Trump lawyer’s claim that indictment attacks First Amendment rights is dubious, experts say

 https://www.politifact.com/article/2023/aug/07/trump-lawyer-claim-indictment-attacks-first/

"Trump has First Amendment rights, but that does not mean that what he says and does to further a scheme to defraud is legal," said Joan Meyer, a partner at the law firm Thompson Hine LLP and a former federal prosecutor. "If your statements are part of an agreement to commit an unlawful act with your co-conspirators, the admission of these statements is fair game in a prosecution and can be used as evidence against you."

Trump responds to Pelosi's 'scared puppy' jab with rant on husband's 'weird story': 'Sick & demented

 https://www.foxnews.com/politics/trump-responds-pelosis-scared-puppy-jab-rant-husbands-weird-story-sick-demented

I saw a scared puppy," Pelosi said on MSNBC's "Andrea Mitchell Reports."

"I didn’t see any bravado or confidence or anything like that," she added. "He knows the truth that he lost the election, and now he’s got to face the music."

Trump fired back, writing that the "millions" of people watching him on television enter the courtroom "didn’t see that."

"I wasn’t ‘scared,’" he said. "Nevertheless, how mean a thing to say! She is a Wicked Witch whose husbands journey from hell starts and finishes with her. She is a sick & demented psycho who will someday live in HELL!"

Trump Flips Out In Hellishly Bizarre New Social Media Meltdown: 'I Wasn't Scared'

 https://news.yahoo.com/trump-flips-hellishly-bizarre-social-044436787.html

When the U.S. women were eliminated from the World Cup later on Sunday, the former president ― like many others on the right ― was weirdly thrilled.

He called the loss “fully emblematic of what is happening to the our once great Nation under Crooked Joe Biden” and accused the players of being “openly hostile” to the country.

“WOKE EQUALS FAILURE,” he wrote, then took a shot at star player Megan Rapinoe. “Nice shot Megan, the USA is going to Hell!!!”

Best postings

 I am collecting for publication the best and most influential postings that have appeared in this blog. Please indicate those that made an impression on you.

Trump is legally immune and didn’t violate U.S. Constitution, says his defense lawyer

 https://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/us-elections-government/ny-trump-legally-immune-lawyers-says-20230806-ek3ncaci6vdztijhhilptjxxre-story.html

“A technical violation of the Constitution is a violation of the Constitution,” he said. “Our Constitution is designed to stop people from trying to overthrow elections and trying to overthrow the government.

“There are people who are in jail for several years for counterfeiting one vote,” Raskin said. “He tried to steal the entire election.”

Even if Trump Technically Violated the Constitution, He’s No Criminal: Attorney

https://www.thedailybeast.com/even-if-donald-trump-technically-violated-the-constitution-hes-not-a-criminal-attorney-says?ref=home 

Even if former President Donald Trump committed a “technical violation of the constitution” by seeking to overturn the 2020 election, that doesn’t make him a criminal, his attorney argued Sunday on NBC’s Meet the Press. The comments came following a question by host Chuck Todd about Mike Pence’s repeated assertions that Trump asked him to violate the constitution by moving to stop the counting of valid electoral college votes on Jan. 6, 2021, prompting attorney John Lauro to assert that it is “just plain wrong” to suggest that makes him a criminal. When asked in a follow-up email whether he believes that Trump did violate the constitution with his request, Lauro told NBC that he “never said that President Trump committed a technical violation.” Rep Jamie Raskin (D-MD), a key member of the Jan. 6 committee and an outspoken critic of Trump, later said on the network that the defense put forward by Lauro was “deranged.”

CNN Anchor Laughs Off Trump Lawyer's ‘Peaceful Transfer of Power’ Claim

 https://www.thedailybeast.com/cnn-anchor-dana-bash-laughs-off-trump-lawyers-peaceful-transfer-of-power-claim?ref=home

Lauro also repeatedly defended Trump’s fake elector scheme, stating that ultimately “none of these electors were counted” while describing it as merely a form of “political protest,” prompting Bash to note that “they weren’t counted because Mike Pence rejected this scheme.” After Lauro insisted this was just “how the political process works,” the CNN anchor exclaimed, “No, it doesn’t!”

