Oy Vey to the Nth Degree ✡️🌻✡️🌻✡️

Panic Time:   Last night one of the two presidential candidates was unhinged.  He spewed lies, promised retribution for his enemies, bragged about overturning Roe, dissed NATO and Ukraine, blamed his opponent for Hamas’ October 7 attack of Israel, despicably dangled the freedom of journalist Evan Gershkovich, blamed migrants for everything, and called the USA a world embarrassment and a hellscape. He also promised more tax cuts for the very rich, high tariffs that are really regressive taxes, took responsibility for cutting the price of insulin for seniors, and slammed the other guy’s son.  Nevertheless, that candidate won the debate, increasing the odds that he’ll be the next president because the other guy, who only had to appear alert and rational, instead seemed to have one foot in the grave.  I have said repeatedly that I’d vote for a rock before I’d vote for Trump and now it looks like I’ll actually be voting for that rock.  Generally, before I write these morning missives, I scan the news for relevant articles and commentaries to share but this morning I haven’t because, frankly, I can’t bear to.  Where do we go from here?  Who knows but it’s as good a time as any to focus on the down ballot races because with Trump rising, winning the House back and holding the Senate where Supreme Court Justice appointments are confirmed is now more important than ever.   

The Supremes: SCOTUS still hasn’t weighed in on presidential immunity, the Chevron deference, or another much awaited case related to January 6^th and obstruction charges, but they did address emergency room abortions.  In an unsigned 6 to 3 decision, with Justices Alito, Gorsuch and Thomas in the minority, they punted, temporarily reinstating a lower court ruling that had allowed hospitals to perform emergency abortions without being subject to prosecution under Idaho’s onerous and punitive abortion ban. Like their mifepristone ruling, which was based on standing rather than substance, this ruling leaves wide open the possibility that the Court will rule for Idaho or another state allowing them to ban lifesaving emergency room abortions in the future, as in after the 2024 election. Justices Ketanji Brown Jackson and Samuel Alito both recognized that possibility, Jackson with a partial dissent that slammed the Court for failing to rule now that EMTALA, the law that requires hospitals to provide life-saving care to all including abortions, trumped Idaho’s restrictive abortion law and Alito by saying that he just wanted to kill all abortions, and likely some women too, by immediately granting Idaho the right to ban abortions even in emergency rooms. Punting this decision to a future date is particularly problematic in light of last night’s debate because no one expects that a Trump Department of Justice will defend EMTALA the next time the issue is raised and without the DOJ stepping up laws like the one in Idaho will prevail. In another decision earlier in the week, the Court ruled 6 to 3, with Justice Jackson, Kagan, and Sotomayor in the minority, that a public anti-corruption law shouldn’t apply to officials receiving bigly “tips” after contracts are awarded because if a payoff happens after the awarding of a contract than it’s just a gratuity, not a bribe? Somehow, it’s not surprising that the majority which included gift recipients Alito and Thomas and three Trump appointees reached that conclusion.  SCOTUS is expected to drop a few more opinions this morning and since Chief Justice Roberts did not indicate that today would be the last day for opinions, we may have to wait until next week for a few of the much-anticipated ones to drop.

Fog:  In other legal news, Justice Aileen loose Cannon will be holding a hearing on whether or not it was okay for Special Counsel Jack Smith to breach Trump’s attorney client privilege with his former lawyer Evan Corcoran.  Washington DC Judge Beryl Howell already ruled that it was okay for Corcoran to share tapes of conversations where Trump told Corcoran that he wanted him to lie about the boxes of super-secret documents that he didn’t want to turn over to the government, but Cannon is all in on relitigating previously decided rulings because she’s either ignorant, devious, stalling, or all of the above. Not much good to report from the Middle East, where hostilities between Hezbollah and Israel may be about to descend into all-out war.

#BringThemAllHomeNow     

           

Bows, Arrows, and Guns ✡️🌻✡️🌻✡️

Primarily Yours:  It turns out that the polls were spot on,  yesterday Westchester County Executive George Latimer trounced socialist squad Congressman Jamaal Bowman by 17 points.  Given that their Westchester/Bronx district is heavily Democratic, Latimer will be the district’s next Congressman.  Though the press has been hyper-focused on the huge amount of money spent on the campaign by an AIPAC related PAC, the funding represents only part of the story behind Bowman’s spectacular loss. AIPAC wouldn’t have spent the money if they didn’t think that Bowman’s seat was up for grabs and as noted by Politico, Bowman was unusually vulnerable because he trafficked in 9.11 conspiracies, he offended many by calling the October 7 rapes of Israelis by Hamas that have even been recognized by the UN just Israeli propaganda, he voted against Biden’s key infrastructure and fiscal responsibility legislation, and he got himself sanctioned for pulling a House fire alarm.  In contrast to Latimer, he spent little time developing ties and goodwill within his district, where calling Israel out for committing genocide didn’t go over all that well to say the least, another reminder that all politics is local.  Latimer wasn’t the only centrist who won last night.  On eastern Long Island, former CNN political analyst John Avlon easily beat his opponent Nancy Goroff by 40 points. He’ll now face off against Republican Nick LaLota for a seat that Democrats really want to pick up. In central New York, Democrat John Mannion won his race and will now face off against newbie Republican Congressman Brandon Williams in another race that Democrats believe they can win. In Utah, Republican John Curtis, a moderate by Republican standards, beat the Trump endorsed candidate for the Senate seat being vacated by Mitt Romney and in Colorado, running in a crowded field in a solidly Republican district where her name recognition and Trump endorsement helped, Lauren Boebert easily won her primary meaning that she’ll be back in the House next year. In her old district which she fled over fears that she’d lose against Adam Frisch the Democrat who nearly beat her last time, Republican Jeff Hurd won his primary.  Hurd will face off against Frisch who is running again.       

Courtly Drama:  The Supreme Court will be releasing some more opinions today, tomorrow, and Friday.  They usually save their worst for the end of their term and we’re at the end so with presidential immunity, life-saving abortions, and environmental protections on the table, get ready for some doozies.  Down in Florida Judge Aileen “Loose” Cannon continues to slow walk the purloined documents case into oblivion.  Yesterday she appeared ready to reject Jack Smith’s request for a gag order on Trump to prevent him from putting the lives of FBI agents at risk.  Her position is that since no agents have been killed lately, where’s the proof that Trump’s incendiary claims that the FBI had planned to assassinate him during their Mar a Lago “raid” when they clawed back those boxes of secret documents that he had taken with him from the White House.  As to those boxes, prosecutor Smith’s team released a few more pictures of them, including one that appeared to show nuclear secrets peeking out from under bubble wrap near a supply of Diet Coke bottles in a tacky Mar a Lago latrine. Cannon is considering whether or not to toss the whole case or to just rule against the legitimacy of the Special Counsel appointment.  She’s unlikely to do anything that controversial because she knows it could lead to her being removed from the case, and anyway her stalling tactics are working to Trump’s advantage so does it really matter how she rules as long as it takes her a long time to release her decisions?   In other court news, with the hush money trial over except for the sentencing, New York Judge Juan Merchan lifted the part of Trump’s gag order that prevented him from attacking witnesses and the jury though he still can’t go after individual jurors by name.  Trump will likely be throwing lots of much at Stormy Daniels and Michael Cohen but nothing at National Enquirer guy David Pecker who probably is still sitting on some dirt.  Also on the judicial front, the Supreme Court will be weighing in on laws banning treatments for trans minors next term because who doesn’t think that the Justices, some of whom have already shown a complete lack of understanding about biology, should be getting between children, their parents, and their doctors when they’re making such difficult decisions? Notably another one of the Court’s decisions has already had a lethal impact in Texas where there’s been an 8% increase in infant mortality since that state’s abortion ban went into effect.  That’s a lot of deaths when you consider that Texas is second only to California in the number of babies born in the US.  On the subject of deaths and another subject near and dear to many of the SCOTUS Justices, Surgeon General Vivek Murthy declared firearm violence a public health crisis. So maybe that bump stock ruling was not such a good one?

