Trump’s feud with Pence could backfire — and cost him a presidential pardon: Jim Acosta
January 7, 2021, 9:20 PM ET
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The case stems from an attempt by a California lawyer, Steve Elster, to trademark the sexually suggestive phrase and print it on T-shirts.
Elster's bid to register "Trump too small" was rejected by the US Patent and Trademark Office because he did not have Donald Trump's written consent to use his name.
A federal court of appeals disagreed, ruling that it was a violation of Elster's First Amendment free speech rights.
Somewhat ironically, it is the administration of Democratic President Joe Biden, on behalf of the US Patent and Trademark Office, that appealed to the Supreme Court.
Elster's attorney, in a brief, said the phrase is "political commentary" and while it does involve a double entendre it is meant to convey his client's view of "the smallness of Donald Trump's overall approach to governing as president of the United States."
The phrase "Trump too small" arose from the 2016 Republican presidential primaries during which Senator Marco Rubio of Florida said Trump had "small hands" and "you know what they say about men with small hands."
Trump, who frequently referred to Rubio during the campaign as "Little Marco," responded by saying "Nobody has ever hit my hands."
"He referred to my hands. If they're small, something else must be small. I guarantee you there is no problem," Trump said in one of the bawdier exchanges of the 2016 campaign.
The Supreme Court will hear the case during the term which begins in October.
© 2023 AFP
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DeSantis' fingerprints 'all over it' after migrants flown to Sacramento: California AG
June 05, 2023
California Attorney General Rob Bonta on Sunday accused Florida governor and 2024 GOP presidential hopeful Ron DeSantis of duplicitously sending a group of South American migrants to Sacramento in a bid to score "cheap political points."
"This is Gov. DeSantis, this is his baby, this is his project, his fingerprints are all over it," Bonta, a Democrat, told the Los Angeles Times. "The governor signed it, the Legislature approved to fund it in the budget, and they hired Vertol Systems Co., a vendor, to carry out the work."
"It's DeSantis being exactly who he is and advertising to the world that he is petty, little... and full of political stunts that hurt, harm, and abuse and exploit people to try and get cheap political points," he added. "It's wrong."
Bonta's remarks were based on documents the 16 migrants from Venezuela and Colombia were carrying that showed the chartered flight they took from New Mexico to Sacramento was coordinated by the Florida Division of Emergency Management. Vertol Systems has arranged similar flights in the past, including the September 2022 transportation of a large group of Venezuelan and Colombian migrants from San Antonio, Texas to Martha's Vineyard in Massachusetts.
"Human trafficking is not only despicable; it's a felony."
According to the faith-based community organizing group PICO California, the 16 South Americans were approached outside a migrant center in El Paso, Texas by representatives of a private contractor who promised them jobs and other assistance. The group was bused from El Paso to New Mexico and then flown to Sacramento, where they were dropped off Friday night outside the city's main Catholic church.
"They were lied to and deceived," PICO campaign director Eddie Carmona told the Associated Press.
Bonta told the Times that "they never intended to help them find a job but told them that they would do that so they could get on the plane and sign their documents and be transported to Sacramento."
"They completely exploited, abused, and manipulated these folks who were vulnerable and were hoping and dreaming of a job and told they would be helped finding that job only to be abandoned," he added.
Cecilia Flores, narrative and communications strategist at the multi-faith advocacy group Sacramento Area Congregations Together, toldKCRA that the migrants are "in shock."
"I think they're very exhausted," she added. "I think they are just trying to catch up with processing exactly what happened."
Sacramento Bishop Jaime Soto told the Times that "the urgency to respond was heard by Catholics and people of goodwill."
"We are thankful to our partner organizations who took up the holy work of hospitality, dedicating their time and resources to ensure that every migrant did not feel alone and abandoned," he added.
Bonta and Democratic California Gov. Gavin Newson said Saturday that they met with around a dozen of the affected migrants. Bonta said the California Department of Justice is investigating who paid for their flight and whether any laws were broken.
