#Oklahoma Joe’s Judge

[elrod-vbss-91]

Sexy Butt…

[jungle-angel]

Animal House (Bob Floyd x Reader)

Summary: Now you know where Auggie’s love of critters comes from

Spring had at long last come after the long midwestern winters that had hung over Oklahoma, the warm weather settling in perfectly, which for you and Bob, meant turning the kids loose onto the land to go and play. 

Bob and Hawk had both been in the tobacco shed, hanging the leaves up to dry and cutting up the ones that had already dried to make hand rolled cigarette’s, cigars and cigarillos. Bob squeezed the tears out of his eyes from the sharp, pungent odors that were getting everywhere. 

“Feels like I’m cutting up smokey smelling onions,” Bob said, sniffing the snot back into his nostrils. 

“If you need a break, go step out for a minute,” Hawk told him. “Leaves aren’t going anywhere.” 

Bob stepped out for a hot minute, taking in the fresh air of spring and the summer weather beginning to creep its way in . 

“Feel better?” Hawk asked him, dusting off his work gloves. 

“No wonder Dad prefers the weed,” Bob chuckled. 

“Oh I do too,” Hawk added. “But whatever helps give us an extra leg, then so be it.” 

“Just never thought it’d be tobacco.” 

“Neither did I,” Hawk chuckled. “But like I said, an extra leg is better than nothing.” 

The two men were suddenly taken aback when they saw a small, bespectacled boy running over the hills in his little tan Carhardt jacket with something in his hands. 

“Daddy! Daddy! Daddy!!” August yelled, nearly out of breath as he skidded to a halt. 

“What’s up Baby Bird?” Bob asked, Auggie nearly clotheslining on Bob’s outstretched arm. 

“Bunnies!!!” Auggie answered. “Bunnies in the hills!” 

“Ah shit,” Hawk muttered under his breath. “Lead the way little man.” 

The two grown men followed Auggie as he ran right back to the spot where he had found the bunnies, right near the fence post and all of them cuddled up on top of each other with their tiny little ears pushed back and their tiny little noses twitching. They couldn’t have been any more than a few days old, judging by how tiny they were. 

“You know what to do buddy?” Bob asked him. 

Auggie shook his head.

“Go get a shoebox and some of Papa’s truck rags out of the box in the garage,” Bob instructed. “Make sure they’re the clean ones.” 

Auggie took off running and was back in a flash with the shoebox full of clean rags. As carefully as they could, Bob and Hawk took the tiny little bunnies from the hole and placing them in the box. 

“Looks like the nest is abandoned,” Bob remarked.

“Oh it’s definitely abandoned,” Hawk told him. “I put a red string over the nest the other night and it hasn’t been touched.” 

“Then we’ve gotta do what we’ve gotta do,” Bob said with a shrug. 

As soon as the ten little bunnies were all safely nested in the shoebox, Bob carried them back to the main house and into the kitchen where he found you with your sewing box. 

“Whatcha got Boob?” you asked him. 

“Box full of baby bunnies.” 

You almost gasped when you saw them, ten little brown, black and white baby bunnies who were all piling on top of each other to keep themselves warm. You gently stroked one with the tip of your finger, feeling the soft little ball of fur. 

“They’re so cute!” you quietly squealed. 

“Eyes aren’t even open yet,” Bob said, unable to control the smile that was creeping across his face. “I’m a little worried, I don’t think we have anything to feed’em with, unless I go out to the barn and get milk from one of the goats. Problem is, her kids haven’t been weaned yet.” 

“What about Lola and Bugsy?” you asked him. “Lola I think just had a litter.” 

“Honey might be better since hers have weaned but she’s still got some milk in her,” Bob said. “Can you go grab her from the hutch?” 

You nodded and went off to find Honey, carefully picking her up from the hutch and right into your arms before heading back to the house. Bob, Joe and Auggie had already made a little spot in the living room and put them inside before you lowered Honey into the box with them. All four of you watched closely to see if they would take to her and sure enough, they did. 

“Are we gonna have to feed’em Daddy?” Auggie asked. 

“Only if the others can’t get in,” Bob answered. 

All ten of them had taken well to Honey, save for the runt of the litter who you and Bob had to hand feed with the goat milk. The little one sucked away as Bob fed him with the homemade bottle, covering the bunny’s delicate little head and eyes that hadn’t yet opened. 

“Kind of remind you of someone?” you said with a smile.

“Oh yes,” Bob answered. “All those days when Auggie was too small to latch on and we had to feed him this way until he could.” 

You and Bob watched closely as Auggie took his turn feeding the bunny until his tiny little belly stuck out from being full. “Careful Auggie,” Bob warned him. “Remember, gentle hands.” 

Auggie carefully placed the tiny little bunny back in with Honey and the rest of the litter, kneeling beside the box to watch them until dinnertime. 

“I’ve got a feeling he’s gonna turn the house into an animal hospital,” Bob said. 

“So don’t I,” you said, smiling broadly as you kissed your husband’s cheek. 

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

March 31, 2024

HEATHER COX RICHARDSON

APR 01, 2024

On Wednesday, President Joe Biden issued an executive order instructing the National Park Service to “highlight important figures and chapters in women’s history.” “Women and girls of all backgrounds have shaped our country’s history, from the ongoing fight for justice and equality to cutting-edge scientific advancements and artistic achievements,” the announcement read. “Yet these contributions have often been overlooked. We must do more to recognize the role of women and girls in America’s story, including through the Federal Government’s recognition and interpretation of historic and cultural sites.”

In a time when American women are seeing their rights stripped away, it seems worthwhile on this last day of Women’s History Month to highlight the work of Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who challenged the laws that barred women from jobs and denied them rights, eventually setting the country on a path to extend equal justice under law to women and LGBTQ Americans.

Ginsburg was born in Brooklyn, New York, on March 15, 1933, in an era when laws, as well as the customs they protected, treated women differently than men. Joan Ruth Bader, who went by her middle name, was the second daughter in a middle-class Jewish family. She went to public schools, where she excelled, and won a full scholarship to Cornell. There she met Martin Ginsburg, and they married after she graduated. “What made Marty so overwhelmingly attractive to me was that he cared that I had a brain,” she later explained. Relocating to Fort Sill, Oklahoma, for her husband’s army service, Ginsburg scored high on the civil service exam but could find work only as a typist. When she got pregnant with their daughter, Jane, she lost her job.

Two years later, the couple moved back east, where Marty had been admitted to Harvard Law School. Ginsburg was admitted the next year, one of 9 women in her class of more than 500 students; a dean asked her why she was “taking the place of a man.” She excelled, becoming the first woman on the prestigious Harvard Law Review. When her husband underwent surgery and radiation treatments for testicular cancer, she cared for him and their daughter while managing her studies and helping Marty with his. She rarely slept.