Fog:  Julian Assange, whose conveniently timed dump of Wikileaks data likely benefitted Trump in 2016 struck a deal with US prosecutors.  He pleaded guilty to conspiring unlawfully to obtain and disseminate classified military documents and in exchange was sentenced to the time he has already served in a British prison and shipped back to Australia.  Assange, who positioned himself as a free speech advocate, is far from the hero that he and some of his ardent fans claim he is.  In addition to the sharing of military secrets he’s also accused of rape and other sex crimes. He’s now Australia’s problem.  Stock the popcorn and maybe some stronger stuff.  Absent any last-minute shenanigans, tomorrow night is debate night in America which means we will soon no longer have to listen to various and sundry pundits provide free debate advice to the candidates but instead will hear endless comments about what each of them did right or wrong. 

#BringThemAllHomeNow

     

 Cage Matches ✡️🌻✡️🌻✡️

The Supremes:  The Supreme Court is still sitting on a number of important rulings including the one concerning presidential immunity, but on Friday in US v Rahimi the Justices did finally weigh in on guns in the hands of domestic abusers.  In an 8 to 1 decision written by Chief Justice Roberts the Supreme Court upheld a federal law that bars anyone subject to a domestic violence restraining order from possessing a gun.  Notably Justice Clarence Thomas was the lone dissenter, not all that surprising because as he wrote in the 2022 NYS Rifle & Pistol Association v Bruen decision which expanded the right to own guns by trashing NYS’s restrictive handgun licensing law, in his view laws restricting gun ownership are only okay if they are “consistent with the nation’s historical tradition of firearm regulation.” In plain speak, Thomas’ view is that since the Constitution, written by a bunch of white guys at a time when his ancestors were chattel and beating the crap out of women and threatening them with guns wasn’t considered problematic, we shouldn’t find it problematic now. The good news is that the rest of the Justices more or less disagree with Thomas with regard to domestic abusers, the bad news is that in most cases, as indicated by their ruling in favor of bump stocks, the majority of the Court’s aversion to gun restrictions still stands. The Court announced that they’ll be issuing some more opinions on Wednesday, just one day before the much-anticipated presidential debate between aspiring king and felon Trump and Biden.  It’s not clear if SCOTUS’ Wednesday opinion dump will include the one concerning presidential immunity but if the Court releases an opinion that concludes that presidents can do whatever they want, maybe Biden should just kick Trump off the stage and declare himself the winner of the 2024 election.  He won’t and he shouldn’t but who doesn’t believe that Trump would do that if he could.    

Debate Prep:  Over the weekend, while Biden was mostly preparing for the Thursday debate, Trump was on the campaign warming up by spewing more inflammatory and insane rhetoric.  He’s still talking about sharks, washing machines, and his admiration for fictional cannibal Hannibal Lechter but has now added a new twisted idea to his demented shtick.  His newest thought which he previewed at the Faith & Freedom Coalition conference is that the Ultimate Fighting Championship better known as the UFC should create a sports league for those “tough,” “come from prisons,” “nasty, mean” migrants to fight each other because didn’t the Romans set slaves against each other in ancient times as did the Nazis who entertained themselves by holding fights to the death between their prisoners during their reign of terror. Trump, who bragged once again about how he appointed the Justices who overturned Roe also voiced his support for the new Louisiana law mandating the posting of the Ten Commandments in all public schools, particularly ironic given how many of those commandments he’s violated and continues to violate. The Faith & Freedom crowd cheered him on, because nothing says godliness like pitting migrants against each other, bragging about curtailing women’s rights, and trumpeting commandments that they frequently violate.  To that end, last Tuesday Dallas’ Gateway megachurch accepted the resignation of its senior pastor, Trump fan Robert Morris after allegations of his past relationship with a 12-year old girl resurfaced.

Primarily Yours:  Count me as one who will be happy to see tomorrow’s NYS primary over and done with.   The political ads and rather loud, ugly rallies which have tried to turn the Westchester/Bronx race between “pull the fire alarm” incumbent Jamaal Bowman and challenger Westchester County Executive George Latimer into an offensive racial, “colonialist” struggle between Blacks and Jews have been horrifying to watch, particularly given this weekend’s attacks on Jewish Synagogues, and by that I am referring to the violent event in Los Angeles not just the attack in Dagestan, Russia. Bowman, a proud member of the “Squad” who put his foot in it when he said he didn’t believe that any of the October 7 hostages had been sexually assaulted before realizing that even he had gone too far has the very vocal support of AOC and Bernie which may or may not pull him over the finish line.  We’ll know soon enough.  The other race worth watching is for the Democratic nominee for the eastern Long Island seat previously held by Republican Lee Zeldin, a long time Trump devotee.  The primary between the more left leaning Nancy Goroff and the more middle of the road and maybe more electable John Avlon is important because delusionally or not,  Democrats hope that the seat is a possible pick up in their quest to retake the House. Though the two disagree on some things, their debates focused more on criticizing the Republican led House than trashing each other. 

Economics 101:  The Republican party line is that Democrats are bad for the economy and to be fair that line typically works for them even though historically Democrats have done more for economic growth and employment than Republicans.  Apparently, Moody’s Analytics gets that, on Thursday they released a report concluding that a second Biden term would see cooling inflation and continued economic growth while a Trump presidency would be an economic disaster.  That’s not all that surprising since Trump’s economic proposals are focused on winning over his richest donors by promising drastic tax cuts rather than on doing what’s best for the country as a whole.  Among his proposals are bigger than big tariffs on goods from countries like China which despite his claims are not paid for by those countries but instead are paid by US consumers across the income spectrum who would see significant price hikes on imported goods and on US made goods that rely on parts from overseas.            

#BringThemAllHomeNow          

 

Hanging Ten ✡️🌻✡️🌻✡️

Trolls: The Supreme Court is trolling us, the term is almost up but still no rulings on presidential immunity, abortions for women who show up at emergency rooms bleeding out, domestic abusers owning guns, and the power of administrative agencies like the EPA to keep poisons out of our drinking water. That could change at 10 AM EDT this morning, or we may have to wait until July 1 or even later.  Louisiana’s Republican dominated legislature and Republican Governor are trolling too. This week Governor Jeff Landry signed a bill mandating that an 11” by 14” large font poster of the Ten Commandments be hung in every one of Louisiana’s public-school classrooms. The Ten Commandment is the list of all the shall and shalt not’s that evangelicals conveniently ignore when felonious, repeat adulterer Trump, who they treat as one of the other gods that they’re not supposed to pray to or idolize, violates them. The Louisiana law is clearly at odds with the First Amendment’s establishment clause, or at least at odds with how the First Amendment has been interpreted until now.  Louisiana’s Governor knows that, as does Texas’ very right- wing Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick who has promised that Texas will follow suit with a similar display requirement shortly, but they both also know that the religion friendly SCOTUS conservative justices have shown a willingness to toss precedent aside and might be open to reconsidering that whole separation of church and state thing, because maybe the founders only intended that provision to apply to religions other than Christianity?  Add Florida judge Aileen “loose” Cannon to the list of judicial trollers. It turns out that it’s not just liberal leaning legal pundits who think she’s totally ill-suited to preside over the purloined documents case.  Yesterday the NY Times reported that two federal judges in Florida, including the Bush appointed chief judge of Cannon’s Southern Florida District, had urged her to step aside when the purloined documents case was assigned to her.  It’s highly unusual for that to have happened, that it did reveals that her more experienced senior colleagues had serious reservations about her lack of experience and/or her political leanings.  As we know, she refused and as a result the “slam dunk” case is being slow walked into oblivion.  As part of that slow walking, Cannon has scheduled several days of hearings on whether Special Counsel Jack Smith was unconstitutionally appointed or is otherwise acting without legal authority.   Numerous courts have already rejected nearly identical constitutional challenges to other special counsels, Cannon knows that but is holding these hearings anyway perhaps because doing so allows her to appear productive when all she’s really doing is spinning wheels in the hope that Trump wins, makes his cases go away, and appoints her to a higher court.

