Thirty-four and Counting  ✡️🌻✡️🌻✡️

Verdict Watch:  On Tuesday, the defense and prosecution delivered their final arguments.  In addition to slamming Michael Cohen and questioning the veracity of the National Enquirers’ David Pecker, defense lawyer Todd Blanche told the jurors that the infamous “grab em” Access Hollywood tape that almost blew up Trump’s 2016 campaign hadn’t been the big deal that it was, that the hush money reimbursement checks to Cohen were really only payment for ordinary legal services, and that Trump never had sex with Stormy even though everyone knows he did. Blanche infuriated presiding Judge Juan Merchan when he told the jury that finding Trump guilty could land him in an orange jumpsuit. That’s a no-go because jurors aren’t supposed to consider potential punishment when deciding whether or not a defendant is guilty.  Blanche knew he crossed the line, but his client is Trump, so he did what he felt he had to do. The judge told the jurors to unhear his statement, but they heard it. The prosecution’s closing arguments took far longer, prosecutor Joshua Steinglass walked through all the details of their case in an attempt to further convince jurors that it was less about Michael Cohen’s testimony and more about the testimony of the corroborating witnesses and the documentation. Yesterday morning the judge gave the jury their instructions. he addressed Cohen’s credibility, telling the jury that their verdict can’t be based solely on an accomplice’s testimony adding that though there must be some corroboration, the corroboration doesn’t need to be for all elements of the crime. The judge then explained the NY State statue against the falsifying of business records that Trump is accused of violating and how it gets elevated from a misdemeanor to a felony if Trump’s intent to defraud included an intent to commit another crime or to aid or conceal that crime.  In this case that other crime is the influencing of the outcome of the 2016 election. To find Trump guilty the jurors have to unanimously conclude that he falsified his business records and that he tried to influence the election, but by New York law they don’t have to unanimously agree on which of the various “unlawful means” he used for the election interference.  Naturally, Trump and his echo chamber aren’t happy with the complexities of the NYS law, so they are pushing the lie that the jury doesn’t have to unanimously conclude he’s guilty.  Yesterday evening, before calling it a day, the jury asked to review transcripts of some of the testimony provided by David Pecker and Michael Cohen.  They’ll do that when they reconvene this morning.  Because the pundit class has to pundit, they’re reading a lot into that request with some suggesting it means that the jury is well on its way to finding Trump guilty.  The more likely reality is that no one, including even the jury, knows where they’re headed.  That said, Trump appears very nervous.  He and his echo chamber don’t expect him to be found not guilty on all counts, rather they seem to be counting on a hung jury, hoping that the juror who smiled or experienced gas when Ohio’s hillbilly Senator JD Vance was in attendance is on Team Trump.

Election Weeds: The Democrats have a work around.  They’re no longer relying on Ohio Republicans doing the right thing, instead they’ll be nominating Biden through a “virtual roll call” vote ahead of their August convention to ensure that he appears on the Ohio ballot in November. It’s sad that they have to do that, but in this tit for tat, polarized time, it’s what they have to do.  Trump who never forgets a slight, has endorsed Freedom Caucus Chair Bob Good’s primary challenger.  Good was one of those Republicans who made the required pilgrimage to lower Manhattan to show his fealty by calling Trump’s trial a witch hunt but that wasn’t enough to undo his earlier endorsement of Ron DeSantis. Good’s Virginia primary won’t take place until mid-June, but the Texas primary is now in the rearview mirror.  Republican Tony Gonzales who represents a district that includes Uvalde, the site of the horrifying Robb elementary school shooting,  barely survived a primary challenge from a gun rights advocate known as the AK Guy who, with the help of the right-wing of the Republican party, wanted to boot him for supporting rational gun legislation.  The Wall Street reports that Elon Musk and Trump have been cozying up, talking about a possible advisory role for Musk in Trump’s “next” administration. Musk hasn’t endorsed Trump yet, but he’s aligned with him on immigration, DEI, and election integrity issues so it’s just a matter of time. Apparently, their disagreement on electric vehicles and the environment is no longer a problem for Musk.  Besides Musk would really like to see the investigations into his various and sundry SEC violations go away.

Ethics for Thee, Not for Me: Count Justice Alito as another guy who’d like to see the issues regarding his increasingly obvious biases get less attention.  He continues to blame the hanging of the insurrectionist friendly flags outside of his homes on his wayward wife’s distress after having words with an expletive hurling neighbor.  The problem with his defense is that according to his neighbors and the NY Times the timing of those four-letter utterances doesn’t match up with the when the flags were first hoisted upward.  Naturally, Alito has rebuffed requests to recuse from decisions concerning January 6 and presidential immunity because he really doesn’t care about appearances and, anyway, he’s probably already written his opinions.  The pressure is on Chief Justice Roberts to do something, but really, who expects that to happen? On the ethically challenged front, Florida Judge Aileen “loose” Cannon continues to be a bigly problem.  She chastised Special Counsel Jack Smith for requesting a gag order to prevent Trump from accusing the Biden administration of trying to have him assassinated saying that they should have first hugged it out with Trump’s lawyers.  Apparently, Smith’s team tried to speak with Trump’s team and said so in their filing but it’s Cannon’s world.        

#BringThemAllHomeNow    

 

 

Pond Scum and Cotton Balls ✡️🌻✡️🌻✡️

Holiday Messaging:  To commemorate Memorial Day, President Biden did the usual, gave a speech at Arlington Cemetery while also making a few remarks about his son Beau who died from brain cancer thought to have been the result of exposure to burn pit toxins.  Trump who has been known to call members of the military, prisoners, and the fallen losers shared a different type of message on Truth Social wishing a happy Memorial Day to “all including the Human Scum that is working so hard to destroy our Once Great Country.”  That scummy crowd includes everyone intending to vote for someone other than him in November as well as all the lawyers prosecuting him and the judges overseeing the cases against him.  Though he didn’t specifically mention her, it’s fair to assume that Aileen “loose” Cannon gets a pass. He did mention Judges Berman and Engoron by name while also slamming E Jean Caroll, not by name but with enough detail to spur her lawyer to say that she is considering suing him again.  Perhaps Trump was still smarting from the reception he received during his appearance at the Libertarian convention.  Despite his promises to defund any schools with vaccine mandates, to pardon the imprisoned Ross Ulbricht founder of the illegal drug marketplace Silk Road who Libertarians think is a victim of government overreach, and to appoint a Libertarian to his cabinet, the crowd mostly booed him.  They also dissed RFK Jr who’d viewed the possibility of getting their endorsement as a quick and easy way to get on the ballot in all 50 states.  The Libertarians chose the relatively unknown Chase Oliver as their nominee.  Oliver like Libertarian candidates before him will probably get around 3% of the vote, a measly amount but nothing to sneeze at because depending on where the votes come from, they could be enough to swing the election. Trump’s Libertarian appearance followed his rally in the Bronx, another venue not known as a Republican or Trump stronghold. That much hyped appearance was less about getting New York votes and more about delivering a message, with the help of the follow him everywhere press, to Black men in swingier states that he’s their guy, and who knows, it might work on the margins.

Trump Trial: Today is all about closing arguments.  Trump’s defense team will smear Michael Cohen as a lying liar while throwing all kinds of shade at that porn star and opportunist Stormy Daniels.  They’re also expected to imply that the prosecution didn’t call CFO Allen Weisselberg because his testimony would have contradicted their case against Trump. The Defense probably won’t mention that Weisselberg is currently serving time for perjuring himself again or that his generous severance deal with the Trump Organization would go poof if he spoke truthfully.  The case against Trump is solid but, and it’s a big but, juries are unpredictable, it only takes one holdout to cause a mistrial and Trump has that awesome Teflon coating.  That said, Trump is nervous so his list of grievances now includes one about how trials are run in New York, specifically he’s upset that his lawyers will speak first and that they won’t get to rebut the prosecutors closing argument because it’s his world and it should operate according to his rules.   

And:  In other political news, Florida’s Senator Rick Scott who is up for reelection this year announced that he’s throwing his hat into the Mitch McConnell succession race.  That’s not a surprise but the specter of the Republicans winning the Senate and handing the reins to Scott is scary, assuming you care about Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, and the Affordable Care Act, all programs he’s previously said he’d like to see expire.  Trump still hasn’t selected a running mate, but his list of possible choices has expanded to include Arkansas’ very conservative Senator Tom Cotton.

