Two Corinthians in Gold Sneakers Walk into a Bar ✡️🌻✡️🌻✡️ 🐰  🐣  

Sneakers and Bibles: Once again, Teflon Trump has managed to avoid the consequences, or at least some of the consequences, of his actions.  On Monday, a New York appeals court reduced the bond he has to put up to appeal his New York fraud case from $474 million to $175 million, still large but not half a billion large.  Moreover, even though NY AG Tish James had already given Trump a thirty-day grace period, the court gave him an additional ten days to provide the reduced amount. The reduction in the bond requirement isn’t all that surprising but the gift of an additional ten days, that seems particularly unnecessary given that Trump spent the weekend bragging about having $500 million is cash.  Just once, it would be nice to see a court take him at his word when he brags about the size of his piggy bank. Not all the news was good for Trump, the appeals court kept in place Judge Engoron’s order for an independent monitor to oversee the Trump Organization and the installation of a compliance director and said that they would take up his appeal in September rather than putting it off until after the election.  Also, over the objection of his lawyers,  Juan Merchan, the judge overseeing Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg’s election interference/hush money case, set an April 15 trial start date and then followed-up yesterday by imposing a gag order limiting Trump from making statements about potential witnesses, attorneys, court staff, the family members of the prosecutors or any potential or actual juror.  The judge justified the gag order by pointing out Trump’s history of making “threatening, inflammatory, denigrating” statements against “people at all levels of the justice system.“ As to Trump’s finances, Trump Media, the shell company that owns twitter copycat Truth Social, started trading on the NASDAQ yesterday, ending the day at a valuation somewhere north of $8 billion; Trump’s share of that ginormous amount is somewhere around $5 billion. If that number sounds nuts, it’s because it is.  Truth Social is a relatively small and money losing operation. Comparable companies trade at substantially lower valuations.  Odds are that Trump Media’s “meme” valuation won’t stand the test of time, but Trump only needs its stock price to last long enough for him to sell off some or all of his position, an action which in and of itself will depress its share price. His shares are currently subject to a six-month lock-up so in theory he can’t sell now, however he also controls the board so don’t be surprised if his lock-up gets reduced.  In the meantime, he must really need cash, how else to explain that in addition to selling $399 gold sneakers he is now selling $60 Bibles? Fueling that jet, paying for Melania’s wardrobe, not to mention his legal bills add up.  According to the NY Times, the legal bills alone have cost $100 million since he left office, an average of $90,000 per day. A lot of those expenses, including some of Melania’s clothing bills have been covered by his PACs, but that well is not as bottomless as he’d hoped so sneakers and Bibles because every penny helps.

Gaslighting: Former RNC head Ronna Romney McDaniel’s tenure didn’t even last one Scaramucci.  Yesterday, after most of MSNBC’s line-up weighed in, each one with his or her own scathing criticism about her hiring, NBC cancelled her contract. All of the critiques hit hard but two stood out: Chuck Todd’s because he was first out the gate, he called McDaniel out for her gaslighting and also said that his colleague Kristen Welker was due an apology from management for putting her in the position of having to conduct an interview with a paid contributor, and Rachel Maddow’s which began with a history lesson on fascism in America that slammed McDaniel for smoothing the way for the Republican Party to become fascist, or at the very least fascist adjacent, and included her calling McDaniel’s hiring “inexplicable” like hiring “mobster” to work at a “DA's office.”  Maddow ended her piece by giving her bosses an out, telling them that admitting their mistake would be a sign of strength.  They apparently got the message making McDaniel a history burger with her lettuce intact by day’s end.  And by lettuce, not just the green leafy variety but also the real green stuff.  No doubt, McDaniel who was also dropped by CAA, the agency that represented her and who is said to be shopping for lawyers, will walk away with a bundle of cash, though far less than Megyn Kelly who still holds the record for a payout for a job that she was poorly suited to perform. And to be clear, McDaniel wasn’t let go for being a Republican or even for being a former RNC head.  Richard Steele, a former RNC head, is an MSNBC commentator and co-host of its revamped Saturday morning show, afternoon host Nicolle Wallace worked for George W Bush and John McCain, commentator Charlie Sykes is a pro-life conservative and Tim Miller, another frequent guest ran Jeb Bush’s campaign. The difference is that McDaniel abetted Trump’s attempted coup, something that continues to this day with new leadership at the RNC, that includes daughter in law Lara, requiring employees and new hires to say that the 2020 election was rigged.

Reproductive Rights:  Yesterday the Supreme Court heard arguments in the mifepristone case with Erin Hawley, the wife of the fist bump wielding Senator Josh Hawley arguing the plaintiffs case against the abortion drug.  The general consensus is that most of the Justices didn’t buy the argument that mifepristone should be banned.  That’s the good news, the not so good news is that SCOTUS even took the case and that the conservative Justice’s reasons for leaving mifepristone be is mostly because they don’t believe that the plaintiffs have standing to sue which could mean that they would be open to banning the drug in the future if a “better” case shows up on their doorstep. Also in the reproductive sphere, yesterday a Democrat picked up a Republican seat in a state race in Alabama.  Her campaign focused on reproductive rights and its likely that her victory got a boost from Alabama IVF screw-up.     

Politics:  RFK Jr who stands no chance of becoming president but who could be a spoiler announced that his running mate will be Nicole Shanahan who funded his Super Bowl ad, the one that featured the nepo guy’s beloved father. She’s also known for having been married to Google founder Sergey Brin who divorced her over her alleged affair with Elon Musk. In all likelihood RFK picked Shanahan because she’s got money and even more significantly has connections with tech bros who also have lots of cash to burn. Worth noting, she’s also a vaccine skeptic. Facing deservedly scathing criticism New York Congressman Jamaal Bowman is trying to walk back his assertion that the rapes of Israelis during the October 7 attack by Hamas, rapes that have been confirmed by the UN, are just Israel propaganda. He doesn’t care about what the women endured; he’s just concerned about his upcoming primary where he is being challenged by former Westchester County executive George Latimer. That primary takes place on June 25, If you live in his Westchester area district let him know what you think. Early voting for the April 2^nd, New York presidential primary is currently taking place.  Please vote because even though Biden has secured the nomination, Marianne Williamson and Dean Phillips’ names are still on the ballot.  It’s important not to let the press spin low turnout as lack of support for Biden at a time when Trump is promising to be a dictator, to imprison millions of people, to restrict abortion rights nationwide, to walk away from Ukraine, to end Obamacare, to cut Social Security and Medicare and so on.                  

#BringThemAllHomeNow

Buddy, Can You Spare a Dime ✡️🌻✡️🌻✡️🌻

Rinse, Repeat:  On Friday, the House passed a $1.2 trillion government funding bill by a vote of 286 to 134. Despite their control of the House, the majority of Republicans voted against the bill. Late into the night, the bill passed through the Senate by a vote of 74 to 24.  It was signed into law by President Biden on Saturday. That’s good news for the country since it means that at least through the end of September we’re funded and open for business.  However, it’s not such good news for Mike Johnson whose days in the Speaker chair may be numbered or at the very least are effectively neutered.  His right flank is beyond furious, his majority keeps shrinking, and he can’t pass anything, without the help of Speaker in the shadows Hakeem Jeffries and his Democratic minority.  As to that shrinking majority, Colorado Republican Ken Buck turned in his House ID after Friday’s vote and to make matters worse, Wisconsin’s Mike Gallagher who had previously announced that he wasn’t running for reelection surprised everyone, including Johnson, by announcing that he’ll be following Buck out the door come April 19.  Gallagher had been viewed as the future of the Republican party.  His early departure combined with his chosen departure date falling too late to schedule a special election for his replacement are indications of just how dysfunctional and disgruntled Republican House membership has become. To drive that point home, Margie Q, apoplectic about the funding bill’s passage and also seeing an opening to get in front of the cameras, announced plans to call for a motion to vacate to force a vote on booting Johnson from his Speakership position.  For now, with Congress off on a holiday recess, her announcement is just a threat though she says that she’ll push the button on that threat when Congress returns if Johnson moves forward with a vote on Ukraine aid.  With Buck and Gallagher out, Johnson can only afford to lose one vote on anything.  He may still have control of the Speaker’s plane but for all practical purposes Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries controls the House and should Margie force a “vacate” vote Johnson’s continued reign, as pathetic as it is, will rely on Jeffries handing over a few votes to keep him in his tenuous position, something Jeffries might do to get Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan funded.  Not that anyone cares, but over the weekend serial liar George Santos whose attention getting antics rival Margie Q’s, announced that he’s so disgusted by the House’s passage of the funding bill that he’s leaving the Republican Party.  He still plans to run for the NY 1 House seat currently occupied by Republican Nick LaLota but as an independent, turning what’s likely to be a close election into a three-way race.

