusing House Speaker Dade Phelan of being intoxicated on the job and continued with a bombshell revelation that Paxton was the unidentified subject of a House investigation that began in March. 

This turd has been under indictment for securities fraud for 8 years, and nothing happened.

Even now, he is threatening legislators with political consequences.

Why this guy survived and thrived all these years is a mark of profound dysfunction in Texas politics.

Then again, Texas politics is notorious for its dysfunctionality.

Baltimore Burns ……… In Hell!

Not all of Baltimore should burn in hell, just senior officials of the Baltimore archdiocese, who covered up the abuse of hundreds of children over more than 80 years.

I get that the Catholic Church, particularly in the western world, has trouble recruiting enough priests, but they need to be more selective in who they ordain as priests.

A four-year investigation of Baltimore’s Catholic archdiocese reveals the scope of 80 years of child sex abuse and torture and how church officials often covered it up and, in some cases, paved the way for further abuse.

Among the accounts: A deacon who admitted abusing more than 100 children. A priest who chained and whipped boys for his gratification. Another priest who, after receiving psychiatric treatment, went on to abuse 20 students at a Baltimore boys’ school.

The Maryland Attorney General’s Office released Wednesday its “Report on Child Sexual Abuse in the Archdiocese of Baltimore.” Its nearly 500 pages tell how 156 clergy and other Church officials tormented more than 600 children and young adults, dating back to the 1940s. The Baltimore archdiocese covers Baltimore City and nine counties in Central and Western Maryland.

Spurred by the report’s publication, the General Assembly sent a bill Wednesday to Democratic Gov. Wes Moore’s desk that would make it easier for survivors to sue the institutions that employed their abusers.

The report names at least 36 abusers who are not listed on the Archdiocese of Baltimore’s online list of 152 priests and brothers credibly accused of abuse. Ten more abusers’ names were redacted. Other diocesan officials’ identities are redacted also, and the Catholic Church paid at least some of the legal costs for a group of people who sought to have their names shielded.

 So even in the midst of all of this, the Church is still covering up.

………

Victims lobbied the attorney general’s office to start the investigation, particularly after the Pennsylvania attorney general produced a similar report in 2018. Then-Attorney General Brian Frosh, a Democrat, launched Maryland’s probe shortly thereafter. Investigators interviewed hundreds of survivors and pored over hundreds of thousands of church documents.

The abuse’s breadth and depravity is “astonishing,” the report’s authors wrote.

………

Going beyond the horror of the individual cases, the report reveals the extent of the Catholic Church’s efforts to conceal the depravity within its ranks.

“The staggering pervasiveness of the abuse itself underscores the culpability of the Church hierarchy,” the authors wrote.

………

The report called for the state legislature to amend Maryland’s civil statute of limitations for child sex abuse. Just 40 minutes after its release, the Senate passed the Child Victims Act, which would remove the statute of limitations on such lawsuits. Moore vowed to sign it.

The Maryland Catholic Conference, which represents all three dioceses operating in the state, opposed the bill at every turn and is expected to challenge it in court.

The tactics of the Maryland dioceses does not indicate to me any evidence of honest contrition, much less atonement.

It makes me nostalgic for the Borgia Popes.

Republican Family Values

Photographs of Madison Cawthorn, a poster child for the rights of the disabled to be stupid and evil, show him wearing ladies lingerie and hoop earrings as a part of some sort of frat-type game.

I am completely unsurprised by this:

Photographs obtained by POLITICO appear to show Madison Cawthorn, the embattled Republican congressman from North Carolina who recently accused his GOP colleagues of inviting him to orgies, wearing lingerie in what appears to be a party setting.

Cawthorn, 26, was raised in a conservative Baptist community in Henderson County, North Carolina, and has staked his political persona on arch-traditional Christian principles and the insistence of the importance of a kind of hypermasculinity. His comments about “the sexual perversion” in Washington made on a podcast, which he later admitted were exaggerated, drew the public disapproval and disavowal of Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy as well as other Republican leaders including those in his North Carolina congressional caucus.

The revelation of the two photos is the latest in a series of unflattering headlines for the freshman member of Congress in the run-up to the primary in his first re-election bid. The primary in North Carolina is May 17. Cawthorn has seven Republican opponents who see him as vulnerable.

………

POLITICO could not independently verify the photos, which are screenshots of original images. They were provided to POLITICO by a person formerly close to Cawthorn and his campaign. A second person formerly close to Cawthorn and his campaign confirmed the origin of the photos. The date the photos were taken is unclear, though they appear to show Cawthorn sitting in a wheelchair, indicating the event happened after his accident. In the photos, he is wearing a distinctive pendant necklace that has appeared in other images and videos of Cawthorn. The photos have started to circulate among political rivals. 

He is suggesting that this is completely normal cruise ship hijinks that he engaged in before he was elected to Congress.

Yeah, right.  Even if that were true, his taste in lingerie and accessories is a disgrace.

