Instead of following the news, I’ve been watching The Equalizer. I like when complex problems are wrapped up in under an hour! I loved Leverage more, less killing. Leverage PREPARED for what the bad guys would likely say and do, then busted them harder when they did. The reveal at the end showed our heroes knew their mark and used it against them. They often got the mark in trouble in ways the legal systems wouldn’t. Today my friend Cliff Schecter talked about Pam Bondi’s hearing and how Adam Schiff prepared for her hearing and busted her. Cliff points out she was a lobbyist for Qatar in 2019, ( you know, Qatar where it’s illegal to be gay.) There were paying her a fee of $115,000 a month. Listen to Cliff point out all the problems with Bondi here. The exchange reminded me of a joke I wrote during the 1st Impeachment hearing. Pam Bondi says “Do you expect me to tell the truth.?” Adam Schiff, “No Ms. Bondi, I expect you to lie!” I posted this and someone said, “Goldfinger, right?” Correct! Here is the scene.
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At least we know what’s expected. And it’s interesting that it’s not just votes, we have to give money to Republicans as well. Good to know.
This is a gift to the opposition if only they are smart enough to accept it.
Here is a typical blurb from the MSM in the last few days that I think is worthwhile to unpack. It’s from Semafor’s newsletter: US President-elect Donald Trump will begin his second term with political momentum, but his sweeping promises may come back to haunt him. His November victory was “by any historical measure… a squeaker,” wrote Ezra Klein in The New York Times, “but the vibes have been a rout.” Silicon Valley embraced him and the Trumpian right won social media, allowing Trump a “cultural victory” larger than his political one. But he needs to be careful: He has promised an end to inflation and a rapid economic boom, despite policies that economists think will actually accelerate price rises and slow rather than aid growth. Polling already finds Americans skeptical that he can fulfil those promises. It’s true that in the vibes economy (I can’t believe I’m writing that) Trump has been pretty triumphant during the interregnum. And yet many seem to think that the minute people realize that the price of eggs isn’t going down they will turn on him.
At 12:46 pm on January 20th Trump had the portrait of Mark Milley removed from the wall of the Pentagon. Biden pardoned Milley for good reason. Trump said he committed treason: In normal times, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs, the principal military adviser to the president, is supposed to focus his attention on America’s national-security challenges, and on the readiness and lethality of its armed forces. But the first 16 months of Milley’s term, a period that ended when Joe Biden succeeded Donald Trump as president, were not normal, because Trump was exceptionally unfit to serve. “For more than 200 years, the assumption in this country was that we would have a stable person as president,” one of Milley’s mentors, the retired three-star general James Dubik, told me. That this assumption did not hold true during the Trump administration presented a “unique challenge” for Milley, Dubik said. Milley was careful to refrain from commenting publicly on Trump’s cognitive unfitness and moral derangement.
We lost Cecile Richards today. She was an organizer and advocate who did the job extremely well and made a difference. I met her a few times and she was always warm and engaging and extremely smart. Her family put out a statement: “If you’d like to celebrate Cecile today, we invite you to put on some New Orleans jazz, gather with friends and family over a good meal, and remember something she said a lot over the last year: ‘It’s not hard to imagine future generations one day asking: ‘When there was so much at stake for our country, what did you do?’ The only acceptable answer is: ‘Everything we could.’” Word. She will be missed.
Today: It’s happening: President Trump on Monday signed pardons for members of the mob that attacked the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, as well as executive orders addressing the first priorities of his administration. Mr. Trump gave what he described as “full pardons” for about 1,500 defendants tied to the attack. He said he also signed commutations of sentences for six defendants but did not say who they were. The lawyer for Enrique Tarrio, the former leader of the Proud Boys who is serving a 22-year sentence on a seditious conspiracy conviction connected to Jan. 6, said Tarrio is currently being processed for release from a federal prison in Louisiana. Even though Trump has not yet formally granted clemency to Jan. 6 defendants, the lawyer, Nayib Hassan, said Tarrio could be out of prison by as early as Monday night. Lawyers for other Proud Boys convicted with Tarrio on sedition charges have also been called from their cells this evening to sign release papers, according to defense lawyers and Condemned USA, a group that has provided legal funds and advocacy for Jan. 6 defendants. The law and order president has spoken.
I offer you a gift link to the whole interview (and transcript if you prefer.) It’s super interesting. A little excerpt: Klein: I think attention is now to politics what people think money is to politics. Certainly at the high levels. There are places where money is very powerful, but it’s usually where people are not looking. Money is very powerful when there’s not much attention. But Donald Trump doesn’t control Republican primaries with money — he controls them with attention. I keep having to write about Musk, and I keep saying he’s the richest man in the world. But it’s actually not what matters about him right now. It’s just how he managed to get the attention and become the character and the wielder of all this attention. And that’s a changeover I think Trumpist Republicans have made, and Democrats haven’t. Democrats are still thinking about money as a fundamental substance of politics, and the Trump Republican Party thinks about attention as a fundamental substance of politics. Hayes: I really like this theory.
Cluck, cluck: I’m sure this is all Biden’s fault as everything bad will be for the next four years. Still, from what I’ve been told, the price of eggs is the most important issue faced by all mankind. Of course, now that Dear Leader has returned I’m sure most people will be happy to roll with the punches.
That’s the notice that people found when Tik Tok went dark last night. Then Trump posted this: Now it’s back. In both instances its owners seized the opportunity to praise Dear Leader. Smart move. He loves to have his boots licked more than anything. They can totally manipulate him with flattery. Trump has his own reasons for all this: 2021: Trump demonized tiktok because it was useful for Chinese xenophobia and he thought he could force them to sell it to his friends at Walmart and Oracle 2024: Trump wants to “save” Tiktok to help billionaire Trump donor and Tiktok investor Jeffrey Yass and force a sale to somebody like Musk Now he’s indicating that he might nationalize it but I feel very confident he won’t do that. He’ll make sure one of his billionaire buds is in charge. He’s not even president yet.