After he graduated, Martin Ginsburg got a job in New York, and Ginsburg transferred to Columbia Law School, where she graduated at the top of her class. But in 1959, law firms weren’t hiring women, and judges didn’t want them as clerks either—especially mothers, who might be distracted by their “familial obligations.” Finally, her mentor, law professor Gerald Gunther, got her a clerkship by threatening Judge Edmund Palmieri that if he did not take her, Gunther would never send him a clerk again.

After her clerkship and two years in Sweden, where laws about gender equality were far more advanced than in America, Ginsburg became one of America’s first female law professors. She worked first at Rutgers University—where she hid her pregnancy with her second child, James, until her contract was renewed—and then at Columbia Law School, where she was the first woman the school tenured.

At Rutgers she began her bid to level the legal playing field between men and women, extending equal protection under the law to include gender. Knowing she had to appeal to male judges, she often picked male plaintiffs to establish the principle of gender equality. 

In 1971 she wrote the brief for Sally Reed in the case of Reed vs. Reed, when the Supreme Court decided that an Idaho law specifying that “males must be preferred to females” in appointing administrators of estates was unconstitutional. Chief Justice Warren Burger, who had been appointed by Richard Nixon, wrote: “To give a mandatory preference to members of either sex over members of the other…is to make the very kind of arbitrary legislative choice forbidden by the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment” to the Constitution.

In 1972, Ginsburg won the case of Moritz v. Commissioner. She argued that a law preventing a bachelor, Charles Moritz, from claiming a tax deduction for the care of his aged mother because the deduction could be claimed only by women, or by widowed or divorced men, was discriminatory. The United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit agreed, citing Reed v. Reed when it decided that discrimination on the basis of sex violated the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution.

In that same year, Ginsburg founded the Women’s Rights Project at the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU). Between 1973 and 1976, she argued six gender discrimination cases before the Supreme Court. She won five. The first time she appeared before the court, she quoted nineteenth-century abolitionist and women’s rights activist Sarah Grimké: “I ask no favor for my sex. All I ask of our brethren is that they take their feet off our necks.”

Nominated to the Supreme Court by President Bill Clinton in 1993, she was confirmed by a vote of 96 to 3. Clinton called her “the Thurgood Marshall of gender-equality law.”

In her 27 years on the Supreme Court, Ginsburg championed equal rights both from the majority and in dissent (which she would mark by wearing a sequined collar), including her angry dissent in 2006 in Ledbetter v. Goodyear Tire & Rubber when the plaintiff, Lilly Ledbetter, was denied decades of missing wages because the statute of limitations had already passed when she discovered she had been paid far less than the men with whom she worked. “The court does not comprehend or is indifferent to the insidious way in which women can be victims of pay discrimination,” Ginsburg wrote. Congress went on to change the law, and the first bill President Barack Obama signed was the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act.

In 2013, Ginsburg famously dissented from the majority in Shelby County v. Holder, the case that gutted the 1965 Voting Rights Act. The majority decided to remove the provision of the law that required states with histories of voter suppression to get federal approval before changing election laws, arguing that such preclearance was no longer necessary. Ginsburg wrote: “Throwing out preclearance when it has worked and is continuing to work to stop discriminatory changes is like throwing away your umbrella in a rainstorm because you are not getting wet.” As she predicted, after the decision, many states immediately began to restrict voting.

Ginsburg’s dissent made her a cultural icon. Admirers called her “The Notorious R.B.G.” after the rapper The Notorious B.I.G., wore clothing with her image on it, dressed as her for Halloween, and bought RBG dolls and coloring books. In 2018 the hit documentary "RBG" told the story of her life, and as she aged, she became a fitness influencer for her relentless strength-training regimen. She was also known for her plain speaking. When asked when there would be enough women on the Supreme Court, for example, she answered: “[W]hen there are nine.”

Ginsburg’s death on September 18, 2020, brought widespread mourning among those who saw her as a champion for equal rights for women, LGBTQ Americans, minorities, and those who believe the role of the government is to make sure that all Americans enjoy equal justice under law. Upon her passing, former secretary of state Hillary Clinton tweeted: “Justice Ginsburg paved the way for so many women, including me. There will never be another like her. Thank you RBG.”

Just eight days after Ginsburg’s death, then-president Donald Trump nominated extremist Amy Coney Barrett to take her seat on the court, and then–Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) rushed her confirmation hearings so the Senate could confirm her before the 2020 presidential election. It did so on October 26, 2020. Barrett was a key vote on the June 2022 Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization decision, the Supreme Court ruling that overturned the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision recognizing the constitutional right to abortion.

Ginsburg often quoted Justice Louis Brandeis’s famous line, “The greatest menace to freedom is an inert people,” and she advised people to “fight for the things you care about, but do it in a way that will lead others to join you.” 

Setting an example for how to advance the principle of equality, she told the directors of the documentary RBG that she wanted to be remembered “[j]ust as someone who did whatever she could, with whatever limited talent she had, to move society along in the direction I would like it to be for my children and grandchildren.”

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

HEATHER COX RICHARDSON

[joe-moi]

I've seen people saying Joe's accent in Marmalade is horrible but I honestly don't know to judge accents and English is not my native language so I can't even judge for myself😭

I mean, is it perfect? No. But it works! I just would say it’s more like the Ozarks of Arkansas and Missouri and then Oklahoma and Texas than it is southern Georgia/Alabama or Louisiana or Kentucky/tenessee which is what a lot of people associate with southern accents.

[lboogie1906]

William James “Count” Basie (August 21, 1904 – April 26, 1984) was a jazz pianist, organist, bandleader, and composer. He formed his jazz orchestra, the Count Basie Orchestra, and took them to Chicago for a long engagement and their first recording. He led the group for almost 50 years, creating innovations like the use of two “split” tenor saxophones, emphasizing the rhythm section, riffing with a big band, using arrangers to broaden their sound, and others. Many musicians came to prominence under his direction, including the tenor saxophonists Lester Young and Herschel Evans, the guitarist Freddie Green, trumpeters Buck Clayton and Harry “Sweets” Edison, and singers Jimmy Rushing, Helen Humes, Thelma Carpenter, and Joe Williams.

He was born to Lillian and Harvey Lee Basie in Red Bank, New Jersey. His father worked as a coachman and caretaker for a wealthy judge. After automobiles replaced horses, his father became a groundskeeper and handyman for several wealthy families in the area. Both of his parents had some type of musical background. His father played the mellophone, and his mother played the piano; in fact, she gave him his first piano lessons. She took in laundry and baked cakes for sale for a living. She paid 25 cents a lesson for his piano instruction.

He went to Harlem, a hotbed of jazz. He bumped into Sonny Greer, who was by then the drummer for the Washingtonians, Duke Ellington’s early band. He met many of the Harlem musicians who were “making the scene,” including Willie “the Lion” Smith and James P. Johnson.

He was in Tulsa and heard Walter Page and his Famous Blue Devils, one of the first big bands, which featured Jimmy Rushing on vocals. He was invited to join the band, which played mostly in Texas and Oklahoma. It was at this time that he began to be known as “Count” Basie.

