Ilia Malinin performs to Fear as he completes cathartic Olympic gala routine
Source: US news | The Guardian · Bias: Center Left
Summary
American given rousing reception by crowd in MilanAlysa Liu and Mikhail Shaidorov among other performersAlysa Liu had the opportunity to cherish skating on the same Olympic ice where she won two gold medals one more time. Ilia Malinin had the chance to replace some disappointing memories with much better ones.The two Americans were among more than 40 Olympic figure skaters who took part in the traditional exhibition gala on Saturday night, which not only serves to wrap up the program but to celebrate the entire sport. Continue reading...
Ilia Malinin performs to Fear as he completes cathartic Olympic gala routine
Center Left
American given rousing reception by crowd in MilanAlysa Liu and Mikhail Shaidorov among other performersAlysa Liu had the opportunity to cherish skating on the same Olympic ice where she won two gold medals one more time. Ilia Malinin had the chance to replace some disappointing memories with much better ones.The two Americans were among more than 40 Olympic figure skaters who took part in the traditional exhibition gala on Saturday night, which not only serves to wrap up the program but to celebrate the entire sport. Continue reading...
Former special counsel Jack Smith has been a constant target of fury and legal threats by President Donald Trump, dating back to even before the election, when the famed prosecutor was helming a pair of federal criminal cases against him.But Smith doesn't dwell much on the possibility that Trump's Justice Department will fabricate some charges against him, he told MS NOW's Nicolle Wallace in an exclusive interview on Thursday. There's something he worries a lot more about."Do you think that this is a department that you could send someone to go work in, and they could be asked to indict you?" asked Wallace.Smith agreed "that could happen" — however, he continued, "in the Justice Department, even as we sit here right now, there are lots of people doing good work prosecuting violent crime, protecting their communities, doing the everyday work of being a prosecutor. And yes, it could happen. That could happen, and that would be unfortunate. And then you might have to step down." Nonetheless, he added, "I don't want to see people run from public service because of that possibility.""Do you expect to be indicted?" Wallace followed up, noting that Trump "said he would indict you."Smith replied, "I'll tell you, Nicolle, I honestly do not spend a lot of time thinking about the things he says about me and his threats about me."Instead of that, he continued, "I'm really focused on the people who I worked with, looking out for them. I'm really focused on how the Justice Department is going to be better going forward, things like that."What Smith worries about more, he made clear, is the future of the people he worked with who helped him do his job.Ultimately, Smith said, "I had an all-star team ... the agents on my case, if I were to walk you through all the awards they've won throughout generations of administrations, we would be here all night. These were superstars. I'm much more concerned that those people get to serve in the department, get to serve in the bureau again someday." - YouTube www.youtube.com
According to the renowned fascism historian Ruth Ben-Ghiat, the Supreme Court has become President Donald Trump’s “partner in corruption,” not only working to enrich those who are in on the scam, but reshaping the U.S. as an authoritarian state in which one must “fear and obey” Trump.“This is the summer of corruption,” wrote Ben-Ghiat on Thursday. “Defined as the abuse of power for private gain, corruption can happen in any kind of organization and government, but under authoritarianism it attains a new status: it is how the executive branch operates, expands its power, and recruits elite and grassroots partners. The Supreme Court is one of these partners, as we’ll see below.”The Trump administration and its enablers on the Court, argues Ben-Ghiat, “are providing Americans and the world with a lesson in how corruption can become systemic.” This, she says, is the goal of all authoritarians: they “seek to retool government and the culture to create the conditions to lie, steal and repress people with impunity. That means going after journalists, judges, investigators, opposition politicians and others who expose official wrongdoing. It also means puffing up the leader’s personality cult and inventing narratives, backed by complicit religious institutions, about his selflessness and purity.”She raises the example of Justice Clarence Thomas, who has a well-documented history of “accepting luxury gifts and travel from billionaire GOP donor Harlan Crow,” who in turn “has a garden full of statues of dictators, and collects Adolf Hitler and Nazi memorabilia.” And, according to Ben-Ghiat, “As per the sacred laws of corruption, these ‘gifts’ were likely supposed to be repaid whenever Thomas put on his robes. No matter that the Court, which has no ethical oversight mechanism, finally instituted a code of conduct in November 2023, which states that justices must ‘uphold the integrity and independence of the judiciary’ and avoid actual and apparent impropriety.”Thomas has paid no attention to this code, refusing to recuse himself in cases involving Trump’s election lies, even though Thomas’s wife Ginny was directly engaged in those lies. As Ben-Ghiat muses, “What good would Thomas be as a link in the chain of corruption if he took himself out of the game just when he was most needed?”