Panic Time 🌻🌻🌻

Midterm Madness:  The NY Times Editorial Board has endorsed Kathy Hochul, NY State’s accidental Governor, over Long Island Congressman Lee Zeldin.  That’s not all that surprising, more often than not the NY Times endorses Democrats.  However, what’s notable is what the NYT has to say about Zeldin and what he represents:  that while “New York has a long tradition of moderate, thoughtful Republicans, from George Pataki to Nelson Rockefeller, Mr. Zeldin is not part of this tradition.…Over and over again, he has demonstrated a loyalty to Trumpism over his oath to defend American Democracy and the Constitution.”  It’s not just that Zeldin, endorsed by the Former Guy, voted against certifying President Biden’s victory, he’s also celebrated the Dobb’s decision, has voted against reproductive rights every time he’s had the chance, is on record saying that he’ll appoint an anti-abortion health commissioner and is amplifying the message that New York is a hellscape that only he can fix, probably by further loosening gun restrictions.  What’s especially chilling is that despite all this, the NY race has tightened.  And it’s not just New York, the political pundits and pollsters are predicting a significant Republican pick-up in the House with the possibility that the Republicans will even win the Senate despite the clowns they have running in Georgia, Arizona, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, and a few other states I’ve likely missed. Alaska’s Lisa Murkowski, targeted by the FG over her impeachment vote, who is running as an independent is trailing her Republican opponent too and will only hold her seat if the state’s ranked voting system pulls her across the finish line. You only have to read the NY Times article about the ascension of Margie Q from fringe right wing loon to fully representative of what Republicans stand for these days to know that the consequences of this election could be dire. So vote, bring your friends with you and consider sending help to some swing candidates.  Also focus on some of the state races, particularly in Arizona where Katie Hobbs is neck and neck with Trumpist/election denier Republican Kari Lake and Wisconsin where Republican Tim Michels, another extremist election denier, is challenging moderate Democrat Governor Tony Evers. Both those Republican candidates are on record saying that they would overturn presidential election results they don’t like, Kari Lake even refuses to say that she’ll concede if she loses because obviously if she does it will be because of that non-existent election fraud and all that evil early voting by Democrats who refuse to be intimidated by armed “volunteers” patrolling drop boxes.  Not that we should forget the races in Florida, Georgia, Pennsylvania, and Michigan.  At this point only Pennsylvania appears safely Democratic at least for the Governor’s race because Republican candidate Doug Mastriano, an election denying insurrectionist who makes Kanye look like a friend of the Jews appears to be significantly trailing Democratic candidate Josh Shapiro.

Legally Yours:  The Former Guy spent his weekend on the campaign trail.  He’s once again flying in his own 757, likely refurbished with some of the “stop the steal” campaign cash that he’s raised since the 2020 election.  He’s as bat sh-t crazy as ever, but still commands significant crowds.  He’s also facing some legal headwinds, not that any of them have mattered to date.  He’s been subpoenaed by the House January 6^th committee and while he claims that he’ll testify as long as he can do so in public, don’t believe it.  Why would he put himself in legal jeopardy when he can just go out on the campaign trail and lie with impunity? Others in his orbit have testified in front of at least one grand jury, including loyalist Kash Patel, Pence aide Marc Short, one-time White House Counsel Pat Cipollone and various Mar a Lago aides. On that front, it appears that some of the documents taken by the FG to Mar a Lago contain super-secret info about Iran and China which was probably very convenient for those Chinese and Iranian spies working at the club.  Things are heating up in NY as well where his real estate organization is set to face criminal tax fraud charges.  That’s the case where CFO Allen Weisselberg, who has already plead guilty is set to testify.  It is centered on whether the FG organization defrauded NY tax authorities by awarding “off the books” compensation to its executives to enable the company to evade payroll taxes, not to be confused with the civil case being brought by NYS Attorney General Letitia James which is focused on those highly questionable valuations of his various properties.  Also, there’s the Fulton County Georgia case, the one centered on his plea to Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger to find those 11,000 or so votes.  Senator Lindsey Graham is now asking the Supreme Court to toss a federal Appeals Court ruling that agreed with a lower court’s ruling that he has to comply with a subpoena from County Attorney Fani Willis requesting him to testify about his conversations with Raffensperger. Lastly, the FG did finally give a deposition in the E Jean Carroll rape defamation case last week.  She’s expected to file a separate case next month once a new state law goes into effect allowing adult sexual assault victims a one-time opportunity to sue, even if the statute of limitations on their assault has expired. Niece Mary Trump has offered up her “familiar” DNA in the highly likely case that her uncle refuses to provide any of his.

Culture Wars: Kanye has doubled down on his hate tirade, continuing to blame “the Jews” for everything.  To that end fashion house Balenciaga has cut ties with him, The Gap claims to have done the same but is still aggressively marketing his overpriced sweatshirts so take that for what its worth and Adidas, the manufacturer of his Yeezy footwear says its thinking about what to do, a really bad look for a German company whose founders were members of the Nazi party. On the hate trail, Pennsylvania’s Republican Governor wannabe, Doug Mastriano, who has benefited from campaign contributions from the Nazi friendly Gab Twitter imitator app apparently agrees with his advisor Jenna Ellis, yes the Jenna Ellis of Rudy Giuliani and Four Seasons Gardening fame, who called out his opponent Josh Shapiro for being “at best a secular Jew like Joe Biden is a secular Catholic,” whatever that’s supposed to mean to most of us who are secular but spend far less time attending services in our respective houses of worship and who in any case find those kind of comments extremely offensive and what ever happened to separation of church and state anyway? On the subject of social media apps, Elon Musk, the faux diplomat who is another one to be concerned about, is due to close on his Twitter acquisition at the end of the week though the Biden administration is weighing the security implications of him doing so.  A leaked investor presentation indicates that Musk plans to axe a significant percentage of Twitter’s employees upon closing despite him saying that he won’t.  Maybe the worst part of the Twitter trade is that the banks committed to lending Musk the $13 +/- billion he needs to complete his acquisition will be taking loans onto their books that upon closing will be valued at somewhere around 50% of the amount lent. That sounds a like financial malpractice from an industry that has a history of leaving taxpayers holding the bag.  Okay, maybe that’s not the worst part, the worst part is that the FG and those other likeminded folks will be getting another platform to push dissension and hate onto in the run up to a pivotal election.