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Evening Shade---Resistance Rising---Tuesday, May 13th [1]
['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.']
Date: 2025-05-13
YOU CAN REPOST IT AS COMMENT in the DIARY
WHEN YOU FIND SOMETHING in the DIARY that you LIKE
THE PERSON who MAKES the FIRST COMMENT WILL GET TWO CRITTERS
(Or NOT As the CASE MAY BE)
YOU WILL FIND in the DIARIES a LOT of POLITICS
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Let's start with some good news.
x The North Carolina State Board of Elections has formally certified Democrat Allison Riggs as the winner of a state Supreme Court. Riggs was sworn-in at a brief ceremony in Raleigh. "We won this election more than six months ago, but it was fewer than seven days ago that this race finally ended." — Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1.bsky.social) May 13, 2025 at 8:10 AM
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x BREAKING: The Eleventh Circuit, on a 2-1 vote, holds that Florida’s anti-drag law is likely unconstitutional and upholds the injunction barring enforcement of the ban. media.ca11.uscourts.gov/opinions/pub...
[image or embed] — Chris Geidner (@chrisgeidner.bsky.social) May 13, 2025 at 7:43 AM
x NEWS: Facing litigation, the Trump admin reverses itself on its purge of climate-related websites. The restoration process is "already underway" — and expected to be "substantially complete" in "approximately two weeks." A win for @knightcolumbia.org Doc knightcolumbia.org/documents/2o...
[image or embed] — Adam Klasfeld (@klasfeldreports.com) May 13, 2025 at 10:28 AM
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Back to our regularly scheduled sh!tstorm. Remember "Sleepy Joe?"
A coinky-dink, I'm sure.Trump company strikes Qatari golf resort deal in a sign it’s not holding back from foreign business. apnews.com/…
The Trump family company struck a deal Wednesday to build a luxury golf resort in Qatar in a sign it has no plans to hold back from foreign dealmaking during a second Trump administration, despite the danger of a president shaping U.S. public policy for personal financial gain. The project, which features Trump-branded beachside villas and an 18-hole golf course to be built by a Saudi Arabian company, is the first foreign deal by the Trump Organization since Donald Trump took office and unlike any done in his first term. Back then, he forswore foreign deals in an extraordinary press conference surrounded by stacks of legal documents as he pledged to avoid even the appearance of conflict of interest. Noah Bookbinder, president of a watchdog group that has sued Trump for alleged ethics violations, blasted the Qatari deal. “You want a president making decisions that are in the best interest of the United States, not his bottom line,” said Bookbinder, who leads Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington.
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x This wasn’t on the schedule, but Al-Sharaa dangled the possibility of a Trump Tower Damascus to Trump’s reps. Like every other foreign leader/entity, they know what it takes to make things happen for them.
[image or embed] — Ron Filipkowski (@ronfilipkowski.bsky.social) May 13, 2025 at 8:18 AM
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Sweet Jeebus. Ayn Rand Paul and Ted Cruz are the voices of reason?
x Rand Paul on Fox Biz: "I do think the jet probably sends the wrong signal, and I don't like the look or appearance of it, so I would hope he would reject it. The Constitution specifically says you can't take gifts from foreign leaders."
[image or embed] — Aaron Rupar (@atrupar.com) May 13, 2025 at 6:25 AM
Aapparently so.
Oh, and it's a used car, lemon airplane.
x Like me, @benjaminwittes.lawfaremedia.org wants to know whether Trump will pay $40M tariffs on the used car the Qatari's used car salesperson Pam Bondi approved.
