Jonathan Turley
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Blanche just got Cohen to say that he handed over $20,000 in a paper bag to close end a financial dispute. There is something quintessentially Cohen about the scene...
Jonathan Turley
@JonathanTurley
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...Weisselberg later paid Cohen for $60,000 rather than $20,000. Cohen admits that he stole from the Trump organization. He also told federal prosecutors about stealing the money but was never charged with larceny...
2:12 PM · May 20, 2024

Jonathan Turley
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9h
@JonathanTurley
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Replying to @JonathanTurley
...These are hits below the waterline for Cohen but also the prosecutors. They had a man admitting to a major larceny but never charged Cohen. That made Cohen not only their man, but allowed him to keep stolen money...
Jonathan Turley
@JonathanTurley
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...Blanche is now going in for the kill. He was that he lied to Weisselberg and "to this day you have never fixed that" and disclosed this to the District Attorney...
2:14 PM · May 20, 2024 //

I can say with some certainty that in any normal situation, having the prosecution's star witness admit to being a dishonest thief would be a death blow to the case's credibility. Remember, everything revolves around Cohen, who is now claiming to be a patsy who was just doing the bidding of Trump in cutting the check to Stormy Daniels. //

FloridaTransplant
8 hours ago
Hey wait up. If the DA knew about the theft, didn't fix it, didn't inform the trump organization, and didn't prosecute, doesn't that make everyone involved in the DAs office and accessory to grand larceny? Arguably even conspiracy to the crime? //

FloridaTransplant DKnight
8 hours ago
Yes. Prosecutorial discretion is a thing. If for example the Trump organization discovered the fraud and reported it. Here however it seems that the DA discovered the fraud in the trial prep and DID NOT REPORT IT to the Trump organization. That is what should make them an accessory.

But there are ads that can move you. There are bad ones—think Bud Light and Dylan Mulvaney—and there are good ones. Anyone who is old enough to remember “where’s the beef” knows that it became a catchphrase throughout the ‘80s, deservedly so, IMHO.

https://youtu.be/idnwh6iDnXA //

As one user noted, "It's interesting that countries outside the US are sent advertisements that celebrate life." Good point. //

There are many commercials over the decades that we could discuss—both terrific and terrible—but my wife sent me one Sunday that maybe sort of touched my cold, hard, toxic-masculinity-filled heart just a little bit. The spot, for Coca-Cola, brilliantly sums up both the joys and trials of parenthood in the modern age. Yes, little kids are bundles of joy—but yes, they also will test your stress tolerance and bring you to the edge of exhaustion in ways you never thought possible.

Watch, and if you’re a parent, pretend to look out the window and scratch that non-existent itch in your eye.

https://twitter.com/JoshuaSteinman/status/1792257229405749750

Scientists carried out a survey of five million distant solar systems with the help of 'neural network' algorithms and it took an interesting turn when they found nearly 60 stars surrounded by what appeared as "giant alien power plants."

Among the 60 stars, seven of them - which were M-dwarf stars and ranged between 60 per cent and 8 per cent the size of the Sun - were seen releasing high infrared 'heat signatures,' as per the astronomers. //

While these structures are named for Freeman Dyson, a physicist and mathematician who proposed the building of a Dyson sphere to contain and capture all of a star's energy output, the concept actually goes back to a 1937 novel, Star Maker, by author Olaf Stapledon.

But as far as this study actually having detected such structures? Color me skeptical. //

What isn't said is what other explanations might cause these mid-infrared emissions; while I'm a biologist and not a cosmologist, it seems to me that a G-sequence star like our sun, were it to be surrounded by a cloud (or clouds) of gas or dust, may well also emit such an IR signature. And that's a lot more likely than an alien civilization that would by necessity be thousands, or millions of years ahead of us, technologically. //

Cliff-Hanger
3 hours ago
Ward, I'm a little disappointed. Dyson structures mentioned and not one bad pun about vacuum cleaners sucking the energy out of the stars.

