ABBA and Friends 🌻 🌻 🌻

The State of Play:  According to a Des Moines Register poll 61% of adults in Iowa believe abortion should be legal in most or all cases while 35% believe it should be illegal so naturally yesterday Iowa’s Republican controlled legislature held a special session where they passed a bill banning abortions after six weeks of pregnancy.  There were shouts and protests, but since Iowa’s Republican Governor Kim Reynolds plans to sign the restrictive legislation, women seeking abortion for almost any reason will either have to leave the state, continue their pregnancies to term or, in some cases, suffer the consequences of a medical disaster.  A Michigan hair salon owner has posted on Facebook that she will not be providing services to “transgender or queer people,” adding that they should instead seek “grooming service for animals.”  She justified her decision by pointing to the recent ruling by SCOTUS, the same folks who eliminated reproductive rights, that concluded the First Amendment’s free speech protection allowed a Colorado web designer to refuse to make wedding websites for gay couples. On the subject of saying whatever you want and apparently believe, Alabama’s Senator Tommy Tuberville, the Trump endorsed former football coach who unseated civil rights attorney Doug Jones, refused to condemn white supremacists during an interview with CNN’s Kaitlin Collins.  Tuberville is on record saying that he thinks its okay for white supremacists to serve in the military because what’s wrong with racism.  Of course, that’s the same Tuberville who has held up hundreds of military promotions, including the replacement for the retiring head of the US Marine Corps, over his opposition of the military funding travel costs for service members who, because of policies in states like Iowa and Texas, need to travel to obtain abortions.  After a lot of bad press, including statements from some of his Republican colleagues, last night, Tuberville kind of walked back his white supremacist comments, but only a bit and not really.  Speaking of those trying to walk back their statements, according to Rolling Stone,  Rupert Murdoch can “smell a loser” and is growing increasingly concerned about the trajectory of Ron DeSantis’ presidential campaign which may explain Fox’s plan to broadcast a Trump townhall hosted by Trump’s good buddy and shadow cabinet member Sean Hannity.  That townhall is scheduled to take place a few days after an Iowa forum to be hosted by former Foxy guy Tucker Carlson, Trump has no plans to participate in Carlson’s event but a number of his opponents including Ron DeSantis, Mike Pence, Tim Scott, Nikki Haley, Asa Hutchinson and Vivek Ramaswamy do because apparently none of them, even Pence, care one iota about Carlson being dumped by Fox or his election lies, or his misogyny or his white supremacy.  Also, in case you haven’t noticed the weather has been truly weird with things like floods, overflowing dams, and houses falling off the face of the earth becoming the norm not that the affects of climate change will be mentioned at any of these Republican forums because as Lauren Boebert likes to say the only climate change is the four times a year changing of the seasons.  America not at its best.  

Law and Disorder:  Things may or may not be reaching a boiling point for Teflon Don.  E Jean Carroll was handed a significant victory yesterday when the Department of Justice decided to stop arguing that Trump was entitled to immunity for the slimy stuff he said in response to her accusations of sexual assault back when he was president. The DOJ had taken the earlier position, not because they’re all Trump fans, but because they felt that protecting presidential utterances was the thing to do.  They’ve changed course because they’ve now determined that they lack “adequate evidence” to conclude he was acting within the scope of his serving the government when he denied sexually assaulting her, but also because he keeps doubling down on his verbal attacks.  As a result of their new view, her 2019 civil lawsuit where she is seeking bigly damages can now move forward.  That’s not to be confused with her NYS lawsuit, the one she already won, that he’s appealing. With regard to the Mar a Lago purloined documents case, Trump’s lawyers are seeking a lengthy trial delay, asserting that given the complexity of the case and all the documents they have to review, and more significantly that “proceeding to trial during the pendency of a presidential election cycle wherein opposing candidates are directly adverse to one another in this action will create extraordinary challenges” blah, blah, blah.  Basically, they are seeking to push the trial off in the hope that Trump wins reelection whereupon he’ll pardon himself and/or fire and/or imprison Special Counsel Jack Smith and Merrick Garland or if he’s not the candidate but some other Republican is, that other Republican wins and pardons him.  The ball is now in Judge Loose Cannon’s hands and though she might not come out and rule in Trump’s favor, she could just slow things down enough to achieve the results he desires, at least in the Mar a Lago case. She can’t do anything about his problems in Fulton County, Georgia where DA Fani Willis empaneled two ordinary Grand Juries to hear the results of her earlier special grand jury investigation. She’s right on the schedule she talked about a few months ago which would mean indictments in early August which could put her in a foot race with Special Jack who many pundits believe is gearing up to issue a few of his own in the January 6 phony electors/insurrection case.  On the subject of indictments, the DOJ has unsealed some that were issued a few months ago against Gal Luft, a dual US-Israeli citizen who the DOJ says was illegally acting as an agent for China while brokering the illicit sales of Chinese weapons and Iranian oil.  Luft is MIA so he hasn’t been arrested however, those indictments are particularly relevant because he’s the so-called “whistleblower” that Republican Congressman/Oversight Committee chair James Comer says has all the dirt on Hunter Biden and the rest of the Biden “crime family’s’ criming.  The problem for Comer is that it appears that Luft only started spilling his guts, or more likely spinning Hunter lies, after he was indicted.  Moreover, he can’t testify to the Committee because no one knows where he is and if found, he’ll first be put in jail because he really is a flight risk.  Naturally, Comer’s newest position is that the DOJ has targeted Luft to protect the Bidens, at least that’s the story he’s sticking with today.  He also says that we’re learning about the indictment now because the DOJ is part of the anti-Trump deep state.

Swedish Fish: The war with Ukraine keeps feeding the growth of NATO, the entity that Vlad hates and that Trump wanted to leave.  Turkey, probably now about to receive some of the fighter jets they covet, has finally stopped standing in the way of Sweden joining, a big win for NATO and President Biden.  However, the US and a number of the other members of NATO aren’t ready to welcome Ukraine into the group yet, though they are saying that Ukraine is on the path, albeit a long one, to membership.  President Zelensky isn’t happy about that, he wants immediate membership, but welcoming Ukraine into NATO now would mean that NATO and the US, would be obligated to put boots on the ground in Ukraine to directly battle the Russians something we have studiously avoided doing because of all of the consequences of direct warfare with Vlad and his troops.  Right now, despite hysterical claims from some in the peanut gallery, the only US troops in Ukraine are the ones protecting the US Embassy and that’s because wherever we have embassies, we have troops protecting them.   

And:  According to the Wall Street Journal the Tesla Board is investigating Elon Musk for misspending company funds on the glass mansion he’s building for himself.  Was the Glass Onion a documentary?    

If you are somewhere with floods, fires, or locusts, please take care.