It Seems Like Romney Favors Presidential Immunity After Calling Upon Biden to Pardon Trump

In an interview with MSNBC's Stephanie Ruhle, GOP Senator Mitt Romney called upon President Biden to pardon defeated, former President Trump. 

You may disagree with this, but had I been President Biden, when the Justice Department brought on indictments, I would have immediately pardoned him. I'd have pardoned President Trump. Why? Well, because it makes me, President Biden, the big guy and the person I pardoned a little guy.

As for Trump's business fraud trial in New York City, Romney claimed that Biden "made an enormous error" in not demanding that Manhattan D.A. Alvin Bragg drop the case against the defeated, former President. Romney claimed that if LBJ had been President he would have done something along those lines.

Bearing in mind that Romney is the only GOP Senator to have voted to impeach Trump twice, his take on the matter is utterly foolish. Had Biden pardoned Trump it wouldn't have made Biden look like a big guy. It would have made him look corrupt and venal. And Trump definitely wouldn't have acted small. 

In calling upon Biden to pardon Trump, Romney is essentially saying that Trump and anyone who occupies the office of President of the United States is above the law. For all intents and purposes, Romney has gone on record in favoring presidential immunity. 

Additionally, in claiming he would have brought pressure to bear against Alvin Bragg (and by extension Fani Willis in Atlanta) he is reinforcing Trump's claims of the "deep state" albeit to Trump's benefit in this particular case. Our judiciary is independent of the White House and if Romney had said such a thing to Alvin Bragg, Fani Willis or any other local or state attorney they would well within their rights to tell him to fold it five ways and stick it where the moon don't shine. While one might disagree with the merits of Bragg or Willis' cases, it is not the business of the President of the United States to demand a prosecutor to cease and desist. 

Although Romney is ostensibly retiring from public life, his words sound as if he is seeking some sort of sinecure in a second Trump Administration. After all, he did beg and plead to become Trump's Secretary of State to no avail. 

As someone who voted for Romney as Governor of Massachusetts in 2002 and for President in 2012, he has shown himself capable of uttering unhelpful nonsense which neither inspires faith nor confidence in our increasingly fragile democratic institutions.

Is Showing Up to Court to Support Trump The Price Mike Johnson Had to Pay to Pass Foreign Aid to Ukraine, Israel & Taiwan?

Let me begin by stating that Mike Johnson's tenure as Speaker of the House of Representatives has exceeded my expectations which, granted, were not very high in the first place. When he became Speaker last October, I thought there would be a government shutdown and that no aid would be forthcoming to Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan. 

It is safe to say he also exceeded the expectations of most Democrats who helped quash Marjorie Taylor Greene's motion to vacate the chair last week. Johnson also had the backing of defeated, former President Donald Trump. 

But I think Trump's backing of Johnson and him not objecting to the foreign aid package came with a price. That price came in the form of Johnson traveling to New York today to lend his support to Trump at his criminal trial for business fraud. Johnson was among a coterie of Republicans who came to show Trump their fealty along with the likes of former presidential rivals and possible VP running mates Vivek Ramaswamy and North Dakota Governor Doug Burgum along with Florida Congressman Byron Donalds. Johnson stated:

They are doing this intentionally to keep him here [and] off the campaign trail. I am disgusted by what is happening here, by what is being done to our system of justice.

Among the atrocities here: the judge’s daughter is making millions of dollars doing online fundraising for Democrats.

Johnson's claim is dubious as his claim that Judge Merchan is "a Biden donor judge." A $15 donation hardly buys you lunch especially when you consider how Trump personally profited in the hundreds of millions of dollars from foreign entities during his presidency. 

Former Republican Congresswoman Liz Cheney took Johnson to task for his solidarity with Trump. Cheney took to X to write:

Have to admit I'm surprised that @SpeakerJohnson wants to be in the 'I cheated on my wife with a porn star' club. I guess he's not that concerned with teaching morality to our young people after all.

