Cockburn

As war rages in Gaza and Ukraine, Joe Biden is preoccupied with another bloody battle, in the White House — between his new German Shepherd, Commander, and Secret Service personnel.  Cockburn first reported Commander was roaming the West Wing looking for flesh in July. Since then, under the loving care of Joe and Jill, the canine’s bloodlust has intensified. He has bitten Secret Service agents in at least twenty-four incidents, according to recent documents obtained by a Freedom of Information request.  “They’ve been heartbroken over this,” a White House official said. “They’ve apologized to those who have been bitten, and taken flowers to some. They feel awful.

Evangelical voters flocked to Donald Trump in 2016 and 2020. Now the former president is getting support from a slightly different religious group — or rather, cult. Millionaire Scientologists Grant and Elena Cardone launched a GoFundMe page on Friday to raise the $355 million that Trump has been ordered to pay following his New York civil fraud trial. At the time of writing, the campaign has raised $63,517 from over 1,500 donors. Cockburn wonders whether Tom Cruise or John Travolta are among them.  “This is more than a legal fund; it's a call to all patriots to rally in defense of a man who has never hesitated to stand in defense of us,” Elena wrote on the GoFundMe page. “It's about making a stand.

Against the advice of her lawyers, Fani Willis just gave an incredible display in court. Her rise to the stand in Georgia to defend herself against her surrounding foes played out like a scene from a latter-day Tom Wolfe novel. The erstwhile recipient of laudatory coverage from the New York Times, TIME magazine and the rest of the #Resistance media was now in the sights of an antagonistic case that the Gray Lady framed through a classically racist lens: the strong black woman, set upon on all sides by the judgement of mostly white and almost certainly racist southerners.

The Senate’s gay sex scandal started with a bang, but has ended with a whimper. This morning, the Capitol Police announced that they will not be pressing charges against Aidan Maese-Czeropski, the disgraced former Ben Cardin staffer filmed having sex with a male partner in the Hart Senate Office Building, as first reported by Cockburn. “For now, we are closing the investigation into the facts and circumstances surrounding a sex video that was recorded inside the Hart Senate Office Building on the morning of Wednesday, December 13,” the Capitol Police said in a statement. “Despite a likely violation of congressional policy — there is currently no evidence that a crime was committed.

As the Republican National Committee launches its annual Winter Meeting in Las Vegas, Trump allies are once again calling for the GOP to oust Ronna McDaniel as its chairwoman. Their preferred replacement? Scott Presler. Presler, for those unfamiliar, first rose to social media and political fame by organizing a clean-up in Baltimore after the former president Donald Trump called the Maryland city a “disgusting, rat- and rodent-infested mess.” Since then, the activist better known on X as “#ThePersistence” launched a Republican voter registration effort and, subsequently, Early Vote Action, a political action committee aimed at getting Republicans to cast their votes before Election Day. Prior to all this, Presler was a co-founder of Gays for Trump during the 2016 election.

President Biden was in Manassas, Virginia this evening, at a rally intended to be focused on federal abortion rights, shortly after the anniversary of Roe v. Wade. But some pro-Palestine protesters in the audience had other ideas. “Genocide Joe: how many kids have you killed today?” a man bellowed at Biden. “Israel kills two mothers every hour!” a woman yelled immediately after. More and more hecklers started interrupting the president. “This is gonna go on for a while — they’ve got this planned,” he told the crowd. Shortly after, he appeared to brand the protesters as "MAGA Republicans" — not a notoriously pro-Gaza group... https://twitter.