Everyone in the US is entitled to legal representation but the old caveat of being careful what you pay for comes to mind when reading about Trump's current legal situation including the filings to the courts sent by his current attorneys. Trump's ace legal team has filed suits in two different courts including one that they apparently did not quite understand. A Trump appointed judge in one of the courts has responded to a court filing by giving Trump's crack (or is that cracked) advisors a second chance since they apparently filed in a civil court for a criminal case. Add to that the language in the various new filings and what ensues is just deserts.

“[That] makes no sense under law, because if it is, in fact, subject to executive privilege, that means it’s a government document, and hence, should be held by the government in the Archives. So that’s why it’s a very, very bad legal argument with no validity to it,” he said.

“The motion is a confession to having material you should not have in your house.”

 Are we sympathetic yet? I am sympathetic to the people who have to wade through garbage to find any nugget of sound legal reasoning. I don't know if the plan is to argue incompetent counsel.  

 In Utah where I previously lived, and in many other deep red states, the legislature instituted a new rule that its proponents say will protect young female athletes by prohibiting participation of transgender youth in girls' teams. The rule is supposed to protect girls from both unfair competition and sexual predation.

A funny story from my own life experience occurred to me when I read an article about parents who wanted a successful youth athlete investigated all the way back to kindergarten to assure themselves that their daughter lost to a "real" girl rather than to a transgender girl. Texas, where I did my age group swimming, is clearly a geographically large state. What that means in practical terms is that the parents of athletes and the athletes themselves probably aren't always that familiar with each other. Though San Antonio and Corpus Christi are both in South Texas, in most local age group meets (especially back in the days when I was a young swimmer), your daughter will probably see the same people but if you go from San Antonio to Corpus Christi you may not recognize the other competitors. After all more than a hundred miles separates the two cities.

To add to that sort of confusion, the local officials at these meets, even if they were fully qualified to judge, might not be familiar to a swimmer or her parent. My mother, who was a fully qualified stroke and meet judge, often worked on a voluntary basis at our local meets. Adding even more to the confusion, I matured very young, certainly well before the norm. So I hadn't grown in height since the age of 11 and I was physically mature in all other ways as well so I looked like a woman in the pool with little girls. At the finals of one meet (so far back in the dark ages even local meets had heats, finals, ready benches, etc.), a woman came up to my mother who was the stroke judge just as the final for my event was about to start. She wanted to lodge a complaint to have me removed from the event because she just knew that I was a ringer, a fully grown woman pretending to be a girl. My mother asked which girl she meant even though she knew damned well which one was the target. Sure enough, this mother said that obviously the swimmer who had qualified first was not in the right age group of 13/14 years. As she said to my mother, "Just look at her!"

My mother said that she happened to know that I was not only not too old to swim with the 13/14 group, I would still be in the same age group the next year because I was still 13 not even 14. The irate parent asked my mother how she knew so much about me. "I was there when she was born."

When I saw the following headline coming out of Utah I simply smiled:

After a girl beat their daughters in sports, Utah parents triggered investigation into whether she was transgender

 

 

 It is fairly easy to predict Trumpettes reacting poorly to their dear leader's current unenviable position. One woman in Arizona proudly proclaimed that Trump has never lied in his life. The hot Arizona sun has fried eggs, why not eggs and brains? The most despicable aspect of the Trumpettes' accusations is that many have specifically vilified Judge Reinhardt and Merrick Garland because both men are Jewish. In their thinking (can it even be called that?), their shared religious faith means there is a Jewish cabal trying to destroy American life and ideals. Then Fox amplifies those disgusting sentiments by broadcasting a doctored photo of Reinhardt trying to link him with Ghislaine Maxwell (also Jewish) and by doing that link the cabal with Jeffrey Epstein (also Jewish).

One of the more important aspects of being a nation of laws is that all defendants can be represented in court. Did Trump have documents that should not have been in his possession after 1/20/21 despite repeated requests and subpoenas for those documents? I would say based on what was revealed this week that is undeniably true.  Trumpettes have various responses ranging from "well he declassified them" to "they were all planted". First of all, when you cannot even agree on the defense you probably should at least confer before making wild statements. Second, declassifying documents does not happen simply by waving a wand nor can certain documents related to national security and weaponry ever (that is never) be declassified. No one needs to plant evidence when the Incredible Bulk freely admitted to having them.

Trump may never get closer to wearing orange than his hair or his skin, but if you still think he is your savior, you need help.

 When celebrities die I usually shrug my shoulders but a death yesterday hit a little harder. Sure, everyone dies but Bill Russell transcended simply being a sports star. The following praise says it better than I ever could:

And we hope each of us can find a new way to act or speak up with Bill's uncompromising, dignified and always constructive commitment to principle. That would be one last, and lasting, win for our beloved #6."

 

 

Another recent death revealed Trump values more than any of us could expect. Trump buried his first wife, Ivana, at his golf course in Bedminster, NJ. Was it because he loved her so sincerely? Unlikely, right? Turns out NJ does not tax cemeteries at all--no property tax, no sales tax, ....