Because of the delicate sensibilities of my reader(s), I have posted the photograph after the break.

OK, He's Officially Insane

It appears that ex New York Govern Andrew "Rat-Faced Andy" Cuomo is claiming that he has been "vindicated", and that he might run for office again.

He does not get it.  He is a serial harasser, his enablers have been forced out in both government and in  charities, and his relationships with the rest of the political establishment was a bully to a victim.

They aren't afraid of him any more, and if he tries to resurrect his career they are not going to be particularly supportive.  

The fact that he has not been charged is largely an artifact that he is done as a politician.  If he wants to change that, he's in for a world of hurt:

Five months after he resigned over a swirl of sexual harassment allegations, New York’s former Governor Andrew Cuomo isn’t ruling out another run for public office. He insists it’s too soon to talk about it.

Instead, he’s consumed by what he alleges are serious mistakes by New York State Attorney General Letitia James and the independent lawyers who investigated the sexual harassment claims against him.

Her office determined the accounts of 11 different women were credible and that Cuomo “violated multiple federal and state harassment laws,” according to the Aug. 3 report. The findings were so damaging and explosive that Cuomo resigned weeks after the report’s release.

But if he had to do it all over, he wouldn’t have resigned, the former governor, 64, told Bloomberg News in a Friday telephone interview, one of a handful since leaving office. “I never resigned because I said I did something wrong. I said, I’m resigning because I don’t want to be a distraction,” Cuomo said.

………

Since July, he’s spent more than $2 million from what’s now a $16.4 million campaign war chest on legal fees, public relations and other payments to staff. He’s still sending out press releases about political events and recently dined with New York City Mayor Eric Adams at Manhattan restaurant Osteria La Baia.

Of course Eric Adams is making nice with him, he's a pretty contemptible figure too.

………

For now, Cuomo is preoccupied with James, who he blames for his downfall.

He said be believes her investigation was politically motivated and pointed to her brief run for governor, before dropping her campaign last December and deciding to run for re-election. Cuomo had initially referred the case to the AG’s office.

He's like an Italian version of Donald Trump, and it's pathetic.

………

In truth, the New York DAs said they found the accounts of the women to be credible despite not pursuing criminal charges against Cuomo. The decision is “not an exoneration” of Cuomo, said DA Gregory Oakes in upstate Oswego County, noting that current New York statutes “fail to properly hold offenders accountable and fail to adequately protect victims.” On Long Island, former acting Nassau DA Joyce Smith concluded Cuomo’s behavior was “deeply troubling” but did not amount to a crime. 

He's gone completely daft. 

To quote Blackadder, "He’s madder than Mad Jack McMad, the winner of last year’s Mr Madman competition."

Tweet of the Day

an internship at the white house will be amazing on your resume. 😳

— Monica Lewinsky (she/her) (@MonicaLewinsky) July 14, 2019

It's nice that she came out on the other side safe, sane, and funny as hell.

Also, this is the best answer for, "What was your worst career advice."

Tweet of the Day

Yet another interview/profile of Larry Summers where the word “Epstein” never appears and where he’s never asked how many times he visited Epstein’s private island. I’m genuinely fascinated by how he’s *so* good at avoiding that question. https://t.co/xItFzoIgED

— Felix Salmon (@felixsalmon) June 25, 2021

There is a LOT in this seemingly innocuous question.

Karma's a Bitch, Neh?

Liberty University has just sued Jerry Falwell Jr. for ten million dollars, claiming that his behavior ran counter to his obligations as an officer of the school.

I only hope that there is a way for both of them to lose:

Liberty University filed a lawsuit this week against its former president Jerry Falwell Jr., alleging that he breached his contract and fiduciary duties to the school as he sought to cover up a personal scandal.

The evangelical Christian university in Lynchburg, Va., is seeking more than $10 million in damages from the man who led it for 13 years. The suit filed Thursday in Lynchburg Circuit Court marked another twist in the saga of Falwell’s messy departure last year from Liberty.

………

Later that month he agreed to resign after news reports emerged about a young man Falwell and his wife, Rebecca Falwell, had befriended who allegedly was sexually connected to the couple. Falwell has said that his wife, who also goes by Becki, had a brief affair with the man.

Falwell, 58, filed a defamation suit against Liberty in October, alleging the school accepted without verifying what he called false statements made by the young man. He later dropped the lawsuit.

In its lawsuit, Liberty contends that Falwell failed to return university-owned computers, devices and confidential information to Liberty and that he failed to disclose to the university alleged threats of extortion he had received in connection with potential personal scandals.

………

The 38-page complaint alleges that Falwell deliberately sought to hide the affair. “Despite his clear duties as an executive and officer at Liberty, Falwell Jr. chose personal protection,” the suit alleged.

Further, the suit alleged: “Falwell Jr.'s actions in breaching the fiduciary duty he owed to Liberty were willful and wanton and disregarded the rights of Liberty.”