#BringThemAllHomeNow

 
Printer Girl ✡️🌻✡️🌻✡️

Supremes:  It turns out that Justice Samuel Alito is really into flags, particularly those that convey support for those nice tourists who marauded through the Capitol bashing police and trashing offices while calling for the heads of VP Mike Pence and Nancy Pelosi. After the NY Times published a story about the upside-down Stars and Stripes that Alito alleges his wayward wife hung over their Virginia home, six neighbors who probably don’t like him all that much reported that he’d flown another one known as the “Appeal to Heaven” flag outside his beach house.  The Appeal to Heaven flag also known as the Pine Tree flag dates back to Revolutionary War times, however, these days it’s flown to signify support for the Stop the Steal crowd as well as adherence to godly things. At least so far, Alito hasn’t blamed the hoisting of this flag on his wife but give him time.  We’ve known for some time that the uber-conservative Alito, who authored the Roe overturning Dobbs opinion, holds views that harken back to those halcyon days when women knew their place and Black people were chattel, but jurists are supposed to avoid appearing partisan.  Clearly, like the serial gift accepting Justice Clarence Thomas, Alito could care less about sticking to convention and why should either one care, beyond some bad press, they’ve suffered no consequences for their actions. Let’s not forget about Chief Justice John Roberts, he’s probably miffed that his legacy is being tarnished by Alito and Thomas’ misadventures, but he’s obviously not annoyed enough to do anything about them.  Quite possibly that’s because he shares many of their views.  After all, he signed on to the Dobbs opinion, and yesterday he was also part of the 6-3 majority ruling that overturned a district court decision that had rejected South Carolina’s Republican drawn district map, instead concluding that racial gerrymandering was okay as long as it was couched as political gerrymandering.  In fact, Chief Roberts didn’t just sign on to that opinion, he started the ball rolling to the dismantling of the Voting Rights Act back in 2013 with his Shelby County v Holder opinion. By the way, the South Carolina district in question is represented by Nancy Mace who before her district was totally red pilled gave off moderate vibes but now competes with Lauren Boebert and Margie Q for most absurdly partisan because if that’s what it takes to hold on to her seat, she’s all in. 

More Legalities: Though there’s still no ruling from SCOTUS on presidential immunity, havoc has broken out in Judge Aileen loose Cannon’s court where the lawyer for Trump pool boy Walt Nauta has been trying to get the case against him thrown out by alleging that he’s being unfairly prosecuted for moving stolen document laden boxes around Mar a Lago and then lying about it.  Judge Cannon was so faux flummoxed that she wondered out loud if the “legal nuances of the case may be too difficult for jurors to understand.” Remind me again, what is it about Trump absconding with nuclear secrets, sharing some with randos at Mar a Lago and Bedminster, and getting his aide to hide boxes of those secrets that’s too difficult for a jury to understand? Reality Winner who was imprisoned for taking and leaking classified documents would like to weigh in. On the subject of chaos, there was some in the House this week too where Democratic Representative Jim McGovern was sanctioned for mentioning all of Trump’s indictments and the NYC hush money trial.  Apparently referring to the trial and indictments isn’t okay unless you’re a Republican member who prefaces all references with words like “sham” while calling out those real criminals Attorney General Garland and NY DA Alvin Bragg.  On the subject of the usually reticent AG Garland, he spoke out to reject claims pushed by Margie Q and picked up by others in the Republican echo chamber including Trump that because the FBI was armed and the warrant to search Mar a Lago for purloined documents authorized the use of deadly force, the FBI was really attempting to assassinate Trump during its raid.  A somber Garland clarified that the deadly force language is standard, was also included in the warrant to search Joe Biden’s premises, and that throwing around the word assassination could have dire consequences. Naturally, Trump is fundraising on this, claiming that Biden had authorized his assassination.

Ohio What?  Ohio Republican Secretary of State Frank LaRose has been saying for some time that he plans to keep Biden off of the state’s presidential ballot because he won’t be officially nominated until the August 19 Democratic convention which falls after the state’s deadline for certifying presidential nominees. Because the two parties stagger their conventions to avoid competing for attention, it’s not unusual for one to miss a state deadline but generally an accommodation is made but that’s not how LaRose rolls, because maybe he’s another one angling for a position in a Trump administration. Biden is not going to win Ohio but his absence from the ballot could doom Democratic Senators Sherrod Brown’s already challenging reelection race. Fortunately, Ohio’s Republican Governor Mike DeWine, hardly a RINO, is not amused with LaRose’s antics and plans to call a special session of the Ohio legislature to rectify the situation. News on that front and all other news, particularly good news from the internet, is provided on an ongoing basis to Trump by his “Printer Girl,” an aide named Natalie Harp whose job involves following him around with a portable wireless printer.  Is there a category for that on LinkedIn?

Fog:  British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak who is trailing bigly in the UK polls has called for a general election to take place on July 4. The election was expected, the timing caught most by surprise. Spain, Ireland, and Norway announced that they will recognize a Palestinian state on May 28 because why not reward Hamas for the murders and hostage taking of October 7. On the hostage front, Israel revealed last night that they had retrieved three more bodies of dead hostages and in an effort to remind the world of Hamas’ brutality and to push the hostage negotiations forward, the families of five women brutalized on October 7 released some horrifying video of their capture and brutalization by Hamas. Also, Trump says that the minute he is reelected his good friend Vlad will free WSJ reporter release Evan Gershkovich. Am I the only one wondering why the all-powerful Trump doesn’t get him released now?  And lastly, nothing much to say about Nikki Haley and her announcement that she’ll be voting for Trump except that she’s clearly concluded that her only chance of having a future career in the Republican Party hinges on her bending her knee to the guy who insulted her and her husband endlessly and who she previously trashed as a threat to democracy. It’s not clear how many of her supporters will view her backing of Trump as permission for them to do the same but some of them will and that’s not a good thing.  

#BringThemAllHomeNow

Enjoy the holiday.    

 

The Fourth Reich? ✡️🌻✡️🌻✡️

Trumpy Trial:  On cross examination Trump’s defense team took a few more swipes at Trump nemesis Michael Cohen, getting him to say that he’d “stolen” about $20,000 from the Trump organization by keeping some money he claimed he needed to pay Red Finch, an online polling company he’d retained to rig some polls to make it appear that Trump was more popular than he actually was. Prosecutors had previously questioned Cohen about this, so Cohen’s misappropriation of Trump’s money wasn’t new news, but still having the jury hear it again and seeing “Cohen Stole” in all the headlines hammered home the point that that the “lying liar” Cohen is far from a boy scout. Then again not that many honorable guys work for Trump and to the extent any do, they aren’t involved in his finances.  After the prosecution rested their case, Trump’s defense attorneys called only two witnesses, neither of them named Donald Trump. Their first witness was one of their paralegals who verified call logs between Michael Cohen and the Rudy Giuliani affiliated lawyer and former federal prosecutor Robert Costello; their second witness was Robert Costello. The point of Costello’s testimony was to cast further shade on Michael Cohen’s veracity. To that end Costello testified that Cohen had sworn to him that Trump was not involved in the hush money scheme. Cohen had previously testified that he’d said that to Costello before he “flipped” on Trump because he didn’t trust Costello enough to tell him otherwise.  Costello also denied Cohen’s assertion that his role in the Stormy saga was to ensure that Cohen stayed true to Trump. Costello was rambunctious and rude, acting out while on the witness stand so much that he infuriated the usually placid Judge Merchan.  As a result, Merchan took the unusual step of clearing the court room to read Costello the riot act. On cross examination the prosecution team hit back at Costello, providing email evidence that contradicted his testimony.  Specifically, those emails confirmed Cohen’s testimony that Costello had endeavored to keep him on “Team Trump.” It’s not clear that Costello’s testimony helped Trump, but it was very Trumpy and far more entertaining than that of the paralegal. After the defense rested their case, the jurors were sent home so that lawyers from both sides could present arguments to Judge Merchan about what should be included in the very important jury instructions that Merchan will give them on Tuesday when they are now scheduled to begin their deliberations. Upon exiting the court Trump slammed Judge Merchan attributing his “anti-Trump bias” to the fact that he’d been born in Colombia.  Florida Judge Aileen Cannon was also born in Colombia, but oddly enough Trump has no problem with her origins. Cannon, who is still doing her very best to delay the Mar a Lago purloined document case, unsealed a trove of documents related to the case this week including some that reveal that Trump had kept additional confidential documents in his private rooms long after the FBI’s initial search not that any of that is likely to matter.  

Teflon Man:  Yesterday Trump took some heat for posting a video on Truth Social Post that promised a “unified Reich” if he wins the 2024 election. That Nazi era reference raised a few eyebrows, but not to worry because Trump’s team assures us that the Reich part, not to be confused with the promise to deport 15 million illegal aliens,” was unintentional, an error committed by a very, very junior staffer, or maybe the wife of a staffer, who posted the video while Trump was in court without catching the Nazi part. It took awhile but later in the day, perhaps after the post won over a few more appreciative white supremacist leaning voters, it was taken down.  Oh, and yesterday during an interview with KDKA-TV Trump said that he’s “looking at” policies that would restrict access to contraceptives. That may sound farfetched but overturning Roe was once considered farfetched.  Moreover, going after contraceptives is consistent with the beliefs of the conservative Federalist magazine which says that there is a “coordinated effort to convince women that there is nothing wrong with hormonal contraceptives” while adding that women shouldn’t view fertility as a problem but as a biological reality that should be understood, appreciated, and celebrated. Also yesterday, the Lousisana House approved a bill that would add mifepristone and misoprostol, the drug combo used for medical abortions, to the list of controlled dangerous substances, making their possession without “valid” prescriptions a crime punishable by fines, jail time or both. Just a reminder that mifepristone has a better safety record that Tylenol. Starting the clock ticking on contraceptives while making it a crime to have even early term medical abortions.  Things to look forward to if Trump, who is more than holding his own in the polls, wins reelection. 

