TWIT: Trump Fought the Law and Won!

Latest: By a 5-4 vote, and after a personal call with Justice Alito, the U.S. Supreme Court decided not to intervene in Trump's sentencing by New York Justice Merchan Friday in the false financial statements case.  Justice Amy Coney Barrett voted with the majority today.  Defendant Trump will officially be the first felon to occupy the White House in American history.  His former fixer Michael Cohen served three years in prison for his participation in the scheme to payoff porn star 'Stormy' Daniels. Don the Con will not serve a day for his crimes.  Equal justice under law?  US Person laughs in your face when you say that!

{09/01/2025}After repeatedly not complying with a bankruptcy court's orders, Judge Lyman has finally found Rudy Giuliani in contempt twice after taking the stand in his show cause hearing, which concluded Tuesday.  As a result of the civil contempt finding, Judge Lyman will apply a negative inference in on the issue of whether his last remaining major asset, the Palm Beach condominium, is protected by Florida's homestead law.  That issue is a question of fact that will be tried before Judge Lyman. America's former mayor is paying a high price for his abject loyalty to Don the Con.

It took the DOJ four years to prosecute Don for his crimes. Mostly because the Attorney General delayed prosecution. Now, his attorneys are attempting to bury the two volume investigative report by Special Counsel Jack Smith. If Merritt Garland allows this revisionist attack on the evidence of his crimes, he will be completely derelict in his public duty and oath of office. Once in power, Trump will direct his minions at DOJ, who where his defense attorneys--to erase the record of his indictment for filing false financial records related to the payoff of porn star 'Stormy' Daniels. 

In a separate action, Trumpilini's "pocket" judge Aileen Cannon enjoined Jack Smith to temporarily hold the two volume report from being released while a federal appellate court in Atlanta reviews her decision to dismiss the Espionage Act case against him. How she did this is causing observers to scratch their heads since she never had jurisdiction over the January 6th case (Vol. 1), and she dismissed the Mar-a-Lago case (Vol. 2) against her benefactor. The case against his co-conspirators remains viable. Trump's co-conspirators Walt Nauta and Carlos De Oliveira will be prosecuted by the federal attorneys in the southern district of Florida after the Special Counsel steps down.  They will undoubtably be pardoned by Trump after he takes office. Being flat out wrong never stopped Cannon in her audition for a Supreme Court seat.  It is all legal hands on deck for the criminal President-elect to remove any trace of criminal conviction.  His attorneys have asked the US Supreme Court to stop the sentencing on Friday in an unprecedented request circumventing his state court remedies based on a claim of non-existent presidential immunity for someone not yet president. One prominent professor of constitutional law called the extraordinary petition, "ludicrous if it were not so tragic."

Don the Con is up to his old tricks of distracting and baiting the CMM (Corporate Mass Media). This week in response to reporters' questioning, he would not rule out using the military to take back the Panama Canal and annex Greenland.  This guy is a complete madman , but expert at gaining attention from the press.  The US has treaties with both Panama and Denmark. President Jimmy Carter signed a treaty with Panama to return the canal.  Denmark controls Greenland as an autonomous territory. Denmark is a member of NATO. Attacking Greenland would trigger Article Five of the NATO charter which requires members to come to the defense of another member nation if attacked. Both France and Germany's governments have warned against attempting to take Greenland by military force.* Panamanian President Mulino said in a video Sunday that “every square meter of the canal belongs to Panama and will continue to.” He added that, while his country’s people are divided on some key issues, “when it comes to our canal, and our sovereignty, we will all unite under our Panamanian flag.” If America has another imperial war in the next four years, it will be because this lunatic starts it.