[image or embed] — emptywheel (@emptywheel.bsky.social) May 13, 2025 at 2:55 AM
The Situation: A Used Plane That Needs Work. www.lawfaremedia.org/…
✂️ I haven’t read the legal opinion on the subject co-written by our esteemed attorney general, Pam Bondi. It’s apparently not public yet. But in any event, I’m not all that fussed about the legality of the deal. I’m worried that Trump—of all people—is being ripped off by foreigners. Let’s deal with the law first. To be clear, I haven’t done a moment’s legal research on this subject, and frankly don’t intend to—life being short and all. But my instinct is that Bondi may be right that giving the United States a jet doesn’t violate the law, and that transferring ownership of that jet to a presidential library doesn’t either. The reason? Well, presidents often get gifts, and they are allowed to accept them in the name of the country. And then they tend to transfer them to entities like their presidential libraries. Sure, sure. Gifts to presidents normally aren’t luxury jets that he can use after he leaves office. And normally, when a presidential library owns an item, they don’t make that item available for the personal use of the former president. But I wouldn’t be surprised at all if the law doesn’t make this distinction. Indeed, it would not shock me to learn that no legislator ever imagined the need to forbid the giving to the president of new, temporary Air Force One to be converted to the ownership of his private library at such time as he might need a private luxury jet in the future. A lot of deranged things are legal because nobody bothers to make them illegal because, well, nobody actually has ever done that sort of thing before. So no, my objections to the Qatar plane gift scheme don’t flow from concerns about legality. But I would like to raise several issues that bother me about this plan—ones I hope the president will consider. First, the plane is 13 years old. You read that correctly. A piddling little Middle Eastern autocracy is trying to bribe our president with a used plane. Now my sense of national pride has taken a few hits over the last several years. I used to believe all that shining city on a hill garbage, for example; now I’ll settle happily for a city that does not betray its friends and allies and kiss the asses of its enemies and whose people don’t end up bankrupt and oppressed and dying of measles. But guys, there are limits. According to ABC News, “The plane will initially be transferred to the United States Air Force, which will modify the 13-year-old aircraft to meet the U.S. military specifications required for any aircraft used to transport the president of the United States, multiple sources familiar with the proposed arrangement said.” In other words, we’re getting a used vehicle that needs a whole lot of work. That’s frankly beneath the national dignity of even our degraded status.
Read the rest. It's biting and very good!
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x Leader Schumer is placing holds on all Justice Department political appointees in response to Trump's acceptance of a $400 million luxury jet as a gift from Qatar's royal family. — Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1.bsky.social) May 13, 2025 at 7:10 AM
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Speaking of aviation concerns.
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Is anybody really surprised?
x Let’s break this down—because the gaslighting is wild: 📌Oct 2022 – Biden signs EO to cut drug prices 📌Jan 2025 – Trump takes office and kills Biden’s EO to cut drug prices 📌May 2025 – Trump signs his own EO to lower drug prices Trump canceled Biden’s plan then brought it back w/his name on it.
[image or embed] — Christopher Webb (@cwebbonline.com) May 12, 2025 at 8:51 PM
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About FIDJT'S Big, Beautiful Bill.
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Holy Crap! Compare this to how other refugees are being treated. Hell, compare this to assistance for American citizens.
x From a South African SubReddit — This “Amerikaners” site has details for white South African *refugees* looking to move to 🇺🇸 — outlining benefits they are eligible for, Etc. “You do not need to prove persecution” 🤔 (The program is suspended for others)
www.amerikaners.com
[image or embed] — The Tennessee Holler (@thetnholler.bsky.social) May 13, 2025 at 6:04 AM
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This is an interesting take and I can't really disagree. Please Stop Trying to Get Kash Patel Fired. newrepublic.com/…
✂️ FBI directors since J. Edgar Hoover have typically been staid, anodyne figures with a low public profile. (James Comey, the showboat leader of the bureau who helped elect Donald Trump in 2016, was a notable exception.) Patel is anything but that: The 45-year-old director has spent his time jetting around the country to sporting events, social events, and Mar-a-Lago. That jet-setting lifestyle has drawn some scrutiny on Capitol Hill. Senate Democrats have reportedly asked the Government Accounting Office, a federal watchdog agency, to probe Patel’s use of official aircraft for personal business. While FBI directors are generally required to use government airplanes for national security reasons, Patel’s trips often appear to go well beyond what is required for him to do his job. It is hard to fault Senate Democrats for taking a close look at anything the Trump administration does. Nor can they be blamed for their skepticism of Patel himself. But in this particular case, those who fear that Trump is moving the country in a more autocratic and dictatorial way might want to tread a little more lightly. So far, it seems like Trump’s choice for FBI director is less interested in settling scores and more interested in having fun. What would be a vice in any other administration may be a virtue in this one.
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Remember:
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Evening Shade Seekers! Happy National Frog Jumping Day!
Happy IEEE (institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers) Day! (Long)
Happy National Crouton Day!
Happy National Top Gun Day!
Happy National Hummus Day!
Happy National Fruit Cocktail Day!
AND Happy National Apple Pie Day!
Tomorrow is National Buttermilk Biscuit Day.
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