#BringThemAllHomeNow

Third Time's a Charm?  ✡️🌻✡️🌻✡️🌻

Trump Trial:  After a Friday hiatus for son Barron’s graduation ceremony, which Trump did attend, the New York hush money case is back in session this morning.  Today’s festivities are expected to include some more cross examination of former fixer Michael Cohen by Trump lawyer Todd Blanche followed by some clean up “redirect” questioning by prosecutors.  Prosecutors are expected to try to clarify Cohen’s recollection of one telephone call, suggesting that his “faulty” testimony about the call was due to a memory lapse rather than what the defense has characterized as another lie from a habitual liar. The issue is whether that call only involved Cohen seeking Trump aide Keith Schiller’s help in fending off some threats against him or whether, as Cohen asserts, it also included him updating Trump on the status of the Stormy hush money deal.  Following that, the defense will present their witnesses to the extent they plan to call any. Though they’re still hinting at calling Trump, no one expects that they will.  Assuming the defense wraps up today, tomorrow will be all about closing statements. 

Road Tripping: After Barron’s graduation Trump was off to Minnesota for a campaign event. He lost Minnesota by more than 230,000 phones in 2020 but since facts don’t matter, he told his audience that he won it by 200,000 and is confident that he’ll win it “again” in 2024. It’s unlikely that blue Minnesota will go for Trump in November, but Trump hopes says he’s going to flip it and to put it mildly if he succeeds, Biden will be in deep trouble.  Trump also spoke at Dallas’ NRA convention this weekend where he promised to rollback all of Biden’s gun control efforts because everyone should be able to easily buy weapons of war.  He’ll toss them to the wayside along with Biden’s environment accomplishments, he bragged about being responsible for overturning Roe, and more than hinted he’d run for a third term after he “wins” in November. Trump who had problems with what he called a “faulty” podium in Minnesota, had a McConnell like glitch in Dallas, falling silent for a very long 30 seconds. His silence was likely due to a teleprompter misfunction but things like that happen, and politicians usually can handle it when they do.  What was odd here was Trump’s inability to banter with the crowd while the teleprompter was fixed. Once he and his teleprompter were rebooted, Trump had a few choice words for RFK Jr who he painted as part of the radical left, an indication that he’s as concerned as Biden’s camp is about RFK’s spoiler potential. There’s huge irony in Trump whose “warp speed” COVID vaccine effort saved lives battling RFK Jr over who is more genuinely opposed to vaccines. RFK’s very rich running partner Nicole Shanahan has thrown another $8 million into their coffers to help him get on the ballot in more states because to screw up an election you need to be on the ballot in most states but if today’s NY Post story is accurate, nepo RJK may find himself with a problem in the states where he’s already qualified.  The NY Post reports that he’s listed a Katonah, NY house that he doesn’t live in as his legal address for state filing purposes.  Talking problems, shortly after taunting Arizona’s Attorney General for failing to track him down, Rudy Giuliani was finally served with Arizona indictment papers while celebrating his 80^th birthday.  Rudy was indicted for his part in the conspiracy to overturn the Arizona election results.  Biden was busy too, not teasing a third term or bragging about faux golf tournament victories but instead working on bolstering Black support by speaking at Morehouse College’s graduation ceremony and at an NAACP dinner. 

Fog:  Yesterday Iran’s 63-year-old president Ebrahim Raisi and eight others including the republic’s foreign minister were killed in what looks to be a weather-related helicopter crash in a remote mountainous region of Iran.  Raisi was the second-most powerful person in Iran’s government after 85-year-old Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khameni. Iran’s 68-year-old First Vice President Mohammed Mokhber is now acting president. Iran’s constitution requires that new elections be held within 50 days. Nothing like some more uncertainty in a fraught region to spice up the weekend.  Meantime, Israel announced that they’ve recovered the remains of four more Israelis hostages, including 23-year-old Shani Louk the German Israeli concert attendee whose half-naked body was paraded through Gaza by Hamas on October 7. Though he’s alive and kicking, Prime Minister Netanyahu’s coalition may be on life support. On Saturday night war time government coalition member Bennie Gantz presented him with an ultimatum saying he would leave the government on June 8 if Bibi did not develop a plan that would aim to secure the release of the remaining hostages, address the future governance of Gaza, return displaced Israelis to their homes and advance normalization with Saudi Arabia. Easy, right?  

 #BringThemAllHomeNow

 
Bring It On ✡️🌻✡️🌻✡️🌻

Trump Trial:  Yesterday Trump’s entourage of House 🤡 🤡 and toadies included Republican Representatives Matt Gaetz, Lauren Boebert, Andy Biggs, Michael Cloud, Eli Crane, Bob Good, Diana Harshbarger, Anna Paulina Luna, and Ralph Norman because why bother showing up to vote and attend hearings in Congress when the “great leader” needs your presence for his porn star/hush money trial? Jeff Clark, the former US environmental attorney who abetted Trump’s attempted coup was also present. Gaetz used his time in front of the cameras to invoke the Proud Boys stand back and stand by mantra which tells you just about everything you need to know about why Trump has a stream of deplorables attending his trial. Once court was in session, defense counsel Todd Blanche returned to hammering former fixer, current nemesis Michael Cohen, portraying him as a serial liar with a bigly grudge against his former mentor and idol Trump. Most reports, other than those from Fox who said the seriously compromised Cohen completely cratered, are that while he wasn’t perfect Cohen held up okay, remarkable given the number of hours he spent on the stand deflecting the barrage sent his way.  However, at least one of Blanche’s blows did hit home, exposing a small crack in Cohen’s testimony related to his recounting of an October 24, 2016, phone conversation with Trump. During prosecution questioning Cohen testified that on that call, which was placed to Trump bodyguard Keith Schiller who then passed the phone to Trump, he’d told Trump that the hush money deal with Stormy Daniel was finalized.  Blanche asserted that the call wasn’t about the Stormy arrangement but was instead about a series of threatening calls Cohen had received from what turned out to be a “14-year- old dope.”  Cohen’s response was that he remembered the call being about both topics. Since Trump is supposedly attending son Barron’s graduation today, court is in recess until Monday when Blanche is expected to continue his cross examination of Cohen. To the extent they find it necessary, prosecutors can call Cohen back to the stand to clarify any of the inconsistencies that came out during Blanche’s cross. Defense Counsel will then have the opportunity to present their case.  It’s not clear if Trump’s lawyers plan to call any witnesses although they’ve suggested that they might call Keith Schiller, Giuliani associated lawyer Robert Costello and even Trump to the stand. No one believes that Trump will actually testify, but his defense team is still asserting he might. Don’t count on it.  Judge Merchan instructed lawyers on both sides to be prepared to deliver their closing remarks on Tuesday. To the extent that closing remarks really occur on Tuesday, jurors could get the case in time to deliver a verdict before the Memorial holiday weekend.  Only when we hear that verdict will we learn whether Blanche’s strategy of eviscerating Cohen worked enough to trump all the other compelling evidence. It only takes one juror to upend the case.

Justice:  The Republican party line is that Biden’s weaponized Justice Department is all about going after Trump.  That’s got to be news to New Jersey Democratic Senator Bob Menendez, Texas Democratic Representative Henry Cuellar, and Hunter Biden. Menendez’s trial for accepting bribes, some in the form of gold bars, has started.  Menendez’s defense is that his wife Nadine, who was also indicted but is being tried separately because of an immediate health issue, is responsible for all the bad stuff that he’s accused of doing.  Yesterday, we learned that those health issues are real and serious, Nadine Menendez is being treated for breast cancer.  Count me as someone who doesn’t believe that throwing your wife under the bus while she’s having a mastectomy is a winning strategy but what do I know.  As to son Hunter, despite his lawyers’ best efforts his trial on gun and tax charges appears to be moving forward. Cuellar’s trial won’t begin until March of 2025 though he wants it to take place sooner.  Not that it matters, because there are never any consequences for him, but Justice Clarence Thomas and his RV are back in the news. Democratic Senators Wyden and Whitehouse are once again pressing Thomas to reveal whether he repaid the wealthy friend who loaned him $267,230 to buy a luxury motorhome all of the loan’s principal.  So far, all Thomas has said is that he made the all the “required” payments, but it’s thought those payments mostly included interest as his “friend” likely forgave most of the principal.  The question is whether Thomas violated tax laws by failing to report and pay taxes on the amount of the loan that was forgiven.  In other Supreme news, it turns out that Justice Alito and his wife flew an upside-down US flag outside their home. An upside-down flag is a symbol those nice Stop the Steal “tourists” use. Taking a page from Senator Menendez, Alito’s excuse is that flying the flag upside-down was his wife’s idea because an honorable guy like him would never do anything so obviously political but if he did it’s okay because he gets to do what he wants. We’re still waiting for Alito, Thomas, and the rest of the Justices to issue their presidential immunity opinion.  Nothing to worry about there because they’re all so apolitical?  With Alito and Gorsuch dissenting, yesterday SCOTUS rejected another attempt to scuttle the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. The opinion was authored by Thomas, surprising because he doesn’t generally author opinions. The Court also cleared the way for Louisiana to move forward with its much-litigated new Congressional districting map.  As a result, the state will have two mostly Black districts, a win for Democrats who are now expected to pick up a seat. Some disgruntled white folks had sued, saying it was unfair for Louisiana where one third of the population is Black to have a Congressional map that could result in two of its six House representatives also being Black.  Apparently, math and ratios aren’t a thing in some of Louisiana’s schools.