*Besides being rich in minerals, Greenland is strategically located. It boarders both the North Atlantic "GIUK" gap and the Northwest Passage.  Ownership of the island is not necessary to maintain a robust military presence in the Arctic.  The US already has an airbase there, formerly known as Thule.  A submarine base on the eastern coast would complement Thule. Denmark is open to discussions for additional security measures.  It boggles the mind that the US under the irrational Trump would ignore national sovereignty of a US ally that it has guaranteed to protect,

COTW: Hydrogen Economy Fizzels

Hydrogen was once thought to be the answer to future energy needs.  But the numbers are in and it is not looking good for hydrogen as a fuel.  Investors are catching on to the problems of hydrogen, and projects to produce H₂ with green energy are being cancelled.  Look at this chart from Europe:

One-fifth of the proposed projects have been suspended or cancelled. Europe is not alone. Air Products in Texas pulled out of a joint venture, $4.5 billon hydrogen project citing the lack of an anchor customer. Origin Energy of Australia cancelled its participation in the NSW Hunter Valley hydrogen hub,  Hydrogen company stock prices have dropped 30-50% over the past year.

The problems are mostly physical.  Since H₂ is such a small gas molecule, it penetrates most substances used to contain it, which leads to embrittlement.  It is highly explosive when mixed with air.  Fuel cells using hydrogen as fuel require expensive rare metals (Iridium and Platinum) to catalyze the energy producing reactions.  The bottom line is that producing energy from making hydrogen is inefficient--around 40% or less. So-called "blue hydrogen" produced from cracking methane is even less efficient, and produces CO₂ as a waste product.  Oil & gas companies do not really care about that inconvenient fact. Price-Waterhouse in its study concluded that expectations for hydrogen do not meet economic reality. The International Energy Agency reached a similar conclusion this summer. EU planned to have installed 120 GW of hydrogen energy by 2030, currently there is 0.2 GW operational.  Whether the hydrogen bubble was created by lobbyists or simply wishful thinking is open to debate.  This is what happens when reality catches up to hype.  AI anyone?

Biden Bans Offshore Drilling

In a move to protect America's coast lines from the 'drill baby drill' mob entering official power, Joe Biden banned new offshore drilling in most coast zones except for the Gulf of Mexico already sacrificed to the oil and gas industry.  He acted under his authority in the federal Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act passed in 1953.  It may be difficult for Trump to reverse his official action without an act of Congress despite his expressed support for, "American energy dominance".  Trump himself approved a ban on drilling off the Florida, Georgia and South Carolina until 2032 when he was last in power.  

Deepwater Horizon spill 2010

Biden's action protects some 625 million acres of federal waters including the environmentally sensitive Bering Sea. Conservationists hailed his action as, "an epic ocean victory". Industrialists attacked it as a "strategic error driven by political motives." In his announcement Biden said, “As the climate crisis continues to threaten communities across the country and we are transitioning to a clean energy economy, now is the time to protect these coasts for our children and grandchildren.” Joe Biden will go down in history as one of the most consequential modern Presidents since FDR.

A Radical Proposal: The 29th Amendment

Presumably the ERA will become the 28th, since 38 states have approved the amendment**,  but here is US Person's (aka, The Cur's) idea for the 29th:

Wherever used in this Constitution the term "person" shall mean a natural person. Nothing in this amendment shall deprive a corporation or other legal entity their rights in property without due process of law.

As PNG readers may understand, this proposed intends to counteract the long line of decisions* from the US Supreme Court culminating in Citizens United v. FCC, 558 U.S. 310 (2010) that recognizes the "personhood" in law of corporations and other associations (e.g. PACs) which have come to dominate our system of government in the United States. Only a fundamental change in jurisprudence enshrined in the Constitution can alter the further decline of our democracy into corporatocracy, or oligarchy, if not outright fascism.

*The United States. Supreme Court first declared in dicta a corporation is a "person" under the law in the case of Santa Clara County v. Southern Pacific Railroad, 118 U.S. 394 (1886) .Justice William O. Douglas wrote in the Columbia Law Review for 1948, "the Santa Clara case becomes one of the most momentous of all our decisions.[...]Corporations were now armed with constitutional prerogatives." 

