Campaign fraud
[edit]In October 2012, federal prosecutors and FBI agents in Washington, D.C., investigated Jackson for alleged financial improprieties, including possible misuse of campaign funds.[114][115] Sixteen days after being re-elected to another term, Jackson resigned effective on November 21, 2012, citing his health problems and acknowledging the ethics investigations.[116]
Jackson and wife Sandi signed plea agreements in early February 2013. Jackson Jr. agreed to plead guilty to charges of fraud, conspiracy, making false statements, mail fraud, wire fraud, and criminal forfeiture—having used about $750,000 in campaign money for over 3000 personal purchases that included a Michael Jackson fedora and cashmere capes.[117]
The Justice Department filed the charges on February 15, 2013,[118][119] and Jackson pleaded guilty on February 20, 2013, to one count of wire and mail fraud in connection with his misuse of $750,000 of campaign funds. On June 7, 2013, federal prosecutors indicated that they sought a four-year prison sentence for Jackson.[120] On August 14, 2013, Jackson was sentenced to 30 months in federal prison,[6] while wife Sandi was sentenced to 12 months in prison for filing false tax returns in an attempt to conceal the crimes.[121] Their sentences were not concurrent; Jackson served his, and after his release she served hers. The staggered sentences allowed for the Jackson children to have access to one parent during the time the other was in prison.[122]
Prison and release
[edit]On October 26, 2013, Jackson reported to the Federal Correctional Complex in Butner, near Raleigh, North Carolina, to begin serving his sentence.[123]
On March 26, 2015, Jackson was released from the minimum-security Federal Prison Camp, Montgomery in Montgomery, Alabama, to serve the rest of his sentence at a halfway house (the Volunteers of America Chesapeake facility in Baltimore, Maryland). After being released, Jackson was required to complete another three years on supervised release and perform 500 hours of community service.[124][125] He was released in the morning of June 22, 2015, after spending three months serving his remaining sentence in a halfway house.[126]
In an email to the Chicago Tribune on Thursday, Jackson downplayed his role in encouraging the pardon push and referred questions to one of the nine south suburban mayors who signed the letter, Homewood Mayor Rich Hofeld, who, Jackson said, “has been leading the effort for my full pardon in the south suburbs.”
“At this point, I believe it is most appropriate that he speak to the effort that he has initiated in the Southland,” Jackson wrote.
This is C.I.'s "Iraq snapshot:"
Friday, September 13, 2024. The week winds down with enthusiasm continuing to build for Kamala Harris.
52 days until the US presidential election and let's start off today with a good laugh.
Jill Stein is an idiot. That doesn't surprise me. That she is Dan Quayle level stupid? Okay, that surprised me.
Asked how many people are in the House of Representatives, she responds, "What is it? 600?"
No, it's 435. It's been that way every year of Jill's74-year-old life. (It goes back further than her but her whole life it's been 435.) She's ran for president three times now and she doesn't know 435?
What an idiot. Let's get her to try to spell potato next.
I especially enjoyed when Angela Rye pointing out how Jill is forever robbing women of color of their own agency. Angela put the ultimate Karen in check.
We can come back to Jill but we all needed a laugh to start the morning.
Let's move on over to another con artist, the shrinking Junior who wanted to be on the ballots and then he didn't. Mark Joseph Stern (SLATE) reports:
The North Carolina Supreme Court tossed a grenade into the state’s election on Monday, violating both state and federal law to grant Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s cynical, last-minute removal from the ballot. Its 4–3 decision will compel election administrators to destroy nearly 3 million already-printed ballots that featured Kennedy’s name and redesign 2,348 different ballot styles across the state to accommodate the eleventh-hour change. This complex process will significantly delay the distribution of new ballots—which will, in turn, unlawfully abridge early voting for everyone while jeopardizing the voting rights of service members overseas in clear contradiction of federal statute. It’s a nightmare for local election officials, who must now disregard the laws they’re sworn to uphold. And it’s an affront to North Carolinians at large, whose right to a fair, orderly election has been sabotaged by a lawless court and the candidate it so obviously favors.
Some people are surprised by how brief Junior's presidential campaign was, how quickly it ended. Those people apparently never spoke to any woman Junior slept with -- he's long been known as "One Thrust Bobby" for a reason.
He had a hissy fit to get on the ballot and then, after Donald Trump agreed to give him a post in a future administration, Junior has a hissy fit to get off the ballot.
With either contradictory position, please note, he insisted he was about the rule of law.
He was never about anything but himself. He's a lying hypocrite.
