September 11 🌻 🌻 😭 😭

Twenty-Two Years: The horror of 9.11 was supposed to bring us together and it did for a minute or so but now in 2023, instead of just respectfully remembering the day, the right-wing press has created a faux controversy about President Biden disrespecting the fallen and their families by commemorating the events of that horrible day in Alaska rather than at the World Trade Center site, the Pentagon or the fields of Somerset, Pennsylvania.  Biden will be in Alaska because he’s on his way home from G 20 meeting in India and from Viet Nam where he solidified important relationships including one with the now ally, former domino, that was, because up is down and down is up, once the enemy.  Then again, the media, all of it needs a story to harp on so they also continue to push the age card, mostly against Biden, ignoring that he’s been acting more like an energizer bunny these days, albeit one with marbles in his mouth.  Note to all of them, we know Biden is old, but we also know that Trump is too and that he, fueled by hatred and desperate to avoid the consequences of his actions, represents an existential threat to democracy. Sure, it might be nice to have younger candidates, but as Ronny D and Vivek show, younger doesn’t equate to good and, Democrats being Democrats the fight to anoint a Biden successor would probably ignite a battle with its own set of consequences so let’s all mine our reserves and spark some enthusiasm for our guy and his partner, the undeservedly maligned because, well everyone knows why, Kamala Harris. I have it on good authority that we little people aren’t doing enough to help out these days so consider going to ActBlue and contributing whenever you hear Trump’s name, every little bit helps.  On the subjects of fundraising and seniors, former Speaker Nancy Pelosi, another, eighty-year-old, but one with more energy than most half her age announced that she’s running for reelection and why not, she’s a fundraising dynamo, and shows little signs of slowing down.

BFF Fulton Style:  Mark Meadows doesn’t strike me as someone who is aging particularly well and after last week’s court ruling the 64-year- old probably is feeling less chipper than usual.  On Friday, Judge Steven Jones of the Northern District of Georgia rejected his request to have his Fulton County case heard in Federal court.  Judge Jones didn’t buy that Meadows was just doing his federal job when he helped Trump try to overturn the results of the Georgia presidential election. Basically, the judge concluded that presidents don’t get to interfere in state elections and their chiefs of staff aren’t acting within the scope of their jobs when they them do so. Naturally, Meadows is appealing but should the ruling stand, it’s unlikely that the other Fulton County defendants who are also trying to move their cases to Federal court will achieve a different result.  That means that whenever the Fulton County cases go to trial, we’ll be able to watch them live because Georgia hearings, unlike Federal ones, can be televised.  It also means that the jury will be made up of Fulton County residents.  On Friday, we also learned via the unsealing of the records of the special grand jury that investigated all the Georgia election interference that the jurors recommended indicting quite a few more people than DA Fani Willis ultimately indicted.  The expanded list included such notables as South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham, former Georgia Senators David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler, convicted but then pardoned former national security advisor/Q-ster Michael Flynn, lawyer/advisors Boris Epshteyn, Lin Wood and Clea MItchell.  Lindsey Graham was a potential indictee because he was another one who made a call or two to push to get “just enough” Biden votes eliminated from the Georgia vote tally.  For a whole bunch of reasons, some likely related to not feeling like she had enough evidence to get convictions and others related to not wanting to further complicate her case and/or open up more cans of worms because we know that indicting Graham would have created a helminth hellscape, inflaming and infuriating many including a number of his already most screechy Senate colleagues, Fani Willis decided not to pursue charges against the expanded list, at least for now. Understandable, but too bad because maybe if she got Lindsey Graham on the witness stand, the rest of us could find out what it is that Trump has been holding over his head for all these years.  

Rebranding: Count me as someone who always found it dastardly brilliant that the anti-abortion movement called itself pro-life. By branding as pro-life and by extension pro-adorably cute little babies, at least until they need health and childcare, they were able to push the mantra that those supportive of allowing women to make their own reproductive choices were just cold-hearted baby killers. Advocating for abortions, rather than just wanting them to be an option, isn’t a thing, nor are abortions at term or later, but by coopting the pro-life moniker, the anti-abortion crowd managed to occupy a twisted moral high ground that left the pro-choice crowd perpetually on the defensive and in search for a better name.  That’s why it’s particularly ironic that reports surfaced last week that faced with the election consequences of the Roe v Wade overturning Dobbs decision, some in the pro-life crowd, or at the very least their pollsters and political advisors, are looking to rebrand their movement since pro-life is no longer resonating with those key suburban voters who they believe could be persuaded back onto the Republican bandwagon if only the anti-abortion movement tinkered with its. I’d like to suggest ODA, the Organization of Delusional Handmaids? Help me out here, there’s got to be a better acronym.

And:  There’s been lots of talk about invoking the 14^th Amendment to prevent insurrectionist Trump from running again and it looks like Colorado will be the first state to start the process of litigating that approach.  If we’ve learned anything by now its that relying on the courts to solve the Trump problem in a timely fashion, if at all, is probably not going to work but good for them if they want to start the ball rolling, just don’t count on it going anywhere anytime soon.  Also, not going anywhere is Alabama Senator Tommy Tuberville who is now responsible for holding up the confirmation of 300 or so key military promotions over his opposition to the military aiding women who need to travel to obtain abortions. Even a number of Republicans, including House Foreign Relations Committee Chair Michael McCaul say that Tuberville is paralyzing the Defensive Department but still no concession from Tuberville who is loving the spotlight and has now moved on to calling the military a group of woke poets.  It’s hard to believe that even a weakened Mitch McConnell can’t rein Tuberville in, so the implication is that he just doesn’t care enough to do anything about him.  Lastly, South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem is running for VP, we know that because she just endorsed Trump.