President Trump has benefited enormously from the frog-in-hot-water nature of special counsel Robert S. Mueller III’s investigation into his campaign and possible overlap with Russian efforts to influence the 2016 election.
Imagine if, instead of Mueller releasing new public indictments as he went along, leveraging criminal charges to obtain more information from the targets of his probe, he instead had kept his information private. Imagine if he and his lawyers had been working in quiet for 20 months, submitting expenses to the Department of Justice and suffering the president’s tweeted ferocity.
And then, after all of that, they suddenly produced a dozen indictments and plea deals running into hundreds of pages, detailing former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort’s illegal and questionable financial dealings, those of his deputy Rick Gates, full details of Russia’s alleged efforts to influence social media and to steal electronic information from Democratic targets and detailed a half-dozen people who admitted to lying to federal investigators.
.
(Top L-R) Michael Cohen, Michael Flynn, Paul Manafort. (Bottom L-R) George Papadopoulos, Rick Gates, Roger Stone. (DON EMMERT,SAUL LOEB,MANDEL NGAN,BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI,EDUARDO MUNOZ ALVAREZ/AFP/Getty Images)
In 1936, Victor H. Green created the Negro Motorist Green Book with black fun and black fear on his mind.
Green published his Green Book, as it is commonly known, as a guide for blacks seeking recreation, and as a road map for black travelers to avoid fatal encounters with whites during the Jim Crow era. Effectively, the Green Book informed blacks not only where they should visit ― which hotels and restaurants and hair salons ― but quite literally where they could go if they valued their lives. By 1962, over 2 million subscribers were using the Green Book to find black-friendly establishments and navigate America’s infamous “sundown towns,” according to historian and Green Book expert Candacy Taylor. In these towns, blacks were not permitted in public after sunset lest they and their families face the wrath of violent white segregationists.
These journeys are receiving greater attention with the popularity of Peter Farrelly’s Oscar-nominated film “Green Book,” but truthfully the stories cannot be confined to a single awards season. They are decadeslong stories ― ongoing stories ― of black movement and migration. And they are stories that explain, in part, how certain pockets of America came to look and feel how they do.
The Supreme Court struck an extraordinary blow for criminal justice reform on Wednesday, placing real limitations on policing for profit across the country. Its unanimous decision for the first time prohibits all 50 states from imposing excessive fines, including the seizure of property, on people accused or convicted of a crime. Rarely does the court hand down a ruling of such constitutional magnitude—and seldom do all nine justices agree to restrict the power that police and prosecutors exert over individuals. The landmark decision represents a broad agreement on the Supreme Court that law enforcement’s legalized theft has gone too far.
Wednesday’s ruling in Timbs v. Indiana, authored by Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, is sharp and concise. It revolves around a single question of extraordinary importance. The Eighth Amendment guarantees that no “excessive fines” may be “imposed,” an ancient right enshrined in the Magna Carta and enthusiastically adopted by the Framers. But the Bill of Rights originally applied only to the federal government, not the states. After the Civil War, the 14th Amendment was ratified to apply these rights to the states, which had engaged in grotesque civil rights violations to perpetuate slavery. The Supreme Court, however, slowly applied (or “incorporated”) these rights against the states one by one, not all at once. And before Timbs, it had never incorporated the Excessive Fines Clause—allowing states to exploit their residents for huge sums of cash and property.
.
Supreme Court Associate Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg poses with fellow justices during their official group photo at the Supreme Court on Nov. 30 in Washington,
Jabin Botsford/the Washington Post via Getty Images
No one tells a Supreme Court Justice when to retire. But there are currently two retirement dramas under way at the Court—one semi-public and the other semi-private—and they both have the potential to reshape the meaning of the Constitution for decades.
The public story is that of Ruth Bader Ginsburg, the Court’s senior liberal. Late last year, she fell and broke three ribs and, when she was being treated, doctors discovered that she had lung cancer, her third bout with cancer. She underwent surgery, apparently successfully, and the Court released word that she would need no further treatment. But, in January, she missed oral arguments for the first time in twenty-five years on the Court, and there is no guarantee that she will be there when the Justices next hear cases, on February 19th. Still, the retirement drama regarding Ginsburg is straightforward. She will hang on for as long as she can, in the hopes that a Democratic President will appoint her successor after the 2020 election.
.
With another Supreme Court vacancy, or two, President Trump’s record and influence on the future of the country will look even more secure.
A federal judge banned Roger Stone from speaking publicly about his case on Thursday, after hauling him back to court to answer for an Instagram post attacking her.
“Publicity cannot subside if it’s the defendant that’s fanning the flames,” U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson said Thursday, making it clear that a violation of the strict gag order would mean jail for the former Trump adviser.
“Today, I gave you a second chance. This is not baseball, you don’t get a third chance,” she told Stone.
.
Longtime Trump ally Roger Stone gives an interview to Reuters in Washington, U.S., Jan. 31, 2019.Leah Millis / Reuters file
The North Carolina Board of Elections on Thursday called for a new election in the state’s 9th Congressional District after examining evidence of absentee ballot fraud on behalf of GOP candidate Mark Harris.
The five-member board, which consists of three Democrats and two Republicans, unanimously voted for the new contest. In making the motion for a new election, board Chairman Robert Cordle said the election was “tainted” and pointed to “corruption” and “mess” with absentee ballots.
The vote came after Harris, who had a 905-vote lead in the November race, abruptly said he believed a new election was warranted.
Civilians have been evacuated from the last village in Syria still held by the Islamic State (IS) group.
A convoy on Wednesday carried hundreds of men, women and children from Baghuz, near the Iraqi border.
The US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) alliance have said they are waiting for their removal before launching an offensive against militants “entrenched inside”.
Those removed are being screened then taken to camps, the SDF say.
An estimated 300 IS fighters are thought to be holed up inside a tiny pocket of land.
.
Image copyrightAFP
Image caption The UN had warned some 200 families were trapped
Film and Writing Festival for Comedy. Showcasing best of comedy short films at the FEEDBACK Film Festival. Plus, showcasing best of comedy novels, short stories, poems, screenplays (TV, short, feature) at the festival performed by professional actors.
(Top L-R) Michael Cohen, Michael Flynn, Paul Manafort. (Bottom L-R) George Papadopoulos, Rick Gates, Roger Stone. (DON EMMERT,SAUL LOEB,MANDEL NGAN,BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI,EDUARDO MUNOZ ALVAREZ/AFP/Getty Images)
Supreme Court Associate Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg poses with fellow justices during their official group photo at the Supreme Court on Nov. 30 in Washington,
NC race
James' World 2 