Now he's out there campaigning for Convicted Felon Donald Trump. And joining him on the road, Trashy Garbage aka Tulsi Gabbard.
Now we've made rude remarks about Tulsi and we've called her out but we do need to give her some praise. Trina explained why we needed to thank Tulsi in "Siri Daly's Garbage Cookies in the Kitchen:"
How about that debate?
After the debate, Tim Miller of The Bulwark caught up with Graham, who offered his assessment.
“Just spoke with Lindsey Graham in the spin room,” Miller reported. “[H]e said the debate team should be fired and Trump was unprepared. ‘[D]isaster'”
Remember garbage cookies -- good. Trashy Garbage -- evil grifter.
Tulsi Gabbard, the thing we all scrape off the bottom of our shoes. Tulsi Gabbard, the liar who claimed to have ended Kamala's career back in August of 2020. Since then? Tulsi's no longer in Congress. Kamala's Vice President. Since then? Tulsi can't even get a right-wing outlet to give her a program of her own. Kamala's running for president. Karma ran over Tulsi then threw it in reverse and backed over her as well.
She better watch out Saturday in Glendale campaigning with Junior. Remember, kids, he likes to toss roadkill in his car and dump it in Central Park.
Let's take a moment at week's end to celebrate the big news -- "Kamala destroys Donald (Ava and C.I.)" -- because Kamala didn't just win that debate, she overwhelmingly won that debate. She destroyed him. This was a debate that will be talked about for years.
And in case you're not getting how big her victory was, Robert Tait (GUARDIAN) reports:
Kamala Harris embarked on a drive to exploit her strong debate performance on Thursday, as the Democratic presidential nominee’s campaign pledged to intensify efforts to persuade voters in battleground states deemed essential to winning the White House.
Meanwhile, her opponent, Donald Trump – whose debate performance has been criticized even by some of his supporters – said that he would refuse to debate Harris again. “There will be no third debate,” he said in an angrily worded post on his Truth Social social media platform.
Let's note Bernd Debusmann Jr (BBC NEWS) to make sure that point soaks in, "Donald Trump has ruled out another presidential debate against his rival Kamala Harris before November's election."
And he's lying and saying he won.
You know what's worse though?
If he's not lying.
If he truly believes he won when he so clearly lost. If he really isn't lying and thinks he won, how could you vote for someone that deluded and out of touch with reality?
As reported last week, Donald's having to cut back and close campaigning in some states; however, Ed O'Keefe (CBS NEWS) reports:
Vice President Kamala Harris continues to build out a national presidential campaign, but is also staffing up at the White House amid a crush of press inquiries in the wake of her unexpected presidential bid.
Her office is bringing on Nate Evans, a veteran of her short-lived 2020 presidential campaign, as a senior communications adviser. He is on detail from his most recent post as principal senior adviser for strategy and communications for Linda Thomas-Greenfield, U.S. ambassador to the United Nations. Before his time with the U.S. mission at the U.N., he was a deputy chief of staff for Democratic Sen. Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota and served on Harris' 2020 campaign as head of rapid response and as New Hampshire communications director.
Kirsten Allen, Harris' communications director, and Ernie Apreza, her press secretary, will remain in their roles at the White House.
A growing press and communications team continues to build out at campaign headquarters in Wilmington, Delaware, led by communications director Michael Tyler and Brian Fallon, a senior communications adviser to Harris who is most notably responsible for crafting her daily message and negotiating with television networks about presidential debates and interview requests.
And Natasha Korecki (NBC NEWS) reports:
Riding high on momentum two days after the presidential debate, Vice President Kamala Harris was greeted by a deafening crowd here Thursday, eager to see the Democratic nominee push to the next phase of her campaign.
Harris told supporters it was time to turn the page from Donald Trump while again challenging the former president to a second debate, which she did earlier in the day at her rally in Charlotte.
“We owe it to the voters. Because here’s the thing: In this election, what’s at stake could not be more important,” she said.
Kamala at the debate was incredible. Marcia notes:
Video.
My grandmother asked me to note that video. She is so excited about Kamala Harris becoming president, she makes me look like a sour puss.
And that just started this week. After the debate. She was supporting Kamala but didn't feel like she could breathe, as she told me tonight on the phone, until after the debate. Not even when it was obvious Kamala was winning. She had to wait until after the debate was over.
She's breathing now and allowing herself to hope and imagine Kamala as president.
She's fixed income but she signed up for weekly campaign donations on Wednesday.
I know the media is so disappointing -- especially our so-called 'left' media like Common Dreams -- but people are excited by Kamala. And our number is growing. And will continue to grow.