The Race: Abetted by the Murdoch publishing empire, Trump and his surrogates have spent the past few months claiming that “doddering” President Biden is suffering from dementia and thus unfit for office.  The problem with that strategy is that by harping on Biden’s fitness, Trump has set a low bar for Biden’s debate performance, meaning if Biden shows up and is mostly lucid, he’ll have exceeded expectations.  It’s not like word salad spewing Trump, only three years younger, is all that coherent or the picture of robust youth.  So, with the date for the first debate approaching, Trump has pivoted to disparaging CNN’s terms of engagement, calling the debate rules and the lack of a studio audience, rules and conditions that he already agreed to follow, unfair and the questions, which he doesn’t or shouldn’t know, biased.  Sound familiar?  It should because Trump’s already suggesting that the 2024 election will be unfair as well and that any polls like this week’s ones from Fox that show him a smidge behind Biden, fake news. To be fair, the Biden team is hoping that Trump acts out so don’t be surprised when Dark Brandon Biden tries to goad him because a raving, crazy Trump bolsters their case.  Though CNBC reports that Trump kind of freaked out a number of the business executives by being incoherent and off topic during a recent confab, many of them are so enamored of the specter of more tax cuts that they remain fully in his camp, which partially explains why Trump is now raking in the big bucks again, surpassing Biden whose early fundraising lead has disappeared. That’s bad news, but better news is that absent a last minute save from the Supreme Court Trump advisor/right- wing podcaster Steve Bannon will be in jail come July 1 because yesterday the DC Court of Appeals rejected his bid to remain out of prison while he appeals his contempt of Congress conviction to the Supreme Court, concluding that his appeal lacks merit since SCOTUS is unlikely to take his argument seriously. Much to his chagrin, Bannon won’t be going to one of those relatively “cushy” Club Fed prisons, he isn’t eligible because he still has a pending criminal case against him in NY related to charges that he defrauded donors to his faux “build the wall charity.”   

#BringThemAllHomeNow

 

Say Hey ✡️🌻✡️🌻✡️

Primarily Yours:  It’s Juneteenth, the newest federal holiday that celebrates the day in 1865 when slaves finally found out that they’d been freed.  Check out google for some neat celebratory graphics.  Someone should do a wellness check on Martha-Ann Alito who is probably rifling through her flag collection in search of a suitable one to fly in protest and maybe also searching in her closet for a white robe and conehead cap. Or maybe she’ll just settle for one of those “white boy summer” pink hats handed out at uber-right wing, white supremacist Charlie Kirk’s Turning Point convention where Trump recently spoke. She might not be the only one stressing today, Representative Bob Good, one of Congress’ most conservative members and the chair of the hard-right House Freedom Caucus, is locked in a nail-biting, too close to call Virginia primary race with his equally hard right-wing Trump endorsed challenger, State Senator John McGuire.  As of this morning Good trails McGuire by 327 votes, tight enough to send the race into a recount. Good is in this pickle because early in the primary season he endorsed Florida’s Ron DeSantis run for the presidency.  Though he ultimately shifted his allegiance back to Trump, even making one of those de rigueur appearances outside Judge Juan Merchan’s New York Court, felonious grudge holder Trump slammed him by endorsing McGuire, not over policy but because when Trump says he’s into retribution, he means it, regardless of party affiliation. However, Eugene Vindman, not to be confused with his identical twin brother Alexander, is celebrating this morning. Eugene, like his twin, was both a military officer and a Trump term whistle blower whose complaint to his supervisors about Trump’s efforts to pressure Ukraine President Zelenskyy led to Trump’s first impeachment.  He garnered 50% of the vote, easily trounced his seven opponents, to win the Democratic primary for the Virginia seat being vacated by Abigail Spanberger who has announced her intention to run for governor in next year’s state election. Vindman has his work cut out for him since the seat he’s seeking is in a swing district, but challenges appear to suit the high achieving immigrant VIndman brothers, which in addition to the twins includes older brother Leonid, another military veteran.

Presidential Politics:  It turns out that Trump really does hate “horrible” Milwaukee, either that or he was looking for a way to pad his own pockets by diverting campaign cash into his Chicago hotel because though the upcoming Republican convention is being held in the brew city, until yesterday Trump plans included staying at his Chicago property.  After those plans were leaked by a Chicago official who revealed that security arrangements were being made by local police and the Secret Service for his Chicago stay, Trump’s campaign did the “fake news” thing while Trump scurried to change his accommodations. While Trump was adjusting his reservations, President Biden was also engaged in some politicking.  Yesterday he announced that he is using his executive powers to make it easier for somewhere around 500,000 undocumented spouses and children of US citizens to apply for lawful permanent residency without having to first leave the country to do so.  Not having to leave the country is important because it avoids the sometimes-lengthy family separation that can happen if a person leaves the country to apply for residency and then is either denied reentry or gets stuck in a long bureaucratic process.  To qualify an applicant has to have been in the US for ten years and to pass a criminal background check, so contrary to what Trump acolyte Stephen Miller and the rest of the felonious Trump echo chamber is saying, this isn’t a program for criminals and drug kingpins. Biden also announced that he would be making it somewhat easier for DACA Dreamers, those high performing, squeaky clean migrants who came here as kids, to get work visas.  That’s important because absent immigration legislation, the Dreamers have been stuck in permanent limbo, fearful that another Trump administration could send them packing to a country where they have no family ties and where they may not even speak the language.  Of course, things being what they are, the same group of anti-immigrant Republicans who insist that as president, Biden doesn’t need legislation to implement harsher border policies will soon be suing, asserting he’s overstepped his powers. Also, for the record, though Biden clearly made these announcements to appeal to immigration friendly voters, especially those in the Latin American community, none of the individuals likely to benefit from these policies will become instant citizens so they won’t qualify to vote in upcoming elections.    

Debate Club:  In other election news, the first presidential debate between Biden and Trump takes place on June 27.  Contrary to a recent tweet by the right leaning Washington Reporter that was then retweeted by Republican politicians Mike Lee, Elise Stefanik, and Josh Hawley among others, the Biden campaign has not asked for the debate to be reconfigured to take place with the candidates seated at a table so that Biden can rest his “geriatric” legs.  That lie has been debunked by CNN which confirmed that neither candidate has made that request though last time I checked it’s Trump who takes golf carts everywhere and Biden who’s still takes the occasional bike ride, something that admittedly freaks me out. Of course, Missouri’s Josh Hawley who really is a miserable guy, doubled down on his tweet by saying that anyone who has to sit doesn’t qualify for office, apparently he’s forgotten that four term president FDR was a polio survivor who spent much of his presidency in a wheel chair and also hasn’t spent much time with Texas Governor Abbott, who as a result of a spinal cord injury runs Texas from his chair.  Much to his chagrin, RFK Jr will not be participating in the debate as he has failed to qualify for the ballot in enough states and hasn’t reached the polling numbers required to qualify. And if the ruling made by New York’s highest court yesterday that it will not consider Judge Juan Merchan’s gag order because “there is no substantial constitutional question directly involved” isn’t overturned by SCOTUS, assuming it even makes it there, Trump won’t be able to say some of the really mean things that he wants to say during that debate or on his campaign junket without giving Merchan another reason to incarcerate him.

