Prediction: McCarthy Will Invite Bibi To Speak To Congress Amid Row With Biden

While I strongly disagree with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's efforts to strip his country's judiciary of its independence, I equally disagree with President Biden's intervention in the matter especially with his public declaration that Netanyahu is persona non grata at the White House.

I think Biden is in the wrong here because one must ask if there are any other world leaders who can expect not to be invited to the White House or if this edict only applies to Israel. In so doing, it also potentially has the effect of weakening domestic opposition to Bibi's policy objectives. The power of Israeli civil society managed to get Netanyahu to delay implementation. But with Biden singling out Netanyahu while turning a blind eye to Iran's nuclear program, it will have the effect or rallying Israelis back to Bibi. 

Biden unwillingness to invite Bibi to the White House gives Republicans an opening particularly House Speaker Kevin McCarthy. While McCarthy might be Marjorie Taylor Greene's man servant and may try to run interference against the Manhattan DA in its forthcoming indictment of defeated, former President Trump , Biden has given McCarthy a gift. Today, McCarthy praised Bibi as "an Israeli patriot" and "a great friend of the United States."

Since Bibi is not welcome at the White House, I think this is a prelude for McCarthy to invite Netanyahu to speak to a Joint Session of Congress just as John Boehner did with Bibi back in 2015. McCarthy doesn't have many cards to play so look for him to play it. 

The only way McCarthy won't play this card is if the Biden White House takes a step back and lets Israeli civil society dissuade Netanyahu from ending the Jewish's state judicial independence. It isn't

too late for Biden to take this step back from the brink of disaster.

What Would Mark Russell Have Thought of Trump's Indictment?

When I learned of political satirist Mark Russell's passing yesterday at the age of 90, I could not help but think he might find some humor having passed away the day same the announcement of former President Trump's indictment in New York City. 

I remember Russell's regular TV specials on PBS where he would play familiar tunes while satirizing politicians from both parties in equal measure. For some reason, I remember a song called "Poor Ed Meese" sung to the tune of "Pop Goes The Weasel". 

Russell did these specials for nearly three decades from 1975 through 2004 covering six Presidential administrations. He gradually scaled back his appearances before retiring for good in 2016. Yes, we have the Stephen Colberts of the world, but I think Russell would have had a few things to say over the past six years which have felt so much longer.

Here is Russell singing about Trump during the 2016 campaign at what appears to be a private affair at his home. To the tune of "Old McDonald Had a Farm", Russell sings, "Is he good for comedy?/Yes, it's true/Vote for the devil/The joke's on you."

Even out of office, the joke is still on us. Still, it is a shame that Russell can no longer call this tune. R.I.P.

Five Thoughts on Trump's Indictment By Manhattan DA Bragg

So defeated former President Donald Trump will be indicted by Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg after all. With that here are my five thoughts on the subject. 

1. What Are The Charges?

As of this writing the charges against Trump are sealed. But Trump is expected to be indicted on more than 30 counts. Are all of the charges related to hush money payments to adult movie star Stormy Daniels? Or is other business fraud involved? The devil, of course, is in the details. 

2. Republicans Are Standing By Trump

None of this will matter to Republicans who are standing by Trump to the bitter end rather than letting justice take its proper course. Trump owns the party and thus owns them. Florida Governor Ron DeSantis has indicated his state will not cooperate with any attempts to extradite Trump to New York though this might be a symbolic, grandstanding gesture meant to appease Trump supporters as he mulls his own White House bid. House Speaker Kevin McCarthy doesn't know the charges any more than the rest of us, but that isn't stopping him from calling the indictment by Bragg "an unprecedented abuse of power."

3. There's No Guarantee Trump Will Be Convicted 

Notwithstanding McCarthy's claim that Bragg's prosecution of Trump constitutes an abuse of power, it is hardly any guarantee that Trump will be convicted of anything. As I argued last week, Trump's lawyers could file a motion to dismiss the case after Bragg rests his case or, failing that, the jury could always acquit Trump. While I look upon Trump with nothing but contempt, I recognize it is entirely possible that Bragg might present a less than compelling case. Unless Bragg withholds exculpatory evidence from Trump and/or his attorneys, this isn't prosecutorial misconduct. It would be that he failed to convince a jury that Trump is guilty of the crimes with which he is charged beyond a reasonable doubt. This happens in our court system all the time.

4. Will Trump Faces Charges Related to January 6th, Classified Documents at Mar-a-Lago and in Georgia?

Of course, Trump's legal troubles are hardly confined to Manhattan County. There is the small matter of summoning his supporters to violently prevent the peaceful transfer of power on January 6, 2021. There is also the fact that Trump willfully took classified documents which did not belong to him to Mar-a-Lago and refused to return them to the National Archives. In both cases, Trump has legal exposure to facing federal felonies. And then there is Fulton County DA Fani Willis' grand jury investigation into Trump trying to intimidate Georgia election officials including Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger into changing the outcome of the 2020 election. 

