Oh Canada 🤯😱🌻✡️😱🤯 💣

Pardon Me:   Another day, another pardon.  No, this one wasn’t for Ghislaine Maxwell but the way things are going hers is likely in the offing.  Yesterday’s pardon was for Changpeng Zhao, the co-founder of cryptocurrency exchange Binance.  Zhao had pleaded guilty and was serving a four-month jail sentence for failing to maintain an effective anti-money laundering program which in plain speak means that under his watch the Binance exchange willfully facilitated transactions related to child sex abuse, illegal drugs, and terrorism. Hamas was one of those terrorist organizations that used his exchange to transfer money, because someone needed to facilitate the moving of the funds that paid for those terror tunnels. Zheng has spent months cozying up to Trump and his family in the hope of getting the pardon.  Part of that strategy included entering into a business deal with World Liberty Financial, the Trump family’s crypto startup, which has contributed to Trump’s crypto portfolio growing to a current value of more than $5 billion.  Despite the glaring conflict of interest, Trump insists that he pardoned Zhao because he was only in jail because he’d been targeted by that very sleepy guy Joe Biden and “a lot of good people say that Zhao wasn’t guilty of anything,” because since when is financing child abuse and terrorism a problem anyway?  Keeping with the crypto theme, a number of crypto firms like Coinbase, Ripple, and Tether, along with crypto investors such as the Winklevoss twins, are among the donors/quid pro quo seekers for the ballroom to be built where the now totally demolished East Wing of the White House used to be. That’s the now $300 million project that Trump had originally promised would leave much of the East Wing intact and that would only cost $100 million. It’s only a matter of time before we learn that Trump’s plans include renting his new gilded ballroom out for bar mitzvah’s and weddings with the gross revenue going straight into one of his personal bank accounts.  Leonard’s on the Potomac?    

Peeps:  Keep an eye out for news about Kelly Hayes, the Maryland federal prosecutor who has notified Attorney General Pam Bondi and Deputy AG Todd Blanche that she sees no basis for indicting Democratic Senator Adam Schiff for mortgage fraud.  Shiff is one of those in the crosshairs of Trump’s retribution campaign. It’s only a matter of time before Hayes is replaced by another one of Trump’s flunkies, perhaps one or more of his divorce lawyers is available or the attorney who got Melania her genius visa?  NY Attorney General Letitia James is due to be arraigned today for her alleged mortgage fraud.  Recent news on that front indicates that the evidence shows that despite the claims included in her indictment, she didn’t make $18,000 in “ill-gotten” gains for renting out her vacation home to her niece, instead she received somewhere around $1800 as a reimbursement for utility bills, likely one of the reasons that the US Attorneys who were initially assigned the responsibility of indicting her and who were subsequently fired refused to go forward with the indictment. Also, keep an eye out for Jack Smith, the Special Prosecutor who was supposed to rid of the troublesome Trump.  He sent a letter to Congress saying that he’d be happy to answer all their questions about the investigations he oversaw and the prosecutions of Trump, in public not behind closed doors, as long as he gets an assurance from the Department of Justice that he will not be punished for doing so. The government is still closed, food stamp funding is about to run out but none of that is a problem for DHS Secretary Kristi Noem because she will soon have two new Gulfstream jets, because spending $170 million to make sure that she gets to cosplay around the country is so much more important than feeding the hungry.  Proving that Nazi affinity is a thing on both sides of the aisle, oyster farmer/veteran Graham Platner, who is vying with a few others including Governor Janet Mills to be selected as the Democrat’s nominee to run against Republican Senator Susan Collins has apologized for the Nazi tattoo on his chest.  We’re all to believe that he didn’t know until it was caught on camera that the tattoo “resembles” the skull-and-crossbones symbol used by Nazi forces during World War II. Senator Bernie Sanders, who has endorsed Platner says that since he’s really a nice progressive guy the tattoo should be written off a minor youthful transgression. Platner, who has hired some new campaign advisors to help him convince the Maine electorate as well as anyone else who might be interested in funding his campaign that he’s not pro-Nazi,  has “covered up” the tattoo with new ink, kind of like hiding the name of an old flame, only this time the old flame are those who sent millions to burn in gas chambers.   

Fog:  The trade war with Canada is back on bigly.  Last night, the petulant dear leader,  “TERMINATED” all negotiations with our neighbors to the north, after he became infuriated by televised ads run by Ontario Premier Doug Ford. Those ads which use unauthorized excerpts from a public address given by former president Ronald Reagan include Reagan’s warning that "high tariffs inevitably lead to retaliation by foreign countries and the triggering of fierce trade wars". Reagan argued that tariffs lead to higher prices, less competition, shrinking markets, and job losses. Reagan was right which is why the orange guy is so upset.  The orange one is also down on Putin this week so in addition to cancelling his Budapest summit with Vlad, he’s imposed new sanctions against Rosneft and Lukoil, Russia’s two largest oil companies.  Bad news on the Venezuela front as Trump is ramping up his war against the country and says that he can do whatever he wants without Congressional approval because he’s Trump and they’re not. Also, not so good that INS and Homeland Security have been buying lots and lots of military grade arms, far more than what they should need for their function, assuming that their purpose doesn’t include invading US cities and intimidating voters.  Somewhat good news that as a result of the Mayor of San Francisco Daniel Lurie enlisting help from some of Trump’s tech buddies, the occupation of San Francisco by INS and Homeland Security has been put on the back burner….for now.   Lastly, the newly approved Pentagon Press Corps which no longer includes anyone from mainstream media now includes right wing outlets such as The Gateway Pundit, Human Events; LindellTV, and an arm of Turning Point USA.  What could go wrong with The Pillow Guy providing all Pentagon updates?