INTERNATIONAL DAY AGAINST POLICE BRUTALITY UPDATES
With This Being The Ides of March, Seems Appropriate
-With this morning's news about Fani Willis likely being able to continue the prosecution of Ex-President Trump (R-apist) LXXXVIII in GA (which has made MAGAWorld even angrier than usual, what with a black lady smarter than all of them winning and all), legal analysts are warning of a Trump-sized red flag in yesterday's ruling involving what at first appeared to be a technical victory for Jack Smith in the Mar-a-Lago document case granted by Trump BFF Judge Aileen Cannon.
-While Cannon outwardly rejected yet another Trump argument that The President Is A God Among Men Whose Every Object Becomes His By Merely One Touch From His Wee Tiny Hands, she also said in her brief ruling that Trump could if he wanted to (WINK WINK WINK) bring the issue up again when the case comes to trial after a jury is impaneled. THEN, if Trump were to bring the issue up (WINK WINK WINK) Cannon might (WINK WINK WINK) THEN rule that, yes, All Trump Touches is Good - and dismiss the case outright, which would then prevent Smith from appealing the ruling because of double-jeopardy. Stay tuned and keep the Tums ready ...
-Meanwhile, New York legal observers are directing a new wave of fury at Attorney General Merrick Garland, blaming him and the Southern District of New York for the 30-day delay in the start of Trump's NY trial involving payments made to suppress a ten-minute sexual stand before the 2016 Presidential election. The issue: over 30,000 pages of evidence that should have been turned over to Team Trump that wasn't until this week. It is unclear why the delay happened, and there is always the fear that a few of the documents will be used by Team Trump to - say it with me! - delay the trial further, which is the only legal strategy Trump has used to his advantage in his entire business and public life. Again, let's wait and see (grrrr...)
-For people who may have friends starting to get iffy about Trump but still thinking "Oh, it won't be so bad if he was back ..." first, avoid the urge to strangle them ... then gently remind them that WE DIDN'T HAVE TOILET PAPER FOUR YEARS AGO ... THEN ... point them to what is currently happening at Trump's latest acquisition, the Republican National Committee. There, over 60 career political operatives - including doing silly tasks like political organizing, fund raising, and outreach to communities of color - have been purged from the organization, to be replaced with workers whose primary qualification is loyalty to Trump first, second, and third. And, of course, all the money taken in will NOT go to states and localities and other workers, but rather to Trump and his attorneys and his family (like failson-wife Lara, a co-chair of TNC). This is precisely the model that Trump has openly admitted he would use in sweeping out civil servants throughout the government using the Heritage Foundation's noxious Project 2025 as the model (which also adds a rancid dollop of Christian fundamentalism to the mix). So, delight in what the gutting of the RNC could mean in 2024 but use it and let it be known.
-It is actually more difficult to know whether the mounting stories involving AL Sen. Katie Britt's State of the Union response is cementing her political doom or vaulting her into political heights. On the negative side: the continued revelation of the rape story she told that night as being both a total lie as she told it (the story involved exploitation and sexual abuse by Mexican drug lords during the George HW Bush administration, but Britt told it as if it happened in the in a refugee camp on the border with Biden as a witness - and has been telling the story for weeks if not months prior to the SOTU) and continued mocking and derision from the left. On the positive side: Britt continues to use the story as a fund-raising tool, continues to make appearances in right-wing media outlets to promote herself, and reportedly may be sneaking her way into the mix as Trump's Vice Presidential candidate. Whatever the case, Britt will continue to practice her monologue to be the lead in the next Republican Musical Revue ...
-In a sign of the growing rift between the White House and the Israeli government, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer yesterday leveled the most direct criticism yet against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the means by which he continues to wage war and brutality against Palestinians in his drive to end HAMAS. The speech went so far as to call for a new government in the country, and while there was some pushback on the Democratic side, reports indicate President Biden and his team were aware of Schumer's remarks and did not ask them to be tempered. Netanyahu continues to insist, despite growing domestic anger against him and worldwide condemnation over his tactics.
-And on the Ukraine/US front, House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-Jay-EE-Zuz!, LA) continues to resist calls from everyone except his two twin Gods - Trump and Vladimir Putin - to bring Ukraine aid to the floor. Semafor reports the soonest the hanging-on-his-job-by-a-thread Johnson intends to continue to drag his feet at least until the end of March, while reports are that Minority-Leader-For-The-Moment Rep. Hakeem Jeffries is also slowing down actions to bypass Johnson to bring the funding bill to the floor by itself. All while Putin - currently about to "win" an "election" for "President" in Russia today - is now back to saber-rattling with nuclear weapons and essentially demanding full capitulation by Ukraine to "stop" his invasion.
-SLAVA UKRAINI!
-But in closing, we do have another Big Event allegedly ready to happen: yet a new wave of revelations about the fixing of the 2016 Presidential election that will be SO SHOCKING and SO CONVINCING the Supreme Court will stop in their tracks, look at the evidence, and immediately put Biden in shackles and install Donald Trump once and for all! Or so says our favorite lumpy-headed pillow-lump manufacturer, Mike Lindell. Somehow still around despite driving himself bankrupt by his pursuit of election conspiracy theories without protecting his still-horrid MyPillow company, Lindell - mostly now throwing his money to human canker sore Steve Bannon and Bannon's podcast - is still out there ranting and raving without the help he probably needs. But he's driven anyone like that away, so ... thoughts and prayers, right?
-Right!
-On this date in 1917, Tsar Nicholas abdicated his throne in Russia. On this date in 1939, Nazi Germany invaded and occupied then-Czechoslovakia. On this date in 1965, Lyndon Johnson introduced legislation that would become the Voting Rights Act. On this date in 2019, the first mass protest demanding climate change worldwide led by activist Greta Thunberg took place.
-Debuts on this date: The first professional baseball team (the Cincinnati Red Stockings, 1869), March Madness basketball tournament (1939), the Billboard album chart (1945), Anti-matter (1962), THE GODFATHER (1972).
-Happy Birthday to Lee Shubert, Harold Ickes, Marjorie Merriweather Post, Lightnin Hopkins, Joe E. Ross, Lawrence Tierney, Norm Van Brocklin, D.J. Fontana, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Judd Hirsch, Phil Lesh, Nikolia Volkoff (aka The Iron Sheik), David Cronenberg, Sly Stone, Bobby Bonds, Ry Cooder, Howard Devoto, Dee Snider, Bunny DeBarge, Steve Lillywhite, Clay Matthews, Harold Baines, Terrence Trent D'Arby, Bret Michaels, Rockwell, Mark McGrath, Louis Reddick, Mark Hoppus, Eva Longoria, will.i.am, and Paul Pogba.
-Rest in Peace/Rest in Power to Julius Caesar, H.P. Lovecraft, Duncan Hines, Abe Saperstein, Aristotle Onassis, Jo Mielziner, Tom Harmon, Florence Chadwick, Dr. Benjamin Spock, Ann Sothern, Bowie Kuhn, Ron Silver, Nate Dogg, David Brenner, Mike Porcaro, W.S. Merwin, and Yaphet Kotto.
-Feed the Worms: Andrew Jackson, Jimmy Swaggart and Mike Tomlin entered Earth on this date. Right-wing funder and bad beer brewer Joseph Coors bought it on this date.
-Beach Boys vocalist and acknowledged bag Mike Love was born on this date. You decide if he gets a Happy Birthday or if he Feeds the Worms.