And I'm seeing that in the groups we're speaking to as well. People are excited by this campaign, they're excited by Kamala as US president. But somehow 'left' media struggles to convey reality. As Betty noted last night:
And Stan observed:
The enthusiasm is there even if our 'left' sites can't be bothered to cover it. Need further proof? Rebecca Falconer (AXIOS) notes:
Vice President Kamala Harris raised $47 million in the 24 hours following her debate against former President Trump, her campaign announced on Thursday.
Why it matters: It's Harris' biggest 24-hour fundraising haul since she raised $81 million after she replaced President Biden as Democrats' presidential candidate in July, per the New York Times, which first reported the news.
- The haul that included donations from 600,000 individuals is the latest boost for Harris, who's locked in a virtual dead heat with Trump in most swing states, according to multiple national polls.
- The fundraising haul comes after her campaign raked in $361 million in August compared Trump's $130 million raised for that month.
What they're saying: "While our fundraising program continues to show historic strength, this momentum cannot be taken for granted," said Harris campaign chair Jen O'Malley Dillon in a statement to media.
- "We cannot underestimate the strength of Team Trump and their strong fundraising and organizing efforts intentionally designed to divide and sow doubt among Americans. We cannot let up until we defeat Trump once and for all this November."
It was an incredible debate.
Registered voters who watched Tuesday’s presidential debate broadly agree that Kamala Harris outperformed Donald Trump, according to a CNN poll of debate watchers conducted by SSRS. The vice president also outpaced both debate watchers’ expectations for her and Joe Biden’s onstage performance against the former president earlier this year, the poll found.
Debate watchers said, 63% to 37%, that Harris turned in a better performance onstage in Philadelphia. Prior to the debate, the same voters were evenly split on which candidate would perform more strongly, with 50% saying Harris would do so and 50% that Trump would. And afterward, 96% of Harris supporters who tuned in said that their chosen candidate had done a better job, while a smaller 69% majority of Trump’s supporters credited him with having a better night.
There is a schism between what's happening before our own eyes and what's getting 'covered' at COMMON DREAMS, etc. Trina went historical last night to explain how sad but not surprising this is:
For instance, according to the Mueller report, Trump's first attorney general, Jeff Sessions, told federal prosecutors Trump asked him to reverse his decision to recuse himself from presidential campaign-related investigations and direct the Justice Department to investigate and prosecute Hillary Clinton around the summer of 2017.
In the spring of 2018, Trump also told White House counsel Donald F. McGahn II he wanted to order the Justice Department to prosecute both Hillary Clinton and James Comey, the former FBI director whom Trump had already fired during an investigation into Russian interference to help Trump in the 2016 US presidential election, according to the New York Times. McGahn had White House lawyers write a memo warning Trump that if he ordered law enforcement to investigate his rivals, he could be impeached.
After the March, 2019 release of the Mueller report, which looked at Russian interference in the 2016 election, Trump also called for federal officials to "investigate the investigators." Bill Barr, Trump's chosen attorney general after Sessions, later appointed special counsel John Durham to do just that.
"He made clear his position that as head of the executive branch, he has both the power and right to direct federal criminal justice enforcement at any targets he chooses; and does not respect the 'independence' of the Attorney General and of US Attorneys," Gordon told USA TODAY in an email.
The world can't afford a second term of Donald Trump. In the debate, he lied over and over. And he lies all the time so it may be hard to be shocked or surprised. But we should not grow immune to recognizing the damage his lies do. David Badash reports:
“Due to a bomb threat that was issued to multiple facilities throughout Springfield today, City Hall is closed today,” the City of Springfield wrote in a Facebook post, saying it had “received a bomb threat that has prompted an immediate response from local and regional law enforcement. As a precautionary measure, the building has been evacuated, and authorities are currently conducting a thorough investigation. Our primary concern is the safety and well-being of our employees and residents. We are working to address this situation as swiftly as possible.”
The statement adds the bomb threat came via an email at 8:24 AM that was “sent to multiple agencies and media outlets.”
Just one day ago, City Manager Bryan Heck in a video denounced the rhetoric used in the presidential race, while promoting the city’s growth, which has been improved local businesses say, by the influx of immigrants.
Here's Bryan Heck.
His lies aren't just words. His lies lead to violence. He is a threat to democracy and we can defeat him at the ballot box.
The following sites updated:
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The Literary Phenomenon of Irene Vallejo2 hours ago
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My grandmother is all in for Kamala8 hours ago
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