The decision of the Manhattan DA ought to have no bearing on whether Trump faces charges in the three aforementioned cases. However, it will be hard for a critical mass of the American electorate to accept Trump's claims that he is "most innocent man in the history of our country" should he face charges in all of these matters. 

5. Trump's Promise of "Death and Destruction"

While Trump proclaims to be the "most innocent man in the history of our country", he also promises "death and destruction" if he is indicted. Well, now he's been indicted. 

If Trump's supporters were prepared to ransack the U.S. Capitol and "hang Mike Pence", it is only a matter of time before they start to kill people in his name. Obviously, Bragg is at the top of their list. But I think they would be content with murdering a court officer to make a point or anyone else who got in the way to send a message of intimidation. Should this come to pass, a significant minority in this country will be prepared to celebrate. 

Notwithstanding this possibility, justice must take its course. To do otherwise would be to give into domestic terrorism and thus undermine our independent judiciary. Trump will get his day in court. His attorneys will have the opportunity to cross-examine prosecution witnesses. Bragg will have to prove his case beyond a reasonable doubt. It is possible that he might not have the evidence. In which case, Trump cannot be convicted on the wrong evidence and must be free to go about his way. This will be true if he is indicted in any other matter.

With that, the promise of "death and destruction" on an indictment (not a conviction) are not the words of an innocent man.

Keith Reid, R.I.P.

Lyricist and songwriter Keith Reid, best known for co-writing Procol Harum's 1967 worldwide hit "A Whiter Shade of Pale", passed away on March 23rd of cancer at the age of 76. Reid's passing comes just over a year after the death of Procol Harum composer and singer Gary Brooker. 

Although Reid never played an instrument and seldom appeared on stage. he was nevertheless a full member of the group and wrote lyrics on 11 of Procol Harum's 12 albums recorded between 1967 and 2003. The son of Holocaust survivors, Reid's dark lyrics were influenced by his parents' fight for survival. 

Reid's most notable non-Procol Harum collaboration were lyrics he wrote for John Farnham's 1987 hit, "You're The Voice."

I leave you with Reid being interviewed in 1973 shortly before Procol Harum returned to the studio to record their album Exotic Birds and Fruit. R.I.P.

Why I Don't Plan on Following The 2023 Major League Baseball Season

Normally, at this time of the year, I would make my picks for the upcoming Major League Baseball season as I have on this blog from 2017 through 2022. 

But I will not being doing so this year as the 2023 MLB season commences tomorrow. Nor probably for that matter next year or the year after that and beyond. The truth of the matter is that I no longer derive any pleasure from Major League Baseball in its present form. 

I began to sour on the game in earnest during the COVID shortened 2020 MLB season. I thought it was irresponsible to play and generally didn't care for the intrusion of politics into the game. But most of all I despised the way the game had changed with the imposition of the ghost runner during extra-inning games. 

For the uninitiated this means each extra inning begins with a runner on second base. How did that runner get on second without reaching first? Not by way of a single, double, walk, hit by pitch, wild pitch or passed ball, stolen base or throwing error. Nope, MLB just puts a runner at second base in the hope a cheap hit up the middle will end it all and penalize the pitcher who did nothing to allow the runner to get to second in the first place. 

Now, as of this forthcoming season, the ghost runner has become a permanent feature of the game. Add the pitch clock and bases the size of a small continent and I cease to recognize the game I once loved. Frankly, I have watched very little baseball and cannot justify heeding any of my attention.

That doesn't mean I'll stop writing about baseball. However, this will most likely be confined to writing about Hall of Fame inductions and deaths of prominent figures in baseball. In other words, my baseball writing will be confined to the past instead of the present and the future.

The only things which might get me interested in following baseball in 2023 and beyond is either if someone takes a serious run at Joe DiMaggio's 56-game hitting streak or if someone has a chance to become the first player to hit .400 in a season since Ted Williams. Both of these occurrences took place in 1941 (the year my Dad was born). 

Mind you, for me to pay attention, someone has to hit safely in at least 40 consecutive games or being .400 after Labor Day. The last serious challenge to DiMaggio was when Paul Molitor had a 39-game hitting streak for the Milwaukee Brewers in 1987. To give you an idea of how long ago that was the Brewers were still an AL team. The last serious challenge to the .400 mark was when George Brett hit .390 for the Kansas City Royals in 1980. Yes, Tony Gwynn finished the 1994 season hitting .393 but that season ended because of the players' strike in August. Who can say what Gwynn would have been hitting a month later had the season been uninterrupted. 