I cannot say that I am surprised. When it comes to Trump, morality doesn't enter into the equation. Johnson wants to avoid Kevin McCarthy's fate and to do so he must stay in Trump's favor. One way to stay in favor is to show up at Trump's criminal trial and call the proceeding an "atrocity", a peculiar choice of word if there ever was one.

Johnson can ill-afford to step out of line. How else does one explain Johnson's actions today not to mention his introduction of a so-called "election integrity" bill last week? So, we can expect a lot more of this from Johnson in the coming months because otherwise he might not be so lucky next time Greene decides to move to vacate. 

Then again if Johnson does more of these kinds of shenanigans, Democrats might not bail him out next time. On the other hand, if there is a new Republican Speaker, there's a good chance that he or she will be infinitely worse than Johnson and be unwilling to play ball with Democrats and shut down the government.

But let's say Johnson survives until the election and somehow Republicans keep and expand their majority in the House. Given his efforts to overturn the 2020 election and his desire to curry favor with Trump, there is no way in hell he will certify the results of the 2024 election if President Biden is re-elected. 

Blinken Basically Says Israel Has To Learn To Live With Hamas

Back in December when President Biden claimed Israel was engaging in "indiscriminate bombing", I wrote the following:

You either want Israel to destroy Hamas or you do not. If you genuinely want Israel to destroy Hamas, then you are going to have civilian casualties so long as Hamas uses its general populace as human shields. And if you don't want Israel to destroy Hamas then that means you want Israel to accept Hamas. Those are cold facts. 

It is because evidently clear the Biden Administration does not want Israel to destroy Hamas first as evidenced by Biden's withholding of military aid to Israel overwhelmingly passed by Congress and now with Secretary of State Antony Blinken's appearance today on CBS' Face the Nation:

We believe two things. One, you have to have a clear, credible plan to protect civilians, which we haven't seen. Second, we also need to see a plan for what happens after this conflict in Gaza is open- is over. And we still haven't seen that because what are we seeing right now? We're seeing parts of Gaza that Israel has- has cleared of Hamas, where Hamas is coming back, including in the North, including in Khan Younis. As we look at- at Rafah, they may go in and have some initial success, but- but potentially at an incredibly high cost to civilians, but one that is not durable, one that's not sustainable. And they will be left holding the bag on an enduring insurgency because a lot of armed Hamas will be left no matter what they do in Rafah. Or if they- if they leave and get out of Gaza as we believe they need to do, then you're going to have a vacuum and a vacuum that's likely to be filled by chaos by anarchy, and ultimately by Hamas again. So we've been working for many, many weeks on developing credible plans for security, for governance, for rebuilding. We haven't seen that come from Israel, we've been working with Arab countries and others on that plan. We need to see that too. We have the same objective as Israel. We want to make sure that Hamas cannot govern Gaza again. We want to make sure it's demilitarized. We want to make sure that Israel gets its leaders. That's what we're determining. We have a different way. And we think a more effective, durable way of getting that done. We remain in conversation with Israel about exactly that.

For all intents and purposes, Blinken has said Israel cannot destroy Hamas and must learn to live with it as with the mention of a demilitarized Hamas. But one can no more demilitarize Hamas than one could demilitarize ISIS.  Hamas' aim and objective is to kill Jews and destroy Israel. Nothing Blinken says or does will change Hamas' mission. 

The Biden Administration is putting Israel into an untenable position entirely due to domestic political considerations. Not only will this not mollify those who are occupying campuses, it will increase the chances of defeated, former President Trump returning to the White House. Meanwhile, the Biden Administration is so busy publicly admonishing Israel they have forgotten that Hamas continues to hold hostages including Americans.

Why I'm Not Counting Out Marjorie Taylor Greene

Although Marjorie Taylor Greene's attempt to oust House Speaker Mike Johnson last week failed spectacularly, I would not be so quick as to make the case that her influence on the Republican Party will decline from here on out.

Back in March, I argued it would be win for Greene even if her bid to oust Johnson failed because she could fundraise off of it and continue to build on her own brand as the champion against the "uniparty" as she puts it. 

