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George Washington University law professor Jonathan Turley has been following the trial of Donald Trump in Manhattan closely. Yesterday Turley pretty much considered the prosecution's closing arguments to be a dumpster fire and also has been far from impressed by Judge Juan Merchan's handling of the trial: ...The fraud instruction alone is so generalized that it would seem to encompass any claim that the defendant sought to influence the election through his actions. Merchan has done little to tailor standard instructions for this novel and frankly troubling case...— Jonathan Turley (@JonathanTurley) May 28, 2024This morning Judge Merchan is delivering instructions...

It’s time somebody came out and said it: Whataburger sucks. God forbid somebody in San Antonio should say that. We treat Whataburger like a hometown hero, never mind that it never was. And now it’s just another asset in a Chicago firm’s portfolio. Through orange-colored glasses, we failed to see the beat-down beef, the bun crushed by overreach and ennui. We failed to hold accountable the burger that tastes like the wrapper it came in, with the little round sticker that says “no onion” or “bacon” or “you can do better.”

The key moment won’t be when New York Supreme Court Justice Juan Merchan finishes offering instructions to the jury in Donald Trump’s criminal trial in Manhattan. It won’t be when the jury files out of the courtroom, slated to return only when it has reached a verdict. The key moment, the moment in which the jury’s power flips from potential to kinetic, comes when the officer escorts the jury to the jury room and the door shuts with a click........ What we did (if I remember correctly 15 years later) was begin with a survey of the different charges and...

Closing arguments in the trial of former President Donald Trump in New York City, where he is charged with 34 felony counts of falsifying business records, have concluded and Judge Juan Merchan has given the jury their instructions. The instructions were given verbally and jurors won't receive printed copies, although they can ask questions. According to legal experts, Merchan's standards for a conviction are abnormal and do not require jurors to reach a unanimous decision on the charges. Further, jurors don't have to determine what crime was committed. "Judge Merchan has ruled that the jury does not have to agree...

South Korea has accused the North Korean regime of sending balloons containing garbage and animal feces into its territory. Over 260 inflated balloons with plastic bags tied to them had been detected by Wednesday, according to the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Some of the inflatables landed on the ground, while others were still airborne. Those that had landed appeared to have trash strewn around them, as well as animal excrement, the Yonhap news agency said. South Korea’s military explosives ordnance unit and a chemical and biological warfare response team were deployed to inspect and collect the mysterious objects. An alert...

The jury deliberations began on Wednesday after Judge Merchan instructed them to choose among the three predicate crimes Trump supposedly committed. Judge Merchan is allowing the jurors to choose ONE of the three predicate crimes. Jurors do NOT have to unanimously agree on which of the three predicate crimes Trump committed. Of course, this will make it easier to convict Trump. Here are the three predicate crimes via Mark Levin:

The number of young Evangelicals in the United States who support Israel and view it as crucial to the End Times is declining as they increasingly move toward amillennial and postmillennial eschatology, according to a recent study.The Jerusalem Post noted earlier this year that support for Israel among young Evangelicals has cratered by more than 50% over three years, as laid out in the 2023 book Christian Zionism in the Twenty-First Century: American Evangelical Opinion on Israel, by Kirill M. Bumin, Ph.D., and Motti Inbari, who serves as professor of Jewish Studies at the University of North Carolina at Pembroke.'Thinking...

Austin, Texas — Republican Rep. Tony Gonzales of Texas narrowly won his primary Tuesday against a gun-rights activist who pushed the border congressman into a bruising runoff that threatened to unseat a U.S. House incumbent. Another prominent Texas Republican, state House Speaker Dade Phelan, also edged out a challenger from the right who was backed by former President Donald Trump. Both won by razor-thin margins, reflecting the anger of hard-line conservatives and a wave of party turbulence in America's biggest red state over votes that bucked party lines and the impeachment of state Attorney General Ken Paxton. Gonzales defeated Brandon...

Pope Francis and Old Joe Biden are two of the towering figures of our times, and that says more about our times than it does about them. The two actually have a lot in common. Both are Roman Catholics, although both have sparked considerable speculation as to whether they are really believers at all. Both have a tendency to say outrageous things that are left to their handlers to do their best to “clarify.” And both are about as far to the left as it is possible to go, as the pontiff affirmed again Sunday with the latest guilt trip...