He married Vivian Lee Winn. He married Catherine Morgan, they had one daughter. #africanhistory365 #africanexcellence #omegapsiphi

[vivus09]

Since 2023, I have been keeping something know as my Chaos Calender. Everytime an event I deem noteworthy happens, I add it to the calender. I feel like now it a good time to share it.

{2023}

January

-Beyoncé Dubai concert video

-Doja Cat bedazzled with Schiaparelli

-Noah Schnapp came out

February

-Chinese spy balloon burst

March

-Eras tour

-TikTok ban panic

-Trump crime thingy

April

-AI started popping up

May

-Prince Charles crowned

June

-🎶Toxic Gossip Train🎶

August

-The Battle Of Montgomery (Dinner cruise Vs. Pontoon)

- new shape discovered

- Zepotha chaos

- The Joe Hawley document

- Hawaii wildfires

- Ancient underworld passage in Mexico

- Telescopes are time machines

- Trump got arrested

- LIL TAY IS DEAD!?

September

-TIMOTHEE AND KYLIE!?

-Danelo Cavalcante is caught.

-Libya is under water

-Brooklyn is under water

October

-LIL TAY ISN'T DEAD!?

-Israel starts a genocide

-The great Minecraft revolution

-jacksfilm and ssniperwolf drama

November

-New island pops up in Japan.

-Nicholas Cantu punches Dream

December

-Gypsy Rose Blanchard released from jail.

{2024}

January

-Man sneaks into and videos the Bohemian Grove

-Japan earthquakes

-Epstein list

-A LOT of bodies found behind a police station

-guy attacks judge

-Matpat is quitting

-Stanley cup craze

-Why are babies at Sephora

-YanDev apology video

-Golden Globes laugh track

-ThatVeganTeacher starts a cult

-LUBERTO IS CANON

-RIP Lynja :(

-Verbalase 50k vid

-Stallion V. Minaj

February

-The great TikTok muting

-LAUFEY WINS BEST TRADITIONAL POP VOCAL ALBUM GRAMMY AWARD 2024 FUCK YEAH!!!🔥 🔥 🔥

-MOANA 2 IS APPARENTLY A THING AND COMING OUT THIS YEAR!? LET'S FUCKING GOOOO!

- Stanley Cups have lead in them.

- OpenAi Sora

- Wendy Williams has Frontotemporal Dementia :(

- Rest In Power Aaron Bushnell.

- The downfall of Wilbur Soot (fuck that asshole for abusing Shubble).

March

-JANICE BURGESS IS DEAD WHAT THE FUCK.

- The government is trying to ban TikTok (Again).

- MatPat's final theory

- Quiet On Set documentary

April

-JoJo Siwa drama (Brit Smith 🔛🔝)

-EKT HAS BEEN FOUND

-Man or bear? (Bear)

May

-NYC blanket couple

-Drake V. Kendrick

-Blockout 2024

-JUSTICE FOR JOOST KLEIN

-The northern white rhino has gone extinct.

June

-TRUMP WAS FOUND GUILTY ON 34 COUNTS!

-Chappel Roan as the statue of liberty (yes this is important).

-French people shitting in the Seine.

-Oklahoma board of education mandates a bible in every classroom (It is so much worse than this but I am so fucking tired).

-Chevron Deference has been oveturned.

[dankusner]

Oklahoma suit over birth certificates for trans people revived at 10th Circuit

Three transgender plaintiffs sued the state after Governor Kevin Stitt passed a policy preventing them from amending their sex on birth certificates.

The case was dismissed in 2023, but after an appeal, its equal protection claims were reinstated.

Three transgender plaintiffs sued the state after Governor Kevin Stitt passed a policy preventing them from amending their sex on birth certificates.

The case was dismissed in 2023, but after an appeal, its equal protection claims were reinstated.

(CN) — The 10th Circuit Court of Appeals on Tuesday breathed new life into a lawsuit targeting an Oklahoma policy that forbids residents from amending birth certificates to reflect their gender identity.

The policy was enacted by Republican Governor Kevin Stitt in 2021, who issued an executive order after learning that a person had obtained a gender-neutral birth certificate from the Oklahoma State Department of Health as part of a legal settlement.

At the time, Stitt said, “I believe that people are created by God to be male or female. Period.”

Stitt’s order attracted a lawsuit almost immediately from two transgender men and one transgender woman, who asserted claims under the equal protection and due process clauses of the 14th Amendment.

Among other claims, the plaintiffs say the policy prevented them from amending or obtaining other legal documents and professional certificates, while also forcing them into unwelcome and uncomfortable conversations about their gender identity.

But in June 2023, U.S. District Judge John W. Broomes, an appointee of President Donald Trump, granted the state’s motion to dismiss the case, finding the state’s refusal to change sex designations on birth certificates “did not impair the ability of transgender people to express their gender identity or compel them to speak any message.”

After hearing oral arguments in the case in March 2024, a three-judge panel Tuesday reversed the dismissal of the equal protection claim, while affirming the lower court’s dismissal of plaintiffs’ substantive due process claim.

The panel, which included U.S. Circuit Court Judges Harris L. Hartz, Carolyn B. McHugh and Richard E.N. Federico — appointees of Presidents George W. Bush, Barack Obama and Joe Biden, respectively — concluded the policy violates the equal protection clause by “purposefully discriminating on the basis of transgender status and sex.”

The judges agreed with the plaintiffs’ argument that the policy was facially discriminatory because, while it applies to everyone, it only harms transgender people.

They declined to address whether the policy had a disparate impact, stating that the plaintiffs “have alleged facts from which we can reasonably infer discriminatory purpose.”

The circuit panel also determined the state was unable to justify the policy.

Further, Governor Stitt’s own actions and words regarding the policy demonstrated it was implemented “at least in part because of the effect it would have on transgender people.”

“When read in context, Governor Stitt’s statement about God creating people to be male or female demonstrates disfavor with people amending their birth certificates to change the sex designation,” the order says. “And Governor Stitt made this statement shortly before directing OSDH to stop amending the sex listed on transgender individuals’ birth certificates.”

Similarly, the panel agreed the policy plausibly discriminates on the basis of sex.

“Plaintiffs have met their burden of negating every conceivable basis that might support the policy,” the order continues.

“To be sure, rational basis is a low bar, and the challenged state action need not be perfect. But there must be some rational connection between the policy and a legitimate state interest. There is no rational connection here — the policy is in search of a purpose.

The plaintiffs also sought to argue their due process rights were violated when they were “forced to involuntarily disclose their transgender status when showing their original birth certificates to third parties.”

The judges disagreed, accepting the defendants’ argument that the state is not responsible for the plaintiffs’ involuntary disclosures.

“Plaintiffs have adequately alleged that transgender people without amended birth certificates face difficult choices,” the judges wrote.

