News at 10:30 🌻🌻🌻

Ukraine: President Biden is in NYC today to speak at the annual meeting of the United Nations where it’s expected that he’ll call upon members to keep supporting Ukraine.  In contrast, Vladimir Putin whose invasion of Ukraine isn’t going according to plan will not be in attendance.  Instead, despite Russia’s battlefield setbacks and the sanctions that are making life in Russia more difficult, he remains all in on expanding his fiefdom.  He’s calling up more troops, planning sham referendums in and the annexing of the significant parts of Ukraine he still controls and saber rattling with nuclear weapon as one does when their “quick” war isn’t going according to plan.  So basically, despite the remarkable successes of Ukraine’s forces, this war rages on and more ominously if the increasingly desperate Putin really plays his nuclear card, things are about to get much worse which is saying a lot, none of it good, given the atrocities he’s already committed, not to mention all those Russian oligarchs who keep falling out of windows or off boats.

Home Court:  Back at home, Putin’s one time and maybe forever BFF, the Former Guy who allegedly took some other country’s nuclear secrets with him to Mar a Lago, continues to wage his war in the courts. Yesterday, his lawyers, the ones he’s hired to represent him in his purloined documents case as opposed to the dozens he’s hired for all the other cases against him, hit a speed bump when Judge Raymond Dearie, their choice for Special Master, made it clear that he wasn’t buying what they were selling.  Specifically, Judge Dearie told the FG’s team that they “couldn’t have their cake and eat it too,” meaning that they couldn’t hide behind the myth that the FG had declassified classified documents without actually saying he had, something that none of his lawyers have been willing to say in court or in writing because doing so would be perjurious.  To that end Judge Dearie added "If the government gives me prima facie evidence that this is classified, and you decide not to advance a claim of declassification ... as far as I'm concerned that's the end of it," in other words absent any such assertion that they were no longer classified he would assume that documents marked classified were just that. Dearie went on to tell the FG’s lawyers that with regard to those classified documents, if he can make recommendations to Judge Cannon, the Florida judge who appears to reside in the FG’s pocket, without exposing himself or any of them to that material, he’s going to do it, hardly what they wanted to hear.  Dearie also called for everyone to act fast, something that further distressed the FG’s team because one of the points of this ridiculous exercise is to delay as much as possible.  Worth noting that according to Axios, the FG and his lawyers chose Judge Dearie because they believed he would lean their way because back when he served on the FISA Court, he approved search warrants in the Carter Page investigation relying on FBI statements that turned out to be false and incomplete. The FG’s team belief was that as a result of that experience Dearie had become a “a deep skeptic of the FBI” and would perform his Special Master role with that “jaundiced perspective.”  At least so far it appears that he’s not the jaundiced guy they hoped he would be.  Just to add to the confusion, the DOJ is still appealing parts of “pocket judge” Cannon’s decision and both they and the FG’s team filed briefs to the 11^th Circuit on that yesterday.

More Legalities: In other legal news, NYS Attorney General sent out a notice last night that she’ll be making a major announcement this morning at 10:30 AM.  Though she didn’t disclose the topic and it could relate to something else, the pundit class expects that she plans to say something big about the civil case against the FG Organization.  Notably last week she rejected a settlement offer that the FG’s lawyers proposed.  Stay tuned.  Also, because there’s always more, former Elle Magazine columnist E Jean Carroll who is already suing the FG for calling her a liar over her assertion that he had raped her in a Bergdorf Goodman fitting room years back now plans to take advantage of a New York law that goes into effect on November 24.  That new law gives adult sexual assault victims a one-time opportunity to file civil lawsuits, even if the statutes of limitations has long expired.  Carroll still has the dress that she was wearing the day the alleged rape took place and as former President Clinton knows, old dresses can be very revealing.   

Performative Hijinks:  Everyone sues so Florida’s Governor Ron DeSantis is now being sued by lawyers representing the asylum-seeking migrants that he flew from Texas to Martha’s Vineyard. The suit asserts that DeSantis’ scheme, which cost Florida’s taxpayers about $615,000 or $12,000 per person, was both “fraudulent and discriminatory” and likely also violated Florida law.  It’s not clear how much DeSantis cares about legalities since all he’s really doing is pandering to anti-immigrant voters and seeking publicity but it’s worth noting that after FlightAware reported that another presumably DeSantis funded charter flight from Texas was expected to land in Biden’s home state of Delaware that trip was cancelled. Adding to the absurdity, word is that the FG is quite annoyed that DeSantis has stolen his thunder.

Viral Musings: Much has been written about Biden saying that the coronavirus pandemic is over and Republicans in Congress are using his statement to weaponize their fight against funding vaccines and the like but the President is not entirely wrong nor is he entirely right.  COVID is still killing just under 500 Americans daily.  However, most though not all of the recently deceased are either unvaccinated or under boosted by choice because you can’t fix stupid or they fall into highly vulnerable categories due to age or prior illness.  His point which is shared by a number of experts is that we now have effective shots, tests and anti-viral treatments so at least until another more evasive or lethal variant shows up life is just about back to normal. That’s not to say that you shouldn’t still take precautions especially if you are a member of a vulnerable group or just don’t have the time to be sick and out of pocket for a week or more but things are much better than they were and this may well be the new normal, at least for now.