Day-o, Day-o 🌻 🌻 🌻

Shattered at Bergdorf:  Yesterday was the first day of testimony in former Elle magazine writer E Jean Carroll’s civil defamation and rape case against Trump.  The defamation in question here, as opposed to all the other times Trump slimed people, relates to him calling Carroll’s allegation that he raped her in a Bergdorf Goodman’s dressing room sometime in the 1990s “a hoax and a lie” after he left office, not to be confused with the time he defamed her while still in office which is a different case where he may or may not be protected because he was still president at the time of his utterance.  Although the alleged rape took place outside of the statute of limitations, Carroll is able to sue Trump because of the 2023 New York Adult Survivors Act, a law giving adult victims of sexual assault a limited one-year lookback window to file civil lawsuits for financial compensation. Since this is a civil rather than a criminal case, if the jury rules in Carroll’s favor the penalty will be a fine rather than a jail term. That’s better for Trump but what’s worse for him is that unlike in a criminal case, where a jury can find a defendant guilty only if the evidence is beyond a reasonable doubt, here the bar is lower, the jury only has to believe that a preponderance of the evidence has been proven to be true. Carroll is fuzzy on the timing of the assault and didn’t report the rape at the time it occurred, but she did contemporaneously tell two friends, Carol Martin then a local CBS news anchor and Lisa Birnbach, best known as the author of the then popular The Official Preppy Handbook and Bergdorf dressing rooms are frequently secluded and quiet. Birnbach told her to report the rape, the more pragmatic Martin advised her not to, telling her that Trump was a powerful man with lots of lawyers who would ruin her, an observation that was sadly spot on.  Judge Lewis Kaplan who is overseeing the case, held in a Federal rather than a state court, something to do with Trump and Carroll residing in different states, has ruled that the Access Hollywood tape, the one where Trump bragged that he could do anything to women including “grab em by the pussy” can be admitted into evidence.  In addition to Birnbach and Martin, jurors are expected to hear testimony from a former People magazine reporter who alleges that Trump assaulted her at Mar a Lago.  None of this is good for Trump who says he’s too busy to show up in court because he’s running for president, his other legal cases and his planned trip to his Scotland golf courses even though he has had plenty of time to double down on defaming Carroll.  He’s published a series of Truth Social posts calling her allegations a politically motivated “made up SCAM,” something that has not pleased the no nonsense Judge Kaplan who yesterday more or less told Trump’s lawyer to shut him up or else as if or else ever happens to Trump. Naturally, Trump being Trump, he responded by having his son Eric start serving as his shadow poster, something that further raised the Judge’s ire.  For her part Carroll who started testifying yesterday by saying that “I am here because Donald Trump raped me and when I wrote about it, he said it didn’t happen. He lied and shattered my reputation, and I am here to try to get my life back” seemed both believable and worthy of sympathy. The bottom line, Carroll stands a good chance of winning this case meaning that the Republican’s leading candidate for the presidency will be a twice impeached, so far once indicted, rapist.     

Nip and Tuck: The twice impeached guy’s good friend Vladimir Putin must really be upset about losing Tucker Carlson’s Fox timeslot.  Not only has Russian media offered Carlson a job but Putin’s Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has weighed in more than implying that Carlson’s “curious” ouster reflects a lack of support for free speech and differing viewpoints.  Seriously, Russian dissidents are falling to their deaths out of first floor windows, dying from poisonings and rotting in jail as is Wall Street Reporter Evan Gershkovich, and this is what Sergey has to say.  Sadly, it’s pretty much what Margie Q and Putin’s US based echo chamber is also saying. We still don’t know for sure why Tucker was fired but Rolling Stone reports that Fox has a whole file on him, one that includes all those nasty “c” words he used as well as some things that they believe will keep him from directly disparaging the network.  That said, Tucker has reappeared.  Last night he posted a rambling two minute You Tube video, where he said little but did bash online debates as “incredibly stupid” and “completely irrelevant.” Not so coincidentally earlier this week Trump also bashed debates, suggesting that he has no intention in participating in the Republican ones, or probably any other ones if he’s the GOP’s candidate. Former Arkansas Gove Asa Hutchinson, a mainstream Republican who like the others is anti-abortion and is into voter suppression but delivers his message in a soft-spoken way, is officially running and that other Governor, Ron DeSantis, who is now being sued by The Mouse, is expected to officially announce his candidacy in May if he doesn’t fully implode first. In other GOP news, Montana’s Republican controlled House of Representatives have learned nothing from the pushback and nasty press that their Tennessee colleagues encountered when they kicked out two Black legislators for speaking out against guns while being Black, they’ve banned transgender representative Zooey Zephyr from setting foot back in “their” House because she’s dared to speak out against their efforts to ban gender affirming care.  Apparently, they found her references to young people committing suicide offensive, not the part about them committing suicide, just that she’s talking about it in their House.  It’s only a matter of time before Florida follows in Montana’s footsteps, legislators there are seeking to pass a law that would allow the state to remove transgender children from gender affirming parents. 

Tick Tock: Late yesterday by a vote of 217 to 215, House Republicans passed a bill raising the debt ceiling while fairly drastically cutting federal spending.  Four Republicans, Andy Biggs, Ken Buck, Tim Burchett and Matt Gaetz, voted against the bill.  Nancy Mace who keeps pretending to be rational as well as all of the so-called swing district Republicans, including George of many names Santos, voted for it. The bill, called the Limit, Save, Grow Act, will be dead on arrival in the Senate so its passage by the House has done little to solve the debt ceiling crisis.  Among the items included are large cuts in Medicaid and Veterans benefits, killing new IRS funding, repealing green energy tax credits, adding work requirements for some federal benefits, and cutting funding for train inspectors and FAA employees because who but “socialists” really care if a few more trains spew poisonous stuff while running off their tracks or some of those near plane misses turn into tragic crashes. McCarthy needed a win, he’ll spin this as him solving a bigly problem without any help from President Biden, so he’s happy, at least for now, but since neither Biden nor the rest of the Democrats are going to agree to most of McCarthy’s cuts, the clock keeps ticking.    

Tally me Banana:  Things continue to deteriorate at Twitter.  Over the weekend, the Chief Twit eliminated blue check verification marks for all but the few who paid-up but since few people actually paid-up, he gave certain celebrities back their blue checks to make it seem like they had even though they hadn’t in the hope that their free blue checks would inspire their fans to ante up. A significant number of the “gifted” celebrities then made it clear that they hadn’t paid for their blue checks even though their bio information indicated that they had.  As a result, having a blue check is now considered an indication of pathetic dorkiness or worse.  Elon had hoped to replace ad revenues with blue check subscription fees but with few if any actually paying, he hasn’t succeeded unless more chaos is a measure of success because his policy has inspired a whole raft of copycat accounts with fake government accounts sprouting up and sharing disinformation, a problem for municipalities trying to share critical information and for those who need that information. Twitter’s algorithms are now also prioritizing tweets from Russian and Chinese propaganda outlets something noted by one Russian propagandist who thanked Elon for elevating her voice.

 

 

Tuck You 🌻 🌻 🌻 🎻 🎻 🎻 🎻

Cue the Teeny Violins: Imagine being Don Lemon, you work for CNN for 17 years, get canned and the story of your dismissal is nothing more than a footnote to a way bigger one, the firing of Fox’s Tucker Carlson. It’s not just Lemon whose story was swallowed up by the Tucker tsunami, Jeff Shell’s dismissal was too.  Until the weekend, when Shell was fired for engaging in “inappropriate conduct with a female employee” he’d been the CEO of NBC/Universal, arguably a much bigger position than Tucker’s. But Tucker was and maybe still is a force of nature, the big Kahuna in the hate sweepstakes, so it’s worth starting with him.  No one except for the Murdochs and Fox management know exactly why he was fired but there are a few credible theories none of them related to him pushing the Great Replacement Theory or being an unrepentant bigot with an affinity for Vladimir Putin and Viktor Orbán.  If anything, those are the characteristics that his bosses at Fox loved and likely shared.  Rather the theories are that Tucker who didn’t see the axe coming and wasn’t told why he was kicked to the curb, was fired for some combination of the following: for seriously disparaging Fox Management during his Dominion depositions; for repeatedly using the “C” word to describe women during those depositions; for some other more damaging revelations included in the redacted to the public but known to Fox parts of the texts uncovered during the Dominion discovery process; for something related to the discrimination lawsuit by Abby Grossberg, the Fox producer who asserts that Fox lawyers told her to be inventive, as in to prevaricate, during her Dominion deposition; and because Fox is cleaning itself up in anticipation of a future sale.  Don’t feel too bad for Tucker, he’s very rich and doesn’t need to ever work again but if he wants to, he already has some options, one from Russia State Media if their tweet offer is to be taken seriously and another from right wing media outlet OANN to come by and talk.  OANN is broke so maybe they’re looking for a capital infusion in exchange for providing their platform although it’s hard to see how either OANN or that other financially strained right-wing network Newsmax could afford to hire Tucker, not just because of his compensation demands but because of the liability that would come along with him, both OANN and Newsmax are still in Dominion’s crosshairs and Smartmatic’s suit is just around the corner. Even on Fox, Tucker didn’t generate ad revenues due to the toxic nature of his drivel. It’s probably too early to say a final good-bye to Tucker but still it’s nice to see him gone from Fox, well nice for everyone but the usual characters including Eric Trump, Margie Q, Lauren Boebert and Gym Jordan and their crowd.  All of them are up in arms, calling for a Fox boycott or worse.     