“But to assert a substantive due process claim, plaintiffs needed to allege that their involuntary disclosures amount to state action. They failed to do so.”

Judge Hartz, the Bush appointee, wrote a partial dissent, agreeing with the majority opinion but rejecting the argument the policy amounts to sex discrimination.

Hartz noted the sex discrimination argument is “a difficult one,” hoping that “perhaps one day, we will get clarification from the Supreme Court.”

“The requisite intent may also be obvious with respect to a generally applicable law, as when the law on its face treats members of a class differently from others,” Hartz wrote.

“But when, as with the policy, the generally applicable law does not on its face distinguish between classes of people, proof of intent is more complicated. After all, there may be many unintended consequences of a generally applicable law, and the law may have a disparate impact on a class that was not the purpose of the law.”

[stmichaeldeorleans]

---------- Forwarded message ---------

From: Michael Duerksen <frenchcoat2021@gmail.com>

Date: Mon, Aug 21, 2023, 10:24 PM

Subject: Fwd: Dean's History

To: <askdoj@usdoj.gov>

---------- Forwarded message ---------

From: Michael Duerksen <frenchcoat2021@gmail.com>

Date: Mon, Aug 21, 2023, 10:24 PM

Subject: Dean's History

To: <tips@nbcnewyork.com>

   1. Visit (s) to Japan to cause harm to his son Mike in 1975-77 by Dean Duerksen of Ft Stockton, Tx is alledged to have made one or more visits to Yokosuka, Japan after Feb 15, 1975 to falsely accuse Mike Duerksen and Dean's alledged subsequent incarceration, interrogation and charges by the US Navy and Japanese authorities.      2. His criminal history from childhood up in Oklahoma, California, Arizona, Texas, Mexico,.. etc...      3. James G. Huckaby FSISD Superintendent's genetic analysis of Mike Duerksen in 1967+ and subsequent lawsuits by Mr Huckaby against the State of Oklahoma, Texas and Dean Duerksen about Mike's alledged phoney Oklahoma birth certificate.   4. The story about the adoption by Mike Duerksen by Lt. Carol D. Lawrence of the FSPD  as overseer in 1967 + prior to her death.    5. The story about the adoption of Mike Duerksen by members of the Menzies family of Pecos County and their subsequent deaths in Fall of 1968 involving Rusty Kincaid ( Menzies).   6.  Story of judgement against Dr Dean F. Duerksen"s failed allegations against Mike Duerksen in 1971-72 in Judge Delmon Hodge's court and subsequent charges, fines and more against Dean.    7. The stories of criminal charges against Dr Dean F. Duerksen in Crane, Tx by Dr Paul Maynard, Sheriff Raymond Weatherby, Los Angeles P.D. and others centered on Dean's involvement in false charges against sons Mike, Paul and Joe Duerksen and charges against Dean including neglect, child abuse, sexual misconduct, and genetic tampering of Mike.    8. Stories about the adoption in Crane, Tx as overseers of Mike Duerksen by US Magistrate T.D. Eason, an attorney and US Marshall by 1965.    9.  Effort by US Marshall James Grant of California to take possession of Mike Duerksen for a family in California in 1968-69.    10.  Story of the effort by a Cathy MulHolland Folgers to adopt Mike Duerksen in 1967-68 by way of Ft Stockton, Tx District Attorney Billy Ray Hodges.   11. Story of history of Venita Robinson Velasquez Lawrence to adopt Mike Duerksen by 1970 and her success by 1971 in Ft Stockton, Tx...  involving Hart Johnson, her attorney, Delmon Hodges attorney and judge and a sister Stella Vargus Velasquez of Los Angeles, CA. an attorney.   12. Mrs Birney Ligon an attorney with Pecos County whom is understood to have handled would be adopters and overseers of Mike Duerksen in 1967+.    13.  Dean Duerksen and Alice Tilton Duerksen 's alledged attacks on Mike Duerksen in the US Navy from 1973 to April of 1977 during active duty and also 1977 through 1980s to alter records and false charges.   14.  Dean and Alice Duerksen 's alledged attacks against an Mrs A. Bryant, a visitor in Ft Stockton by Summer of 1972 and in San Angelo, Tx by 1988.     15.  Dean in courts in Odessa, Tx to drop Mike's use of the Duerksen name and false charges as late as 2023....all failed with fines, charges, jailtime against himself including those around 1993 and earlier.   16. In perhaps more than one hospitalization of  Michael Duerksen at Medical Center Hospital of Odessa, Tx..from 2013 to 2021 Dean F. Duerksen is alledged to have been arrested, confined, charged and fined for illegal entry into Medical Center Hospital, posing as a doctor, tampering with medical personnel, false charges, tampering with Mike Duerksen's care, and efforts to have Mike removed from patient care status by the hospital. Alice Tilton appears to be be involved and also Fran Tilton Boggus Shelton.  16. Alledged efforts by Alice Tilton Duerksen to take possession of Mike Dean Duerksen 's personal property in Ft Stockton, Tx.., computer crime on Mike's email accounts, efforts to seize Mike's mail at the US Post office in Ft Stockton, Tx.. in lieu of arrests, and suspected payoffs to FBI agents, Ft Stockton police and Pecos county Sheriff's deputies. 

[mystlnewsonline]

Former Correction Officer - Ty Craig - Sentenced

Former Correctional Officer at State Prison, Ty Craig, Sentenced to Serve 13 Months in Federal Prison for Accepting Bribes to Smuggle Contraband OKLAHOMA CITY, OK (STL.News) Friday, TY CRAIG, 25, of Hunter, Oklahoma, was sentenced to serve 13 months in federal prison for accepting bribes to smuggle contraband while serving as a correctional officer at an Oklahoma state prison, announced United States Attorney Robert J. Troester. On February 13, 2023, Craig was charged by Information with one count of receipt of a bribe by an agent of an organization receiving federal funds.  On March 1, 2023, Craig pleaded guilty to accepting thousands of dollars in cash bribes in exchange for smuggling contraband into the JCCC. The contraband included cell phones, marijuana, and methamphetamine. Court documents reflect that Craig was formerly employed at the James Crabtree Correctional Center (JCCC) in Helena, Oklahoma, a medium-security state prison.  As a correctional officer, Mr. Craig was responsible for ensuring the safety and security of the JCCC and its inmates. Today, U.S. District Judge Joe Heaton sentenced Craig to serve 13 months in federal prison, followed by two years of supervised release upon release from prison.  In addition to the 13-month term of imprisonment, Craig was ordered to forfeit the cash bribes he received. This case results from an investigation by the FBI Oklahoma City Field Office and the Oklahoma Department of Corrections Office of the Inspector General.  Assistant U.S. Attorney D.H. Dilbeck prosecuted the case. Reference is made to court filing for further information. SOURCE: U.S. Department of Justice Read the full article

[jdgo51]

DAILY DEVOTIONAL FOR MARCH 24, 2023

God’s Good Guidance

By Valerie Hays (Oklahoma, USA)

READ ISAIAH 55:6-13

"Your word is a lamp for my feet, a light on my path."