‘Everything you’ve been told is a lie!’ Inside the wellness-to-fascism pipeline

 https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2023/aug/02/everything-youve-been-told-is-a-lie-inside-the-wellness-to-facism-pipeline

Peter Knight, professor of American studies at the University of Manchester, who has studied conspiracy theories and their history, notes that the link between alternative therapies and conspiracy is at least a century old, and has been much ignored. “New age and conspiracy theories both see themselves as counter-knowledges that challenge what they see as received wisdom,” he says. “Conspiracy theories provide the missing link, turbo-charging an existing account of what’s happening by claiming that it is not just the result of chance or the unintended consequences of policy choices, but the result of a deliberate, secret plan, whether by big pharma, corrupt scientists, the military-industrial complex or big tech.”

DeSantis’ ‘anti-woke’ bills are costing Florida millions of dollars in business

 https://edition.cnn.com/2023/08/06/economy/florida-convention-business-cancellations/index.html

In recent weeks, at least a dozen organizations have announced plans to either cancel or relocate their upcoming conferences scheduled to take place in Florida, making a statement by having their thousands of attendees and millions of dollars flow into other states deemed safer and more welcoming.

While DeSantis’ office brushes this off as a “media-driven stunt,” tourism officials and community organizations in the state say what’s happening now may be just the beginning.

“Unlike leisure business, which is a very short-term booking window [in weeks or months], conference business is long term,” said Stacy Ritter, president and chief executive officer of the Visit Lauderdale tourism marketing agency in Broward County, Florida. “We’re booking ’26 to ‘30 now, so any impact that this might have is not going to be seen for years to come.”

More Baby Boomers are living alone. One reason why: ‘gray divorce’

 https://edition.cnn.com/2023/08/05/health/boomers-divorce-living-alone-wellness-cec/index.html

Brown and I-Fen Lin found that from 1990 to 2010, the divorce rate for people over 50 in the United States had doubled. They dubbed it “the gray divorce revolution.”

Donald Trump: threatening social media post flagged by prosecutors in court filing

 https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/aug/05/donald-trump-threatening-social-media-post-flagged-by-prosecutors-in-court-filing

Prosecutors pointed specifically to a post on Trump’s Truth Social platform from earlier Friday in which Trump wrote, in all capital letters, “If you go after me, I’m coming after you!”

Cheated out of learning the latest :"dirt" on the Biden crime family because of a mere heart attack

https://mishpacha.com/the-end-of-youth/ 

 I’m going to skip my planned column on Hunter Biden, in favor of writing about my last five days, including two trips to the Shaare Zedek emergency room and the insertion of a stent into one of two blocked coronary arteries on Tishah B’Av.

Ron DeSantis Sparks MAGA Fury After Dismissing Key Donald Trump Claim

 https://www.newsweek.com/ron-desantis-sparks-maga-fury-after-dismissing-key-donald-trump-claim-1817722

Prominent Donald Trump supporters have responded with fury after Ron DeSantis said "theories" about the 2020 presidential election "did not prove to be true," in what was widely seen as a rejection of the former president's claims of electoral fraud.

Dershowitz slams Barr for ‘dead wrong’ comments on Trump indictment

 https://thehill.com/regulation/court-battles/4139229-deshowitz-slams-barr-for-comments-on-trump-indictment/

Former Trump lawyer Alan Dershowitz said former Attorney General Bill Barr’s claims that free speech isn’t on trial in former President Trump’s election fraud case is “dead wrong.”

Fox Radio interview Friday. “Everything involves his exercise of free speech. Not just his First Amendment free speech but also his First Amendment right to petition the government for a redress of grievances.”