Two Maldives Ministers Arrested For Attempted Sorcery on President Muizzu

 

I take no position on the guilt or innocence of the two sorcery suspects, although one of them is a woman and therefore perhaps the more likely to be in touch with the forces of the netherworld. 

We outsiders must let the Maldivian justice system run its course, while we respect the cultural differences involved here. Should the two suspects be adjudicated and found guilty, then let justice be done. If the Maldives is anything like Saudi Arabia when it comes to witchcraft trials, the guilty parties will not get the chance to clog up the courts with endless frivolous appeals.    

As a minor functionary of [the foreign affairs department of the Washington DC area's largest employer], my main concern with the Maldives - my only concern, really - is how to get a U.S. diplomatic presence set up there as quickly as possible in compliance with the wishes of Congress. 

Frankly, if sorcery can offer any help with that goal, I am willing to suspend my disbelief and give witchcraft a try. 

   

Fuhgeddaboudit! Trump One Point Up Over Biden in New Jersey Poll

There's a new Coefficient Poll of New Jersey voters that has Trump favored over Biden 41% to 40%, with RFK Jr at 7% and the rest undecideds. 

Well, considering that NJ has a large Democrat advantage in voter registrations, that result is likely either a fluke or the reaction of voters still stunned by that CNN debate performance. 

Either way, the link above includes many, many, crosstabs with in-depth opinion results. Please peruse for your use and enjoyment. 

----------------------------------

A robotic-sounding voice does a good breakdown of that expression for the benefit of the New Jerseyisms-impaired. 

RIP Kinky Friedman

Kinky Friedman stepped on a rainbow at his beloved Echo Hill surrounded by family & friends. Kinkster endured tremendous pain & unthinkable loss in recent years but he never lost his fighting spirit and quick wit. Kinky will live on as his books are read and his songs are sung. pic.twitter.com/sIXnoglSby

— Kinky Friedman (@FriedmanKinky) June 27, 2024

Nice Presentation on New London Embassy, Where Physical Security is Achieved By "Sleight of Hand"

 

Ah, the Crystal Fortress! 

Was a glass cube on a small site located in a former industrial zone worth a billion dollars? I'd say that it was, at least for those who appreciate architectural understatement in their diplomatic premises. 

Please enjoy this quick program about "how the US built its most hi-tech and controversial embassy," and join me in my high regard for OBO.

Assange Flies, Stella Cries, Bitcoin Buys Fancy Rides

 

Well, it was a sudden ending to Assange's long and mostly self-imposed incarceration in the UK, but at last he has flown the coop. 

His fans will be happy to know that an anonymous donor has paid $500,000 in Bitcoin for his exec jet ride from prison to the Land Down Under. I'm still unclear about who chartered the jet and why the trip would cost so much, but c'est la vie, which is French for "forget it Jake, it's Chinatown." 

Once back home Assange was joyously reunited with his lawyer, prison squeeze, and now wife, Stella, and their two little kids. Frankly, she bothers me. 

At age 41 she's spent the last 13 years working for Assange and carrying on a forlorn prison romance. That would be okay in the plot of a Hallmark Channel movie, but with the two kids she'll have to be a lot more hardnosed with Assange now that he's free. 

First of all, he does not strike me as the family man type who likes to stay at home at night, will get a steady job and help with the kids. Far from it. 

Not to mention that the two rape accusations against him which the Swedish government dropped a few years ago could, possibly, be brought back now that Assange would lack the excuse that he feared extradition to the U.S. if he were to surrender himself to Sweden.   

She, on the other hand, does strike me as the 'waiting outside the prison gates' type that is so familiar to correctional institutions the world over. Those romances typically don't survive freedom, or not for very long.   

  

Good luck to you, Mrs. Assange, but I hope you'll have something to fall back on if it turns out that marriage isn't really his bag.

 

First Contingent of Kenya Police Arrive in Haiti, Just 2,100 Troops Short of a Full Deployment

It's not exactly The 300 Spartans at Thermopylae, but perhaps an almost equally epic 400 Kenyans at Haiti. 