Broke Don? Today could be a bigly bad day for the Donald on two fronts.  First, and most significantly, if he doesn’t get a waiver of some sort from the courts or, in the absence of a waiver, show up with around $550 million in cash or the equivalent in a bond to fund his fraud penalty while he proceeds with his appeal, New York’s Attorney General Tish James will get the keys to his shaky empire.  Over the weekend, Trump posted that he has $500 million in cash which is odd because last week his lawyers told the courts that he didn’t so it’s fair to assume that he doesn’t but with him who knows?  Should he fail to pay up, don’t expect to see Tish padlock Trump Tower, first of all Trump doesn’t own the glitzy Tower, just the commercial properties and his apartment.  Nor will she be sending sheriffs to padlock his other properties, all of which are likely leveraged and many of which he doesn’t own in their entirety. Rather, she’s expected to start with his bank accounts and to also latch on to any cashflow headed his way from renters at those properties. As to his wealth, shares in Trump’s Truth Social are due to start trading publicly this week.  The company is theoretically valued in the billions but there’s really little value there, the company is mostly a meme stock, meaning that its shares will, at least initially, trade on hype rather than value. At least for now, Trump’s substantial ownership share is subject to a six-month lock-up.  No bond company will accept locked-up “meme” shares as collateral for a bond so unless a “friend” buys him out, Truth Social is unlikely to provide him with a lifeline, not that the friend solution should be counted out. That second front, Trump and his lawyers are due in court today in front of Judge Juan Merchan who is expected to set an April date for the beginning of his Manhattan hush money/election interference case.  Despite Trump and his lawyers’ efforts to block testimony from Stormy Daniels and Michael Cohen, Merchan has already ruled that the two can testify.  The Judge also ruled that though the infamous Access Hollywood tape can’t be shown, it’s contents can be discussed, meaning that jurors won’t hear him but will hear about him saying that he’s allowed to grab certain body parts.  Also on the legal front, it’s hard to know exactly what’s going on in Fulton County.  On the one hand the Judge overseeing the case has granted Trump and his co-defendants the right to appeal his decision not to disqualify District Attorney Fani Willis, on the other hand Willis says the case is proceeding on schedule.

Both sides? NBC has jumped the shark. Network poohbahs have hired former RNC Chair Ronna McDaniel as a paid commentator because apparently management believes that it’s important to give election denying serial liars representation in the run up to an election that could decide whether democracy as we know it continues. It’s not all that surprising that the decision to bring McDaniel on board didn’t go over well with viewers or employees of MSNBC, NBC’s liberal arm, which explains why MSNBC president Rashida Jones announced over the weekend that, at least for now, she has no plans to tell her hosts to have McDaniel on any MSNBC programs. However, it also didn’t go over well with others at the more centrist NBC including those at Meet the Press. Yesterday, McDaniel was interviewed by host Kristen Welker, hardly a liberal snowflake. Welker and Chuck Todd, who has been known to frequently outrage the left, took the unusual step of slamming management’s decision, making it clear that they had both been blindsided by NBC’s decision.  Moreover, Welker went out of her way to say that her interview of McDaniel had been scheduled well in advance of the hiring announcement adding that she had no idea that she’d be interviewing someone who was being paid by the network to appear.  To be clear, it’s not unusual for places like MSNBC and CNN and even Fox, which gives airtime to the very well-spoken token Democrat Jessica Tarlov, to hire commentators with differing opinions. Who can forget Rick Santorum who not only opposes abortion but is against birth control or Hugh Hewitt or Megyn Kelly who’s brief sojourn at NBC cost the network millions? The issue with McDaniel isn’t her positions, it’s that she still refuses to acknowledge that the 2020 election was legitimate and until yesterday’s appearance she hadn’t even acknowledged Biden’s victory. For crying out loud, why NBC, why?

Senate Politics: Alaska Senator Lisa Murkowski, who voted to impeach Trump says she won’t vote for him and also seemed to indicate that she might leave the Republican party which probably has Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer offering her the moon and the stars and a committee chairmanship to caucus with his team.  Also on the Senate front, yesterday Tammy Murphy announced that she was suspending her campaign for New Jersey Senator meaning that Congressman Andy Kim who until recently was best known for helping Capitol workers pick-up trash after the January 6 insurrection, will get the Democratic nod.  In all likelihood he will be New Jersey’s junior Senator come next January.  

Fog: Russia is now doing its best to blame Ukraine for the horrific terrorist attack that killed 133 and counting at Moscow’s Crocus City Hall despite a wing of ISIS claiming responsibility. Measles, the most contagious of childhood diseases, which is easily preventable by a very effective vaccine is making a comeback, not because the vaccine has stopped working but because people are failing to have their children vaccinated.  That’s a bigly problem that could get worse since Trump is now on record saying that he won’t fund any school that mandates vaccines and nepo baby RFK Jr, who could well be an election spoiler, says he’s never met a vaccine he’s okay with.  There may or may not be a hostage deal between Israel and Hamas, one that would see the release of only 40 Hamas held hostages for 700 to 800 Israeli held Palestinian prisoners.  And though it remains fair to point out that Kensington Palace’s PR squad is really bad at its job, it’s well past time to fill the Princess Kate rabbit hole and wish the ailing Princess a speedy recovery.      

#BringThemAllHomeNow   

HOKA Polka

The Big Race:  One of the major party presidential candidates has been to every top battleground state this month, a considerable amount of travel for someone who is supposedly whimpering in his basement.  He’s also been pretty busy doing presidential things like trying to broker peace in Gaza while helping out Ukraine.  His campaign coffers are overflowing with cash.  The other one has held only one rally in a battleground state, has had to modify some campaign plans to save on costs and is balancing campaigning with a busy court calendar. Facing a cash crunch, he’s been spending a disproportionate amount of his time at his Palm Beach residence meeting with potential donors who he’s been hitting up for money, some for his campaign but maybe even more for his pressing personal needs. The press continues to tell us that the first guy, President Biden, is old, citing as evidence his new HOKA sneakers, his life-long stutter, and his post-nasal drip. Blinded perhaps by his make-up enhanced orange glow, they spend far less time mentioning that the other guy, Trump, is far from a spring chicken, slurs his speech, pitches forward when walking in his height enhancing shoes, is running on a platform that focuses on retribution, and promises to be a dictator for a day, as if he really means just one day. Then there’s the other candidates. Riding off his family name one of them, RFK Jr, who Vanity Fair reports is frequently amped up on steroids, has been making the rounds, trying to blur his decades long campaign against vaccinations while also asserting that as president he’ll adopt policies to improve the health of America’s children, well at least those who come through their bouts of measles, mumps, rubella, polio and the like unscathed. There’s also the No Labels candidate.  Don’t feel bad if you don’t know who that candidate is, he or she doesn’t exist so far, not for want of trying. The No Labels party best described as a group of mostly rich elitists, still appears determined to find someone to carry their “centrist” flag.  To no avail, they have pitched themselves to Nikki Haley, Larry Hogan, Joe Manchin, former Georgia Lt Governor Geoff Duncan, Condoleezza Rice, retired Admiral William McRaven and former Congressman Will Hurd among others and at least one of them would settle for RFK Jr should he be interested. The No Labels honchos know they can’t win but think that they can garner enough Electoral College votes to force a “contingent election,” a constitutional provision which would result in the president being chosen by the House and the vice president being chosen by the Senate.  What but everything could possibly go wrong with that? There are also a few other fringe candidates but for the moment they’re mostly flying under the radar, not that they couldn’t impact the results in a swing state or two. 228 days to go.

Legal Tango:  Trump’s lawyers are frantically trying to get a higher court in New York to waive or dramatically reduce the amount of money Trump is supposed to cough up as a result of Judge Engoron’s ruling in NY Attorney General Tish James’s fraud case against him, his business and his two adult sons. So far, despite his squawking, whining and Truth Social posting, Trump hasn’t managed to get his $500 million plus obligation reduced but he has until Monday so don’t count him out yet. For her part, AG Tish James is ready to start glomming onto Trump’s assets.  Her office has already filed judgments in Westchester County, an indication that she is prepared to try to take over Trump’s golf course and Seven Springs private estate on day one. Also in New York, it looks like NYC District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s case could be back on track. It turns out that despite assertions and fears otherwise, the Southern District of New York Federal Attorneys didn’t sit on a trove of relevant documents, that the large cache of newly disclosed documents that Trump’s lawyers had asserted would be game changers contain little that might influence or delay Bragg’s hush money/election interference trial.  Bragg appears confident that Judge Juan Merchan who is overseeing the case will agree with that assessment and as a result will allow the trial to go forward in April, just one month beyond its originally scheduled March start date.  The news out of Judge Eileen “loose” Cannon’s court room is far less promising.  Though the “purloined” documents case that she is overseeing should be a slam dunk for prosecutors, it’s growing increasingly apparent that in addition to delaying the trial, she may be trying to tank it altogether. Some of her recent rulings give her the option to dismiss the whole case after a jury has been sworn in, an action that would leave Special Counsel Jack Smith without any right to appeal. It’s not clear if Cannon’s rulings are a result of her lack of experience or are politically motivated, or most likely both, but whatever their basis they’re very damaging to Smith’s case since they largely benefit Trump. For example, on Monday, she ordered defense and prosecutors to outline proposed jury instructions based on two scenarios each of which misstate the law and facts of the case.  Though it would be somewhat unprecedented and also politically ugly, don’t be surprised if Smith tries to have her replaced.