What I think is most telling is how defeated, former President Trump is treading lightly around Greene. While he opposed Greene's efforts to oust Johnson, his language on Truth Social was uncharacteristically diplomatic:

I absolutely love Marjorie Taylor Greene. She's got Spirit, she's got Fight, and I believe she'll be around, and on our side, for a long time to come. However, right now, Republicans have to be fighting the Radical Left Democrats, and all the Damage they have done to our Country.

What? No name calling? No "Crazy Marge"? 

Frankly, I think if Trump did call MTG names, she would fight back. 

Besides its only May.

By the summer, Johnson could commit a transgression and Trump might be unwilling to bail him out. If that happens, Marjorie Taylor Greene will smell blood in the water and pounce.  

Bad Girls Go to Hell Is One of The Worst Movies I've Ever Seen

 

Last night I went to the Brattle Theatre to see two movies both of which were loaned to the theatre by a private collector.

The first was a film called Rock 'n Roll Rarities which was largely a collection of coming attractions for several rock 'n roll films from the 1950s and 1960s plus some performances by Elvis Presley, The Beatles, The Dave Clark Five and David Bowie. 

The second film was Bad Girls Go to Hell. Written, produced and directed by Dorothy Wishman in 1965, it was one of the worst films I've ever seen. Bad Girls Go to Hell was ostensibly an erotic thriller about a married woman fleeing for New York after killing her rapist only to find more trouble behind every door.

In some respect, Bad Girls Go to Hell was ahead of its time in its depiction of nudity and lesbian romance, but the dialogue just absolutely kills this film. Not only was the dialogue repetitive but the manner in which it was delivered augmented its repetitiveness. The best way that I can describe the dialogue was as if it was dubbed by Chinese speaking actors speaking English in a Bruce Lee film. Needless to say, the dialogue evoked cringe laughter. 

Not helping matters was the jazz score which had all the subtlety of a ballpein hammer. There were some interesting shots of Central Park in black and white, but the main character escapes to New York to be lost in the crowd and yet New York looks like a ghost town. 

Mind you, I wasn't expecting The Sound of Music. But I wish I could say that it was so bad that it was good. What I can say is that is not only is Bad Girls Go to Hell not a B-movie, but there is no letter in the alphabet which could adequately describe how awful it is. Then again, I suppose there are worse things one can do on a Saturday night.

Sean Burroughs Lived & Died Baseball

Former MLB player Sean Burroughs died suddenly while coaching his son's little league team in Long Beach, California. He was only 43.

It is eerie that Burroughs would die on a little league field because he came to public prominence more than 30 years ago winning back-to-back Little League World Series in 1992 and 1993 on a team coached by his father former MLB slugger Jeff Burroughs. In the 1993 Little League World Series, Burroughs threw back-to-back no-hitters.

Five years later, Burroughs was a first-round draft pick of the San Diego Padres and would reach the majors during the 2002 season. Prior to making his MLB debut, Burroughs earned a Gold Medal on the U.S. Olympic Baseball Team during the 2000 games in Sydney. 

Burroughs was the Padres' regular third baseman during the 2003 and 2004 seasons. However, he did not have his father's power and he would be demoted to the minors during the 2005 season. The Padres would trade Burroughs to the Tampa Bay Devil Rays prior to the 2006 season, but only played 8 games for the big-league club. 

He would spend part of 2007 in the Seattle Mariners organization. Unfortunately, Burroughs had developed a drug addiction, and he would soon be out of baseball for several years. However, prior to the 2011 season, Burroughs got a second chance with the Arizona Diamondbacks and would return to the majors after a five-year absence contributing to an NL West title. Burroughs also briefly played with the Minnesota Twins the following year. 

Between 2013 and 2016, Burroughs played primarily independent minor league system although he was briefly in the Los Angeles Dodgers system in 2013. In 2017, Burroughs began coaching little league in Long Beach much like his Dad had done before him.

