The Hall of Fire

It appears that Ron DeSantis may be breaking the law by having his Florida gubernatorial staff solicit donations for his presidential campaign from Florida lobbyists (source: NBC). These lobbyists feel pressured to donate because they need the governor's office to support their efforts.

This official DeSantis campaign launch video is every bit as strange as others have said:



Among other faults, I think that the video suffers a bit from what Michelle Goldberg describes here: it's "deeply, fatally online".

N.E. Brigand wrote: ↑Thu May 25, 2023 8:23 pm Practice makes perfect. (Washington Post: "Trump workers moved Mar-a-Lago boxes a day before Justice Dept. came for documents.")

Worth a thousand words. (New York Times: "Mar-a-Lago Worker Provided Prosecutors New Details in Trump Documents Case.")

... Today a number of Oath Keepers are being sentenced for their actions on January 6th, some of whom were convicted for seditious conspiracy. ... in the course of today's sentencing, the judge in the case ruled that a terrorism enhancement applies to the leader of the Oath Keepers, Stewart Rhodes....

And here's a direct link to the opinion . All the justices agreed about the merits of this specific case, but only five of them chose to use the case to limit the Clean Water Act more broadly. While I don't think Brett Kavanaugh belongs on the Supreme Court because of his poor demeanor when confront...

Oops. I apologize for the error, and I thank you for the correction. I was confusing the two federal civil enforcement actions filed by the SEC against Paxton in 2016 and 2017, both of which were dismissed (the second time with prejudice), with the state criminal charges filed in 2015 against Paxto...

At presidential candidate and Florida governor Ron DeSantis's urging, Florida has made it pretty easy for a few noisy parents to ban books in Florida schools. If a parent merely claims that a book is offensive, it pretty much gets pulled from the shelves. The most recent victim of this nonsense was ...

Judge Mehta has also determined that Oath Keeper member Kelly Meggs is a terrorist. Sentence to be announced shortly. The range is 15-20 years. The judge departed downward from that for Stewart Rhodes (whose range was 22-27 years, but he only got 18 years). My guess: 12 years.

"Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy makes surprise commencement address at Johns Hopkins" (Baltimore Sun). He spoke via video link.

Practice makes perfect. (Washington Post: "Trump workers moved Mar-a-Lago boxes a day before Justice Dept. came for documents.")

(Edited to fix link.)

Business Insider has a disturbing story about the (soon-to-be-ex-) husband of Rep. Lauren Boebert (Republican of Colorado).

Matt Schlapp's accuser has publicly identified himself, as required by the judge overseeing his case. His name is Carlton Huffmann. Matt Schlapp . Has been accused of financial impropriety by the treasurer of CPAC, the annual conservative conference run by the American Conservative Union, which Sch...

The Donald Trump campaign is attacking Ron DeSantis for having supported Donald Trump.

... Today a number of Oath Keepers are being sentenced for their actions on January 6th, some of whom were convicted for seditious conspiracy. ... in the course of today's sentencing, the judge in the case ruled that a terrorism enhancement applies to the leader of the Oath Keepers, Stewart Rhodes....

This is what happened today, isn't it? 18 U.S. Code § 2384 - Seditious conspiracy If two or more persons in any State or Territory, or in any place subject to the jurisdiction of the United States, conspire to overthrow, put down, or to destroy by force the Government of the United States, or to le...

I guess there's nowhere for DeSantis to go but up after that.

Here in Ohio, there are efforts to get a measure on the ballot in November that if passed by voters would codify the right to an abortion in the state's constitution. Ohio Republicans fear that such a measure would succeed, so they're trying to prevent it by undermining democracy. They're pushing to...

John McCain in 2015 quite accurately saw the events of 2022 coming. He never mentions Barack Obama in that clip, but he's clearly criticizing the then-president for U.S. timidity in arming Ukraine, and he was probably right about that. (It's interesting that three years later, he requested that then...

We have a winner. This the most nutsy-cuckoo thing yet. That he got his lawyers to send it, that they did send it and most of all that he posted it publicly (including publishing his attorney's phone number). Yeah, the whole point of a Special Counsel is that office is supposed to be independent fr...

Matt Bruenig pushes back on recent arguments that President Biden cannot act unilaterally if Congress fails to do so with a summary of all the reasons that Biden is in fact legally required to do so when default is imminent. What would then happen? If you keep the question abstract, you can just say...