PSALM 119:105 (NIV)

"As an attorney, my job often involves arguing my client’s case before a judge. This requires a lot of time, preparation, thought, and research. Sometimes the judge rules in my client’s favor, but not always. It is disappointing when things don’t go our way, but generally we must accept the judge’s ruling.

I think it is easy for us to approach prayer like an argument before a judge. When we pray, we may try to give God reasons and explanations for why our prayers should be answered a certain way. But no matter how convincing we think our arguments are, if our desires don’t line up with God’s will, we are not likely to get the result that we want. While this may be discouraging for a time, we can trust that God’s ways are higher than our ways. God has all the facts — many of which we may not be aware of. We can be assured that God’s answers are always for our good. And when we trust God’s direction, we will always find the right path."

TODAY'S PRAYER

"Dear God, thank you for your guidance. Help us trust you to lead us to the path you want us to take." Amen.

Isaiah 55:6-13

New International Version

"'6 Seek the Lord while he may be found; call on him while he is near. 7 Let the wicked forsake their ways and the unrighteous their thoughts. Let them turn to the Lord, and he will have mercy on them, and to our God, for he will freely pardon.

8 “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the Lord. 9 “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts. 10 As the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do not return to it without watering the earth and making it bud and flourish, so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater, 11 so is my word that goes out from my mouth: It will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it. 12 You will go out in joy and be led forth in peace; the mountains and hills will burst into song before you, and all the trees of the field will clap their hands. 13 Instead of the thornbush will grow the juniper, and instead of briers the myrtle will grow. This will be for the Lord’s renown, for an everlasting sign, that will endure forever.”'

Come unto the Lord and find the peace. Discover what He will do for you. He will be with you , in all ways, forever. A beautiful account here. Gives one great joy with the peace. Be blessed by it all. Joe

[elrod-vbss-91]

Sometimes you just have to smoke some spares.

[myangelgarden]

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Bengals RB Joe Mixon issued arrest warrant for allegedly pointing gun at woman; agent expects charge to be dropped

Ryan Young

Ryan Young

February 2, 2023, 5:50 pm

Joe Mixon of the Cincinnati Bengals

Joe Mixon just wrapped up his sixth season with the Bengals. (Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images)

Update: A county judge dismissed the charges against Mixon and recalled the warrant for his arrest Friday morning, per WCPO. Cincinnati police contacted the victim to let her know.

An arrest warrant was issued for Bengals running back Joe Mixon on Thursday afternoon after he allegedly pointed a gun at a woman in downtown Cincinnati last month, according to multiple reports.

According to the warrant, obtained by WCPO’s Evan Millward, police said Mixon pointed a gun at a woman on Jan. 21 and said, “You should be popped in the face, I should shoot you, the police [can't] get me.”

Other specifics surrounding the incident — which officials said occurred just one day before their divisional round playoff game against the Buffalo Bills in New York — are not yet known.

The warrant was issued for one count of aggravated menacing, a charge in Ohio that states a person shall not knowingly “cause another to believe that the offender will cause serious physical harm to the person or property of the other person, the other person's unborn, or a member of the other person's immediate family.”

“The club is aware misdemeanor charges have been raised against Joe Mixon,” the Bengals said in a brief statement, via Fox 19’s Jeremy Rauch. “The club is investigating the situation and will not comment further at this time.”

Mixon's agent, Peter Schaffer, said he expects the misdemeanor charge to be dropped on Friday.

"It was a rush to judgement," Schaffer told the NFL Network's Tom Pelissero. "I really feel that police have an obligation before they file charges — because of a damage that can be done to the person's reputation — to do their work. They should be held to a higher standard. Because I don't play with people's lives."

Mixon's mom also briefly spoke to the Cincinnati Enquirer's Kelsey Conway on Thursday night.

Mixon had 814 rushing yards and seven touchdowns on the ground last season, his sixth with the Bengals. He had 19 rushing yards on eight carries, along with three catches, in the Bengals’ loss to the Kansas City Chiefs in the AFC championship game last week.

The 26-year-old will enter the third year of a four-year, $48 million deal this fall.

The incident is the latest for Mixon during his playing career. He was suspended for a season while at Oklahoma in 2014 after he was seen on video punching a woman at a sandwich shop near campus. He was charged with a misdemeanor at the time. Mixon then spent two seasons playing for Oklahoma before the Bengals selected him with the No. 48 overall pick in 2017.

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[somethingusefulfromflorida]

This country is doomed because Democrats have the self-awareness and long term memory of a pile of wet hair.

They never learn. They never change strategy. They never stop trying to work with the other side, even though time and time again the other side has shown them that they have no intention of working with them under any circumstances. Republicans never compromise, they never strike down their own legislation because it isn't bipartisan enough, they DESPISE Democrats, they want us dead, but Democrats keep giving them the benefit of the doubt. How many times do they have to touch the hot stove before they learn to avoid it?

Joe Manchin has just assured that red states will rig elections in their favor going forward, and there's nothing we can do about it. Democrats are going to lose both houses of Congress in 2022, and the presidency in 2024; Joe Biden will certainly win the popular vote, but Republican fuckery will cost him the electoral college. They have 3 years to change the laws however they see fit to ensure their victory; they saw what the courts would and wouldn't allow after the 2020 election, so they're gonna change the laws early and appeal to the judges Trump appointed to give them favorable rulings in 2024.

Did you know that the constitution doesn't require presidential elections? Yeah, states are not required to hold popular vote elections, they can award electors however they see fit, it just so happens that all 50 have chosen to hold elections because democracy is popular right now. But states like Oklahoma and Utah, which are already impenetrable Republican strongholds, are floating the idea of changing it so that the state legislature appoints electors instead of the people; Republicans are okay with ending democracy so long as they're the ones who benefit. If far-right states are scared enough to do that, there's nothing stopping the swing states from doing it; Republicans in Arizona, Georgia, Wisconsin, Michigan, Pennsylvania, New Hampshire, they'd all gladly change the laws so they always win, and they'd get away with it because it's not technically illegal. It goes against the very foundation of our system of government and any sensible Supreme Court would strike it down for violating the 14th, 15th, 19th, 26th, and possibly 24th amendments, but they packed that court too, 6-3 conservative majority, what fun!

We are crashing and burning. We have entered a nose dive from which there is no recovery. Don't bother stowing your tray table or raising your seats, ain't nobody making it out of this alive.

I don't see any legal solutions here. The system is FUBAR. It's terrifying and infuriating!

[coochiequeens]

I hope Baskin sues Netflix for defamation of character.

