Not to mention that the idea that using this misdemeanor concerning business records to get to an underlying Felony is somehow novel. They've used it some 10,000 times...

"A five-way contest doesn't change the picture in this poll, produced for ABC by Langer Research Associates with fieldwork by Ipsos.

This finds the race at 42% for Trump and 40% for Biden, with 12% for Robert F. Kennedy Jr., 2% for Cornel West and 1% for Jill Stein. (That, of course, assumes Kennedy, West and Stein are on the ballot in all states, an open question.)

Among registered voters in the five-way race, it's 42-42%, Biden-Trump, and Biden is a non-significant +3 or +4 points in likely voter models.

Kennedy gets 12% even though 77% of his supporters say they know "just some" or "hardly anything" about his positions on the issues.

Notably, his supporters are more apt to be Republicans or GOP-leaning independents (54%) than Democrats and Democratic leaners (42%, a slight difference given sample sizes), and in a two-way race, they favor Trump over Biden by 13 points.

That may explain why Trump attacked Kennedy as a stalking horse in social media posts last week."

'
Another result finds a potential risk for Trump in his current trial in New York on charges of falsifying business records to hide a payoff to a pornographic actress who says they had sex, which he denies.

Eighty percent of Trump's supporters say they'd stick with him even if he's convicted of a felony in this case. But that leaves 20% who say they'd either reconsider their support (16%) or withdraw it (4%) -- easily enough to matter in a close race."

Obligatory

"The filibuster, a delaying tactic that led to most legislation requiring 60 votes to pass the Senate " but which has no basis in the constitution " makes the country even more undemocratic. Forty Republican senators representing just 21% of the population have blocked bills on abortion rights, voting rights and gun control supported by big majorities."

'

"Berman also offers a horrific description of the hundreds of millions of dollars being spent by modern-day oligarchs to make America even more undemocratic.

In just six years, the Federalist Society raised an astonishing $580m "through a shadowy network of a dozen dark money nonprofit groups" to put its "preferred judges on the bench". The society has gotten a huge bang for its buck " more than 500 judges appointed by both Bushes and 226 appointed by Donald Trump were endorsed by the Federalists.

The worst results of this hammerlock on judicial appointments are at the very top of the pyramid:

"For the first time in US history, five of six conservative justices on the supreme court have been appointed by Republican presidents who initially lost the popular vote and confirmed by senators representing a minority of Americans."

And what is the "signature project" of these justices? The dismantling of the civil rights laws that are the greatest legacy of the 1960s.

Federalist Society judges worked in lockstep with the Republican Senate leader, Mitch McConnell, whose priority has been to end all effective limits on who can spend how much in every election."

excerpts, much more at the link

Thou shalt not disagree with King Trump!

"Donald Trump's Defense Undercut by 'Breathtaking' Bit of Testimony

"What Keith Davidson testified to is that he was engaged in this hush-money payment and covering these things up and then come election night, or the next day when it looks like Donald Trump was going to win the election, Keith Davidson said:

'Oh my God, what did we do?' And the import of that is really twofold. One, they recognized the potentially dramatic damage they had done to the country by engaging in conduct that may have actually facilitated Donald Trump getting elected."

He added: "It's clear that Keith Davidson and the others involved in this scheme knew that these hush-money payments were being made to impact the election, not to try to conceal information from Melania or Donald Trump's family because they would not have woken up on election morning, the day after the election realized Donald Trump won and said, 'Oh my god, what did we do?' if this was all about Donald Trump not wanting Melania to learn about his dalliances."

Well... we know what happens if a President who knows he lost an election tells a riled up, angry and armed crowd to go to the Capitol and, "Fight Like Hell!" to stop the peaceful transfer of power.

"Al Jazeera office raided as Israel takes channel off air"

"Al Jazeera condemned the move as "criminal".

Foreign journalists are banned from entering Gaza and Al Jazeera staff there have been some of the only reporters on the ground.

For years, Israeli officials have accused the network of anti-Israeli bias."