In parts of 7 big-league seasons, Burroughs played in 528 games collecting 463 hits for a lifetime batting average of .278 with 12 HR and 143 RBI. R.I.P.

President Biden Sends Mixed Messages on Anti-Semitism & Hamas

Consider this portion of President Biden's remarks on Holocaust Remembrance Day:

By the time the war ended, 6 million Jews — one out of every three Jews in the entire world — were murdered.  

This ancient hatred of Jews didn’t begin with the Holocaust; it didn’t end with the Holocaust, either, or after — or even after our victory in World War Two.  This hatred continues to lie deep in the hearts of too many people in the world, and it requires our continued vigilance and outspokenness.    

That hatred was brought to life on October 7th in 2023.  On a sacred Jewish holiday, the terrorist group Hamas unleashed the deadliest day of the Jewish people since the Holocaust.  

Driven by ancient desire to wipeout the Jewish people off the face of the Earth, over 1,200 innocent people — babies, parents, grandparents — slaughtered in their kibbutz, massacred at a musical festival, brutally raped, mutilated, and sexually assaulted.  Thousands more carrying wounds, bullets, and shrapnel from the memory of that terrible day they endured.  Hundreds taken hostage, including survivors of the Shoah.  

Now, here we are, not 75 years later but just seven and a half months later, and people are already forgetting.  They’re already forgetting that Hamas unleashed this terror, that it was Hamas that brutalized Israelis, that it was Hamas who took and continues to hold hostages. I have not forgotten, nor have you, and we will not forget. 

Now consider President Biden's remarks to CNN's Erin Burnett the following day concerning his decision to withhold military aid from Israel and preventing it from going into Rafah and ending the evil of Hamas:

Civilians have been killed in Gaza as a consequence of those bombs and other ways in which they go after population centers.

And I made it clear that, if they go into Rafah—they haven’t gone into Rafah yet. If they go into Rafah, I’m not supplying the weapons that have been used historically to deal with Rafah, to deal with the cities, to deal with that problem.

We’re going to continue to make sure Israel is secure, in terms of Iron Dome and their ability to respond to attacks like came out of the Middle East recently.

But it’s—it’s just wrong. We’re not going to supply the weapons and the artillery shells that have been used.

President Biden subsequently told Burnett, "We’re not walking away from Israel’s security. We’re walking away from Israel’s ability to wage war in those areas."

Unfortunately, President Biden is sending mixed messages when it comes to both anti-Semitism and Hamas. 

During his Holocaust Remembrance speech, President Biden said, "Never again, simply translated for me, means “never forget.” 

Well by preventing Israel's ability to wage war in those areas President Biden has forgotten that Hamas has vowed to carry out as many October 7ths attacks as it takes to wipe Israel out of existence and for anti-Semitism to triumph.

As long as President Biden ties Israel's hands behind its back then never again become not again.

What The Mural "Palestinian Loss of Land 1947 to Present" Doesn't Tell You

 

Yesterday afternoon, I went to my old neighborhood of Jamaica Plain to attend Spontaneous Celebrations' 46th annual Wake Up The Earth Festival.

Like many festivals there is food, music and face painting for the kids. However, the Wake Up The Earth Festival has long been a hodgepodge of left-wing causes though mostly environmental in nature. 

However, with all which has transpired since October 7th, I had a strong feeling there would be a more visible support for the Palestinians. Indeed, there were several signs such as "Free Palestine", "Over 14,000 Kids Killed in Gaza" and even one for the "Birds of Gaza". In case you're wondering, there was no sign calling for the hostages held by Hamas to be released let alone any condemnation for their actions on October 7, 2023.

There was one mural though that did pique my interest. The mural which was adapted from this map was called "Palestinian Loss of Land 1947 to Present". The mural struck me as much for what wasn't there than what was there. 