‘Please don't make me die in prison': Federal judge REJECTS Joe Exotic's plea to free him and resentences the 'Tiger King' to 21 years in jail knocking just 12 months off his original sentence for trying to hire two men to kill Carole Baskin

Joe Exotic of 'Tiger King' fame has been resentenced to 21 years in prison today

The former zookeeper was sentenced in January 2020 to 22 years in prison

Wearing an orange jumpsuit he begged: 'Please don't make me die in prison'

He was convicted of trying to hire two men to kill animal activist Carole Baskin

But a judge agreed with Joe Exotic that the court should have treated them as one conviction at sentencing because they both involved the same goal

His sentence is expected to be shortened, but his full release is unlikely as federal guidelines suggest a sentence of 17 1/2 years to 22 years in prison

By CHRIS JEWERS FOR MAILONLINE and ASSOCIATED PRESS

PUBLISHED: 06:17 EST, 28 January 2022 | UPDATED: 13:57 EST, 28 January 2022

A federal judge resentenced 'Tiger King' Joe Exotic to 21 years in prison today, rejecting pleas from the former zookeeper to free him from prison as he told a federal judge 'please don't make me die in prison waiting for a chance to be free'.

The Netflix documentary star, whose real name is Joseph Maldonado-Passage, was convicted in a murder-for-hire case involving animal welfare activist Carole Baskin and has had only one year knocked off his sentence.

Wearing an orange prison jumpsuit, his hair styled in a graying bleach-blonde trademark mullet, Maldonado-Passage was resentenced after an appeals court ruled last year that the prison term he's serving on a murder-for-hire conviction should be shortened.

Prosecutors say Maldonado-Passage tried to hire two people - including an undercover FBI agent - to kill Baskin, who'd criticized his treatment of animals.

But Maldonado-Passage said he wasn’t being serious.

Baskin and her husband also attended the proceedings, and she said she was fearful that Maldonado-Passage could threaten her.

'He continues to harbor intense feelings of ill will toward me,' she said.

Supporters packed the courtroom, some wearing animal-print masks and shirts that read 'Free Joe Exotic'.

His attorneys said they would appeal both the resentencing and petition for a new trial.

Although Maldonado-Passage's supporters sought his release from prison, it was believed to be unlikely because federal guidelines suggest a sentence of 17 1/2 years to 22 years in prison.

Maldonado-Passage attended today's sentencing in Oklahoma City after a judge approved his transfer from a federal medical center in Butner, North Carolina.

Last month, attorneys for the former Oklahoma zookeeper said he was delaying prostate cancer treatment until after his resentencing.

The former zookeeper was sentenced in January 2020 to 22 years in prison after he was convicted of trying to hire two different men to kill animal welfare activist Carole Baskin, who is also a key figure in Netflix's hit 'Tiger King' documentary.

A three-judge panel of the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals agreed with Maldonado-Passage that the court should have treated them as one conviction at sentencing because they both involved the same goal of killing Baskin.

Baskin runs a rescue sanctuary for big cats in Florida and had criticized Maldonado-Passage's treatment of animals.

Both were featured in Netflix's 'Tiger King: Murder, Mayhem and Madness.' The show was a breakout hit as people were forced to stay home in the early weeks of the coronavirus pandemic.

Prosecutors said Maldonado-Passage offered $10,000 to an undercover FBI agent to kill Baskin during a recorded December 2017 meeting. In the recording, he told the agent, 'Just like follow her into a mall parking lot and just cap her and drive off.'

see rest of article

[timeless-hollywood-classics]

Rhonda Fleming (born Marilyn Louis; August 10, 1923 – October 14, 2020) was an American film and television actress and singer. She acted in more than 40 films, mostly in the 1940s and 1950s, and became renowned as one of the most glamorous actresses of her day, nicknamed the "Queen of Technicolor" because she photographed so well in that medium.

Fleming was born Marilyn Louis in Hollywood, California, to Harold Cheverton Louis, an insurance salesman, and Effie Graham, a stage actress who had appeared opposite Al Jolson in the musical Dancing Around at New York's Winter Garden Theatre from 1914 to 1915. Fleming's maternal grandfather was John C. Graham, an actor, theater owner, and newspaper editor in Utah.

She began working as a film actress while attending Beverly Hills High School, from which she graduated in 1941. She was discovered by the well-known Hollywood agent Henry Willson, who changed her name to "Rhonda Fleming".

"It's so weird", Fleming said later. "He stopped me crossing the street. It kinda scared me a little bit -- I was only 16 or 17. He signed me to a seven-year contract without a screen test. It was a Cinderella story, but those could happen in those days."

Fleming's agent Willson went to work for David O. Selznick, who put her under contract.[5][6] She had bit parts in In Old Oklahoma (1943), Since You Went Away (1944) for Selznick, and in When Strangers Marry (1944).

She received her first substantial role in the thriller, Spellbound (1945), produced by Selznick and directed by Alfred Hitchcock. "Hitch told me I was going to play a nymphomaniac", Fleming said later. "I remember rushing home to look it up in the dictionary and being quite shocked." The film was a success and Selznick gave her another good role in the thriller The Spiral Staircase (1946), directed by Robert Siodmak.

Selznick lent her out to appear in supporting parts in the Randolph Scott Western Abilene Town (1946) at United Artists and the film noir classic Out of the Past (1947) with Robert Mitchum and Kirk Douglas, at RKO, where she played a harried secretary.

Fleming's first leading role came in Adventure Island (1947), a low-budget action film made for Pine-Thomas Productions at Paramount Pictures in the two-color Cinecolor process and co-starring fellow Selznick contractee Rory Calhoun.

Fleming then auditioned for the female lead in a Bing Crosby film, a part Deanna Durbin turned down at Paramount in A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court (1949), a musical loosely based on the story by Mark Twain. Fleming exhibited her singing ability, dueting with Crosby on "Once and For Always" and soloing with "When Is Sometime". They recorded the songs for a three-disc, 78-rpm Decca album, conducted by Victor Young, who wrote the film's orchestral score. Her vocal coach in Hollywood, Harriet Lee, praised her "lovely voice", saying, "she could be a musical comedy queen". The movie was Fleming's first Technicolor film. Her fair complexion and flaming red hair photographed exceptionally well and she was nicknamed the "Queen of Technicolor", a moniker not worth much to her as she would have preferred to be known for her acting. Actress Maureen O'Hara expressed a similar sentiment when the same nickname was given to her around this time.

She then played another leading role opposite a comedian, in this case Bob Hope, in the The Great Lover (1949). It was a big hit and Fleming was established. "After that, I wasn't fortunate enough to get good directors", said Fleming. "I made the mistake of doing lesser films for good money. I was hot – they all wanted me – but I didn't have the guidance or background to judge for myself."

In February 1949, Selznick sold his contract players to Warner Bros, but he kept Fleming.

In 1950 she portrayed John Payne's love interest in The Eagle and the Hawk, a Western.

Fleming was lent to RKO to play a femme fatale opposite Dick Powell in Cry Danger (1951), a film noir. Back at Paramount, she played the title role in a Western with Glenn Ford, The Redhead and the Cowboy (1951).

In 1950, she ended her association with Selznick after eight years, though her contract with him had another five years to run.

