NATIONAL BOOTLEGGERS DAY UPDATES

Not Sure Why Renegades Who Thrived Under A Stupid Law Would Appeal To Me This Of All Days, BUT ...

-Look, we ALL know that there will be plenty to fight and mourn and get angry about starting around noon Monday CST - but until then, Joe Biden is still President. And Joe is doing things that are going to be a hoot to see Team Trump counteract (while turning themselves into even bigger shiteheels than they already are) (and YES it will still matter, given how most Americans now correctly distrust Legacy Media - and we'll get to some of that later), so let's focus on that in this Update to take joy and inspiration.

-At the top of the list of Biden Landmines being planted just this morning: the Equal Rights Amendment!

-I bet you thought the attempt to pass it died 50 years ago, but a funny thing about passing Constitutional amendments: there is nothing listed in the Constitution itself that says there is a time limit as to when amendments can pass, or that approving a Constitutional change has an expiration date once a state or Congress does it. Plus, for all the misogyny that has been unleashed on the country, there is no firm law that says states that passed ERA back in the day can rescind their approvals - in fact, attempts after the Civil War by Southern states to reverse-engineer the 14th Amendment were struck down (too bad so sad KY, ID, NE, SD, TN, who tried to rescind their ERA approval back in the day). Now, Congress created some sort of "deadline" in 1982, and at that point approval was three states short.

-In the subsequent years, three states have since approved - NV in 2017, IL in 2018, and VA in 2020. And since 2020, three legislators - NY Senator Kirsten Gillebrand, MA Rep. Ayanna Pressley, and former MO Rep. Cori Bush - have been pushing Biden to recognize the three passed states to get 38 states approval (with further backing from the American Bar Association) and, thus, enshrine the Equal Rights Amendment as a legitimate part of the Constitution.

-This morning, Biden agreed and directed the Library of Congress to add ERA as the 28th Amendment to the Constitution.

-STANDS ON SOAPBOX ...

-Now, will the Federalist Society or MAGA or Incoming President Rapist von P*ssy-Grabber (not to mention the SCOTUS Suck-Up Six) agree? Abso-freaking-lutely NOT, as we well know! But Dark Brandon is basically saying Fck it - let MAGA enshrine their misogyny even more by fighting it and using too-late-too-late-neener-neener-now-make-us-alpha-mens-sammiches-WIMMINS! arguments against it. Which they will, and who knows?

-Maybe it does stick and one of the guard rails gets a desperately-needed re-enforcement. (Besides, the case that it can still stick is stronger than any number of weak-ass arguments made about pick your position by this SCOTUS (a corporation is a person, anyone?!), so make it and go from there, I say! It's the right thing to do and a true upholding of the Constitution.)

-STEPS OFF SOAPBOX

-That's not the only thing Biden is dumping into Trump's lap, though. As SCOTUS gave the green light to the U.S. banning the TikTok social media network, Biden has now announced he will not enforce the ban, citing 'persuasive' arguments against the ban despite his Justice Department fighting for the ban - though to be clear, the objection to the app is not the shorts of people skateboarding to Fleetwood Mac's "Dreams" or even eating detergent pods (and by the way, DON'T), but the fact that the app is owned by China and thus a conduit for that government to collect data on users to be used for who literally knows what. Biden will instead give the decision to stop its use to Trump, who has flip-flopped like a fish on a boat about whether to ban it or not.

-The hope was that the app would be purchased by an American-based company so that the data could then be purchased and somewhat protected from nefarious Chinese interests. This, of course, does not take into account American buyers who could nefariously use that data and sell it to other clients (like, say, China?!) themselves - and while Trump tends to his cabana, Actual President Elon Musk is allegedly one of the interests interested in buying the app. Weirdly, two other investors are interested - SHARK TANK competitors Kevin O'Leary (another loud Trump suck-up) and Mark Cuban (decidedly NOT a Trump suck-up). Whatever the case, Biden has now said "Whatevs, dudes!" and will let the story play out with different people make the final decisions.

-Biden's final acts this weekend could involve more acts of clemency (over 2500 prisoners were granted clemency this morning - one of the longest such lists in American history), clear pardons (one name to watch: Leonard Peltier, still in Federal prison for allegedly killing two Federal officers in a case mired in controversy), and pre-emptive pardons aimed at protecting investigators of the January 6, 2021 insurrection from Trump and his Putz Parade looking to rewrite history by attempting to prosecute them for protecting Biden's 2020 win against Trump.

-Another final act in Biden's Presidency is the announced cease-fire and withdrawal of troops (and prisoner swap) between Israel and HAMAS. The deal was announced Wednesday, but Israel immediately attacked HAMAS positions in Gaza, killing 73 before they voted to accept terms of the cease-fire. Many believe the attacks and dragging out of the cease-fire vote, as well as release of hostages, is being done a la what Nixon did in 1968 and Reagan did in 1980: creating interference and foot-dragging to give an artificial shine to an incoming Republican President. Nonetheless, the hope to end the savage fighting has been kindled regardless of who takes credit (and you betcha Team Trump has been taking lots of credit for the deal, warranted or not), so that is another angle to be watching prior to Monday.

-Biden delivered his farewell speech on Wednesday evening, and in it he took Dwight Eisenhower's "military-industrial complex" speech as inspiration to warn of "an impending oligarchy" that "keepers of the flame" - us - must prepare to fight. Considering the three richest people in the U.S. - tech/dude/douchebros Musk, Jeff Bezos, and Mark Zuckerberg - will all be in attendance for the inauguration (and Zuck going one suck further by holding a ball Monday night) (AN INAUGURATION BALL, people! Eyes UP!) - the case can be made that the tech-igarchy is here, but it's good for the record and for inspiration for us to stop them (we did back in the day of the Robber Barons, y’all).

