Sometimes it's good just to sleep, read and think about other things rather than dwell on all that's going down the drain under the present toxic administration.

ISIS Leader al Baghadadi has stepped out for the first time in five years. He's gotten a makeover -- instead of looking like a religious figure, he now looks like a military commander. His message appears designed to let us all know he's alive and although conceding ISIS has lost its physical territory (and the state it was creating as a Caliphate), and they got badly trounced at their last battle in Baghdouz, ISIS is regrouping as a global insurgency right now (no need to conquer big swaths of land and instill governing forces like before). He praised the Sri Lanka bombings and mentioned factions in Mali and Africa that had recently aligned with ISIS. He also mentioned new groups joining with them in Khorassan. Probably his most telling line was that Allah commanded them to make jihad, but did not command they acheive victory. In other words, he's telling his supporters to be prepared to die, as they will fight until the resurrection. [More...]

The first Democratic debates will be held over two days in June -- who's in and who's out? The NY Times has a graphic that's easy to read and informative.

The basic rules to qualify:

A candidate either has to receive donations from 65,000 people (including 200 donors apiece in 20 states) or has to register 1 percent support in three polls. Only polls from a preset list of organizations are accepted, and candidates cannot count two polls from the same pollster in the same place.

Right now, 17 of the 20 contenders would qualify. I have never heard of 8 of them. One seems to be buying his way in with a process that's not illegal: he's offering $1,000 a month for 12 months to an ordinary Iowan who agrees to media coverage. Is that why he has over 100,000 unique donors? Who would want a venture capitalist as President? (Answer: Not me).

Here's the point: [More...]

Shelley M. Richmond Joseph, a state district court judge in Mass. has been indicted for obstruction of justice and related charges for assisting an undocumented defendant with an ICE detainer to leave the courthouse.

I haven't had time to read the Indictment yet but it is available here.

Joe Biden is officially running for President.

Yesterday I tuned into MSNBC on the radio while driving for quite some time. They were playing snippets of Democratic candidates taking questions at town halls. When I tuned in, I didn't know whose voice it was at first, but based on the accent, after about 1 minute, I realized it was Bernie Sanders. Not surprisingly, I agreed with every position he mentioned on issues -- mostly human rights. My positive reaction faded a minute later (as did that of the live audience which audibly reacted, and it didn't sound positive) when he started talking about how he was always at the forefront of the fight for racial equality and marched with Dr. MLK in 1963. If he would just find a way to tout his own horn without claiming to be the first to take every progressive position (or, as in 2016, that he's leading a revolution.)

Sanders did say if he isn't the nominee, he will do everything he can to fight for the Democratic nominee because Trump is so dangerous.

I do not think Biden or Sanders can beat Trump. Is there a Sanders clone out there who is 30 years younger without baggage?

This is an open thread, all topics welcome.

Joe Biden has apparently pushed his announcement he's running for president until Thursday. The theme of his campaign is "the battle for the soul of America". Terrible. It's both ghoulish and religious. (A battle for the American Dream would be much better.)[More...]

Citizens of the Ukraine have elected a comedian with no political experience as their president.

Ukraine entered uncharted political waters on Monday after near final results showed a comedian with no political experience and few detailed policies had dramatically upended the status quo and won the country’s presidential election by a landslide.

His name is Volodymyr Zelenskiy. He is 37 years old. No one knows what he stands for other than pledging to preserve "Ukrainian identity".

Zelenkiy is most famous for having played a President on TV. (No, I didn't make this post up.) It seems the vote was more a protest against his opponent than a vote for Zelenskiy.

Rudy Guiliani has been acting like he has a few screws loose for a few years now. The only art he seems to have mastered is the art of speaking out of both sides of his mouth.

Nowhere is this more apparent than his remarks Sunday that there's nothing wrong with campaign officials accepting information from foreign nations. He even had the audacity to ponder aloud that maybe the hacking of DNC emails was a good thing because it alerted the country to Hillary's true nature.

Don't get sucked in. He's mimicking Donald Trump by trying to divert your attention from polls showing that Trump's approval ratings have sunk to their lowest level yet in the wake of the Mueller report.

And 68 percent said they were more likely to believe that the president or one of his cronies broke the law.

Donald Trump's most absurd claims come when he's about to face bad press -- it's his go-to diversion tactic. Rudy is just mimicking him.

There are 12 to 14 other federal and state criminal referrals from Mueller's office to other agencies who are considering whether Donald Trump, his children and others in his circle committed crimes. Some Dems are itching to start impeachment proceedings now. Diversion and distraction through outrageous comments is the new Trump game plan. I'm not playing Rudy's word games.