At least it is if you listen to Kenya's President Ruto at his sending-off ceremony for The 400.

"This mission is one of the most urgent, important and historic in the history of global solidarity. It is a mission to affirm the universal values of the community of nations, a mission to take a stand for humanity," [Kenyan President William] Ruto said.

Wow. The most urgent, important and historic in the history of global solidarity?? That is a whole lot to live up to, especially when all that responsibility is placed on a small force of police. 

Read the whole Reuters report here. 

The key points from Reuters:

PORT-AU-PRINCE (Reuters) -The first planeload of Kenyan police arrived in the Haitian capital on Tuesday to launch a peacekeeping mission in the Caribbean country that has been ravaged by gang violence- just as deadly protests overwhelmed security forces at home ... while in Nairobi police opened fire on demonstrators trying to storm the parliament, with at least five protesters killed, dozens wounded and sections of the building set ablaze.

That attack on Nairobi's parliament was not related to the Haitian deployment but was instead over new taxes.

As a line of Kenyan police streamed out of the plane on Tuesday morning, a small crowd, mostly airport personnel, greeted them on the tarmac. Some of the helmet-wearing officers unfurled a Kenyan flag and danced in a group.

The Kenyan police are expected to be joined by officers from Jamaica, the Bahamas, Barbados, Chad and Bangladesh, which together are slated to form a 2,500-strong peacekeeping mission funded primarily by the United States.

They danced? U.S. forces don't dance much on deployments, so maybe that's a cultural exchange we might look into. 

I can see the wisdom of that. Could be it's just a good idea to celebrate hopeless missions up front, considering that no one will feel like dancing once they are over and the cost has been paid. 

What costs are they? The ancient Greek poets knew. 

Go, tell the Spartans, thou who passest by, 

That here obedient to their laws we lie.

U.S. Consular Officer In El Salvador Not a Big Fan of Tattoos

Consular nonreviewability was upheld. https://t.co/xHb0UsadZ5

— TSB (@TweetingTSB) June 21, 2024

So there is a limit to a U.S. citizen's rights, and the Supreme Court just found it. 

Please be advised that there is no right to bring foreign national spouses into the country, and no, the USG does not need to go into a lot of detail about it when they cite concerns about the criminality of said spouse. 

The adjudication of Department of State v. Muñoz turned on the matter of tattoos, specifically, those tats on the Salvadoran husband of the respondent, an LA civil rights lawyer. 

The tattoos actually sound pretty modest from the details given in the opinion, but still, our consular staff in Salvador must be experts on tat interpretation, and I will back their judgement as to the undesirability of admitting someone with those inkings into the USA.

'Glock Switches' Are the Reality That Washington Thinks Bump Stocks Are

Here's some alarming data from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives about a current surge in simple and cheap devices that can be used to convert common semi-automatic firearms to full-auto operation. See the link below.

According to a 2023 report by the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, 5,454 guns with machine-gun conversion devices were taken into ATF custody at crime scenes between 2017 and 2021, a 570% increase in the five-year period. Between 2012 and 2016, the ATF seized 814 guns equipped with such devices, according to the report.

The hitch, politically speaking, is that those devices ATF is seizing are not 'bump stocks,' and it's solely bump stocks that various Congressmen are at the moment focused on banning ever since the Supreme Court affirmed that they are currently legal since they do not modify a firearm's operation. 

No, these are so-called 'Glock switches,' which are bits of plastic or metal that replace the slide cover plate on the back of a striker-fired pistol - not only Glocks, but "Glock" has become by now the generic name for any kind of pistol that might be featured in a rap video - and thereby override the sear and allow for continuous fire so long as there are rounds in the gun. 

In other words, it does exactly what half of Congress and one third of the Supreme Court think that bump stocks do, but they don't.  

Here's a typical news report on Glock switches. 

