I just hope he has the time to finish growing up

An Associated Press article posted on Daily Kos reports that judge Arthur Engoron issued his decision in the penalty part of the case of the nasty guy defrauding banks and others with inflated wealth statements. The ruling imposes a penalty of $364 million. Also the nasty guy cannot serve as an officer or director of any New York corporation for three years. The dollar penalty is high, but not as high as the prosecutors requested. The part about not serving as a corporate officer is much less harsh than expected. Some thought he and his family would be barred from doing business in New York for life and his companies dissolved. The nasty guy gave up his position as the company director when he took the Oval Office and did not formally resume the title when he left office. His sons say he has been involved in some decision making. The nasty guy’s lawyers said it was a “manifest injustice” and “politically fueled witch hunt.” They claimed the verdict would damage the business environment (the business environment for grifters?). They will appeal. Of course they said that and of course they will appeal. Charles Jay of the Kos community reported the US Marshall Service, the officers that protect federal judges, prosecutors, and court workers, have seen serious threats more than double since 2021. Until recently such threats had been made by people angry about a judge’s ruling in their case. Now many more threats are coming from people angry because of politics. Joan McCarter of Kos reported that one Wednesday Speaker Johnson was asked about the Ukraine aid package passed by the Senate. He replied, “We have to address this seriously, to actually solve the problems and not just take political posturing as has happened in some of these other corners.” Political posturing? He said that after his House impeached Alejandro Mayorkas to stick it to the Democrats? Then Johnson complained the Ukraine aid bill “has not one word about the border” after he killed the bipartisan border bill. And he’s too busy working on avoiding a partial government shutdown on March 1. Not that there are any, you know, funding bills on the House calendar. The Senate is out until Feb. 26 for their Presidents Day holiday (nice to get two weeks off rather than just a day the rest of the government gets). And on return their first order of business is the Mayorkas trial (I had said it might die in committee, guess not). Which means they won’t have time to do much shutdown avoidance. McCarter reported that also on Wednesday Johnson held a meeting and was handed the choice of saving the government or saving himself. Yeah, we saw how well that worked for Kevin McCarthy. Johnson was told a government shutdown is “idiotic and would only hurt House Republicans.” So another short term continuing spending bill? Full spending bills should have passed back in September. But the Freedom Caucus had said no more short term bills. A long term bill – just say continue the 2023 spending levels and skip trying to negotiate spending for 2024? But the debt ceiling agreement Biden negotiated with McCarthy means everything gets a 10% cut on May 1. That would be about as unpopular as a shutdown. Or Johnson could be grownup and pass bipartisan funding bills with Democrat help that would also get through the Senate. If he does the Freedom Caucus is likely to boot him. In a third post McCarter reported also on Wednesday Johnson again pulled a vote to overhaul FISA because he hasn’t unified the conference.

Wednesday hadn’t even ended before the headlines like “Republicans admit it. Kevin McCarthy has never looked so good” started appearing.

That headline was in Politico. Those Republicans admitting it:

“Watching Speaker Johnson, who I have great respect for, grow up has been really fascinating. I just hope he has the time to finish growing up,” Rep. Frank Lucas of Oklahoma told Punchbowl News. One senior Republican said that Johnson’s leadership “feels like chaos. Rudderless.”

So what does a rudderless leader do when his followers won’t follow?

So Johnson’s House is packing up and leaving midday Thursday, a day earlier than scheduled, for a nearly two-week Presidents’ Day break. They’ll return on Feb. 28, just two days before the first government shutdown deadline, on March 1. Wheeeee!

In a fourth post McCarter reported:

House Republicans aren’t even waiting for the Justice Department to respond to their demand for the transcripts of President Joe Biden’s interview with special counsel Robert Hur. They are already planning the hearing with Hur probing into how old Biden really is. Hur has been preparing for his starring role. Hur found no evidence against Biden in the documents-handling case he was investigating, which rose to a prosecutable level. But the former Trump official needed to do a solid for Republicans, so he added in a lot of gratuitous hits on Biden’s age in his report, which legal experts have called “a partisan hit job.”

That “preparing for his starring role” includes such things as being given lessons on how to “navigate a congressional hearing” by Sarah Isgur, a nasty guy DoJ PR flak. She’s now making the rounds of the Sunday shows and lying about Hur’s findings.

The honed and smart team of Democrats led by Rep. Jamie Raskin will continue to make a mockery of the Republicans. Their “Truth Squad,” which includes Reps. Greg Casar, Jasmine Crockett, Maxwell Frost, Daniel Goldman, and Jared Moskowitz, has perfected their tactics to derail hearings and flummox Republicans. On these hearings, it’ll be a piece of cake.