Debates:  Biden pulled a fast one on Trump, going all-in on debates first. The first of the two agreed upon debates is scheduled to take place June 27 on CNN with Jake Tapper and Dana Bash moderating; the second debate will be on ABC on September 10. That’s early, but Biden’s team wants to get voters focused on policy issues, something that they believe will be a plus for Biden.  Trump who quickly agreed to the terms presented by Biden is now disputing them,  especially that there will be no audience present in the studio, that there will only be two, and that the moderators will get to turn off the mics when either candidate refuses to shut up.  Fox is upset because they’re not one of the hosts.  And RFK is upset because he’s not invited.  There will be one VP debate this summer, assuming Trump’s VP sweepstakes is over by then.  Just a reminder that Trump tried to share COVID with Biden the last time they debated, and he also has a habit of cancelling debates on a whim, so we’ll see what really happens.   

#BringThemAllHomeNow  

The Poop ✡️🌻✡️🌻✡️🌻

Trump Trial:  This week Trump’s New York hush money trial has been all about Trump’s former fixer Michael Cohen’s testimony.  At least so far, Cohen has been holding up surprisingly well, the Cohen on the witness stand hasn’t been the Cohen we’re used to hearing on TV and on his “Mea Culpa” podcast. During questioning by prosecutors, this Cohen has been respectful and calm, sticking to the script and following the prosecutorial narrative.  For the most part, he hasn’t said much that we haven’t heard before, which is the point since prosecutors already established their case against Trump with documents and through their string of earlier witnesses.  Cohen tied Trump directly to the hush money plan, recounting a conversation they had when he visited the White House, a meeting previously confirmed in earlier testimony.  Cohen also testified about efforts by lawyer Robert Costello, a Rudy Guiliani associate, who had been tasked with keeping him from flipping on Trump.  Costello passed along messages about Cohen having a “friend” in the White House who would take care of him, a message also delivered by Trump who at one point told Cohen not to worry because as president he controlled the Justice Department.  Despite those Don Corleone reassurances, Cohen flipped on Trump, attributing his move from the dark side to his love for his wife and children.  He ended up in jail and grew to despise Trump, quite a flip for someone who once said he’d take a bullet for his then mentor and idol. During his cross examination, Trump lawyer Todd Blanche played off of Cohen’s mendacious past and very vocal hate for all things Trump though oddly enough he started off the cross examination by highlighting a snide remark Cohen had made about him, specifically that Cohen had called him “a crying little sh-t” In a side bar a baffled Judge Merchan told him that going with the 💩 comment was a weird way to start a cross examination.  Blanche noted the many times Cohen had said that he’d like to see Trump prosecuted and jailed.  For his part, Cohen stayed calm, responding to Blanche by saying that the remarks cited, 💩 and other expletives included, sounded like things he might have said and that sure he’d love to see Trump jailed, not all that surprising given the time he spent in the slammer for his prior loyalty to Trump.  The pundit consensus is that Blanche’s cross examination which will continue on Thursday, was weak.  Sure, he painted an unflattering picture of Cohen, but the prosecution pre-inoculated the jury so their hope is that, despite his flaws, the jury will still believe Cohen, helped by all the other evidence that was previously presented.  Cohen is expected to be the prosecutions last witness, it’s not clear if the defense plans on calling any of their own.  No one expects Trump to testify.

Gaggle of Sycophants:  Yesterday a New York appeals court upheld Judge Merchan’s gag order, the one that Trump has violated multiple times. Unfortunately, the gag order is not proving to be much of a problem for Trump who has found a workaround. With the help of his aides and relatives at the RNC, he’s recruited a bunch of House, Senate, and media acolytes to serve as his surrogates, saying the things that he’s not supposed to say himself. Many of those competing in his VP sweepstakes, including Ohio’s JD Vance and North Dakota’s Doug Burgum, have shown up in court and taken to the microphone to slam the biased and criminal judge, his family, New York DA Alvin Bragg and the “Biden’s Justice Department.”  Yesterday Speaker Mike Johson, stopped by too, because apparently defending a serial cheater falls within his godly duties and any way, he’s got time since it’s Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries who really runs the House. Johnson was joined by Florida Representative/VP wannabee Byron Donalds, Staten Island Representative Nicole Malliotakis, Florida Representative Cory Mills, and one-time Republican candidate/Cabinet aspirant Vivek Ramaswamy.  Then there’s Alabama Senator Tommy Tuberville, who in addition to lending Trump court room support, took to the microphone and multiple media outlets to say the silent part out loud, that he and all of those other Republican politicians talking to the press outside of the court are there to spout those things that the gag order prohibits Trump from saying himself. Isn’t sycophancy grand?   On the media front, Trump’s been seen whispering into Maria Bartiromo’s ear, providing her with talking points for her daily shows.  Also on the media front, Michael Cohen’s testimony revealed a little nugget about how he “managed” the NY Time’s Maggie Haberman when he was on Trump’s payroll.  Access journalism?          

Primarily Yours:  The primary season continues.  Yesterday Maryland Democrats nominated Angela Alsobrooks, Prince George’s county executive, to run against former Governor Larry Hogan for the Senate seat being vacated by retiring Democratic Senator Ben Cardin. Maryland is viewed as a solidly blue state but, and it’s a big but, Hogan is popular there so this is expected to be a very close race, a possible pick-up for Republicans that Democrats can’t afford.  Though both Biden and Trump easily won their respective primaries in Maryland, Nebraska and West Virginia, Trump continues to have a Nikki Haley problem.  Haley picked up 20% of the vote in Maryland and around 18% of the vote in Nebraska, an indication that some Republicans aren’t eating his Jello, at least so far, despite the most recent set of NYTimes/Siena polls that show Trump ahead in the important swing states.  Those polls are concening but they also show most of the vulnerable Democratic Senate candidates ahead of their opponents so it’s probably still too early to slit wrists over them.  

Fog: The NY Times reported on a secret trove of documents that reveals how Hamas controls the citizens of Gaza with an iron grip not unlike the one that Syrian leader Bashar al Assad, the dictator who gases his own citizens, employs in Syria. Despite claiming to represent the people of Gaza, the documents show that Hamas doesn’t tolerate even a “whiff of dissent.”  Food for thought for the pro-Hamas crowd who still don’t get that if they truly support Gazans they shouldn’t be supporting Hamas and bad news for Gazans who are stuck between Hamas and an Israeli government determined to rid the area of Hamas no matter what. To that end, last night, the Wall Street Journal reported that despite all of the brouhaha about Biden freezing deliveries of mega bombs to Israel, the administration is moving forward with $1 billion in new weapon deals for the country.    