Lemonade: Moving to Lemons, it turns out that Don’s shtick didn’t go over well with the morning crowd or more significantly  CNN’s new management which is kind of ironic given that it was new CEO Chris Licht who moved him from his night time slot where he was freer to express his opinions to CNN’s morning show which, according to Licht’s vision, is supposed to deliver blander, centrist news in a collegial environment.  The move didn’t work, Lemon put his foot in his mouth a few times and didn’t play well with his new compatriots Poppy Harlow and CNN’s current “it girl” Kaitlan Collins, especially with Kaitlan who started her career at the Tucker Carlson founded Daily Caller.  So, after months of what seemed like management approved leaks about Lemon being misogynistic and difficult, Licht axed him. Media being a small world, it’s reported that Tucker and Don have hired the same lawyer to represent them in what is expected to be protracted settlement “negotiations.”  Let’s not forget Jeff Shell, less well known outside of the media world but a bigly player, the now former NBC/Universal CEO got caught with his pants down, after Abu Dhabi based Hadley Gamble, a senior international correspondent at CNBC who previously worked at Fox, because everyone in media works everywhere, and who has interviewed world leaders including Putin provided messages that documented the married Shell harassing her. Apparently, Shell and Gamble had been involved to some degree for eleven or so years. Forget about fingerprints and DNA, these days it’s the texts that do you in.     

2024: President Biden made it official this morning, announcing that he’s running for reelection.  A few more polls touched down yesterday and unlike the weekend’s NBC polls that dissed Biden they show Joe beating both DeSantis and Trump in key swing states so as I said yesterday, forget about the polls, they probably mean little at this point.  DeSantis is on a world tour, trying to burnish his international creds by visiting South Korea, Japan, the UK and Israel.  Yesterday he and his wife Casey who looked like she was dressed in Disney princess attire were in Tokyo where when questioned about polls showing him behind Trump, DeSantis responded that he hadn’t even announced his run so who cares about polls.  He’s not wrong about that but his head went into full bobble mode, betraying that he really is concerned and he should be because back at home Trump received endorsements from GOP Senator and campaign chair Steve Daines as well as from NY Republican darling Lee Zeldin, the former Congressman who was a stronger than expected challenger to NY’s Governor Hochul and who is also expected to challenge NY Senator Kirsten Gillibrand who is up for reelection this cycle.

Fanning the Flames: As if yesterday’s news cycle wasn’t full enough Fulton County DA Fani Willis also weighed in with some plums of her own.  The bad news is that unless she’s pulling an Alvin Bragg-like fake, she won’t be indicting anyone including Trump in May, but the good news is that she will be dropping some indictments somewhere between July 11 and September 1.  That’s what she revealed in letters sent to state and local law enforcement where she told them there would be a “need for heightened security and preparedness in coming months due to a pending announcement.”

 

  

Stay For Now🌻 🌻 🌻

Choice:  On Friday by a vote of 7 to 2, with Justices Alito and Thomas dissenting, SCOTUS granted a full stay in the Mifepristone case, leaving the drug’s status, including its FDA approval, usage parameters and the legality of distribution through the US mail, intact.  Alito was the only Justice with anything to say.  In his brief but snide dissent he said that he didn’t believe that the “compromise” limitations imposed by the Fifth Circuit, specifically limiting the use of Mifepristone to the first 7 rather than the current 10 weeks of pregnancy and the requirement of three doctor’s visits were a big deal, a not all that surprising view given that he authored the Roe overturning Dobbs opinion.  The Mifepristone fight isn’t over since all the Friday ruling did was kick a final decision on Mifepristone down the road for a year or so by sending the case back to the very conservative Fifth Circuit where the same three judges who’d said that it was unlikely that the challenge to at least some of the FDA’s decision authorizing Mifepristone would fail, will hear oral arguments in May.  Their ruling could then be reviewed by the full fifth circuit before the losing side appeals to SCOTUS where, despite Friday’s stay a majority of the judges have already shown their animosity to abortion.  The continued availability of Mifepristone could depend on whether Judge Amy or the wives of any of the other six Justices who overturned Roe ever experienced a difficult miscarriage because relying solely on their jurisprudence hasn’t really worked out for us thus far. Judges really do matter which is why Senator Dianne Feinstein’s absence and its impact on confirming more judges is such a problem.  For what it’s worth, and it’s probably not worth a lot since he's been known to prevaricate, Senator Lindsey Graham says that he would vote to allow Democrat to seat a replacement on the Senate Judiciary Committee if Feinstein leaves the Senate, something she so far has shown no interest in doing.    

Legal Morass:  Trump is due back in court this week, not on any of the myriad cases addressing his election or document crimes but for the E Jean Carroll rape defamation case where US District Court Judge Lewis Kaplan who is hearing the case has ruled that the names of jurors should be kept secret to protect them from intimidation or worse.  On the subject of intimidation, or at least attempted intimidation, Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg and attempted intimidator House Judiciary Chair Jim “Gym” Jordan have settled their differences, well some of their differences.  As a result, attorney Mark Pomerantz who briefly worked for the Manhattan DA’s office on the Trump “hush money” case before bolting over Bragg’s initial failure to charge Trump only to write a book about his experience will be permitted to sit for a deposition.  Both sides have claimed victory in this skirmish, with Gym obtaining fodder for another distraction and Bragg saying that the agreement that he struck protects his office’s privileges and interests.  On the subject of distractions, weird ones at that, the press has been full of stories about Hunter Biden and his crimes again with Fox and a number of “in the know” members of Congress, all Republicans of course,  also alleging that Hunter’s crime wave will take down the whole Biden “crime family.”  While Hunter does have some real problems, tax evasion and something related to a gun, it’s hard to tell what’s really going on so we will have to wait for the Trump regime appointed US Attorney David Weiss who is in charge of his case to say anything before knowing all the facts.  Emphasis on the Trump appointment, Weiss was held over from the Trump days precisely to avoid any interference from Biden’s team, but you’d be hard pressed to know that given the histrionics that keep showing up particularly in Fox owned media.  Circling back to Trump’s Fulton County situation, reports are that Fani Willis has uncovered some more incriminating information, some texts between members of Trump’s legal team in which they discussed using voting data to overturn not just the presidential election but also to keep a Republican hold on the Senate. Willis once promised that she’d be handing down her indictments imminently, which was eventually interpreted to mean early May.  Let’s hope that May date still stands because the 2024 election tock is ticking.

2024: Over the weekend various outlets reported on polls that show that most voters don’t want Biden to run for reelection, and a few others that show some Republicans who don’t want Trump even though he appears to be doing far better against Biden than he should be doing.  Take those polls with a grain of salt, it’s too early and regardless of what they say Biden is running and is expected to announce this week.  Trump is running too and at least for now, he appears to be very focused on taking Ron DeSantis down.  In addition to attacking Ronny D’s bizarre pudding eating habits, Trump has an ad out that details how awful Florida has become with DeSantis in charge.  Should DeSantis, who has countered that Trump move to another state,  withstand Trump’s attacks, that ad will likely be used by Democrats at some point in the future. It’s fun to watch the two going after each other, but not so much fun when you consider that one of them could end up in the Oval Office, or not as a few more Republicans appear to be getting closer to throwing their hats in the official or unofficial ring.  One of Ron DeSantis’ previous large donors is now throwing his money at Virginia’s Republican Governor Glenn Youngkin, who is term limited and will need another job soon enough and former Texas Congressman William Hurd, who frequently said all the right things but then didn’t vote for Trump to be impeached is also talking about running. Then there’s George of many names and crimes Santos, he’s found a way to make himself relevant.  Santos is threatening to vote against Kevin McCarthy’s debt ceiling/budget slashing plan. As crazy as it seems, Santos is running for reelection, he needs campaign money, and it would be so like him to hold Kevin hostage for some Republican campaign cash.  Kevin has already shown that he’ll concede to anything to keep his job and the debt ceiling impasse could destroy both the economy and of more concern to Kevin, his speakership so Santos could be on to something.

Fox Carriage Fees:  Fox makes most of its money from cable carriage fees rather than advertising with only ESPN charging cable companies more.  Fox is currently negotiating with a number of cable carriers including Spectrum/Charter, Xfinity/Comcast, and Cox, trying to raise their already high monthly fees from $2 to $3 per subscriber, after all they’ve got some large and potentially growing legal expenses to cover and Pillow ad revenues only go so far. Carriage fees are passed on to subscribers so while you might not realize it you have a voice; you can contact your cable provider telling them that Fox is not your cup of tea and that you don’t want to pay the increase.  Subscriber feedback can impact fee negotiations.  Fox knows that which is why they rally their fans to call when they are in the midst of negotiations. More information about how to contact your carrier can be found at nofoxfee.com.  

