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.