#BringThemAllHomeNow

Measles For All ✡️🌻✡️🌻✡️🌻

Trump Trials: Today is expected to be all about Michael Cohen, the guy who once said that he’d take a bullet for Trump but who gave that up a long time ago maybe because he saw the light but more likely because, unlike former CFO Allen Weisselberg, he didn’t appreciate being Trump’s fall guy.  The rambunctious Cohen rivals Trump in contentiousness while also sharing his lack of impulse control. It’s not clear whether Cohen will be able to hold himself together on the witness stand especially during what’s expected to be a withering cross examination but if he does, it will spell trouble, or at least should spell trouble for Trump.  Cohen ties all of the prosecution’s pieces of evidence together but due to his big mouth, zillions of interviews, and history of lying, everything he says will be questioned by the defense which is why the prosecution has spent so much time having others pre-validate almost everything that he is expected to say. Another guy who could also validate a good part of the prosecution’s case is Allen Weisselberg because he knows all about the hush money plan and its mechanics, but we probably won’t be hearing from him, not just because he’s currently in jail for lying, but because his compensation agreement with the Trump Organization hinges on him keeping his mouth sealed shut.  On Friday, prosecutors told the judge that they don’t plan to call Weisselberg to the stand but would like to introduce his compensation/non-disclosure agreement as evidence.  No surprise that Trump’s defense lawyers don’t want that to happen.  Judge Merchan suggested that maybe having Weisselberg testify would be a good thing adding said that he’d give some thought to that over the weekend.  No one really expects Weisselberg to be called to the witness stand, but anything could happen so stay tuned.  Merchan also turned down the defense team’s request to impose a gag order on Cohen, but he did ask prosecutors once again ask Cohen to refrain from talking for the duration of the trial.  They’ve tried to do that and said that they’d ask him again, but Cohen is more than a bit hard to manage. Prosecutors expect to wind up their case this week, possibly with one other unnamed witness after Cohen.  That will mean some jampacked days because Merchan generally hears other cases on Wednesdays and this Friday is an off day so that Trump can attend son Barron’s high school graduation.  By the way, contrary to last week’s announcement, Barron will not be serving as a Republican delegate as Melania has announced that her son has a scheduling conflict, as in she doesn’t want him anywhere near the convention.  Rudy Giuliani may be at the convention but if he attends, he’ll have to borrow the bus fare.  Over the weekend, Rudy lost one of his few remaining sources of income after New York billionaire/Republican honcho John Catsimatidis fired him from his WABC radio gig for pushing “fallacies” about the 2020 election.  Catsimatidis said Rudy had been warned and now it was time for him to find out what happens to those who don’t listen.  It appears that Steve Bannon may finally have reached the #FAFO part too.  On Friday, a federal appeals court panel upheld his criminal conviction for defying a subpoena from Congress.  Absent a reprieve from the Supreme Court, which is not expected, he’ll be spending the next four months in jail.  Maybe Russian tool Paul Manafort who is once again advising Trump on his campaign while also working with Chinese government tied companies can give him some pointers on how to survive prison life?  Don’t expect a trial in Fulton County anytime soon, a Georgia appeals court has decided to hear Trump and his co-defendants’ appeal of Judge McAfee’s decision to allow Fani Willis to remain on the RICO election interference case. Also, in case you missed it, Trump is now all in on “the late great Hannibal Lecter,” as in the cannibal of “The Silence of Lambs” fame.  That was one of the nuggets that he tossed out at his frighteningly heavily attended New Jersey rally this weekend where he also promised to defund any school that mandates childhood vaccines. Make America Have Measles and Polio Again!    

Fog:  Several things can be true at once.  Hamas is beyond despicable, far more concerned about its continued existence than doing what’s right for the people of Gaza.  You only have to look at the heinous killings, sex crimes, mutilations, and hostage taking they committed on October 7 as well as their strategy of hiding behind civilians in schools and hospitals to see that. For Israelis, the October 7 attack validates their worst fears, that their neighbors, on all fronts, want to wipe them off the map and view torture and rape as legitimate ways to achieve that goal. Prime Minister Netanyahu is past his due date, a leader whose decisions are too often tainted by his quest to stay in power to survive his own legal problems.  President Biden has been, both historically and in the aftermath of October 7, a reliable supporter of Israel. All expectations are that the November election will be very close with the result hinging on voters in just a few states where a core group of key voters are very pro-Palestinian, with some even sharing Hamas’ view that Israel should be washed out to sea.  Clearly, Biden doesn’t share that vision, and while it’s fair to criticize Israel for being heavy handed in its war against Hamas, count me among those who believe that the Biden administration shouldn’t be airing its disputes with Netanyahu so publicly, because even if the concerns are valid, it’s hard to see the public airing as anything less than political, an effort to bring “wayward” voters back into the fold.  Ironically, it probably won’t work, though it may alienate some of the swing voters who held their noses and voted for Biden last time around, including those much sought after Nikki Haley voters, many of whom are likely Israel supporters.  US politics aside, the public airing, punctuated by this weekend’s appearances on the Sunday talk shows, is also fueling Hamas’ public relations efforts, empowering them to believe that putting off a ceasefire, while dire for many Gazans, is in their best interests. And, sadly, it also pushes off the release of hostages and at this point, who really believes that Hamas plans on releasing all, if any, of the remaining hostages?  Lastly, the public airing has given the Republican party some valid talking points. For what it’s worth that’s my two cents.  Also, October 7 happened and war sucks.

#BringThemAllHome     

  

SCREAMS ✡️🌻✡️🌻✡️🌻

Fog:  At least for today I am not going to weigh in on Biden’s threats to hold up some military aid to Israel over Rafah. Instead, I encourage everyone to watch Screams before Silence, the documentary about the horrendous, unimaginably grotesque sexual crimes and mutilations committed by Hamas on October 7.  Based on their experiences, the released hostages report that some of those attacks continue to this day. The film is riveting and nightmare inducing. The evidence provided is fully documented, believable, previously unimaginable, and well beyond disgusting.  The must watch documentary is available on YouTube. Every college student, especially those who have aligned themselves with Hamas should see it, but sadly most of them won’t, however, you can and should. Don’t turn your eyes away because facts matter, and these facts go far to explaining why Israel is so determined to rid Gaza of Hamas and why Hamas keeps holding up the release of more hostages.

Trump Trial:  Yesterday’s testimony included a continuation of the cross examination of Stormy Daniels, testimony from two Trump staffers, and a few motions from defense counsel.  During the Stormy cross examination, defense counsel Susan Necheles attempted to “slut” sham Daniels, to convince jurors that she was nothing more than another Trump-hater and a money-grubbing woman of ill repute who should not be believed. Necheles also tried to point out inconsistencies between Stormy’s testimony and some of the plethora of interviews she’s given to various news outlets over the past few years.  Tried is the operative word here because Stormy quite effectively turned the table on Necheles.  It turned out that the full text of the alleged inconsistencies cited revealed that they were either taken out of context, incomplete, or didn’t contain the words that Necheles attributed to Stormy.  The problem for Trump’s defense counsel is that contrary to the evidence, Trump continues to insist that Stormy is lying about their sexual encounter and it’s doubtful at this point that anyone not high on the Trump Jello buys that the two didn’t have that encounter. In addition, trying to shame Stormy over her chosen profession furthers the argument that Trump’s concern about voters learning about his porn star sexcapade, ongoing interaction, and the “casting couch” dangling of a Celebrity Apprentice appearance, would hurt his election prospects. Stormy’s no angel but she doesn’t claim to be one.  If Trump was so concerned that sleeping with a porn star was a bad look, he should have kept his pants zipped.  Actions have consequences, maybe even for him. 

Checkmate: Following Stormy, prosecutors called Rebecca Manochio who was a junior bookkeeper at the Trump Organization reporting to Allen Weisselberg and former Whtie House aide/gatekeeper Madeleine Westerhout to the stand.  Westerhout who lost her job at the White House after leaking that Trump didn’t like being photographed with daughter Tiffany because she wasn’t Ivanka svelte is now back in Trump’s good graces and clearly back on the Trump Jello.  Like Hope Hicks she shed a few tears on the stand but between those droplets, testified that Trump worked really hard, crafted his own tweets and that she scheduled a White House meeting between Michael Cohen and Trump.  It’s expected that Cohen will testify that the hush money scheme was discussed at that meeting. She also said that Trump and Melania were the perfect couple and that as far as she could tell, the infamous Access Hollywood tape release had no impact on their relationship, which if true speaks volumes about the nature of their relationship and/or the terms of Melania’s post-nup.  Manochio testified that the Michael Cohen invoices, and related unsigned checks, were federal expressed from New York to Trump, sometimes via bodyguard Keith Schiller’s Washington home, nothing but everything fishy about that. After Trump signed them, they were sent back to New York where they then made their way to Michael Cohen’s bank account. After the day’s testimony ended, Trump’s lawyers again asked Judge Merchan to declare a mistrial over Stormy’s “prejudicial” sex and condom testimony and requested that Trump’s gag order be loosened so that he could publicly attack her for her “false” testimony. Merchan denied both requests while also pointing out that if they didn’t like Stormy’s graphic testimony, they had themselves to blame, first because they’d left themselves open to the nature of her testimony by denying the relationship in their opening remarks and then by failing to object when given the chance.  Defense counsel’s third planned request, to bar the testimony of playmate Karen McDougal, became unnecessary after prosecutors said that they have no plans to call her to the stand. Of course, if Trump wants to refute Stormy’s testimony, he could testify but we all know that’s not going to happen so with the gag order remaining in place, Trump surrogate du jure Florida Senator Rick Scott stood in for him, verbally attacking Stormy outside the court room.  He’s not on the VP short list, but he's angling for something.

