One of Rudy’s weasels seems ready to flip

Scoop, ... 3 comments.

“After previously refusing to cooperate with the probe, Ukrainian-American businessman and Rudy Giuliani crony Lev Parnas has signaled that he’s now willing to work with impeachment investigators, including responding to requests for records and testimony.”

He apparently changed his mind about co-operation when Trump publicly declared that he didn’t know Parnas. It seems that Mr. Parnas thinks that he and The Donald were buds.

Don’t get your hopes too high for some juicy revelations. Because much of his activity was illegal, and he is facing active criminal charges in that regard, Parnas would probably spend much of his congressional testimony pleading the Fifth. It’s not impossible that his lawyers can cut him some kind of sweetheart deal, but it doesn’t seem to be in the cards at this moment.

Trump’s Electoral College prospects still look good

Scoop, ... 23 comments.

“Despite low national approval ratings and the specter of impeachment, President Trump remains highly competitive in the battleground states likeliest to decide his re-election”

The Times evaluated six battleground states that went for Trump in 2016.

* While Trump trails Biden, four states to one, with one toss-up, all six are still within his grasp.

* In contrast, Warren’s farther-left approach has not proved appealing in these purple states. Trump is beating her in three states to her one, with two loss-ups, and Warren’s one lead is within the margin of error.

* A significant fact is that Warren is weaker than Biden in all six of the states which may well determine the election. Warren plays especially poorly in Michigan and Florida.

As wildfires burn across California, President Trump lashes out at the state on Twitter

Scoop, ... no comments.

Trump tweeted that Governor Newsom has “done a terrible job of forest management.”

Trump is partially correct. Affected industries, fire fighters and private analysts generally agree that too little has been done to manage some of the California forests. You might say that they are being managed incompetently. In fact, you might go so far as to say that the vast majority of California’s forests are under the control of a complete idiot. But it’s not California’s governor.

Specifically, it’s this guy:

Fortunately for the idiot in question, his own stupidity, which really ought to implicate him, actually has exonerated him, because he has misunderstood so many details that they kind of cancel each other out! It’s the rare case where two wrongs DO make a right. How can that be? While it is true that the federal government is in charge of most of the California forests, it’s also true that the forests have little to do with the wildfires. “The vast majority of the acres consumed by fire since early October were grasslands and chaparral, far from the forests.”

Trump lost an appeal Monday to keep his tax returns from a Manhattan grand jury,

Scoop, ... no comments.

The appeals court ruled that Trump’s accounting firm must turn over eight years of his personal and corporate tax returns to Manhattan prosecutors.

“The only question before us is whether a state may lawfully demand production by a third party of the President’s personal financial records for use in a grand jury investigation while the President is in office.”

The President and his attorneys will ask the Supreme Court to review the case. The district attorney’s office also agreed not to enforce the subpoena until the Supreme Court either declines to hear the case or reaches a decision, whichever comes first. In no case will the tax returns become public.

Sock puppets

Scoop, ... 14 comments.

Note to commenters:

“A sockpuppet is an online identity used for purposes of deception. The term, a reference to the manipulation of a simple hand puppet made from a sock, originally referred to a false identity assumed by a member of an Internet community who spoke to, or about, themselves while pretending to be another person.”

Wikipedia

Stick to one identity, please.

Just like the situation with the Russians from that troll farm in St. Petersburg, it is possible to see where your posts come from, especially if you don’t even make an effort to hide them through a VPN or something. If you have two identities posting from the same computer, stop that. I’m not going to out those of you doing that (the rest of you can probably guess already), and nobody makes you use your real name, but try to have some backbone and stick up for yourselves. And above all, do not type a comment under one name and then have one of your sock puppets say something like “good point.” That is entirely lacking in integrity.