And:  Surprise, surprise Republican Senator Pete Ricketts of Nebraska who apparently was assigned by Republican leader Mitch McConnell to the role of bump stock protector, put the kibosh on an attempt by Democratic Senator Martin Heinrich of New Mexico, Senate leader Chuck Schumer’s designated bump stock killer, to bring up a bill banning bump stocks by unanimous consent, a process that would have led to fast passage of the ban. Sadly, if the bill ever makes it to the floor, getting 60 votes will likely prove impossible.

#BringThemAllHomeNow      

 

Bumpy Road Ahead ✡️🌻✡️🌻✡️

Return of the Bump: Bumps are back, and we’re not talking about the tacky 1970’s era hip jarring dance move but something far more deadly, the bump stock.  Bump stocks, deadly firearm accessories, used to transform semi-automatic weapons into fully automatic machine guns, were banned by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (the ATF) following the 2017 Trump era Las Vegas shooting spree which resulted in the killing of 60 people and the wounding of 413 more. Trump’s initial reaction to the mass carnage was surprisingly human but then his advisors and buddies at the National Rifle Association reminded him who had helped finance his 2016 campaign so instead of putting his weight behind a legislative ban of the lethal bump stock accessory, he opted to have the ATF impose a ban, a solution that the Obama Justice department had rejected over concerns that it wouldn’t stand the test of time. It turns out that they were right. On Friday, a gun friendly Supreme Court, put the kibosh on the bump stock ban, concluding that because the accessory’s trigger mechanism requires constant pressure from trigger crazy lunatics it doesn’t exactly mimic true automatic weapons and therefore can’t be banned under the 1934 legislation that banned machine guns. The Court didn’t invoke the Second Amendment, instead they focused on mechanical technicalities.  SCOTUS’s message, at least the message of the six conservatives, is that if Congress wants to ban bump stocks, they need to go the legislative route and then hope that the Court doesn’t conclude that a legislative ban would violate the Second Amendment. Writing for the three liberals, Justice Sotomayor used the if it “walks like a duck” analogy to conclude that an automatic weapon plus a bump stock is a machine gun, but these days no one really cares what she or her other two liberal colleagues believe. Senator Schumer plans to introduce legislation to ban the bump stock again, but like his IVF and contraceptive legislation, it will probably not get enough Republican votes to pass.

Chevrons:  The tragic news is that more people are going to be killed in mass murder events as a result of the bump stock decision but that’s only part of what lies ahead.  The Court’s decision could well be an indication of how they are going to eviscerate the “Chevron doctrine” in another decision that is expected out shortly. And by chevron, we’re not taking those rank indicating “V” shaped stripes on uniforms but instead are referring to the basis for regulatory rules. Since the Supreme Court’s 1984 Chevron v Natural Resources Defense Council decision, federal courts have deferred to federal agencies’ reasonable interpretation of ambiguous statutes; the Court’s recognition that politicians aren’t technical experts and that as a result legislation usually needs some interpretation by bureaucratic specialists on the way to becoming actual rules and regulations. The case that the Court is expected to issue a ruling on by the end of June involves fisheries, but the impact of their ruling is expected to extend far beyond how many people need to be employed on ships to ensure that the nation’s fish supply remains intact to a panoply of government regulations, including those that allow the EPA to regulate toxins and so on.  The conservative Justices and their friends, folks like lavish gift giver Harlan Crow, others in the fossil fuel industry, and Steve Bannon who advocates for the total eradication of the “administrative state,” view limiting or better yet dismantling the Chevron doctrine as the pot at the end of their rainbow.  And by rainbow we’re not talking pride flags and the like, though Justice Alito and his wife Martha-Ann have a lot to say about those too. Worth mentioning, we’re still waiting for the presidential immunity decision and at this point no one expects it to be unanimous, the question now is about how much immunity the Conservates decide to give Trump and we know they’ll give him some.

Politics:  Early voting has started in New York State’s local primaries.  Lots of eyes are on Westchester where County Executive George Latimer is challenging one-term Congressman, squad member Jamaal Bowman, also known for his fire alarm antics, and on eastern Long Island where former CNN guy, moderate John Avlon is running against Stony Brook Chemistry professor, the more left leaning Nancy Goroff for the right to challenge newbie Republican Nick LaLota for the seat previously held by Lee Zeldin, the Trump supporter who gave Governor Kathy Hochul a run for the money in 2022. This isn’t Goroff’s first run for the seat, she lost to Zeldin in 2020 probably because she’s a wee too liberal for the eastern Long Island constituency, a group that includes lots of folks who aren’t transported Manhattanites.  For his part Trump who wants us to believe that he’s making plans to accept his Republican nomination at Mar a Lago instead of that “horrible city” Milwaukee, a back-up/fundraising plan in case New York Judge Juan Merchan sentences him to house arrest, spent his weekend speaking to what were supposed to be Black parishioners in a Black church but what was really an atypically integrated audience. While shading President Biden for “not even knowing what the word inflation means” he bragged about his mental acuity, citing the multiple times he’d been tested by then White House doctor Ronny Jackson who he twice called Ronny Johnson.  Biden was in California raising bigly bucks from the monied Hollywood set and bemoaning the Supreme Court’s extreme tilt, warning it will get worse if he’s not reelected. Biden is expected to spend the next week preparing for the upcoming CNN debate while Trump is expected to spend some time with Speaker Johnson, not to be confused with Congressman Doctor Ronny.  The two are plotting ways to overturn felonious Trump’s NY convictions.  As of now, much to his chagrin, RFK Jr has not qualified to be on the debate stage.    

   
#BringThemAllHomeNOW

 