House of Cards:  Margie Q finally went through with her threat, calling for a motion to vacate in an attempt to boot Speaker Mike Johnson. By a vote of 359 to 42 her gambit went down in flames but only because Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, the House shadow Speaker, threw a boatload of Democratic votes Johnson’s way.  To be clear, Jeffries doesn’t agree with Johnson on much, if anything, but he trusts him more than he trusted Kevin McCarthy which speaks volumes about McCarthy.  Having your Speakership depend on the support of the opposing party is not a good thing and renders Johnson fairly impotent.  He may make it to the end of the term, but he probably won’t be his party’s leader beyond that, especially if Jim “Gym” Jordan has a say.  Gymbo has been raising money for and making nice to lots and lots of House Republicans, an indication that he’s gunning for the leadership spot next term.  In other Republican news, son Barron has been selected to serve as one of Florida’s delegates at the upcoming Republican National Convention. Expect a slew of Barron jokes because he now no longer falls into the protected child category.  Also, lots of jokes about that other nepo baby RFK Jr.  Apparently, he has a worm hole in his brain, maybe caused by eating undercooked pork or maybe a byproduct of steroids and/or heroin?   He’s also been hospitalized four times for his atrial fibrillation but nothing to worry about as he assures us that despite the memory lapses he’s suffered as a result of the worm hole and the heart thing, he’s the healthy one because he’s only 70 and has a great tan.

#BringThemAllHomeNow              

Stormy With a Chance of a Trump Eruption ✡️🌻✡️🌻✡️🌻

Trump Trial:  Stormy Daniels testified yesterday and will return to the witness stand again tomorrow after the usual Wednesday court recess.  While Stormy’s testimony was both headline grabbing and “lurid,” Monday’s testimony by members of the Trump Organization’s accounting department shouldn’t be ignored because it gets to the heart of the alleged crime, that Trump knowingly made and then falsely accounted for hush money payments to hide his encounters with Stormy from the public during the immediate run up to the 2016 election.  During their Monday testimony, Trump’s former controller, Jeffrey McConney, and accounts payable supervisor, Deborah Tarasoff, walked jurors through the company’s records, detailing how the stream of repayments to Trump’s then fixer Michael Cohen who had advanced the $130,000 hush payoff to Stormy Daniels were grossed up to a total amount of $420,000 to cover Cohen’s estimated income taxes, to compensate him for another out of pocket advance he’d made, and to pay him a small bonus. As prosecutors had mentioned during their opening remarks, there’s a paper trail that details the “back of the envelope calculation” that was used to gin up the $420,000 figure.  The reimbursement was made to Cohen over time through a series of checks, drawn mostly from Trump’s personal account.  McConney testified that those checks were express mailed to Trump at the White House for his signature and that financial micromanager Trump who had a habit of refusing to sign checks when he thought a bill shouldn’t be paid, willingly signed the rather large checks to Michael Cohen, an indication that he’d signed off on the scheme.  Neither McConney nor Tarasoff had any direct conversations with Trump about the Stormy checks but that wasn’t unusual as they didn’t normally interact directly with him.  McConney, like Trump, Don Jr, Eric, and the currently incarcerated Allen Weisselberg, was found guilty of business fraud in the civil case prosecuted by NY AG Tish James’ office.  Though McConney’s legal bills are being paid by the Trump Organization, he no longer works for the company and has been banned from running the finances of any New York company going forward.   

TMI:  Turning to Stormy, her testimony was both weirdly funny and very icky, especially for those who think that a germ obsessed 60-plus-year-old man having unprotected sex with a 26-year-old porn star he’d just met at a golf outing where she was meeting and greeting golfers at a hole sponsored by an adult film company while the wife he just married is at home caring for their newborn son is icky.  Question to golfers, is it common for porn purveyors to sponsor golf holes at outings? The weirdly funny part is that Trump had his bodyguard, Keith Schiller, serve as his go between and that Stormy whose name we know via earlier testimony is still in Trump’s phone rolodex has Keith’s number listed as “Keith Trump” in hers.  Also, when she finally agreed to meet Trump for dinner, he met her dressed in silk pajamas, an indication that well done steak, slathered in ketchup, and served up with copious Diet Cokes was the last thing on his mind. She recounts that at her direction he changed into a suit, but then surprised her again when he changed into his underwear after which the aforementioned sex took place.  Though the sex was a one-time thing, it’s not for lack of trying on his part as she testified that Trump hit her up a few more times during subsequent meetings, which took place mostly because he dangled a Celebrity Apprentice appearance before her as a lure, a follow on to his pre-sex suggestion that sex with him could help her out of her “trailer park” life. Neither Judge Juan Merchan nor Trump’s defense lawyers were all that pleased with Stormy’s depiction of their sexual encounter which both found unnecessarily detailed.  The Judge warned her and prosecutors that she should tone it down and defense counsel tried to get the Judge to call a mistrial.  He didn’t buy it in part because he felt that the defense should have objected more during her testimony.  That said, her testimony will likely haunt prosecutors if Trump is found guilty because it will provide some fodder for the inevitable appeal. It’s reported that prosecutors have asked Stormy to tone it down, but getting her to do so, like getting Trump to stop acting contemptuously, and reining in the soon to testify Michael Cohen ain’t easy.  As to contempt, Trump has another strike against him and Judge Merchan has warned that next time could be the charm that gets him some jail time, something that NYC Mayor Adams says he’d be happy to facilitate.  Will Trump really go to jail? Probably not while the case is ongoing because that would give his lawyers an opportunity to pursue a case stalling appeal.  However, maybe the Judge could get away with forcing him to cool his heels without his trusty, tweety bird phone in the Manhattan Detention Center during court breaks.  On the subject of delays, it should surprise no one to learn that Judge Eileen “loose” Cannon has delayed the Mar a Lago purloined documents indefinitely.  Neither should we be surprised to learn that Trump has scheduled an out of state rally for the evening of son Barron’s high school graduation, that’s the graduation that he whined about missing and for which an accommodating Judge Merchan agreed to schedule a court holiday.  While it’s logistically feasible that Trump will be able to make it to both the graduation and his rally, doing so will mean that attending a celebratory dinner with son Barron, to the extent either he or his mom Melania care, is now off the table.        

Primarily Yours:  Indiana held a bunch of primaries yesterday.  Trump won his, but Nikki Haley who is no longer running, garnered 22% of the vote.  Joe Biden who had no competitors in his primary garnered 100% of the Democratic vote.  Haley has been remarkably silent of late but Georgia’s former Lieutenant Governor not so much.  The 49-year-old Republican who served as Georgia’s Lt Governor from 2019 to 2023 announced that despite being a lifelong Republican, something he noted Trump isn’t, he won’t be voting for the “criminal defendant without a moral compass” but will be voting for Biden, the “decent person” because though he disagrees with Biden on a lot of policy, decency matters. It’s not clear if Duncan’s announcement which has already subjected him to lots of hate will lead other Republicans of conscience to follow but he’s definitely provided them with an opening.  Nikki Haley and Chris Christie are you listening?

Fog:  Hamas claims to have agreed to a ceasefire, the problem is that they appear to have edited the ceasefire proposal that Israel thought was on the table.  One item of dispute has to do with the hostage release with Hamas leaving an opening to return dead bodies instead of living breathing people.  The length of the ceasefire, or at least the length of the ceasefire on paper, is also in dispute.   Worth a reminder, while Israel isn’t blameless, the last ceasefire was broken by Hamas.  In any case, while a deal remains possible, Hamas seems to be playing for time, effectively winning a public relations war, and trying to get the US to put a halt to Israel’s Rafah action which is intended to destroy its last stronghold. Playing for time is a thing right now, President Biden seems to be doing a little bit of that too, pausing a shipment to Israel of some really big bombs to put pressure on Israel’s Rafah plans.  That may be more optics for the pro-Palestinian/anti-Israel peanut gallery than anything else since Israel says it has plenty on hand.  At the same time, Biden continues to speak out forcefully against the “ferocious surge” in anti-Semitism on college campuses and around the globe.  Yesterday at a Holocaust remembrance event he noted that on “October 7 Hamas brought to life that hatred.”  He also renewed his declarations of unwavering support for Israel in its war against Hamas even if he’d like it to cool its jets in Rafah and for Netanyahu to go the way of the Edsel.  Sadly, still no hostage release.    

