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