-Last night at Mar-a-Lago, a fundraiser was held for super-rich oligarchs paying a minimum $40,000 to attend (for "the Campaign" but really, as has been openly declared, mostly for Trump's legal bills) ready to support Ex-President Trump (R-apist) LXXXVIII, and Trump by all press accounts did not disappoint. Trump ranted and raved for 90 minutes, at one point calling Special Prosecutor Jack Smith "a f*king *sshole," another mocking Fulton County District Attorne Fani Willis for the affair that stalled that trial, again tried to favorably compare himself to "Alphonse Capone" because Capone only got indicted once vs. the four-at-the-moment tally for Trump (ignoring that the one indictment led Capone to jail to die of syphilis), and again yammered about the "rigged and stolen" 2020 election (the trial in which Trump is shown to have rigged the 2016 election by catching and killing a story about one of his multiple affairs is going very badly for him - more below) - so for the most part Trump played the hits.
-But, in the most impressive bit of projection of the evening, Trump - who in TIME Magazine this week openly admitted he will use the Department of Justice to prosecute enemies, openly admitted will open camps to deport 10 million people who are not white, openly vouched for using the military to suppress protests, and who again refused to denounce any violence should he not get enough votes as he did not in 2020 when he lost to Joe Biden - used yesterday's fundraiser to accuse Democrats and President Biden of "running a Gestapo administration."
-The fundraiser was also a mini-live APPRENTICE episode for the Vice Presidential position, with four prominent candidates coming to bend the knee and the hips towards Trump and his family and minions. Three of the four attendees - Doug Burgum (one of the Dakotas), Marco Rubio (WateR, FL, man) and Tim Scott (Canadian GiRlfriend, SC) - went on this morning's network news shows to debase themselves further in an effort to gain Trump's momentary trust. Burgum bobbled talking points on the Stormy Daniels trial on CNN, Rubio continued to push the vile lie that Democrats want to literally kill babies on Fox, and Tim Scott refused to commit to conceding a loss to Biden if it happened in 2024 on NBC. The fourth auditionee, J.D. Vance (HackWriteR, OH) already debased himself earlier in the week on CNN by demanding college protestors be arrested but not January 6 insurrectionists. So, all are doing well in the dive to the bottom of the barrel.
-One name that did not appear, of course, is Kristi Noem (the other Dakota), who reportedly was considered the 'favorite' until she used a grotesque story of murdering a 14-month old puppy in an upcoming biography as an example of how she can make "tough choices" while playing to Trump's open hatred of dogs. Amazingly, the story did NOT make her stock rise in TrumpWorld, and she is reportedly not on the short list anymore. That follows another report that former candidate Vivek Ramaswamy let the campaign know he does not want to be the nominee, though he would be open to some other position on a second Trump campaign.
-And if any of this doesn't make you commit to Joe Biden, you may be thinking Biden can single-handedly make Israel stop their fighting in Palestine - and he cannot. (Sorry - just AN OPINION FROM A SUBSTACK FROM A GUY NAMED JOE.)
-The New York trial of Trump's $130,000 payoff to suppress the Stormy Daniels sexual encounter took what most observers see as a turn that will make the Trump defense as difficult as it can possibly be. On Friday, former Trump aide Hope Hicks testified that Trump clearly had knowledge of the scheme to suppress the Stormy Daniels story and that the scheme was created to keep the story off the front pages in the wake of the release of the 2016 HOLLYWOOD ACCESS recording. Hicks noted (as have other witnesses) that Daniels was not the only woman Trump - or, at least until the Stormy Daniels story erupted, the National Enquirer - paid off, and that Michael Cohen was at the epicenter of the conspiracy.
-Hicks' testimony hit its emotional peak when, under cross-examination by a Trump attorney, Hicks recalled a story about Trump acknowledging the payment but noting Trump trying to claim it was made by Cohen ("(Cohen) did it (paid Daniels) out of the kindness of his own heart - he never told anybody about it") - and, realizing both the lie that Trump told and her own reluctance to this day of wanting to testify against her former boss - broke down and cried, leading to a recess for her to recompose herself. Given the power of her emotion and Trump's continued dozing off during the trial, the prosecution - which is expected to wrap up this week - is making the defense's goal of a hung jury a little harder given the mountain of evidence already presented and the documents generated from the scheme about to be presented.