Senate Races:  Yesterday, New Jersey’s multiply indicted Senator Bob Menendez finally announced that he won’t be seeking reelection, at least he won’t be seeking reelection as a Democrat.  Should he be exonerated in time he says he’ll run as an independent. That’s unlikely to happen so the race for the Democratic nomination for his Senate seat is now between Congressman Andy Kim and Tammy Murphy, wife of Governor Phil Murphy. New Jersey is a weird state where back-door politics still reigns. In many of the state’s counties ballot design and candidate position is determined by county leaders beholden to the Governor which means that Tammy Murphy’s name could appear on top with Andy Kim’s name placed where it will barely be seen.  Kim is suing to have those rules changed and in a someone unprecedented step the state’s Attorney General says he won’t defend the state’s current system, a plus for Kim who has managed to get good ballot placement in the few counties that aren’t controlled by the “system.” The case is currently in front of a federal judge.  The state primary is scheduled to take place on June 4.  Overall, more vulnerable Democratic Senate seats are up this cycle including in a few rather red states. I’ll include a more complete election table in a forthcoming write-up but here are some races to focus on in the meantime, subject to your preferences consider contributing or getting otherwise involved.  Jon Tester is up for reelection in Montana.  He like, Ohio’s Sherrod Brown, has a history of winning in a red state but with Trump on the ballot he’ll need all the help he can get. Senator Jacky Rosen’s race in Nevada is likely to be close as is Bob Casey’s in Pennsylvania. Representative Elissa Slotkin is seeking to replace retiring Senator Debbie Stabenow in Michigan and Ruben Gallego is seeking to replace the departing Kyrsten Sinema in Arizona. Colin Allred is challenging Republican Ted Cruz in Texas and Debbie Mucarsel-Powell is challenging Republican Rick Scott in Florida. Neither Scott nor Cruz is very popular in their states, both squeezed by in their last races by small margins so though Texas and Florida may seem like a stretch, don’t count them out particularly since reproductive rights loom over both states. In Maryland, Democrats haven’t chosen their candidate to replace retiring Senator Ben Cardin yet.  Maryland is a state that should be easy for Democrats to win but won’t be this cycle since Republicans have selected the relatively popular former Governor Larry Hogan, one of those who turned down a No Labels bid because he’s too shrewd for that.  

Fog:  Supposedly the House has agreed to a funding bill to avoid a shut down, but it’s not done yet since Speaker Johnson is facing the usual pushback from many in his caucus. The US is now supporting a UN Security Council resolution that calls for an immediate Gaza ceasefire with “linkage” to a hostage release whatever “linkage” is supposed to mean as in probably very little for the hostages. And because politics are politics and Speaker Johnson is trying to exploit Democratic divisions, he plans to invite Israel’s Netanyahu to speak before a joint session of Congress.  Senate Leader Schumer is reluctantly now on board for that even though he’d rather it not take place, but again politics.  

#BringThemAllHomeNow 

Used Plane Anyone? ✡️🌻✡️🌻✡️🌻

Buckeyes:  Yesterday was a primary day.  As expected, President Biden and Trump easily won their respective presidential races so not a lot to report there.  There were however also a number of state and local races with two standing out. Most notably, Bernie Moreno, Trump’s preferred Ohio Senate candidate, easily won his primary, an indication that Trump’s endorsement continues to carry weight.  MAGA Moreno will now face off against incumbent Senator Sherrod Brown in the fall. In 2020 Trump beat Biden by 8 points in Ohio and in 2022 newbie Senator/faux Hillbilly JD Vance beat then Congressman Tim Ryan by 6 points, so in a normal world, Moreno would be expected to glide to victory.  However, despite being a Democrat in an increasingly red state, the populist Brown has a record of beating the odds in Ohio where his everyman persona crosses the political divide. Democrats who were fairly upfront in hoping that Moreno would win the Republican primary, are counting on his brand of Republicanism being too MAGA for Ohio. The race will be close and closely watched because control of the Senate could rest on its outcome.  Attention was also focused on the California special election to replace former Speaker Kevin McCarthy who’d resigned the House after losing his leadership role to Speaker for now Mike Johnson.  Vince Fong, Trump’s preferred candidate who also had McCarthy’s support garnered the most votes but failed to cross over the 50% threshold required by California law and will now face off against the as yet undetermined second-place finisher, also a Republican, in still another special election scheduled to take place on May 21. That’s a bummer for Speaker Johnson who had been hoping to be able to immediately increase his very thin majority. Johnson has just signed on to another budget that will enrage some of the members of his crazy caucus so he needs every vote he can get.    

Money, Money, Money: Not too long ago, Trump claimed that he had $400 million is liquid assets at his disposal.  It turns out that he doesn’t, so it’s not all that surprising that it also turns out that he doesn’t have the half a billion plus that he needs to post with the court to keep hold of all of his properties while he moves forward with an appeal of his New York State fraud case.  It’s also not surprising that none of the thirty bond companies he says that he asked nor Ivanka, Jared, Elon, or anyone else he’s approached named Vlad are at all interested in providing him with the money or a bond. As rich as he is Elon is probably not all that liquid either and not all of Jared’s investors are complicit Saudis. Not that we should count Vlad out, it’s just not all that easy to transfer money from Russian accounts these days.  As to the bond companies, half a billion is outside of their comfort zones and then there’s the problem that Trump is a problem borrower who should he win reelection will hide behind the presidency to avoid meeting his obligations.  Though Trump’s net worth is probably around $3 billion, his real estate assets are illiquid and leveraged.  Bond companies want assets that they can glom onto and sell quickly which is why the Chubb bond that Trump posted to secure his $90 million E Jean Caroll penalty is secured by liquid assets held in his Florida Charles Schwab account.  Trump is now asking the courts to reduce or waive his fraud bond requirement.  We’ll know by Monday, the date that his bond is due,  whether that court hail Mary works.  Don’t count him out because stalling consequences remains his super-power. If he doesn’t get relief, expect to see New York AG Tish James jump into action.  In case you are wondering the current value of Trump’s used 757 is somewhere around $6 million, Melania’s Louboutin collection and closet full of worn once designer duds may be even higher. Trump’s campaign is also having trouble raising money, apparently his small money donors, are starting to feel tapped out maybe because of all the times they’ve ponied up to pay his legal expenses.  That could explain why this NY registered Democrat has been receiving fund raising pleas from RNC co-chair/daughter in law Lara.  It could also explain why Trump is now suing ABC and George Stephanopoulos for asking Republican Congresswoman/rape victim Nancy Mace how she could endorse a rapist.  The problem with Trump’s suit is that the judge who oversaw his E Jean Caroll case, opined that “the fact that Mr. Trump sexually abused – indeed raped Ms. Carroll has been conclusively established and is binding” in his ruling. It’s not clear why Trump wants to highlight the judge’s remarks during a campaign that could be decided by women, but why not?          

People:  Former Trump advisor Peter Navarro is now ensconced in a Florida jail because even this Supreme Court thought that he didn’t deserve a get out of jail pass.  Following in the footsteps of Rudy Giuliani who isn’t in jail but could be someday, he held a pre jail news conference at a gas station where he called his incarceration an “unprecedented assault on the constitutional separation of powers.”  Of course, he could have avoided that “assault” by showing up to testify before Congress about all those things, he voluntarily told MSNBC’s Ari Melber on cable TV.  Elsewhere in Trump land, it’s reported that Trump’s campaign team is considering bringing Paul Manafort on board.  You may recall that back in the halcyon days of Trump’s presidency Manafort was found guilty of five counts of filing false tax returns, two counts of bank fraud, and one count of failing to disclose a foreign bank account.  Moreover, the then Republican controlled Senate deemed Manafort a counterintelligence threat likely because he canoodled with Russian agents and is believed to have shared election data with at least one of them. Manafort who spent some time in jail had his sentence commuted and was then pardoned by Trump.  Trump isn’t even bothering to hide his Russian connections these days.  That may or may not be why former Vice President Mike Pence will not be endorsing him.  Nor will former presidential candidate/Arkansas Governor Asa Hutchinson, current Republican Senators Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, Todd Young of Indiana. or Bill Cassidy of Louisiana. That list, to the extent it matters, is likely to grow.  So far none of them have indicated an interest in endorsing Biden but hope springs eternal.  