If you are very, very, old, and oriented to crime and gun news, you might recall that in the 1970s there was a panic about cheap semi-auto pistols, often knockoffs of the MAC-10, that could be fired full-auto if the operator knew how to manipulate a button on the slide. They were generically known as "choppers" and were the weapon of choice for drug dealer shootouts in places like Miami, i.e., big MAC attacks. 

The Glock switch has brought those days back. Just google the term and you'll see what I mean. 

The path is open for some Congressional and Executive Branch action on machinegun conversions, or at least it could be, if only the politicians who are most engaged on this topic would drop their bump stock fixation. 

  

No Bump Stock Necessary

On the occasion of the U.S Supreme Court's ruling on the legality of bump stocks, and also the occasion of Associate Justice Sotomayor's revelation that she fails to have any comprehension of what a bump stock is and does, I am posting the above clip from the 2018 movie Sicario: Day of the Soldato as a public service.

In this clip, Benicio Del Toro uses his left index finger to 'bump fire' a semi-automatic pistol and empty the magazine in a couple seconds.  

No bump stock was necessary for him to do that, just some mechanical aptitude. 

Sotomayor wrote in her dissent:

"All the textual evidence points to the same interpretation. A bump-stock equipped semi-automatic rifle is a machine gun because (1) with a single pull of the trigger, a shooter can (2) fire continuous shots without any human input beyond maintaining forward pressure."

"With a single pull of the trigger" is absolutely factually incorrect. If I recall the oral arguments correctly, the USG's own expert witness repeatedly tried to correct Sotomayor on her failure to grasp the fact that a separate trigger pull is needed to fire each and every round from a semi-auto. 

The trigger has to first be pulled, then released to travel forward until it resets, then pulled again in order to fire more than one round. For each and every round. If you were to just pull the trigger back and hold it back, the weapon would fire no more than one round.  

A 'bump stock' is a device that speeds up that cycle of pull-release-pull, and that is all it does. 

Or, as Del Toro demonstrates, you can just hold your index finger steady and push the trigger against it, using the gun's recoil to bounce the trigger back and forth. Bang-bang-bang and you'll spray a lot of rounds out without good control of exactly where they're going. 

A very poor practice, if you ask me, but it makes for a good movie stunt.

Back to Harry Dunn, Inquest Wrap-Up: Empty Threats, and When's the Movie?

Finally, the official verdict on the Harry Dunn fatal road traffic accident of five years ago is in. 

Northamptonshire coroner Anne Pember has determined that he died of “injuries sustained during a head-on collision” with a car on the wrong side of the road. 

Yes. Surprising, I know. She really got down to the bottom of that mystery. Evidently the wheels of official inquiry grind exceedingly slow over there, but they grind exceedingly fine. Or something like that. 

The UK government's somewhat lame response is here.

 

Coroner Pember's bottom line was two recommendations ("prevention of future deaths notices") for the local ambulance service - who, if you ask me, got away extremely lightly - and one for the visiting forces at RAF Croughton that they provide some driver training. If I recall correctly from years-ago news stories, that training has already been instituted. 

Of course, all of that was just a backdrop for the latest news media hit by the Mum and her unscrupulous mouthpiece. Their act has gotten stale and predictable, but it still had a little more news value than I found in that skimpy coroner's report. 

Here's a good account of the coroner's conclusions and an even better account of the family's objections, in its entirety: Dunn family accuse US government of obstructing inquest after coroner criticism. 

The family of teenage motorcyclist Harry Dunn have said they are looking forward to working with “the next government to establish this public inquiry” after accusing the US government of “obstructing” their son’s inquest.  

Both representatives of the US embassy and driver Anne Sacoolas were absent from the four-day inquest – prompting spokesman Radd Seiger to say the US government’s position is that “lives of UK citizens like Harry ultimately do not matter”. 

Mr Seiger told the PA news agency that Labour had promised the family a public inquiry into how Sacoolas was able to cause Harry’s death and leave the country after diplomatic immunity was asserted on her behalf.  [TSB note: notice that we are not told exactly who in Labour promised him that. Don't believe it until someone with a name says so in public.]   