One juror who sat for six weeks listening to the evidence presented in a Manhattan courtroom against former President Donald Trump reportedly appears sympathetic towards him. The jury on Wednesday will begin to consider whether or not Trump, beyond a reasonable doubt, committed a crime of falsifying records to conceal a second crime. Many legal experts believe there is no good case against Trump. Some legal experts, such as constitutional scholar Jonathan Turley, expect the jury will either render a guilty verdict or produce a hung jury that results in a mistrial.

Residents posted videos showing the ground floor flooded with wastewater and reported a "persistent smell of feces" seeping into apartments on “every floor.” Mayak’s developer touts the complex as a "symbol of luxurious living" in an ecologically pure area with panoramic water views.

From Mike Shedlock (Mish). It’s a perfect time to do something really stupid, like offering zero percent down payments on mortgages. Case-Shiller national and 10-city indexes via St. Louis Fed, OER, CPI, and Rent from the BLS Perfectly Stupid Timing Morningstar reports One of the Biggest U.S. Lenders is Offering 0%-Down-Payment Mortgages for First-Time Home Buyers. Home buyers will be able to buy a home without putting any money down under a new program launched by United Wholesale Mortgage, one of the largest U.S. mortgage lenders. The Pontiac, Mich.-based company’s new program will be available to first-time home buyers and...

Sadly, when people give a little bit of power to a dumb bully, you eventually have to deal with and eliminate the powerful dumb bully. It’s now time to remove another bully from Illinois Republican politics. I’ve been given permission to actually disclose one of the names of someone who Larry Smith harassed and threatened at the state convention because the man would not vote the way Larry was demanding. Mr. Don Jensen is the county board chairman of LaSalle County. As such, Don is not your run of the mill individual as he holds a respectable position of representation...

**Free Republic POLL** Verdict in Merchan's Stalinist show trial against President Trump? Acquittal Conviction Hung Jury

An alleged first look at Suicide Squad: Kill The Justice League’s upcoming new character, Mrs. Freeze, is being accused of promoting transgenderism. The alleged first look was shared to the subreddit GamingLeaksAndRumors. X user Mangalawyer reacted to this first look writing on X, “Rocksteady, the developers of Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League, transformed Mr. Freeze into a non-binary Karen they/them! This is wild.” In a subsequent post the user added, “I predicted this before the game’s release, and the backlash was intense. They perceive femininity and female anatomy as threats to society. Now, they’ve made a character transgender. Take...

The first picture shows Dean White, Aaron Delmar and Mark Shaw. Mark is in the red hat. The second picture is when Dean and Aaron start to walk away and while you can’t see it, Mark grabs Aaron’s arm. After the second round of voting when the floor delegates refused to confirm Mark Shaw as the National Republican Representative, as the delegates overwhelmingly wanted Dean White, Chairman Don Tracy asked for Dean and Mark to talk to try and come to some understanding as it was clear Mark was not going to ever be approved. Dean asked Aaron to come...

Former New Jersey Governor and GOP presidential candidate Chris Christie joined a recent episode of the “Hacks on Tap” podcast, where he gave President Biden advice on how to beat former President Trump in their upcoming debates. Christie, a former Trump ally, was one of the loudest critics of the former president in this cycle’s primary. He told podcast hosts David Axelrod — the former senior adviser to former President Obama — and Mike Murphy, a Republican consultant, that he’d now give Biden similar advice he gave Trump before the 2020 presidential debates. “It’s the same advice I gave to...

LINK TO NEW VIDEOLINK TO BIBLEart CHANNEL

Former President Donald Trump issued a sharp and devastating comeback to Robert De Niro after the aging actor delivered an unhinged rant outside a Manhattan courtroom on Tuesday. Posting on Truth Social, Trump slammed ‘TDS sufferer’ De Niro, whose remarks were drowned out by car alarms, a helicopter, and MAGA supporters.

The Belgian prosecutor says the employee played a 'significant role' in a suspected Russian propaganda operation which infiltrated the European Parliament. Brussels and French police carried out a series of simultaneous raids at European Parliament offices in Brussels and Strasbourg as well as at the home of a parliamentary staffer in the Belgian neighbourhood of Schaerbeek on Wednesday morning. Dutch EU lawmaker Marcel de Graaff confirmed on social media platform X that the staffer in question was his parliamentary assistant, Guillaume Pradoura, but distanced himself from the accusations. "I have no involvement whatsoever in any so-called Russian disinformation operation. I...