Paul Auster has died. 😢

Mr blm’s favorite author.

Paul Auster, American author of The New York Trilogy, dies aged 77
The writer of The New York Trilogy, Leviathan and 4 3 2 1 – known for his stylised postmodernist fiction – has died from complications of lung cancer

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2024/may/01/paul-auster-dies-aged-77-death-american-author-new-york-trilogy

Law minds: Could Pecker's testimony lead to reopening of other cases Ronan Farrow reported

on back in 2019 that National Enquirer was hiding - especially the rape of the 13yo girl by Trump and Epstein?

Trump Teen Rape Allegation Resurfaces, Ronan Farrow Claims National Enquirer Tried to Protect Him in New Book

https://www.newsweek.com/trump-teen-rape-allegation-national-enquirer-ronan-farrow-jane-doe-1465652

Adding court filings

https://www.scribd.com/document/326057168/Jane-Doe-Declaration-as-Filed

https://www.scribd.com/document/326057237/Tiffany-Doe-Declaration

“On July 23, 2016, “Joan Doe,” a classmate of Johnson during the 1994–1995 school year, signed an affidavit avowing that Johnson had told her during the summer of 1994 about the sexual assaults by Epstein and Trump.

Another witness, “Tiffany Doe,” signed an affidavit in support of Johnson’s suit on June 18, 2016. Tiffany Doe stated that she had been hired in 1990 by Epstein when she was 22 to “provide entertainment” for his various “guests.” She further stated that Epstein hired her in 1991 as a “party planner” to, among other duties, entice “attractive adolescent women” to attend Epstein’s parties. Tiffany Doe stated that she personally witnessed Trump’s sexual assault and rape of Johnson during four encounters.”

Amazing dance number to Gotye. So original.

Cynical GOP spending $1MILLION on Dem primary in NC to boost unknown candidate.

From Politics NC Thomas Mills:
In North Carolina, Republicans are flipping the script and playing in the Democratic primary for attorney general in North Carolina. A dark money group called And Justice for All is reportedly spending at least $1 million pushing the candidacy of Durham District Attorney Satana Deberry. She’s running in the primary against U.S. Representative Jeff Jackson and Fayetteville attorney Tim Dunn. The winner will face Congressman Dan Bishop in the general election in November.

Jackson has been seen as the frontrunner in the race. He served several terms in the state senate before being elected to Congress in 2022. He’s built a large and powerful social media presence that has helped him raise more than $1.8 million in the primary. He briefly ran for U.S. Senate in 2022, visiting all 100 counties and earning himself a devoted following.

Deberry announced her bid in December, shortly before the campaign filing period and has raised only $31,000. She’s an impressive leader, but, until now, was not well-known outside of Durham. The dark money campaign gives her a boost in name recognition that she couldn’t buy with the money she’s raised. It also lets Democratic primary voters know that there’s a Black woman in the race. The primary electorate will be roughly 60% women and 40% African Americans.

According to news reports, the ads are touting Deberry as the “real progressive” in the race. While I have not found the ads on the internet, WFAE says they state, “As Durham District Attorney she worked to end inequity and racial bias in the system. As attorney general, she will fight to make the system more transparent, lower incarceration rates and break the cycle of crime.” That’s a pretty good message to a Democratic primary audience, but a lousy one for a general election electorate.
…….

My .02: Everyone still expects Jackson to win. My beef is the big dollars interference and that Republicans are cynically using a woman’s long shot candidacy to manipulate Democrats. They have a sinister streak in the way they target black female political candidates here. I hope she takes advantage of their spending spree and becomes better known for her future runs and that 1million dollars they spent cynically to boost her profile comes back to haunt them.

Tucker's new spreading lie alert:

Tucker is claiming Gonzalo Lira was murdered because he was a journalist exposing Biden’s corruption in Ukraine.
He was not. Shut down the disinformation when you see it.

Lira was an American citizen living in Ukraine and working as a dating coach who marketed himself as an expert guru training Western men to target and sleep with impoverished Eastern European women. When Russia invaded Ukraine, the sex tourism industry in Ukraine collapsed, so Lira began promoting Russian propaganda online in order to make money. He was jailed in Ukraine and died of pneumonia.