In the first mural, we see "Palestine 1947". What the mural doesn't tell you it was British Mandated Palestine, not an independent Palestinian state. British Mandated Palestine came to pass in 1920 following the demise of the Ottoman Empire after WWI. It is interesting that Israel is decried as a product of "settler-colonialism", but if British Mandated Palestine isn't settler colonialism, then what is?

In the second mural, we see "Israel Partition Plan 1947". What the mural doesn't tell you it was the United Nations Partition Plan which established both a Jewish and an Arab state through UN Resolution 181 which was passed by the UN General Assembly on November 29, 1947. In other words, a two-state solution. The Jews accepted the UN mandate, the Arab nations did not, and they soon invaded Israel only hours after its formal independence on May 14, 1948. 

Which brings me to the third mural titled "Israel 1949-1967". We see that Israel has more land, but the mural does not tell us this came about as a result of the failed attempt of five Arab nations (Egypt, Syria, Jordan, Iraq, and Lebanon) to obliterate the Jewish state in the War of Independence or the Arab-Israeli War, 1948-1949. Had the Arab nations had accepted the UN Partition Plan not only would this loss of territory not taken place, but the Palestinians would have celebrated their 75th anniversary of statehood last year. But as it was between 1949 and 1967, the land described in the mural as Palestine was administered by Egypt and Jordan.

The fourth mural jumps all the way to "Israel 2024". Curiously, it skips over the 1967 Six-Day War in which Israel captured even more land following yet another invasion by Egypt, Jordan, Syria and Iraq as well as Lebanon, Saudi Arabia and Pakistan. Indeed, Israel captured the Sinai from Egypt but would return it under the terms of the Camp David Accords of 1978. When I see the "Palestinian Loss of Land" I see the consequences of the Arab failure to accept the 1947 UN Partition Plan. 

The final mural is simply titled "Freedom Equality Justice Diversity for All". What this mural doesn't tell us is how the map is to be divided in the future. Is it a two-state solution along the lines of the 1947 UN Partition Plan? Or is it Palestine from the River to the Sea? It is curious that whoever made this mural chose not to tell us. But given that the mural objected to a two-state solution from 1947, I highly doubt they would be amenable to a two-state solution now. 

Why Mike Trout Reminds Me of Ken Griffey, Jr.

(via ESPN)

Earlier this week, Los Angeles Angels slugger Mike Trout went on the IL after tearing his meniscus in his left knee which will require surgery.

At the time of his injury, Trout was leading the AL in HR with 10. While Trout is expected to return to uniform before season's end it will mark the fourth consecutive season in which he has missed significant time due to injury:

Trout missed all but 36 games of the 2021 season with a strained calf that healed confoundingly slowly. He missed five weeks of the 2022 season with a back injury, although he still hit 40 homers.

Trout then broke a bone in his hand on a foul ball last July 3. He tried to return in August when it briefly looked like the Angels might make a postseason run, but he played only one painful game before shutting it down for the year.

Trout's string of injuries prompted ESPN's Stephen A. Smith to go nuclear:

How the hell is he always hurt? I don’t understand this. It drives me nuts when I see baseball players get hurt. What is it that you’re doing with yourself physically that you can’t stay healthy playing baseball? Now, you get hit by a pitch or something, that’s different, I get all of that. With these oblique injuries, you’re running around bases, catching one, then you’re running out for a fly ball, and all of a sudden, something gets tweaked. What the hell is going on?

Clearly, Smith knows nothing of baseball let alone that it is a 162-game season not including spring training and the post-season. It is physically grueling and becomes more so with age. 

In this respect, Trout reminds me a great deal of Ken Griffey, Jr. Junior Griffey was arguably the greatest player to wear a baseball uniform during the 1990s while Trout was arguably the greatest player to wear a baseball uniform in the 2010s. By the 2000s, Griffey, Jr could no longer stay healthy and now in the 2020s it is Trout who struggles to play a full season. 

Between 1990 and 1999, while in a Seattle Mariners uniform, Griffey, Jr. made 10 consecutive AL All-Star Teams, won 10 consecutive Gold Gloves, 8 Silver Sluggers, won the AL MVP in 1997 and finished in the top five in AL MVP four times. 

