Yeah, ok, the Supreme Court is dominated by a slavering cabal of Christofascist perjurers who’ve taken fiendish delight in pissing on America’s parade. They have no integrity, no decency and no real legacy — except their failure to uphold their oaths.
Sure, we have a bunch of foresworn republican office holders who conspired to overturn the 2020 election and supported a violent insurrection (and continue to do so). They have no ethics, no morals and no real legacy — except their monstrous hypocrisy.
And yes, we have a corporate media who refuse to do their jobs coupled with a network of hatemongering propaganda outlets who promote disinformation as a staple commodity.
There’s even a brutal war where nearly a quarter of our republican colleagues are supporting the war crimes committing aggressor.
You could mash up all these bad actors into a puree of deception and duplicity. They still wouldn’t be worth a bucket thimble of warm spit.
I am exceedingly tired of being slapped in the face by a group of people whose entire mission is to exert religious, fiscal, or bodily control over the rest of us. This unholy marriage between plutocrats, theocrats, and autocrats will end.
We are agents of change and redemption. We understand we hold our future in our hands. We have the moral arc of the universe. All the sleazy politicians, judges, and their sickophants[sic] and fellow liars cannot stop our march forward. We will overcome.
We have the power. We have the ability. We can and we will do this.
Slava Ukraini!
Remember the Children
Screw you, Samuel Alito
Colbert’s open featured 5 very popular icons of all that is wrong with America.
Then Stephen let fly with both barrels.
Chelsea Handler sat in for Jimmy Kimmel last night. A sample: “Calling Republicans pro-life is like calling O.J. Simpson pro-wife,”
There’s some news, too.
Remember that Break in the Hearings?
Well, guess what — breaks over. Tune in today at 1PM to unravel the name(s) of the mystery witness(es).
Rolling Stone: Ryan Bort: Jan. 6 Committee Announces Surprise Mystery Hearing on Tuesday
The Jan. 6 committee will hold a last-minute hearing Tuesday afternoon days after previously announcing it would break until mid-July.
The committee made the surprise announcement on Monday. It did not name any witnesses or specify what the hearing will cover, only citing “recently obtained evidence.”
The committee has spent nearly a year interviewing hundreds of witnesses and combing through thousands of pages of documents in an effort to piece together the particulars of the Trump administration’s scheme to overturn the 2020 election results, culminating with the attack on the Capitol. The committee has so far hosted five televised hearings, covering the viciousness of the riot and how Trump inspired it, how the Big Lie that the election was stolen took root, the former president’s pressure campaign to get Mike Pence to illegally block the certification of the Electoral College, the push to get states to go along with the scheme, and Trump’s effort to corrupt the Justice Department into aiding his attempt to overturn the election.
Late Breaking: Politico is reporting that Cassidy Hutchinson will testify today. It’s not clear if she’s to be the only witness. Mayhaps, she’s bringing some smoking guns along.
Politico: Nicholas Wu, Kyle Cheney, Ryan Lizza: Former Meadows aide to testify in surprise Jan. 6 committee hearing
The Jan. 6 select committee is set to hear from a onetime top aide to former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows on Tuesday, an abruptly scheduled hearing whose announcement riveted Washington.
Cassidy Hutchinson will testify publicly, according to two people familiar with the committee’s plans, after providing crucial testimony to the panel about significant exchanges among top Donald Trump’s inner circle in the weeks before the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol. Hutchinson replaced her attorney earlier this month as the select committee’s hearings began; her former attorney was the Trump White House’s chief ethics lawyer, and her new attorney is a longtime ally of former Attorney General Jeff Sessions.
Poor, Poor, Pitiful Insurrectionist
Someone should tell John this is what happens when you try to overthrow the duly elected government. I bet it really sucks to be Eastman, right about now (and I hope it gets worse).
Huffington Post: Nick Visser: FBI Seized Phone Of John Eastman, Key Figure In Effort To Overturn 2020 Election
Federal agents seized the cell phone of John Eastman, an attorney who advised former President Donald Trump in his bid to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election, Eastman said in a court filing on Monday.
Eastman filed a lawsuit asking the Justice Department to return his property and destroy any records it had obtained after FBI agents in New Mexico stopped him as he was leaving a restaurant last week. The investigators had a warrant and seized his iPhone, the filing says, and agents were able to access his email accounts.
The lawyer said in the filing the agents
“forced” him to unlock the device.
I Prefer My Schadenfreude with a Side of Karma
While tfg’s flailing Twitter clone circles the drain, the scheme to enrich tfg at the expense of his investors is floundering as well.
Mother Jones: Russ Choma: Trump-Linked Company Hit With Grand Jury Subpoena
Digital World Acquisition Corp—the publicly-traded company that is planning to merge with Donald Trump’s struggling media business—announced Monday that it had been smacked with a federal grand jury subpoena.
DWAC is special purpose acquisition company (SPAC, for short), which is an empty shell of a corporation that goes public on a stock exchange with no purpose or business plan and then merges with an existing company. It can be a way for a business to get itself publicly listed without having to go through the rigorous and time-consuming process of a traditional initial public offering. Last September, when Trump announced the creation of a media company—including Truth Social, a Twitter look-alike social media platform—he said his new firm would eventually merge with DWAC and go public. In theory, if the merger goes through, it could hugely enrich Trump, who presumably would own a large chunk of the newly merged company, while also providing much needed capital to help his nascent media empire compete with more established tech giants. DWAC, which had already gone public, saw its stock price quickly rise from $10 to more than $97.
