The News of the Week
The Bizarre Edition
168 is a newsletter emailed weekly on an unscheduled basis in which I share my thoughts on various topics for the purpose of discussion. Your comments are welcome so please feel free to post them. To view archived newsletters, please visit www.1hundredsixty8.substack.com.
Living in interesting times.
Perhaps this past week will rank as one of the more interesting in recent American history. For the first time, a former US President was indicted and arraigned on felony charges, the current Governor of Florida and wannabe President was schooled by The Walt Disney Corporation, and it was revealed that a Supreme Court Justice had not disclosed receiving gifts for decades in the form of vacations and flights on private jets he reportedly from a wealthy conservative businessman.
When Americans send people to public office, it just might be we do not send our best.
The story about Donald Trump’s arrest and arraignment in New York City has been well-covered and once again the media indulged its Trump fetish. And the former President and relentless grifter Trump did not fail to deliver: Though the judge did not issue a gag order, he did warn Defendant Trump not to engage in conduct or commentary that “could incite violence, or create civil unrest, or jeopardize the safety or well-being of any individuals”. Trump being Trump, he immediately flew home to Florida and delivered a speech in which he attacked the “Trump-hating judge” and “his Trump-hating family”, including an adult daughter. While he was at it, “Trump also used his speech to attack Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg; Jack Smith, the special counsel overseeing two federal investigations of Trump; and a Georgia district attorney investigating him for election interference in her state”.*
Trump is 76 years old, so the old-dog-new-tricks axiom obviously applies. He’s avoided accountability during a life of immoral, unethical, and often illegal behavior, and he may believe that this time is no different. However, as a contingency, he should consider pitching a reality tv show based on his time in prison, sort of a Trumpian “Orange is the New Black”.
Unlike the Donald, Florida Governor Ron ‘DeSpiteful’ DeSantis is not skating away cleanly after being caught with his political pants down in his kerfuffle with Disney. You’ll recall that The Mouse’s lawyers came up with a plan that had the board of the company’s special district sign over development rights to Disney before the vengeful DeSantis signed a new law that gave control of the district to a new board he appointed. Contracts being a sacred matter and the Disney legal team having crossed their Ts and dotted their Is, there seems little the petite brute can do to counter the company’s legal maneuvers. But Tiny D (one of the nicknames Trump has given his rival) decided to show his tough side. Embarrassed no doubt by public comments Disney CEO Bob Iger made at Monday’s shareholders’ meeting (Iger characterized the state’s actions against the company as “anti-business and anti-Florida” and said the company was being punished for exercising its First Amendment right of free expression), DeSantis took the bait and responded with public threats about possible actions the state might take against its largest private employer and taxpayer: adding tolls to the highways around the Disney property, increasing taxes on Disney hotels, and requesting a criminal investigation into the previous board’s actions. Pouring more gasoline on this fire is probably not the smartest move. It certainly isn’t making DeSpiteful look more like DePresident.
Trump being Trump and Ron DeSantis being a make-believe tough guy are what we’ve come to expect from these characters. We can extend the “[soft] bigotry of low expectations” to Clarence Thomas, the longest-serving Justice on the current Supreme Court, who has for decades enjoyed a luxurious lifestyle as a result of his relationship with a conservative billionaire. The story, broken by the nonpartisan site ProPublica, is the latest in a stretch of bad news shaking public faith in the legitimacy of the Court. It’s been a poorly-kept secret that for years Thomas has benefited from the generosity of Texas real estate mogul Harlan Crow, benefits that include millions of dollars worth of vacations around the world, travel in Crow’s private jet, and stays at luxury resorts. When this relationship became known in the early 2000s, Thomas simply stopped reporting the gifts. In a statement this week, Thomas maintained that “Early in my tenure at the court, I sought guidance from my colleagues and others in the judiciary, and was advised that this sort of personal hospitality from close personal friends, who did not have business before the court, was not reportable.”
“Close personal friends” included not only Crow but leading conservative actors such as Leonard Leo, founder of The Federalist Society. Thomas’s wife Ginni is a long-time conservative activist who was involved in efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 Presidential election that culminated in the January 6 insurrection. In the past, Crow reportedly contributed $500,000 to a Tea Party group founded by Ginni Thomas, who was paid a $120,000 annual salary. All this notwithstanding, the Justice’s opinion is there’s nothing much to see here.
Given the controversial decisions that Court had handed down recently (e.g. overturning Roe v. Wade), this is not a good look for any Justice, especially one who is staunchly conservative. Decisions based on the ideological leanings of the Court’s 6-3 majority are to be anticipated, but when the stench of corruption emanates from a member, the perception of undue influence rears its ugly head. Thomas is no stranger to these types of assertions, but hiding behind the shield of no formal ethics rules per se for SCOTUS Justices is not the prudent way to go. The kindest characterization of Thomas’s behavior is he exercised poor judgment and that’s a stretch.
Meanwhile, in Jim Jordan’s Real America…
From various sources:
Rough Day For Man Driving Stolen School Bus With Dead Deer Inside The suspect told the police he intended to use the dead deer as fertilizer in his garden.
Men plead guilty after being accused of stuffing fish with weights at tournament
Two men accused of stuffing fish with lead weights and fish fillets in an attempt to win thousands of dollars in an Ohio fishing tournament last fall have pleaded guilty to charges including cheating.
I bottled my sweat as perfume — men say my body odor is 'sexy and exciting
"My natural smell entices men, so I used drops of my sweat as a base for the perfume's fragrance," Wanessa Moura explained.
Texas man claims little boy's ghost pushed a shopping cart into his $25K car, causing damage
A 21-year-old from Texas said a ghost is what pushed a shopping cart into his new car — denting it and causing thousands in damage.
And, for this week’s finale, here is yet another story about the healing power of prayer:
Pastor John Lindell of the James River Church in Springfield, Missouri, claimed on the congregation's livestream on March 15 that a "creative miracle" had taken place the day before at the church's Joplin location, the Springfield News-Leader reported. Lindell explained that "prayer team members" had prayed over Kristina Dines, who had had three toes amputated after her husband shot her in 2015. "As the ladies prayed for Krissy ... all three toes grew, and by that point, were longer than her pinky toe," Lindell said in the livestream. "Within an hour, nails began to grow on all the toes," he added. While Dines hasn't commented to the paper, she said in a video on Twitter that she saw the toes reforming. "Listen, do you understand? I can stand on tippy toes. No, I couldn't do that (before) because I didn't have toes to tippy on," Dines said. During the livestream, Lindell also suggested to parishioners that other miracles are coming: "... some people in this room -- you're gonna raise people from the dead. It's going to happen." Stay tuned. [Springfield News-Leader, 3/22/2023]
This a reminder that all these people have the right to vote. Elections have consequences, and this is especially evident when you consider the US Congress. This week’s shining example is Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, the conspiracy believer and attention seeker from Georgia who never lets a good story get ruined by facts. On Tuesday, Empty-G posted a video clip to Twitter of a House testimony by a mother who lost two sons to fentanyl overdoses in July 2020. Greene claimed the two deaths “were the result of the Biden Administration’s refusal to secure the border”. Sorry, Ms. G, but Donald Trump was President in July 2020.
168 is a newsletter emailed weekly on an unscheduled basis in which I share my thoughts on various topics for the purpose of discussion. Please feel free to post comments.
You can visit www.1hundredsixty8.substack.com to view archived newsletters.
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