             

Hickory Dickory Dock  🌻 🌻 🌻

Still Waiting: The biggest news today is that so far there is no news.  SCOTUS hasn’t yet issued their much-anticipated Mifepristone ruling though they have promised to do so by midnight tonight.  That their decision is taking so long likely indicates that the Justices are not in agreement, alarming because even most conservative judges believe that Texas district court Judge Kacsmaryk’s Mifepristone banning ruling lacks standing, and that doesn’t even consider that it also lacks scientific merit and is no more than an anti-abortion diatribe by a long-term opponent to abortion cloaked in judicial robes.  SCOTUS has several options, the Court could continue to ensure full access to Mifepristone, stick with the onerous restrictions imposed by the conservative Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals or suspend the pill from the market entirely while the litigation continues.  Given that the SCOTUS ruling is due to be issued after markets close, some in the pharmaceutical industry, where concerns about the impact of courts interfering in the FDA decision making process are growing, fear the worst. If it’s Mifepristone today why not HPV vaccines, AIDs prevention drugs, and even the Pill tomorrow?  We’ll know soon enough if these fears are rational or overblown.   

Tick Tock: The clock isn’t just ticking for reproductive rights, the debt ceiling is also looming.  To no one’s surprise Speaker McCarthy is trying to tie an increase in the debt ceiling to a fairly draconian, unrealistic set of budget cuts.  In exchange for only a one year “lift,” he wants to cut $4.5 trillion by limiting discretionary spending, retrieving unspent pandemic-related funds, eliminating Biden’s student loan forgiveness plan, cutting key climate plan funding, and taking a knife to funds earmarked for the IRS.  Among other things the discretionary cuts, a poor choice of words for cuts that would really hurt people, would significantly impact who gets health care and who qualifies for SNAP (food stamps).  Ironically cutting IRS spending would actually increase the deficit but the Republicans love going after the IRS. It’s not clear that McCarthy has the votes to pass his plan through Congress where he’ll need almost every member of his narrow caucus to sign on and there’s no way his plan will pass in the Senate so Kevin is also engaging in blame shifting histrionics screaming from the rafters that if President Biden, the socialist scourge who wants to unleash thousands of IRS troopers on all of America doesn’t agree and the world economy crashes, the fault will be Joe’s not his.  Some of this drama is normal, well normal for US politics, but Kevin has virtually no room to maneuver and though Biden might ultimately have to agree to some cuts during real budget negotiations, he’s unlikely to concede to anything at this point, holding firm to his position that raising the debt ceiling should not be tied to budget negotiations. President Joe’s position isn’t irrational, even his frequent critic economist Larry Summers agrees with it.  One thing’s for certain, the ride will be bumpy from here.

Guns, Guns, Bigotry:  Who would have guessed that when more and more people have guns and are allowed to carry them everywhere they actually use them to shoot people?  So it’s not just those mass shootings with AK 47s, or gang inspired shootings with illegally obtained weapons, it’s driveways and parking lots.  Just days after a young man, who by the way wasn’t a hulking 6-foot-tall body builder but a rather skinny 5’8” Black teenager, was shot for knocking on the wrong door two Texas cheerleaders have been shot, with one now in an ICU.  Their crime, they accidentally got into the wrong car in a supermarket parking lot, a mistake that has inspired more than one car ad but is now probably banished from future scripts, because GUNS. It’s not just guns, bigotry is now out in the open too.  To be honest, it never went away but now it seems so much more acceptable. How else to explain why an Oklahoma sheriff felt so comfortable kibbitzing with his colleagues about killing reporters and lynching Black people, like they used to do in the good old days?  That conversation was caught on tape by a reporter who left a voice activated recorder in a room he’d recently been booted from.  Since the recording destroys the usual “we didn’t say that defense,” the Oklahoma sheriff crowd, one of whom has already resigned, is going with the “that tape was illegal” defense.  It’s possible that the recording is illegal but so is lynching, maybe even more so.  And remember the two Justins, who were voted out of the Tennessee legislature for violating decorum rules, well one of the Republican legislators who led the charge against them was at that time under investigation for sexual harassment.  He has since been outed and as a result has resigned because just maybe sexual harassment trumps loudly protesting guns even in Tennessee, well maybe.

People and Politics:  Ron DeSantis, the 6-week abortion banner who is also working to deprive undocumented migrants from obtaining health care and pushing for the death penalty to be imposed by majority as opposed to unanimous jury votes, is still going after Disney.  That Disney fight started because the Mouse spoke out against his Don’t Say Gay bill, the bill that was only supposed to impact discussions with elementary school children.  Well despite assertions that the intent of the bill was to protect the most vulnerable ears from learning that their fellow students might have two moms or two dads, the DeSantis appointed Florida Department of Education has expanded the bill’s prohibitions to high school students because their ears are delicate too?  DeSantis may have gone too far with his efforts to win over the evangelical crowd.  They may like what he’s doing but apparently some others in the Republican Party don’t. He’s lost a few more Florida endorsements to Trump and now there’s talk that his unannounced run for the presidency may never be announced. If true, that’s not a bad thing but the part about Trump gaining more endorsements is.  That said, one group that Trump appears to have infuriated is the very anti-abortion Susan B Anthony Pro Life America group.  They’re upset with him saying that abortion restrictions should be left up to individual states, not the federal government calling that a “morally indefensible position for a self-proclaimed pro-life presidential candidate.”  Apparently, they’ve forgotten about all those anti-abortion judges that were confirmed while he was president.  Speaking of presidents, two more candidates, neither named DeSantis, have thrown their hats in the ring.   RFK Jr, the anti-vaccine Kennedy, is officially running for the Democratic nod and Larry Elder, the conservative talk show host who tried to unseat California Governor Newsom, is seeking the Republican candidacy.  And Joe Biden who everyone knows is running for reelection is expected to make it official next week.      

420: Boris Epshteyn, Trump lawyer and advisor, was interviewed yesterday by Special Counsel Jack Smith’s team.  That’s notable because Epshteyn who admitted on air to pushing Trump’s fake elector scheme is also believed to have been deeply involved in Trump’s hide the purloined documents caper.  Lastly, one of Elon Musk’s Space X rockets experienced a “rapid unscheduled disassembly” yesterday, something we laypeople call an explosion.  Maybe just a coincidence that it disassembled on the same day that most of Twitter’s blue checks went away and just a few days after NPR. PBS and Canada’s National broadcasting company stopped tweeting.      

       

Fox in the House 🌻 🌻 🌻

The Fox Lives On:  Yesterday afternoon after a jury had already been seated Fox settled with Dominion, agreeing to pay the company $787.5 million for repeatedly claiming that its voting machines were doing nefarious things like flipping Trump votes to Biden.  That’s great news for Dominion because though their case against Fox was strong, defamation cases against media companies are hard to win and jury trials are unpredictable so their ultimate victory in court wasn’t a sure thing.  In addition, had Dominion won, their reward would have been held up while Fox appealed.  The settlement, as costly as it is, and even though it was only half the amount that Dominion was seeking, three quarters of a billion dollars isn’t chump change, was also a win for Fox because contrary to expectations, they weren’t required to do the full mea culpa thing on air, not even on the Fox News website. The settlement was mentioned on Fox’s “news” programs but not on the later “entertainment” shows which had moved on to other sensational balderdash, like Elon Musk’s assertions that leftists are controlling the output of ChatGPT and its siblings and Margie Q’s claim that she’s seen thousands of pages of proof that all the members of the Biden Crime family are sex traffickers. Though brief coverage of the settlement was on the Fox News website last night, it’s already gone this morning.  There’s very little coverage in the NY Post and though there is an article in the WSJ, it seems intentionally boring and says little more. Ironically, Fox’s right-wing competitor Newsmax has far more details about the suit on their website. As depressing as it is that we won’t be hearing Rupert and company on the witness stand, Fox isn’t out of the woods, they still face a $2.7 billion lawsuit from Smartmatic, another voting technology company and some Fox shareholders have already requested company records in preparation for a lawsuit.  

