TUCKER SPUTTERS, AS THE CROW FLIES, GREENE DENIED

Just in case you were eagerly awaiting the release of the much-heralded biography of Tucker Carlson, Bryan Tyler Cohen has disappointment for you on his odactionnews website…the publication has been shelved…at least until Tuck-Tuck regains some notoriety. As Cohen writes, “A biography about alt-right fanboy and testicle-tanning enthusiast Tucker Carlson has been cancelled by a major publishing house, apparently because Carlson’s star power has waned since his unceremonious ouster from FoxNews last year. Politico’s Michael Shaffer attributed the book deal’s demise to Carlson’s diminished cultural relevance, writing that ‘the cancellation stems at least in part from the belief that Carlson, once the biggest name on cable, no longer has the kind of cultural footprint to warrant a pricey, complicated book by a top-shelf writer.’ For the record, we would argue Carlson never had the kind of cultural footprint to warrant a complicated book of any kind; he simply had hold of one of Rupert Murdoch’s very loud and very well-funded megaphones.” Dominion Voting Systems seems to have a larger megaphone…to the tune of $787M worth! Make better choices next time, Tuck.

Bad news on another front, for Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas and his ‘son,’ Mark Martin, who he claims to have raised from the age of six, comes word that they have evidently had a falling out, with no contact ‘in a long time.’ Mark is actually the grandson of Thomas’s sister, and was the beneficiary of donated gifts of tuition to two private schools, courtesy of the Clarence Thomas sugar-daddy, Harlan Crow. Martin, who is now 32, is awaiting trial in South Carolina on drugs and weapons charges, saying in a Business Insider interview that despite his reaching out to Clarence and Ginni several times over the years, he has been ignored and is unsure whether they are aware of his current plight…nor is he sure they would even care. He has said he was unaware of Crow’s footing the bill for his education, but that he “believed his intentions to be pure.” No word on whether or not he was a participant in any of the vacations enjoyed by the Thomas duo bestowed upon them by Mr. Crow. After ProPublica revealed that Thomas had benefited from the Crow largesse several times, he finally owned up to two trips which had been excluded in his filings, subsequently amending his 2019 financial disclosure; but then investigators questioning Crow himself offered him a deal, whereupon he spilled the beans about three more unreported private jet trips. Are there more dominoes about to fall? A statement from Crow’s office says Senators had been given information covering the past seven years, with the committee agreeing “to end its probe with respect to Mr. Crow. Despite his serious and continued concerns about the legality and necessity of the inquiry, Mr. Crow engaged in good faith with the Committee.” Crickets from Justice Thomas regarding his frequent use of Crow’s Canadian Bombardier Global 5000 business jet which can cost over $10,000 per flight hour if chartered from a private company.

The senate committee also authorized a subpoena for conservative legal activist Leonard Leo, who joined Thomas and Crow on one trip, but is better known as a luxury fishing trip buddy for Justice Samuel Alito. Leo is defying the subpoena. The clamor that arose from the questionable ethics of Thomas and Alito led to the Court adopting a historical-first code of conduct, which as might be expected, has no teeth and no enforcement mechanism. Last week the Senate Democrats attempted to pass a bill to tighten the Court-adopted ethics rules and create a process for investigating complaints of possible misconduct, but Senator Lindsey Graham called it “unconstitutional overreach” as he led a group of GOP Senators to block it.

