AWKWARD MOMENTS DAY UPDATES
Whoa ... It's Also Goddess of Fertility Day Today ... That IS Awkward!
-It has been said and written that the Functional Vice-President of America is a big fan of one of the most racist and worst Presidents (until him) in American history, Andrew Jackson. And one of the reasons why appears to be Jackson's sneering disdain of all courts, in particular the Supreme Court. In 1832, the Court under Chief Justice John Marshall ordered that Jackson's move to expel Indian tribes out of their territories was unconstitutional. When informed, Jackson reportedly sneered "John Marshall has made his ruling - now let him enforce it!" Jackson ignored the ruling, and the genocidal Trail of Tears was carried out. Based on activity over the weekend and still playing out, the Musk/Trump regime appears poised to actively reboot and modernize Jackson's choice.
-The catalyst is Trump's invocation last Friday of the Alien Enemies Act, a 1798 statute originally created as a wartime-only statute to give the government the power to imprison and/or expel immigrants. In doing so, ICE began rounding up alleged illegal immigrants and put them on planes to move them to another country (but not Guantanamo Bay - that has already been shut down by Immigration). A hearing was immediately set up because of how immediate the issue was, and the first hearing was done with the residing Judge, James Boasberg, running the hearing without wearing his judicial robe. During the hearing, Justice Department attorneys told Judge Boasberg that three of those flights were in the air, and at the end of that Saturday hearing, Boasberg put out an order to return those flights back to the United States.
-That did not happen. One of the flights, which the White House insisted was full of 200 members of a notorious Venezuelan gang, landed in Salvador, where Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele released a video of the prisoners stripped, shaven of all head and facial hair, and marched out of the airport hanger by masked guards into buses that reportedly took them to slave labor prison camps - and in a mark that made MAGA so happy, posted on President Musk's garbage scow social media site X, the word "Oopsie!" and a laughing emoji which was liked and amplified by a White House X account - and Secretary of State Marco “Water!” Rubio.
-In subsequent hearings, Department of Justice attorneys made a series of increasingly absurd and wildly unconstitutional arguments which effectively argue that if someone in authority like a President says prisoners that have been deported are bad guys, then they are bad guys and you should believe them, and that all 200 who have been expelled are vicious criminals and anyone that dares defend them are clearly defending terrorists. This, of course, is already breaking down, with at least four of the 200 that were deported seemingly having no connections to the gang, no criminal records, and likely are American citizens - but before Judge Boasberg, the DoJ attorneys are basically shrugging their shoulders and saying YOLO.
-All of which is clearly a blunt attempt by someone in the White House (best guess: racist ghoul Stephen Miller, supported by Homeland Security Secretary and Puppy-Murderer Kristi "Goodhair" Noem) to take one of the worst stains in American history and put tacky gold glitter and a MAGA hat on it for the modern era. Indeed, this morning as hearings continue, VP Trump is doing one of the very few things he does better than most on Earth - demanding Boasberg be removed and impeached for defying Dear Leader - and THIS JUST IN: Chief Justice John Roberts has actually stepped in to defend Judge Boasberg and push back on the threats being made against him and other Judges being attacked by Trump, Apartheid Boy, and MAGA.
-No escaping how many levels of suck this is. Other judicial orders being passed down over so many of the attacks being made on the government, the culture, decency, and competency have actually been sustained until this one - but amid growing reports of people of color being essentially disappeared (a report of 48 such cases after an ICE raid in New Mexico), legal immigrants being expelled over court orders (a doctor doing kidney research being expelled from Brown University in Rhode Island, with the "explanation" being a social media post of the doctor being with a Hezbollah leader 'proving' she was therefore a terrorist), and immigration amping up the levels of arrests to give Dear Leader the show that Border Czar Tom Homan has only boastfully promised (a Peruvian woman whose citizenship application is pending deported to Peru after her and her husband - a Trump voter - finished their honeymoon in Puerto Rico), a direct confrontation seems inevitable, as well as the desire by Miller/Trump/E to "let (the courts) enforce it!"
-Again, plenty of other infuriating domestic crap being done right now - Trump trumpeting "clean coal" plants he apparently believes will be brought online tomorrow after decreeing it to be so, Trump and his minions continuing to prime the pump for a bad economic downturn fueled in large part by his STUPIDSTUPID tariffs and telling his hordes that they must suffer for "more money than you will know what to do with!", Trump attending a meeting as the new Chair of the Kennedy Center being photographed in a balcony a la EVITA (and demanding more LES MISERABLES-style mega-hits and fewer HAMILTONS, naturally) - but some things are more important to mention than others, but let's take note of the atrocities and name them as such.
-That brings us to The Petty Atrocities, in which a series of embarrassments inflicted on the Trump regime was noted because we all need at least a little petty uplift. Having gotten one compliment on the title, I will take that and run with it to try to build it into a new feature! And for today's Petty Atrocities note, I will mock a post made by Trump late Sunday night after getting an "award" for winning yet another "Tournament" at his Mar-a-Lago dump golf club earlier in the evening. In said post, for still-unclear reasons Trump decided to rail against the pardons President Biden gave to all involved with the various prosecutions of Trump's now-unprosecuted crimes, attempting to decree that all those pardons were NONLEGAL and DISFAIR and were hereby VOIDCANCLLED and DEPARDONED IMMEDIATELY!