2024:  Trump continues to take pot shots at Governor DeSanctimonious for the inexplicably dumb things he’s been doing.  And it’s not just Trump, former NJ Governor Chris Christie who may or may not be running for president is doing the same.  Both are questioning DeSantis’ battle with Disney and though it’s painful to agree with them, especially Trump, they’re right.  What sane governor goes after his state’s largest employer and revenue generator, threatening to build a jail near a child friendly theme park, because they had the nerve to question a performative Don’t Say Gay policy? Oddly enough, Trump and his mini-me son have been right about a few things of late: Don Senior by pointing out that the Republicans are alienating too many voters with extreme abortion legislation, Donny Junior by trying to shut down the right’s war against Anheuser Busch, the huge donor to Republican candidates that offended the right’s sensibilities by partnering with a trans influencer in some Bud light Instagram posts. DeSantis can’t be happy that despite his pleas for them to hold off, more and more Florida politicians have endorsed Trump’s candidacy, adding their names to a group that already includes 42 House members and nine senators. Though it’s not clear that he’s included in the 42, George Santos who did show up to support Trump on his fingerprint day, does share a lot in common with Trump, he’s a liar and “allegedly” a criminal who has thus far avoided any consequences for his actions so it’s probably not all that surprising that George of many names has announced that he’s also running for reelection. Kevin McCarthy keeps trying to avoid commenting on Santos, but he can’t be happy which probably explains why Santos will not be a beneficiary of a recent PAC set up to help NY Republicans retain the seats they won during the 2022 midterms. Anyway, Kevin’s been busy of late on other things like trying to wrangle all of his disparate caucus members to sign off on his plan to raise the debt ceiling in exchange for budget cuts, including some in areas that his vulnerable coalition members won’t or shouldn’t be willing to agree to.  Kev wants to pass his plan without any Democratic help, probably impossible to do since 16 Republican House members have never ever voted to increase the debt ceiling.  Tick tock.

Say Goodbye:  Senate Republicans, a group that once again includes Mitch McConnell, have made it clear that they won’t sign off on Democrat Diane Feinstein being temporarily replaced on the Senate Judiciary Committee because they’ll have nothing to do with Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer’s efforts to seat more “radical, leftist” judges. Putting aside the absurdity of the Republican crowd, who happily voted for the likes of Texas judge Matthew Kacsmaryk and Florida judge Aileen Cannon questioning the political leanings of Democratic nominees, their failure to allow a replacement, puts Schumer and company deep into the Feinstein pickle barrel with no easy solution at hand other than a forced Feinstein retirement, if that’s even possible. Sadly, DiFi is about to join the Notorious RBG, another heroine who didn’t know when her time was up.  One consequence of Ginsburg sticking around is the Dobbs decision and maybe, depending on what we learn by midnight, the end of mifepristone availability.   

Guns and Groomers: It turns out that when lots of people have guns some of them use them when other options like screaming, waving a stick, or just flashing bright lights would have met their needs.  So a young black man in Missouri was shot for accidentally knocking on the wrong door of a house owned by an old bigoted white man while trying to pick up his young twin brothers and a young woman in upstate New York was shot and killed for making a U-turn in a unhinged man’s driveway.  Both incidents are beyond awful, but not surprising because guns. The upstate woman is gone forever but the Missouri high school student appears to be recovering and it’s great that his classmates are demonstrating because if we are going to be saved from the tyranny of guns it will be young people who lead us. Also, not surprising but a bit amusing in a sick kind of way, Ali Alexander the far-right activist and founder of the Stop the Steal election denier crowd has admitted to asking young men and boys for nude pictures, soliciting some of them for sex.  Why is it that the accusers are always the ones who are groomers and pedophiles?     

Guns and Binkies 🌻 🌻 🌻

Succession:   Hot off the presses, the Fox News-Dominion defamation trial has been delayed.  Due to start this morning, it’s now on hold until tomorrow, reportedly the result of a last-minute effort by Fox to settle.  If true, that’s a bummer because it means that we won’t get to hear the Fox glitterati grilled on the witness stand.  That said, it’s fair to assume that Dominion management, who seems to be in it for more than just the money, will only accept a settlement that requires Fox to repetitively do a major mea culpa on the air. Notably, Fox’s legal team did do a bit of one over the weekend by acknowledging that they had misrepresented Rupert Murdoch’s role at Fox News. If settlement talks fail, Rupert is expected to testify unless he pulls a Logan Roy. Stay posted.  Also, stay posted for more mifepristone news.  Late Friday, the Justice Alito of Dobbs fame, issued a temporary reprieve, placing a hold on Texas Judge Kacsmaryk’s ruling that would have essentially revoked the FDA’s twenty plus year approval of the abortion drug.  Alito’s reprieve is scheduled to expire at midnight on Wednesday at which point he and his colleagues on the Supreme Court will decide whether to keep mifepristone broadly available as the appeal of the Kacsmaryk decision plays out or vote to put his limits back in place as the appeal is resolved.  Opponents of the Kacsmaryk opinion have pointed out that the plaintiffs lacked standing to sue, so SCOTUS could just agree with that argument, sidestepping all the obvious flaws of Kacsmaryk’s decision like his bull-sh-t science and his usurping of the FDA’s authority but then again no one should get their hopes up, this is the Gilead court. As to judges and justices, it turns out that Judge Kacsmaryk, like Justice Clarence Thomas, has been playing fast and loose with his personal facts.  Before he was formally appointed by Trump Kacsmaryk had his name removed from an about to be published Texas Law Review article that was sharply critical of Obama era protections for both transgender policies and for those seeking abortions.  He then excluded the article from the list he provided to the Senate Judiciary Committee as part of his confirmation process.  Sneaky and unethical, but not as sneaky and unethical as Justice Clarence Thomas, whose list of ethical lapses keeps growing.  In addition to accepting all-expense paid luxury vacations from billionaire conservative Harlan Crow, the guy with the Nazi memorabilia collection, Thomas also failed to disclose that Crow had purchased two properties from him and his siblings, one a house his elderly mother continued to reside in after the sale. Over the weekend, the Washington Post pointed out some additional irregularities in Thomas’s court disclosure statements.  To summarize, Thomas has accepted more than $500,000 in luxury vacations from Crow, his wife Ginni’s salary has been funded by Crow’s largesse, he monetized two properties via Crow and his financial disclosure statements are funky.  Sadly, Republicans continue to characterize Thomas’ failings as a big yawn, just another Soros funded witch hunt, while Democrats keep promising sterner actions that they won’t be able to implement.  Thomas seems relatively unperturbed and Chief Justice Roberts isn’t even clutching his pearls, maybe because doing anything would shine more light on his wife who makes a boatload placing right leaning lawyers at firms that argue cases in front of the Court.

Politics As Usual: Former Trump era Secretary of State/CIA Head Mike Pompeo who slimmed down, probably surgically, to prepare himself for a run for the presidency announced that he’s not running.  South Carolina Senator Tim Scott who is, stumbled over a question about abortion the first time he was asked as a candidate but then clarified his views when asked again to make it clear that should he win, and it’s fair to assume he won’t though he could be someone’s VP pick, he would sign on to even the most draconian nationwide abortion ban. By the way have you checked out Scott’s bio, it’s really thin, like very little there thin. Scott’s fellow South Carolinian, Nikki Haley, another one who would happily settle for the VP slot, double counted her fundraising numbers to make it seem as if she’d taken in far more than she really had, not a good look for her but at least she’s in the plus column, unlike “why is he still in Congress” George Santos who is sticking with the myth that he’s running for reelection for his Long Island seat.  Santos took in just over $5000 but refunded $8000 and didn’t appear to spend anything on a treasurer, maybe because his treasurer isn’t for real.  Florida’s Ron DeSantis, this election season’s Scott Walker, is starting to turn off some of the Republican donors he’ll need to go the distance. Something to do with his increasingly crazy and performative anti-woke policies, especially his book banning and signing of a 6-week statewide abortion ban, a ban that’s particularly unpopular in Florida where almost 75,000 abortions were completed in 2022.  Travelers don’t just flock to Florida for the beaches and to dance with the Mouse, the state is, or was, the capital of abortion tourism, ranking second in abortions to only California.     

Guns, Guns, Crime:  Over the weekend all the Republican presidential wannabees appeared at the NRA Convention in former VP Pence’s home state of Indiana.  Pence was booed, and Trump was cheered as they all delivered the requisite pro-gun speeches, the ones blaming shootings on mental health and declining church attendance and the like.  South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem bragged that her not quite two-year old granddaughter already has her first gun, and she wasn’t talking about a water gun or a gun shaped binky. While they were genuflecting to the gun gods, there were a few more multiple casualty shootings because such events have become as American as apple pie.  Those shootings took place in Louisville, Kentucky and Dadeville, Alabama.  Notably Alabama’s homicide rate was 14.2 per 100,000 in 2020 year while Kentucky’s was 9.5 and Ohio’s was 7.0, yet a crew led by Ohio Republican Gym Jordan is scheduled to hold an anti-crime hearing in NYC city today.  The homicide rate in NYC was 4.7 per 100,000 during 2020 and 5.5 during 2022.  New York has its problems, and every homicide is a tragedy, but the city is far from the dystopia that Gym and his crowd are painting it to be.  They’re coming to Manhattan to slam Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg for his prosecution of Trump.  Jordan isn’t even hiding his affinity for Trump, over the weekend he declared his support for the former guy, saying he’s 100% behind him and his candidacy. On the subject of false crime claims, it turns out that the murder of San Francisco tech executive Bob Lee’s stabbing murder wasn’t a random crime, rather it appears to have been the result of a dispute about Lee’s relationship with the murderer’s sister. Naturally, many of those, including some very prominent tech executives, like first to tweet and last to retreat Elon Musk, who blamed Lee’s murder on San Francisco’s marauding homeless haven’t apologized for their statements nor will they.   