"While we continue to collect evidence, I want to say this very clearly: State-sanctioned kidnapping is not a public policy choice, it is immoral and disgusting," Bonta said in a statement. "We are a nation built by immigrants and we must condemn the cruelty and hateful rhetoric of those, whether they are state leaders or private parties, who refuse to recognize humanity and who turn their backs on extending dignity and care to fellow human beings."
"California and the Sacramento community will welcome these individuals with open arms and provide them with the respect, compassion, and care they will need after such a harrowing experience," he added.
Democratic Sacramento Mayor Darrell Steinberg also issued a statement Saturday asserting that "human trafficking is not only despicable; it's a felony."
"I urge the appropriate authorities to investigate how 16 vulnerable people were lured to travel from El Paso, Texas, to Sacramento," he added. "Whoever is behind this must answer the following: Is there anything more cruel than using scared human beings to score cheap political points?"
DeSantis, along with Republican Gov. Greg Abbott of Texas and Doug Ducey, Arizona's former GOP governor, have bused or flown more than 12,000 migrants to Democratic-led cities since April to protest what they falsely call the Biden administration's "open border" immigration policies.
Florida's Republican-controlled Legislature has recently authorized $22 million for DeSantis' program of sending migrants to sanctuary states and cities.
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'What is real?' Jan. 6 defendant acts as own attorney in 'stream of consciousness' court documents
June 05, 2023
A California yoga instructor who allegedly conspired with extremists to disrupt government operations on Jan. 6, 2021, has defended himself in a highly unusual court filing.
In a document submitted to the United States District Court for the District of Columbia, Alan Hostetter chose to represent himself instead of obtaining an attorney.
Hostetter argues he was wrongly charged over the Jan. 6 attacks.
"President Trump won the 2020 election in one of the biggest landslide victories in U.S. history," the document begins. "Our constitutional republic was overthrown. An imposter president was installed. This was an actual act of treason rather than a false flag fedsurrection, as was J6. (FACT)."
In the document, Hostetter accuses the federal government of "entrapment" because "there is no (legitimate) explanation other than federal law enforcement and intelligence agencies staged this obvious false flag event for nefarious purposes."
Hostetter asserts Jan. 6 could not be considered a riot because he was present for the 1992 riots over Rodney King's beating while serving as a police officer.
"What is real? What is fake?" he asks. "Very early in my career I was sent to the urban war zone of the Rodney King Riots in L.A. – an actual and very real riot, unlike fedsurrection."
The document recalls Hostetter's time as an undercover officer to burnish his expertise.
"My hair was down to my shoulders," he says. "I had grown a Fu Manchu mustache and wore an earring. When about to serve a search warrant or take down a suspect in a sting operation, I would don a raid jacket and hang my badge around my neck."
At one point in the filing, Hostetter offers the court a "stream of consciousness" about his recollections of the 1992 riots.
"Electricity Blackouts, fires still occasionally burning, high rise buildings... red/orange on gray/black... eerie luminescence... thoughts of Dresden," he writes. "Sleeping in nearby hotel... eager to rise and get back in the fight with my brothers in arms. Sheepdogs by nature, we are. Some things never change."
Hostetter then launches into conspiracy theories about Ashli Babbitt's death and 9/11.
"If I am able to bring just one person to a new level of awareness where they can accept this reality... only then can that one person begin to understand and accept that the Ashli Babbitt shooting was fake and staged. Maybe that one person will then tell ten or twenty more, and so on," he adds. "When realizing the former is truth regarding 9/11, one also then realizes the latter showing the few minutes it took to stage 'Ashli's' shooting at the Capitol was child's play to those who organized it. The CIA and FBI stage these sorts of false flags at home and abroad regularly and have been doing it for generations."
He insists Babbitt's killing "was staged and fake."
"I appreciate the court and the public's continued patience and attention to the words written in this filing and the others I have written thus far. Dawn is breaking," he concludes.
In previous filings, Hostetter has ranted about the JFK assassination and Tucker Carlson's firing.
Read the document here.
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