DOT YOUR I'S DAY UPDATES
No Comment From The Cross Your T's Coalition
-Legal and political observers are still reeling from the Colorado Supreme Court's decision to use Section 3 of the 14th Amendment to declare Ex-President Trump XCI disqualified from running for any political office, much less President. While there is praise for the 217-page decision's argumentation, the overall consensus is that the radical right SCOTUS will find a way to keep Trump on the ballot - particularly as nobody expects one Justice to recuse himself because of the involvement of his wife in several insurrection plots that are central to the CO ruling.
-Nonetheless, while Republicans in CO may pivot to a caucus that would allow write-in ballots to nominate Trump and sidestep the ruling (CO did stay the ruling pending a SCOTUS decision), the combination of the CO case and the expedited case involving Trump's claim that being President is a literal get-out-of-jail-free-for-everything card hearing (Team Trump must complete those filings today), John Roberts and company will have work to do while sipping egg nog.
-GOP Presidential nominee Vivek Ramaswamy is also working to support Trump by threatening to withdraw his name from the CO Republican primary. Apparently he does not realize most, including his own party, see that more as a hope and a promise than a threat.
-Trump, of COURSE, is utterly irate over the decision, posting in all caps (in between crying that he should have been Time Person of the Year and not Trump opponent Taylor Swift) multiple times that, once again, anything and everything being done in the courts for any one of the multiple allegations of felonies and frauds he has committed is nothing more than ELECTION INTERFERENCE led by the inarticulate and senile yet cunning mastermind Joe Biden (it is not) (also, Biden is not inarticulate or senile) (but we all knew that!).
-Trump did not specifically address the ruling in an appearance in IA yesterday, but he did display his cognitive and language skills by discussing education in America thusly: "You have children going to school speaking languages that nobody even knows what the language is. There are many languages in the world. They don't even know what the language is." There was also a passage where he insisted that "I'm driving over a road where it's almost all paper. You know, you can see paper. I know paper. I know cans."
-Such passages are part of the reason why, in today's episode of Why Democrats Are Pha-REEEK-Ing Out TODAY, said Democrats are having kinipshins over why oh why oh WHY the anti-environment, anti-woman, anti-democracy, pro-turn-Palestine-into-glass, pro-imprison-Palestinian-protestors, pro-student-debt Trump is - at least according to the latest New York Times/Siena College poll - ahead of President Biden 49%-43% among voters under the age of 30. The specific reason right now, of course, is the ongoing Israel/HAMAS War, but it should be noted (for those who put stock in polls this far away from an election) that even that poll has Biden ahead of Trump 47%-45%, and eight out of the last 11 national polls have Biden in front.
-Congress has left for the holidays having failed to pass a bill to continue aid to Ukraine, although Senate negotiators have said talks to bring an aid bill to the floor in early January continue. The issue continues to be Republican insistence that Ukraine aid be yoked together with border security funds and regulations, with debate among Democrats over whether the White House should acquiesce and return some Trump-level restrictions to the Mexican border in exchange for Ukraine aid (as well as aid to Israel). The delay has brought much joy to Vladimir Putin, who of course is now claiming battlefield advances as a result - though Ukrainian President Zelenskyy claimed a 'major battle' in the Black Sea resulted in a Ukrainian victory that will allow the passage to stay open and Ukraine to continue to trade despite Russian attacks.
-SLAVA UKRAINI!
-One thing the Senate DID do before leaving: ratify the final 11 military promotions that had been held hostage through most of the year by boneheaded Sen. Tommy Tuberville (DuRr, AL). Tuberville had bottlenecked the nominees over a self-driven desire to stop the military from supporting women in the military from getting abortions and birth control among other health procedures (though some conspiracy theorists also claimed Tubbs wanted to hold the positions open until 2025 in the hope Trump could turn the military full MAGA), and only intense criticism from, among others, the military and virtually all other Republicans made him stop. That made Tuberville as big a loser on the Senate floor as he was when he coached Auburn.
-In closing, look out ... a judge in New York has ruled that documents gathered in investigations of pedophile Jeffrey Epstein will be unsealed and made public early in 2024. When that happens, it is reported over 150 'associates' of Epstein will be revealed, some officially. (Side eye going to the man who lived just down the road from Epstein's compound in South Florida and was reportedly a longtime pal, even having parties thrown exclusively for him) (ALLEGEDLY) (eye roll) (for NOW...).
-On this date in 1803, the Louisiana Purchase was finalized. On this date in 1860, South Carolina became the first state to secede from the Union. On this date in 1957, Elvis Presley was drafted. On this date in 1960, the Viet Cong was founded. On this date in 1989, Operation Just Cause was launched in Panama - a military invasion that, with the help of constant blasting of Guns N Roses at his compound, led to the capture of Manuel Noriega. And on this date in 2019, the newest branch of the U.S. Military, the so-called "Space Force," was created.
-Notable openings: GRIMM'S FAIRY TALES (1812), IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE (1946), ROGER & ME (1989), SCREAM (1996).
-Happy Birthday to Harvey Firestone, Branch Rickey, Irene Dunne, Gabby Hartnett, George Roy Hill, Jim Simpson, John Hillerman, Bob Hayes, Dick Wolf, John Spencer, Uri Geller, Alan Parsons, Michael Badalucco, Sandra Cisneros, Billy Bragg, Mike Watt, Nate Newton, Chris Robinson, Bobby Phills, Todd Phillips, Jonah Hill, and Kylian Mbappe.
-Rest in Peace/Rest in Power to Sacagawea, Moss Hart, John Steinbeck, Roy Disney, Gabby Hartnett, Bobby Darin, Richard J. Daley, Max Robinson, Madge Sinclair, Carl Sagan, Foster Brooks, Son Seals, Brittany Murphy, Steve Landesberg, Junior Johnson, Chad Stewart, and Franco Harris.
-Dr. Samuel Mudd, executed for the 'crime' of treating John Wilkes Booth, was born on this date. You decide if he gets a Happy Birthday or if he Feeds the Worms.