And Just Like That 🌻 🌻 🌻

Well, That Was Weird:  On Friday, while most of us here in the east were complaining about the weather, Vladimir Putin’s favorite hotdog vendor, renaissance man Yevgeny Prigozhin went coup level rogue. In addition to his catering skills, Prigozhin is, or at least was until this weekend,  the head of the private mercenary Wagner Group as well the Internet Research Agency, the trolls who were responsible for spreading misinformation during the 2016 presidential election. As head of Wagner Group, Prigozhin controlled anywhere from 25,000 to 50,000 mercenaries, many of whom were recruited from Russia’s prisons. Known for their war crime level brutality and efficiency in war, Wagner Group fighters have outperformed the regular Russian military in Ukraine something that Prigozhin regularly pointed out to the chagrin of Russian Minister of Defense Sergei Shoigu, who he held responsible for intentionally putting Wagner soldiers at risk either out of a combination of incompetence and corruption or as part of game of lethal one-upmanship. Either because of his frustration with Russia’s military or because Shoigu and his team were taking actions that would have put most, if not all, of Wagner’s soldiers under their control, Prigozhin and a large group of his Wagner soldiers started marching to Moscow, either to overthrow Putin or to push him to shake up his military leadership or both. Then just as it seemed that Prigozhin might actually make it to Putin’s doorstep, a “deal” was brokered by dictator next door, Putin BFF, Belarus’ Alexander Lukashenko.  The deal, to the extent it’s for real, involves Prigozhin and presumably some of the billions in gold and other valuables that he accumulated/confiscated while fighting on behalf of Russia in Africa moving to Belarus to either spend the rest of his life luxuriating at a spa, plotting another run at Putin or drinking Novichok laced tea while falling out of a first-floor window. Though the coup attempt was a surprise to most of us who were conflicted over whether to root for a Stalin wannabee over a Hitler wannabee, it turns out that US officials knew Prigozhin was up to something, which probably means that Putin was on to him as well because some of our intelligence sources probably work for Putin. It’s not clear what happens next but the general view of most of the many so-called experts and pundits who shared their views this weekend is that Putin’s hold on his government is growing increasingly precarious.  No one in the west, with the possible exception of Trump and his cronies, think that Putin losing out is a bad thing, though everyone is concerned about who will supplant him if he is dethroned because of nukes. As to the war in Ukraine, presumably some of the Wagner fighters will continue to fight alongside their Russian comrades but it’s not clear how many of them will nor is it clear how effective they will be under Russian military leadership.  That said, despite the coup attempt Russian forces with or without the help of the Wagner mercenaries didn’t miss a beat this weekend, they continued to bomb targets throughout Ukraine so at least for now the war goes on.

Which B-tch is Witch:  Back at home, despite his legal problems Trump’s chances of sweeping the Republican primaries continue to rise if all the polls are to be believed.  Two of his most diehard fans, Lauren “Bobo” Boebert and Margie Q are still verbally duking it out, fighting over which b-tch (their word, not mine) gets to impeach President Biden first.  Speaker Kevin, always one to strike a deal, sidestepped an immediate vote on impeaching Biden, instead holding a vote that sent a resolution to start the impeachment process to both the House Homeland and Judiciary Committees.  Kevin may think that impeachment would be fun but though his whole caucus voted to advance the impeachment process he doesn’t have enough votes to actually impeach Biden, yet, because there are about five Republicans who can still think straight and another ten or so purple district ones who fear that voting to impeach Biden might alienate enough of their constituents to lose them their seats. One of those swing district Republicans, George of many names Santos finally released the names of the two individuals who paid his bail bond and oddly enough he was being truthful when he said that they were family members. One is his father Gercino dos Santos and the other is his Aunt Elma Preven.  Odd because, at least so far no one has explained how the two who have only modest financial resources came up with the required $500,000 and also because though we’ve heard much about Santos’ mother and the various ways that she died, we hadn’t heard much about his father until now. On the subject of impeachment, Bobo and Margie Q’s rationale has something to do with Biden’s handling of “illegal immigration” so it’s particularly inconvenient that on Friday the Supreme Court ruled in favor of a Biden policy that sets guidelines for whom immigration authorities can target for arrest and deportation, prioritizing the deportation of those who present the biggest threat to US security over the countless others just seeking refuge. Worth noting that last week newly released census data indicated that due largely to declining birth rates the median age of the US population is now 38.9 years, it was 35 in 2000 and 30 in 1980.  A rational immigration problem would help solve the aging problem a lot more effectively than demonizing immigrants and trying to raise birth rates by abolishing abortion and restricting access to birth control.  #JustSaying  

Legal Morass:  Special Counsel/triathlete Jack Smith is seeking to delay the start of Trump’s willful retention of documents/obstruction case to mid-December to give both sides more time to do the things they need to do. The August date previously set by Judge Aileen “loose” Cannon was just a place saver, Smith wants the December date to be a hard and fast one.  There are also reports that that the multi-tasking Smith has compelled at least two Republican fake electors to testify to his Washington DC grand jury by giving them limited immunity.

Happy Monday.