Northamptonshire coroner Anne Pember criticised the US government over a lack of training for diplomatic personnel at RAF Croughton before Mr Dunn’s death.

She recorded his death as being as a result of “injuries sustained during a head-on collision” with a car on the wrong side of the road. 

Ms Pember also issued three prevention of future death notices: two to the Health Secretary regarding drugs carried by paramedics and overstretched ambulance services, and one to the Foreign Office and Ministry of Defence addressing the US’s training of drivers in the UK.

Speaking outside the court, Mr Dunn’s mother, Charlotte Charles, reiterated her “disgust” at Sacoolas’s and the US Embassy’s decision not to attend the inquest – labelling it “disrespectful” to her son.

She told reporters: “It further bolsters my opinion that they have no regard for myself or my family, our wider family – they just don’t care.”

Sacoolas appeared before a High Court judge at the Old Bailey via video-link in December 2022, where she pleaded guilty to causing death by careless driving.

She was advised against attending her sentencing hearing by her employer, which prompted the family to say they were “horrified” that the US government was “actively interfering in our criminal justice system”. [TSB note: the remote court appearance was coordinated with the court in advance and done with the agreement of the Crown Prosecution Service. It interfered with nothing but the family's revenge fantasies.]

Mrs Justice Cheema-Grubb handed her an eight-month prison sentence, suspended for 12 months.

Addressing the US government’s role prior to Harry’s death, Mr Seiger told PA: “It was not enough for them to kill Harry. It wasn’t enough for them to then kick Harry’s family in their darkest hour and seek to deny and delay the justice that they were entitled to.

“As we have all seen this week their attitude and approach to keeping their British hosts safe has been laid to bare and they have positively obstructed the Coroner’s inquiry and deprived the family of the answers they were entitled to as to why no-one has ever addressed the issue of safety of UK citizens.

“The next question is why have the UK governments over the years been happy to sit on the sidelines watching this scandal unfold.

“This Tory government have refused to get involved. Labour have promised us a public inquiry into the way we were treated and the failure on the part of both governments over the decades to address the issue of safety which has led to thousands of people being killed and seriously injured.”

He continued: “The UK government have also now seen how the US government treats our courts and judges.

“The question for the next British government is are they just going to stand by and let the Americans continue to treat us all and our lives with such contempt.

“The US ambassador at the time of Harry’s death was Woody Johnson. He told the UK government after he died that there were far more important things than Harry’s life.

“That is the American government’s position. The lives of UK citizens like Harry ultimately do not matter. 

“We won’t let them get away with it and we look forward to working with the next government to establish this public inquiry.

“We were all horrified as a nation to see how the US government treated Harry’s family. This must never happen again.

“The American national anthem ends land of the free home of the brave. They haven’t demonstrated an ounce of bravery at all preferring to run, hide and obstruct.”

Obstructing? By the American driver providing her testimony without the spectacle the family wanted? That's not obstructing, but more like not playing the other side's game. 

I like how Seiger played his pitchman role and rattled off that long string of complaints and empty threats. It’s the same tune he’s been playing for five years now, so he ought to have it down pat. 

Which makes we wonder, yet again, why he and the Mum don’t go large by writing an as-told-to book, or better yet, a movie deal? They must have more than enough friendly journalists who could help with that by writing a book or movie treatment. 

And then, yet again, I wonder whether the family's Rasputin might be such a loose cannon that he's spoiling the deal for any publisher or studio that's interested in doing business with the family. 

Recall that the first legal firm they engaged in their U.S. civil suit left the case after expressing mysterious concerns about ethical conflicts. The most likely suspect for those ethical conflicts was the pitchman himself, or so I suspected. 

Serious money could be involved in a book and/or movie deal, and that brings serious oversight by serious lawyers. It could just be that they've decided to keep away from this deal so long as the family remains inseparable from their spokesman. 