………

When Falwell resigned in August, he said he was entitled to $10.5 million in severance. Liberty, in its lawsuit, disputes that claim.

His severance package is a major issue in the suit. Liberty alleges that Falwell concealed information about extortion threats from the governing board when he negotiated a new contract in 2019 that included a higher salary and a provision for two years of severance pay, under certain conditions, worth a total of $2.5 million. The suit indicates that Liberty agreed to that level of payout on Aug. 28, 2020.

It appears that everyone involves worships Benjamin Franklin. Isn't there something in the bible about worshiping false gods?

………

Falwell’s father, the late Rev. Jerry Falwell Sr., was a prominent leader of the religious right who founded Liberty University and a nearby church.

Under Jerry Falwell Jr., who became Liberty’s president and chancellor after his father died in 2007, the school grew enormously and became a frequent stop for Republican politicians and others who wanted to connect with conservative evangelical Christian audiences.

………

Liberty recently announced that Jonathan Falwell, senior pastor of Thomas Road Baptist Church and Falwell Jr.’s brother, will become the school’s campus pastor at the end of the semester.

That last bit has gotta hurt.

I hope that this case burns through decades and consumes millions of dollars from both institutions.

Tweet of the Day

Matt Gaetz is everything the Republicans were looking for in Hunter Biden.

— Dr. Antifa Rioter-Elect, Esq (@AntifaRioter) April 2, 2021

I have not been writing about the rapidly metastasizing web of sex, drugs, and money laundering surrounding Florida Republican Congressman Matt Gaetz because it's too weird for me to get a real handle on the whole thing.

But if I were to boil it down to one sentence, I would just quote Dr. Antifa Rioter-Elect, Esq, so I am quoting Dr. Antifa Rioter-Elect, Esq.

This May be the Greatest Tweet Ever

The audio of Trump with the Georgia secretary of state. Wow. It’s like telling the Nixon tapes to “hold my beer.”

— Dan Rather (@DanRather) January 3, 2021

I can literally hear Dan Rather's Texas twang saying this.

Epstein and Trump And Clinton and the Democratic National Convention

Seriously, if Clinton gets taken down, or embarrassed, or just hauled into court, as a result of the Ghislane Maxwell trial, more power to the prosecutors.

So reports that there are photographs of show Clinton apparently receiving a neck massage from alleged Jeffrey Epstein victim Chauntae Davies don't bother me, though I think it is mind bogglingly stupid to have them as featured speakers at the Democratic National Convention.

It is worse than a crime, it is a mistake: (Not actually a Tallyrand quote)

Hours ahead of former President Bill Clinton’s appearance at the Democratic National Convention, the Daily Mail published photos Tuesday that show Clinton apparently receiving a neck massage from alleged Jeffrey Epstein victim Chauntae Davies following a previously-reported flight that Clinton and Epstein took to Africa together in 2002, with Davies telling the Mail that Clinton was a "perfect gentleman" on the trip.

………

Donald Trump Jr. tweeted a link to the Daily Mail article, and suggested that if Clinton brought it up during his Tuesday DNC speech, it “would be a lot more interesting then garbage we saw last night.” His father, President Trump, was also once friendly with Epstein and Maxwell. After Epstein’s 2019 arrest, however, Trump said he had not spoken to Epstein in over a decade.

I get that you need to throw some bones to the Clintonistas at the convention, but the prominence being afforded to Billary is counter-productive and stupid.

Rats, Sinking Ship, You Know

Senator Ron Johnson, (R-WI) just threw Donald Trump under the bus:

A Republican senator said he was told by an American diplomat in August that the release of U.S. aid to Ukraine was contingent on an investigation desired by President Trump and his allies, but Mr. Trump denied pursuing any such proposal when the lawmaker pressed him on it.

Sen. Ron Johnson said that Gordon Sondland, the U.S. ambassador to the European Union, had described to him a quid pro quo involving a commitment by Kyiv to probe matters related to U.S. elections and the status of nearly $400 million in U.S. aid to Ukraine that the president had ordered to be held up in July.

Alarmed by that information, Mr. Johnson, who supports aid to Ukraine and is the chairman of a Senate subcommittee with jurisdiction over the region, said he raised the issue with Mr. Trump the next day, Aug. 31, in a phone call, days before the senator was to meet with Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelensky. In the call, Mr. Trump flatly rejected the notion that he directed aides to make military aid to Ukraine contingent on a new probe by Kyiv, Mr. Johnson said.

“He said, ‘Expletive deleted—No way. I would never do that. Who told you that?” the Wisconsin senator recalled in an interview Friday. Mr. Johnson said he told the president he had learned of the arrangement from Mr. Sondland.

That Trump was trying to extort the Ukraine by delaying aid was obvious to anyone who was following the issues in aid going to Kiev. (I was not one of these people, but Johnson was).

He is releasing this statement now only because he's afraid of being collateral damage in the every widening disaster.

I still don't think that any Republicans will vote to convict in the Senate, but the cockroaches are fleeing the light.