Think Outloud

Operative Concept:

MAGA voters are willing to go down with the ship as long as they're convinced someone they don't like is going to drown faster and harder.

People keep telling me not to take it out on the MAGA voters, but I'm not hearing a good explanation for how these people continue to buy into the bullshit when better information and - you know, factual reality - are both in their faces every fucking day.

Year-To-Date, AI accounts for 40% of GDP growth, and 80% of the stock market rise.

Expertise is not Elitism

Education is not Brainwashing

Warnings are not Fear Tactics

Ruh-Oh

Trump slapped with massive lawsuit alleging 'Epstein-identical' trafficking operation

President Donald Trump has been slapped with a $310 million lawsuit alleging that the president engaged in a “trafficking venture” that was “identical in every material respect” to the sex-trafficking operation allegedly spearheaded by Jeffrey Epstein.

Filed on Nov. 24 in Palm Beach County, the lawsuit names Trump in both his individual and official capacity as president, alongside Tesla founder and Trump ally Elon Musk and Microsoft founder Bill Gates, both of whom have spent time inside Epstein’s home, according to reports and, in Musk’s case, his own admission.

The plaintiffs in the lawsuit, whose names have been redacted, accuse Trump and others of operating an “eight-year trafficking and exploitation venture that began in 2018 [that] has continued and escalated under the current Trump administration,” according to an uncertified copy of the lawsuit, published and reported on Tuesday by the hyper-local news outlet BOCA News Now.

Specifically, the plaintiffs accuse Trump of “grooming” the lead plaintiff in the lawsuit – an unnamed minor on whose behalf the lawsuit was filed – starting in 1998, “the exact year [the] plaintiff was born.” They accuse Trump of using Gates’ Gates Foundation as the primary “cover and silencing mechanism” to continue the operation, as well as facilitating “coordinated sexual assaults.”

The plaintiffs also allege that the minor plaintiff's “infant daughter” was taken from her “as punishment for filing lawsuits,” which they argue was “identical to Epstein’s use of custody threats against mothers who sued.”

Additionally, the plaintiffs accuse Trump and the other named defendants of having "attempted to murder" the lead plaintiff "no fewer than [on] five separate occasions" between 2023 and November of this year, including by way of "poisoning, vehicular assaults and orchestrated physical attacks designed to appear accidental."

Trump is not facing any active criminal charges, and has and continues to deny any wrong-doing as it relates to Epstein, who died in 2019 awaiting trial on sex-trafficking charges. The plaintiffs in the case are seeking at least $310 million in compensatory damages, more than $134 million in attorneys’ fees, and injunctive relief that would include the “immediate return of full legal and physical custody” of the lead plaintiff’s daughter. They also asked the court that the trial be expedited so that a trial by jury is held by Dec. 20.

Today's Pix

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The Bomber

So I guess this means MTG is off the hook - for now anyway.

5 years later, authorities arrest a suspect in Washington pipe bomb case.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The FBI has arrested a suspect five years after an unidentified person placed two pipe bombs outside the headquarters of the Republican and Democratic national parties in Washington.

Agents arrested Brian J. Cole Jr., 30, of Woodbridge, Virginia, on explosive charges. Calls to relatives of Cole listed in public records were not immediately returned.

The mystery behind the person’s identity has bedeviled law enforcement and helped fuel conspiracy theories about Jan. 6, 2021, and the Capitol riot by a mob of President Donald Trump’s supporters.

Here’s what to know about the arrest:

Why now
The FBI and Justice Department declined to elaborate on what led them to the suspect. But authorities attributed the arrest to a reinvigorated investigation and a fresh analysis of already collected evidence and data.

Attorney General Pam Bondi said there was no new tip or witness that led officials to Cole. “Just good, diligent police work and prosecutorial work,” she said.

Investigators have, over the years, sought the public’s help in identifying a person shown in surveillance video taken the night before the riot.

They struggled to determine answers to basic questions, including the person’s gender and motive. They didn’t know whether the act had a clear connection to the riot at the Capitol a day later, when supporters of Trump stormed the building in a bid to halt the certification of the Republicans’ 2020 election loss to Democrat Joe Biden.

Pipe and kitchen timer purchases
Law enforcement officials used credit purchases of bomb-making materials, cellphone tower data and a license plate reader to zero in on Cole, according to an FBI affidavit filed in the case.

His bank account and credit card information showed he bought materials in 2019 and 2020 consistent with those used to make the pipe bombs, according to court papers. This included galvanized pipes and white kitchen-style timers, according to the affidavit. The purchases continued even after the devices were placed.

The two explosive devices found at the scenes were each roughly 1 foot (0.3 meters) long and packed with gunpowder and metal, according to two law enforcement officials familiar with the investigation.

Cole owns a 2017 Nissan Sentra with a Virginia license plate, the affidavit says. Around 7:10 p.m. on Jan. 5, 2021, Cole’s vehicle drove past a license plate reader less than a half mile from where the person who placed the devices was first spotted on foot around 7:34 p.m. that night, the document says.

Nike shoes
Surveillance video showed the person wearing a light sweatshirt, dark pants and sneakers, with a dark backpack slung over one shoulder. Investigators have long said the gait suggested the person was a man, but their face was obscured by a surgical mask and a hood.

Investigators focused some attention on the suspect’s shoes, believed to be Nike Air Max Speed Turfs. Nike told investigators thousands of pairs had been distributed through more than two dozen retailers and so agents filed subpoenas for credit card records from Foot Locker and other chains to narrow down potential buyers.

Motive unclear
Authorities didn’t disclose why they think Cole may have placed the explosives at the offices of the Democratic and Republican national committees.

Other questions also remain, including whether the act was connected to the assault on the Capitol the following day by Trump’s supporters.

Classmate called suspect ‘well-behaved and quiet’
Cole lived with his mother and other family members in a five-bedroom house on a quiet Virginia cul-de-sac about 30 miles (about 48 kilometers) south of the U.S. Capitol. He has no criminal record and was not registered to vote.

One of four children, he worked in the office of his father, a bail bondsman. His mother works as a realtor.

A high school classmate who lived in the same neighborhood and rode the bus with Cole described him as friendly but said he didn’t speak much.

“He didn’t stand out,” said the classmates, who spoke on condition of anonymity out of concern for having their name associated with the suspect in a politically charged criminal case. “As far as I remember, he was well-behaved and quiet.”

Court records show Cole’s parents divorced in October 2020, just a couple of months before authorities allege he planted the bombs.