 

 

Discord 🌻 🌻 🌻

SNAFU:  What could go wrong when a group of young men and teenage boys, including one with access to military secrets, a seriously flawed moral compass and a need to one-up his online buddies in order to prove he knows more about defense capabilities and the situation in Ukraine than they do bond online in a chat room over a shared love for guns and racist and anti-Semitic memes to play war themed video games.  Well, it turns out a lot could go wrong, especially since the leader of the group, a straight guy rather than one of those feared trans people, thought it was hunky dory to share those secrets with a group that included some overseas participants, including one or more Russians and Ukrainians.  Yesterday, the Feds arrested a 21-year-old National Airman named Jack Teixeira, who appears to be the one who “shared” the military intelligence about Russian and Ukrainian war capability as well as information concerning Egypt, South Korea, and Israel and probably a whole bunch of other things that we still don’t know about it. Most of the credit for the leads that resulted in Teixeira’s identification and his arrest came from some intrepid journalists, including a team from Bellingcat, a Netherlands-based investigative journalist group that “specializes in fact-checking and open-source intelligence.” Their story was carried forward by the NY Times and the Washington Post with the FBI lagging behind.  Naturally, Margie Q has already taken to social media to let us know that Teixeira is a hero because he’s “white, male, Christian and anti-war.” According to her those attributes, and to be clear, it’s not clear that he’s anti-war, make him an “enemy of the Biden regime” which of course makes him someone that she, another one with a severely damaged moral compass or more likely no moral compass, admires.  She went on to say that because of Teixeira’s leak we now know that there are US troops on the ground in Ukraine, an assertion that Fox’s Tucker Carlson is also pushing.  The problem with that, at least according to the Pentagon, is that the troops she’s referring to are the special forces protecting the US embassy, normal especially in war zones, rather than an invasion force.  While we’ve been lied to in the past, this time around the Pentagon’s explanation probably holds water but Margie Q is on to something because who among her fan club, or among Tucker’s really cares about facts when fear mongering and pushing false narratives are so much more fun.  On the subject of twisted narratives, Fox’s defense in the Dominion Voting Machines case took a few more hits as a result of information provided by Abby Grossberg, a disgruntled former producer who worked on Maria Bartiromo’s show before being moved to team Tucker.  Grossberg has accused Fox’s lawyers of deleting incriminating information from her phone.  Additionally. she says that despite having access to them, Fox “deliberately or recklessly failed to produce highly relevant recordings of behind the scenes conversations” to Dominion in the course of the lawsuit.  Those conversations likely involved Rudy Giuliani and Sidney Powell, among others, admitting that they had no proof that their claims about Dominion’s machines flipping votes to Biden were anything more than a twisted fantasy. Fox’s lawyers also lied about Rupert Murdoch’s role at Fox News, asserting that he didn’t have one when he did. The judge overseeing the case isn’t happy about any of this and has imposed sanctions on Fox, offering more time to Dominion if they want to proceed with additional discovery on Fox’s dime. As of now jury selection in the defamation trial is due to start on Monday unless Dominion takes the judge up on his offer or Fox comes to its senses and settles over the weekend. 

Reproductive Rights: Here at home the abortion battles continue. While the US Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, another court that is known for its reliably right leaning opinions, ruled that mifepristone can still be used, don’t be fooled.  They severely curtailed mifepristone’s use by limiting it to the first seven weeks of pregnancy rather than the ten weeks that the FDA has said is safe and effective.  In addition, they agreed with the part of Texas district court Judge Kacsmaryk’s ruling that banned mail distribution of the pills while also ruling that women could only access their needed doses after not one but three in-person office visits.  And forget about nurse practitioners, only physicians will be allowed to dispense the drug.  The Fifth Circuit Court’s ruling remains at odds with the opinion of US District Judge Thomas Rice of Washington state who continues to assert that his opinion that the FDA cannot roll back access to mifepristone in 17 blue states and Washington DC is the correct one.  The DOJ is expected to file an appeal to Kacsmaryk’s ruling today meaning that the legality of limiting or altogether banning mifepristone is headed to the Supreme Court.  We’re about to find out whether Justices Amy Coney Barrett and Brett Kavanaugh meant it when they opined that abortion was a state’s issue rather than a federal one.  And we should feel really comforted about that because they never lie?  In other news, late last night Florida Governor, anti-Mouse, anti-“woke” book culture warrior, Ron DeSantis, who still hasn’t formally announced that he’s running for president, returned from his book tour and ran to his mansion to sign Florida’s six-week abortion ban into law.  That’s not popular even in Florida but DeSantis has his eye on winning the Republican nomination for president rather than meeting the reproductive needs of his state’s population.    

And:  Trump, who spent his day providing a six-hour long deposition to NY AG Letitia James, part of the state’s fraud case against his company, is now suing Michael Cohen in Florida for talking too much, or something like that. While in NYC Trump called James out as racist again, something he also keeps saying about Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg who received another envelope of white powder from someone in Trump’s fan base because that’s what happens when Trump says and does what he does.  Senator Diane Feinstein who is still MIA and has no plans to return to Washington DC next week, if ever, has asked to be allowed to temporarily stand down from her position on the Senate Judiciary Committee so that Senate Leader Schumer can seat another Democrat in her place.  That sounds good on paper but since it requires Senate approval it might not happen.  A number of her Democratic colleague continue to call for her to step down from the Senate so that California Governor Gavin Newsom can appoint a replacement, a process that would lead to another Democrat taking her place but could also be messy given that the primary battle for her spot has already begun.        

 

 Guns R US 🌻 🌻 🌻

Guns and Uteri: Republicans are in disarray and on the verge of implosion, at least that’s what a good number of political pundits keep telling us. Their evidence, the rejection by suburban mothers and younger voters of the extreme positions that the Republican party has taken on gun control and abortion combined with the GOP’s inability to move away from Trump and Trumpism.  Of course, these pundits, many of whom are never-Trump Republicans or former Republicans who helped elect many of the Republican politicians who stacked the courts with anti-choice and pro-gun judges in the first place, have been saying this for a while now and so far, no implosion.  Sure, Michigan appears to have become solidly blue and Wisconsin now has a liberal leaning Supreme Court but Idaho now has an abortion trafficking law that penalizes those who help women seeking abortions from traveling out of state to get one, Florida is about to have a law that bans abortions after six weeks, Iowa’s Attorney General has stopped funding the morning after pill and abortions for sexual assault victims and Texas, don’t even get me started on Texas.  All of that is just the tip of the anti-abortion nightmarish iceberg. Try explaining to those seeking reproductive care in those states and all the others with similarly draconian laws that the Republican party is on the verge of implosion.  None of them have the luxury of time to wait for that to happen.  The same with gun control, we’ve all heard the statistics, that the majority of American voters want more rational gun policies and some restrictions on gun ownership, particularly on the ownership of automatic weapons, and that it’s just a matter of time before the Republican party comes around.  Again, all that provides no solace to the growing number of victims of gun violence, a group that now includes some more people in Louisville, Kentucky, including some friends of Andy Beshear, the Democratic Governor of very red Kentucky, where recent legislation that makes owning a gun easier was passed into law despite his opposition and also where guns used in murder sprees are auctioned off to interested parties, including future murderers once legal proceedings end.  Sure, its nice to hear that just one week after two Tennessee state legislators, one of whom is already back in his seat, were expelled for violating an ersatz decorum rule when they spoke out about gun violence, that Bill Lee, the state’s Republican Governor, has signed an executive order strengthening background checks and that he’s called for his state’s lawmakers, the same crowd who tried to banish the two Justin’s, to pass a red flag law, but will that really happen?  And will it matter, given that his state’s legislature is unlikely to pass anything not NRA approved.  Florida’s then Governor Rick Scott, who also lost a friend in the recent Louisville shooting, tightened Florida’s laws a smidge in response to the Parkland protests, only to have the state’s next Governor, presidential wannabee Ron DeSantis, sign a law allowing permit-less, concealed carry because even now with mass shootings becoming a daily occurrence that’s what Republicans do when they are seeking their party’s presidential nomination.  That explains why so many of them are headed off to Indianapolis to attend this weekend’s NRA annual meeting where Republican presidential candidates and soon to be candidates Trump, DeSantis, former VP Pence, Nikki Haley, Vivek Ramaswamy, Chris Sununu, Kristi Noem, and Asa Hutchinson are among the featured speakers. Just spit balling here, but my guess is that none of them will speak out about the need to impose restrictions on gun ownership, if anything they’ll be pushing the stronger doors and arming teachers’ mantra.  Though his name doesn’t appear on the speakers list, at least so far, South Carolina Senator Tim Scott who was endorsed by the NRA the last time he ran for Senator is expected to announce that he’s setting up his presidential exploratory committee momentarily, so it’s fair to assume that he’d happily join the speaker fold if only someone would ask because guns are so US.