Since US Person is talking about "radical" proposals, here is another one for readers to consider. The economic importance of the United State's private central bank, known as the Federal Reserve, cannot be ignored . Its monetary policies affect every American. So it is appropriate that the instituion be public and not private in a country that still claims to be a democracy and not an oligarchy. US Person, alleged by pseudo-populist extremists to be a seething Marxist radical, suggests replacing the current federal reserve system with a system of publicly owned state banks organized into regions with each region sending a representative elected by bank shareholders to a US National Bank Open Market Committee, which would set national interests rates. The chair of the US National Bank would be selected by the President. State residents would be allowed to purchase shares in their state bank. North Dakota's state-owned bank is a successful example of public state bank. It has made a profit every year since its opening in 1919. This proposed system is more accountable to the public, and insures monetary policy coincides with the public's policy choices and not the billionaire boys' choices. US still thinks central banks are a good idea, just like Marx did in his Communist Manifesto, so go ahead color him red.

**The ERA is in legal limbo right now.  The amendment did not receive the necessary state ratifications within the stated seven year deadline.  The US Department of Justice issued a memo concluding the deadline provision is constitutional, and the US Archivist has said in a letter that more action by the courts or Congress is needed before the amendment is enacted into law.

TWIT: "Unrepentant Racists"

credit: N. Anderson
BC Idonwanna sez: Note two-tone face makeup!

Latest:  Speaker Mike Johnson lost his first bid to become the Speaker of the 119th Congress despite endorsement from 'Der Führer'. The Repugnant majority in the House is razor-thin. The party lost three votes on the first ballot, enough to result in a 215-215 tie between Johnson and Hakeem Jeffries, minority leader.  He is expected to squeeze out a victory in subsequent ballots. But it is becoming increasingly clear that Repugnants cannot govern without Democratic support. Probably in an attempt to gain MAGA support, Johnson announced the House will investigate the Select Committee that investigated January 6th.  Biden should offer members of that committee pardons before leaving office in order to insulate them against future prosecution by Trump's DOJ. 

In what may be the final capitulation to the political circumstances surrounding Trump's  convictions for fraud, Judge Merchan upheld his convictions, but indicated he would not imposed a jail term on the President-elect, but instead allow an "unconditional discharge" of his felony convictions.  He has scheduled January 10th for a sentencing hearing.  Trump, with nearly unlimited funding, will appeal the decision despite evading incarceration for his crimes.

{31.12.24} US Person expected the coalition of right-wing crazies that put a felon in the White House to eventually collapse. But it is happening sooner than he expected. Uber-billionaire Elon Musk is having a very public fall-out with MAGA supporters over visas for skilled foreign workers. His businesses are heavily reliant on these immigrants, and he wants to continue to be able to use them. MAGA lumps these mostly professional workers in with the unskilled migrants crossing the southern borders, and objects to any immigrant perceived to be taking jobs away from Americans. The exchanges have become rather heated.

Musk labeled some of Don the Con's supporters "unrepentant racists". The only thing surprising about his outburst is how long the billionaire to realize the economic conflict of interests operating beneath the surface. For his part, Musk's partner at the non-existent "Department of Government Efficiency", Viveck Ramaswamy, called American workers, "mediocre"--a result of a culture, “that celebrates the prom queen over the math olympiad champ, or the jock over the valedictorian, will not produce the best engineers”. This statement may have some truth to it, but calling resentful nativist supporters mediocre will not win Ramaswamy, the son of immigrants, any friends in MAGA world.

Always knowing which side of his bread is buttered, Don Trumpilini publicly sided with Musk in the dispute saying that skilled worker immigration is needed by America to maintain its competitive edge. But a recent poll revealed that 46% of Repugnant supporters want the US military to round up illegal immigrants and put them in concentration camps!  Don Olde exposed his pandering to racist supporters by immediately categorizing the New Orleans New Year's attack after it occurred an example of the danger posed by illegal immigration over the southern border. What he failed to mention in his twit on the subject is that the perpetrator was an American citizen and an Army veteran. So was the terrorist in Las Vegas who parked his rented Tesla truck in front of the Trump International hotel, blew his vehicle up, and committed suicide. This resident of Colorado Springs was on active duty with the Special Forces. Once again the corrupt, fundamentally fraudulent character of the 'MAGA movement' is exposed for all who care to look objectively.

Ten Wins for the Wild

Be inspired by this video and stay in the fight!

The Truth from Senator Bernie Sanders