Yesterday, Robert Reich’s column was about the Manhattan criminal charges against Donald Trump**. He explains in detail exactly why it is wrong to call it a “hush money” case. I umderstand, and I’m sure he also does, the temptation to find a way to distinguish it from all his other legal woes, so that people know instantly which case one is talking about. But it also plays into his hands. “New York election interference case” or “Manhattan election interference case” are two ways we can call a spade a spade and still make it clear what case is being alluded to.
This is a “Colorado leads the Way” story. I’m sad that it took this long. But I’m bursting with pride that it’s being done now.
Not to suggest there is such a thing as a good Republican today – but, you know, the House could have done a lot worse than Mike Johnson.
Yesterday, Trinette came by. I didn’t have a lot for her to do this week. I was working on my closet more than clutter. She says hi to all.
The Reich on the left is right as usual – about the likely event – and I hope he is equally right about the lag time. Much more than that and it will be too late. I apologize for not making a note of where i read this, but apparently some polling in swing states specifically showed voters positivw abot their state’s economy but negative about the national economy (which makes little sense -but i guess that’s why they’re swing states.)
I don’t know how public this knowledge is – by which I mean, technically it’s public knowledge, but no one will know it if news outlets don’t pick it up.
Yesterday must have been an interesting day. I reveived four separate Axios alerts before 1:30 pm. The first was about Democrats putting pressue on Mike Johnson over foreign aid, particularly Ukraine (sure glad to hear that.) The second was that the judge on the Georgia cas rejected Trump’s “First Amendment” challenge to the gag order – also good. The third – and this is huge – No Labels is dropping out of the Presidential race. and the final one was to announce that Aileen (“Loose”) Cannon has again dismissed a Trump** motion to dismiss his case.Four good new breaking alerts in one day is, to put it mildly, rare.
I knew that this was a Civil Rights song. I did not know it was written specifically for the Little Rock Nine. I’m glad to have learned.
I mentioned in a comment that the person who spilled the beans on Kyle Rittenhouse was the defense lawyer at his trial. This story has the details. I think he’s upset that he was taken in and wants to ensure as best he can that no one else is.
Yesterday, Trinette was by – she says hello to all – we chatted for a long time, though. After she left, I renewed my PBS membership and changed my password on a website I have often bought jewelry supplies from, and which has just upgraded their site and have asked every customer to change their password. They said March 29, but I thought I’d wait and maybe avoid the rush. It went smoothly, which might have meen me waiting or it might just jhave been the upgrade working well. Anyway, it’s done. I hope everyone’s Easter went well.
TPM looks a litle different from other Substack users – I found two places I had to click to keep reading (both in the upper right of the page or the box) and a third when I refreshed the page to copy the URL. But I think you’ll find the information worth while.
Someone who wants to emulate Trump** had better take steps first to ensure that people believe he – or she – or they – have lots of money. The technique doesn’t work so well without that.
Yesterday, I could hardly wait to see what Joyce Vance (who lives in Alabama) had to say about the upset special election there (while being aware it might have shocked her so much that she wouldn’t react until tonight.) Well, I did wait up for it, and here is a quote: “In the category of “you can’t make this up” the special election happened because David Cole, the Republican who previously held the seat, pled guilty to voter fraud charges when it came to light that he didn’t live in the district he voted in and represented.” While waiting, I sent a litte money to Katie Porter’s PAC, “Truth to Power.” As she won’t be in Congress, she’s very motivated to help as many solid campaigns as she can.
Lakota Law has a petition on behalf of all native American nations. It’s to Pope Francis, and it’s asking him to return lands seized by the church to those tribes to whom it belonged. This link has been cut so it will not prefill with my information, and verified to make sure it works the way it should. There is some background at the link, and also another link to the full petition so you can be clear on what is being asked.
Mixed news here – good that it’s at least being considered – bad that it’s necessary.
I’m big on whistleblowers anyway, and this one is especially deserving of admiration. It’s 180 degrees removed from trading in classified information. Democracies need to, and have a right to, know the truth. ( Wonkette – who agree.)