Legally Yours:  By the end of the Trump era, assuming it ever ends, we will all have earned enough continuing education credits to qualify for the bar or will have an extreme need to go to a bar, any bar. Trump is due back in New York this week to sit for a deposition related to his NYS fraud case. The first of the two E Jean Carroll rape related cases are due to begin seating jurors during the week of April 25 and expectations (hopes?) are that Fani Willis will go the indictment route in early May. Plans for Mike Pence to testify in front of Special Counsel Jack Smith’s grand jury, the one looking into the events leading up to the January 6 insurrection and Trump’s efforts to overturn the result of the 2020 election, as opposed to the one looking into his document snatch, are on hold but probably only for a short time. Pence has said that he’s done appealing and will show up to testify, but Trump is still appealing, claiming executive privilege that no one thinks he has. That appeal is expected to go nowhere fast.  By the way, Trump loyalist Stephen Miller spent six hours testifying in front of Smith’s grand jury yesterday. It’s probably not a stretch to believe that following Pence’s testimony, once it takes place, that Smith will be ready to seek an indictment or two.  Not that we should believe that until it happens.  Another one of Trump’s loyalists, House Judiciary Chair Gym Jordan will be holding a hearing on NYC crime in NYC next week for no other reason than to needle Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg, part of Jordan’s effort to pander to Trump by painting Bragg as soft on all crimes that don’t involve Trump. Bragg can’t do much to stop Jordan’s hearing, but since tit for tat is a thing, he made it clear yesterday that he won’t tolerate Jordan’s other shenanigans.  To that end, yesterday Bragg sued to block Jordan’s subpoena for testimony from former senior Manhattan prosecutor Mark Pomerantz as well as other demands from Jordan for “confidential documents and testimony” from Bragg related to the recent falsified document/hush money indictment case. And, lastly in Delaware the Dominion Voting Machines case against Fox is really happening.

2024:  Pennsylvania’s Democratic Senator, not Fetterman, the other one, Bob Casey announced that he’s running for reelection.  It’s not clear who he’ll be running against but the usual cast of characters, including failed Gubernatorial candidate Doug Mastriano and hedge funder Dave McCormick, who lost the 2020 primary to Dr. Oz, are lining up to seek the Republican nod. Pressure is building on California Senator Diane Feinstein, who remains MIA, to step down ASAP as her absence from the Senate where she sits on the Judiciary Committee is making it difficult for Biden to get more judges voted out of committee.  The Arizona senate race appears to have another candidate as Mark Lamb the Trump aligned, election denying sheriff of Pima County is about to announce he’s running for the Republican nomination.   Also expected to join that race are Abe Hamadeh who very narrowly lost his bid to become Arizona’s Attorney General, Kari Lake who still hasn’t acknowledged that she’s not Governor and a few others whose names aren’t as well known outside of the state.  On the Democratic side Congressman Ruben Gallego has already announced his candidacy and no one know for sure if current Senator Kyrsten Sinema is running for reelection but, if she does, she’ll be running as an independent.

War Games: We’re still learning more about just how damaging the leak of the Pentagon documents about Ukraine and Russia are to the US, Ukraine, and to US relations with a number of key allies including Egypt which allegedly was secretly planning to provide rockets to Russia to be used against Ukraine.  One thing that has been credibly reported is that the documents appear to have been initially shared on the video game chat platform Discord by a player as part of his effort to win an argument about the status of the war in Ukraine because that’s what happens in 2023?      

 

Red Pilling 🌻 🌻 🌻

Bad Bunny:  As had been long dreaded, on Friday right before the beginning of the Easter weekend, Texas federal district court Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk issued his long-dreaded abortion pill ruling.  Kacsmaryk turned the reproductive rights clock back twenty-three years by invalidating the FDA’s approval of mifepristone and by also ruling that abortion drugs cannot be sent by mail or other delivery service without violating the Comstock Act, an 1873 anti-vice law.  Mifepristone, which together with another drug misoprostol, is used in more than 50% of US abortions is safer than over the counter Tylenol, so Kacsmaryk’s decision had nothing to do with protecting women from a drug’s lethal side effects but was instead all about making it difficult for women to control their own reproductive destinies. Recognizing that his ruling which effects access to mifepristone in all 50 states would be appealed, Kacsmaryk put its effectiveness on hold for a week to give the Department of Justice which almost immediately filed a notice to appeal, time to act. To complicate matters in a good way, another federal district court judge, Thomas Rice, ordered US authorities not to make any changes that would restrict access to mifepristone in 17 Democratic-led states that had sued over some longstanding FDA restrictions on the prescribing and dispensing of mifepristone, arguing that those restrictions had nothing to do with the drugs safety but everything to do with politics. The two at odds decisions are headed to the Supreme Court and though we already know how this SCOTUS feels about abortion, even they might, or should, have a hard time ruling in favor of their mini-me Kacsmaryk, not because his ruling is based on phony science, with its Dobbs ruling SCOTUS already signed on to decision making based on faux science, but because it’s based on really faulty law that puts the validity of the FDA’s drug approval process into jeopardy.  On the subject of SCOTUS, when they weren’t talking about the abortion pill ban, a number of pundits went all in on Justice Clarence Thomas and his habit of obfuscating his acceptance of absurdly generous gifts from right wing billionaire Harlan Crow. GOP megadonor Crow, another one with an appropriate moniker, is an avid collector of Nazi memorabilia.  Why isn’t that surprising?

Bugs Bunny:  Trump celebrated his Easter weekend by golfing and “truthing.”  There’s nothing, new about that as our comically frightening former president does both frequently however, this weekend his Truth Social posts were worse than usual, even for him.  In one, he tersely posted “WORLD WAR III” and in another he went all in on his daily word allowance wishing a HAPPY EASTER TO ALL INCLUDING THOSE THAT DREAM ENDLESSLY OF DESTROYING OUR COUNTRY BECAUSE THEY ARE INCAPABLE OF DREAMING ABOUT ANYTHING ELSE……ALL THOSE WEAK & PATHETIC RINOS, RADICAL LEFT DEMOCRATS, SOCIALISTS, MARXISTS, & COMMUNISTS WHO ARE KILLING OUR NATION.” That was only part of it, the long post also included some comments on borders, same day voting and paper ballots.  While it’s easy to dismiss Trump’s idiotic posts as the rantings of an eccentric madman which they are, they can’t be ignored.  He’s running to retake the Oval Office and polls indicate that his lead over that other evil mouse baiting character Ron DeSantis have grown in part because of his recent indictment and in part because DeSantis has no charisma so at this point it’s fair to believe that he will be the nominee of the Republican Party. Trump can’t be counted out and we can’t assume that he’ll lose the general election because we’ve been here before.  As to mouse-baiter DeSantis, having lost his last skirmish with Disney, he’s now threatening to raise tolls on the roads leading to the Magic Kingdom.  Can someone explain why imposing more fees on tourists to a state’s biggest tourist site and why fighting with its biggest employer is a good thing?

Roadrunner: When it comes to health issues, the Democrats can’t get a break, well they can but not in a good way.  Over the weekend, a Connecticut basketball celebrant accidentally knocked into Connecticut’s Senior Senator Richard Blumenthal.  Though the 77-year-old Blumenthal was hit hard he bounced up and kept walking, however, it turns out that he suffered a “minor” femur fracture. He was operated on yesterday and reports that he and his new pins will be back next week.  Let’s hope so as Senator Diane Feinstein remains MIA.  Though they won’t be back in their seats next week, expectations are that Tennessee’s two Justins, the two Black legislators who were punished for protesting gun violence while Black are likely to be back very soon as it’s looking more and more likely that their districts will reappoint them to fill the spots, they were forced to vacate pending special elections where they are expected to win back their seats.  As much as those on the right are trying to present the Justins as out of control violators of decorum, we know they are really thinking uppity, it’s the Republicans who have lost this truly stupid and also very racist battle.

Keystone Kops:  Dozens of pages of leaked Pentagon documents concerning Ukraine and Russia’s military strength and tactics as well as some internal discussions between some US allies have been leaked and are floating around the Internet.  The source of the leaks and the intentions of the leaker are not yet known but the information about both Ukraine and Russia’s weakness appears to be substantially accurate.  There’s likely a bigger story here, one that addresses the source of the leak, the leaker’s motivation and whether any of the leaked information is intentionally misleading, that we will probably learn soon enough or judging by the success at identifying the SCOTUS Dobbs leaker, never. 