Jonathan Turley
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6h
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...Merchan is allowing the prosecutors to repeatedly illicit a statement from Cohen that it is not true when he said that there was no campaign violation. He is overruling defense objections. So the jury is hearing over and over again on the existence of a violation...
Jonathan Turley
@JonathanTurley
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...Merchan just allowed Cohen to testify on the legality of payments to Daniels. He then overruled another objection to prosecutors saying that he pleaded guilty to campaign violations...
4:23 PM · May 20, 2024 //

In case you've a hankering for whiplash, the prosecution also introduced a waiver of attorney-client privilege between Cohen and Costello, in which Cohen indicated he never considered Costello his attorney, and contradicted his previous testimony that their (multiple) communications were privileged. //

here's an explainer from CNN regarding what the prosecution is attempting to prove:

Prosecutors need to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Trump falsified business records with the intent to commit or conceal another crime, but they don’t have to prove that Trump committed that crime. The prosecution's theory is that the second crime could be in violation of federal and state election laws or state tax laws regarding how the reimbursements to Trump's ex-fixer and attorney Michael Cohen were handled.

In other words, the prosecution doesn't need to prove that Trump actually committed an underlying crime — just that he falsified the records with the intent to commit or conceal said crime (which could be election law violations or state tax law violations). Assuming that Merchan doesn't direct a verdict on this (and there's little indication that he's inclined to do such), the jury instructions here are going to be key. //

Claudius54
an hour ago edited
... a porn star, a lying thief and an eye roller take the witness stand ...

[fill in your punchline here] //

Claudius54
2 hours ago
"While Merchan's rulings throughout the trial have largely favored the prosecution (and questions regarding his bias are understandable), that comment hints at Merchan believing the jury won't find Cohen credible."

Um ... I thought that lying under oath was considered perjury. If I read above correctly, the judge knows that Cohen lied and is willing to roll the dice and hope the jury realises that Cohen was untruthful rather than applying a remedy as a "matter of law"?? I this the gold standard in jurisprudence these days?

What exactly has the prosecution credibly proven (and provided evidence) that warrants a felony conviction? I predict that the jury will find Trump guilty ... of being Trump. //

bk
2 hours ago
Merchan: "I don't see any probative value for impeachment."
Unlike the "probative value" of all the tawdry BS testimony from Stormy Daniels. //

RSB
22 minutes ago
So this was fun.

Cohen's admission of felony grand larceny was interesting and especially as he says the prosecutor was aware of it and that they did not tell Trump of the theft. This goes outside the usual plea deal routine where someone pleads to a crime and gets immunity or other consideration for testimony. If true Bragg is open to criminal charges as is Cohen.

Merchan holding the directed verdict motion for consideration was also interesting. He has to see all the legal issues in the case. For example, contrary to CNNs thinking (which is what Susie recounted not her own thoughts) the prosecution DOES have to specify the underlying offense and must prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Trump intended to commit that exact offense AND that he was aware it was an offense. Add in the utter lack of credibility of Cohen (which he alluded to) and he may (unlikely true) be thinking about deep sixing this whole thing. //

AdeleInTexas 41 minutes ago edited

After several weeks of trial evidence of a crime, maybe multiple felonies, has finally been uncovered — and Cohen was the perpetrator. https://x.com/bennyjohnson/...

The indictments of the Hamas thugs are just window-dressing. The real target is Netanyahu and his government. Delaying the indictment of the Hamas "leadership" until now shows how deeply unserious Khan is about pursuing Hamas's crimes. Rolling the indictments together is a clever way of claiming there is no difference between Hamas and Israel. And accusing Netanyahu and Gallant of "crimes against humanity" is a not very subtle way of drawing a Nazi inference.

How this plays out in the long run is anyone's guess. If the ICC goes along with issuing arrest warrants, the countries harboring Hamas will ignore them, and Israeli government officials could be arrested when they travel.

John Hasson
@SonofHas
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Last week: Biden Admin claims it can locate Hamas leaders, and it offers to give the locations to Israel to stop the Rafah invasion

Today: Biden Admin was wrong about Sinwar’s location, and its intel about Sinwar is roughly one month old
7:28 PM · May 18, 2024 //

That should leave people asking exactly what Iran, which uses Hamas as a proxy, has on the president. What else would motivate Biden to try this ruse on a long-time ally besides appeasing the Mullahs he's always bent over backward for?

I would think this has to be the end of Israel taking any council from Biden seriously.

Gabriel Noronha
@GLNoronha
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My thoughts are with the @washingtonpost obituary team in this difficult time as they fiercely debate whether to call Ebrahim Raisi an “austere religious scholar”, a “patriotic anti-Zionist leader” or a “zealous anti-corruption crusader”.
3:04 PM · May 19, 2024. //

pat Real GOP 690
4 hours ago
They flew into the fog knowing God's hand would guide them. And he did. //

Locked and Loaded
6 hours ago
Pieces be upon him.

