Honestly... Yeah? It's another front on which we thought Russia was more robust than it actually is.

On Monday, the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals issued a stunning decision transferring control over the Navy's special operations forces from the commander in chief to a single federal judge in Texas. The 5th Circuit's decision marks an astonishing infringement of President Joe Biden's constitutional authority over the nation's armed forces, directing him to follow the instructions of an unelected judge—rather than his own admirals—in deploying SEALs. High-ranking military personnel have testified under oath that this power grab constitutes a direct threat to the Navy's operational abilities. As Russia invades Ukraine and declares a nuclear alert, Donald Trump's judges are actively threatening America's national security.

Like so many lawless cases in the 5th Circuit, this dispute began in the courtroom of U.S. District Judge Reed O'Connor. A notorious George W. Bush nominee, O'Connor is best known for attempting to abolish the Affordable Care Act in 2018, then getting reversed by a 7-2 vote at the Supreme Court last year. So when 35 Navy Special Warfare service members refused to comply with Biden's COVID-19 vaccine mandate for the armed forces, they brought their case to O'Connor. These service members—mostly SEALs, all represented by the far-right First Liberty Institute—claimed that their religious beliefs barred them from getting the shots. (Some said they heard “divine instruction not to receive the vaccine”; others asserted that the mRNA vaccines altered “the divine creation of their body by unnaturally inducing production of spike proteins.”)

O'Connor predictably sided against Biden in January, granting a preliminary injunction of staggering scope on the grounds that the mandate violates the Religious Freedom Restoration Act. He awarded himself sweeping authority over the assignment of the plaintiffs, forcing the Navy to deploy them with operational units. When several plaintiffs were denied transfer to a duty station, they asked O'Connor to sanction the government for allegedly violating his order; he promptly ordered the Justice Department to explain why it should not be punished for failing to deploy these service members. (O'Connor has not yet decided whether to impose sanctions.)

As of today, this lone judge continues to oversee the plaintiffs' assignments, forcing the Navy to train, equip, and deploy unvaccinated troops—with granular specificity as to their exact stations and duties.

Never before in the history of the United States has one district court judge exercised so much control over the armed forces. The Constitution assigns this authority to Congress and the president. There are certainly legal limits on executive discretion, including due process and constitutional safeguards against invidious discrimination. Right-wing lawyers have typically been loath to acknowledge any restrictions on the president's war powers. Indeed, the conservative legal movement has endorsed a near-limitless vision of the commander in chief: Republican presidents, lawyers, and judges have argued that the Constitution allows the president to deploy troops without congressional approval, indefinitely detain enemy combatants, and exclude entire classes of immigrants from the country. But now it seems they draw the line at a simple vaccine requirement—even though all service members were already required to have at least nine vaccines upon enlistment.

QAnon fringes

The lawsuit alleges that the U.S. Election Integrity Plan — led by Shawn Smith, an ally of former Trump strategist Steve Bannon and MyPillow founder Mike Lindell — is sending armed members door-to-door in areas with large numbers of voters of color, questioning people about how they voted and taking photographs of their homes.

...

"Defendants' objectives are clear. By planning to, threatening to, and actually deploying armed agents to knock on doors throughout the state of Colorado, USEIP is engaged in voter intimidation," the lawsuit states. "USEIP's public-facing actions are a clear signal to Colorado voters — especially voters of color — that to vote in an upcoming election means facing interrogation by potentially armed and threatening USEIP agents at their doorstep thereafter."

The lawsuit claims that some members have worn "badges" and falsely accused voters of fraud.

"Sometimes armed and donning badges to present an appearance of government officiality, USEIP agents interrogate voters about their addresses, whether they participated in the 2020 election, and — if so — how they cast their vote," the complaint says. "It is reported that multiple agents have claimed to be from 'the county,' and have, without any evidence, falsely accused the residents of casting fraudulent ballots."

The voting rights groups say the group's efforts to seek out areas where they believe voter fraud occurred has largely focused on high-density housing areas and communities experiencing a growth in the number of minority voters.

(https://www.politico.com/news/2022/03/24/donald-trump-sues-hillary-clinton-and-allies-russia-00020174)

Former President Donald Trump is suing 2016 Democratic Presidential nominee Hillary Clinton in a sprawling case that accuses her of conspiring with dozens of other actors — frequent targets of Trump's conspiracy theories and rage — to topple his presidency.

[...]

In the public docket for the case, Trump's attorneys included the home addresses of the vast majority of the defendants in the suit. For Trump, however, they listed the address of Ticktin's law firm.

Trump has repeatedly promoted dubious claims of foreign business dealings by Hunter Biden, specifically alleging that he received millions of dollars from the wife of Moscow's late mayor, Yury Luzhkov.

“She gave him $3.5 million so now I would think Putin would know the answer to that. I think he should release it,” Trump said in the interview, conducted at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida. “I think we should know that answer.”

Trump failed to mention that he himself sought to do business with Luzhkov's government in the late 1990s, according to POLITICO. Trump also was pursuing high-profile real estate deals in Russia as recently as 2016, including a proposed Trump Tower Moscow.