Dan Alexander and Richard Behar, Senior Editor | Contributing Editor - Forbes
Stephan: Forbes is hardly a leftwing publication, and I think that is important to keep in mind as you read this article. Even Forbes sees Trump as basically a criminal, who by choice surrounds himself with criminals. Also as you read this think of all the people in his administration who have been indicted for criminal activities. There is no precedent for any of this, at this scale, in American history.
Trump and fellow criminals Emin Agalarov, and Aras Agalarov at the Miss Universe 2013 beauty pageant final at Crocus City Hall in Moscow, Russia. Credit: ITAR-TASS/ VYACHESLAV PROKOFYEV/TASS/ GETTY
A new report from the U.S. Senate Select Committee on Intelligence offers a damning portrait of the people Donald Trump chose as his partners for potential projects in Russia. They include individuals with alleged connections to the mob, to Vladimir Putin and to human trafficking.
The group would comprise an extraordinary list of associates for any international businessman, let alone for the sitting president of the United States.
Trump Organization representatives did not respond to requests for comment. In 2016, Trump Organization lawyer Alan Garten insisted that the business conducts thorough due diligence on its outside partners. “We do extensive vetting on everyone we do business with,” he told Forbes at the time. “We do background checks on an international level. We do background checks on a local level. We check every available database commonly used. We use outside experts who specialize in this area. And that’s in addition to looking at the deal itself. […]
Shima Baughman, Professor of Criminal Law - Raw Story/The Conversation
Stephan: I knew from the research literature I had read that most crimes committed in the U.S. never result in an arrest and conviction. But this latest research is even worse than anything I have ever read. When you add the police violence to the police failure to solve crimes, you have to ask: Why aren't we fundamentally changing law enforcement in the United States? What exactly are we getting for the hundreds of billions of dollars the present system costs? I think you also have to ask, why do so few crimes even get reported?
Policeman collecting evidence standing behind yellow crime scene tape Credit:Shutterstock
As Americans across the nation protest police violence, people have begun to call for cutsor changes in public spending on police. But neither these nor otherproposed reforms address a key problem with solving crimes.
My recent review of 50 years of national crime data confirms that, as police report, they don’t solve most serious crimes in America. But the real statistics are worse than police data show. In the U.S. it’s rare that a crime report leads to police arresting a suspect who is then convicted of the crime.
In reality, about 11% of all serious crimes result in an arrest, and about 2% end in a conviction. Therefore, the number of people police hold accountable […]
Stephan: Here is Monday's Republican Scum Report. It is poetic as well as legal justice. Trump has to pay Stormy Daniels' legal fees.
Trump speaks to the 2020 Council for National Policy Meeting, Friday, Aug. 21, 2020, in Arlington, Va. Credit: AP/Evan Vucci
LOS ANGELES — A California court ordered President Donald Trump this week to pay $44,100 in attorney fees to porn actress Stormy Daniels to pay for her legal battle over her effort to cancel a hush money deal brokered to keep her quiet about their sexual relationship a decade ago.
The order in Superior Court in Los Angeles determined Daniels won her lawsuit against Trump over the agreement that was signed 11 days before the 2016 presidential election. As a part of that deal, the losing party would pay the lawyers fees.
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment about the decision.
The president’s personal lawyer at the time, Michael Cohen, paid $130,000 to Daniels, who filed the suit under her legal name Stephanie Clifford. After Trump’s election, Daniels sued to void the agreement.
Stephan: Like everything Trump says, his claims about voter fraud using mail-in ballots, are nothing but lies and, as this story points out, that has now been proven in court. Trump knows he is lying since he votes by mail. What this is really all about is casting shade over the entire electoral process so if he loses he can call the outcome into question. And from the polls it appears he is being successful. His followers, as Steve Bannon has demonstrated, are endlessly gullible.
Donald Trump in Virginia on Friday. The Trump campaign is suing to block the widespread use of official ballot dropboxes in Pennsylvania. Credit: Tasos Katopodis/EPA
The order came from US district judge Nicholas Ranjan, a Trump appointee, earlier this month amid a lawsuit in Pennsylvania over several voting policies. The Trump campaign is suing to block the widespread use of official ballot dropboxes in the state in locations other than an election office, and to allow poll watchers to work in counties other than the ones they live in.
The campaign also wants to block election officials from counting mail-in ballots if a voter forgets to put their mail-in ballot in a secrecy sleeve within the ballot return-envelope. The campaign argued in court that the current practices will lead to voter fraud […]
Stephan: Tens of thousands of people in the West are having to evacuate, hundreds of thousands of acres are already destroyed. Yet the media coverage has been very small. Massive forest fires at a scale never before seen have become a regular part of Western weather. This is going to have a massive impact on where people live, and that is going to significantly alter the economies of Western states, and it is all part of the climate change trend.
California wildfire Credit: CNN
Major wildfires are burning in California and other Western states. More than 20 major fires are burning in the Golden State, fueled by high temperatures. But states from the Northwest into the Rockies are also experiencing devastating wildfires.
California
The 660,000 acres burned in California so far is about the same area of land as Rhode Island.
Active fires from August alone have burned more than double the total acreage burned in California in 2019 (about 260,000 acres).
The LNU Lightning Complex fire is already the 10th largest in California history, at 219,000 acres.
Having burned 219,000 acres in 96 hours since it started Monday morning, the LNU fire has burned the equivalent of one football field every 2 seconds since Monday morning.
According to Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service (CAMS), Wednesday set a one-day record for the amount of wildfire smoke emissions coming from California fires. The fires put an estimated 3 million tons […]