The milestone was initially set by a Japanese pedometer company that was looking for something catchy for their advertising. Making things easier for them, the 10,000 number in Japanese looks vaguely like a person walking or running. You decide, here’s the Kanji symbol for 10K: 万 //

Singh points to studies that suggest an association between the number of steps you take and mortality. A 2023 study published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology suggested 2,600 to 2,800 daily steps was enough to produce health benefits, while a European study from 2022 found that increasing your step count by 1,000-step increments may lead to a 15% decrease in your risk of all-cause mortality. //

etba_ss
5 hours ago edited
The medicine and science fields should be viewed with the same amount of respect and intriguing that we do for lawyers and used car salesmen.

They are equally likely to be liars just trying to line their own pockets and bilk the system and screw people over.

The WSJ notes that the total household net worth rose 19 percent through Biden’s first three years in office, but it was higher, 23 percent, through Trump’s first three years. But the real kicker was after doing the adjustment, under Biden, net worth only goes up 0.7 percent through his three years versus 16 percent through Trump's.

If any of this sounds familiar, you need to think back to the Vietnam War and our policy of allowing the North Vietnamese Army to have "sanctuaries" in Cambodia, Laos, and North Vietnam. For most (maybe all) of that conflict, North Vietnamese Air Force fighters could not be attacked on the ground; they only became legal targets when airborne.

Though Ukraine is clearly able to use domestic weapons against targets in Russia, drones have their limitations. Because of US policy, Ukraine had to sit on its hands and wait for the Russians to cross the border rather than destroy units and equipment before they entered combat. I'm sure plausible arguments can be made that the White House and Pentagon are merely making recommendations, but there is no doubt that the Ukrainians are treating these recommendations as firm guidance, and the Russians are reacting accordingly. //

Since the one time Ukraine used US anti-aircraft missiles over Russian territory disjointed many noses in Washington, Ukraine has allowed Russia to launch glide bombs at Kharkiv and Ukrainian Army positions for the last five months with impunity. //

If the policy of the US is to bring this war to a conclusion, then the policy is an extremely stupid one. It allows Russia to strike Ukrainian population centers with impunity so long as the attack comes from Russian territory as recognized by the civilized world. Russia can mass troops and weapons on Ukraine's border at any point, and Ukraine is forbidden to attack them preemptively. They must let Russia strike first. If Biden's purpose is to drag the war out ad infinitum to maximize damage, slaughter, and political instability, then it makes sense. I'm not posing that alternative facetiously; as we saw during COVID, Biden and his appointees were willing to kill as many Americans as it took to impose policy preferences. There is no reason to think they hold Russian or Ukrainian lives in higher regard.

More disturbing is that we're seeing the return of Robert S. McNamara's Whiz Kids to policy making, only this time, we are using unqualified midwits and lackwits from the bowels of the Democratic foreign policy intelligentsia instead of legitimately smart people. They are trying to play cute "non-escalation" games that might be amusing in the faculty lounge after a few hits of some good Lebanese hash but which kill and cripple men, women, and children in Ukraine. Retreating to the establishment of sanctuaries where the Russians can train and stage operations is bizarre because we know that policy doesn't encourage negotiations; it encourages recalcitrance.

If we are serious about ending this war on terms acceptable to Ukraine and to our NATO allies, and that should be our only concern, then Russian forces and equipment must be put at risk inside Russian territory, and if it requires the use of American munitions to do that, then that's what we need to do.

The BookHub — The World of Books

Elon Musk

@elonmusk
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Prosecute/Fauci
Paul D. Thacker
@thackerpd
"SICK LIES"

New York Post goes after Fauci for his lies about dangerous virus research at the Wuhan institute of Virology.

It's only going to get worse for these liars.
2:44 PM · May 17, 2024 //

Alex Berenson
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Apr 15
@AlexBerenson
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The ur-text for the research that likely caused Covid, here in one convenient place - an NIH video of a 2013 conference where Tony Fauci and Peter Daszak watched Ralph Baric talk about how to make coronaviruses more dangerous.

Can't make it up
videocast.nih.gov
MERS-CoV Research: Current Status and Future Priorities Meeting

Elon Musk @elonmusk
·
Prosecute Fauci and Daszak
2:54 PM · Apr 16, 2024 //

Gay Guy Las Vegas
5 hours ago
I've hated Fauci since he killed thousands of gay men during the AIDS crisis. He was more interested in experimenting with the virus than curing it. When COVID came along, he got to experiment in the same way on millions. Prosecute and jail him without letting him use the Biden defense. (I'm mentally incompetent and cannot stand trial.)

