REGISTRATION — Bette’s ‘Very Marty’ Happy Hour

Bette members — please register for our weekly Happy Hour, where ex-fed Martin Sheil will give us much needed updates on the Criminals of Trumplandia, Tuesday, April 2, 5 pm PT

***Registration link for paid members is below the paywall at the bottom of the post. Please take out a membership to join our community events, access all archives and support independent investigative journalism.***

Dunno about you, but I found last week’s Happy Hour — dedicated to an airing of grievances — enjoyable and productive. I love working with a group of people who clearly see the stakes and are taking appropriate action. What originally started as a weekly wellness session for global newsies has become a place to meet experts, and also form community. We have accomplished so much in our first year together.

I am also grateful for the Insomniacs of the Resistance — the people I can reach out after midnight who are up and ready to help me solve puzzles of corruption. You know who you are.❤️‍🔥

In watching Sasha Denisova’s play, The Hague, I am still reflecting on the character who delineated all the ways Russia has infected our body politic. In reading a Foreign Policy article in the wee hours, I am mortified that we are doing even less as a nation to combat Russia’s ongoing attacks than in the past.

Perhaps they cannot see the conceptual link between information war and military war—and refuse to recognize that the West is already at war with Russia, even if that war is not a military one.

If anything, there are signs that governments are taking Russia’s influence campaigns less seriously today than in the past. The British government first stymied the release of a damning report on Russian interference in British politics—and once the report was released, it did little to act on the findings. In Washington, the Biden administration is scaling back its efforts to head off Russian disinformation. Flummoxed by a barrage of criticism reflecting freedom of speech concerns, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security shuttered its Disinformation Governance Board in August 2022, even as Americans were being barraged by an unprecedented wave of pro-war and anti-Ukraine propaganda on social media. Since then, the U.S. State Department’s parsimonious funding has chiefly gone to small-scale nongovernmental organizations offering fact-checking and disinformation tracking services—a drop in the bucket at best.—Dr. Ian Garner, FP, March 2024

So as we determine if we are going to fight the bastards, and as we determine if we are still a country where the rule of law applies to those who orchestrated an insurrection against the US — and the orchestrations are ongoing — we’re bringing in our main man Martin Sheil to help us sort reality from unreality.

I am forever grateful to him for his time and expertise. As a retired IRS criminal investigator, Marty will tell you there’s nothing new under the sun.

He told me he “will be happy to discuss all of Trump’s legal actions, which can be boiled down to one chart.”

Trump 5 point legal strategy

1 Delay

2 Distract

3 Detract

4 Attack

5 Appeal

Among the main points he will be covering:

• Election Interference/Hush money

• J6 case - SCOTUS presidential immunity arguments

• Mar-a-Lago Jury instruction arguments April 2/Cannon stacking the deck?

• NY civil fraud case - Trump has to come up with $175M this Thursday April 4

• Georgia trial - Trump will appeal the Fani Willis decision

• Eastman disbarred

But wait, there’s more: “Trump hawking sneakers & Bibles & national security secrets? Does Secret Service/FBI question Trump regarding the posting of the hogtied Biden video as threatening the current Pres of the US?”

As Ruth Ben-Ghiat said at her three-year celebration of Lucid yesterday: “Silence is not a good look” in reference to law enforcement’s unresponse to Trump stoking violence.

To get an idea how powerful these sessions are, one thread from Marty resulted in multiple investigations of Mike Johnson.

BYLINE SUPPLEMENT: The Unchristian — ‘Mike Johnson’s Bad Bones’

It all started in a Happy Hour with Marty.

Looking forward to seeing many of you in the squares tomorrow. I am excited for new members to meet Marty. He is legend.

Marty in his happy place — the official opening of baseball season.

Members will find the link to register below, at the very bottom of this post xo

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Bette Dangerous is a reader-funded magazine. Thank you to all monthly, annual, and founding members. Thank you as well to all those who support my work with your generous coffee tips and who buy my ebooks. Some of you prefer making subsidizing donations via venmo, and it’s always greatly appreciated.

Also, a private link to an annual membership discount for older adults, those on fixed incomes or drawing disability, as well as activists and members of the media is available upon request at bettedangerous/gmail. 🥹

More info about Bette Dangerous - This magazine is written by Heidi Siegmund Cuda, an Emmy-award winning investigative reporter/producer, author, and veteran music and nightlife columnist. She is the cohost of RADICALIZED Truth Survives, an investigative show about disinformation and is part of the Byline Media team. Thank you for your support of independent investigative journalism.

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Begin each day with a grateful heart.

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BETTE MEMBERS: PLEASE REGISTER HERE…