Proud Boys Leader Gets Longest Sentence

BE NOT PROUD: Former Proud Boys boss Enrique Tarrio was sentenced to 22 years in prison for seditious conspiracy and leading the failed plot to prevent the routine transfer of power from Donald Trump to Joe Biden. It is the longest sentence handed down so far to anyone involved in the January 6thinsurrection.

  “The jury didn’t convict anyone for engaging in politics, they convicted Mr. Tarrio and others of engaging in seditious conspiracy,” Judge Timothy Kelly said in a 30-minute address to the court. “I don’t have any indication that he is remorseful for the actual things he is convicted of, which is seditious conspiracy and conspiracy to obstruct the counting of electoral votes.” The judge said, “Mr. Tarrio was the ultimate leader of that conspiracy.” 

  The 39-year-old Tarrio was not in DC during the insurrection, but he was convicted of inspiring and leading it.

  Tarrio was standing and hanging his head as he listened. When allowed to speak, he said, he was against the violence that erupted at the Capitol: “I am not a political zealot. Inflicting harm or changing the outcome of the election was not my goal.”

  He also said, “I have always tried to hold myself to a higher standard and I failed. I held myself morally above others, and this trial has shown me how wrong I was.”

MANHUNT: Two school Pennsylvania districts canceled classes yesterday after an escaped murderer was spotted by trail cameras near residential areas. Authorities also warned residents to be careful going outside. 

  Danelo Cavalcante, 34, a Brazilian, escaped the Chester County Prison last Thursday, just days after he was convicted of first-degree murder in the gruesome April 2021 killing of his former girlfriend, who he stabbed 38 times in front of her two children.

  Cavalcante is believed to still be on foot within miles of the prison. One picture shows him shirtless with a white sling bag hung from a shoulder. The other, taken from behind, shows him wearing a dark hoody walking through a wooded area.

SPLIT VOTE:  A panel of three Federal judges yesterday said that that they will draw new congressional lines for Alabama after state lawmakers refused to create a second district in which Black voters are at least close to a majority as previously instructed by the court.

  The judges wrote that they are “deeply troubled” that Alabama lawmakers ignored their order to draw a second majority-Black district or something close to it. They directed a court-appointed special master to submit three proposed new maps by Sept. 25th.

  Legislative districts are also under litigation in Georgia, where the Republican majority in the legislature carved up a district Represented by a Black legislator, distributing its parts to four districts that elected white representatives.

THE WAR ROOM: US secretary of State Antony Blinken is in Kyiv today on a surprise visit. He’s expected to announce another $1 billion in military aid.

  Ukraine’s military yesterday reported making advances at the front, although what that usually amounts to is taking a small village. 

  Ukraine’s intelligence has released to Reuters news the recordings of 17 phone calls between Russian soldiers and their families that reveal some units to be underequipped, battered, discouraged, and afraid. 

  “No fucking ammunition, nothing,” one Russian tells his wife. “Shall we use our fingers as bayonets?”

  One soldier said that the wounded have been left in the field to die. “They were torn apart, he said. “They’re lying there: they can’t even collect some of them. They’re already rotten – eaten by worms.” 

ORANGE ALERT: Special Counsel Jack Smith in a court filing accused former President Donald Trump of making “daily extrajudicial statements that threaten to prejudice the jury pool” in the 2020 election subversion case.

The allegation was made in a court fight that is largely under seal, so additional details are not public. 

TWEET THAT: Elon Musk, who’s been dismantling the social media platform Twitter since he bought it, most recently by re-naming it “X,” is blaming the Anti-Defamation League for a loss in advertising revenue. In short, he’s blaming “the Jews” in a classic anti-Semitic accusation.

  Advertisers are balking in part because Musk has re-opened the platform to crude and hateful discourse that was banned under the previous ownership, including welcoming back Donald Trump.

  Musk claims that the US advertising revenue at X is “down 60%, primarily due to pressure on advertisers by @ADL (that’s what advertisers tell us), so they almost succeeded in killing X/Twitter!” 

  He tweeted …. or “Xd” … is there a new term? … that he has “no choice but to file a defamation lawsuit against the Anti-Defamation League.”

THE SPIN RACK: Alex Murdaugh, the former South Carolina lawyer convicted of murdering his wife and one of his sons, is moving for a new trial claiming that court clerk Rebecca Hill had told jurors not to be “fooled by” Murdaugh’s tearful testimony. — After two incidents in which he froze and was unable to speak, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell released a doctor’s letter yesterday that said tests ruled out a stroke or seizure as causes of his recent medical episodes. — Former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows pleaded not guilty yesterday in the Georgia election interference case. All 19 defendants, including Donald Trump, have pleaded not guilty. — Tropical storm Lee is gathering to hurricane strength in the Caribbean and headed toward the southern East Coast within a week.

BELOW THE FOLD: One of the classic complaints of the currently striking Hollywood actors and screenwriters are the amount of residual payments they get for replay of their work. To make the point, actress Mandy Moore, who starred as matriarch Rebecca Pearson NBC’s This Is Us, revealed that she received residual checks for online streaming for a penny once for 81 cents, and another time for only a penny. 

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Sunday, May 5, 2024

Page Two

The Most Corrupt Justice

Monday, October 2, 2023

Democracy and Video in the Dark

Sunday, February 26, 2023

Page Two: Do the Right Thing

Tuesday, February 1, 2022

Page Two: Sound Recall

Monday, September 13, 2021

Page Two: Cuomo Must Go

Friday, August 13, 2021

Trump and the Truth

Tuesday, November 3, 2020

The “Great” President

Monday, March 30, 2020

The Wright Stuff

Saturday, February 29, 2020

It's Been Said

"In my mind, I’ve never crossed the line with anyone, but I didn’t realize the extent to which the line has been redrawn. There are generational and cultural shifts that I just didn’t fully appreciate, and I should have, no excuses."

-Andrew Cuomo, resigning as governor of New York after accusations of sexual harassment

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