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Accusations of Satan worship fly in wild California GOP election fight



Shasta County, California has long been a hotbed for far-right Republican politics -- but it seems that even many voters in this deep-red county are getting fed up with local officials who have been running on denying the results of the 2020 presidential election.

The Los Angeles Times reports that Shasta County voters chose to oust gun store owner Patrick Jones from the local Board of Supervisors after he spearheaded a campaign to remove Dominion Voting Systems machines and relentlessly promoted false claims about Trump's loss in the 2020 race.

And Jones wasn't the only hardcore election-denying Republican facing a tough election cycle, as his ally, Supervisor Kevin Crye, is currently winning his race by less than four dozen votes.

Added to this, voting totals show that Allen Long, a retired Redding police lieutenant, with a significant lead over Laura Hobbs, a candidate who describes herself as "100% MAGA and America First."

ALSO READ: MAGA’s Christian nationalism excludes a vast majority of Christianity

Long tells the LA Times that he was motivated to run for the board because he thought local officials had become too extreme, particularly in their embrace of MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell's conspiracy theories about voting machines.

"I was watching the politics here in our county, and I thought, ‘Wow, this has really become extreme,’” he said. “I wanted to guide us back to the middle.”

As if to illustrate Long's point about extremist, the LA Times report notes that Hobbs, his opponent, labeled Shasta County Republican Supervisor Mary Rickert a Satan worshipper because her car's license plate happens to have the number "666" on it.

Trump smacked down by E. Jean Carroll’s lawyer for trying to delay payment



E. Jean Carroll's attorneys fended off Donald Trump's attempt to stall two more months in paying the massive defamation judgment imposed against him.

The $91.6 million bond floated by Federal Insurance Company contained some fine print that would have given the former president 30 additional days to come up with the money he owed Carroll, in addition to 30 days for the insurer to come up with the money if Trump failed to pay – essentially giving him two months to stall, reported The Daily Beast.

But Carroll's attorney Roberta Kaplan spotted that loophole over the weekend and alerted U.S. District judge Lewis Kaplan, who immediately responded in a handwritten note that indicated Trump's lawyers must agree to drop the gambit.

“The parties shall submit revised documentation promptly,” the judge wrote on Kaplan's letter.

The surety firm FIC, which is a subsidiary of Chubb Insurance Company, essentially fronted money for Trump to give themselves some extra time to make good on his debt, but Trump and the insurer gave themselves an unusually generous amount of time to pay up.

READ MORE: Trump and the Republicans will do anything to win — even collude with Russia

“From what I can see, there’s no basis for it," said Neil Pedersen, who owns a bond agency in New York. "If you have to pay, there’s no reason to give Trump another 30 days. There’s no reason to give a company with billions upon billions of assets a 30-day grace period."

However, other experts say FIC may have been protecting themselves from a client notorious for stiffing contractors and stalling his legal obligations.

“These corporations are big battleships that take a long time to turn around,” N. Alex Hanley, an expert in how companies appeal enormous judgments.

‘His conduct gets much worse’: Impeachment lawyer has a warning about Trump



Former chief impeachment lawyer Barry Berke brought up the former staff of Donald Trump on Friday, taking to the media to sound the alarm that a second term would be dangerous.

The conversation began about the Trump trials and the notion that Americans deserve to see the evidence against him before the November election. MSNBC's Nicolle Wallace asked Berke whether those conversations should happen in the context of court or the presidential campaign. Berke said both, and everywhere.

"Ideally, it will happen in the courtroom, but these issues should be amplified publicly as well," said Berke. "The evidence is overwhelming, as someone who spends my time defending charges and the like, it is hard to imagine a case stronger than the January 6th case. Stronger than the confidential document obstruction case. It is overwhelming, and it's challenging because not everybody — most voters don't follow it like you follow it and like I follow it."

ALSO READ: ‘Leave the drama to them:’ Mother of Lauren Boebert’s grandson speaks out

He told Wallace he hopes that she, as a television host, can take the evidence and help Americans understand it if there is no trial.

"Make sure that the American people understand what's at stake here, what conduct happened," Berke continued. "And I'll tell you, from me, in particular, here's what I feel most strongly: This is a movie series in which the sequel has already been written. Every time Donald Trump gets away with something, his conduct gets much worse."

He went on to blast Republicans who failed to stop Trump when they had the opportunity.

"You see somebody like Liz Cheney — I don't think I agree with her on a single issue except about the importance of democracy," Berke explained. "When I was there for the second impeachment she encouraged us to use her words and that's leadership and that is courage. My hope is, because Donald Trump's not going to get any better. His positions in this election are only going to get more extreme."

Berke called on more conservative Republicans to show the courage Cheney and others have shown.

See the discussion in the video below or at the link.

The more Trump gets away with something 'he gets much worse': Impeachment lawyer www.youtube.com

Trump admits he’ll have to sell buildings to come up with $450M in cash



Real estate mogul and former president Donald Trump admitted Wednesday he'd have to sell off properties to pay the $450 million he owes in damages after a ruling in his civil fraud trial.