Needless to say, I am reasonably confident that neither of these things will come to pass. But even if they do then one must wonder if the larger bases come into play. Maybe Molitor could have extended his streak had he beat out a few extra groundballs. Ditto for Brett in his pursuit of .400. So even if someone eclipsed DiMaggio or joined Williams, we might just have to give them an asterisk. 

Certain other things might pique my attention. If someone hit 5 HR in a game, matched Johnny Vander Meer's back-to-back no-hitters, if the NL won another All-Star Game or if the Montreal Expos were reborn. Again, I don't expect any of these things to come to pass. 

I plan to acknowledge the winner of the World Series but won't dwell on it at length. There might be some smidgen of interest if its something out of left field like a Baltimore Orioles-Pittsburgh Pirates World Series and we can party like its 1979. Or if the Cleveland Guardians have a chance to win their first World Series in 75 years. Even a New York Yankees-Los Angeles Dodgers World Series would be interesting as this matchup hasn't occurred in 42 years after taking place 11 times between 1941 and 1981. But it would be but a mere footnote. 

What happens if the Red Sox win the World Series? Would I attend the parade? Perhaps in the same way I attended parades when the Bruins won the Stanley Cup in 2011 on a beautiful June day or when the New England Patriots made their improbable comeback against the Atlanta Falcons in Super Bowl LI. But I won't have the same enthusiasm for it when the Red Sox won the World Series for the first time in 86 years back in 2004 much less 2007 or 2013. I left Boston during the Red Sox' World Series run in 2018 and have not been to a Red Sox game since that season. My desire to attend a Red Sox game much less watch it on TV or listen to it on the radio is simply ot there anymore. Ditto for any other MLB game or even minor league baseball which is constricted by these rules.

For this I have MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred to thank. Manfred has the attention span of a 4-year old. He thinks the game is too slow. Thus he seeks solutions in search of problems of his own making. Of course, Manfred won't be Commissioner forever. But I doubt his successor will roll back these measures. This is the way Major League Baseball will be played for as long as I shall live. In which case, Major League Baseball can go on without me and I shall go on without Major League Baseball. 

Marjorie Taylor Greene Blames Transgenderism, Not Guns For Nashville Mass Shooting

Yesterday when I commented on the Nashville mass shooting, I had a bad feeling Republicans and the conservative media would focus their attention on the perpetrator being a transgender female.

Enter Marjorie Taylor Greene:

How much hormones like testosterone and medications for mental illness was the transgender Nashville school shooter taking? Everyone can stop blaming guns now.

Except there is no "transgender Nashville school shooter" if she doesn't have a gun and use it. In this case multiple weapons were utilized to kill three children and three adults at a Christian elementary school. Yes, killer had a motive to use these guns. But without the guns, she is only a transgender individual, and those six people are still with us today.

But all that matters to Greene is that the killer identified as transgender because she uses transgenderism as a weapon to incite anger and hatred. Greene makes no distinction between law abiding transgender people and a single transgender person who commits mass murder.

What Marjorie Taylor Greene thinks of transgender people might not have mattered a few years ago when she was a private citizen making pro-QAnon videos. But it certainly matters now when she is the most powerful Republican in the United States Congress. Worse still, her influence has not yet reached its zenith.

Bibi Delays Israel's Judicial Overhaul - At Least Through Passover

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has put measures which would strip Israel's judiciary of its independence on hold for now. 

Bibi's decision comes less than 24 hours after he fired Defense Minister Yoav Gallant for speaking out against the measures and a general strike which ground Israel to a halt today. Despite these events, Netanyahu's motivation to postpone the measures is likely because his own attorney threatened to resign from representing in his ongoing corruption trial unless he paused his plans. 

However, this pause will likely be short-lived as Netanyahu has pledged to proceed with these measures after Passover which takes place between the sundown on April 5th and sundown on April 13th. While there is a possibility these measures could be moderated, given the composition of his cabinet it is unlikely that Itamar Ben-Gvir or Bezalel Smotrich or any other cabinet figures in the right-wing religious parties will be amenable to any compromise. 

I'm sure that Netanyahu hopes the delay will cool off future protests once he resumes these proposals. But given the deep-seated opposition to these measures by a broad stratum of Israeli society including its military, I believe Netanyahu is vastly underestimating how much Israelis despise these measures. Not only do they represent a leap into authoritarianism, but Netanyahu is motivated by self-interest - namely trying to stay out of jail. 

Bibi may have a respite, but it will be short-lived.