Fog: So according to Trump, if you are Jewish and plan to vote for Biden you hate Israel. That’s a not very subtle rehashing of the old “loyalty trope” that says Jews are others who can’t be trusted to be loyal Americans.  Just to be clear, you can be Jewish, you can dislike Bibi Netanyahu, you can be outraged about October 7, you can stay up at night anguished about the hostages and the rapes endured by some of the victims, and also be upset about events in Gaza and still support Biden and Chuck Schumer and be a loyal American.  It’s sad that I have to say that.  It’s absurd that I have to say that in response to the hateful remarks of a former American president and current American presidential candidate who continues to cozy up to Putin and his “pure blood” spewing cronies but that’s where we are in 2024.  Not good at all. 

#BringThemAllHomeNow

 

 
March is Mad ✡️🌻✡️🌻✡️🌻 🍀 🍀 

WTF Feed:   X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter, lets you choose between viewing posts from sources you “follow” or posts that they choose “for you.”  Since I mostly follow mainstream media sources and individuals whose observations on current events I value, despite Elon Must moving X to the right side of hell, I still find the platform to be a useful newsfeed as long as I stick to my “follow” feed. However, every now and then I wade out of my “follow” comfort zone into the morass of posts on the “for you” side, more often than usual these days because that’s where the juiciest #KateGate streams hang out and admittedly I’ve fallen down that rabbit hole. The #KateGate posts are conspiratorial, but they pale in comparison to the political posts that X’s algorithm has decided to push my way.  Those posts include an endless stream of messages from the likes of the Jim Jordan headed Republican Judiciary Committee, an assortment of dedicated Trump fanboys/bots, RFK Jr, Elon Musk and, for some reason I can’t fathom, from former White House doctor/current right wing Congressman Ronny Jackson. Those “for you” posts are chock full of nasty rantings about dangerous immigrants, murderous crime waves, vaccine denial, the “sinking” economy, and yearnings for the great days of the Trump administration, the days we can have again, if only we bring the Orange one back.  Naturally, they attack all things Biden including his and Hunter’s “obvious” criminality, while poking holes in all the cases against the “unfairly” targeted Trump. The posts are depressing and distressing, providing a window into what the half of the country who either adore Trump or just hate anything that’s not labeled Republican think.  Distressing being the key word here. Over the weekend, while campaigning in Ohio, Trump who continues to assert that any election, past or future, that he hasn’t or doesn’t win is tainted and fixed, promised once again to free all the “patriots” convicted of storming the Capital after the last presidential election while warning that a bloodbath lays ahead if he doesn’t win in 2024. His X fans quickly defended his remarks, with some including Florida Senator Marco Rubio, saying that they’re being taken out of context. They’re not being taken out of context, Trump means what he says, if the election doesn’t go his way, he will push for a repeat of January 6^th and based in part on what’s being posted on X and also what’s repeated daily on Fox, Newsmax and the other even more right leaning media outlets, it’s folly to think that his followers won’t heed his call. On the #KateGate front, Kate was or wasn’t seen shopping at a market this weekend and Buckingham Palace is or isn’t making a bigly announcement on Wednesday. 😂😂

Crazed and Crazy:  Trump was in Ohio campaigning for Bernie Moreno, the candidate that he’s endorsed in the contentious, too close to predict Republican Senate primary that takes place on Tuesday. The far-right Moreno who is also supported by Ohio’s Republican Senator JD Vance and Jim “Gym” Jordan is very Trumpian with lots of warts which may or may not include him posting on a gay dating website.  As evidenced by Ohio Governor DeWine’s endorsement of Matt Dolan, one of his opponents, Moreno is not the favorite of the more mainstream set. The winner of the primary will face off against Democratic incumbent Sherrod Brown, who despite Ohio’s red glow, has managed to hold on in the state. Republicans view Ohio as a possible pick-up in their quest to retake the Senate in November, but fear that a Moreno win will dash their hopes.  Democrats are hoping, even counting on Republicans selecting Moreno. Elsewhere in crazy town, RFK Jr who is counting on delusional voters thinking that he is the second coming of his father, is no longer pairing up with fellow anti-vaxxer Aaron Rodgers, maybe because his conspiratorial thinking on gun slain kids really being crisis actors was too much for him.  Nepo Kennedy is now teasing that his vice-presidential nod will go to the relatively unknown Nicole Shanahan, a lawyer who is also the former wife of Google co-founder Sergey Brin. Brin and Shanahan’s divorce had something to do with an affair she allegedly had with Elon Musk because isn’t there a Musk angle on everything these days? On the subject of nepos, Jarred Kushner, together with one of Trump’s former special envoys/National Security Directors Ric Grenell, is close to locking up what looks to be a $500 million sweetheart deal for some prime real estate in Serbia. Both Kushner and Grenell’s contacts with the Serbians were made during the Trump administration and though Kushner asserts that he’s out of politics, Grenell is reported to have his eyes on serving as Trump’s Secretary of State should he return to office, not that conflicts count for Republicans. Elsewhere in nepo land, Hunter Biden is due to go on trial for gun charges, odd because at one point he had plea bargained himself out of those charges but then again politics is politics, and his special counsel is a Republican appointee.  By the way, it turns out that the now arrested for lying FBI informant who was the chief witness against Hunter and his dad Joe in the impeachment trial that’s fizzling was paid $600,000 by a Trump related Dubai based company in 2020 which is not so coincidentally the year that he started lying to the FBI about all things Burisma.

Legally Loony:  Judge Juan Merchan who is overseeing the New York Trump election interference/hush money case has pushed that case’s trial date off one month to give Trump and his attorney’s more time to review the documents that the Southern District of New York had been sitting on. The Fulton County case which had been on hold for a while due to the allegations against DA Fani Willis is kind of back on track but without her one-time beau/prosecutor Nathan Wade. Wade stepped down after Judge Scott McAfee, who is overseeing the Fulton County case, split the baby, ruling that Willis could continue on the case but only if Wade exited.  McAfee was ready to issue his ruling earlier in the week but because of threats against him, he waited until Friday to give local authorities time to make sure that adequate security was in place.  Though it’s not clear yet if they can, Trump and his co-defendants are trying to appeal McAffee’s ruling because, of course. Former Trump aide Peter Navarro who is due to start his jail term this week is also appealing to the Supreme Court where the wife of one of the presiding Judices was also a participant in the overthrow the election scheme that Navarro refuses to testify about. It’s not clear that SCOTUS will take his case.       

Lost Ways  ✡️🌻✡️🌻✡️🌻

Delay, Delay, Delay: With the help of or due to the incompetence of the Southern District of New York, Trump’s legal team scored another victory yesterday, managing to delay his New York election interference/hush money trial by at least thirty days. The unexpected delay is because, for some unfathomable reason, federal prosecutors at the SDNY have just provided New York District Attorney Alvin Bragg with a pile of documents that he has been trying to obtain for some time.  Trump’s lawyers want ninety days to review the new trove.  Bragg has agreed to give them thirty days.  The time delay is now up to presiding Judge Merchan but at best, the trial which had been scheduled to begin the week of March 25^th won’t start until the end of April.  Trump also scored a victory of sorts in the Fulton County case where presiding Judge McAfee dismissed three of the thirteen charges against him while also dismissing some of the charges against his co-defendants. Judge McAfee made it clear that the rest of the indictment still stands and that prosecutors could still present evidence related to the dropped charges as they argue that Trump and the other co-defendants conspired to overturn the 2020 election, a good thing because one of the dropped charges related to Trump’s infamous “find me more votes” phone call.  Judge McAfee also said that he would reconsider his decision to drop the charges if prosecutors provided him with a better justification to do so. McAfee is expected to rule on whether or not to disqualify Fulton County DA Fani Willis later today. If he boots her, the whole case could end up on permanent ice dropped charges or not.  Then there’s Florida where Judge Eileen “loose” Cannon has yet to say when she intends to start her trial.  Yesterday she rejected one of Trump’s legal team’s requests to dismiss the case.  Their request related to “disagreements” over the definition of some terms in the Espionage Act.  On the face of it her decision to dismiss that request seems like a good thing, but according to “my” legal advisor Andrew Weissmann, because she agreed that Trump’s lawyers could raise the issue later in the case it’s not a victory for prosecutors.  Weissmann’s view, shared by a number of other legal pundits in the know, is that all Cannon did was push off her final decision on the matter to a point in the trial process when Special Counsel Jack Smith’s team would have no recourse should she rule against them, even if her ruling was totally off base and to be clear Trump’s lawyers questioning of the applicability of the Espionage Act is totally off base.  If Cannon had ruled against Team Jack now, he would have been able to appeal her decision to a higher court but once the trial begins that option goes away. Cannon is slow walking rulings on some other key decisions, making it likely that the purloined documents trial won’t take place before the election, if ever.  Nothing much to say about the Washington DC January 6^th trial because until the Supreme Court rules on presidential immunity it remains on hold.  Oh, and Trump announced again, that one of his first acts should he return to the Oval will be to pardon everyone who’s been convicted for anything to do with the insurrection.  Great for them, but too late for former advisor Peter Navarro who’s due to report to jail for his contempt of Congress conviction. By the way, as crazy as it sounds, Navarro still refuses to return some documents that he took with him when Trump left office.