Fleming signed a three-picture deal with Paramount. Pine-Thomas used her as Ronald Reagan's leading lady in a Western, The Last Outpost (1951), John Payne's leading lady in the adventure film Crosswinds (1951), and with Reagan again in Hong Kong (1951).

She sang on NBC's Colgate Comedy Hour during the same live telecast that featured Errol Flynn, on September 30, 1951, from the El Capitan Theater in Hollywood.

Fleming was top-billed for Sam Katzman's The Golden Hawk (1952) with Sterling Hayden, then was reunited with Reagan for Tropic Zone (1953) at Pine-Thomas. In 1953, Fleming portrayed Cleopatra in Katzman's Serpent of the Nile for Columbia. That same year, she filmed a western with Charlton Heston at Paramount, Pony Express (1953), and two films shot in three dimensions (3-D), Inferno with Robert Ryan at Fox, and the musical Those Redheads From Seattle with Gene Barry, for Pine-Thomas. The following year, she starred with Fernando Lamas in Jivaro, her third 3-D release, at Pine-Thomas. She went to Universal for Yankee Pasha (1954) with Jeff Chandler. Fleming also traveled to Italy to play Semiramis in Queen of Babylon (1954).

Fleming was part of a gospel singing quartet with Jane Russell, Connie Haines, and Beryl Davis.

Much of the location work for Fleming's 1955 Western Tennessee's Partner, in which she played Duchess opposite John Payne as Tennessee and Ronald Reagan as Cowpoke, was filmed at the Iverson Movie Ranch in Chatsworth, California, (known as the most heavily filmed outdoor location in the history of film and television). A distinctive monolithic sandstone feature behind which Fleming (as Duchess) hid during an action sequence, later became known as the Rhonda Fleming Rock. The rock is part of a section of the former movie ranch known as "Garden of the Gods", which has been preserved as public parkland.

Fleming was reunited with Payne and fellow redhead Arlene Dahl in a noir at RKO, Slightly Scarlet (1956). She did other thrillers that year; The Killer Is Loose (1956) with Joseph Cotten and Fritz Lang's While the City Sleeps (1956), co-starring Dana Andrews, at RKO. Fleming was top billed in an adventure movie for Warwick Films, Odongo (1956).

Fleming had the female lead in John Sturges's Gunfight at the O.K. Corral (1957) co-starring Burt Lancaster and Kirk Douglas, a big hit. She supported Donald O'Connor in The Buster Keaton Story (1957) and Stewart Granger in Gun Glory (1957) at MGM.

In May 1957, Fleming launched a nightclub act at the Tropicana in Las Vegas. It was a tremendous success. "I just wanted to know if I could get out on that stage – if I could do it. And I did! ... My heart was to do more stage work, but I had a son, so I really couldn't, but that was in my heart."

Fleming was Guy Madison's co star in Bullwhip (1958) for Allied Artists, and supported Jean Simmons in Home Before Dark (1958), which she later called her favorite role ("It was a marvellous stretch", she said).

Fleming was reunited with Bob Hope in Alias Jesse James (1959) and did an episode of Wagon Train.

She was in the Irwin Allen/Joseph M. Newman production of The Big Circus (1959), co-starring Victor Mature and Vincent Price. This was made for Allied Artists, whom Fleming later sued for unpaid profits.

Fleming travelled to Italy again to make The Revolt of the Slaves (1959) and was second billed in The Crowded Sky (1960).

In 1960, she described herself as "semi-retired", having made money in real estate investments. That year she toured her nightclub act in Las Vegas and Palm Springs.

During the 1950s, 1960s, and into the 1970s, Fleming frequently appeared on television with guest-starring roles on The Red Skelton Show, The Best of Broadway, The Investigators, Shower of Stars, The Dick Powell Show, Wagon Train, Burke's Law, The Virginian, McMillan & Wife, Police Woman, Kung Fu, Ellery Queen, and The Love Boat.

In 1958, Fleming again displayed her singing talent when she recorded her only LP, entitled simply Rhonda (reissued in 2008 on CD as Rhonda Fleming Sings Just For You). In this album, which was released by Columbia Records, she blended then-current songs like "Around The World" with standards such as "Love Me or Leave Me" and "I've Got You Under My Skin". Conductor-arranger Frank Comstock provided the musical direction.

On March 4, 1962, Fleming appeared in one of the last segments of ABC's Follow the Sun in a role opposite Gary Lockwood. She played a Marine in the episode, "Marine of the Month".

In December 1962, Fleming was cast as the glamorous Kitty Bolton in the episode, "Loss of Faith", on the syndicated anthology series, Death Valley Days, hosted by Stanley Andrews. In the story line, Kitty pits Joe Phy (Jim Davis) and Peter Gabriel (Don Collier) to run against each other for sheriff of Pima County, Arizona. Violence results from the rivalry.

In the 1960s, Fleming branched out into other businesses and began performing regularly on stage and in Las Vegas.

One of her final film appearances was in a bit-part as Edith von Secondburg in the comedy The Nude Bomb (1980) starring Don Adams. She also appeared in Waiting for the Wind (1990).

Fleming has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. In 2007, a Golden Palm Star on the Palm Springs Walk of Stars was dedicated to her.

Fleming worked for several charities, especially in the field of cancer care, and served on the committees of many related organizations. In 1991, her fifth husband, Ted Mann, and she established the Rhonda Fleming Mann Clinic for Women's Comprehensive Care at the UCLA Medical Center.

In 1964, Fleming spoke at the "Project Prayer" rally attended by 2,500 at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles, California. The gathering, which was hosted by Anthony Eisley, a star of ABC's Hawaiian Eye series, sought to flood the United States Congress with letters in support of mandatory school prayer, following two decisions in 1962 and 1963 of the United States Supreme Court, which struck down mandatory school prayer as conflicting with the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment to the United States Constitution.

Joining Fleming and Eisley at the rally were Walter Brennan, Lloyd Nolan, Dale Evans, Pat Boone, and Gloria Swanson. Fleming declared, "Project Prayer is hoping to clarify the First Amendment to the Constitution and reverse this present trend away from God." Eisley and Fleming added that John Wayne, Ronald Reagan, Roy Rogers, Mary Pickford, Jane Russell, Ginger Rogers, and Pat Buttram would also have attended the rally had their schedules not been in conflict.

Fleming married six times:

Thomas Wade Lane, interior decorator, (1940–1942; divorced), one son

Dr. Lewis V. Morrill, Hollywood physician, (July 11, 1952 – 1954; divorced)

Lang Jeffries, actor, (April 3, 1960 – January 11, 1962; divorced)

Hall Bartlett, producer (March 27, 1966 – 1972; divorced)

Ted Mann, producer, (March 11, 1977 – January 15, 2001; his death)

Darol Wayne Carlson (2003 – October 31, 2017; his death)

Through her son Kent Lane (b. 1941), Rhonda also had two granddaughters (Kimberly and Kelly), four great-grandchildren (Wagner, Page, Lane, and Cole), and two great-great-grandchildren.