Back to Harry Dunn, Inquest Day Two: Expressions of Remorse, Performative Outrage Toward USG

"I'm so sorry, I'm going to get you help," said the US government official.https://t.co/1Cdtr1YrpR

— Ravneet Nandra (@RavNandraITV) June 12, 2024

The report at the link above is the best of the inquest reporting that I've seen today. None of them go beyond the few facts presented by the American driver plus her expressions of regret and remorse. 

It was a fatal road traffic accident caused when a recent arrival to the UK instinctively drove on the wrong side of the road for about 20 seconds. That's it. There is nothing more to see here, and nothing more to learn about the accident that the driver could provide. 

But there is still more emotional-political grief that can be wrung out of the tragedy, and it will be so long as the Dunn family remains in thrall to their 'advisor.' 

Although none of his promises to them have ever panned out - not his assurance that the driver did not have diplomatic immunity, not his promise of McDonalds-coffee-spill-lawsuit-$millions, not his rock-solid guarantee that the driver will be extradited for trial, and so on - the family still seems to prefer his next soothing vision to the reality of grieving for its loss. 

As for his latest false promise that the driver would return to the UK for the inquest either in person or by live link, that was obviously a non-starter. The only reason for a live appearance would be for the family to badger the driver to its heart's content. Rather like a lite version of that very popular Olde English sport of bearbaiting. 

The driver declined the invitation to be the bear.

Back To Harry Dunn, Inquest Kicks Off Five Years Later

It's an odd practice, I think, but in the UK they wait until a death has happened and all the criminal and civil consequences have been settled - possibly years later - before holding a coroner's inquest. What more can there be to learn about the death at that point? 

At yesterday's opening day of the long-awaited albeit futile proceeding, the main thing we learned was that the mother of the victim hasn't moved on with her life yet, and probably never will. She and her horrendous 'advisor' spent most of their time hating on the American driver for the fact that she will not attend the inquest in person, just as they have done for the past five years. 

Of course she will not be present at that or any other event in the UK, not after five years of hate, slander, and political attacks on her, mostly directed or assisted by the Mum. Instead, the driver will submit some testimony via her local counsel on the inquest's second day. 

Here's a summary of what happened yesterday, Harry Dunn inquest begins with killer's absence 'bitterly disappointing' to family:

An inquest into the circumstances of a motorcyclist’s death is beginning in Northampton without the teenagers convicted killer present.

Harry Dunn was killed on August 27 2019 when the motorcycle he was riding was struck near RAF Croughton by a vehicle driving on the wrong side of the road.

His killer, Anne Sacoolas, then fled back to the United States claiming diplomatic immunity, but later pleaded guilty to causing death by careless driving in October 2022.

Sacoolas absence has been described as "bitterly disappointing" by Harry’s mother, Charlotte Charles.

She said it is "incomprehensible" as a mother that Sacoolas would "hide", stating it is “disrespectful to Harry."

She said the inquest is "incredibly painful" but that she is "hopeful" of getting answers.

The family hope to learn why more wasn’t being done to improve safety around American airbases in the UK and that they are "deeply concerned" the issue is being neglected.

The mother said her son’s death "feels like yesterday," and that he is "desperately missed."

HM Coroner for Northamptonshire, Anne Pember, issued a request to US government employee Anne Sacoolas last year in which she invited her to attend the inquest remotely.

But it was confirmed in court that Sacoolas would not be appearing in person or via video link.

Sacoolas’s lawyer, Ben Cooper KC, told a pre-inquest review hearing in November that the US citizen was "keen to assist the inquest."

According to the proposed witness list, Sacoolas’s evidence is set to include a "significant statement" from her, sections of her police interview in October 2019 and her witness statement penned in December last year.

Alongside family members, emergency service crews that treated Harry Dunn are due to give evidence before the coroner.

Harry’s father, Tim Dunn, who arrived in the area shortly after the crash in 2019 said it "looked like a hospital scene” and that the night felt like a "nightmare."