Another AP article on Kos reports the FBI informant who had the dirt on Biden and son Hunter receiving payments from Ukrainian energy company Burisma had been lying to his handler. He has been indicted for “making a false statement and creating a false and fictitious record.” If convicted, he could get up to 25 years. Dictinary.com just added the term “greedflation” defined as a rise in prices caused by corporate executives to increase profits already healthy or excessive. That’s been a big contributor to the inflation America has been dealing with. Kerry Eleveld of Kos reported a poll done by Navigator Research has found 85% of voters now see corporate greed as a cause of inflation. And that’s something Democrats can run on.

The country’s economic upswing, coupled with Americans increasing belief in greedflation, suggests voters are ripe for an argument that the high price of consumer goods is a product of corporate greed, not economic missteps. And Democrats have a plan for that.

In a pundit roundup for Kos Greg Dworkin had a couple good quotes. From Paul Waldman, of “The Cross Section” on Substack writing on immigration as a campaign issue. This is after Democrat Tom Suozzi of New York just won a special election by campaigning on immigration.

Despite the GOP’s record of repeated failure to turn immigration into electoral results, the vast majority of the political class in Washington — including Republicans, Democrats, and journalists — remains convinced that the losing Republican strategy is actually brilliant, and it’s the Democrats who need to change their ways. The issue of immigration, they assume, is a kind of electoral magic weapon whose unstoppable power will slay all Democrats who stand before it. But they’re just wrong. The voters keep telling them so, and they refuse to accept it.

From Joe Perticone, writing for The Bulwark about the ongoing yet still unsuccessful attempts to impeach Biden:

What [Hunter Biden associate Tony] Bobulinski actually offered Oversight [Committee] members inside the room turned out to be more of what he’s been trying to sell lawmakers and journalists for years: more conjecture and underwhelming, questionable testimony. The result is as familiar as the process: The impeachment inquiry, though shaking and whirring loudly, remains stuck in the hyperpartisan muck.

In the comments are several cartoons and tweets about Fani Willis. She’s the lead prosecutor in the case of the nasty guy committing election fraud in Georgia. Word recently got out that she hired an assistant, Nathan Wade, then started dating him. Their dates included travel and there is now the claim that the case is so they could profit from it (you expected this to be logical?). With that claim they hope to get her and her team dismissed from the case. Getting a new team ready to take over the case would mean no trial until after the election – another delay tactic for the nasty guy. Willis has been grilled by the defense and the view of her performance depends on the viewer’s politics. First up is a cartoon by Clay Jones about slut shaming. The cartoon shows Willis in the witness stand while a befuddled judge hears a woman bellow, “The district attorney should be removed for wink-win, nudge-nudge, mreow-mreow, ruff-ruff, hubba-hubba, aroooga-aroooga, bow-chicka-wow-wow!” Victoria Brownworth reminds us Willis had to live in a safe house because of MAGA death threats. B McArthur asks “Why is Trump allowed to be represented by a white man and woman who own a law firm together, share the same bed, and whose objective is to profit from lying to Americans?” Terry McMillan noted: “She's smarter than they are and they can't stand that a black woman is not intimidated by them. I love her attitude. If she was white they wouldn't be talking to her like this. And we all know it.” Howard at Law: “It was a hit job on a successful Black woman to satisfy racists. DA Willis literally reminded him who is on trial for actual crimes.” Jennifer Cali: “Only in America can a criminal POS like trump try to overturn an election and make us put the prosecutor on trial. This is some next level white elitism.” Dr. Mustafa Santiago Ali: “Roll up on Fani Willis thinking it's a game, and she'll show you Black Girl Magic ain't just a phrase, it's how she gets down. You gon’ learn today!” Prez:

This whole hearing with Fani is a complete and utter sideshow. The defense is not trying to make a case that the relationship creates a conflict of interest. They know it does not. The whole point of this charade is to put Fani and Wade’s personal life to the forefront of jurors minds. Jurors will see the two together and begin to wonder about their sex life. This hearing is nothing more than a hit job on their character and their professionalism and has nothing to do with their ability to prosecute the defendants in these cases.

Needle of Arya:

a reminder that this entire investigation into Fani Willis was brought on behalf of folks who are themselves on trial for trying to overturn a presidential election in Georgia this is revenge for daring to hold Trump accountable for trying to become a dictator

I followed the link to B McArthur’s X feed which, since I’m not a member, only shows his most popular posts. In July 2023 he posted an image of a sign a Beau’s.

Trump Sandwich - White Bread - - full of baloney - w/ Russian dressing and a small pickle