She was a Presbyterian and a Republican who supported Dwight Eisenhower during the 1952 presidential election.

Fleming died on October 14, 2020, in Saint John's Health Center, Santa Monica, California, at the age of 97. She is interred at Hillside Memorial Park in Culver City, California.

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

July 12, 2021

Heather Cox Richardson

Today’s news all centered around the Big Lie that former president Donald Trump won the 2020 election.

Yesterday, Trump spoke at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), where the audience cheered through his meandering speech, in which he insisted that he won the 2020 election. “The entire system was rigged against the American people and rigged against a fair, decent and honest election,” he said. CNN’s Daniel Dale, who has fact-checked Trump’s speeches for years, called the speech “untethered to reality.”

But Trump was not alone: the whole three-day event featured speakers, including Representatives Ronny Jackson and Louie Gohmert, both Texas Republicans, focused on that Big Lie.

Just how untethered from reality this argument is became clear today when U.S. District Judge Linda V. Parker held a hearing on whether the lawyers who tried to overturn the 2020 election results in Michigan should face sanctions. Those lawyers, dubbed the “Kraken” by one of their leaders, Trump-affiliated lawyer Sidney Powell, produced close to 1000 pages of affidavits intending to cast doubt on the election results. Michigan and the city of Detroit filed complaints with the bar after the lawsuits failed, calling for punishment for the lawyers who had signed on to the effort.

As today’s hearing proceeded, it became clear that the so-called Kraken lawyers had made no effort to verify much of anything they presented to the court. Repeatedly, Parker asked if anyone had tried to verify any of the affidavits they had filed; repeatedly, they indicated they had not. At one point, Parker said, "I don't think I've ever really seen an affidavit" like this. "This is really fantastical," Parker said. "How can any of you, as officers of the court, present this type of an affidavit?"

Parker suggested that the whole point of the lawsuits in the first place was to spread lies to make people think the election wasn’t legitimate. "My concern is that counsel here has submitted affidavits to suggest and make the public believe that there was something wrong with the election...that's what these average affidavits are designed to do, to show there was something wrong in Michigan….”

Although Kraken lawyer Juli Haller began to cry during the hearing, Trump-affiliated lawyer Sidney Powell made it clear that, far from backing down, she wanted to move forward. Repeatedly, she and other lawyers demanded a trial or at least an evidentiary hearing, clearly trying to legitimize their claims by presenting them in an official setting. Like other Trump supporters, Powell is hoping to use official procedures to legitimize lies. We saw this in the hearings before Trump’s first impeachment, when lawmakers such as Jim Jordan (R-OH) used the official proceedings to construct a narrative for rightwing media.

David Fink, an attorney representing Detroit, called that pattern out: "Because of the lies spread in this courtroom, not only did people die on January 6, but many people throughout the world...came to doubt the strength of our democratic institutions in this country.”

Also today, news broke that, back in November, the Republican National Committee’s chief counsel, Justin Riemer, called claims that Trump had won the election “a joke.” Speaking of the lawyer pushing such claims, Riemer said, “They are misleading millions of people who have wishful thinking that the president is going to somehow win this thing.”

And yet, the Republican Party itself is tethering itself to Trump.

In Oklahoma and Alaska, state Republican Party leaders have backed Trump-supporting challengers to James Lankford (R-OK) and Lisa Murkowski (R-AK). Lankford was actually speaking on the floor of the Senate on January 6, preparing to object to some of the certified ballots, when the rioters broke into the Capitol. After the insurrection riot, Lankford chose not to continue his objection to the counting. He now faces a primary challenger.

So does Murkowski, who, when party leaders similarly primaried her with someone backed by former vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin in 2010, won a write-in campaign. Shortly after the insurrection, Murkowski said to a reporter: "I will tell you, if the Republican Party has become nothing more than the party of Trump, I sincerely question whether this is the party for me.”

In Pennsylvania, the chair of the state senate's Intergovernmental Operations Committee, Trump-ally state senator Doug Mastriano, is demanding an Arizona-type recount of the 2020 vote in his state. Blocked by Democratic governor Tom Wolf and the state’s attorney general, Mastriano today issued a statement saying he would continue to fight for what he called a “forensic investigation.”

Meanwhile, in Texas, at least 51 of the 67 Democratic lawmakers are leaving the state to block Republicans from passing voter restriction laws. By fleeing the state, they will deprive the legislatures of enough lawmakers to do business, a number called a “quorum.” The Texas legislature is in special session this summer in part because the Democrats blocked these laws in the same way in May. In response, Texas governor Greg Abbott vetoed funding for the legislature. Today, once again, he accused them of abandoning the duties for which voters elected them.

And yet, the Republicans’ argument for further restricting the vote is based on the Big Lie that the state needs to be protected from voter fraud after the 2020 election.  

Tomorrow, President Joe Biden will go to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, to make a speech on voting rights. He is expected to call out the Big Lie and to talk about “actions to protect the sacred, constitutional right to vote.”

—-

Notes:

https://www.cnn.com/2021/07/12/politics/fact-check-trump-cpac-election-lies/index.html

https://www.npr.org/2021/07/12/1015315950/texas-democrats-leave-state-in-effort-to-block-gop-voting-restrictions

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2021/07/12/cpac-dallas-trump-election/

https://news.yahoo.com/time-lisa-murkowski-join-democrats-093326694.html

https://www.lankford.senate.gov/news/videos/watch/senator-lankfords-floor-speech-is-interrupted-when-protestors-enter-the-us-capitol

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/elections/fight-over-trump-loyalty-okla-gop-chairman-endorses-sen-lankford-n1273269

https://www.businessinsider.com/sidney-powell-lin-wood-michigan-lawsuit-sanctions-hearing-2021-7

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2020-election/pa-republican-asks-counties-hand-over-ballots-effort-start-arizona-n1273275

Senator Doug Mastriano @SenMastrianoDespite attempts of obstruction by the Wolf Administration and the Attorney General, the Intergovernmental Operations Committee will press forward in the pursuit of a forensic investigation:

senatormastriano.com/.../mastriano-…

July 12th 2021

2,032 Retweets6,139 Likes

/photo/1

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/trump-kraken-powell-wood-giuliani-b1882871.html

Andrew Feinberg @AndrewFeinbergHaller, one of the Kraken lawyers, is crying.761 Retweets3,683 Likes

July 12th 2021

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2021/07/12/trumps-kraken-gets-an-intense-grilling-testy-court-hearing/

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/rnc-trump-stop-the-steal/2021/07/12/79e58a02-e320-11eb-934f-7e6c1927f261_story.html

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/jul/12/joe-biden-donald-trump-big-lie-speech

https://www.texastribune.org/2021/07/12/texas-democrats-walk-out-voting-bill/

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LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

HEATHER COX RICHARDSON