💩 💩 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