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