No fooling

I wish we could set aside one day a year for folly, stupidity, oafishness and the like, but there's too much to be contained in twenty-four hours.  Tomorrow will be just as dismaying. 

After a weekend of violating Judge Merchan's gag order as if he had it cornered in a department store changing room, Trump wants his bribery trial postponed because of "pre-trial publicity."  Glenn Kirschner notes that he posted 77 rants yesterday, which is probably why he had no time to go to church.  Besides, he's practically the Chosen One himself, according to nuts-even-by-evangelical-standards Wayne Allyn Root, who declared:  "Trump is sent by god and blessed by god.  What we are all witnessing is 'The Trump Miracle.'"  So hallelujah already.

This had better not be one of those tedious April Fool japes:  The Guardian reports that a previously unknown cache of Marvin Gaye songs was found in Ostend, Belgium.  The demo cassettes have been in the possession of musician Charles Dumolin since 1981, when Gaye stayed at his home while undergoing cocaine detox.  Dumolin died in 2019, and Belgian intellectual property law is not clear about whether they can be released by his heirs.  People who have heard them say they're more exciting than "Now and Then," the damp squib Beatles song released last year.

Truly the Middle East is an amazing place.  I thought the Assyrians were as extinct as the Hittites, but I was wrong.  They have civic organizations here and in Australia, their national day is the first of Tammuz (July) and they dream of returning to Nineveh -- what's left of it after Islamic State.  Today is Assyrian New Year.  Best wishes.

Most Middle Eastern news continues to break records for grimness.  An Israeli air strike destroyed the Iranian consulate in Damascus, Syria, and killed a commander in the Iranian Revolutionary Guard and at least six other people.  Israel is boasting about its successful bombing of al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza, claiming to have killed "scores" of militants without harming a single patient.  Dr. Jane Crawley, a pediatrician, would not agree.

The US military continues to work on its temporary dock but World Central Kitchen has already built a jetty and dispatched six shiploads of food from Cyprus to Gaza.  In addition to quick-preparation foods like rice and pasta, there are dates from the Emirates for people who, against all odds, are observing the Ramadan fast.  Chef Jose Andres is this century's Herbert Hoover.

If you are worried about chemtrails, the slap-happy conspiracy theory that the Deep State is releasing stuff from planes that causes sterilization, mind control, weather control and reduction of life expectancy, run -- do not walk -- to Tennessee.  The state senate laughed out of the chamber passed a bill forbidding the practice.  (Also, no Darwin, please, Genesis only.)  I'd love to see the FAA respond by banning all flights to, from and over the state, but that's just me.

Trump operatives are spreading the lie that he paid the mortgage for the family of Officer Jonathan Diller after hijacking his wake for a photo-op and a rant.  He should have, but of course he didn't.  He's cheap ("short-fingered"), he's broke, and he probably hit the widow up for a contribution.  (According to Murdoch's Wall Street Journal, Trump Media has lost 22 percent of its value since going public.)

The Kennedy family has made clear its dedication to Joe Biden's re-election and its disgust with the presidential aspirations of Robert Kennedy, Jr.  Now the family of Cesar Chavez is demanding he stop using the union organizer's name and photo to promote a campaign event.  Meanwhile the Biden-Harris campaign unveiled an ad where Trump says of Nikki Haley voters, "We don't want them."  Guess who does.  

When it comes to driving away voters, no one does it better than these Hood County, Texas, Republicans, caucusing with some friendly folks from Abolish Abortion Texas who want to see the death penalty applied to women who have abortions or in vitro fertilization.  One of them actually says, "Their lives don't matter any more than the babies they are killing."  There's your next ad, Biden-Harris.