Steve Bannon, Brian Kolfage, an Iraq war vet who happens to be a triple amputee, a man named Timothy Shea from Castle Rock, Colorado and a man named Andrew Badolato have been charged in federal court in Manhattan with fraud offenses and money laundering for a scheme to raise funds for a privately built section of Trump's border wall, during which they collected millions of dollars.

“As alleged, the defendants defrauded hundreds of thousands of donors, capitalizing on their interest in funding a border wall to raise millions of dollars, under the false pretense that all of that money would be spent on construction. While repeatedly assuring donors that Brian Kolfage, the founder and public face of We Build the Wall, would not be paid a cent, the defendants secretly schemed to pass hundreds of thousands of dollars to Kolfage, which he used to fund his lavish lifestyle. ....

“The defendants allegedly engaged in fraud when they misrepresented the true use of donated funds. As alleged, not only did they lie to donors, they schemed to hide their misappropriation of funds by creating sham invoices and accounts to launder donations and cover up their crimes, showing no regard for the law or the truth.

This case should serve as a warning to other fraudsters that no one is above the law, not even a disabled war veteran or a millionaire political strategist.”

The Indictment is here. [More...]

President Obama was terrific for his take-down of Donald Trump.

But Kamala Harris was the star of the night. Her demeanor was impeccable. With her facial expressions, she made us feel like she was talking to each one of us. She was so believable, so self-assured, so happy to be there, so (justly) proud.

Kudos, Kamala. I hope you win.

Herman Cain got the "Tulsa Virus" two weeks after attending Trump's rally in Tulsa. After a month in the hospital, he has died. RIP, Mr. Cain.

Cain did not wear a mask at the rally. Masks and sanitizers were reportedly available but not mandatory. The article has a photo he posted on his Twitter feed sitting with a group of people, smiling, and none are wearing masks.

Cain was a four time cancer survivor and former contender for the Republican nomination for President.

There's Covid, Covid and Covid news, never-ending, always spreading. California has not outpaced New York as the state with the largest number of infections.

Michael Cohen will be going home to be placed on home confinement again. The judge in his ruled the book restriction was retaliation.

Hellerstein in ordering Cohen’s release, said that he found that “the purpose of transferring Mr. Cohen from furlough and home confinement to jail is retaliatory, and it’s retaliatory because of his desire to exercise his First Amendment rights to publish a book and discuss anything about the book or anything else he wants on social media and others.”

This is an open thread, all topics welcome.

Fox News' Chris Wallace interviewed Donald Trump today. Here are the top 4 minutes.

Here's the Washington Post's account of the entire interview

Trump says he is implementing a new health care plan within two weeks, and an immigration plan as the Supreme Court gave him the authorization.

He also would not commit to accepting the election results if Biden won.

So, who made Joe Biden's "heart go boom" when he saw her standing there? And, will he pick his heart throb for his running mate or will his head take over and make him choose someone else?**

I've taken the week off from blogging. I'm Trump-ed out, Biden-ed out and virus-ed out. The attention being given to the selfish, ignorant segment of the American people who object to wearing masks is just so aggravating. When the respirator shortage comes, can we send them to the back of the line? (yes that's snark).

But on that topic, I really hoped more people would follow guidelines and stop congregating in large numbers without masks so states will not have to implement their Crisis Standards of Care guidelines, which determine whose life is most worth saving, when due to a shortage of respirators or other equipment or medicine, you can't save them all. Reading these guidelines may be the most depressing wake-up call of this pandemic yet. [More...]

Donald Trump's former lawyer, Michael Cohen, was blindsided today by the U.S. Marshals and taken into custody, to await return to a federal prison.

Cohen was furloughed by the U.S. Bureau of Prison back in May, due to the coronavirus. A furlough is temporary. BOP decides what happens when it's over. Sometimes you go back to prison. Sometimes you go home to serve the remainder of your sentence on home confinement.

BOP decided Cohen could serve the rest of his sentence on home confinement and not return to prison when the furlough was up.

Home confinement has restrictions. The conditions are spelled out in a agreement between you and BOP. Cohen apparently had not yet begun his home confinement because he and BOP had not agreed on the terms.

According to Cohen's lawyer, Cohen and his lawyer went down to the U.S. Marshal's office today to sign the agreement. [More...]

The Supreme Court has ruled Trump does not have absolute immunity as to the Manhattan DA's subpoena of 8 years of his tax records. (Opinion here). But, the Court ruled, he still has defenses:

In the case concerning the prosecutors’ subpoena, Chief Justice Roberts wrote that “no citizen, not even the president, is categorically above the common duty to produce evidence when called upon in a criminal proceeding.” He added that Mr. Trump may still raise objections to the scope and relevance of the subpoena.

In a second case (opinion here), the Court refused to order that Trummp's financial records must be turned over to congressional committees investigating Trump. There could be separation of powers issues. [More...]

The corona virus keeps breaking records. More than 50,000 cases a day in the U.S.

This is an open thread, all topics welcome.

TrumpVirus Update: Florida reached 9,000 new cases today, up from its 5,000 record a few days ago. It has ordered bars to close. Too little, too late, of course, just like Texas.

Unlike Birx who is thanking millenials for getting tested, I have no nice words for them. Faucio agrees they are the culprit, but is too nice to criticize them.

Will the 65 + age group ever be able to safely leave their homes, return to work, go to dinner in outdoor parking lot or hug their grandkids? Looks more and more like the answer is "No". Forever shut-ins. Remember when Trump said, open the schools, let all the teachers, except those over 70, return? That will probably be the new normal for all jobs and professions. Your accountant (plumber, electrician, lawyer, shop owner, chef, etc) is too old to safely be in public? Just hire or patronize a younger one.

In the meantime, MASK UP AMERICA and stay home if you can.

Tuned in to hear Mike Pence tell us all to pray.

Dr. Deborah Birk: Praise be due the millenials, who have come out for testing.

"We know know" who is most at risk: the elderly. (We knew that many moons ago.)

"We know who is dying": (We've always known that).

"We know" people on respirators will respond well to steroids.

A slide is playing on the right from NBC reminding us there are 125,0000 deaths.

We are most concerned about states with rising test positives and rising numbers of cases. She names them. [More...]

To all you Dads out there, I hope you have a wonderful day. If your Dad is still alive, don't forget to call him if he can get calls. If he's in jail or prison, send a card, welcome his collect call, and try to make his day a little brighter.

2.7 million children in the United States have a parent incarcerated.

[N]early twice as many black children (11.5 percent) have had a parent who lived with them go to jail or prison compared to white children (6 percent). And a child living in poverty is three times more likely (12.5 percent) to have experienced parental incarceration than a child whose household income is at least twice the federal poverty level (3.9 percent) (Murphey and Cooper 2015).

Seventeen years ago here on TalkLeft, I wrote about one specific child of the incarcerated --Chesa Boudin, the son of former Weatherground member Kathy Boudin. He had written an article for Salon in 2001, "I am the Son of Inmate 83A6158." He graduated from Yale and became a Rhodes scholar.

Where is Chesa today? First, he became a state public defender. In November, he ran for District Attorney of San Francisco, and won. He was sworn in in January.