But the Securities and Exchange Commission requires a SPAC like DWAC to be a truly blank slate—when the founders of the company go public, they aren’t supposed to harbor secret plans to merge with a a specific business, such as Trump Media & Technology Company. And almost immediately, accusations began to fly that DWAC’s founders did have conversations with Trump’s camp, long before DWAC went public. In December, DWAC executives disclosed in SEC filings that both the SEC and the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) were investigating how much of a relationship existed between DWAC and Trump prior to the SPAC’s launch. Earlier this month, the company said the investigation by the two regulatory authorities was expanding.
Methinks He Doth Protest Too Much
Rudy is pretending he was brutally assaulted in a Staten Island supermarket. Here’s the slap heard pretty much nowhere:
And here’s some analysis:
Salon: Igor Derysh: “He could have killed me”: Skepticism after video shows “slap” that made Giuliani cry “assault”
Former Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani called police on a man who slapped him on the back at a New York supermarket but a video of the incident cast serious doubts on Giuliani's claim that he could have been "killed."✂️
Giuliani called the police over the slap and cops arrested 39-year-old Daniel Gill, charging him with second-degree assault involving a person over age 65, according to the report.
Giuliani told reporters after the incident that the slap felt like "somebody shot me."✂️
"Maybe Rudy Giuliani, who tried to orchestrate a failed overthrow of the 2020 election, is not the most reliable narrator about other things too," tweeted NPR reporter Stephen Fowler.
"Surprised [Giuliani] survived this brutal assault,"
quipped former GOP operative Tim Miller. "Glad the cops got involved here."
Speaking of Bottom Dwellers
In addition to a serious primary challenge, Sideshow Boebert has some other things to worry about. I guess there are drawbacks to being a miserable excuse for a human being after all.
Raw Story: David Edwards: Indicted election clerk says Lauren Boebert ‘encouraged me’ to commit alleged crimes
A Colorado election clerk who was indicted on 10 criminal counts has said that Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-CO) "encouraged" her to commit the alleged crimes.
In a report on Sunday,
The New York Times recounted the "strange tale" of
Mesa County Clerk Tina Peters, who has fueled right-wing conspiracy theories claiming the 2020 presidential election was stolen.
"Ms. Peters was indicted on 10 criminal counts related to the effort to copy voting equipment software, including attempting to influence a public servant, criminal impersonation, conspiracy to commit criminal impersonation, identity theft and first-degree official misconduct," the report explained.
Raw Story: Travis Gettys: Lauren Boebert may be forced to close her gun-themed restaurant after landlord yanks her lease
Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-CO) could lose her Hooters-inspired, gun-themed restaurant in a dispute with her new landlord.
The Colorado Republican
told The Daily Beast she and her husband were surprised last week to receive notice from their landlord, a cannabis retailer, that their lease for Shooters would not be renewed after the building's ownership changed hands last month, and the lawmaker said they would have to find another location or close for good.
"She didn’t explain exactly why her business was being kicked out," the website reported. "A person familiar with the arrangement said the property manager felt he had a 'moral' imperative to close the business, and had planned to lease the space to another restaurant."
Andy Borowitz
I am such a fan boy. I simply can’t put together a roundup without Andy.
The New Yorker: Satire from the Borowitz Report: Women Declare Themselves Corporations to Force Supreme Court to Grant Them Rights as People
WASHINGTON (The Borowitz Report)—Millions of American women and girls have declared themselves corporations in order to force the United States Supreme Court to grant them rights as people, legal observers have reported.
Attorneys across the nation indicated that they have been swamped by requests from clients seeking to incorporate as soon as possible.
“The Supreme Court decided in 2010 that corporations are people, so all we want is to be treated like corporations, ” Carol Foyler, who now goes by the corporate name FoylerCo L.L.C., said.
The decision by millions of women to incorporate sent shock waves through the Court’s conservative majority, who reportedly scoured the Constitution in vain for a means to circumvent the ingenious tactic.
The Palate Cleanser
Having dipped our toes into the fetid, festering swamp of republican politics, we need a nice story to close out the news. Something to blunt the foul taste of hypocrisy and deceit that lingers after confronting evil. How about some cheap degradable plastic to cheer us up?
Good News Network: New Type of Plastic Made Directly From Organic Plant Waste Could Be the Game-Changer We Need
A new type of plastic made directly from organic plant waste has been created by scientists.✂️
Conventional plastic is so widespread because making it combines low cost, heat stability, mechanical strength, processability, and compatibility, the researchers say.
Until now, few if any alternative plastics have managed to match or surpass conventional plastic on these metrics, which is vital if they are to be used more widely.✂️
“What makes the plastic unique is the presence of the intact sugar structure.
“This makes it incredibly easy to make because you don’t have to modify what nature gives you, and it is simple to degrade because it can go back to a molecule that is already abundant in nature.”
Musical Interlude
Here’s a little serenade for 5 of our Supreme Court justices.
And another song from a Ukrainian Band that I’ve featured before. I have no idea what they are singing, but I’ve become quite a fan.
On the Lighter Edgier Illustrative Side
Quote of the Day
Morality is doing what is right, no matter what you are told. Religion is doing what you are told, no matter what is right. — H L Mencken
Closing Notes
From Independence Day, 1989 at a show in Orchard Park (Buffalo), NY