A matter of life and death

 Joe Biden is quietly having a good time depriving Trusk of opportunities for malice.  He has confirmed more federal judges than the orange one appointed in 2017-21 and he has commuted 37 death sentences.  The formerly condemned will now serve life without the possibility of parole, which I would consider worse.  "I condemn these murderers, grieve for the victims of their despicable acts, and ache for all the families who have suffered unimaginable and irreparable loss," Biden wrote.  "But guided by my conscience and my experience...I am more convinced than ever that we must stop the use of the death penalty at the federal level."  The commutation leaves just three inmates on death row:  Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, the Boston Marathon bomber; Dylann Roof, who killed nine members of Mother Emanuel Church in Charleston; and Robert Bowers, who shot eleven people in the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh.  All were convicted of terrorism as well as murder.

That seems to be the intent of bringing federal charges against Luigi Mangione in the killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, for which he already faces prosecution by New York.  It seems Merrick Garland can move like the wind when the victim is a corporate executive.  According to the New York Post (yeah, big grain of salt) "Health insurance industry leaders leaned on the US Department of Justice to prosecute...Mangione, arguing a federal case against the twisted folk hero would act as a deterrent for possible copycat vigilante killers."  Demonstrators had to chant "Free Luigi!" in front of the federal courthouse instead.

Is the junior partner in Trusk butt-sore from all the attention his rich buddy is getting?  Once the election is over the campaigning stops, but that's never been Trump's way.  He showed up at a Turning Point USA hate rally in Phoenix to feed off the yowls of the mob and to promise a commutation of his own, righting the wrong that America has suffered since 2015:  he vowed to re-name Mount Denali for William McKinley.  "They took his name off Mount McKinley, that's what they do to people," he asserted, and the mob was in no doubt about who "they" are -- those not-white barely-people typified by Obama.  One Alaskan didn't agree:

"There is only one name worthy of North America's tallest mountain:  Denali -- the Great One," wrote Senator Lisa Murkowski.  I hope he needs her vote to confirm his confederacy of putzes.

McKinley, of Spanish-American War fame, has been on what passes for Trump's mind as he pores over the map in his third grade geography book.  He dreams of adding territory to the American empire as McKinley did, more or less inadvertently -- when the war ended the US occupied Cuba, Puerto Rico, Guam and the Philippines, much to the disgust of Mark Twain, Henry Adams and others.  Agolf Twitler is more interested in the north, probably because the continued melting of the Arctic ice is expected to open northern sea routes.  In addition to twisting Canada's arm, he is again demanding that Greenland come into the Union.  Announcing the appointment of Ken Howery as ambassador to Denmark he added, "For purposes of National Security and Freedom throughout the World, the United States of America feels that the ownership and control of Greenland is an absolute necessity."  Not for sale, says Greenland PM Mute Egede, but who cares what he thinks?   

Meanwhile, according to geopolitical expert Corey Lewandowski, Panama should just hand back the Canal that Jimmy Carter gave away "so that China doesn't have its influence there."  (When you have no real argument, cite China.)  Or they should let us use it for free ("us" including Tesla, owned by senior partner Musk).  Nothing at all to do with the tax money one of Trump's busted companies forgot to pay the Panamanian government, why are you so suspicious?  "We have not expanded our country in seventy years," Lewandowski told Newsmax.  "Trump is thinking outside the box.  How do we have a lasting impact on the world stage?"  Like Hitler, Stalin and Putin, we just roll in and take, I guess.  (By the way, how did the US expand in 1954?  Did I miss a war?)

Back to Phoenix.  It seems there's no joy in Truskville, as Trump assured the mob that Musk is really not the real president really:  "I'm safe...he wasn't born in this country ha ha ha."  He didn't laugh; he can't.  He actually said "ha ha ha" like a comic strip character.  It was eerie.  Even the MAGAts weren't sure how to respond.  It was left to ex-con Steve Bannon to deliver the benediction:  "Divine providence works through Donald Trump as its instrument!  Trump 2028!  MSNBC fuck you!"  Let us pray.

Bannon is also threatening revenge -- on the House Ethics Committee, I assume, and everyone else connected with its Matt Gaetz report (NSFW).  The highlights include paying for sex with numerous women and one 17-year-old girl (technically known as statutory rape), possessing illegal drugs including cocaine and ecstasy, and accepting gifts over the allowable limit a/k/a Clarence Thomas Gratuities.  Gaetz says he's suing them, the knee-jerk Republican reaction to everything.  Barn empty, horse departed, Matt.  This could get him kicked off Cameo, which happily tolerates George Santos and Rudolph Giuliani and is probably trying to recruit Luigi Mangione.

Gaetz also appeared at FascistFest.  I see he has taken to wearing Palin glasses, the kind Sarah Palin and Lauren Boebert use to appear thoughtful and literate.  Good luck with that, Mr. Never Be Attorney General.

Speaking of dodgy AGs, Ken Paxton is suing the NCAA under Texas's Deceptive Trade Practices Act because they permit San Jose State to have a trans player on their women's volleyball team.  The Pax was last in the news for suing a New York doctor who prescribed abortion pills to a Texas resident.  He doesn't like women in any shape or form but he calls this "protecting" them, just like Trusk.

"One out, one in," says my spiritual adviser Rick Blaine on the night Ugarte is arrested and Ilsa walks back into his life.  I thought of it because John Fetterman was on ABC telling Jon Karl, "Pack a lunch, pace yourself, because he hasn't even taken office yet...If you're rooting against the president, you are rooting against the nation."  And I once thought he was the future of the Democratic Party.  Or as Jeff Tiedrich observed, "When God closes a Joe Manchin, he opens a John Fetterman."  

Margie Greene threatened to fink on all her colleagues if the Ethics Committee published its Gaetz report, but so far it's been quiet.  This can only mean one thing -- when Johnson goes the way of Kevin McCarthy she's planning to make a grab for the big hammer.  God help us, every one.