NATIONAL TARTAR SAUCE DAY UPDATES
Great - Now I Gotta Find A Fish Fry ...
-Ex-President Trump (R-apist) XCI has had many bad legal days, but even by his standards, his bad legal news run is quite something. The lead bad news was the notice that his New York criminal trial involving the $130,000 payoff to Stormy Daniels to silence her after their five-minute stand - which occurred a week after the release of the Access Hollywood tape, thus making the case one of election interference (where have I heard that phrase lately?) - on March 25. Shortly after that, Trump's favorite judge, Aileen Cannon, actually denied Team Trump a request to postpone a previously-set deadline of February 22 to finally get the FL criminal trial of Trump's stealing of ultra-classified documents (though a chance to postpone is still possible). Trump's team was forced to respond to an earlier-than-expected filing by Special Prosecutor Jack Smith to the Supreme Court as Trump hopes they will fully hear his claim of The Most Magnificent Immunity That Has Ever Been Granted - meaning that ruling can now literally come at any time. And as you read, the sentence to be handed down for the Trump Organization's fraud against New York City and State is reportedly imminent.
-Even Trump allies had an unexpected chicken coop's supply of eggs thrown directly in their face, as a Special Prosecutor assigned to handle the Hunter Biden incidents (dumdumdum) instead flipped and indicted an FBI informant on two counts of perjury. The informant was testifying against Hunter (dumdumdum) and was one of the central star 'witnesses' being used by MAGAt Special Prosecutor James Comer (HunteR!, KY) and Sean Hannity (appearing on his show 83 times) as their star witness in their "impeachment" of President Biden. While that embarrassment should end all inquiries into the Bidens, MAGAts do not have embarrassment, so expect that clown show to continue.
-The best Trump legal news may have counterintuitively took place yesterday after Fulton County DA Fani Willis unexpectedly testified in an evidentiary hearing in which Trump allies are attempting to have Willis and a lead prosecutor in the RICO case against Trump and others removed because of a romantic relationship the two had and alleged financial benefits they incurred once they started work on the Trump trial. Observers who cheered at Willis' defiant testimony and properly appalled at the spectacle of a phalanx of white attorneys grilling two accomplished black professionals about their personal and sexual lives were not silenced by other legal experts who worried that the case and a perceived "appearance" of some kind of conflict or misbehavior may result in Willis being removed from the case - a move that would all but guarantee that trial, still believed to be able to get started in August, would not be able to begin until after the 2024 election and subsequent danger of a Trump self-pardon should he regain power in 2025.
-Alexi Navalny, the dissident who for a decade was the highest-profile opponent of Vladimir Putin, has apparently died in prison this morning the day after an appearance in a Russian prison. Navalny, who had previously been poisoned and sent to a gulag, had been disappeared for months before reappearing in the last several weeks, and the claim by Russian authorities that Navalny died while "taking a walk" is being taken with proper skepticism and condemnation - while fawning encomiums from Trump and the MAGAts are expected to come soon.
-Letting Putin do whatever the Hell he wants ...
-Facing a continuing erosion of his majority (now down to two seats, with a fourth Committee Chair announcing that he will not be running for re-election), a March 1 deadline to pass another continuing resolution to fund the government, pressures to pass desperately needed foreign aid packages (SLAVA UKRAINI!) and actual calls for the return of the disgraced and inept Kevin McCarthy, House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-Jay-EE-Zuz!, LA) decided the best thing to do is to RUN AWAY!, and recessed the House until February 28 to lick his wounds and set up multiple explanations to his children who monitor his porn consumption - ew - in the next two weeks. The news is so bad for Johnson that Political Wire reports there are rumblings that a handful of exiting GOP House Reps may throw their support behind Democrat Hakeem Jeffries to take over the gavel, as every part of the House and Capitol Hill report that the dysfunction of the MAGAt House is at historic levels - indeed, they are on a pace to be the least-productive Congress in American history, which would be awful if it weren't the actual goal of the MAGA movement.
-There is also the complete takeover of the Republican National Committee by an avowed 2020 election denier and Trump Daughter-in-Law who has promised "every penny" of fundraising to the RNC will go to Trump's legal teams - I mean, Trump's face spackle and old man diapers - I mean, the Trump Presidential campaign - I mean, as Republicans whisper, money going everywhere except states and down ballot candidates (which may explain how GOP Senate headhunters are seeking and finding self-funding candidates to try to oust incumbent Senators Tammy Baldwin in WI and Sherrod Brown in OH).
-One thing Johnson and MAGA Leader Jim "Gym" Jordan (OtheR Way, OH) is doing amid their break and reeling House prospects is preparing former Special Prosecutor Robert Hur to testify further that Joe Biden is an older man whose age is high and acts like he is 81. Hur is reportedly practicing his testimony in a further effort to promote Trump's strategy to press Biden's age - an act that threatens a backlash given Biden's increased public appearances and the history of MAGA House hearings becoming a display of MAGAts being run around in circles by Democrats on that committee. Nonetheless, that's coming, so gird your loins ...
-Kansas City continues to reel from the shooting incident at the Chiefs victory rally that led to the death of a popular Tejano DJ and the wounding of at least eight children. Three people have been arrested, and police report the shooting was a result of a "dispute" rather than any kind of act of terrorism. Sports commentators and local officials decried the incident, pointing out that MO - which has been run under total GOP control since 2003 - is one of the least-regulated gun states in the country, and despite the pro-gun Governor being seen fleeing the scene shortly after the gunfire began, nothing is expected to be done except for more pro-gun legislation likely to be passed in that state.
-In closing ... remember Rachel Dolezar? The white woman who claimed to be black and was then forced to resign a leadership position in the NAACP? Guess what - she has popped back up in the news, and (shocking!) not in a good way. Turns out Dolezar has been working as an after-school instructor in Arizona under a different name. But not anymore! Yesterday, 'Dolezar' was fired from her teaching position after administrators found an account under her name on the adult content app OnlyFans. Even the OnlyFans account showed 'Dolezal' continues to identify as black, and at least 'Dolezal' can take comfort in the fact that she is not the only OnlyFans account holder who has lost a day job for having an account on the site.
-Some people ...
-On this date in 1923, King Tut's tomb was unsealed. On this date in 1959, Fidel Castro took control of Cuba. On this date in 2005, the Kyoto Protocol went into effect ... kinda. Also on this date in 2005, the National Hockey League officially cancelled its 2004-05 season - the result of a labor dispute.
-Debuts on this date: the bank check (1679), silver dollars (1876), nylon (1937), BRINGING UP BABY (1938), the Knesset (1949), WHAT'S MY LINE? (1950), THE SEVENTH SEAL (1957).
-Happy Birthday to Edgar Bergen, Hugh Beaumont, Vera-Ellen, Sonny Bono, Brian Bedford, Carl Icahn, Eckhart Tolle, William Katt, James Ingram, Margaux Hemmingway, LeVar Burton, Ice-T, Lisa Loring, Kelly Tripucka, John McEnroe, Andy Taylor, Mark Price, Mahershala Ali, Lupe Fiasco, Sen. Jon Ossoff, Elizabeth Olsen, The Weeknd, and Geordi LaForge.
-Rest in Peace/Rest in Power to Howard DaSilva, Keith Haring, Pat Brown, Roger Bowen, William Masters, Eleanor "Sis" Daley, Anthony Shadid, Gary Carter, Lesley Gore, Boutros Boutros-Ghali, Ken Nordine, Tony Fernandez, and Tim McCarver.
-Feed the Worms: Kim Jong-il and Jerome Bettis entered Earth on this date.