Shoes for industry!

 You almost have to admire his refusal to grapple with reality.  Owing judgments that top out over half a billion dollars and with the criminal trials coming up in Act Two, Trump goes into the shoe business.

At a gathering called "Sneaker Con" (emphasis on con) he hawked "Never Surrender High-Tops," with built-in lifts for the insecure narcissist who always needs to be the tallest person in the room.  I'm guessing.  Only $399 a pair, which I'm told is very reasonable for celebrity-branded gym shoes made by children in Mauritius.  Between Trump's cut and the GoFundMe started by some Florida woman, he's practically out of debt.  And think how impressed young Black voters will be with these exquisite kicks, partly gold like the dye in his hair!  I can't imagine who's actually making these things but it probably isn't Adidas, who had to end their partnership with Trump's pal Kanye when his antisemitism got out of control.

No, I'm forgetting the money Ma and Pa Republican donated to the RNC, where freshly anointed co-chair Lara Trump has pledge that "every single penny" will go to Eric's dad's re-election campaign.  And he can't run while he's worried about money -- he might start to get names and dates mixed up and invent terms like "supply change."  Paying off those nasty judgments is Job One.  As for folks running for other offices who expected help from the national party, they're shit out of luck.  Hold a bake sale.

Barred from conducting business in New York until 2026, what will the boys do?  Eric can continue to run the family whinery in North Carolina but how is Junior going to pay his dealer bills?  Uber?  Powerball tickets?  Wait, maybe he could get a job with Affinity Partners, his brother-in-law Jared's venture for sharing his "geopolitical expertise" with the world through the two billion petrodollars generously donated by Crown Prince Mohammed, the ruler who agreed that women in the Kingdom may drive cars.  Super guy.  He'd agree with Tucker Carlson that leaders have to kill people, especially journalists, and sometimes chop them up before they're completely dead.

Carlson's golly-gee reaction to Moscow has led some Americans to suggest he move there permanently, now that he no longer has a job here.  There are some Russian-style cathedrals in the US -- this is the St. Alexander Nevsky Cathedral in Howell, New Jersey, named for the hero of Eisenstein's film --

but they're not nearly as big or as gaudy as St. Basil's.  There's the Lubyanka Prison, so much prettier architecturally than Rikers Island, and of course the amazing coin-deposit shopping carts he discovered.  (The TV dinner heir doesn't shop much, I'm guessing.)  And Moscow is so safe!  Unless a dissident falls on your head, ha ha ha!  (Insert whinnying Tucker laugh here.)  I wonder if there's an opening on propaganda television for a late-night talk show, the Useful Idiot Hour.  Edward Snowden could be his Ed McMahon ("That is correct, tovarisch!").  "Our guests tonight, Gerard Depardieu and Marjorie Taylor Greene!  Again!"  Call me, Tucker.

In the meantime he should check out the 2004 Spielberg film The Terminal.  Stranded at JFK Airport, Viktor Navorski (Tom Hanks) survives for a while by rounding up luggage carts people have abandoned and redeeming the quarters from the machine.  Yes, this amazing technology has been around at least that long.  And a quarter is worth more than twenty rubles.

What Would Trump Do?  I assume there's a bracelet you can get.  Well, the answer of course is "sue somebody."  Determined to remain in the public eye, George Santos is suing Jimmy Kimmel for "fraud, breach of contract, unjust enrichment and copyright infringement" because Kimmel paid him (through Cameo) to make videos that were beneath his dignity as a disgraced ex-Congressman under criminal indictment.  Disney and ABC are also named defendants.  Last December Kimmel observed, "Could you imagine if I get sued by George Santos for a fraud?  I mean, how good would that be?  Since I started buying his videos his rate went way up to $500 apiece."  It's down to $277.00.  Ironically, Giuliani would have done them for lunch money.

Also last December, Michael Flynn, the most traitorous US general since that bunch walked off the job in 1861, was elected to the Rhode Island Heritage Hall of Fame.  Nine members of its board have resigned in protest but the place is under the sway of an 85-year-old reactionary named Patrick Conley.  Isn't he too old to chair a hall of fame?

Tennessee state rep Justin Jones introduced two innocuous resolutions to honor a couple of Nashville-area music acts who had won Grammy Awards, Allison Russell and Paramore.  A Republican named Jeremy Faison removed the Russell resolution from the consent calendar for reasons that had nothing to do with race (Russell is Black) or her support for LGBTQ people.  This led Hayley Williams of Paramore to condemn his action, which defeated itself by drawing attention to Russell and her politics.  Nice work, Jeremy.  Next time stop and try to think for a minute before letting your hate flag fly.

The archdiocese of New York is appalled that St. Patrick's Cathedral was used for the funeral of trans activist Cecilia Gentili.  Worse, the place with jammed with people celebrating her life, as if she had been some politician or normal person.  Today they held a "Mass of Reparation," whatever that is, to clear out the evil vibes.  Exorcism has been proposed.  I could bring up children abused by priests, awful "Indian schools" surrounded by unmarked graves, the Magdalene slave-labor laundries -- what's the point?  Timothy Dolan needs to wash some feet.