Frankly Mr Shankly 🌻🌻🌻

RIP Queen Elizabeth: To quote the jangle pop band The Smiths, the Queen is Dead and now it’s newly anointed King Charles the Third’s turn to “appear on the cover of the Daily Mail dressed in his mother’s veil.” Okay, just a bit too cute or too soon or both, but we did fight that Revolutionary War for a reason.  As expected, yesterday all our living presidents, current and former, sent expressions of condolence to the Royal family and the people of  the United Kingdom, our greatest ally. It should surprise no one that the Former Guy posted his lengthy message on his flailing Truth Social platform, and to be fair he probably meant all the nice things he said, after all he really is into the concept of royalty and would love to reign supreme for the rest of his life.  Though the passing of the 96 year old Queen was the dominant story of the day, a few other notable things happened here in the USA.  On the Mar a Lago purloined documents front, late yesterday in what is being called an artfully written FU notice, the Department of Justice filed a forceful response to the all too FG friendly Florida Judge Aileen Cannon, contesting her decision to give unusually deferential treatment to the Former Guy. That was the ruling where she said that the FG was entitled to have a special master review all of the documents that the FBI had removed from his premises, even the super-secret ones which according to the Washington Post include the nuclear secrets of at least one foreign government, maybe foes North Korea or Iran or maybe ally Israel, because it wasn’t fair for him to have his stellar reputation tarnished.  The DOJ essentially threatened to embarrass Judge Cannon in front of her higher court peers over her absurdly construed ruling which just about everyone outside of the FG’s orbit, including former Attorney General Barr has characterized as poorly thought out, wrong and stupid.  The DOJ said that at least for now that they can live with a special master but not for any of the documents marked with secret and confidential warnings and certainly not for any of the nuclear secrets, though they didn’t specifically mention the nuclear items because referencing them in a public filing even if they were hanging out at the very unsecured Mar a Lago for spies and anyone else who paid the $200,000 initiation fee to see would be a violation of super-secret protocol and espionage laws.  The DOJ also told the Judge that by putting the FBI’s investigation on hold, her ill thought out decision was making it impossible for the FBI to protect our national security interests.  It’s not clear that the Judge cares all that much about putting the whole country’s security at risk because of that whole FG reputation thing but she did respond quickly.  Last night she asked the FG’s team to respond ASAP to the DOJ’s comments so we should know soon enough if she’s going to let the DOJ and FBI proceed with their investigation or whether she really is all in on auditioning for a Supreme Court appointment in the FG’s next administration.

More Legalities: In other legal news through subpoenas sent to several talkative recipients, we learned that there is a Federal grand jury looking into the FG’s Save America leadership PAC, the fundraising juggernaut that was created to help him overturn the results of the 2020 election.  On the subject of far from Kosher money raising and spending activities, scuzzy Steve Bannon was back in court yesterday, this time in New York City where he was charged with money laundering, conspiracy and fraud related to an online scheme to raise money for the construction of the FG’s infamous Mexico border wall. Bannon, who of course asserts that he is the subject of one of those witch hunts, and his partner in fraud had promised donors that all the money raised would go to the Wall but somehow or other a whole bunch of it ended up in their personal bank accounts where it was used to fund some very personal expenses, funny how that happens.  Anyway even though the FG pardoned Bannon for his illicit wall funding activities before leaving DC, that pardon only covered Federal crimes, not state crimes and since the case against Bannon never went to court, under New York law double jeopardy does not attach so unlike Paul Manafort who could not be prosecuted in New York once the FG pardoned him because he had already been tried in a Federal Court, Bannon can be prosecuted.  Worth noting, the Chief Executive of Bannon’s We Build the Wall campaign has already plead guilty to wire fraud and tax charges.

Roe Roe Roe Your Vote: Yesterday despite the nefarious efforts of Republicans on the Michigan Board of Canvassers to reject a petition signed by far more than the requisite number of voters over a technical spacing problem, the State Supreme Court order that a proposal enshrining the right to an abortion in the state’s constitution be added to the November ballot.  Michigan is far bluer than very red Kansas so it’s highly likely that the proposal will pass and also quite likely that its very presence on the ballot will drive voter turnout among pro-choice voters who might have otherwise stayed home in an ordinary mid-term year, exactly what those Republicans were trying to prevent.  Michigan’s Democratic Governor Gretchen Whitmer is up for reelection, her opponent FG endorsed Tudor Dixon who is ardently anti-abortion and isn’t sure who won the 2020 election is already trailing her in the polls by about +/- 10% with independent voters leaning towards Whitmer in part because of their view on reproductive rights.  As to polls in general, it’s important to keep in mind that they are often off by a lot and that a lot of the undecideds end up voting red so stay focused and help where you can, in races up and down the ballot, state and federal.    

Viral Musings:  The new bivalent COVID booster is out and available. The shot protects against original COVID as well as the BA 4 and 5 Omicron variants.  Pfizer’s is approved for everyone over 12 and Moderna’s is approved for everyone over 18.  The CDC and virus guru Fauci say that we should start thinking of COVID booster shots the way we think about flu shots, in other words something to do annually. So unless you had COVID within the past three months or received an ordinary (monovalent) COVID booster less than two months ago, consider getting the shot sooner rather than later.  Otherwise, subject to the advice of your doctor, wait until your three months for a recent COVID case or two months for a recent booster is up and then get the new jab.