Justice Thomas, in acknowledging the two free vacations reported by ProPublica, said he “inadvertently omitted” the gifts on his financial disclosure forms. And though many legal experts have described his unreported trips as violations, Thomas’s attorney maintains that free flights don’t have to be reported. Somewhere in his reasoning, Thomas, who claims to be a Constitutional originalist with ability to parse definite meanings from the ambiguous language of that founding document, loses the thread when it comes to his personal lifestyle. Those definitive words he spoke last year become contradictory in newer situations as he becomes an advocate of evolving explanations toward a forgetful audience. After ProPublica started revealing the beneficence of Crow toward him, Thomas issued his ‘disclosure’ that these were “family trips with dearest friends,” further explaining advice sought from colleagues that, “this sort of personal hospitality from close personal friends, who did not have business before the Court, was not reportable. I have endeavored to follow that counsel throughout my tenure.” So, intentional exclusions, eh? But with the newly filed amendment, he says his information had been “inadvertently omitted” earlier? So which is it, Justice Thomas? The trickster is at work here…amended filings list only “food and lodging” – how did he get to Bali? Must have been a private jet or a luxury cruiser of some sort?  The listing on the disclosure as a “reimbursement” instead of a ‘gift’ enables Thomas to hide the dollar value of his Bali vacation just as was the case with other gifts. It is estimated that Mr. T has accumulated between $2m and $4 in gifts since 2004, to which Steven Lubet of The Daily Beast writes, “As a justice of the Supreme Court, Thomas must regularly interpret complex statutes, and determine the validity of laws based on his theory of ‘history and tradition,’ often with the life, fortune, or freedom of people at stake. If nothing else, it is a task that demands consistency, candor, and completeness. Although I seldom agree with Thomas’s jurisprudence, I can still appreciate the clarity of his written opinions. When it comes to his financial disclosures, however, it is all commission, contradiction, and obfuscation. Which raises the question: How gullible does he think we are?”

Still plying her wiles on our gullibility is Georgia’s Flaxen Klaxon, Marjorie Taylor Greene. However, her tactics were stalled by fellow House members, both Republicans and Democrats, after her recent attempt to remove Mike Johnson as House Speaker when she could barely gather just a handful of backers. This led her to begin pointing fingers at both political parties as a “uniparty” even though there is not much unity to see…except where they want her to clam up and disappear. Charlie Sykes commented on MSNBC that one doesn’t even have to like Speaker Johnson to enjoy this moment, where Greene is “basically reaching her expiration date.” Only after the former president posted that her action “will negatively affect everything,” did she back off, not daring to lose favor with her orange idol, though she was only following his example using a big mouth and a hate-filled heart. Amanda Marcotte of Salon identifies “she” as the operative word in MTG’s case…the Christian right-controlled GOP sees women as support staff, not leaders. She was beloved when she paid little attention to legislative work and spent all her time spewing invective to rally MAGAts…being a cheerleader. But then she jumped into the huddle and started trying to call plays, so a line was drawn, characterized by the boos and heckling from the House floor. As Marcotte says, “The GOP turned on her because, simply put, she got too big for her britches. Or, in more old-fashioned terms, she wanted to wear the britches, while they wanted her to stay in skirts. Greene is emblematic of the empty-headed fascism Trump has brought to life in American politics. Greene has painted a target on her back. Her relevance just took a big blow she may never recover from.”

But, never one to take a hint, Greene faced off with Dr. Anthony Fauci last week during a House hearing where he was questioned, fending off criticism that he harbors secrets regarding COVID-19 and is responsible for governmental policies during his tenure…“crimes against humanity.” Greene refused to address him by his title of ‘doctor’ until she was admonished by the chair, though she continued with her snippy rudeness. Jimmy Fallon of The Tonight Show mocked her actions as a “strong stance,” saying her come-on line was, “If you’re a real doctor, how come you’re not walking toward me with a straitjacket?” Fallon also noted that Pepsi had been surpassed by Dr. Pepper as the second top soda brand in the USA, just behind Coke. He imagines Greene’s response as a rant about ‘Mr. Pepper’ not being “a real doctor.” As the Red Queen said to Alice, “you have to run as fast as you can to stay in the same place.” Run, Marge, run!