Wacko Humans:  Someone’s gotten to Lauren Boebert.  Though she still plans to shift districts to run for the solidly red Colorado seat being vacated by outgoing Republican Ken Buck, she’s decided not to give up her current seat to run in the special election for his open seat. Whoever wins the special election will have a leg up come November so her decision not to run in the special election could end her Congressional career, at least for now.  Panhandle Putz Matt Gaetz resides in a solidly red district, so his reelection is assured, however he is facing a bit of a hiccup. He’s been subpoenaed to provide a deposition in a defamation case filed by his friend Chris Dorworth who is suing a few people including the woman who says that she was sex trafficked when only seventeen years old by Gaetz, Dorworth, and their convicted and imprisoned friend Joel Greenberg who is also one of the people Dorworth is suing. A bit of a dilemma for Gaetz who may decide he has to plead the Fifth, not a good look for a member of Congress who is currently being investigated by the House Ethics committee and who also aspires to become Governor. For some bizarre reason Kristi Noem, who is a governor, not of Florida but of South Dakota, and is supposedly also being considered to become Trump’s running mate, just did an infomercial for a Texas tooth whitening practice. That’s likely a violation of state law but also just weird. Her misstep, combined with Alabama Senator Katie Britt’s Handmaid’s Tale speech, make it more and more likely that Trump will end up picking either Senator JD Vance or Senator Tim Scott to be his partner in autocracy. Proving that Democrats also make bad decisions, Bob Menendez continues to assert that he did nothing wrong despite the gold bars that prove otherwise.  He also has not ruled out an independent run for reelection in New Jersey, the state where political corruption thrives. Though he’s not a politician, Elon Musk remains a force to reckon with. He asserts that he won’t be contributing to any presidential candidate but hasn’t ruled out contributing to a dark money PAC and some have suggested, with no proof, that he may have backstopped Trump’s EJ Carroll Chubb appeal bond or may be considering backstopping Trump’s $400 million plus New York fraud payment.  That payment or bond is due by the end of the month. One thing Musk didn’t do is take up Trump’s offer to buy Truth Social.  Apparently, Trump tried to sell it to him last year. Musk did however cancel X’s much trumpeted deal with former CNN host Don Lemon because though he asserts that he’s all in on free speech, he didn’t like that Lemon asked him tough questions during an interview that was for the launch of Lemon’s X series.  No comment from X CEO Linda Yaccarino who’d been busy selling ads for the Lemon show. We’ll have to wait until the end of the month to find out who anti vax RFK Jr picks as his running mate but Aaron Rodgers, the erstwhile NY Jets quarterback, has been trying to walk back the comments he made to CNN’s Pamela Brown about the gunned down Sandy Hook students and their families being crisis actors.  Rodgers has also expressed skepticism about the events of 9.11, though at least he, unlike Trump knows they took place on 9/11 rather than at a 7 Eleven. He’s not the only one walking back his remarks.  Trump is now trying to walk back his statements about cutting Social Security and Medicare because, someone, maybe the same people who told Bobo not to run because they needed her to keep their House majority, reminded him that old people vote and that many of them vote Republican.

Fog: We’ve gotten to the point in the Gaza War where Bibi, rather than the Hamas terrorists who killed, kidnapped, and raped on October 7 and continue to hide behind children and the sick, is to blame for everything.  Don’t get me wrong I share Senate Leader Schumer’s frustration. I am no fan of Bibi’s and I fear that he’s prioritizing saving himself over his country, a view shared by many but not all Israelis which is why their elections keep on being deadlocked. However, I am not happy with Senator Schumer and believe that his decision to speak out on the floor of the Senate was inappropriate. What’s the point of calling for elections when the last few have all come out the same?  Anyway, I suspect this is all about US politics, Jews don’t live in swing states’ swing districts, but the anti-Israel crowd does. I hate this. End of vent, at least for now.

#BringThemAllHomeNow 

 
Buck You ✡️🌻✡️🌻✡️🌻

It’s On:  Last night both President Biden and his predecessor clinched their respective party’s nominations. While 2024 will be a rematch of 2020 at least with regard to the Democratic and Republican nominees, the line up of third-party spoilers will be different. We still don’t know who, if anyone, the No Labels party plans to run, largely because they haven’t yet found anyone to take their mantel, but as of now both RFK Jr and Cornell West are running as independents.  None of the minor league candidates can win, they can and will draw votes from Biden and/or Trump so while it’s fun to ridicule their runs and RFK Jr’s current plan to choose either fellow anti-vaxxer/football player Aaron Rogers or former Minnesota Governor/wrestler Jesse Ventura as his running mate, a vote for anyone of them, particularly in one of the swing states can affect the outcome of the race. Helped along by a number of third-party candidates, most notably by the Green Party’s Ralph Nader who garnered 97,499 votes, George W Bush beat Al Gore by only 537 votes in Florida, enough to deliver him an electoral college win and the presidency. Remind your frustrated friends and family, that they don’t have to love the person they vote for, but they shouldn’t waste their vote or stay home because this election, tax cuts or not, is about the continuation of democracy as we know it.  One of the major party’s candidates admires Adolph Hitler, is infatuated with Vladimir Putin, and adores and wants to model his “rule” on the authoritarian/dictatorial ways of Hungarian autocrat Viktor Orban, North Korean dictator Kim Jong un and Chinese leader Xi Jinping.  He is also a business fraud and a sex offender who has been multiply indicted for election interference and for taking and sharing secret documents, is viewed as a risk to national security by many of his former advisors and appointees, is proud of having eliminated reproductive freedom and is promising to be a dictator on day one of his next administration should he win.  Presumably, day one is when he’ll pull the US out of NATO and start rounding up tens of millions of the undocumented, many of whom are the same long-term residents fueling our economy and providing the services that many citizens won’t.  He plans to throw them into detention camps and since that will take far longer than one day so will his dictatorship.  Listen to what he says and believe him, because while he’s often incompetent, he is very determined, and retribution is his mantra.    

The Other Guy:  It turns out that Robert Hur, the former US Attorney who was responsible for determining whether or not the other guy, Joe Biden, had criminally mishandled the documents that he took with him at the end of his time as Vice President isn’t such a good guy after all.  Hur, a Trump appointee, who appears to be competing for Attorney General in Trump’s next administration should he get a next administration, gratuitously slimed Biden in his report.  That’s the report that concluded that Biden, like former VP Pence but unlike Trump hadn’t broken any laws but where Hur threw in inappropriate, and also inaccurate comments about Biden’s mental acuity.  Yesterday, at the invitation of House Republicans Hur testified in front of Congress giving members of both party’s opportunities to score some soundbites.  Hur who tried to make Biden out as a sympathetic doddering old man in his report, failed to include a lot of far more flattering details of his five-hour interview of Biden, including the part where he complimented Biden on his photographic memory.  Additionally, it turns out that despite Hur’s assertion otherwise, Biden did recall the details of his son’s tragic death during their meeting, a particularly odd thing for Hur to mischaracterize given how frequently Biden talks about his grief over losing Beau. Mostly, what Biden was vague about related to the color coding of his files, largely because, surprise, surprise, he had nothing to do with choosing the colors that his staff picked out. Bottom line, Biden’s memory is fine, but Hur is just another political operative along the lines of former Attorney General Bill Barr, and with his hands off approach to all things that could possibly be viewed as political, current AG Merrick Garland handed Republicans some talking points that will live on and on, a distressingly useful counter to the very obvious mental deterioration of the Republican’s Orange god.  As to the Orange one and his purloined documents, Brian Butler, the long- term Mar a Lago worker previously known only as Trump Employee Number 5 was interviewed by CNN’s Kaitlin Collins, another one of the impressive interviews that she’s done since taking over CNN’s Cuomo slot.  Butler recounted how he “unwittingly” helped Trump co-defendant Walt Nauta move boxes of what turned out to be classified documents onto Trump’s private plane as well as the pressure campaign that followed as he and others in the Trump Mar a Lago universe were offered Trump-aligned lawyers. Trump’s Bedminster property was never searched by the FBI but based on Butler’s comments, it should have been.  Makes you wonder what’s under or maybe even in Ivana’s coffin. Butler also recounted that Anthony Pratt, the Australian billionaire businessman with whom Trump shared classified submarine information shared some of that information with him while he was chauffeuring him around Palm Beach because who doesn’t play telephone tag with top secret submarine details that were just criminally shared by a former president? Given how Judge Eileen “loose” Cannon keeps stalling and helping Trump with those purloined documents charges, this may be as close to hearing Butler’s testimony as we’ll ever get.  