#BringThemAllHomeNow     

Deny, Deny, Hate ✡️🌻✡️🌻✡️🌻

Trump Trials:  The big news on Friday was about former Trump aide Hope Hick’s testimony.  The 35-year-old Hicks, who hasn’t spoken to Trump since the end of 2022 and who, fun gossip, is now engaged to 58-year-old Goldman Sachs banker Jim Donovan, is one of the few former Trumpers whose legal expenses aren’t being paid for by Trump. Though the one time pants presser/Girl Friday/Communications Director has done her best to divorce herself from the taint of serving in the Trump White House, unlike some of the other young women who served in the Trump orbit like former Mark Meadows aide Cassidy Hutchinson or Deputy Press Secretary Sarah Matthews, or many of his former top aides and cabinet members and national security advisors, she hasn’t raised alarms about what went on in his White House, likely because she remains fond of Trump and never really cared all that much about the bad things she witnessed. We don’t know much about her political views, in fact Sarah Matthews reports that unlike the other young Republicans in the White House, she didn’t seem to have many, rather she was just happy to have serendipitously landed in the lucrative Trump universe, luck that more to do with her looks, fashion background and association with Ivanka than any long-term political goals. The press has made a big deal about her crying during the defense’s cross examination, but her tears aren’t the story.  The story is what she said.  She testified that in the days before the 2016 election Trump told her to deny the veracity of the Stormy Daniels and Karen McDougal stories which she did. Though he initially said that he wanted the stories denied to protect Melania and his family, in 2018 when addressing the details of the hush money payments, he said “it was better to be dealing with it now,…. that it would have been bad to have that story come out before the 2016 election,” particularly in the aftermath of the Access Hollywood tape that had hit like a category 4 hurricane.  As to Michael Cohen’s advancing the hush money for Trump, she said that despite Cohen’s initial claim that he made the payments to Stormy out of the goodness of his heart to protect Trump, that wasn’t true, largely because Cohen didn’t do things out of the goodness of his heart.  Like other’s who have testified, she doesn’t harbor fond memories of dealing with Cohen who she said was only a fixer because he messed up a lot and then had to fix what he’d done,  but neither does she doubt that those payments, which constitute the falsifying of business records crime at heart of the case, were made at Trump’s direction to benefit him.  Moreover, she said that Trump was a micromanager, another indication that the payments would have needed his approval.  Of course, since we live in news silos, the Fox universe has portrayed Hicks’ testimony and her tears as a good thing for Trump while the rest of mainstream media mostly says that her testimony was damning and that those tears were due to her realizing that she’d just thrown Trump under the bus.  Of course, all that matters is how the jury interpreted them, and we won’t know that for weeks.  Michael Cohen will be testifying soon.  The prosecution strategy is to have other witnesses and expert validated tape recordings corroborate everything he says.  The defense strategy will be to eviscerate him.  Fireworks 💥 to come.  

Veepstakes:  All of Trump’s potential vice president candidates, including dog killer Kristi Noem, joined him at a Mar a Lago fundraiser over the weekend.  Many of them followed up the festivities with Sunday morning news appearances where, like Trump, each refused to promise to recognize the results of the 2024 election.  Déjà vu? Noem, who will not be selected as Trump’s running mate doubled down on her dogicide, adding that if Biden had any balls, he’d have shot his errant German Shepherd.  She also kind of walked back the assertion in her soon to be released book that she’d had a meeting with North Korean dictator Kim Jung un, a claim that is so demonstrably false, that her book which is due out momentarily is already being edited and reprinted.  As to the rest of the potential VPs, three of them including Senator Marco Rubio, Representative Byron Daniels, and Governor Ron DeSantis, suffer from a Florida problem. Simply put, the Constitution prohibits Electoral College members from casting their votes for a President and a Vice President from the same state.  In a close election, where losing any electoral votes matter, having two Floridians on the ticket would put Florida’s 30 Electoral College votes in jeopardy.  That’s why Dick Cheney who, like George W Bush, resided in Texas, changed his residency to Wyoming before the 2000 election.  The easiest solution would be for Trump who has homes in three states to shift his residency to NJ or NY but that’s not going to happen.  DeSantis and Daniels don’t appear to be near the top of Trump’s list, but these days Rubio may be. Rubio appears to be willing to move out of state, which probably would mean that he’d have to give up his Senate seat to run as Trump’s running mate, not that state residency is a problem for Republican Senators.  Alabama’s Tommy Tuberville resides in Florida and the Republican candidates for Senator in Pennsylvania, Montana and Wisconsin don’t reside in those states so there’s that.  In other political news, Texas Congressman Henry Cuellar, a Democrat, was indicted on Friday. He and his wife were accused of accepting $600,000 in bribes from a bank in Mexico City and an oil and gas company owned by Azerbaijan.  For now, while he’s staying in the House, he has stepped down from his leadership role on the Homeland Security Appropriations subcommittee.  Maybe because it doesn’t fit with his assertions that the Department of Justice is biased against all things Republican, an assertion that the also indicted NJ Democratic Senator Bob Menendez probably finds suspect, Trump defended Cuellar this weekend, instead saying that the Texas Democrat is being persecuted for being supportive of more border security, the same security that Trump wouldn’t let his House Republicans vote for.  In any case, Cuellar, the only anti-choice Democrat remaining in Congress, is frequently primaried so there’s probably a line of Democrats waiting to assume his seat should it come to that.       

Fog:  Anti-Semitism, frequently called the oldest hate, is out in full force these days which combined with a slew of bomb threats this weekend likely explains why the police standing guard outside my local synagogue aren’t made up of the usual cadre of ordinary officers but instead include only members of the NYPD Counter Terrorism unit.  While many of those demonstrating for the Palestinians are students solely concerned with events in Gaza, CNN and other outlets report a significant percentage are outsiders with no campus affiliations.  Worse, the written demands being made by the demonstrators’ leaders reveal far more than a concern for Gazans.  Specifically, as evidenced by a list presented by those at one college in California, the demands call for the ending of any association with anything that has anything associated with Israel AND Jews, including the cutting of ties with university Hillels.  The Hillel demand is the anti-Semitic tell because if this is only about Israel and Gaza, why call for the elimination of centers for Jewish life on campus? To be clear, it’s not about religious outposts in general, they’re not calling for the elimination of Newman Centers, just Hillels.  Why is that?  Moving to Israel and Gaza, that much called for ceasefire, not happening.  Nor are the hostages getting released anytime soon.

Today is Holocaust Remembrance Day which makes Trump saying this weekend that President Biden is running a “Gestapo” administration that much more offensive.  

#BringThemAllHomeNow           

Fly Me to the Moon ✡️🌻✡️🌻✡️🌻

Trump Trial:  Yesterday’s Trump trial began with a tete a tete between Judge Merchan and Trump’s lawyers about what prosecutors allege were four more gag order infractions but what Trump’s lawyers say was just Trump campaigning.  The judge didn’t seem concerned about Trump saying that National Enquirer’s David Pecker was a nice guy (wink,wink 😉), but he didn’t seem pleased with Trump’s other posts and comments, particularly his attacks on those “Democrats” on the NYC jury.  Merchan hasn’t ruled yet on these four infractions, nor has Trump stopped making them.  Later in the day, Merchan rejected a bizarre request by one of Trump’s lawyers, one that likely originated from Trump himself, that going forward the judge serve as Trump’s sanity filter, prescreening posts to make sure that they don’t violate the gag order.  By the way, Trump is starting to badmouth his own lawyers which likely contributed to their willingness to push the wacko request.  As to the trial, on cross examination Trump’s lawyers painted Stormy/McDougal lawyer Keith Davidson as a sleazebag in the business of extorting celebrities like Lindsey Lohan, Charlie Sheen, and Hulk Hogan, to squelch sex tapes.  They aren’t totally wrong, everyone associated with this case including Trump whose chosen long time lawyer Michael Cohen was an obnoxiously bombastic fixer and who had a year-long affair with a Playmate of the month and a one night stand with a porn star while his wife was home with their newborn child are sleazes but it’s Trump who greased his way to the presidency by paying to hide his sleaziness and his illegal financial machinations who’s on trial and it’s not like Trump surrounded himself with saints. Also, heard were a few tapes of Davidson and Michael Cohen, some of which made them look bad, others of which made Trump out as complicit.  As to Trump he rejected assertions that he’s been taking naps during the trial, instead saying that he’s just been resting his “beautiful blue eyes.”  Frank Sinatra, the real old blue eyes 👀 is turning over in his grave.

Time and Again:  The current issue of Time magazine features a truly revealing and frightening Trump interview.  Some highlights, or really lowlights, are as follows:  Trump plans to deport and/or throw into detention camps 11 million undocumented people, like domestic workers, gardeners, meatpacking factories and field workers, in other words many of the people who feed the economy and keep the country running; he would let states monitor women’s pregnancies and prosecute those who violate abortion bans because as he’s proudly said his Justices have turned abortion law back to the states and states get to do that kind of thing; he’ll direct “his” Justice Department to punish his “enemies,”  firing those US Attorneys who refuse to follow orders; he’ll pardon convicted January 6 miscreants; he’ll withhold legislated government funding for projects he doesn’t like so forget about the environment; he might not come to the aide of NATO allies if they haven’t spent what he considers enough money on their defense and maybe also because that’s what Vlad wants; and he’d gut the Civil Service by reclassifying thousands of people’s jobs as political, something that would make those holding the jobs disposable especially if they refused to do his bidding. Sure he said some of this last time around, but this time he’s going to surround himself with people ready to implement his plans so no guardrails.  As if that’s not enough in Wisconsin he said that he wouldn’t concede the 2024 election if he didn’t think it was “legitimate.” His way of saying that he won’t concede any election he doesn’t win.  Wired Magazine reported this week that a lot of the militant groups that participated in the January 6 “festivities” have reconstituted their Facebook groups in preparation for the election. Here we go again. 

