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