SINCERETALK

U.S. District Judge Max Cogburn is losing patience with a billionaire Republican donor as he delays his 12-year sentence, according to the Charlotte Observer . “A federal judge warned Durham billionaire Greg Lindberg during a heated Monday morning hearing that he was ‘overestimating his intelligence’ by continuing to shuffle through lawyers and fight about how much restitution he must pay for bribing a North Carolina official and orchestrating a $2 billion scheme to defraud insurance companies.” Lindberg, founder and CEO of the private equity firm Eli Global LLC — renamed Global Growth — was recently sentenced to more than a decade in prison. But that was a “lighter sentence” option made possible by Lindberg’s proactive payments to his victims, U.S. District Judge Max Cogburn pointed out. A special master in charge of determining Lindberg’s restitution said he still owes more than $1.6 billion, but Lindberg says he doesn’t and has pulled in a new attorney to argue that the special mas...

When President Donald Trump attacked former Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell and replaced him with loyalist Kevin Warsh , it became clear that one of America’s most important financial institutions could be compromised by Trump’s political wishes. Now a right-wing newspaper, The Wall Street Journal, is running an editorial by a prominent conservative on how to retain the Fed’s independence from a Republican president. “The independence of the Federal Reserve is in peril. In Trump v. Slaughter, the Supreme Court vastly expanded the president’s power over so-called independent agencies,” Alton Frye, presidential senior fellow emeritus of the Council on Foreign Relations and a fellow of the National Academy of Public Administration, wrote on Tuesday . “In Trump v. Cook, decided the same day, the court recognized the unique standing of the Federal Reserve Board but left its independence in a precarious state. The vote was 5-4. If the Federal Reserve’s independence is to be protected, ...

American Christians have been “manipulated” into obeying President Donald Trump “ without question ” – a situation that is not only counter to their own teachings, but sets them on a path to “destruction.” This is according to Catholic historian Henry Karlson , who on Monday wrote a warning to his fellow faithful in which he explained the contradiction of their Christian nationalism and worship of Trump. “I find it extremely disheartening to see many Christians either accept what Trump does, obeying him without question, or outright promoting his agenda,” writes Karlson. “Christians are not expected to obey Trump in all things. We are expected to follow our conscience. We must recognize proper law and order follows and promotes the common good, not the personal desires and vices of one man.” “While this is something everyone should know,” says Karlson, “I find Christians often are the ones who must be reminded of this as they are the ones giving the greatest defense for Trump and his ...

When President Donald Trump's previous Cabinet officials reached -15 points in popularity, they were shoved out shortly after, explained CNN data analyst Harry Enten. Speaking about the failing approval ratings among Trump's Cabinet officials, Enten recalled that former Secretary Kristi Noem and former Attorney General Pam Bondi dropped to -16 points and -22 points, respectively, at the time that they were forced to resign. Currently, Vice President JD Vance has an approval of -17 points, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is at -22 points, Secretary Marco Rubio is -8 points and Health Secretary Robert Kennedy Jr. is -9 points. The worst, however, is Hegseth, who has been in a bad spot across the board. "This has been something that's been going on throughout the entire administration. He has been underwater in every single poll that I could find. That is his job disapproval rating being above his job approval rating. And Iran has not helped," said Enten. It's a ...

Donald Trump again tried rewriting the Constitution by issuing another executive order limiting birthright citizenship. Steve Vladeck has a breakdown of the details . For me, it was a reminder. No matter what happens in November, the republic still faces two more years of this gangster presidency – two more years of sabotage.¹ A Democratic Congress can check him, expose him, impeach and remove him. But it can't stop his crimes before they happen. His party won't be spared. The Washington press corps characterizes the president as if he were on the same side as the Republicans. Yet Donald Trump suggested last week that he's indifferent to the results of the congressional elections. If voters are mad, he said, it's not at him. "They’re angry at Republicans,” Trump said Friday in an interview with Punchbowl News . “But they’re not angry at me. They’re not angry at me, but they are angry at Republicans.” I think the conventional wisdom is missing that if the Republic...

President Donald Trump has repeatedly said that investigators exonerated him of accusations of improper connections with the Russian government, but a new report complicates that claim by exposing a previously-overlooked FBI investigation into those foreign ties. “For the last year, the Trump administration’s efforts to seek retribution against intelligence officials and FBI agents who investigated Russia’s 2016 election meddling have been spearheaded by federal prosecutors in South Florida trying to build a criminal case,” reported The New York Times' Michael S. Schmidt on Monday . “But in recent weeks, the White House has added a dimension to its push to rewrite the history of the Russia investigation, releasing a trove of previously classified FBI memos that it says back up President Trump’s claims that a so-called deep state was out to get him.” He added, “There is little new of substance in the documents, and nothing that fundamentally undercuts the FBI’s rationale for pursu...