Daily Beast ran a story on Lira’s quick transformation into a Putin shill in 2022. He used to identify himself as Coach Red Pill.

“Under the name Coach Red Pill, Lira made videos and hosted digital seminars in which he offered dating, life, and relationship advice. In the manosphere, a “red-pilled” person is someone who’s realized hidden supposed truths about gender and relationships. These are usually tired stereotypes about how all women supposedly think, and reactionary ideas about the glory of traditional gender roles and relations and how their erosion screws over men.”

https://www.thedailybeast.com/gonzalo-lira-is-a-pro-putin-shill-in-ukraine-and-a-sleazy-manosphere-dating-coach

Guitarists. If you know, you know. Danny Gatton

Simple reasoning: Funding Ukraine is the wisest course for US and our allies.

“…when the USSR fell- the Ukraine became the world’s second largest nuclear power. In a deal to divest themselves of the weapons- the US, Russia et al - signed a treaty to respect the sovereignty of Ukraine. So- reason one would be the US making good on a treaty it sponsored.

Second- we are benefiting mightily in terms of intelligence gained from supporting Ukrainian efforts to regain their lands. So far we’ve redesigned 4 upcoming weapons systems, cancelled 4 or 5 others- all because we have real world data on what a war between near peer powers would look like (and we’re not the only ones- think China).

Third- the fiscal argument that’s become the GOP talking point on stopping aid to Ukraine is disingenuous at best. We’re actually saving money (to an extent) by shipping dated military supplies - the gist here being that we’re no longer having to pay to maintain or store equipment we’re no longer using.”

Found in FB group. Anonymous for now. Will name with permission.

Rare clip of Broadway star Christine Ebersole as an SNL newbie in 1981

She is singing the full, incredibly grim lyrics of Single Bars, Single Women.

Dolly Parton saw the show and wanted the song - record company would only allow a much sanitized version, cutting out the toughest encounter lines and all references to drugs. ABC sanitized it even further as a Movie of the Week. 🙄

https://snl.fandom.com/wiki/Christine_Ebersole?file=Single

Dolly’s version:

Jeff Jackson gives quick rundown on current budget battle in House.

The government is set to shut down in six days.
There are two ways to avoid this: We can either pass a budget (which means passing 12 separate funding bills) or pass another temporary extension.

In reality, there’s no way the House and Senate are going to agree on a full budget in the next six days. The House has only passed seven funding bills so far and the House and Senate have agreed on zero of them. Even assuming everyone started working in good faith tomorrow, we’re still a couple months from an actual budget deal.

So that leaves a temporary extension.
BUT agreeing to a temporary extension is what got the last Speaker fired.
The new Speaker knows this - and he doesn’t want to be fired - so his plan was to pass as many funding bills as he can before asking his right-flank to go along with another temporary extension next week.

Basically, he wants to show his right-flank that he’s trying very hard to do things the way they want in the hope that they’ll cut him some slack when he inevitably tells them he has to do a temporary extension. (Which was roughly former Speaker McCarthy’s strategy, by the way.)
This week, the Speaker’s goal was to pass two funding bills.

Tuesday night we tried to pass the first one. We had been there for over an hour voting on all these random amendments for the bill, and then, at last, we reached the vote for the actual bill.
And just before it came to a vote, leadership took it down. No vote.

Same exact thing happened on the next funding bill. We had an hour of amendments leading up to the big vote on a funding bill, only to have the bill pulled off the agenda moments before the vote.

Why? Because of internal division within the majority party about the bills themselves. In short, some members of the majority want deeper cuts than others.
So, the Speaker’s plan didn’t work. Zero funding bills passed this week.

Next week is decision time for the Speaker. He’s going to have to go to his caucus with another temporary extension, and I honestly don’t know how they’re going to react.
The Speaker is hoping that his right-flank basically says, “Ok, we’re not going to vote for a temporary extension, but we also won’t try to fire you if you bring it to a vote and it passes.”
If we’re going to avoid a shutdown, that’s roughly what needs to happen. I don’t think there’s another path.

I'll keep you posted.
- Rep. Jeff Jackson

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