Day: May 21, 2024

Episode 179 has been uploaded.

Preview is a short.

YouTube, later.

A-Block

• SPECIAL COMMENT: The FIRST item, letter A, on Trump’s gag order: “Defendant is directed to refrain from making or directing others to make, public statements about known or reasonably foreseeable witnesses.”
• After the last time — after the last TEN times, to be exact —

• Justice Juan Merchan was explicit that, next time, he’d have to consider jailing Trump. Well Trump talked about witness Robert Costello — the one whom the judge metaphorically kicked in the gonads as the court day came to a roaring end. AND he talked about witness Michael Cohen and as the judge had ALSO explicitly stated, it didn’t matter if he was reading or quoting somebody else’s words. If there is any remaining doubt in Merchan’s mind that the premise of the Trump defense is not some kind of refutation of the charges but instead an all-out attack on the rule of law, on the judge, on the court, on its authority to dare to thwart Trump — the man who wants to put the “dick” in dictator — he must erase that doubt. This is why the outburst from the witness Robert Costello — an attorney — where he complained about Merchan’s rulings in real time — could be the last straw that sends Trump to the big house. That was Trump’s witness, the prosecution fought Merchan to keep him out, Merchan sided with the defense, the witness metaphorically spit in Merchan’s face.
• MEANWHILE: Alito has NOT changed his story again and there is no Democratic politician with the guts to even conduct a hearing into his amazing corruption. But Brian Beutler has a suggestion that could at least illuminate reality and punish Alito and the fascists for his perfidy.

B-Block

• THE WORST PERSONS IN THE WORLD: Politico is so corrupt that the boyfriend editor Calder McHugh hyping the girlfriend’s article doesn’t even bother to put it third or fourth on its list. The guy who finished second to Larry Hogan in the GOP Maryland primary? Robin Ficker? Does that sound familiar? And RFK Jr, wrong about his residence and just three presidents of Iran behind the times.

C-Block

• THINGS I PROMISED NOT TO TELL: The event was a couple of days ago but there’s always time to celebrate not just the birthday of the immortal of Willie Mays but the day he gave a 20-year old me a radio interview that began with him doing a voice out of all the bigoted cliched movies of the 1930’s.

Good morning, good afternoon, good night, and good luck.

George Balderson rescues Lancashire as Durham falter in mighty run-chase  ESPNcricinfo

Pope Francis tells ‘60 Minutes’: ‘[T]he globalization of indifference is a very ugly disease’  The Catholic Thing

A Papal Visit: Luxembourg and Belgium Await Pope Francis  The Catholic Weekly

Biden says Israel’s action in Gaza ‘not genocide’ after arrest warrant request for Netanyahu  Sky News

Biden Tells Jewish Heritage Celebration at White House: Israeli Forces Are Not Committing Genocide in Gaza – Israel …  Haaretz

Embattled Sen. Bob Menendez says wife has breast cancer as his bribery trial unfolds  CNN

Washington could sign off on a sweeping package of economic and security support for Georgia if its government abandons its increasingly anti-Western rhetoric and stops backsliding on human rights, Report informs via POLITICO.

The United States said it had been unable, due largely to logistical reasons, to accept an Iranian request for assistance following a helicopter crash over the weekend that killed President Ebrahim Raisi, as Washington offered its condolences, Report info