GOOD FRIDAY AND NATIONAL BEER DAY UPDATES
Are These Dates Connected? I Report, You Decide ...
-The last few days have seen a number of legislative actions and threats that leave many of us who like democracy and basic human compassion profoundly concerned. There were the events of yesterday, of course, where the GOP legislature in TN expelled two black 27-year-old representatives for demanding action on gun control while allowing a 60-year-old white female representative who protested with Reps. Justin Jones and Justin Pearson to stay (and if you doubt the racism, find some of the questioning by a number of smug white male Republicans - and the responses of all three). But that wasn't all, sadly ...
-... in ID, a bill was signed into law that makes it illegal for women to leave the state to get an abortion ... in KS, Republicans overturned a veto of a law that allows for genital inspections of children to prevent transsexual children from competing in sports ... and in WI, the win in a gerrymandered state Senate district gives Republicans enough to, in theory, impeach newly-elected Democratic Supreme Court Justice Janet Protasiewicz and prevent her from taking the seat in August.
-That's the bad news - but there may be good news beyond the vast overreach and continued alienation of women and voters under 40 from the Republican Party - which were factors in both the Protasiewicz win and the election of Brandon Johnson in Chicago on Tuesday.
-The ID law is likely both unenforceable and an unconstitutional limitation of interstate commerce (a weird law to apply to abortion rights, but use what you got).
-The KS law may have just been negated by the Supreme Court, which yesterday ruled that a similar WV law was also unconstitutional.
-There is some doubt the WI Senate would want to pursue an impeachment, in large part because doing so would simply allow Democratic Gov. Tony Evers to appoint another Democrat into the seat (even as other GOPers yap about trying to impeach Evers for basically being a Democrat).
-And in TN, the expulsions now mean there are going to be new elections - and there is no law that would prevent Jones and Pearson from running again, which given the publicity they got and their ability to seize the moment and fight for their constituents (the initial protest was about the mass murder of six - three children, all white, and three adults), have likely made them the favorites to win re-election.
-Meanwhile, in DC, the House "Oversight" Committee led by Jim "Gym" Jordan (OtheR Way, OH) sent a subpoena to Mark Pomerantz, a former federal prosecutor who wrote a book discussing cases in the NY Attorney General's office about prosecutions of cases involving indicted Ex-President Trump, in an attempt to continue to try to harass Alvin Bragg and his business fraud case against Trump. While no formal response was delivered by Pomerantz, Bragg has continually (and correctly) called Jordan's subpoena an attempt to obstruct a state case - and it is expected any subpoena delivered to Bragg will be ignored in much the same way Jordan ignored a subpoena to testify before the January 6 Commission (not to mention his ignoring over 100 Ohio State University wrestlers when they credibly accused a doctor of sexually abusing them while Jordan coached them).
-Oddly, one person that Jordan and the GOP Congress does NOT want to investigate is Clarence Thomas - that despite a devastating New York Times report (following up from other stories by the Los Angeles Times and ProPublica) detailing over 30 years of lavish vacations and gifts showered upon Thomas by right-wing billionaire and GOP funder Harlan Crow. All three articles discuss trips to Thomas as well as donations by Crow to organizations supported by Thomas' insurrection-supporting wife, Ginni - but do Republicans seem to be worried about that?
-Please. The GOP and Right-Wing Media have more important agenda items - and in the latest chapter of "What Is The Right Pissed About NOW?!" you will be pleased to hear that the answer is ... BUD LIGHT! Yes, the overcarbonated flat-tasting pseudo-beer has earned the ire of everyone from would-be GOP Gen-Z influencer Charlie Kirk to Robert James Ritchie, a MI trust fund baby who cosplays as an unwashed Vanilla Ice wannabe using the stage name Kid Rock - because Bud Light now is being marketed in some cans with rainbows thanks to a partnership between Anheuser-Busch and transsexual influencer Dylan Mulvaney. So you know what THAT means - BUD LIGHT IS TOO WOKE FOR REPUBLICANS!
-The aforementioned Ritchie/Kid Rock, in fact, was SO upset that he bought five cases of the stuff, stuck them in his estate property, grabbed one of those semiautomatic weapons which MAGAts and Republicans love more than children, and proceeded to, well, at least try to shoot them and destroy them ... only to end after about 30 seconds of embarrassing flailing that left two of the five cases untouched. Awww...bawitdabaaaaaaa...dey don't go bang-the-bang, do they, Kid?
-On this date in 1922, a secret lease agreement involving Interior Secretary Albert Fall and oil lease agreements in a WY area called Teapot Dome was signed. On this date in 1927, the first one-way videophone call was placed. On this date in 1948, the World Health Organization was created. On this date in 1949, SOUTH PACIFIC premiered. And on this date in 1969, the first computer code for what would ultimately be the ARPAnet - the base of all internet programs - was written and published by a coder at UCLA.
-Happy Birthday to William Wordsworth, Will Keith Kellogg, Marjorie Stoneman Douglas, Walter Winchell, Percy Faith, Billie Holiday, Ravi Shankar, Alan J. Pakula, James Garner, Daniel Ellsberg, Wayne Rogers, Freddie Hubbard, Jerry Brown, David Frost, Francis Ford Coppola, Joel Robuchon, Florian Schneider, John Oates, Janis Ian, Jackie Chan, Tony Dorsett, Christopher Darden, James "Buster" Douglas, Russell Crowe, and Ronde and Tiki Barber.
-Rest in Peace/Rest in Power to El Greco, P.T. Barnum, Henry Ford, Walter Huston, Sen. Frank Church, Ruth Page, Beatrice Straight, John Agar, Barry Nelson, Dungeons & Dragons creator Dave Arneson, trampoline inventor George Nissen, Mike Wallace, Seymour Cassel, and John Prine.
-Feed the Worms: mobster Joey Gallo entered Earth on this date - and left Earth on a different day, but the same date!