Freebies ✡️🌻✡️🌻✡️

Reproductive Rights:  Yesterday, in an opinion drafted by Justice Brett Kavanaugh, the Supreme Court unanimously preserved access to mifepristone, one half of the pill combination used for medical abortions which now represent 63% percent of US abortions. That’s the good news, however the bad news is that the reprieve is only temporary because as Kavanaugh noted SCOTUS’s ruling was based on procedural grounds because the anti-abortion doctors behind the case had no standing to sue in the first place since they don’t prescribe the drug and a group’s “desire to make a drug less available for others does not establish standing to sue.” In his opinion Kavanaugh made it clear that legislatures could restrict mifepristone’s access if they want to, something that Louisiana’s have already done.  Kavanaugh and quite a few of his SCOTUS colleagues have no problem with restricting abortion they just don’t want to tamper with “standing” precedent.  Well, most of them don’t want to do that, in his concurring opinion Justice Clarence Thomas said that he’d be open to doing so to make it harder for groups like Planned Parenthood to sue to prevent restrictions that impact women’s choices. As evidenced by a report cited in yesterday, NY Times the Roe overturning Dobb’s decision is having a significant impact on women’s access to reproductive care.  In 2023 171,000 women traveled out of state to either have an abortion procedure or to obtain abortion pills, that number is more than double what it was in 2019.  It’s not just abortion that has the right bent out of shape; they’re also growing increasingly hostile to in vitro fertilization. The Southern Baptist Convention, the nation’s largest Protestant denomination, just voted to oppose IVF over their view that the destruction of any fertilized eggs not implanted is tantamount to murder. Recognizing that IVF is the right’s newest target, yesterday Senate Leader Chuck Schumer held a vote on a bill to protect IVF access nationwide.  As expected all but two Republican Senators, Alaska’s, Lisa Murkowski and Maine’s Susan Collins, voted against it.  Since passage would have required 60 ayes, the bill failed. More Supreme Court decisions are expected today.  Among the still unannounced decisions is one about whether or not emergency rooms can turn away women who need immediate life-saving abortions while another is the much awaited one about presidential immunity.  Justice Thomas may be hoping that if the decisions are controversial enough, they’ll distract from yesterday’s news that he failed to mention three more of the freebie flights he received from billionaire mega donor Harlan Crow in his updated disclosures. We now know about those flights because Crow listed them in response to a Senate inquiry. By the way, Thomas is another one who has a relative caught up in the drug net.  His nephew, Mark Martin, who Thomas says he raised as a son and whose private school education was funded by Crow is in jail, arrested last year on drug trafficking and weapons possession charges after being stopped as part of a juvenile-sex-trafficking investigation. The nephew reports that unlike Joe Biden who’s stands by his son, crack, guns and all, Uncle Clarence hasn’t spoken to him in years.    

Presidential Politics:  President Biden was in Italy yesterday, doing presidential things like trying to lock in a long-term Trump-proof commitment to Ukraine at the G7 summit. And no, despite Fox’ and the Murdoch empire’s efforts to make him look addled, he didn’t wander aimlessly, they just edited their video to make him look bad, maybe because his chief opponent, felonious Trump keeps slurring, threatening to jail his “enemies” and spouting about sharks and other such things.  For his part, Trump was back in Washington,  hobnobbing with and being fawned over by Republican members of the House and Senate who have largely forgiven him for jeopardizing their lives on January 6, 2021, because what’s an insurrectionist riot among friends and weren’t all those nice tourists just over enthusiastic patriots exercising their First Amendment rights?  They celebrated him with a rousing rendition of Happy Birthday, he turns 78 today.  Trump, who’d earlier directed Speaker Mike Johnson to do his best to get his NY guilty verdict undone, bragged about having trashed the political futures of most of the few Republicans who’d voted for one or more of his impeachments and called Milwaukee, the swing state city where the Republican convention will be held, horrible.  Naturally, his Republican fans first claimed he didn’t call the city horrible and then when proof emerged that he did, they said he only meant it as a complement.  Kind of the way the House meant to complement Attorney General Merrick Garland who they voted to hold in contempt for refusing to turn over the tape of Biden’s interview with US Attorney Robert Hur who’d exonerated him from intentionally hiding retained documents from his VP years.  Garland has already turned over the transcripts of those interviews but Trump’s campaign wants the tapes so they can use them in their campaign videos.                 

Fog:  Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich has been in a Russian prison for 441 days for the crime of being a journalist.  Yesterday, in a major setback for him, Russian prosecutors announced their support for his indictment on espionage charge meaning that a show trial is in his immediate future.  Not a peep about that from Vlad’s abettors in Congress or from Trump who claims that nice guy Vlad is such a good friend of his. Not much progress on the Gaza ceasefire front largely because Hamas keeps playing Lucy with the football, throwing in new conditions that not just Israel but also Biden’s team, which desperately wants one signed, find unacceptable. Not surprising but also very disturbing, the doctor treating the rescued Israeli hostages reports that they were regularly beaten and abused in captivity.  Worth repeating that their captors included a “civilian” family and a Gazan journalist who wrote for several outlets including Al Jazeera.

#BringThemAllHomeNOW

 

 

Cracked Up ✡️🌻✡️🌻✡️

Guilty, Guilty, Guilty:  It didn’t take much time for Hunter Biden’s jury to come back with a verdict. He was found guilty on all charges.  Not surprising because he did buy that gun while in the throes of his crack addiction but nevertheless sad for him and his family who, as his dad Joe said again, loves him warts and all.   In a weird way, many in the Republican echo chamber were a bit disappointed because it’s hard for them to press the theme that Biden and Garland’s Department of Justice is biased against Republicans named Trump when the DOJ keeps indicting prominent Democrats and actually wins a case against the president’s son. The very nonsensical House Oversight Chair James Comer however is thrilled, he said that the Hunter verdict proves that Dad Joe should be impeached for heading a “crime family.” Count Republican, Panhandle Putz Matt Gaetz as one who saw the prosecution of Hunter as “kinda dumb tbh.”  As one staffer of Gaetz’ nemesis ex-Speaker Kevin McCarthy put it, “that’s because you (Gaetz) also love to do cocaine, sleep with prostitutes, and own guns.”   Frankly, subjecting all members of Congress who carry guns into the Capitol to drug tests would be a good idea, Donald Trump Jr too, because who doesn’t believe that at one or more of them would fail a test.  The federal law that was used to convict Hunter also prohibits convicted felons from owning guns which should be a problem for 34 times felonious Trump too because as of yesterday it’s reported that he still has one of his guns at Mar a Lago.  That’s Trump who on Monday addressed the Danbury Institute which describes itself as an “association of churches, Christians, and organizations aligned to affirm and preserve God-given rights to life and liberty.  The group advocates for the total eradication of abortion which it calls “child sacrifice.” Trump promised that if he’s reelected the group would “make a comeback like just about no other.” Might be worth mentioning to friends and family who think that that Trump really doesn’t plan to further restrict abortion.

The Supremes:  We keep learning more about Justice Sam Alito and his flag flying wife Martha-Ann, none of it comforting. Presenting herself as a sympathetic, conservative Catholic, liberal filmmaker Lauren Windsor chatted with both Alito and Chief Justice Roberts at a meeting of the Supreme Court Historical Society where she is a member.  Alito revealed his personal biases and desire to impress them on the rest of us by saying of the culture wars “One side or the other is going to win…..There can be a way of working, a way of living together peacefully, but it’s difficult, you know, because there are differences on fundamental things that really can’t be compromised.” He agreed with Windsor who baited him by saying “I think that the solution really is like winning the moral argument. Like, people in this country who believe in God have got to keep fighting for that, to return our country to a place of godliness” by godliness.  By contrast, Roberts, hardly a liberal darling, politely rejected Windsor’s suggestion that the court should lead the nation on a Christian path saying instead that each case should be decided on its merits, albeit as he interpreted those merits.  Windsor also chatted with Martha-Ann who defended her flag flying, saying that she had to fly her Sacred Heart of Jesus flag because her neighbors across the lagoon were flying a pride flag for a whole month.  Alito’s admitted biases and desire to impose them on the rest of us matters, as we’re about to find out bigly.  SCOTUS announced earlier this week that it will be releasing opinions on both Thursday and Friday of this week.  In addition to presidential immunity, opinions on further limiting abortions, eliminating gun restrictions, the use of a federal statute that makes it a crime to obstruct an official proceeding to prosecute the rioters, or as Trump calls them the patriots, who raided the Capitol, and the overturning of the Chevron Doctrine which for forty years has given deference to agencies like the EPA when they make regulations geared to protect the environment.  Not all of those opinions are expected this week, but some are likely because there are only so many days left in this term.