-And by the way, the tech bros are still trying to one-down themselves in bending their hips toward Trump and shilling towards him for whatever favors Dear Leader can deem worthy of his support. This morning, jealous of Musk getting an executive office in the White House, Zuck doing everything he's been doing, and Bezos rewriting the mission of the Washington Post from "Democracy Dies in Darkness" to "Riveting Storytelling for All of America" (which makes WaPo sound more like competitors to The Hallmark Channel than heirs to Woodward and Bernstein), Netscape co-creator turned venture capitalist Marc Andreessen went to New York Times bag Ross Douhat (of course) to weep like all these soy boy beta cucks do about how bad and unmanly it's been to try to run a business by respecting people and treating them like humans.

-The interview blamed Democrats for "driving Silicon Valley to Trump," and interns in Harvard becoming "RADICALIZED!" to the point of all being Bernie Sanders acolytes (because gee, working college kids 80-100+ hours a week for slave wages that will never pay for massive student loan debt somehow didn't make them all want to be like Marc and Elon and Zuck and Bezos - WHAAA?!?!) and how can all these guys who made bazillions make more bazillions when a guy who doesn't even use email (but sure can shit-post like a mutha) can help them make MORE?! I may be slightly paraphrasing the content, but the emotion of Marc-y Marc is just like all the others now bending the surprisingly unscarred ear of Dear Orange Leader, and as an Internet wag noted, we are the ones that are suffering through their midlife crises.

-Speaking of suffering, THIS JUST IN: the Manly Men of Trump, led by Lead Alpha Donnie, have decided that 20 degrees is just too cold for them, and so to generate more Masculine Energy (copyright Meta), they will get Trump to attempt to avoid the fate of William Henry Harrison and move the inauguration indoors on Monday.

-Wusses.

-We will confront the clown shows of the Trump confirmation hearings and more as we get there - but there is one more bit of good news for the day: an apparently enforceable settlement between disbarred degenerate and (alleged) drunk Rudy Giuliani and the two GA state election board workers, Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss, over Giuliani's defaming them while Rudy tried to help get Trump 11,670 non-existent votes that would have handed Trump GA in 2020 when Trump lost the state. The amount was undisclosed, but Rudes was several hours late to a hearing yesterday prior to the settlement being announced. Trump has abandoned Giuliani, and one would think others that are sucking up to Trump would learn the lesson (see "Douchebros," above), but since that continues to be the Trump M.O., bank on it happening at some point in the future.

-Let's wrap today's Update and gear up for lots of football and bundling up heading to Sunday and Whatever The F Is After That ...

-NEWS ON THIS DATE: In 1893, an American-oligarch backed group overthew and took over Hawaii. In 1912, Captain Robert Scott's doomed expedition reached the South Pole. In 1950, the notorious Brinks robbery was executed in Boston. In 1961, Dwight Eisenhower delivered his "military-industrial complex" farewell speech (HUH!). In 1984, the Supreme Court legalized private recording of television programs via VCR taping. In 1995, the St. Louis Rams re-relocated to Los Angeles.

-DEBUTS ON THIS DATE: THE CHERRY ORCHARD (1904), The Professional Golf Association (1916), Prohibition (1920), Popeye the Sailor (1929), the United Nations Security Council (1946), the Corvette (1953), Jacques Cousteau television episodes (1954), Al Pacino (off-Broadway, 1968), COURT AND SPARK (1974), Motley Crue (1981), Operation Desert Storm (1991).

-HAPPY BIRTHDAY: Benjamin Franklin, Catherine Booth, Konstantin Stanislavski, Mack Sennett, Cus D'Amato, Betty White, Newton Minow, Eartha Kitt, Vidal Sassoon, Jacques Plante, Don Zimmer, Douglas Wilder, James Earl Jones, Shari Lewis, Kip Keino, Muhammad Ali, Andy Kaufman, Mick Taylor, Larry Fortensky, Steve Earle, Paul Young, Steve Harvey, Chili Davis, Jim Carrey, Sebastian Junger, Cyrus Chestnut, Michelle Obama, Shabba Ranks, Tiesto, Zooey Deschanel, Dwayne Wade, Oleksander Usyk, and Rep. Maxwell Frost.

-REST IN PEACE/REST IN POWER: Rutherford B. Hayes, Juliette Gordon Low, Louis Comfort Tiffany, T.H. White, Gregory Corso, Richard Crenna, Virginia Mayo, Art Buchwald, Bobby Fischer, Erich Segal, Don Kirschner, Johnny Otis, and Yvette Mimieux.

-FEED THE WORMS: World Series fixer Arnold Rothstein, mobster's mobster Al Capone, noted worm aficionado Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Robert Ritchie - a dilettante tiny talent performing under the stage name Kid Rock - and YouTube dudebro Jake Paul entered Earth on this date. Gary Gilmore was executed on this date.

-Talk show host Maury Povich was born today. If you are the real baby daddy, you can decide if he gets a Happy Birthday or if he Feeds the Worms.

-MUSIC FOR TODAY: Happy Birthday to Susanna Hoffs. Along with her work with The Bangles, she is a stellar cover artist - as evidenced here covering one of my all-time favorites ...