-The explanations were that Biden "had no idea what he was signing" (remember, every charge by Trump is an admission, and in many of his Oval Office events when he is given leather steak restaurant covers to sign things, it is clear by his befuddlescowl that he has no freaking idea what he is signing most of the time - either that or he caught a whiff of one of his sharts), and/or that all the pardons were signed with something called an "Autopen." An Autopen, for those wondering, is a device that allows multiple signatures to be made on documents at the same time. They have been used by Presidents as far back as Truman, have been ruled to be perfectly legal by courts going back at least 30 years, and OF COURSE have been used by Trump himself quite often.
-This may not stop Trump pet Attorney General Pam Bondi or distance-supervising FBI supervisor Ka$h Patel to investigate and file harassing lawsuits on many of those that got pardons (see "Jackson, Andrew" above), but two of the likeliest targets of such legal action harassment - CA Senator Adam Schiff and former GOP Congressman Adam Kinzinger - blew the threats off, with Kinzinger going one step further to taunt Trump and his threats, which we absolutely MUST recognized are both a threat to the Constitutional order and the ravings of a Mad King with all the emotional regulation of a supremely spoiled four-year-old.
-Speaking of Petty Atrocities, as of this writing shares in Musk's central business of Tesla is down another 4% - with no signs of stopping as M's name is now becoming toxic and the once-cool car company's brand continues to free fall thanks to his association with Trump and his despised-by-everyone government efficiency committee (IT IS NOT A DEPARTMENT). The scene from last week of Trump trying to get MAGAts to buy Teslas after spending literally a decade deriding the mere concept of electric cars while forever killing the brand among liberals that actually want to buy such cars (and having multiple options that are cheaper, more dependable, safer and not in danger of having penises spray-painted on them) appears to have not had its desired effect, and the question becomes whether the effects can be so awful Tesla could die.
-Sad. ANYWAY ...
-As of this writing, Trump has been waiting for a call from his Daddy, Russian President Vladimir Putin, to be told how to try to screw Ukraine further attempt to divide a Europe that continues to unify around defending themselves against would-be Tsars and objective Mad Kings negotiate with each other over stopping Russia's objectively failed invasion of Ukraine. Given that Ukraine is not part of that discussion and the "terms" are nothing more than Russia trying to achieve a win it could not get on the battlefield (among the terms: calling the Ukrainian territory of Crimea Russian) and Putin refusing the seven-day ceasefire offer of Ukrainian President Zelenskyy, do not expect anything they say to have any material effect on either the negotiating table or the battlefield - especially as Trump continues to claim Russian troops have surrounded Ukrainian armies around Kursk, which has no independent corroboration whatsoever.
-SLAVA UKRAINI!
-In far worse international news, last night Israel broke the cease-fire it had with Hamas and unleased air strikes on Gaza over what Israel claims were refusals by Hamas to release more hostages. Multiple news services report over 400 were killed in the attacks, with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu promising "Israel will act against Hamas with increasing military strength." Not to be overly glib, but thus evaporates anther avenue for Donald Trump to win what is apparently an achingly deep (or as deep as Trump can get) desire to get a Nobel Peace Prize.
-Speaking of undeserved prizes, we will wrap today's Update with a rather curious mention that Trump made on a social media post - and normally I scoff at them, but when Trump came off his course to pathetically trumpet his "win" of another "club tournament," he made a somewhat curious comment while doing it. See if you can catch what he said in the first sentence (and pay attention to what this writer italicized): "I just won the Golf Club Championship, probably my last, at Trump International Golf Club, in Palm Beach County, Florida ..."
-Juuuust making note of it in case it might become important at some point in the future ...
-TO THE UPDATES OF THE DAY!
-NEWS ON THIS DATE: In 1766, the Stamp Act was repealed after protests in America. (So they work!) In 1892, Lord Stanley of Preston agreed to donate a Cup to award for the best hockey team in Canada. In 1974, the five-month oil embargo against the United States implemented by OPEC ended. In 1995, Michael Jordan announced the end of his "first retirement" and returned to the Chicago Bulls.
-DEBUTS ON THIS DATE: Tenochtitlan (1314), Wells Fargo (1852), Enrico Caruso making a record (1902), THE THIEF OF BAGDAD (1925), Frank Sinatra making his first recording (1939), Men walking in space (the Soviet Union's Aleksei Leonov, 1965), America bombing Cambodia (1969), "White Riot" (1977).
-HAPPY BIRTHDAY: John C. Calhoun, Grover Cleveland, Rudolf Diesel, Edward Everett Horton, Robert Donat, Ernest Gallo, Smiley Burnette, Richard Condon, Fred Shuttlesworth, Andy Granatelli, George Plimpton, John Kander, Big Daddy Kinsey, Lillan Vernon, F.W. de Klerk, John Updike, Shashi Kapoor, Wilson Pickett, Brad Dourif, Ben Cohen, Bill Friesell, Irene Cara, Luc Besson, Grant Hart, Vanessa Williams, Bonnie Blair, Jerry Cantrell, Queen Latifah, Sutton Foster, Adam Levine, and Emanuel Clase.
-REST IN PEACE/POWER: Robert Walpole, Erich Fromm, Charlie Lau, Anthony Minghella, Natasha Richardson, Fess Parker, Joe Santos, Chuck Berry, and John Clayton.
-FEED THE WORMS: Chuck Schumer hero (ALLEGEDLY) (eyeroll) Neville Chamberlain, Michael Reagan and Reince Priebus entered Earth on this date. Incestuous songwriter John Phillips bought it on this date.
-TODAY'S MUSIC INTERLUDE: From the album LOST IN THE STARS, released on this date in 2014.