Slowing down an asteroid by just one-tenth of a second makes all the difference.

Ebury backdoors SSH servers in hosting providers, giving the malware extraordinary reach. //

Infrastructure used to maintain and distribute the Linux operating system kernel was infected for two years, starting in 2009, by sophisticated malware that managed to get a hold of one of the developers’ most closely guarded resources: the /etc/shadow files that stored encrypted password data for more than 550 system users, researchers said Tuesday. //

A 47-page report summarizing Ebury's 15-year history said that the infection hitting the kernel.org network began in 2009, two years earlier than the domain was previously thought to have been compromised. The report said that since 2009, the OpenSSH-dwelling malware has infected more than 400,000 servers, all running Linux except for about 400 FreeBSD servers, a dozen OpenBSD and SunOS servers, and at least one Mac. //

There is no indication that either infection resulted in tampering with the Linux kernel source code.

The master paused for one minute, then suddenly produced an axe and smashed the novice's disk drive to pieces. Calmly he said: "To believe in one's backups is one thing. To have to use them is another."

The novice looked very worried.

Every cloud service keeps full backups, which you would presume are meant for worst-case scenarios. Imagine some hacker takes over your server or the building your data is inside of collapses, or something like that. But no, the actual worst-case scenario is "Google deletes your account," which means all those backups are gone, too. Google Cloud is supposed to have safeguards that don't allow account deletion, but none of them worked apparently, and the only option was a restore from a separate cloud provider (shoutout to the hero at UniSuper who chose a multi-cloud solution). //

Google PR confirmed in multiple places it signed off on the statement, but a great breakdown from software developer Daniel Compton points out that the statement is not just vague, it's also full of terminology that doesn't align with Google Cloud products. The imprecise language makes it seem like the statement was written entirely by UniSuper. It would be nice to see a real breakdown of what happened from Google Cloud's perspective, especially when other current or potential customers are going to keep a watchful eye on how Google handles the fallout from this.

Anyway, don't put all your eggs in one cloud basket. //

JohnDeL Ars Tribunus Angusticlavius
8y
6,554
Subscriptor
And this is why I don't trust the cloud. At all.

Always, always, always have a backup on a local computer. //

rcduke Ars Scholae Palatinae
4y
1,715
Subscriptor++
JohnDeL said:

This is why everytime I hear a company talk about moving all of their functions to the cloud, I think about a total failure.

How much does Google owe this company for two weeks of lost business? Probably not enough to matter. //

The master paused for one minute, then suddenly produced an axe and smashed the novice's disk drive to pieces. Calmly he said: "To believe in one's backups is one thing. To have to use them is another."

The novice looked very worried. //

murty Smack-Fu Master, in training
9m
90
Subscriptor++
If you’re not backing up your cloud data at this point, hopefully this story inspires you to reconsider. If you’ve got a boss/CFO/etc that scoffs at spending money on backing up your cloud, link them to this story. ...

Google says you can't turn off AI overviews in the main search engine. I'm still seeing the "Labs" icon in the top right, with some checkboxes for AI features, but those checkboxes are no longer respected—some queries will bring up an AI overview no matter what. What you can do is go find a new "Web" filter, which can live alongside the usual filters like "Videos," "Images," "Maps," and "Shopping." That's right, a "Web" filter for what used to be a web search engine. Google says the Web filter can appear in the main tab bar depending on the query (when would a web filter not be appropriate?), but I've only ever seen it buried deep in the "More" section.
Once you do find the Web filter, the results will look like old-school Google. You get 10 blue links, and that's it, with everything else (Google Maps, answer info boxes, etc) disabled. Sadly, unlike old-school Google, these are still the current Google web results, so they'll be dominated by SEO sites rather than page quality.

Google says AI Overviews are rolling out to "hundreds of millions of users" this week, with "over a billion people" seeing the feature by the end of the year, as Google expands AI Overview to more countries. //

The power-user way to use Google Search web now takes a lot of clicks. You'd want to click on "more" and then "Web" for actual web results, and then to get Google to actually pay attention to the words you type in, you'd want to click "Tools" and change "all results" to "verbatim." Alternatively, you could also find a more web-focused search engine instead of Google.

This webcast provided a comprehensive overview of a typical paralleling emergency power system and dove into the fundamental key features needed to parallel generator sets. Check out the additional questions on genset-based paralleling.