Primarily Yours:  It’s hard to believe it but it’s still primary season.  Yesterday bolstered by Trump’s endorsement, Republican Nancy Mace, the beneficiary of a Supreme Court decision that keeps her gerrymandered South Carolina district red, won hers and is now a shoe in to return to Congress.  That’s a disappointment for former Speaker Kevin McCarthy who had been working to oust Mace as payback for her vote to dethrone him. On the subject of ex-Speakers,  in an interview broadcasted on Fox, Paul Ryan called Trump unfit for office, saying that he won’t be voting for him.      

Fog:  The Wall Street Journal reported this week what’s been obvious for some time, that Hamas military leader Yahya Sinwar admits to resisting the cutting of a ceasefire and hostages deal with Israel because more fighting and more Palestinian civilian deaths work to his advantage.  His equation, more death equals more international sympathy and who cares if that sympathy comes at the expense of Gazans. With that in mind it shouldn’t be all that surprising that he’s still refusing to sign off on the “final” agreement that’s currently on the negotiating table.  

#BringThemAllHomeNOW  

 

Briefly There is Happiness ✡️🌻✡️🌻✡️

Jumping the Shark: With his NY trial behind him and sentencing not scheduled until July, Trump is back on the campaign trail.  Over the weekend during a Las Vegas rally where it was so hot that dozens were treated for heat related exhaustion and six ended up hospitalized, he went even more off the rails than usual after his teleprompter froze leaving him unscripted.  Unable to fill the space with anything coherent, Trump went off into a bizarre soliloquy about electronic voting and sharks, asking “"If the boat is sinking, water goes over the battery, the boat is sinking, do I stay on top of the boat and get electrocuted? Or do I jump over by the shark and not get electrocuted?” For the record, Trump who as Stormy Daniels once told us is especially obsessed and spooked by sharks would rather be electrocuted by a boat.  All this from a man who is neck and neck with his opponent, Joe Biden who stutters and walks stiffly but never posits about sharks and such. Trump also did his usual hate shtick, attacking migrants, defending the January 6 “tourists,” and projecting his crimes onto the Biden “crime family.”  On the subject of crime, felonious Don is due to meet with his probation officer today.  That meeting will take place over zoom leading me to wonder if Donny boy been given a pass on the usually requisite drug test or is that being done remotely too?  Late Friday, presiding Judge Juan Merchan sent letters to both Trump and Alvin Bragg’s legal teams flagging what was likely a false claim from an admitted 💩 poster on Facebook. The 💩 poster claimed to be a cousin of one of the jurors and asserted that he’d been told in advance of the verdict that the jury would find Trump guilty as charged. Naturally, Fox and the rest of the right-wing echo chamber was all over the assertion, calling for a mistrial and admittedly my heart skipped a beat, but it appears that the accusation was just lots of 💩 and hopefully, nothing will come of it.      

Court Watching:  All eyes will be on the Hunter Biden gun trial this week.  The prosecution has rested and it’s now up to the defense. The Hunter case is truly a sad one.  Hunter briefly owned a gun and lied about his addiction when he bought it. As recovering alcoholic and political journalist Molly Jong Fast so eloquently wrote this week “People who struggle with addiction are sick, not bad. Huge swaths of the country are affected by alcohol and drug addiction that affects not just them, but their family members and people who are even tangentially connected to them — the parents, grandparents and kids and brothers and sisters and acquaintances of the addict. Alcoholism and drug addiction are a disease with a long tail, a disease that ripples through our society in myriad ways.”  Guns, particularly guns in the hands of people with addiction problems are bad too, but addicts, particularly those who don’t commit crimes with their guns should be treated for their addiction rather than publicly hung out to dry because their father is the president.  It’s hard not to feel concern for Hunter who despite all his opportunities has really screwed up. As to screwing up and hiding it, we now officially know that Clarence Thomas really did accept trips and gifts from his billionaire friends.  According to his filing, he received in excess of $4 million and it doesn’t appear that he included the loan for his very fancy RV on his list.  Thomas’s list dwarfs all of the other justices, or at least all of those who’ve reported thus far as Justice “flag flier” Alito has gotten an extension.  Newest Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson’s filing reveals that she received four concert tickets from Beyonce which pales in comparison to Clarence’s take but still anyone who has tried to get Taylor Swift tickets knows that’s a perk worth studying really hard for.      

Fog: Saturday, in a daylight raid described as extraordinarily daring and disturbingly deadly the Israeli military rescued Noa Argamani, Almog Meir Jan, Andrey Kozlov, and Shlomi Ziv, four of the hostages who had been held by Hamas in Gaza.  The joyful reunions of the now former hostages with each of their families were tempered by the news that Arnon Zmora, the leader of the Israeli operation, was killed during the rescue, that Almog Meir Jan’s father died the day before his son was brought home, and that 120 Israelis remain in captivity. Hamas reports that as a result of the rescue operation Gaza experienced 274 “civilian casualties.”  It’s near impossible to know how many Gazan civilians were really killed because Hamas, to put it mildly, exaggerates counts to generate sympathy and outrage but clearly a significant number of Gazans were killed.  However, the term civilian is doing a lot of heavy lifting here given who was holding the hostages.  The three male hostages were held by a journalist who has written and reported for Al Jazeera and for a US registered Washington State based non-profit called The Palestine Chronicle while the rescued woman, Noa Agamani, spent most of her captivity in the home of a wealthy Gazan family. Hamas counts those “nice” hostage holders as innocent civilians.  Spoiler alert, if you are holding hostages, you are not an innocent civilian and that goes double for the journalist.  While it’s great that the four hostages are now home, ending the Gaza war remains a Herculean effort. Getting the rest of the hostages home requires that a lasting ceasefire agreement be agreed to by both sides, hardly an easy task. Over the weekend, moderate Israeli Benny Gantz who had joined Prime Minister Netanyahu’s war cabinet in the aftermath of October 7 resigned from Netanyahu’s coalition to protest Bibi’s failure to develop a “next day” plan for Gaza.  The road to peace remains steeper than ever. 

#BringThemAllHomeNow

 

Revenge ✡️🌻✡️🌻✡️

Retribution: In three separate interviews this week including one by an ABC affiliate in Arizona and two by pro-Trumpers Sean Hannity and Dr. Phil, who tried to push him to say that he wasn’t really all in on retribution, Felonious Trump repeated that he really is all in and that his presidential plans include punishing his “enemies” as payback for the “horrible treatment he’s received.” By horrible treatment he means that it’s not fair that he’s being prosecuted for his criminal activity because he’s special and should be exempt from prosecution. We’re still waiting to hear from the Supreme Court just how much they agree with him on that and will probably have to wait until the end of the month because some of the Justices are totally into helping him delay his court dates. Here’s an idea, let’s start believing Trump and let’s all remind our handwringing, wavering, tax cut loving friends of his plans and what he stands for because as Maya Angelou famously said, when someone shows you who they are the first time, believe them. While Trump is being giving countless opportunities to walk back his heinous promise, right leaning press especially the Murdoch affiliated media, continues to hammer Joe Biden, no spring chicken but also not the doddering and infirm guy that they want us to believe he is, despite his busy schedule which this week didn’t include countless rounds of golf but did includes a trip to France to commemorate D-Day and the storming of the beaches at Normandy during World War II.  Remember when Trump went to France to commemorate war heroes but instead called them “losers” and  “suckers” and then stayed home from a visit to a cemetery because it was drizzling, and he didn’t want to ruin his teased orange comb over? As to retribution, as heartsick as he is over his son’s prosecution, Biden hasn’t condemned his Trump appointed prosecutor but did say yesterday that he won’t pardon Hunter if he’s found guilty of lying on his gun application about his drug use.  The contrast between Biden and Trump who pardoned a slew of his crime committing cronies like Paul Manafort, Mike Flynn, and Roger Stone as well as son-in-law Jared’s father couldn’t be starker. Too bad, well really not too bad, for Steve Bannon that Trump can’t pardon him now.  Yesterday, a federal judge ordered him to report to jail on July 1 to start serving a four-month sentence for refusing to comply with a Congressional subpoena. Maybe Bannon will get to bunk with Peter Navarro, another Trump loyalist who is currently serving his sentence. Maybe prisoners can triple up on polo shirts as long as they’re orange?  Not surprising but still depressing, the Georgia Supreme Court has officially put the Fulton County case against Trump and his co-defendants on ice pending the outcome of an October hearing on whether Fani Willis should be allowed to continue on as prosecutor. So much for the Fulton County and Mar a Lago purloined documents cases being the best ones racing to be tried first.  Thank you again to Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg for his perseverance.   

