Pluck You 🌻 🌻 🌻

Not So Trivial Pursuit:  Here’s one for the trivia files, this weekend’s hugely disruptive Interstate 95 collapse happened right near the turnoff to the Four Seasons Total Landscaping, the site of the infamous dye dripping Rudy Giuliani press conference. Maybe if Trump had really invested in infrastructure instead of just announcing countless ersatz infrastructure weeks before moving on to insisting that the 2020 election had been stolen, calling on his supporters to insurrect and taking boxes upon boxes of documents, including quiet a few chocked with secret memos, the highway would have been strong enough to withstand a truck fire, but we’ll never know. As to those boxes, on Friday a bearded, somber Special Counsel Jack Smith spoke briefly to the press after releasing the text of the charges against Trump.  The 37-count indictment reveals damning evidence about how Trump kept documents concerning nuclear programs, potential US and ally military vulnerabilities and plans for possible retaliation in the event of a foreign attack. Those documents, at least one of which was intended only to be seen by security cleared members of the Five Eyes intelligence coalition (the US, Canada, Australia, UK and New Zealand), were kept hoarder-like in unsecured locations throughout Mar a Lago, including beneath a tacky chandelier in a dated bathroom, on the stage of a ballroom where weddings and bar mitzvahs were held, in the wing where Trump lived and in one or more closets.  To state the obvious, none of those areas qualify as SCIFs but all were accessible to foreign agents at least one of whom may be his wife who maybe the person that co-indictee Walt Nauta referred to as Ma’am with a 😊, and some others who probably work as MAL waiters or on the club cleaning staff, as well as a plethora of nosy Mar a Lago guests or members who might have taken a document or two because why bother swiping matchbooks or embossed napkins when something “cooler” was easily pluckable? Speaking of plucking, that’s what Trump suggested that at least one of his lawyers do.  According to contemporaneous verbal and written notes taken by that lawyer, Evan Corcoran, Trump who is also heard on another tape saying that he knows that former presidents can’t declassify, wanted him to pluck the “secret” stuff out of the boxes before handing them over to the FBI. Corcoran who apparently paid attention in law school, knows criminal activity when he sees it, so he documented Trump’s actions to protect himself instead of following the Guiliani, Epshteyn, Eastman, etc. route.  When or if this tragic story ends, he’ll still have a law license, the others probably not. A few of Trump’s lawyers resigned over the weekend, so he’s in the market for new ones.  Any takers? The full indictment is worth a read or, if you’d rather, a listen.  A number of podcasts of the whole text including one by The Bulwark and another by MSNBC’s Ali Velshi are available.

Kayser Sose Time:  Naturally, the usual suspects are doing their thing.  Trump who, together with his co-indictee wingman du jour, chosen box shifter Walt Nauta, is due to appear in a Miami Federal court tomorrow spent the weekend promising retribution against anyone and everyone involved in the indictment, whined about Hillary having lawyers who were “willing” to destroy her 30,000 emails while his wouldn’t do the same for him and called for his followers and their like-minded friends to protest en masse, violently if necessary.  Among those supporters, Gym Jordan, the Head of the House Judiciary Committee who never passed the Ohio Bar exam, spouted intentional legal misinterpretations while tossing in Hilary accusations in his defense of Trump on the morning talk shows, while another Lindsey Graham, who as a former military lawyer knows better, appeared on the verge of implosion when George Stephanopoulos pushed his buttons.  Once again, whatever Trump has on Graham is more than just bigly bad.  Another one of Trump’s supporters, Arizona’s Kari Lake who still claims that she won the state’s governor race reminded everyone that she and many of Trump’s ardent fans are card carrying members of the NRA who know how to use their guns. Guns may not be necessary as the judge assigned to Trump and Nauta’s case is none other than Aileen Cannon, the Trump appointee who either showed extreme fealty to Trump by her earlier rulings about “his” documents or is just really incompetent or, more likely, both.  Assuming she doesn’t recuse herself, and there’s no reason to think that she will, Cannon can throw a lot of impediments in front of Jack Smith and his team of prosecutors in the form of scheduling delays, evidence acceptability and other rulings. Curiously, the odds of Cannon getting this assignment were significant, given the small pool of judges in her district so her appointment, while unwelcome, probably didn’t come as a big surprise to Jack Smith. All eyes will be on Cannon, but she’s already shown that she doesn’t care about that. Only Trump will ever promote her up the judicial ladder and to do that he, who says he’ll keep running no matter what, needs to win reelection, she could be willing to bet on that. With the exception of Asa Hutchinson and Chris Christie who called the indictment devastating Trump’s Republican opponents are defending him. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, unlike quisling House leader Kevin McCarthy has stayed largely quiet, because though he doesn’t say it out loud, he’d be much happier if Trump disappeared to parts unknown. McCarthy still needs Trump because he can’t manage his crowd without him and as it stands now won’t be able to pass the key farm bill, or any other government funding bills without help from on high.  And lastly, there’s Bill Barr, the Trump Attorney General who saved Trump’s presidency when he successfully misrepresented the conclusions of the Mueller Report.  He’s telling everyone who’ll listen that guilty as sin Trump is in bigly trouble.  Better late than never? Maybe.

Sure Jan:  George of many names Santos is still refusing to identify the person or persons who provided his bail. He who never speaks truth now claims he’s protecting members of his family.  To quote the Brady’s, “Sure Jan.”  Republican Mike Gallagher, a somewhat normal Republican Congressman from Wisconsin, has announced that he plans to stay put in the House and thus will not be challenging Wisconsin’s Democratic Senator Tammy Baldwin who is up for reelection in 2024.  Gallagher who was McConnell’s best chance for retaking the Wisconsin seat sees the writing on the wall and doesn’t want to face being challenged from the right by a Trumpy candidate, nor does he want to run statewide with Trump leading the ticket.  And lastly, Ukraine has begun its counteroffensive against Russia.  The fog of war is so thick that it hard to tell how much progress Zelenskyy’s forces are making but they do appear to be making some.  That despite the fact that during his debut Twitter “show” Tucker Carlson, one of Vladimir Putin’s favorite mouth pieces, used anti-Semitic tropes calling Zelenskyy “rat like,” “shifty,”  and a “persecutor of Christians.”  Following Carlson’s debut Twit Musk called for others like Rachel Maddow and Don Lemon to move their shows to Twitter.  As if.  By the way, Fox is calling foul, not about Carlson’s hateful words but they claim he’s violating the terms of his contract.