Passover begins tonight at sundown. Tomorrow is 4/20. Cochella is streaming live on You Tube this weekend. Sunday is Easter.

Monday night, La Reina del Sur 2 returns on Telemundo, with English subtitles and the terrific Kate del Castillo back in the lead role. It's been 8 years since season 1 and many of the cast members who survived Season 1 are returning. I've been waiting for months for the return, and I'm not going to miss a single minute. [More..]

Update: Barr's remarks are here. The 448 page Mueller Report is here.

It's tempting to get excited about today's release of the Mueller report. Personally, I expect so many redactions, edits and topic deletions, I'm not excited at all.

The showrunner, Attorney General William Barr, will hold a press conference at 9:30 a.m. ET. Once the report is released, you can most likely find it on the Special Counsel's website

Yesterday, prosecutors from the U.S. Attorney's Office in the District of Columbia and Mueller's office laid out the plan for releasing the Mueller report in a filing in Roger Stone's criminal case (available here). They say there will be a separate version with fewer redactions for "some members of Congress" that will be made available at a secure location. [More...]

Cher was the star guest on the Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon last night. Towards the end of the show, the three singer-actresses who play her in the Broadway show "Cher" came on with her for a talking segment. After the commercial break, the three actresses were on stage singing "If I Could Turn Back Time." At one minute and 2 seconds in, Cher joined them.

After another commercial, the lead Cher actress was on stage singing "You Got Me Babe" with the Cher show cast member who plays Sonny(he is absolutely adorable.) About 1 minute and 3 seconds into the song, Cher comes out, dressed in an almost identicial outfit as the actress just singing and continues the duet with Sonny.

When Cher belted out the line "I got you to understand", I got chills up and down my arms that stayed for the rest of the song. It was just like watching them in 1965. Her voice remains incredibly strong and she is great physical shape -- even her skin has never looked better. [More...]

Mick Jagger is on the mend.

Question: What part of the college admissions cheating scandal is interesting to you? The scam itself, the coaches, proctors and test takers, the parents, and if so, what about them: their wealth or their sense of entitlement, the students, the charges, the way they were arrested, why some are pleading guilty and others aren't, or something else? [If the answer is none of it, just scroll on by, no need to tell us, I'm going to write about it anyway].

This is an open thread, all topics welcome.

Lawyer and TV pundit Michael Avenatti has been charged in federal court in Los Angeles with 36 counts of fraud, tax crimes, obstruction and related offenses. The charges principally relate to his use of settlement money received for clients for his own use, and failing to pay his taxes. The U.S. Attorney's long announcement is here. The even longer Indictment is here.

There are four clients highlighted in the charges "client 1" client 2 client 3 and client 4. Client 1 is a parapalegic for whom he (and co-counsel) obtained a $4 million settlement from the City of Los Angeles. The unnmamed client is Geoffrey Ernest Johnson. The case is 13-cv-04496-MMM-AJW in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California. In one pleading I read, Doc. 119, Avenatti and cocounsel describe their client:

Plaintiff is a paraplegic who sustained his life altering injuries while in Defendants’ custody at the Twin Towers Correctional Facility. Plaintiff sustained his injuries when he attempted to commit suicide for a second time while in Defendants’ custody. Both times it was by jumping from an upper tier. Since Plaintiff was an inmate in Defendants’ custody, Defendants and their employees had a constitutional obligation to take reasonable measures to protect Plaintiff’s safety and to provide safe conditions of confinement.

[More...]

Julian Assange has been arrested and removed from the Ecuador Embassy in London, where he has spent the last 7 years, due to the return of an Indictment in the U.S. charging him with conspiring with Chelsea Manning and others to commit conspiracy intrusion. The charge carries up to five years in prison. The Indictment is available here.

Assange, arrested by British police in London and carried out of Ecuador’s embassy, faces up to five years in prison on the American charge, the U.S. Justice Department said in a statement. His arrest paved the way for his possible extradition to the United States.

The Indictment was obtained in March 2018 and sealed until today. [More...]

Once again, Donald Trump has catered to his underninformed, xenophobic voter base. He met with Homeland Security chief Kirstjen Nielsen Sunday and asked for her resignation, which she readily provided. She'd had enough.

While the 30-minute meeting was cordial, Mr. Trump was determined to ask for her resignation. After the meeting, she submitted it.

What happened? [More...]

I'm still buried under with work, but I am hoping to take a little break to blog and barbecue this weekend.

This is an open thread, all topics welcome.