Speaker Hakeem?  Okay, Hakeem Jeffries isn’t Speaker but given that Speaker Mike Johnson’s majority keeps shrinking he could be soon. Yesterday, without giving Johnson a heads-up, Colorado Republican Ken Buck who had already said that he wasn’t seeking reelection gave Johnson the finger by announcing that that he’ll be departing Congress next week. With a few House seats currently vacant, Buck’s departure leaves Republicans with only a two-seat majority. The special election to fill Buck’s seat will take place on June 25.  Concerned that she can’t win in her current purple district, Lauren Boebert, who has been endorsed by Trump is moving districts and is one of the Republicans competing to take over the safely Republican Buck seat.  If Republicans appoint her as their candidate for the special election, she will have to give up her current seat, meaning they will remain down a Colorado House seat with no time left for another special election to fill the one she vacates. There are a few more open seats in the House that will be filled by special elections in other states, but things could get really dicey for Johnson come this summer.   

#BringThemAllHomeNow         

Just Ken ✡️🌻✡️🌻✡️🌻

Oscar Night Grouch:  Oppenheimer won big last night, nice, but the highlight of the evening was Ryan Gosling’s Ken performance followed by John Cena’s nearly naked streak 😊. Naturally, the grouchy predecessor guy with the twitchy finger was having none of it because that’s how he rolls and maybe Adderall?  Kudos to Jimmy Kimmel for putting him in his place by pointing out it was past his jail time.  That’s the same predecessor who spent part of his weekend at Mar a Lago exchanging endorsements with Hungary’s xenophobic, anti-press, anti-democracy, autocrat Viktor Orban while also making fun of President Biden’s life-long stutter. Stutter or not, Biden’s State of the Union address performance must have really rattled Trump and the Republican hoi polloi, how else to explain their claims that Biden’s lively performance was attributable to some miracle drug. Those accusations (projections?) are fairly ironic given that in addition to Trump, one of those tweeting the drug slime is former White House doctor, now Texas Congressman Ronny Jackson who was demoted by the Navy from Vice Admiral to Captain for drinking, pill popping, mistreating subordinates, and passing out drugs, including an amphetamine mostly prescribed only to military pilots in combat situations,  as if they were candy during his White House stint.

Fundie Folly:  Despite her oddly delivered SOTU rebuttal, no one’s accused Alabama Senator Katie Britt of any pill popping but her Thursday night performance did serve as fodder for Scarlett Johansson’s spot-on Saturday Night Live cold open performance. If turns out that Britt’s “fundie baby voice,” yeah that’s a thing, wasn’t the only off part of her speech; her retelling of her interaction with a sex-trafficked migrant was deceptive as well.  It turns out that Karla Jacinto, the woman whose dreadful sex-trafficking experience she cited wasn’t abused as a result of any border security inaction on Joe Biden’s part.  Jacinto’s awful experience dates back to the early 2000s, when George W Bush was president. Moreover, the woman in question resides in Mexico and was abused there, not in the US. Not that facts matter much to the MAGA set.  Over the weekend, Trump endorsed Republican Congresswoman Nancy Mace’s reelection campaign.  Mace who has outspoken often about being a rape survivor is being primaried by a Kevin McCarthy supported opponent, part of the former Speaker’s attempt at paying her back for voting for his ouster.  On Sunday,  during an interview with George Stephanopoulos Mace defended Trump because, apparently, only her rape matters, E Jean Carroll’s not so much. On Friday, sex offender/defamer Trump posted a $92 million bond with the court so that he can proceed with his appeal. He also defamed Carroll some more over the weekend so that penalty could grow if she decides to sue again. The appeal bond was provided by the Chubb Corporation.  Maybe Chubb was willing to go where other insurance companies wouldn’t because back in 2018 Trump appointed its CEO Evan Greenberg to a White House advisory committee? Or maybe Chubb is just charging him an arm and a leg and has obtained some exceptionally valuable collateral to cover their risk?  The conspiracy crowd has noted that Chubb still has an office in Moscow while even suggesting that Orban could have delivered a check from his and Trump’s mutual friend Putin.  That’s probably fake news, but anyone up on the Kate Middleton photoshop controversy and yesterday’s recalled Kensington Palace photo knows that’s it’s been a weekend full of conspiracy theories. By the way, Princess Kate or someone issuing her statements fessed up that the picture was altered this morning.  Sadly, there’s no conspiracy behind why New Hampshire’s Governor Sununu, who is supposed to be one of the few remaining normie Republicans, has joined the Trump endorsement train despite his prior criticism of all things Trump but he has. He’s just leaving his options open because while we’re all focused on 2024, he’s already jumping forward to 2028.

Tik Tok:  As you’ve probably noticed the government is still fully open for business.  That’s because Congress averted a partial shutdown on Friday night after both Houses passing a $460 billion plus FY 2024 appropriations “minibus” package, largely along the lines agreed to by then Speaker McCarthy and President Biden.  That’s good news but the closing threat is still out there as the minibus covers less than one half of the year’s spending, a second tranche of spending bills or another temporary continuing resolution needs to be passed by March 22 to avoid a shutdown.   Trump who is mostly pro-shutdown, is now also pro-Tik Tok, probably because he met with Jeff Yass one of its big investors over the weekend and because Kelly Anne Conway is representing the pro-Tik Tok forces. Yass, a former anti-Trumper has recently become pro-Trump and has also become a contributor to Trump and Speaker for now Johnson.  Trump’s new support of Tik Tok is awkward for his Congressional fan club because they’re supporting legislation that would require Tik Tok’s Chinese owners ByteDance to sell or face a US ban.  At least they’ve been supporting that legislation until now, but Trump has spoken so that might change. 

#BringThemAllHomeNow           

Dark Brandon Strikes Again ✡️🌻✡️🌻✡️🌻 

SOTU: Last night President Biden delivered his State of the Union address to the nation. He exceeded expectations, not because the content of his speech was all that surprising, most, if not all of his planned remarks were the things that you’d expect a Democratic president to say. He exceeded expectations with his forceful delivery, his self-deprecating sense of humor, his adlibs, and his ability to parry back at the crazy (as in MAGA hat Margie Q), and his stamina, stutter be damned.   With a glint in his eye, he repeatedly took on his “predecessor,” without explicitly saying his name and unlike that predecessor he expressed optimism rather than doom, gloom, and retribution. From the start, he turned the emphasis on his age back at the Republicans,  pointing out that unlike most of them he’d been born during the World War II, a time when combating fascism was considered both right and necessary, using that point to emphasize how critical it is for the US to support Ukraine in its fight against Russian expansionism. He went on to highlight the improving economy, pointing out how much better the US is doing in comparison to the rest of the world. He once again expressed his commitment to women’s reproductive rights, a point hammered home by a very smartly dressed Jill Biden whose guests included several women whose lives and fertility have been directly impacted by the overturning of Roe and Alabama’s IVF insanity. He did that while casting shade at some of the SCOTUS Justices in the audience. He called for raising taxes on the super-rich, especially those tax avoiding mega corporations that all good politicians, at least Democratic ones, like to attack for their tax avoiding ways, a contrast to his predecessor who’s bragged about being too smart to pay taxes. He highlighted the differences between Republicans and Democrats when it comes to health care coverage. And, in an effort to bring those “uncommitted” voters back into the fold, he deftly walked the Middle East tightrope, mourning the Israelis killed, raped, and kidnapped on October 7, expressing support for Israel’s right to defend itself but also addressing the need to protect and a way to feed Gaza’s civilians while talking up the aspirational two state solution. For some truly unfathomable reason, Republicans thought that Alabama’s freshman Senator Katie Britt was the right one to deliver the Republican response to Biden’s speech.  Boy did they ever miss the mark.  Sure, her youth stood in contrast to Biden’s age but as Joe pointed out, his age comes with experience.  Staging the whiny, on the verge of tears Britt in a fancy, sterile kitchen gave off Stepford Wife vibes rather than gravity. The ashcan of history is filled with politicians from both sides of the aisle whose SOTU responses dragged them down.  Britt, who probably just lost her place on Trump’s VP list, can now count herself as a member of the ashcan set.  Worth noting, she helped negotiate the border security package that Trump then condemned so she’s not stupid and should have known better than to let herself be used as a Trump tool. As to that border package, last night Biden used its Republican rejection to his advantage, earning a nod of approval from a very frustrated looking Oklahoma’s Senator James Lankford, who’d taken the lead in negotiating it only to have his work and his reputation besmirched by the Trump cult. 

