INTERNATIONAL REDEFINING WEALTH DAY UPDATES
Because It's Just Too Easy To Riff on The Ides Of March ...
-Just as Ex-President Trump rails mightily on his Truth Social media site about all the investigations circling around him (and many of us grow impatient waiting for at least one of those to actually land), there is yet ANOTHER investigation that has opened up on Trump – and this one, according to The Guardian, is about that very Truth Social site Trump is wearing out his ALL CAPS key on! Federal and New York investigators are digging into the financing of Truth Social, investigating whether investors who put money in the site were doing so at the behest of … and if you know anything about Trump you may know how the rest of this sentence will finish … Russian oligarchs looking to launder money!
-Oh, and as if that weren’t juicy enough, there is also the fact that the Truth Social investigation is not just looking at Trump but also Donald Trump, Jr. (who allegedly personally signed off on at least two of the loans), Trump hanger-on Kash Patel (who is also a central figure in the classified document investigation), and Truth CEO and former Rep. Devin Nunes (R-Moo).
-Meanwhile, in other Trump ally investigations involving mysterious oligarchs, a Chinese billionaire named Guo Wengui was arrested along with a colleague on charges of defrauding hundreds of thousands of people to the tune of over $1 billion. Wengui, it turns out, is a financier himself – one of the biggest of one Steve Bannon, a pardoned-by-Trump felon who fancies himself a revolutionary and himself has been involved in multiple cases where he has been accused of fraud. Whether Bannon himself is involved in this case, or whether Wengui would agree to assist in any number of other cases that he could be involved in, remain to be seen …
-More details are emerging regarding the American drone that was forced to land in the Black Sea after an encounter with a Russian fighter jet – and the encounter has been called “amateur hour” by American forces. Such flights are not unusual throughout international air space, but for some reason reports indicated that the Russian fighter attempted to interfere with the drone (which had a 66-foot wingspan and had tens of thousands of pounds of equipment, in case you needed a visual) by first emptying fuel over it, then running into its propeller, breaking it and forcing the craft to land at sea. Thus far there has been no comment from Russian forces on the incident, though it appears to fit into a pattern of provocations Vladimir Putin likes to periodically make towards American and NATO forces.
-Speaking of Russia, presumptive would-be GOP Presidential favorite Gov Ron DeSantis has drawn fire from some in his own party after declaring that Ukraine was “not vital” to the national interest of the United States. Everyone from Marco Rubio (WateR, FL) to Lindsay Graham (VapoRs, SC) to John Cornyn (TX), along with declared GOP candidate Nikki Haley and Liz Cheney (R-Still a Cheney) all heavily criticized DeSantis, who continues to pursue a nomination strategy wags are calling “Trump Lite.” This as the Trump campaign prepares a lawsuit in FL demanding DeSantis resign from the FL Governorship, citing a state law that requires state officials to resign if they are pursuing higher office – a law DeSantis and his GOP allies in FL are attempting to repeal, and a law DeSantis right now is not technically violating since he has not yet formally declared his candidacy.
-Oh, and as for the “not vital” comment – SLAVA UKRAINI!
-In closing, there is another answer to the eternal question “What Is Fox News Angry About Today?!” and, it’s a doozy. FOX AND FRIENDS yesterday took a story about new washing machine regulations enacted as part of the being-implemented infrastructure bill and has labelled it a “WAR ON WASHING MACHINES.” Yes, friends, according to pretty much every Fox commentator (and therefore right-wing web site and talk show) today, Dark Brandon will make all of our shirts and trousers darker because Biden’s new policies will make washing machines less efficient, and therefore all of us dirtier, stinkier, and altogether less pleasant in the future. Folks, don’t look at me - I report, you decide (whether to add fabric softener in the wash or in the dryer) (or both) …
-On this date in 1869, the Cincinnati Red Stockings became the first professional baseball team in the world. On this date in 1964, Richard Burton married Elizabeth Taylor for the first time. On this date in 1972, THE GODFATHER premiered. And on this date in 2019, over 1.5 million children protested worldwide demanding action against climate change, thrusting Greta Thunberg into the limelight as a generational leader in the movement.
-Happy Birthday to Saint Nicholas, Harold Ickes, Marjorie Merriweather Post, Lightning Hopkins, Lawrence Tierney, Norm Van Brocklin, D.J. Fontana, Ruth Bader Ginsberg, Judd Hirsch, Phil Lesh, Mike Love, David Cronenberg, Sly Stone, Bobby Bonds, Ry Cooder, Dee Snider, Steve Lillywhite, Clay Matthews, Harold Baines, Terrence Trent D’Arby, Bret Michaels, Rockwell, Mark McGrath, Mark Hoppus, Eva Longoria, will.i.am, and Paul Pogba.
-Rest in Peace/Rest in Power to Julius Caesar (it IS the Ides of March, after all!), Duncan Hines, Abe Saperstein, Aristotle Onassis, Tom Harmon, Dr. Benjamin Spock, Joseph Coors, Bowie Kuhn, Ron Silver, David Brenner, Mike Porcaro, W.S. Merwin, and Yaphet Kotto.
-Feed the Worms: notoriously racist and genocidal President Andrew Jackson, goofier-than-even-they-are evangelist Jimmy Swaggart, and psycho football coach Mike Tomlin entered Earth on this date.