No Speech For You 🤯😱🌻✡️😱🤯

Free Speech?  Apparently, free speech is only free when uttered by MAGA Republicans, the rest of us not so much. At least that’s the opinion of Attorney General Pam Bondi, VP Vance, and their Dear Leader.  Yesterday, Bondi who must have snoozed through her Constitutional Law class, said she would  “absolutely target” protesters engaging in “hate speech” while claiming she had authority to investigate businesses that refused to print memorial vigil posters for the Charlie Kirk.  Hate speech isn’t pretty but it’s legal or at least has been until now.  Also, Bondi’s definition of hate speech is anything that ties Trump’s diapers in a knot which is just about anything that doesn’t feed his ego, a far cry from inciting violence, the only speech that isn’t protected by the First Amendment.  As to the posters, given that the Supreme Court has ruled that bakers can’t be forced to make wedding cakes for same sex couples, going after those who won’t print posters is also a stretch. After a number of very conservative pundits and politicians, including Texas Senator Ted Cruz and Fox’s Brit Hume schooled her on the Constitution, Bondi walked back her threats a smidge but she’s walking a fine line because her boss Trump, his wannabe Goebbels Stephen Millers, Veep Vance, and Deputy AG Todd Blanche who like Vance knows better but is all in on toeing Trump’s line, are still talking about going after anyone who speaks out against Trump.  To that end, yesterday Trump sued the “degenerate” NY Times and four of the paper’s reporters, including Susanne Craig, Russ Buettner, Peter Baker, and Michael S. Schmidt for $15 billion.  Their crimes:  endorsing Kamala Harris for president and writing probing articles about his questionable finances including the recent one about the UAE getting previously restricted artificial intelligence chips at the same time that the Trump crowd reaped crypto profits. The paper and its lawyers called the suit frivolous saying that the “lawsuit has no merit. It lacks any legitimate legal claims and instead is an attempt to stifle and discourage independent reporting.”  They went on to say that the NY Times “will not be deterred by intimidation tactics.” They’re right, the lawsuit is frivolous and without merit, but then again Trump has managed to “extort“ ABC, CBS, and Paramount for millions of dollars, not to mention all the now less than prestigious law firms that have coughed up money and promised to provide him with pro bono services. Paul Weiss has lots of good litigators, maybe one or more of them will represent him on this one?

Political Winds: Tim Walz, the one-time Democratic Vice President candidate and current Governor of Minnesota, announced yesterday that he is running for a third term in 2026.  Former Georgia Lieutenant Governor Geoff Duncan, the Trump critic who endorsed Kamala Harris in 2024 and who recently changed his party affiliation to Democrat announced that he’s running for Governor in 2026, to replace the state’s term limited Republican Governor Brian Kemp.  After George Secretary of State Brian Raffensperger refused to gin up 12,000 plus votes for Trump in 2020, Biden won the state, Trump then won it in 2024 so who knows, maybe Duncan can pull off the switcheroo in the purplish state where Democratic Senator Jon Ossoff is up for reelection. Republicans view Ossoff’s seat as a possible pick-up or hope it’s a pick-up so expect boatloads of money to be spent in the peachy state this cycle.  Maine Republican Susan Collins is also up for reelection during the midterms. Though she hasn’t announced her plans yet, it’s expected that she will run for reelection.  Though it’s fun to make fun of Collins and her pearl twisting, she’s well liked in Maine or at least liked enough to win elections so to date efforts to unseat her haven’t panned out. Democratic leader Chuck Schumer is hoping to persuade Maine’s 77-year- old term limited Governor Janet Mills to run against the 72-year-old Collins but it’s not clear that Mill’s is interested.  In the meantime, Bernie Sanders and AOC have endorsed 40-year-old oyster farmer and military veteran Graham Platner, a progressive political newbie who is seeking the Democratic nomination.  It’s not clear that their endorsements will get Platner to the finish line in Maine but then again who knows and while Mills is on the old side, Sanders is hardly a spring chicken, nor is Vermont’s newbie Senator Peter Welch who is 78, so maybe New England isn’t bothered by age.  For the record, both of Maine’s Congressional Representatives are Democrats, one 70-year-old Chellie Pingree is progressive while the other is 43-year- old centrist Jared Golden.

More 💩:   FBI Director Kash Patel performed as expected during yesterday’s Senate hearings.  He was rude, evasive, and “pugilistic.”  His performance, particularly his verbal tussle with California’s Adam Schiff, probably earned him points with Trump but showed once again that when you choose a conspiracy minded podcaster to serve as head of the FBI, you get what you ordered rather than competency, a Shanda (Yiddish for shame) because during these challenging times we really could use competency.  No one should be surprised to learn that the Department of Justice deleted a study on the politics of domestic terrorism from its website this week because the study indicated that “right wing violence continue to outpace all other types of terrorism and domestic violent extremism,” hardly the reality that Trump, his DOJ and FBI, want to talk about while they’re out weaponizing Charlie Kirk’s assassination to take down radical liberals as in anyone to the left of MAGA. Ironically, Kirk was a free speech absolutist, another one of those things that the Trump team would prefer we forget.  On the Make America Sick Again front, RFK’s handpicked Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) panel, bolstered by some more of his not so competent appointees, is due to meet this week.  They will be focusing on vaccines for hepatitis B, COVID, and measles, mumps, rubella, and varicella. The expectation is they will impose further restrictions on vaccine administration, endangering the health of all of us, especially children and the elderly. Separately, the recently fired CDC head Susan Monarez and several of her ousted colleagues are due to testify today in front of the Senate Health Committee where Monarez is expected to say that she was fired for refusing to provide carte blanche signoff on RFK’s conspiracy laden and science devoid anti-vax policies. Lastly, Trump is enroute to the UK where he will be greeted by lots of reminders of the Epstein affair, including a film projected onto Windsor Castle, but maybe not by Queen Camilla who is either suffering from acute sinusitis or just doesn’t want to be anywhere near him.

#BringThemAllHomeNow