Raccoon Dogs 🌻 🌻 🌻

Indictments, Indictments: For years now, or maybe forever, we’ve been waiting for Trump to be indicted, for something or anything.  Our wait may be over soon, perhaps as early as this afternoon, that’s what many wishful pundits are saying. They may be right this time, at least that’s what Trump and his team seem to believe. Trump’s favorite whisperer, the NY Times’ Maggie Haberman, reports that he and his team have plans to go nuclear on Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg, the likely winner of the indictment sweepstakes, the moment an indictment is announced.  Borrowing a theme once pushed by the pre-conviction Michael Cohen, Joe Tacopina, one of Trump’s newest defense attorneys, recently appeared on MSNBC’s Ari Melber hour to combatively deny that Trump ever knew “horseface” Stormy Daniels, whose receipt of hush money in the run up to the 2016 election is expected to be the crime that earns Trump his first of what could be many indictments. And naturally, because the pundits need to do their thing, they’ve been all over the airwaves questioning whether it’s prudent for a payment to a porn star to be the first indictment out of the Trump gate while also predicting that such a nansy pansy indictment, or any indictment will rev up Trump’s base. Trump’s team isn’t just focused on Alvin Bragg, they’ve also started ramping up their attack of Florida Governor Ron DeSanctimonius which may explain yesterday’s Daily Beast reveal about Meatball Ron’s peculiar, or maybe just juvenile, eating habits.  In case you haven’t heard, not only does the dour Governor Ron sloppily stuff his mouth during staff meetings but he eats his chocolate pudding dessert sans utensils, scooping the gooey mess into his mouth using the three-finger method, a technique that makes Trump’s ketchup habits appear quaint. Gross, but that’s not what concerns me about Ron, rather I am more concerned about what he’s doing and saying: his “anti-woke” culture war, his anti-reproductive choice position, and his characterization of Ukraine’s battle against Russian aggression as a minor regional conflict. Some of the Republican base appears to be losing interest in him as well with some presidential polls showing an erosion in his popularity.  Also, his efforts to mold the mind of Florida’s college students took a hit yesterday when a federal appeals court refused to lift an injunction on his anti-woke bill put in place by another judge who called it “dystopian” while also saying that the First Amendment does not permit the State of Florida to muzzle its university professors, impose its own orthodoxy of viewpoints, and cast us all into the dark.” As to the war between Russia and Ukraine, it’s concerning and getting worse but characterizing it as a mere regional altercation seems delusional.  

Curation: Somehow or other Tucker Carlson’s curated selection of January 6 videos missed the one that showed Capitol police hurriedly whisking Republican Senator Chuck Grassley to safety.  Grassley was then serving as president pro tem of the Senate, the third in line to the presidency. The rest of us only got to see that video this week after the Department of Justice released it in relation to the criminal case of QAnon Shaman Jacob Chansley who Tucker wants us to believe was just another tourist roaming the Capitol in horns. Something else you probably won’t hear about on Tucker’s show is that new genetic data links the origin of the Coronavirus to raccoon dogs sold at the Wuhan market.  That newest nugget lends more credence to the virus originating from an infected animal rather than by the lab manipulation theory that the right prefers largely because it feeds their Fauci in cahoots with China fantasies. Not sure that we’ll ever know for sure how the virus came to be but being open to all possibilities and to the science seems like the right approach to take, no need to vilify Fauci.  One Chinese guy that probably deserves all the attention he’s getting, is Guo Wengui, the exiled Chinese billionaire who was arrested at his Sherry Netherland floor through apartment on Wednesday morning on charges related to wire, securities and bank fraud as well as money laundering.  Shortly after he was arrested a fire broke out in the apartment forcing FBI agents to leave while the FDNY did their thing.  Nothing but everything suspicious and weird about that. By the way, Guo Wengui is a financial benefactor of Steve Bannon and the owner of the yacht where Bannon was arrested for his build the wall fundraising scam.  

And:  Remember Truth Social, the Twitter wannabee founded by Trump’s media company?  Well, it’s usage is down from its previous anemic levels, it’s been laying off staff, has again lost its chief technology officer and its SPAC merger still hasn’t been approved.  Also, the ongoing federal criminal investigation into the Trump media company has been expanded to include possible money laundering linked to an $8 million loan with Russian ties because with Trump it’s always about Russia.  On a far more positive note, Biden’s plan to reduce the price of insulin appears to be working. Sanofi and Novo Nordisk are now capping prices of the lifesaving drug. Together with Eli Lily which earlier capped its prices, the three companies make up most of the US insulin market.  Tik Tok hasn’t been completely banned yet but if the administration gets its way, the company’s American arm will soon become a US owned company.  Then again, as Trump, who first floated that plan back when he was president learned, that’s easier said than implemented.  Kind of like putting out the bank contagion, that too isn’t so easy.  Yesterday, bank authorities in Switzerland provided problem child Credit Suisse with a $54 billion credit facility and here in the US a consortium of banks, including JP Morgan Chase, Bank of America, Wells Fargo, Citibank and Truist stepped up to provide a $30 billion lifeline to bolster California’s First Republic Bank’s liquidity.  One more thing, keep an eye on Texas where Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk is expected to issue a ruling soon on abortion drug mifepristone.  

Take a deep breath and enjoy the weekend.