 

Chattanooga Choo Choo 🌻 🌻 🌻 🐇 🐰 🐇 🐰

Not so Grand Opry: In a move that’s beyond alarming, obviously racist, and in conflict with the principals of Democracy, Tennessee’s Republican dominated state house voted to expel two young Black lawmakers, Justin Jones and Justin Pearson.  The Republican supermajority also tried to expel a third Democrat, Gloria Johnson, but failed by one vote when one of the Republicans who had no problem voting out two Black lawmakers decided that ousting a white woman was a step too far. The three representatives’ crime: they violated decorum rules when they participated in the anti-gun protests that followed the killing of six people, including three nine-year-olds, at Nashville’s Covenant School.  The justifiably emotional protests weren’t violent but that didn’t stop the Republican dominated legislature from equating them with the January 6^th insurrection because false equivalency.  Apparently, in Tennessee protecting gun rights doesn’t just trump protecting the lives of innocent students and teachers it is also far more important than preserving democratic principles.  The two ousted lawmakers can run for reelection but for now their districts have no representation in the Tennessee house.  If you are waiting to hear condemnation of this from national Republican leadership, forget about it, that’s not going to happen in part because politicians like Gym Jordan and Kevin McCarthy are too busy defending Trump and calling for the defunding of the Department of Justice, the FBI and any other part of government with even the most tangential relationship to the investigations into Trump’s criminal activities.  Tennessee is an extreme example of what happens when gerrymandering is combined with hate, gun love, and extreme right-wing positions, even the ones that countless polls tell us the electorate at large oppose.  Keep an eye on Wisconsin, where some Republican state legislators have called for the impeachment of newly elected liberal Judge Janet Prostasiewicz.  Judge Janet isn’t Black, but her racial status might not be enough to protect her as she stands for all the democratic principles that the increasingly emboldened righter than ever Republican party hate these days so those threats should be taken seriously.

Ethics Anyone? Among things that should be taken seriously but so far haven’t are Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas’ outrageous ethics violations. Yesterday ProPublica detailed how Thomas has been flouting ethics rules for more than twenty years by accepting expensive luxury trips every year from Dallas billionaire businessman Harlan Crow. Those trips have included flights on Crow’s Bombarbardier Global 5000 jet and cruises on his superyacht to far flung places like Indonesia and closer to home locales including California, East Texas and the Adirondacks. These trips don’t appear on Thomas’ financial disclosures, a problem that goes far beyond the optics of a Supreme Court Justice hobnobbing with conservative influence peddlers, because the failure to report them violates a law passed after Watergate that requires justices, judges, members of Congress, and federal officials to disclose most gifts especially free travel. Also, worth noting, Harlan Crow isn’t just a run of the mill billionaire who shares Thomas’s conservative views, he’s also someone who has benefited from Thomas’ court decisions and who has funded some of Thomas’ wife, Ginni’s projects. Naturally, Republicans in the House and Senate aren’t concerned at all about Thomas’ bigly ethical lapses , but Democrats are, very.  Some are calling for Thomas to be impeached as if that would ever happen with the more realistic ones calling for Chief Justice Roberts, who found the anti-abortion Dobbs leak so shocking that he had it investigated to direct some of that outrage and investigatory zeal towards Thomas. Democrats are also hoping that Thomas’ flagrant disregard for the rules will help them to finally get some definitive ethics rules for Supreme Court Justices passed. Don’t hold your breath. The outrage is justified but the issue is just another one of things that’s polarizing even though it shouldn’t be.  Kind of like a former president, calling judges and district attorneys radical left lunatics, racist, and put their lives in jeopardy.  That shouldn’t be tolerable but apparently those on the right think it’s totally fine.  They can’t or don’t want to divorce themselves from Trump’s nefarious, dangerous insanity over fears that doing so will doom their political careers.  Gym Jordan, who refused to testify when he was subpoenaed, isn’t at all concerned by Trump’s threats but in his role as House Judiciary Chair he has subpoenaed Mark Pomerantz, who previously worked in the Manhattan DA’s office but resigned in frustration when Manhattan Bragg didn’t indict Trump earlier.  It’s not clear that Pomerantz will show, it’s also not clear that his testimony will advance Trump’s cause, but it is a headline grabber and that’s probably the point.        

And:  Former VP Pence’s divorce from Trump is about to go from amicable to hostile.  On Wednesday, Pence said that he would not appeal the federal court ruling ordering him to testify about the conversations he had with Trump in the run up to the January 6^th insurrection to Special Counsel Jack Smith’s grand jury probing Trump’s efforts to subvert the 2020 election.  To date Pence has succesfully avoided testifying so that’s big. Likely far less bigly but still thorougly disturbing, Robert F Kennedy, Jr, the rabidly anti-vax son of RFK and the nephew of JFK, has announced that he plans to challenge President Biden for the Democratic 2024 nomination by running in next year’s Democratic primaries.  According to CBS’ Robert Costa RFK Jr was encouraged to run by erstwhile Trump advisor Steve Bannon who believes that introdcuing a Kennedy into the mix will forment chaos while also stoking anti-vaccine sentiment.  If you had a Kennedy family scion teaming up with Bannon on your BINGO card, you’re on a roll.            

 

 o

Over the Top 🌻 🌻 🌻

Arraignment Day: Quite a few newsworthy things happened yesterday beyond Trump’s arraignment but of course that was the event that dominated the news cycle in an over the top Trump déjà vu/OJ way.  In summary, the former and hopefully never again president, was indicted for 34 felony counts of falsifying business records.  The criminal acts were payments to three people facilitated by two others. The frequently discussed $130,000 “hush money” payment to porn star Stormy Daniels, which was actually the third payment, was paid by one time Trump fixer Michael Cohen whose role in this chapter of the Trump saga has been taken over by lawyer Joe Tacopino, another one of Trump’s say anything, no matter how stupid and deceptive, lawyers.  The $150,000 “catch and kill” payment to playmate Karen McDougal to keep their slightly longer relationship out of the news and another $30,000 payment to a Trump Tower doorman to stop him from going to the press with what turned out to be a false accusation that Trump had fathered an out of wedlock child, both of which preceded the Stormy payment, were made by David Pecker of National Enquirer fame. Trump who asserts that he never had relations with those women though we all know he did, says that those payments were made to protect Melania from the shock and humiliation of learning that her husband was a despicable cad but Bragg debunked that claim by relaying how Cohen’s payments to Stormy were stalled by Trump not because Cohen was having trouble coming up with the money to front Trump who didn’t want to make payments directly to Stormy but because Trump was trying to put off paying her until after the election at which point he planned to renege because at that point, win or lose, keeping Stormy quiet wouldn’t have mattered, proof that he cared little about humiliating Melania but cared a lot about keeping his coalition of hypocritical religious fundamentalists on board his election train. There are more details, my favorites are that the decision to hush by check rather than cash which may have been untraceable was Trump’s and that Trump ended up “reimbursing” Cohen for far more than the $130,00 payment to Stormy, to gross Cohen up for his related tax liability, another indication of Trump’s demonstrably poor business acumen.

Elevations: DA Bragg’s indictment elevated the crimes which would otherwise be misdemeanors to felonies because they were committed in the attempt to cover up other criminal acts, in this case those other acts related election interference because in New York it is a crime to “conspire to promote a candidacy by unlawful means……including by making false statements that were planned to be made to tax authorities.” They also violated the federal election laws cap on contribution limits.  Legal pundits and Trump’s defense team will tie themselves up in knots trying to dismantle the felony elevation but the facts about the payments and the associated, frequently prosecuted crime of falsifying of business records appear indisputable.  The arraignment took longer than usual because Bragg and his team went out of their way to tell presiding Judge Juan Merchan about Trump’s habit of posting threats targeting the prosecution team, the judge, and their respective families.  Bragg didn’t ask for a “gag” order to keep Trump quiet largely because he knew he wouldn’t get one, yet, but Judge Merchan did tell Trump to refrain from making threatening remarks.  Naturally, immediately upon returning to Mar a Lago, Trump took to the podium and did what he’d been told not to do in a public address that was carried by the right leaning media and CNN which appears to have moved to the dark side. Son Don Jr didn’t even wait that long, he posted a picture of the Judge’s daughter before Trump’s chariot landed.  By the way, the usual suspects were outraged about Trump being persecuted, including Margie Q and George Santos who made cameos at the anemic courtside protest and Gym Jordan who kvetched about the gag order that never happened.  Bottom line, the circus continues, justice is slow, and this case will meander on for months if not years and even indicted and convicted Trump can still become president should the electorate be that stupid.  That said, Trump’s legal woes will mount as all those other civil and criminal cases are fighting for time on his calendar with many claiming to be in the know predicting that Fulton County’s Fani Willis will indict him in early May. MSNBC’s Lawrence O’Connor is so convinced of that happening that he’s cancelled his May vacation plans. Also, yesterday a federal appeals court in Washington rejected an emergency bid by Trump to block several of his aides, including Mark Meadows, Stephen Miller, and Dan Scavino, from testifying to Special Counsel Jack Smith’s grand jury related to his efforts to subvert the 2020 election. Next stop, if any, SCOTUS?     

