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