China Trade Surplus Surges Again

Smartmatic accuses Newsmax of destroying evidence in the voting machine company's lawsuit against the "news" channel over their claims that Smartmatic helped “rig" the 2020 election, according to new court documents. Via NBC News: Lawyers for Florida-based Smartmatic allege that Newsmax engaged in a “cover-up” by destroying texts and emails of key executives that would demonstrate the network’s knowledge that voting fraud claims being pushed by former President Donald Trump and his allies were untrue.

Sen. Minority Leader Mitch McConnell was asked about the report last week that Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito had flown a “Stop the Steal” solidarity flag at his house during the period in which the court was considering 2020 election cases. Let’s be clear: Alito was not flying a pro-Trump flag but an anti-democracy, pro-insurrection flag.

Diane Ravitch's Blog - just who is trashing public education? Homeless on the High Desert - the stable genius; Strangely Blogged - playing footsie with fascism; The Rectification of Names - my "Unified Reich" t-shirt is raising many questions; The Smirking Chimp - giving liberals the finger. Send tips to mbru (AT) crooksandliars (DOT) com. read more

I PROMISE you that you're rarely--if ever--seen anything as funny in politics as what Reps. Jared Moskowitz and Jamie Raskin do to known purveyor or Russian propaganda, James "Gomer Pyle. In classic GOP fashion, Comer held a hearing on a ridiculous, waste-of-time poltical stunt, holding Attorney General Merrick Garland in contempt (I might do it myself, tbh, for the fact insurrectionists like MTG and Jim Jordan still sit in hearings participating, un-indictedbut I digress).

COMMERCE CITY —  Evergreen girls soccer was a No. 14 seed entering the state tournament and had not won a championship in 27 years. But the Cougars clearly didn’t care about either of those factors, running the table to the 2024 Class 4A title that finished with a 2-0 victory over Lutheran on Tuesday night at Dick’s Sporting Goods Park. “Early in the year we had a lot of difficult, testing games that showed us what we weren’t good enough at,” Evergreen head coach Peter Jeans said.

By PHILIP MARCELO (Associated Press) NEW YORK (AP) — Donald Trump’s legal team rested its case Tuesday in his hush money trial after calling just two witnesses and opting not to have the former president take the stand in his own defense. But despite what Hollywood courtroom dramas might suggest, that isn’t all that unusual, according to criminal defense lawyers and former prosecutors. The reason is simple: Prosecutors need to prove their case, while the defense only has to show there’s reasonable doubt their client committed a crime.