Yesterday, one of the stories reminded me of my mother’s Uncle Fred, who died before I was born, so I never met him, but was told a story about him. Fred was a civil engineer, and some people made fun of him because he predicted the Golden Gate Bridge could never be built. Well, he was wrong. But he was also right, because what he meant was that it could not be built as planned without unacceptable loss of life (and to him one life lost was unacceptable. Eleven were lost during construction, and it could have been worse. A safety net saved 19 from certain death.) I think I would have liked Uncle Fred.
Everyone calls this the “hush money” case. But it’s really basically criminal only because it is really an “election interference” case. I did see someone refer to it as the “hush money/election interference” case – probably a good idea.
A new ad from VoteVets. Short, not sweet, but extremely accurate. (I had to turn the sound on, it was muted – you may also. But the CC is perfect so you may not care.
Building bridges is a dangerous business. So is fixing them when they need maintenance. But I doubt whether anyone would have predicted this.
Yesterday, I got to thinking about “The City at the Edge of Forever – Episode 29 of Season I of the original Star Trek, it first aired in the spring of 1967. It made a deep impression on me. Just the thought of having to make a decision like that gave (and still gives) me the heebie-jeebies. But there is also trmendous relief associated with realizing one does not personally required to make that decision. Except that we are. Any election (not just Presidential) in which there is a spoiler candidate requires every eligible voter to make exactly that decision, and do it without the benefit of an omniscient entity who can show us exactly what the future will be on both sides of that decision. I can still hear in my mind the dialogue (Kirk) “But she was right!” (Spock) “Yes, she was. But she was right at the wrong time.” ooking back 57 years, I probably don’t have the exact words. But the meaning is exact. If you want to view it, it can be streamed free (but with ads) here, [You may need to turn on the sound and tell it to restart] or paid at Paramount Plus (you mught be able to get it on free trial) or Apple TV if you use either of those. If you just want to refresh your memory of the plot, Wikipedia is the place – and thrown in you get production history, information on all kinds of production disagreements, history of the music used, and a whole lot more, if you want it. And yes, I deliberately put together this and today’s cartoon.
Not only did the GOP (in the House) kill the National Security bill this week, but the GOP (all of them, even non-elected ones) are working overtime to make sure that security spending stays higher than is manageable. They yell at us for “Tax and spend,” but to me spending money you don’t have, and don’t have any idea how to get, is far more irresponsible.
At least something good happened (besides the Appeals Court verdict)- “The Post-Conviction Justice Unit of the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office moved to exonerate the two men after an investigation with defense counsel found the teenage witnesses who testified at trial had been treated as suspects.” No, they haven’t been locked up since 1987, thank God- they were released, one in 2007 and one in 2011, but that’s still way to long, and until now, they didn’t have a citizen’s full rights. And they’re far more gracious about it than I would be.
Yesterday – well, actually all this week I have been sleeping later than usual. I’m pretty cool with that, except that I don’t want to do it Saturday – the radio opera will be Anthony Davis’s X: The Life and Times of Malcolm X. It premiered in 1986… so it’s about time it came to the Met. Two of his four other operas have been “The Central Park Five,” for which he won a Pulitzer (but which I have not heard) and “Amistad,” which I have heard, on the radio, from Chicago Lyric Opera, and which choked me up. That must be almost 20 years ago – or more – , since I attempted to capture it on cassette tape, and only partially succeeded. Do I need to say that this Anthony Davis does not play pro basketball? So if you wasnt to learn more, be sure to Google (or Duck Duck Go) “Anthony Davis composer.”
Robert Reich has posted an article which is, or ought to be, pretty scary. How do you even prepare for something like that?And we know there are a lot of people who would gladly go along with it. We need our best legal minds to start getting on it right now (yesterday would be even better.)
Joyce Vance explains the border “crisis” as well as possible. But it’s hard to explain why states like Idaho, Montana, North Dakota, and Ohio are so worried. We don’t actually have a problem with illegals from Canada – do we? (By the way the answer to that first question is “No.” If you secede, you lose your citizenship. It’s not like someone who moves to another country but retains US citizenship.
Wonkette – who agree.)