Say Cheese: Now some important, though less titillating news.  Yesterday liberal Janet Protasiewicz won the Wisconsin Supreme Court election race beating out the very right-wing election denying, anti-abortion candidate Dan Kelly by 10 points. The less than charming Kelly conceded because when you lose by 10 points what else can you do, but slammed Protasiewicz saying that “it brings me no joy to say this, I wish that in a circumstance like this, I could concede to a worthy opponent.”  Protasiewicz’s victory is remarkable because, as Wisconsin’s two Senators, Democrat Tammy Baldwin who is up for reelection in 2024 and Republican Ron Johnson who like Governor Democrat Tony Evers just won reelection in 2022 know, statewide elections in 50/50 split Wisconsin are typically decided by teeny tiny margins.  Moreover, her victory shifts Wisconsin’s Supreme Court from conservative to liberal, or really just back to what most of us would consider normal, a big win for those who care about reproductive rights, fixing the state’s absurdly Republican skewed local districting and that other little thing, letting voters determine the outcome of presidential elections without legislative or court interference. Unfortunately, there’s a chance that Protasiewicz’s victory could be short lived, not because her win isn’t totally legit but because Republican Dan Knodi won a special election for a state Senate seat.  His victory, assuming it holds, gives Republicans a supermajority in the State Senate, a bigly problem because even before election day, Knodi and many of his likeminded compatriots vowed that if Protasiewicz won, they’d begin impeachment proceedings against her for her crime of being pro-choice and because of the possibility that a liberal leaning court might force redistricting that would result in some Republicans losing their seats. In case you think that Wisconsin Republicans are an anomaly, consider Florida, a state where teachers aren’t allowed to select books but where Governor DeSantis just signed a law permitting everyone to carry concealed guns without a permit and without any training and where he is next expected to sign a 6-week abortion ban.  That’s Ron, who just lost his most recent skirmish with the Mouse in the war he started as part of his performative anti-woke campaign all because he wants to be the next president and will need the fundamentalists that Trump kept on board by illegally hiding some of his sexual peccadilloes during the 2016 election cycle.

Unintended Consequences:  Vladimir Putin hates NATO and has justified some of his aggressive actions, like his invasion of Ukraine, as necessary because of a need to defend his motherland from NATO’s growing membership.  Well now Finland, the European country with the longest border with Russia is a member of NATO.  Unfortunately, due to squawking from Turkey and Hungary, Sweden isn’t a member yet, but they probably will be soon enough. Worth noting that Vlad’s American BFF Trump recently told Fox’s Sean Hannity that those rumors that he’d withdraw the US from NATO are true and that he thinks that it’s only a matter of time before Russian takes over all of Ukraine because abandoning Ukraine is his secret plan for ending their war.  Something to look forward to if Trump retakes the Oval office.  By the way, despite Hannity’s best efforts to shut him up, Trump also said that it was his right to keep those purloined documents and anyone who says otherwise is wrong.  An admission against interest?      

Happy Passover and Easter.  Matzo balls and chocolate eggs for all!    

  

 

April Showers 🌻 🌻 🌻

Ship of Fools: About the only thing we know about the Trump indictment is that the Former Guy is facing somewhere around 30 charges and even that detail is based on leaks to media outlets.  Neither we, nor any of the politicians rushing to his defense, those prematurely celebrating his downfall, nor even Trump yet know for sure if the indictment is only for “mere” misdemeanors or, more likely, if one or more felonies are also involved.  We don’t know if all the misdemeanors relate solely to the financial records that Trump had falsified to cover up his “hush money” payments to porn star Stormy Daniels or whether some concern the National Enquirer’s “catch and kill” arrangement with his other paramour of record, playmate Karen McDougal. As to the felony charges, assuming there are any, a misdemeanor charge can get upgraded to a felony if the crime in question is used to cover up another crime like a campaign finance violation which is what’s expected here but can also involve some of Trump’s other favorite activities like obstruction or witness tampering.  The bottom line, we know little now but will know far more on Tuesday afternoon after Trump is arraigned and even then, we might not know everything because a superseding indictment could result in the addition of more crimes, because given Trump’s predilections who’s to say that he won’t or hasn’t already committed more indictable crimes.  Naturally, Trump is up to his usual shtick, in addition to attacking the Soros, corrupt, socialist prosecutor Alvin Bragg, and stoking violence, he's also going after Judge Juan Merchan, who sentenced Allen Weisselberg to prison, presided over the Trump Organization tax fraud trial and is overseeing Steve Bannon’s criminal fraud case.  The Mango Maniac posted on Truth Social that the “Judge ‘assigned to my Witch Hunt Case, a “Case’ that has NEVER BEEN CHARGED BEFORE, HATES ME.”  For the record Bragg has indicted and obtained convictions for many cases involving the falsifying of business documents, but Trump does have a point about other presidents not being indicted for similar crimes, but then again though many of our former presidents weren’t innocents, they also didn’t commit a crime or more a day and as to Judge Merchan, it’s not his fault that Trump and his friends keep him so busy.  Most of the focus has been on the Manhattan indictment but Bragg isn’t the only one progressing. According to the Washington Post, Special Counsel Jack Smith’s team is developing quite an obstruction case against Trump related to his efforts to keep some of the documents he took with him to Mar a Lago out of the hands out of the Feds. Smith’s team has evidence, videos and interviews with Trump staff and lawyers, that document how Trump personally went through boxes of documents that he had his underlings claim had either never made their way to Mar a Lago or had already been returned to the National Archives, picking out those papers and letters that he wanted to keep, legalities be damned.      

Media Matters: To the extent you have some free time on Tuesday, check out the scene down by the courts or in front of Trump Tower. If you missed the “jump the shark” free press that CBS’s 60 Minutes granted Margie Q last night, the interview where she labeled all Democrats as pedophiles, you might get a chance to see her in person because Marge plans to show up with her besties to protest Trump’s arraignment.  What could go wrong with that?  Marge’s interview wasn’t the only one making news, Manhattan’s former DA, Cy Vance explained, or tried to explain, that the reason that Trump wasn’t indicted for the “hush money” offense during his regime was because he’d been asked to stand-down so as not to interfere with the Department of Justice which was then being run by Attorney General Bill Barr, the AG who whitewashed the Muller Report and went after only Michael Cohen. Trump, who of course is rising in the polls because 75% of Republicans say they don’t care if he’s indicted, has been raising money off of the Bragg indictment.  He also plans to deliver an address to the nation from Mar a Lago on Tuesday night after his plane lands back in West Palm Beach because of course he will.  It’s not clear which media outlets will cover his speech live but some will because ratings.  One of those who probably will air at least parts of Trump’s speech is Fox whose Dominion lawsuit problem seems to be getting worse by the day.  On Friday, Eric Davis, the Delaware judge overseeing the Dominion case ruled that it could go forward, saying that the evidence developed “was strong enough to conclude that Fox hosts and guests had repeatedly made false claims about Dominion machines and their supposed role in a fictitious plot to steal the election.” Borrowing Trump’s CAPS trick, he went on to write that it is “CRYSTAL clear that none of the statements related to Dominion about the 2020 election are true.” Judge Davis added that the case would proceed to trial “for the jury to weigh whether Fox spread those false claims while knowing they were untrue and to determine any damages.” That’s bigly bad for Fox because a lot of Fox anchors, managers and even Rupert Murdoch are on record saying that they knew the accusations weren’t true but pushed them anyway because 💰 💵. The trial is expected to start on April 17 unless Fox sees the light, freaks out and pays up before then.

People and Politics: Pennsylvania Senator John Fetterman is out of the hospital, giving interviews and, hopefully, no longer depressed.  Kentucky Senator/Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, one of the few prominent Republicans to have stayed silent about Trump’s indictment will be back after the Easter/Passover break and Diane Feinstein is still MIA.  Former Arkansas Governor Asa Hutchinson who has been saying for some time that Trump should withdraw from the race,  is running for president.  The 72-year-old Hutchinson comes from the shrinking to almost non-existent “normy” wing of the Republican Party.  His positions are Liz Cheney conservative, he’s just not into insurrections and porn star payments. Odds are that he like New Jersey’s Chris Christie, who was one of Trump’s earliest supporters but has now ramped up his Trump criticism in anticipation of what may also be a run, is not going to be the next president. West Virginia Senator Joe Manchin who hasn’t confirmed he’s running for reelection is also teasing a presidential run, maybe as part of Andrew Yang’s no names/know nothing party. It’s fair to predict that Manchin is not going to be our next president either, though he could be a spoiler. These days by appearing more center right than center left Manchin appears to be doing what he needs to do to beat back his likely Republican Senate opponent, current West Virginia Governor Jim Justice who was once a Democrat before he became a Republican.            

Bluebird Update:  Elon Musk continues to do weird things at Twitter.  Over the weekend after The New York Times said that they wouldn’t pay-up to retain their identify confirming blue checkmarks, he lashed out by stripping away all of the paper’s legacy ones.  That means that the next time that Trump whisperer Maggie Haberman posts one of her inside scoops we won’t know if it’s really by her or from one of the many who have probably already hi-jacked her name.  The Chief Twit’s blue checkmark antics might sound petulant and childish because they are but that’s only part of the problem.  They diminish rather than enhance revenues because advertisers don’t want to be on a platform which pushes fake news and harbors haters.  And, more importantly, though most people don’t use Twitter they do hear its amplified messages so a false narrative pushing bluebird is bad for all of us.