Abortion Politics:  First the good news, yesterday after Arizona’s senate voted to repeal the 1864 total abortion ban that the Arizona Supreme Court had reinstated, the state’s Democratic Governor Katie Hobbs quickly signed on to the repeal.  The bad news is twofold.  First since it takes a while for newly enacted laws to go into effect, the 1864 law will still go into effect in June at least for a while.  Second, Arizona won’t go back to the more permissive abortion law that existed when Roe v Wade was the law of the land but will instead revert to the state’s post Dobbs 15-week, no exception for rape or incest, ban.  That means that passing an abortion referendum during this fall’s election remains key. In other abortion news, Florida’s onerous 6-week ban went into effect on Wednesday.  As the NY Times pointed out this week, “the gestational age of a fetus is counted not from the moment that sperm fertilizes an egg or from the moment you have a positive pregnancy test, but weeks earlier, on the first day of the previous menstrual cycle.”  That means that a woman is six weeks pregnant just two weeks after she misses her period, a time when many, if not most, women wouldn’t yet know they were pregnant. Judging by calls to Florida’s Planned Parenthoods, a large number of Florida women are so clueless that they didn’t know about the incoming six week ban perhaps because they were too busy leading their lives to keep up on the news or maybe because they only watch Fox.  In either case, some of them were shocked to learn that their reproductive rights had just been flushed down the toilet.  Florida is another state where abortion will be on the fall ballot, which is good, especially if 60% of the voters vote to restore their rights but not so helpful to women right now because unlike other elective procedures, abortions are very time sensitive under the most liberal of laws.  As to Fox, following a threat of a defamation suit by Hunter Biden’s lawyers, Fox has quietly taken down a six-part series that targeted him with a mock trial.  That’s the same Fox that repeatedly pushed the lies promulgated by Alexander Smirnov, the former FBI informant who is now considered a flight risk and is in jail for spreading Russian lies and propaganda about Hunter and Joe Biden.  Fox no longer mentions those lies or Smirnov but still hasn’t retracted them.    

Fog:  Columbia University appears to be under control for now, though UCLA with its sprawling easily accessible campus not so much. Lots of students as well as some outside agitators have been arrested with some really upset about what they believe is police overreach and many others relieved that the universities finally sought police help. As to Columbia, feeding the absurdity of the moment, a small group of pro-Palestinian law school students are now insisting that the university cancel their finals because they’re too traumatized by the police action to sit for exams. Wait until these snowflakes find out about life as a law associate.  As to the situation in Gaza, Israel has confirmed that 49-year-old Dror Or who was taken hostage on October 7 is dead.  His wife was killed on October 7 making their two young children orphans. As of this morning Hamas has not signed on to the latest ceasefire proposal despite a number of concessions from Israel.  Also, Pentagon spokesperson Matthew Miller confirmed yesterday that Hamas “hijacked” a shipment of humanitarian aid being transferred to Gaza through Jordan.  He reported that they were caught and much of the shipment was returned. No comment from any of those “traumatized” law students about any of that.

#BringThemAllHomeNow  

  

Dog Days ✡️🌻✡️🌻✡️🌻

Reservoir Dogs:  As you’ve probably heard, South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem who’s probably no longer atop Trump’s VP list if she ever was, is taking lots of heat for gleefully writing about the time she shot and killed her 14-month-old wire haired pointer Cricket, something to do with the “untrainable” mischievous puppy killing a chicken on the way home from a hunt. The clueless Noem, who was recently skewered for doing an infomercial for an out of state dentist in exchange for gratis teeth remodeling, is unapologetic about the puppy murder as well as her killing of an old goat and some horses.  Even though Trump who hasn’t weighed in on goats or horses is no fan of dogs, he is shrewd enough to know that picking a puppy killer as his election partner to own the libs would be a step too far even for him No doubt VP hopefuls Ohio Senator JD Vance and North Dakota Governor Doug Burgum are enjoying the DogGate episode of the Trump saga. No puppies or students were killed last night, but about one hundred Columbia students were removed from the academic building they’d occupied earlier in the day and arrested by the NYPD after Columbia president Minouche Shafik asked for their help.  The possible presence on campus of outside agitators including the wife of a former Florida professor who’d been convicted of serving as a fundraiser for terrorist organization Islamic Jihad may have been the final straw for Shafik. Unfortunately, Columbia is only the tip of the iceberg, reports are that there were violent confrontations at UCLA overnight and demonstrations continue on many other college campuses including NYC’s City College, an indication that though we’re barely in May, those proverbial August Dog Days are upon us. And because little makes sense anymore, the Ceasefire Now crowd doesn’t seem to care one iota that Hamas is still holding hostages and still hasn’t agreed to that ceasefire despite more concessions from Israel and pressure from Qatar, Egypt, and the US, among others, to do so.  Fanning the flames, Israel appears to be preparing to initiate a “clean up” operation in Rafah in an effort to rid the area of Hamas.  By the way, Trump is all in on that but is very critical of Bibi Netanyahu for “letting” October 7 happen because we all know that Trump doesn’t like losers and Bibi increasingly looks to Trump like a loser.  

Best in Show:  Trump’s NYC trial was back in session yesterday.  The day opened with presiding Judge Juan Merchan finally imposing $9,000 in contempt penalties on Trump for nine social media posts that violated the Judge’s “gag order” prohibition against attacking witnesses.  Unfortunately, though $1,000 per post is the maximum financial penalty that NY law permits, it’s bupkis to Trump. Merchan also threatened to imprison Trump if he continues to act out, but does anyone think that will really happen?  Another hearing on more of Trump’s gag order violations is scheduled to take place on Thursday morning but since those violations took place before Merchan levied his jailing threat, all Trump faces are some more piddling fines.  Son Eric and once impeached Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton were in court yesterday to lend support to Trump during the day’s testimony which included some more testimony from Michael Cohen’s banker Gary Farro, followed by some more from Robert Browning of CSPAN and Phillip Thompson of a court reporting company.  Browning and Thompson were there to verify the authenticity of some clips of Trump saying some implicating things including his video admission that it really was him bragging about grabbing crotches on the infamous Access Hollywood video. Ordinarily, evidence of that sort would be admitted by mutual consent of the opposing counsels but Trump being Trump, his lawyers wouldn’t stipulate to the evidence, so prosecutors had to call in Browning and Thompson for validation. The highlight of the day was the testimony of the next witness, Keith Davidson.  Davidson is the lawyer who represented both Playmate Karen McDougal and adult film star Stormy Daniels in their efforts to monetize their Trump relationships. Davidson who clearly did not enjoy his interactions with Michael Cohen who he described as difficult and crazed in his representation of Trump, revealed that initially the negotiations over the Stormy Daniels payment was slow walked by Cohen until after the release of the Access Hollywood tape when “hushing” Stormy became essential to save Trump’s presidential run. Though Davidson had no direct contact with Trump, he was confident that Cohen was acting as his intermediary.  The legal pundits believe that by expressing clear disdain for Cohen, Davidson is making Cohen’s soon to come testimony more credible because while Davidson confirmed much of what Cohen is expected to say, he clearly didn’t do so out of friendship, in fact he said that he hated having to deal with Cohen. Shifting trials because with Trump there always is another trial, the purloined document case in front of Judge Eileen “loose” Cannon may never happen but we did learn a bit more about Trump aide Walt Nauta’s testimony.  Apparently, he told FBI Agents a different story than he subsequently told a grand jury about the Mar a Lago boxes he moved for Trump.  In other words, he lied, probably a lot to the FBI but also likely a bit to the Grand Jury. It’s also likely that Trump dangled a pardon, promising him a get out of jail free card should he be reelected.

Dogville: Though she hasn’t totally given up, it looks like Moscow Marge’s attempt to unseat Speaker Mike Johnson has been foiled, at least for now.  Yesterday Democratic leadership made it clear that they will throw Johnson a lifeline by providing him with supportive votes to prevent him losing his Speakership if Marge pushes for a motion to vacate vote, not because they share his views but because they don’t want the House thrown back into disarray and besides Hakeem Jeffries is kind of enjoying being the shadow speaker. Jeffries hand got a little bit stronger yesterday after Buffalo, New York Democrat Tim Kennedy, no relative of that other Kennedy trying to throw the election to Trump, trounced his Republican candidate in a special election to replace the seat vacated by Democratic Congressman Brian Higgins who left Congress earlier this year.  As a result of Kennedy’s victory, Republicans hold 217 seats to Democrats 213, with 5 seats vacant. That means that when Democrats stick together, Republicans can only afford to lose one vote on any measure.  Hardly a majority worth holding.    

#BringThemAllHomeNow