Marjorie seems to fall into the category described by Aaron Blake of The Washington Post where he says that those who will be deciding the 2024 election this year are not “generally the ones who will be on the fence and making crucial calls late in the campaign.” He apologizes for this summation, which is not to be a reflection on those who read campaign politics newsletters and the like, because the decisive voters are going to be those who have little to no idea what those who have been paying attention are even talking about. He discusses a poll from Yahoo News and YouGov where people were asked a series of basic questions about current politics, with only about half of our citizens agreeing Trump had been indicted for the subjects of his three remaining indictments. Sadly, 16 to 21 percent said affirmatively that Trump had not been indicted for these things…which he in fact has been indicted for. With some skepticism, he thinks some Republicans answered the questions wrong to skew the polling numbers. Blake attributes the range of answers simply to lack of paying attention, or a media diet on outlets that also don’t pay attention, with those least familiar with the indictments being FoxNews viewers and who don’t watch other cable news. Referencing those who purposely answered questions incorrectly, a protest of sorts might be at work if they feel indictments were unjustified…how could a ‘witch hunt’ be an indictment anyway? Lack of engagement is emphasized by the 1 in 5 polled who claimed not to know details of the Trump Manhattan Court verdict, either saying the former president was ‘not guilty’ or the trial was still in process…with 2 out of every 5 registered voters under the age of 30! Yikes…not a good omen!

A Marquette University Law School poll finds that a majority of independents indicate that they have heard only “a little” or “nothing at all” regarding Trump’s purloined classified documents indictment. Last month, a Reuters/Ipsos poll found that only 1 in 5 voters knew that Trump said purported voter fraud in the 2020 election “allows for the termination of all rules, regulations, and articles, even those found in the Constitution.” Based on claims by Trump and his MAGAts, some voters believe our economy is in recession, and think we have a 50-year high in unemployment. It is concerning that we may not see big shifts approaching the upcoming election, even with voters becoming more attentive.

Notably, one who hasn’t been paying attention is Donald J. Trump who still hasn’t figured out how our government works…in particular the House of Representatives. After his conviction on 34 felony fraud counts in the New York case, he immediately contacted House Speaker Johnson  asking him to overturn the verdict, which in turn prompted Seth Meyers of ‘Late Night‘ to explain the Trumpian view of our three branches. “He treats them like his three adult kids. The executive branch is Ivanka, she can do whatever she wants; the judicial branch is Don Jr., his right-hand man who does his bidding; and, Congress is Eric,” Seth interprets, adding, “Send him a birthday card, even though Trump has probably tried to have him killed. Eric knew it wasn’t intentional that he got pushed into the quicksand.” Meyers rags on the MAGA fold for spouting conspiracy theories about Joe Biden, while ignoring “the real one right in front of them.”

Trump returned to the location of his four-year crime spree in DC last week, meeting with House Republicans, and was about as coherent as any of his verbal-incontinency rally speeches might be. One source described him as “rambling, like talking to your drunk uncle at the family reunion,” as he tried his repetitive bit at humor in describing Hannibal Lecter as a nice guy who had a friend over for dinner. Most of those in attendance had great praise for the gathering saying he had brought “great unity.”…perhaps, with the exception of Representative Chip Roy who spent part of his time watching golf on his iPad as the Orange One rambled on. Trump was serenaded with a round of ‘Happy Birthday’ as he exited, in celebration of his 78th birthday event to follow at a Mar-a-Lago the next day.

Keith Olbermann, formerly of MSNBC and ESPN, jumped on the reporting of the Associated Press for its coverage of Trump’s return to DC, saying on Xwitter, “Fire everybody for describing the visit as ‘triumphant.'” His article was headlined, “Cheers, cake and a fist-bump from GOP as Trump returns to Capitol Hill in a first since Jan. 6 riot,” going on to say, “I am surprised to find the AP is still in business today after it published this wanton, biased, compromised, prostituted, unsurvivable pile of Trump-sucking propaganda yesterday.” Yeah, but what do you really think, Keith? Referring to Adolf Hitler’s propaganda minister, he adds, “Goebbels would have been embarrassed.” The AP did not immediately respond to his commentary, but the Trump campaign was quick to attack, with a post saying, “Joe Biden and his supporters  showing they are anti-press and in favor of punishing anyone who does not parrot their propaganda.”

Jimmy Fallon of the ‘Tonight Show‘ cracked, “Down at Mar-a-Lago, they’re planning a big party with candy ankle monitors and a bouncy jail house. Apparently, when the chef at Mar-a-Lago asked what kind of cake he wanted, Trump said, ‘The kind with the file baked into it.'”