Pill Not:  Senators Rand Paul of Kentucky and Steve Daines of Montana have signed on to Utah Senator Mike Lee’s letter promising to hold up legislation as long as Trump remains a convicted felon.  Frankly, it’s surprising that it took Paul so long to sign on given that he typically refuses to support any legislation.  If you are wondering why Texas Cancun man Ted Cruz hasn’t signed on, it’s because he’s up for reelection this year against viable candidate Colin Alred so he’s trying to keep a low profile. Keeping with the no legislation theme, Senate Republicans blocked a bill that would have protected the right to contraception.  Only two Republicans, Maine’s Susan Collins and Alaska’s Lisa Murkowski voted to support the bill which was supported by all the Senate’s Democrats and Independents with the exception of New Jersey’s Bob Menendez who was absent, stuck in a NJ courtroom trying to explain away his closet full of gold ingots. Unfortunately, sixty votes were needed to pass the bill. Many of the Republicans argued that there was no need for the legislation, asserting that no one is trying to take away the right to contraception, an assertion that no longer holds water given Justice Clarence Thomas’ concurring Dobbs opinion which suggested that overturning the SCOTUS decisions that established the right to contraception would be an admirable next step in the fight against reproductive rights.  Once again recall Maya: when people in power writes opinions about what they want to do, believe them.  While the Senate was voting against The Pill, Speaker Mike Johnson quietly appointed two new members to fill retirement generated openings on the House Intelligence Committee.  Johnson appointed Pennsylvania’s Scott Perry and Texas’ Ronny Jackson.  Scott Perry was knee deep in the stop the steal movement, he’s the one who suggested to Felonious Trump that appointing insurrection friendly, environmental lawyer Jeff Clark as acting Attorney General could help him overturn the 2020 election results. Perry celebrated his appointment by promising to upend the “deep state,” his way of saying that he’ll be happy to share any of the secrets that he’s now privy to with anyone who shares his, Trump’s and Vlad’s views.  Ronny Jackson is the frequently inebriated former White House doctor who fawned and continues to fawn over Trump and who lost his Admiral rank after he was cited for infractions including the overstocking and sharing of too many mood enhancing drugs with White House staff.  Mike Turner, the Republican chair of the committee who has tried to run the committee in a bipartisan manner because national security is supposed to matter learned about the appointments when they were reported in the news.  Count him as one who is not happy but probably Felonious Trump who likely directed Johnson to make the appointments is thrilled.       

Fog:  To the dismay of some, Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu is now scheduled to speak in front of a joint session of Congress on July 24.  Democrat Mondaire Jones who is hoping to help Democrats retake the House by unseating NYS Republican Congressman Mike Lawler has lost the endorsement of Democratic progressives. They’re upset because he has endorsed Democrat George Latimer who is primarying “pull the fire cord” Jamaal Bowman whose anti-Israel position including his suggestion that the Israeli women who were sexually assaulted on October 7 weren’t, makes him vulnerable in his Westchester, NY area district.  The NY primary is on June 25.  Democrats in disarray?          

#BringThemAllHomeNow 

Rule 39 Again ✡️🌻✡️🌻✡️

Legalities:  Yesterday, just one day after the House held a hearing where they attacked virus expert Dr. Anthony Fauci with Margie Q refusing to acknowledge that the virus guru was even a doctor, Attorney General Merrick Garland was skewered by Republicans during a House Judiciary committee meeting: their complaint was that Garland had weaponized the Justice Department to go after the now multiply convicted felon Trump.  They asserted that Garland is Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg’s puppet master. To state the obvious, Bragg, Manhattan’s elected DA, does not report to the US Department of Justice, but facts don’t matter to the MAGA crowd.  Oddly enough those upset about Trump’s conviction appear to be enjoying the Hunter Biden trial where Biden’s son is being prosecuted for lying on a gun application form by failing to fess up to his disqualifying crack use. The US Attorney responsible for Hunter’s prosecution is a Trump holdover that Garland kept in place to avoid any whiff of partisanship and while we should all agree that people in the throes of addiction shouldn’t purchase guns, Hunter is being prosecuted under a rarely used law. The MAGA crowd is also outraged that Hunter’s stepmother Jill Biden and sister Ashley have joined his wife by attending the trial to lend him support.  Maybe they’re angry because Melania and favorite daughter Ivanka never accompanied Trump to court or maybe MAGA is just perpetually angry and aggrieved?  On the subject of anger and aggrievement, Iowa Senate Joni Ernst has signed on to fellow Republican Mike Lee’s petulant promise to refuse to support legislation that comes through his chamber as long as Trump remains a convicted felon. Ernst’s motivation for joining the group has a lot to do with her upcoming run for the Republican Senate Conference Chair spot. She’s facing off against Senator Tom Cotton and figures that signing on to the Mike Lee screed will help her lock up some support from Trump and his MAGAs, and since that’s how the Republican cookie crumbles these days, she’s probably right. In other Trump legal news, Judge Aileen loose Cannon continues to issue rulings that delay Trump’s already very delayed purloined documents trial.  Yesterday she said she would allow some “interested” outsiders to weigh in during an unnecessary hearing on whether or not Special Counsel Jack Smith’s appointment was legitimate.  That issue has already been decided by other courts so she’ll either eventually conclude that his appointment is legit, or will be overturned, she knows that, but stalling is what it’s all about with her and while her judicial acumen is questionable her stalling skills are superior.  Way north of the Everglades, Wisconsin Attorney General Josh Kale has filed felony charges against former Trump lawyers Kenneth Chesebro and Jim Troupis and former Trump aide Mike Roman for their role in the 2020 false elector scheme. Oddly enough the Wisconsin set only questioned election results in predominantly Black urban areas.  The Wisconsin case is similar to the Michigan and the Fulton County, Georgia cases, though sadly the Georgia case which was at one point seen as the mostly likely to go to trial first took another blow this week after a Georgia appeals court scheduled a hearing on whether or not presiding Judge Scott McAfee’s decision to allow Fani Willis to continue to prosecute the case was correct. And because its not just Republicans who make questionable decisions, NJ’s not so honest Senator Bob Menendez filed to run for reelection as an independent, though it’s not clear that he really will run.  If he runs, he will face off against Democratic Representative Andy Kim and Republican Curtis Bashaw who won their respective primaries yesterday.      

