NATIONAL EMAIL DAY UPDATES
Because Apparently Using Email Is Now Something "The Olds" Do?
-As the full Supreme Court gears up to prepare to hear the case that could still lead to the banning of the abortion pill mifepristone, SCOTUS observers are still reeling at the dissent written by the man who wrote the Dobbs decision turning over abortion rights to the states, Samuel Alito. In a tone described by said experts as "intemperate," "outrageous" and "preposterous," Alito literally claimed that, even if the Court had not ruled 7-2 to overturn the ban from a notoriously anti-abortion-rights Trump-appointed TX Federal judge (who literally used such rhetoric in his initial decision to ban the drug), he had "legitimate doubts" the Biden Administration would have listened to the ruling and continued to distribute the drug.
-Given the issues involving states' rights and the ability of the pharmaceutical industry to continue developing any drugs should the ruling be permanent, there is hope the full SCOTUS will overturn the ban - and in the process do the impossible: make Big Pharma the heroes in a story.
-In other court news, the next defamation trial involving Ex-President Trump begins this week - and it is all but assured there will be no courthouse steps deal cut to end this one. This is the first of two trials Trump is facing centering around claims by former Elle Magazine editor E. Jean Carroll that Trump raped her in a department store in the mid-1990s. Carroll claims she still has the dress she wore with Trump's DNA on it, and the trial has featured years of wrangling using the traditional Trump strategy of delay-and-deflect, first claiming he couldn't have raped Carroll because she was not his "type" (something sexual assaulters are known to say in defense of their attacks) and then attempting to string the case out (which, combined with Carroll not reporting the alleged attack at the time it happened, that it is not a criminal charge). The case was also deferred after the Department of Justice ruled Trump could not be sued while he was still President, which ended in January 2021 after being defeated by Joe Biden.
-Jury selection in the trial begins tomorrow with the judge ordering all members to stay anonymous despite attempts by Trump attorneys to reveal their identities, and rejecting as "frivolous" a demand from Trump attorneys that the jury be told Trump cannot attend the trial because of how busy he is running for President in 2024 and Trump's desire not to tie up traffic in midtown Manhattan and inconvenience anyone, because he's that kind of guy.
-The trial will not be televised.
-Trump can take comfort in the fact the latest still-way-too-early polling among Republicans has his lead over his presumed biggest GOP rival, FL. Gov. Ron DeSantis (Puddin' FingeRs), has now doubled, with DeSantis now losing endorsements within the FL Congressional delegation despite pleas by the not-yet-officially-announced candidate not to do so. Trump's attacks (which, oddly, include surprisingly relevant attacks on the lack of economic growth and lower life expectancy of FL under DeSantis' rule) are combining with what is being perceived as bullying of school teachers and children and Walt Disney (in which DeSantis aped Winston Churchill's "We Shall Never Surrender" speech by more or less replacing fighting Nazis with fighting "woke"-ness in his soon-to-be-trademark what-would-Screech-sound-like-if-he-thought-he-was-He-Man delivery) to potentially put DeSantis in the same club as Rudy Giuliani, Jeb! Bush, The Bastard Scott Walker, and Chris Christie - supposedly have-it-in-the-bag GOP Presidential nominees whose campaigns face-planted by the first primaries, still about 10 months away).
-Also gearing up this week: the attempt by the UltraMAGA faction to force Rep. Kevin McCarthy (SINO-R, CA) to use passage of the debt ceiling to try to force draconian cuts in government spending they don't like or implode at least the U.S. economy. The House is planning to vote on a bill that has both the debt ceiling and their 'proposed' budget cuts, and while both Biden and the Senate (including some Senate Republicans) have demanded a 'clean' bill addressing only the debt ceiling, there is some doubt that McCarthy will have enough Republican votes to pass his proposal - or whether trying to act responsibly in the name of the world economy may be enough for the UltraMAGA faction to then call for his replacement, a central part of how McCarthy finally got the Speaker's gavel after 15 votes. POPCORN!
-On this date in 1914, Weeghman Park - now known as Wrigley Field - opened. On this date in 1931, PUBLIC ENEMY was released and made James Cagney a star. On this date in 1976, The Ramones released their debut album. On this date in 1978, arguably the greatest SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE episode aired, featuring the debuts of The Blues Brothers and Steve Martin's King Tut. On this date in 1984, researchers announced they had found what is now known as the HIV virus. On this date in 2005, YouTube's first video was uploaded and distributed worldwide. And on this date in 2016, Beyonce's LEMONADE was released.
-Happy Birthday to William Shakespeare, William Penn, Stephen A. Douglas, Sergei Prokofiev, Warren Spahn, Shirley Temple Black, Halston, Jim Fixx, Roy Orbison, David Birney, Lee Majors, Sandra Dee, Herve Villechaize, Tony Esposito, Joyce DeWitt, Allison Krause, Michael Moore, Judy Davis, Jan Hooks, Steve Clark, Valerie Bertinelli, George Lopez, Andruw Jones, John Cena, John Oliver, Kal Penn (all three of those guys are 46, by the way!), Barry Fratelli, Dev Patel, and Chloe Kim.
-Rest in Peace/Rest in Power to ... William Shakespeare, William Wordsworth, "Orange" Julius Freed, Buster Crabbe, Sam Ervin, Harold Arlen, Otto Preminger, Paulette Goddard, Johnny Thunders, Satyajit Ray, Howard Cosell, P.L. Travers, Sir John Mills, Boris Yeltsin, David Halberstam, and Orrin Hatch.
-Feed the Worms: Once (and still?) worst President James Buchanan and terrorist Timothy McVeigh entered Earth on this date. James Earl Ray bought it on this date.
-The #1 Movie in America on this date ... in 2023, THE SUPER MARIO BROS. MOVIE ... in 2013, OBLIVION ... in 2003, ANGER MANAGEMENT ... in 1993, INDECENT PROPOSAL ... in 1983, LONE WOLF MCQUADE ... and in 1973, FIVE FINGERS OF DEATH.