Harry’s twin brother Niall said his brother had helped him with social anxiety, stating “I wouldn’t be where I am now" without Harry. "Everyday we feel the effect of him not being here" he said, and that he "smiles less, feels less joy."

The US State Department asserted diplomatic immunity on behalf of Sacoolas and she was able to leave the UK 19 days after the fatal collision.

The 45-year-old appeared before a High Court judge at the Old Bailey via video-link in December 2022, where she pleaded guilty to causing death by careless driving.

Sacoolas was advised against attending her sentencing hearing by her employer, which prompted the family to say they were "horrified" that the US Government was "actively interfering in our criminal justice system."

Justice Cheema-Grubb handed Sacoolas an eight-month prison sentence, suspended for 12 months. The inquest is due to last four days with Sacoolas’ evidence read on the second day.

It'll be Groundhog's Day for Team Harry again tomorrow, and every other day, for so long as social media exists.  

To U.S. Cits Arrested Abroad: Help Us Help You, and Read the Country Information Pages

You may have read about several American tourists who were recently busted in the Turks and Caicos islands for carelessly leaving a few cartridges in their carry-ons. One of them was just released after paying a large fine (rather than jail), and naturally he blames the State Department for his troubles: American arrested in Turks and Caicos says it's unclear if State Dept. was on 'US side' or 'Turks side' 

Here's something that I find perfectly clear. The State Department's first responsibility is to warn and advise travelers, and it does so. But that requires the travelers to read, which is where even the best of intentions can go wrong.

"We went on a vacation. Our biggest concern was making sure the kids had their swimsuits, their puddle jumper, sunscreen," Hagerich said. "It wasn't looking for travel alerts. I didn't believe we were going to an area in place that we would feel unsafe."

That's an expensive lesson learned. In retrospect maybe he should have looked for those travel alerts. There are plenty of them out there, especially the warning here, and most especially the country travel page here, where you will find this warning in large red text:

We urge all travelers going to the Turks and Caicos Islands to carefully check their luggage for stray ammunition or forgotten weapons before departing from the United States. Read the "Local Laws" section and our alert titled "Check Your bags!" below for more information.

If our returning tourist feels underloved by the USG, well, then he ought to have taken the State Department's advice and read up on local laws at his destination. He would have discovered that the Second Amendment does not travel with you to foreign jurisdictions, and maybe even would have checked his bag for loose rounds. That would have been a precaution more important than double checking on the sunscreen.

Hillary Braces For Her Longest Day

Eighty years ago today, thousands of brave Americans fought to protect democracy on the shores of Normandy.

This November, all we have to do is vote.

— Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton) June 6, 2024

That day will be November 5, 2024, henceforth to be known as D-for-Democracy Day. But, of course, only if you vote Hillary's way. You wouldn't want to frustrate democracy by voting for the wrong candidate.

If democracy will be on the ballot, is it even possible to vote against it? That seems illogical.

I'd ask Hillary about that myself except she limits who may reply to her posts to people she follows or mentions. Evidently democracy is so important that it must be protected by prior restraint of speech.  

Hillary's tin ear for rhetoric is still as bad as ever, despite having been in politics basically all her life. She didn't even learn anything from the long decades she understudied the Glibmaster-in-Chief himself, Bill Clinton.

Speaking of Bill, where is he in this final battle for big "D" democracy? I do hope he hasn't dodged the draft again.    

C'mon Man!©, POTUS Had a Confusing Time at Normandy

First he faced backwards, confusing his French hosts.

Is #Biden supposed to turn that way, or are the #Vets facing the wrong way? WT🤔 is going on here?! pic.twitter.com/tHg7QEaz8f

— Shaughn_A (@Shaughn_A2) June 6, 2024

Not a good look for someone insisting on his mental alertness five months out from the election. 

Constant Carnivore Caught in Corrupt Conversation (Menendez Does Morton's 250 Nights a Year)

Politico has a nice story today about how the FBI first tumbled to Senator Menendez's latest corrupt doings while conducting surveillance on an unassuming expense account dinner in Washington DC. 