Human Resources:  George of many names Santos was in attendance last night.  During the SOTU his comm’s team or someone with access to his X account announced that he’s running for reelection to Congress, not in his old district but for the NY 1 seat currently held by Republican Nicholas Lalota. That Long Island seat, which Democrats view as a possible pick-up was once held by Republican gubernatorial wannabee Lee Zeldin.  It covers parts of Suffolk County, including the tony Hamptons.  It’s highly doubtful that Santos wins the Republican primary but running gives him the ability to raise money for his legal expenses.  Sound familiar?  While the indicted Santos maybe running, Bob Menendez is not.  Yesterday, the multiply indicted Democratic New Jersey Senator finally admitted that even in New Jersey he won’t be able to pull off a successful run in the face of the ever-growing list of charges levied against him. Absent a forceful shove, he’ll probably remain in office until the end of his term.  Not necessarily a bad thing since Democratic NJ Governor Murphy appointing his wife, Senate aspirant Tammy, as the state’s interim Senator, something he would probably try to do, would be a bad look for the party.  As expected, Nikki Haley has suspended her campaign and though she hasn’t endorsed Trump she kind of implied that she might if he reached out to her voters so don’t be surprised if she eventually does endorse him.  If she does, she’ll be following in the footsteps of the increasingly ashen and zombie like Mitch McConnell who despite not having spoken with Trump since the January 6^th insurrection has now endorsed him.  On the Democratic side, Minnesota Congressman Dean Phillips has suspended his run, the run that was going so poorly that he’d been lagging behind “uncommitted” and on again, off again, on again candidate/guru Marianne Williamson.  Phillips bowed out gracefully, endorsing Biden on his way out the door.  Gracefully is not a word that anyone is using to describe California’s Katie Porter who came in a distant third to Democrat Adam Schiff and Republican Steve Garvey in this week’s California primary.  She’s taken to social media to repeatedly call the California race rigged. It wasn’t rigged, she just lost bigly and is a sore loser.  A bigly bad move on her part and judging by the posts on X and Threads, one that has left a lot of people, even some who voted for her, very turned off.  Don’t forget about No Labels, RFK Jr and Cornel West, they’re still out there.  None of them can win, but they can be spoilers. And count Speaker Mike Johnson as one more loser last night.  He looked more than a wee bit pathetic sitting behind Biden last night.  He didn’t do the usual formal introduction and he didn’t even push Margie Q to remove her chamber rule breaking hat, probably out of fear that’s she call a motion to vacate vote to unseat him if he did.    

💰💰 Money Woes:  Trump keeps racking up fines and legal fees.  On Thursday, a London judge ordered him to pay $382,000 in legal fees to the consulting firm founded by former MI6 officer Christopher Steele of Steele dossier fame.  Also on Thursday, federal Judge Lewis Kaplan told Trump’s traffic lawyer Alina Habba that he won’t delay the deadline for posting the $83.3 million award that is owed to E Jean Caroll, a problem because to appeal and Trump is appealing, he needs to post money with the court. The $89.3 million should not be confused with the $400 plus million that Trump needs to post for his NY fraud appeal.  To the extent that Trump thought that Elon Musk would help him out of his financial ditch, he can forget about it.  Musk who met with Trump earlier this week says that he’s not contributing to any presidential candidate this cycle. Presumably, that means he’s also not paying any candidates legal bills or penalties and hopefully also not contributing to any dark money PACs.

Fog:  Sweden is now officially a member of NATO, growing the alliance that Trump and Putin both hate to 32 countries.  Biden is setting up a food bridge to Gaza something that will take weeks to implement but in the meantime Jose Andres’ World Central Kitchen, which is already providing meals to Gazans is working with the UAE to expand its operations.  The imminent ceasefire is not so imminent as Hamas still refuses to commit to release hostages.   

#BringThemAllHomeNow   

  

The Joke's on Us ✡️🌻✡️🌻✡️🌻

Nikki Out:  Super Tuesday is now in the rearview mirror.  Both Biden and Trump picked up a slew of delegate with Biden’s total now at 1564 and Trump’s at 1057.  Though both candidates are still short of the delegate count, 1215 for Trump and 1969 for Biden, they’ll need to officially lock in their respective party’s candidacy, for all practical purposes, like it or not, they are both the 2024 candidates.  Trump who won every Super Tuesday Republican presidential primary with the exception of Vermont’s which went to Nikki Haley celebrated by calling the USA a third world dying country and an international joke. Last night Nikki Haley’s campaign reported that she was “jubilant” about the day’s results, but who are they kidding, sure she won Vermont, but edging out Trump in the land of Ben and Jerry is hardly anything to brag about in the party of MAGA. That jubilance didn’t last the night because at 6 AM this morning, the WSJ reported that she’ll be suspending her campaign today probably during the speech she now has scheduled for 10 AM EST. Haley won’t immediately endorse Trump. It’s unlikely that she’ll entertain a No Labels bid but if we’ve learned anything by now, we shouldn’t count that out.  On the Democratic side, Biden outperformed Trump though he did give up 5 out of Minnesota’s 65 delegates to “undecided,” a protest for his support of Israel and he also lost the not so consequential American Samoa caucus by 11 out of the 100 votes cast to a local entrepreneur. Neither Dean Phillips nor on again off again candidate Marianne Williamson picked up any delegates though the Samoan entrepreneur walked away with 3. And because, of course, Trump reportedly met with Elon Musk.  He’s trying to get Musk to contribute bigly to his campaign which needs money in part because so much has been spent on other things like legal bills.  Musk and Trump are simpatico on so many things these days including their mutual disdain for immigrants because Musk who was born in South Africa doesn’t like them.  Also, Musk harbors a grudge against Biden who failed to invite him to a meeting on electric vehicles, over their disagreement on unions.  Biden likes them, Musk not so much.     

Down Ballot:  In California Democratic Congressman Adam Schiff and former Dodger/Padre/Republican Steve Garvey came in first and second place respectively in the state’s “jungle” primary for the seat vacated by late Senator Dianne Feinstein.  They will face off in November. Democratic Congresswomen Katie Porter and Barbara Lee were pretty much left in the dust by a combination of Schiff’s relative popularity, mainstream Democratic support including an endorsement form Nancy Pelosi, and his strategic campaigning as well as Garvey’s name recognition and his ability to consolidate California’s Republican vote.  Absent a real shocker Schiff is expected to win in November because Democratic voters out number Republican ones in California.  By running in the primary, both Porter and Lee lost their right under California law to run for reelection for their House seats so both will be out of the House at the end of the term. On the Senate side, Texas Democratic Congressman/former professional football player Colin Allred won his primary and will now have the privilege of facing off against Republican Senator Ted Cruz.  Even in Texas few like Cruz who spends most of his time podcasting rather than in the Senate but it’s Texas, so Allred has his work cut out for him.  That said, Democrats, view Texas as a possible Senate seat pick-up so don’t count Allred out.  Arizona is not a super Tuesday state but still managed to make news yesterday because Senator Kyrsten Sinema, the somewhat eccentric former Democrat who became an independent announced that she won’t be running for reelection. Sinema for all her faults and oddities was at the center of almost every important legislative negotiation so though she was a progressive lightening rod, she may actually be missed, not that any progressive will admit that. Her departure from the race means that absent an earthquake Democratic Congressman Ruben Gallego will face off against Republican Kari Lake in November.  Lake is the MAGA election denier/Trump fan who still hasn’t conceded her 2020 loss to Arizona Governor Katie Hobbs. Despite, or maybe because of her insanity, the Lake – Gallego race is expected to be a close one. In other Senate news, New Jersey Democrat Senator Bob Menendez was indicted again yesterday, this time for obstruction of justice. Not only has Menendez not resigned but he still hasn’t announced his reelection plans but its fair to assume that he won’t be New Jersey’s Democratic Senator candidate come November.  That privilege will likely fall to either Congressman Andy Kim or Tammy Murphy, wife of Democratic Governor Phil Murphy because it’s New Jersey and in new Jersey, where Republican Governors get away with shutting bridges down, Democratic ones get to support their one-time Republican wives for the Senate.  Taking a page from their 2020 Pennsylvania playbook, North Carolina Republicans have decided that a candidate who hates Jews, Muslims and LGTBQ people and says so and who has also made really horrendous comments about women while blaming child shooting victims for getting shot represents their best chance for winning the state’s gubernatorial race so their candidate to replace outgoing Democratic Governor Roy Cooper will be current Lieutenant Governor Mark Robinson who Trump calls a Martin Luther King on steroids, because if you’re Black and support him that’s how Trump sees you.  Robinson will face off against current state Attorney General Mark Stein, who like Pennsylvania Governor Josh Schapiro who beat back his anti-Semitic, racist MAGA opponent Doug Mastriano, is Jewish. Let’s hope that this déjà vu moment goes the distance.  

