Today's News: Taking the Fifth

Tuesday the Mar-A-Lago raid story was all the news. 

Today Trump refused to answer questions about his businesses, property evaluations and loans 400 times, taking the Fifth for every one of the questions. 

Thanks, Donnie, for killing the Mar-A-Lago raid story in just one day!

After spending days with Trump prepping for his deposition… his lawyers finally said “screw it..he’s an idiot…tell him to plead the 5th or we’re all going to prison” https://t.co/p2BSj6vaBp

— Hal Sparks (@HalSparks) August 10, 2022

BREAKING: as the NY AG investigation is civil (at this point), Trump's assertion of the 5th CAN be used against him if the AG brings a civil case, unlike in a criminal case. At this point, one would expect that civil suit to happen in short order. https://t.co/qTk3PwZw0Q

— Andrew Weissmann (@AWeissmann_) August 10, 2022

To quote Donald Trump: Only guilty people take the fifth.

— Rob Reiner (@robreiner) August 10, 2022

The attempt to minimize or trivialize the Mar-a-Lago raid -- an attempt that seemed to have some plausibility last night - couldn't actually withstand the cold light of day today.

it’s wild to see a large number of journalists have already forgotten the cardinal rule of trump scandals, which is that they always turn out to be much worse than they look at the beginning

— GONELIKEHELLMACHINE (@golikehellmachi) August 9, 2022

"With time it will be CLEAR that Trump provoked this action by DOJ." - John Dean

— Duty To Warn 🔉 (@duty2warn) August 9, 2022

So, yeah, I'm curious why he - or his minions - would take a van's worth of classified, steal it, and store it in Florida. What's in it that they didn't have time to destroy, or couldn't shred? What would be the point?

/2x

— Tom Nichols (@RadioFreeTom) August 11, 2022

It’s A Mystery What The FBI Wanted At Mar-a-Lago, But Trump Knows https://t.co/Oz0Fcdc61R via @TPM

— hilzoy (@hilzoy) August 10, 2022

So today the GOP moved to Plan Two and we got a parade of "the FBI planted evidence!" accusations -- an even less plausible scenario, because of course the implicit sub-text is that damning evidence can be found in the boxes of stuff the FBI took away.

I’m no lawyer, but it seems to me a bit problematic if your strongest defense is “Hey, the FBI planted all this damning evidence.”

— Dan Rather (@DanRather) August 10, 2022

Why would Trump be stealing, hiding, and refusing to hand over top secret and classified documents he stole from us if he wasn't planning to sell them to our foreign enemies and adversaries?

— Cheri Jacobus (@CheriJacobus) August 11, 2022

The backfire is going to be measured in megatons.
The entire @GOP has sided with a thief who by legal definition, stole & illegally held this country's most critical national security secrets, & did God only knows, while also mtg w/the Saudis & Orban in the same week.
Spin. That.

— Schrödinger's Litter Box (@Brewjew308) August 11, 2022

🚨🚨🚨BREAKING: Federal investigators served subpoenas to several House and Senate Republican offices in the Pennsylvania Capitol.

The information being requested centered around U.S. Rep. Scott Perry, & the effort to seek alternate electors to overturn the 2020 election.

— Spiro Agnew’s Ghost (@SpiroAgnewGhost) August 10, 2022

Funnier takes:

BREAKING: DJT's personal library was destroyed in the FBI/DOJ search, and sadly ‘both books’ are beyond repair. 😂

— Jeras Ikehorn (@JerasIkehorn) August 11, 2022

I'm no Sauron fan, but here's why forming a fellowship to raid Mount Doom and destroy the One Ring is going to enrage his base

— Jokin Rokin Rokin Tolkien 🗡️🏹🪓 (@joshcarlosjosh) August 9, 2022

I love the subtle "Dark Brandon" homage with the aviator sunglasses, too:

This new DNC commercial should be on billboards nationwide. pic.twitter.com/LgloGgJ34e

— No Lie with Brian Tyler Cohen (@NoLieWithBTC) August 10, 2022

Moving on to recent events in Alberta, it was recent news that the UPC caucus held an essay contest with the theme "Her Vision Inspires" to encourage young women to write something inspiring for other women - a laudable goal. 

But of course they screwed it up -- they gave the third place award to a "women as baby vessels" misogynistic piece of fluff. Now nobody in the caucus will admit to even judging the contest anymore, much less giving an award to this essay, and the winners webpage has disappeared:

This is just so messed up. 🤯

Read for yourself: the 3rd place winner of the UCP’s “Her Vision Inspires Essay Contest”.

Explain, @HomeniukJ. You proudly launched this contest. Did you pick the winners? Is this your party’s vision for Alberta? #ableg https://t.co/NTWK4vNNcs pic.twitter.com/FnHUl34x0Z

— Janis Irwin (@JanisIrwin) August 9, 2022

Her vision inspires … outrage! Fury greets Alberta government prize for essay that calls women best suited as vessels for babies. https://t.co/xVpXReBByN #ableg #abpoli #UCPldr

— David Climenhaga (@djclimenhaga) August 10, 2022

So… Someone is lying. The “Her Vision Inspires” web site said that the judging panel would be made up of Jackie Armstrong-Homeniuk and other female MLAs, presumably from the UCP caucus.

So far, they’ve all denied being part of it. 🙄 #ableg https://t.co/L1E6cNS35u

— Rhys (@rhyscourtman) August 10, 2022

But I saw a tweet tonight that I'm sure had identified the one person that everyone in the entire UPC caucus will agree should be held responsible for the contest!

It was Trudeau, wasn't it?

— Edwin 🆗2⃣🅱️🆒 (@edwinmundt) August 10, 2022

One other bit of funny stuff tonight:

As my friend @astridlange pointed out... This tweet is peak Toronto. https://t.co/Hj0Xs28Sbk

— 💉💉 Oenit 💉💉 (@angrycyclista) August 11, 2022