“And here we arrive at the Supreme Court as a partner in Trump administration corruption, first by giving the President immunity for official acts, and now by upholding his right to dismiss an official on political grounds,” writes Ben-Ghiat. “A landmark ruling in July 2024 gave the president ‘the power of a king,’ as the Brennan Center termed it, conferring upon him absolute immunity (for the exercise of core constitutional powers) and presumptive immunity (for all other official acts). This created the legal space for a lawless individual such as Trump to feel even more emboldened to use corruption and violence to destroy our democracy and make money doing it.”Now, while the Supreme Court has for 100 years upheld that the president does not have the authority to fire heads of independent agencies without cause, Trump’s allies on the court have overturned that precedent, creating conditions for further “systematic corruption.”“We need to see this decision through autocratic eyes,” explains Ben-Ghiat. “Not obeying the Leader, refusing to participate in his corruption, and politicizing the practice of government are acts of negligence and malfeasance in office in the authoritarian world. Such people must be removed from public service, lest they influence others with their moral stances.”The power to fire agency officials at will is exactly what the president needs to shape government to his private agenda. According to Ben-Ghiat, proof of this intention was revealed by the words of Solicitor General John Sauer, who represented the Trump administration in the case, arguing before the court that the president needs to be able to remove officials in the agencies because “the President must have the power to control and…the one who has the power to remove is the one who…is the person that they have to fear and obey.”
The US believed Israel was plotting to kill Iran's head negotiators, Abbas Araghchi and Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, in the middle of the peace talks, with America going as far as to warn Tehran through third party countries of the risks, officials said.
A Washington, D.C., grand jury returned a felony indictment against former Olympian David Hearn in connection with damage found at the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool, U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia Jeanine Pirro announced on Thursday. Hearn, 67, was indicted on the count of felony destruction of property and faces 10 years in prison.…
David Hearn, the former Olympian who was arrested and charged with a misdemeanor for destruction of property for vandalizing the Lincoln Reflecting Pool last month was indicted by a grand jury on felony charges on Thursday.
The post BREAKING: Grand Jury Indicts Former Olympic Canoeist David Hearn on Felony Charges For Vandalizing Reflecting Pool – Faces 10 Years in Prison (PIrro Presser) appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.
MAGA loyalists were melting down Thursday after President Donald Trump's Social Security Administration announced a new design for babies born this year.The limited edition "Freedom 250" logo-themed cards will be issued for babies born between now and the end of the year, The Washington Post reported."Freedom 250 is the public-private initiative the Trump administration launched last year to organize events — often aligned with the administration — for the nation’s semiquincentennial. It is different from America250, a nonprofit established by Congress in 2016 to organize such celebrations," according to The Post.But MAGA fans, still apparently upset over the Supreme Court's ruling this week to uphold birthright citizenship, were outraged online. Some right-wing commentators claimed the cards would be used for "anchor babies" and shared their anger over the high court's decision. "Notice how they don’t say American Children? Oh yea that’s because 5 people destroyed what it meant to be an American the week of our independence. Being an American is nothing sacred anymore the Supreme Court just cemented that," user Cori, who frequently shares MAGA-aligned content, wrote on X."Doesn’t feel the same knowing they’ll also be going to anchor babies," user Alexandra, whose profile states "all I want for Christmas is mass deportations," wrote on X."It boils my blood that some baby tourist is going to have one of these while they live in China or somes---," Renlos Malik, a user who frequently shares MAGA-related material, wrote on X."Anchor babies too... or nah?" Tim Young, Heritage Foundation media fellow with more than 1.1 million followers, wrote on X."I wonder, how many illegal birth tourism anchor babies will enjoy this very special honor?!!!!" Luce Wood, author and self-described "proud conservative" with more than 18,000 followers, wrote on X.
