Attribution: Teaching Politicians to Exploit Human Tragedy by Monte Wolverton, Battle Ground, WA
Trump Sentencing Today
In a 5-4 ruling, the U.S. Supreme Court REJECTED Donald Trump’s motion to block his criminal sentencing in New York.
Trump was found guilty in May of falsifying business records with the intent to commit a second crime.
The office of Manhattan district attorney, Alvin Bragg, argued that Trump falsely recorded reimbursements he made to his former lawyer Michael Cohen for paying $130,000 to adult film star Stormy Daniels, so she would keep quiet about an alleged sexual liaison with the then candidate. Trump marked these repayments to Cohen as “legal expenses” on financial documents.
State prosecutors contended at trial that these falsifications were intended to hide Trump’s violation of New York election law, which forbids promoting any person to office through unlawful means. They said that the unlawful means were the payoff to Daniels, as they cast it as an illegal campaign contribution.
Mourning in America
NOW, THEREFORE, I, JOSEPH R. BIDEN JR., President of the United States of America, by the authority vested in me by the Constitution and the laws of the United States, in honor and tribute to the memory of President James Earl Carter, Jr., and as an expression of public sorrow, do hereby direct that the flag of the United States be displayed at half-staff at the White House and on all public buildings and grounds, at all military posts and naval stations, and on all naval vessels of the Federal Government in the District of Columbia and throughout the United States and its Territories and possessions for a period of 30 days from the day of his death. I also direct that, for the same length of time, the representatives of the United States in foreign countries shall make similar arrangements for the display of the flag at half‑staff over their embassies, legations, consular offices, and other facilities abroad, including all military facilities and naval vessels and stations.
I hereby order that suitable honors be rendered by units of the Armed Forces under orders of the Secretary of Defense.
I do further appoint January 9, 2025, as a National Day of Mourning throughout the United States. I call on the American people to assemble on that day in their respective places of worship, there to pay homage to the memory of President James Earl Carter, Jr. I invite the people of the world who share our grief to join us in this solemn observance.
Proclamation Announcing the Death of James Earl Carter, Jr. | The White House
Anything For Attention
Our New Look
We’re trying out a new comment system that’s more up to date and less creaky than what we were using. Our favorite tools, such as image uploading and editing are still available, but different.
For uploading see the icon on the bottom right of the comment box…
This system allows editing of your comments without a time limit. It pops up when you hover your cursor over the bottom right corner of the posted comment.
Deleting your comment is different. At the beginning of comments at the top of the page to the right of the number of comments there’s an icon for “My comment and settings”. Click that and you’ll your see recent comments listed in case you want to delete any.
The floating green button on the left is where you can click to add your comment wherever you are on the page (it also displays the number of comments).
The features aren’t as intuitive as I’d like but this seems to be a more smoothly operating comment platform than the collection of outdated tools I had cobbled together.
Please add your thoughts, questions, suggestions in comments. Happy Trails!