Griffey, Jr. was traded to the Cincinnati Reds in 2000. After a good inaugural season in the Queen City, Griffey, Jr. was hit by the injury bug. Between 2001 and 2006, Griffey, Jr. missed more than 400 games due to injury never playing more than 130 games in a season. 

As for Trout, between 2012 and 2020 he was named to 8 AL All-Star Teams, won the Silver Slugger 8 times and won the AL MVP thrice while finishing runner up four times with two additional top five finishes. Unfortunately, Trout's body is betraying as Junior Griffey's did.

Although Griffey, Jr. finished his career with 630 HR, he likely would have passed 700 HR if he had those 400 plus games back. Trout currently has 378 career HR. He would have far surpassed 400 had he had the chance to have played in 250 more games since 2021. 

I'm not the only one who has been likening Trout to Griffey, Jr. in this way. Consider the words of Zachary D. Rymer of Bleacher Report who wrote on X, "Mike Trout vs. Ken Griffey Jr. through the age of 30 is a lot more fun to ponder than Mike Trout vs. Ken Griffey Jr. after the age of 31."

In the end time gets us all. It caught up with Ken Griffey, Jr. Now it is Mike Trout's turn not to bat.

Marjorie Taylor Greene Opposed Anti-Semitism Legislation Because She is an Anti-Semite

When Georgia Republican Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene isn't busy plotting to oust Mike Johnson as House Speaker, she can be found opposing legislation combating anti-Semitism. 

Greene announced yesterday she would not support the Anti-Semitism Awareness Act of 2023 because it "could convict Christians of antisemitism for believing the Gospel that says Jesus was handed over to Herod to be crucified by the Jews.”

The long and the short of it is that Marjorie Taylor Greene opposes legislation combatting anti-Semitism because she is an anti-Semite. Yes, Greene says anti-Semitism is wrong only to proceed to claim the Jews crucified Jesus. 

This is no different than Ilhan Omar claiming to care about the safety of Jewish students at Columbia University even if she considers them to be "pro-genocide". Not surprisingly, Omar also opposed the legislation because she too is an anti-Semite. 

As for Greene, her vote isn't likely to help her effort to oust Johnson. But her vote against the Anti-Semitism Awareness Act even if she was on the losing side has the effect of legitimizing anti-Semitism as socially acceptable political discourse in this country.

Why The Houston Astros Won't Be in Last Place in The AL West For Long

I don't follow MLB like I used too, but I do keep my eye on the standings.

From where I sit, the biggest surprise through the end of April is the Houston Astros finding themselves in last place in the AL West with a 10-19 record entering May 1st. 

Since 2017, the Astros have won six of the last seven AL West titles, four AL pennants and two World Series titles albeit in controversial fashion.

Considering these circumstances, I cannot imagine anyone had them behind the soon to be wandering Oakland A's at the any point in the season and yet here we are. 

Yet I cannot imagine the Astros being in the cellar for very long. 

There are two reasons for my way of thinking.

First, at one point, the Astros effectively had their entire starting rotation on the IL. But the rotation will soon be back to full strength. I cannot imagine a rotation of Justin Verlander, Framber Valdez, Jose Urqidy, Cristian Javier and Ronel Blanco losing in this manner.

Second, the Astros also have the advantage of being in MLB's weakest division. Houston entered May only 6½ games back of the Seattle Mariners. By comparison, they would be both 9 games back of both the Baltimore Orioles and Cleveland Guardians were they in the AL East and AL Central, respectively. 

With 143 games remaining in the regular season, the Astros have more than enough time to cover ground lost at the end of March and in April. Should they cover this ground then by September scarcely anyone will have remembered their misfortune.

On the other hand, should their struggles continue then the spotlight will focus on first-year Astros manager Joe Espada who had the unenviable task of succeeding Dusty Baker who led them to a second World Series title in 2022. Those are big shoes to fill and it remains to be seen if Espada can fill his own.