Trump filed a more than 1,790-page emergency motion to a New York appeals court requesting a stay on Judge Arthur Engoron's verdict which he said would cause "irreparable harm," and offering to hand over a $100 million bond instead.

"In the absence of a stay on the terms herein outlined, properties would likely need to be sold to raise capital under exigent circumstances," Trump's attorneys wrote. "And there would be no way to recover any property sold following a successful appeal and no means to recover the resulting financial losses."

As attorney Bradley Moss summarized it, "He doesn’t have the cash."

Moss also noted this contradicts a previous boast of Trump's that he has "$400 million liquid." He made the claim during deposition for the trial involving E. Jean Carroll. He was ultimately found liable for defamation in that case.

The New York Attorney General's office, which brought the massive civil fraud case, believes the appeals court judge will issue a decision by the end of Wednesday, the Daily News reports.

ALSO READ: ‘America First’ is Trump first, Russia close second

Trump was found liable for fraud after exaggerating the value of his properties to secure favorable rates for loans and insurance, Engoron found. He hit him with the damages and also ruled that the former president could not conduct business in New York for three years.

Trump filed an intent to appeal, but cannot begin that appeal until the damages are paid or an agreed upon bond is secured. Trump has the difficulty that he is not allowed to loan money from any banks doing business in New York, as another term of Engoron's ruling.

Trump lawyers panicked by plan to use quotes from his books in hush money trial: report



A filing from prosecutors stating that they plan to quote extensively from books written by — or ghost-written for — Donald Trump in his upcoming hush money trial has his lawyers on the defensive.

According to a report from ABC News, Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg's office has found a wealth of material in the multitude of quotes from the ex-president in the books, including, "For many years I've said that if someone screws you, screw them back."

They intend to present them before the jury tasked with considering the 34 felonies contained in the indictment related to the 2016 cover-up of his alleged affair with adult film star Stormy Daniels.

The report notes that investigators have compiled quotes not only from Trump's bestseller "Art of the Deal," but also "Think Like a Billionaire," "How to Get Rich," "Think Big and Kick A--" and "Great Again."

ALSO READ: It's Putin's party — and Republicans are celebrating like it's 2016 all over again

According to ABC, the new filing includes, "Four dozen quotes from books published between 1987 and 2015," and that Trump's lawyers protesting the former president's words could "prejudice" the jury.

In response, Trump lawyer Todd Blanche stated, "Whatever President Trump's style of business operations was in 1987, 2004 and 2007 ... is by no means probative for how he would have operated those businesses when he was President of the United States of America."

The ABC report adds, "According to the defense, some of Trump's quotes that prosecutors intend to highlight involve his approach to business — including his frugality and 'hands-on' approach — while others focus on Trump's interactions with women, which is expected to be a central issue in the trial."

It continues, "Defense attorneys argue some of those statements could potentially offend jurors, such as when Trump wrote, 'I always think of myself as the best-looking guy and it is no secret that I love beautiful women.'"

Trump's lawyers are arguing the quotes are, "Largely irrelevant, stale, and cumulative," further explaining, "Many of the statements that the People seek to admit have no apparent relevance to the issues in this case and will only lead to juror confusion."

You can read more here.

Tommy Tuberville gets a brutal fact check from Alabama reporter on ‘crime-ridden’ New York



Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-AL) attacked the city of New York for supposedly being crime-ridden on Tuesday, only to receive a brutal fact check from a reporter in his home state.

In a post on his Twitter account, Tuberville mocked President Joe Biden for traveling to New York this week to appear on Seth Meyers' show on NBC.

"Hope Joe Biden enjoyed going out for ice cream in NYC while the rest of the city is afraid of crime and migrants," wrote the Alabama senior senator.

However, AL.com's Kyle Whitmire was quick to inform Tuberville that their home state was far more dangerous in terms of the likelihood of being murdered than New York City.

"NYC’s homicide rate is 4.8 per 100k," he wrote. "Alabama’s homicide rate is 15.9 per 100k — more than three times that of NYC."

READ MORE: A dangerous mental illness is spreading in the Trump cult

In fact, according to federal government statistics, the states with the three highest homicide death rates are Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana, which are all dominated by Republicans.

Many New Yorkers were quick to pile on Tuberville's attempt to trash their city and mocked him for apparently not knowing the massive crime problem in his home state.

"I personally got murdered three times in NYC over the last six months," joked user Maura Dougherty.

"Things I spend my days afraid of in New York: random right-wing football coaches from Alabama getting massive political power and using it to take reproductive freedoms away," wrote New Yorker Laura Bassett. "Things I do not spend my days afraid of: crime and migrants."

Another user, meanwhile, said Tuberville should be focused on the 91 felonies allegedly committed by the man who will once again likely be his party's standard bearer.

"A major criminal, Trump, is about to go to jail and New Yorkers are excited!" they wrote.

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