Legal Morass:  As predicted the Supreme Court ruled that an individual state may not disqualify a presidential candidate from the ballot even though Section 3 of the 14^th Amendment bars insurrectionists from regaining public office. Not a surprise but not as unanimous as the 9 – 0 vote indicated as four of the Justices, the three liberals and Amy Coney Barrett, thought that the ruling went too far by saying that only Congress could enforce Section 3. Coney Barett wrote her own not entirely concurring opinion, with Justices Kagan, Brown Jackson and Sotomayor joining in another even less concurring one.  Curiously, based on an analysis of metadate, whatever that is, Slate reports that Sotomayor’s opinion was initially a dissent but that she appears to have flipped before the final opinion was announced.  Because irony is dead, Coney Barrett’s concurrence said that it was important for the Court to rule in a manner that brought down the temperature of the country, kind of like the way the Dobbs ruling did?  in other legal news, Trump CFO Allen Weisselberg has plead guilty to perjury and as a result is probably headed back to Rikers.  He’s not turning on Trump, he’s just serving as Trump’s pain sponge.

Fog:  The UN has finally admitted that yes, Hamas engaged in systematic rape and torture of Israelis on October 7.  It certainly took them long enough not that their conclusion will matter to those who are convinced that those Hamas guys are just misunderstood.  Lots of pressure but still no ceasefire because Israel wants hostages released, Hamas not so much and besides, they’re winning the PR war so what if more people, including lots and lots of Gazans are dying.  And complicating local politics, Israeli Minister Benny Gantz has been making the international rounds having meetings with leaders in the US and in Europe.  That’s unprecedented and not a good look for Netanyahu but an indication that all isn’t well at home.

#BringThemAllHomeNow              

 

 
What's Going On? ✡️🌻✡️🌻✡️🌻

Primaries Galore:  Over the weekend Nikki Haley earned the endorsement of Republican Senators Lisa Murkowski and Susan Collins and also won her first primary, earning all of Washington DC’s 19 delegates.  Nice for her but pretty much meaningless as Murkowski and Collins have been Republican outliers for quite a while and because Trump notched two more victories, winning all 51 of Missouri’s delegates and all 32 of Idaho’s.  Trump currently has 244 delegates to Haley’s 43, Ron DeSanti’s 9 and Vivek Ramaswamy’s 3.  After tomorrow’s 17 Super Tuesday primaries, Trump’s already large lead will become insurmountable.  President Biden, who continues to lag Trump in the general election polls because he’s just an addled insurrection dictator wannabee while 3- and one-half year older Biden is old currently has 206 delegates with 2 delegates allocated to the unaffiliated category. Like Trump his total is expected to grow significantly tomorrow when 854 Republican and 1420 Democratic delegates will be up for grabs, not enough for either Trump who needs a total of 1215 Republican delegates or for Biden who needs a total of 1968 Democratic delegates to officially lock up their respective nominations but close enough for the nominating race to be over.  Haley who committed to endorse the Republican candidate for president at the start of her run, in order to appear on the debate stage, is now hedging, refusing to commit to endorsing Trump, but she’s flip flopped before so it’s anyone’s guess what she’ll ultimately do.  She’s also thrown shade on suggestions that she’d run on the bipartisan No Labels ticket, adding that she couldn’t run with a Democrat as her VP partner.  That’s revealing because if she couldn’t run with a Democratic partner, it’s probably a stretch to think that she’ll find her way to endorsing Biden over Trump despite all her comments about Trump being unfit to serve.  In other political news, Trump who has formally endorsed Lauren Boebert’s reelection to Congress, hasn’t officially weighed in on who should become the Republican’s Senate leader once Mitch McConnell steps down, but he’s suggested that the very right leaning Montana Senator Steve Daines who is currently heading the Republican’s Senate campaign should enter the race currently dominated by the Three Johns, Thune, Barrasso and Cornyn.  South Dakota’s Thune who is currently McConnell’s second, didn’t endorse Trump until last week, so at least for now, despite his heir apparent position he’s not Trump’s favorite.  For the record RFK Jr, the former Democrat who is now an independent,  has weighed in too, he’s throwing his support to Kentucky’s Rand Paul who among other things shares many of his wacko views on vaccines.  Spoiler alert, Rand Paul is not going to be the next Republican Senate leader nor will RFK Jr be our next president, but nepo junior may be the cycle’s election spoiler.  One more thing,  in case you missed it Trump once again referred to Obama, rather than Biden as the Democrat he’s competing against, and he also called his wife Mercedes.  Maybe those hundreds of millions of dollars he needs to post with the courts is getting to him or maybe he’s impaired or, most likely, both.           

Legal Morass:  The Supreme Court which, in its infinite wisdom or maybe just because of its bias, won’t be ruling on the presidential immunity issue anytime soon but is expected to drop its 14^th Amendment opinion today. Few, if anyone, believes that they’ll take Trump off the ballot, but it will be interesting to see how they justify their decision to let him stay.  Earlier, it had been suggested that SCOTUS would soften the blow of the 14^th Amendment ruling by simultaneously ruling that Trump wasn’t a king and thus wasn’t immune from prosecution for either January 6 or any of his other crimes but given their “what’s the hurry” approach to the immunity issue, that’s not going to happen. Because of the lackadaisical approach to the “king/immunity” decision, the January 6 election interference trial remains on hold.  In Florida, Judge “loose” Cannon is now considering Special Counsel Jack Smith’s request to start the purloined documents trial in July but she, influenced by Trump’s lawyer’s request to push the trial off as far as possible, seems less than enthused about setting that date. For his part Special Jack says that the 60-day DOJ election run-up quiet period only pertains to indictments not trials, so he’ll start his trials as soon as permitted regardless of the upcoming November election.  The judge overseeing the Fulton County RICO case said on Friday that he’ll decide as to whether or not DA Fani Willis should be disqualified for her canoodling within the next two weeks because really, what’s the rush when democracy is at stake? The New York election interference/hush money case is scheduled to begin at the end of March.  And of course, Trump is still trying to get rid of those super bigly penalty payments he is supposed to put up with the courts in order to pursue his appeals of the New York fraud case and the E Jean Caroll case. At the moment Trump doesn’t have the funds to handover the full amount which means that absent a court ruling that he doesn’t have to he will have to dump some assets or get a Saudi, Russian or billionaire friend to hand over some cash or maybe overpay for Mar a Lago.  Perhaps son in law Jared can step up, after all he has that $2 billion Saudi commitment, little of which has been invested in anything productive to date.

Blastocyst Update:  Alabama’s legislature has passed new legislation that provides civil and criminal immunity to anyone offering IVF treatments in the state, but the bill does not change how the state classifies embryos so the Alabama Supreme Court ruling about those embryos being children still stands. In theory, the bill will allow IVF treatments to resume in Alabama, but will it? And what are patients and medical facilities supposed to do with all the extra blastocysts.  There’s probably an opportunity here for anyone with access to lots of cryogenic freezers assuming they can afford the liability insurance.   Trump who probably cares little about abortion, is now leaning in on a 15-week ban, that’s one week shorter than the 16 he previously was contemplating.  Clearly, he’s trying to find the “sweet spot” and by sweet, his concern isn’t about blastocysts or women’s reproductive options or even their health but is all about those suburban soccer moms and soccer mom wannabee voters. Last week Walgreens and CVS announced that they will start stocking mifepristone, making it available by prescription, but only in states where abortion remains legal.  They will not distribute the drug by mail. This is good news at least for those in states where abortion hasn’t been banned but not good news for those women most in need and it could be a short-lived victory as SCOTUS is due to weigh in on the continued availability of mifepristone, maybe in June.    

Fog:  There’s little to say about what’s going on in Gaza beyond Oy. What a mess.  The hostages are still hostages, Gaza is in a state of disarray.  Last week’s aid distribution disaster was just that a disaster.  It’s hard to tell what is going on in the ceasefire talks but the best I can tell is that many of the same stumbling blocks remain with Israel saying yes to a six week deal with the release of all, which probably means some hostages, in exchange for a large multiple of Hamas “fighters,” and Hamas either rejecting the deal, insisting on a permanent ceasefire or demanding more of their “fighters.” Biden wants a deal locked down before his Thursday night State of the Union speech and before Ramadan begins on March 11 which together with politics likely explains why VP Harris is now forcefully calling for a ceasefire. Sadly, Hamas, winning the PR war, appears willing to sacrifice more Gazans if that’s what it takes to remain in power so that they can break future ceasefires and rebuild their tunnels because this is a never-ending cycle. Netanyahu will be gone at some point but Hamas not so much. So, as I said at the beginning Oy.  The depressing state of affairs is probably why so many people, including me, have fallen down the Royal Rabbit Hole because it’s so much more fun to wonder about what’s really going on across the pond than to focus on out of control domestic and world events.  So, what do you think?  Is Princess Kate really recovering from abdominal surgery or did her Brazilian butt lift go awry (yes that’s one of the sillier rumors)? Did the Royal cousin’s handsome husband/one time hostage negotiator really commit suicide or did Prince William off him in a jealous rage over Kate? Why did William cancel his attendance at his godfather’s memorial service and what caused those bruises on his neck? Is everything, including King Charle’s illness, really just Meghan and Harry’s fault?  And so on. All ridiculous to ponder but given what’s going on elsewhere a distraction albeit an odd one.   

 

#BringThemAllHomeNow