Probation Meeting! Before he’s sentenced convicted felon Trump is supposed to participate in a pre-sentencing evaluation by a parole officer who will then provide an evaluation and sentencing recommendation to Judge Merchan. Drug testing too?  Would be fun to be the fly on the wall for that meeting, assuming it ever takes place. Trump would be wise to cooperate because further angering Judge Merchan is not a good idea, not just because of sentencing but because late yesterday Trump’s lawyers asked Merchan to lift his gag order, the one Trump violated at least ten times.  Their argument is that as part of his campaign Trump needs to be able to attack everyone associated with the case including the witnesses, the jury and Merchan’s family. Already some of those witnesses, including Michael Cohen, as well as members of the jury have reported being doxxed by Trump’s “fan” base.  It’s not surprising that Trump wants free rein to further endanger them.  Also, not much of a shocker is a Pro Publica article detailing how nine witnesses in criminal cases against Trump have received “substantial financial benefits” including larges raises, generous severance packages, new jobs, cash and even the granting of shares in Trump’s media company to stay quiet.  Among those beneficiaries are the twice jailed CFO Allen Weisselberg, Mar a Lago box shifter Walt Nauta, and aide and Truth Social typer Dan Scavino who received a $600,000 retention bonus and a $4 million promissory note paid in shares. In other media news, Salem Media, the company behind the highly inflammatory, lie laden “documentary” 2000 Mules which had promoted the Trump endorsed conspiracy that Democrats stole the 2020 election has issued an apology for the film’s content, pulling it from distribution. Also, the CFO of the far right, very Trump friendly Epoch Times has been charged with engaging in a $67 million crypto currency laundering scheme. Lastly, today’s WSJ has a curiously timed hit piece on President Biden, a slimy article questioning his mental capacity that was trumpeted by the WSJ’s sister company, the NY Post on their website last night.  Weird how the Murdoch media empire decided to publish this right after Trump was found guilty of 34 felonies.  To cite Leroy Gibb’s Rule 39, there are no coincidences.      

Fog:  Yesterday with polling indicating that illegal immigration is a big concern to lots of voters, President Biden signed an executive order that will temporarily shut down asylum requests once the average number of daily “encounters” exceeds 2500. That’s likely to anger the left wing of the Democratic party, but with it become increasingly clear that their views are out of step with the rest of the voting base, Biden concluded he had to do something beyond complaining about how Republicans following Trump’s orders refused to vote for legislation that would have resulted in fewer border crossings.  Yesterday while Hezbollah bombs continue to set fire to parts of Northern Israel and the truce with Hamas remains just out of reach, Israeli officials announced that four more hostages have been killed in Hamas captivity.  Their names: Amiran Cooper, Yoram Metzger, Haim Peri, and Nadav Popplewell. May their memories be a blessing.

#BringThemAllHomeNow

  

 
💩 💩 Flies   ✡️🌻✡️🌻✡️ 

Guilty as Charged:  Unless you were vacationing at a monastery run by an order of technology eschewing silent monks you surely know that Trump is now a 34-times convicted felon.  He and his team of legal eagles hadn’t expected an acquittal, but they had been hoping that at least one of the NY jurors would be a holdout, pinning their hopes on the one who seemed smitten with Hillbilly Senator JD Vance. However, their collective hopes were dashed on Thursday afternoon after the jury slipped a note to presiding Judge Juan Merchan telling him that they’d reached a verdict.  Even Trump and his lawyers had to know that such a surprisingly quick conclusion portended bad news for Trump.  Naturally, Trump’s reaction was to attack everything about the case, including the “corrupt” prosecutors, the biased “all Democratic” jurors, the US Department of Justice, President Biden, and the country’s worse than Russia and China turn to fascism, that last one being a bit of projection from a wannabee dictator. Sadly, but not unexpectedly, Trump’s Republican echo chamber mostly agreed with his assessment.  House Speaker by a thread Mike Johnson, himself a lawyer who knows better, called for the Supreme Court, including those Justices who he said that “he knows personally” to step in and overturn the verdict.  Led by Utah’s Mike Lee, eight Republican Senators including Alabama’s Tommy Tuberville, Missouri’s Eric Schmitt, Tennessee’s Marsha Blackburn, Florida’s Rick Scott, Kansas’ Roger Marshall and VP hopefuls Florida’s Marco Rubio and Ohio’s JD Vance signed on to a public promise to oppose all major legislation and Biden judicial nominees and Maine’s Susan Collins twisted her pearls. One guy who probably doesn’t agree with Trump and his acolyte’s assessment that the Biden Justice Department is biased is son Hunter, whose gun possession trial starts this week.    

Sentencing and Appeal:  While there may be some Republican luminaries secretly pleased with the verdict, aside from the usual never Trumpers only two took to the airwaves to say that the jury’s decision should be accepted as legitimate.  One of those was former Arkansas Governor/failed presidential candidate Asa Hutchinson so few cared but the other was former Maryland Governor/Senate candidate Larry Hogan who was immediately greeted with a barrage of incoming Republican 💩 💩 for taking that stance.  That incoming included a statement by RNC co-chair/Trump daughter-in-law Lara Trump that the RNC would reconsider supporting his candidacy, a shoot in the foot strategy given Hogan’s relative popularity in mostly blue Maryland where a Republican win would seal a red takeover of the Senate. Lara also acknowledged that it was fair to assume that a lot of the “record” take raised by Trump in the immediate aftermath of the verdict would go to fund his legal bills, including his appeal.  That appeal will be formally filed after sentencing which is currently scheduled to take place on July 11 just a few days before the Republican convention.  The date which raised a few eyebrows was actually requested by Trump’s lawyers to accommodate their schedule which is already chock full of other Trump court dates. As to the sentence, despite all his criminal activities, this is the first time that Trump has been found guilty as opposed to just civilly liable, so he could be let off without jail time but then again he’s violated his gag order at least ten times and counting so Judge Merchan might sentence him to some jail time, not that Trump will see the inside of a cell in the immediate future if ever.  Despite Speaker Johnson’s call for SCOTUS to weigh in immediately, Trump’s appeals will have to wind their way through several layers of NY courts first and even then, getting SCOTUS to take the case would be a reach, except it’s Trump and he and Johnson have those friends on SCOTUS so who knows?  By the way, taking a page from Justice Alito’s “How to be Snide” handbook, Chief Justice Roberts has rebuffed requests for a sit down to discuss ethics, conflicts, and flags with some Democratic members of the Senate Judiciary Committee. Also, would it surprise anyone to learn that Justice Amy Coney Barret’s husband is representing Fox in one of its defamation cases?  A few more things on the legal front, we’re still waiting for SCOTUS to rule on presidential immunity and over the weekend Judge Loose Cannon told Trump’s team to respond to Special Counsel Jack Smith’s second attempt to get Trump gagged for talking about assassinations and putting law enforcement at risk.

Fog and Other Things: President Biden pre-announced another Israel Hamas ceasefire/hostage release plan on Friday, only time will tell if it really happens. Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu has accepted an invitation to speak before a joint session of Congress, probably sometime in August. Not my preference but no one asked me.  Mexico has a new president; her name is Claudia Sheinbaum. North Korea says it will stop flying the 💩 💩 filled balloons it had been sending over South Korea in retribution for the K Pop thumb drives and other propaganda filled balloons that South Korea had been sending its way.  Joe Manchin who has always walked to the beat of his own drummer announced that he is now an Independent though he will continue to caucus with the Democrats. That switch at the end of his Senate career may be an indication that the one-time Governor of West Virginia is planning another gubernatorial run.  And Houston’s Democratic Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee, a breast cancer survivor, announced that she is being treated for pancreatic cancer, a reminder that slim house majorities and almost majorities, like life, can be fleeting.

#BringThemAllHomeSoon