-Remember, juries will do what juries will do - but that's the state of play heading into this week's legal festivities.
-Back to Israel and Palestine, where continuing contradictory stories about a potential cease-fire continue to fly. Negotiations are continuing, but at different points over the weekend both HAMAS and Benjamin Netanyahu have claimed a full rejection of wherever negotiations were, though importantly negotiations do continue. Netanyahu has yet to commit to a long-promised new wave of an invasion, but this morning he also banned Al-Jazeera from reporting and blocked the station in Israel. Negotiations are continuing ...
-Meanwhile, there is another major election on the horizon - one in which a longstanding Conservative party is looking in grave danger, bordering on a blowout. That is in Great Britain, where a wave of local elections this week show Prime Minister Rishi Sunak's Conservatives facing both internal divisions, weaknesses after the reigns of Boris Johnson and Liz Truss, and lower turnout for incumbents (sound familiar?) potentially giving a resurgent Labour Party that may make Keir Starmer its first Prime Minister since 2010. Sunak has said the election is likely to be called "in the second half" of 2024, though observers believe that will mean Fall rather than Summer. This bears watching and could prove to be a fascinating parallel to our November elections.
-Closing with Rap War News, various sectors of social media have been on fire this week as a feud between Drake and Kendrick Lamar erupted in a series of increasingly personal and vicious diss tracks being leveled against and at the two men. Not being in the middle of it, this writer will not even try to get into particulars and nuances, but it can be said that both men at different points have rapped about whether or not they are the fathers of at least one of their children - and if not them, who is - and that is just one of the points of conflict as each rapper releases a new diss track hours after the other, with at least three such exchanges this week. Variety and Vulture claim the roots of their feud goes back to 2014 and the late DMX, who ripped both men on a track that Drake took exception to and Lamar defended, and yes, as has often been the case for time immemorial, there may also be a woman involved between the men (or at least they may think so). Whatever the case, the Drake/Kendrick feud at least eases off some of the Taylor Swift news ...
-On this date in 1862, Mexican forces defeated French invaders at the Battle of Puebla (hence Cinco de Mayo). On this date in 1945, a Japanese baloon bomb exploded in Oregon, killing six people who thus became the only Americans to die on American soil in World War II. On this date in 1960, the Soviet Union admitted to have shot down an American U2 spy plane. On this date in 1961, Alan Shepherd became the first American to be launched into space. And on this date in 2002, SPIDER-MAN became the first move to open with a $100 million box office in its first weekend.
-Debuts on this date: a patent for a woman in the United States (1809), a patent for a black woman in the United States (1868), Carnegie Hall (1891), a perfect game (1904), Chanel No. 5 (1921), TO THE LIGHTHOUSE (1927), DAMN YANKEES (1955), "Waterloo Sunset" (1967), Ben & Jerry's Ice Cream (1978), "This Is America" (2018).
-Happy Birthday to Nellie Bly, James Beard, Leo Ryan, Ann B. Davis, Pat Carroll, Michael J. Adams, Johnnie Taylor, Michael Murphy, Lance Heinriksen, Lucy Simon, Tammy Wynette, Michael Palin, John Rhys-Davies, Roger Rees, Kurt Loder, Bill Ward, IanMcCulloch, Steve Stevens, Charles Nagy, Naomi Klein, Tina Yothers, Vincent Kartheiser, Adele, Brook Hogan, Chris Brown, and Carlos Alcaraz.
-Rest in Peace/Rest in Power to Bret Harte, Bobby Sands, Paul Klipsch, Irv Robbins, Arthur Laurents, Sweet Pea Atkinson, and this morning, Bob Avellini and Bernard Hill.
-Feed the Worms: Presidential assassin Leon Czolgosz entered Earth on this date. Napoleon Bonaparte bought it on this date.
-Karl Marx and Henry Cavill were born on this date. You decide if they get Happy Birthdays or if they Feed the Worms.
-The Number One Fiction Book In America on this date ... in 2024, FUNNY STORY by Emily Henry ... in 2014, THE COLLECTOR by Nora Roberts ... in 2004, GLORIOUS APPEARING by Tim LaHaye and Jerry B. Jenkins ... in 1994, THE CELESTINE PROPHECY by James Redfield ... in 1984, THE AQUITAINE PROGRESSION by Robert Ludlum ... and in 1974, WATERSHIP DOWN by Richard Adams.