Happy talk

 When good things happen, we owe it to ourselves to pay attention.

Marilyn Lands, a Democrat and a lawyer who had never held office, was elected to the Alabama House by a commanding 25 points.  She campaigned on reproductive rights and especially in vitro fertilization.  

Trump creep John Eastman, here being applauded by fellow creep Rudolph Giuliani at the insurrection warm-up, wrote the memo urging Mike Pence to refuse certification of the electors.  He lost his teaching jobs at Chapman University and the University of Colorado, and tomorrow he will lose his law license.  Moreover, the judge livestreamed his disbarment hearing last Tuesday so everyone could laugh and point (and in Giuliani's case, drink and sweat).  Nice one!

Don't ask me how but the Nebraska legislature (32 Republicans, 16 Democrats, one undecided) voted to recognize May 19 as El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz, Malcolm X Day, born in Omaha in 1925.  It's not a holiday but schools will hold exercises in recognition of the Black nationalist leader, who will also be inducted into the Nebraska Hall of Fame.  When did Nebraska get so woke?

Joe Lieberman, who died yesterday, talked Al Gore out of campaigning with Bill Clinton in 2000, making the popular vote close enough that the Bush brothers were able to rig Florida's electoral votes.  Joe Biden is not making that mistake.  At a fundraiser in Radio City Music Hall tonight with both Clinton and Barack Obama, Biden expects to rake in around $25 million, a record for a single event.  Trump, reduced to hawking shoes and Bibles, is doubtless shitting himself.

Bad case of election fraud in Georgia:  Brian K. Pritchard voted nine times while on probation for felony check forging.  We have to assume he voted Republican since he's vice chairman of the Georgia Republican Party, which explains why he only got a $5,000 fine and a public reprimand.  One more crime and he goes to jail, right?  Right?

Elsewhere in Georgia, Trump consigliere Steve Sadow is trying to convince Judge Scott McAfee that asking the secretary of state to "find" him 11,700 votes is free speech protected by the First Amendment and not an attempt to suborn election fraud.  Let's hear from the jury!

A law designed to make voting much harder in the state was struck down by the Montana Supreme Court.  The law would have negatively affected Native American and young voters, and the ruling is seen as helping the re-election campaign of Senator Jon Tester.

Bernie Moreno likes to tell people his family fled Colombia to escape socialism in 1971, but some reporters looked it up and said the first such government was elected in 2022.  Moreno's father was secretary of health in the conservative government of Misael Pastrana, president from 1970 to 1974.  Or so he says.  Is it possible a Trump-supported used-car dealer could be lying?

Fathers and daughters share something special, OK? is probably Trump's "reasoning" as he continues to attack Judge Juan Merchan's daughter in a flailing attempt to stall the Stormy Daniels bribe trial beyond April 15.  Merchan issues a gag order, Trump violates it, Merchan issues another, Trump appeals the gag order, the usual game.  Of course, the only way to gag Trump is the way Bobby Seale was gagged by Judge Julius Hoffman in 1969...

...so Judge Merchan went for his lawyers instead, threatening criminal contempt.  Although I would be fine with the Hoffman solution.

Michigan state rep Matthew Maddock (R-MAGA) was hanging around Detroit Metro-Wayne County Airport, as one does, and Xweeted, "Three busses [sic] loaded up with illegal invaders...Anyone have any idea where they're headed with their police escort?"  Actually, those were four men's basketball teams headed for the NCAA tournament at Little Caesars Arena, but thanks for your vigilance, Matt.  And thanks for being our Idiot of the Day.   

That police escort sounds like a good idea, especially after the University of Utah women's team was subjected to threats and racial harassment in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho.  The Utes had to flee to the relative safety of Spokane, where skinheads with Confederate flags are less prevalent.  Any thoughts, Matt?

Dimwitted Tennessee Republican Tim Burchett identified Denton Loudermill, Jr., as one of the people who shot up the Kansas City Chiefs' victory celebration and "an illegal Alien."  Loudermill is neither, so he's suing the dimwit.  

Dimwitted election denier Mike Lindell is being evicted from the MyPillow warehouse in Shakopee, Minnesota, but he assures his fans it's not because he owes $217,000 rent -- the owner just has other plans for the building.  Funny, that's what Lauren Boebert said when Chez Ptomaine lost its premises in Rifle, Colorado.