Read it here: The steakhouse stakeout that entangled Bob Menendez.

That evening, two FBI investigators, posing as a husband and wife, were inside the steakhouse eavesdropping on a trio of Egyptian men seated at a table, including one who was the subject of their investigation.

Then Menendez and his now-wife, Nadine, joined the men. And the senator — who infamously goes to Morton’s much of the time he’s in D.C. and charges meals to his political action committee — ended up in the middle of the steakhouse stake out.

Lots of dramatic details there that measure up to any good cops-n'-robbers movie.

It’s unclear who investigators were there to watch. But two of the investigators testified that their target was someone who came in from New York and arrived at the steakhouse in a car with Washington, D.C., diplomatic plates. The FBI couple inside were equipped with a cover story and a concealed video camera that took silent footage. Another investigator was in a van with cameras outside the steakhouse. Another, who did not testify Tuesday, had posed as an Uber driver.

Get that. Just like in every movie stake-out you've ever seen, there was some unlucky agent who had to sit outside in a van while the FBI's pretend couple wined and dined inside!

And for you ladies, please be aware that you might not be free of FBI surveillance even when in the ladies room.

One of the FBI investigators, Terrie Williams-Thompson, who posed as the wife and at one point got up to follow Nadine Menendez to the bathroom, testified that the men did most of the talking during the dinner. Silent video footage shows Menendez pouring wine and Helmy smoking at the table, which is on the Morton’s patio, where smoking is allowed.

Thank God the FBI didn't catch any of those characters smoking inside the restaurant. They're in enough trouble as it is. 

Speaking in Menendez's defense, his mouthpiece told the judge that Menendez was doing nothing that night that he doesn't do most nights.

Defense attorneys portrayed the meeting as an innocent one at Menendez’s regular spot — not a shady meeting of criminal co-conspirators. Adam Fee, Menendez’s attorney, told the judge overseeing the case that when the senator is in D.C., he probably eats “at that same restaurant at that same table 250 nights a year.”

Fee told the judge, “you can find Senator Menendez having the same dinner with diplomats and other government officials almost every night of the workweek at Morton's in Washington, D.C.”

Just as I suspected!

HRC and The Cherished Legal Principle of 'Id Quod Circumiret, Circumveniat'

So Trump has been convicted for miscategorizing as legal expenses what DA Bragg considered to be campaign expenses, which is some sort of a crime in New York state. 

Hey, remember when Hillary and the DNC committed the very same violation and in the very same state? Sure, it was in the news back in 2022 when the Federal Election Commission fined them both a bit over $100,000.

Political candidates and groups are required to publicly disclose their spending to the FEC, and they must explain the purpose of any specific expenditure more than $200. The FEC concluded that the Clinton campaign and DNC misreported the money that funded the [Russian] dossier, masking it as “legal services” and “legal and compliance consulting” instead of opposition research.

That was just a fine, whereas New York County DA Alvin Bragg is going for a jail sentence in Trump's case. (Jail is probably too much of a stretch, but if that happens, the campaign rally he'll hold in the yard at Riker's Island will be the political event of all time.) 

However, this all leaves me unsatisfied. We are told again and again that no one is above the law even as many people are very obviously above the law, and that very definitely includes Hillary with her 193 classified emails among the 50,000 or so that she hid from FOIA public disclosure by illegally doing all her official SecState email business on an unauthorized private server. 

That's a lot of laws that were broken, and with no legal consequence whatsoever. 

What do you want to bet that, if Trump returns to the Oval Office, his first step after cutting off his ankle monitor might be to have the DOJ prosecute Hillary for those grave election offenses that she committed back in 2016? 

Well, isn't there a statue of limitations that has run out by now? Yes, there is. But DA Bragg didn't let that stop him in Trump's case, and I think Trump could find someone equally ruthless to bring justice to HRC. 

It's an election year, after all. Let's make it interesting.