PROFESSIONAL SPEAKERS DAY UPDATES
... and By The Way, I Am Also a Speech Coach and Speech Teacher, If'n Ya Need One of Those!
-As the hearing to hear the request to create a protective order for the evidence discovery his defense attorneys need for his January 6, 2021-related indictments (4 pm CDT), the social media feed of Thrice-Indicted (so far) Ex-President (TIsfEP) Trump continues to spew invective that could, were he not a former President, be interpreted as shattering the orders he got from the Court during his arraignment this past Thursday.
-Thus far, Trump-credited posts appear to have sent a mob-like threat for vengeance for those who cross him, called potential witness Mike Pence "Liddle'" in a public post, shot personal insults at Special Prosecutor Jack Smith and Judge Tanya Chutkan, DEMANDED! a change of venue from Washington DC (where the alleged crimes occurred, thus the appropriate venue for the trial) to the uber-Trump state of West Virginia, and by many observers is all but daring Judge Chutkan to apply a gag order or put Trump under some sort of custody. Stay tuned ...
-Meanwhile, THIS JUST IN from Trump's upcoming felony trial on withholding classified documents and lying about them (ALLEGEDLY): in a motion from DoJ Smith to keep filings sealed as part of the pre-trial process, Judge Aileen Cannon - already under severe scrutiny over prior overturned rulings that were deemed on appeal to be horrifically pro-Trump - denied the request, in so doing revealing that there is a Grand Jury enjoined in the documents case not located in Central FL where this trial is currently set. Some legal observers are angered, claiming that the Grand Jury was NOT supposed to be exposed, and the ruling, in which Judge Cannon just made that grand jury's existence public, may be used by Smith to either change the venue of that trial or remove Judge Cannon, who earlier this year was sanctioned for making a series of procedural trial errors that nearly led a case to be thrown out. Stay tuned THERE.
-AND, in Fulton County, GA, the first of 14 days of traffic limitations at the courthouse where a grand jury hearing evidence about Trump and his team's attempts to find 11,780 votes to overturn the results of the 2020 GA Presidential election won by Joe Biden have begun, with observers watching by the hour to see when and if and what kinds of indictments will be handed down in THAT case. Is there enough popcorn???
-We know most readers of this quasi-newsletter are worried about things Trump is doing that don't involve freaking the F out over all these indictments, but sadly he is. One thing he and his fellow MAGAts love to do is celebrate when Americans they don't like don't do well, so the loss of the U.S. Women's soccer team at the 2023 World Cup has been a matter of sick delight. Megan Rapinoe, the legend whose career ended with the loss, has been a particular object of hate given her public anti-Trump statements and life as a lesbian, and Trump also took time to use his years of observation of international women's soccer to pin the blame for the US loss on ... President Joe Biden (thought for a second I'd type "Hunter," didn't you?) and soccer being too "woke." Or ... something ...
-Ah, well, MAGAts have to soothe other hurt feelings, particularly the cluelessly self-professed conservative manhood thought leader, Ben "What's WAP?" Shapiro, who after burning two dolls confidently stated that Greta Gerwig's BARBIE was too "woke" and would suffer a quick box office death once he and the rest of the manly men of MAGA impose their boycott of the movie. Shapiro's leadership and the MAGA hoard's efforts were so successful that yesterday ... BARBIE passed $1 BILLION in box office gross receipts worldwide, making the movie the biggest box office success directed by a woman in movie history.
-The other half of that release is doing pretty well, too - OPPENHEIMER has now surpassed the $500M box office mark, making the three-hour epic the most successful movie set during World War II at the box office in movie history. AMC reports the two movies alone have helped them have the most successful month in their history - so much so there is now concern about what will happen once those two movies leave the screens. (Perhaps getting producers to come back to the negotiations table to come to a fair agreement with writers and actors may help? Just spitballing here ...)
-This is gearing up to be a busy week, so we'll wrap this update for today and ice the fingers for what may be coming ...
-On this date in 1792, George Washington ordered the creation of what became the Purple Heart. On this date in 1888, Jack the Ripper killed his first victim in London. On this date in 1942, the start of a six-month battle to control the island (with an airfield) of Guadacanal began. On this date in 1964, passage of the Tonkin Gulf Resolution signaled the ramping up of America's involvement inVietnam. On this date in 1974, French acrobat Philippe Petit used a bow and arrow to set up a high wire between the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center and walked between the then-world's tallest buildings eight times. And on this date in 1990, President George HW Bush ordered what would become Operation Desert Shield in response to Saddam Hussein's invasion of Kuwait.
-Happy Birthday to Mata Hari, Nicholas Ray, Stan Freberg, Carl "Alfalfa" Switzer, The Amazing Randi, Don Larsen, Ruth Carter-Stapleton, Abebe Bikila, Helen Caldicottt, B.J. Thomas, Garrison Keillor, David Rasche, John Glover, Robert Mueller, Alan Page, Alexi Sayle, Wayne Knight, Bruce Dickinson, David Duchovny, Kristin Hersch, Michael Shannon, Charlize Theron, Edgar Renteria, Sidney Crosby, Kyler Murray, and Jalen Hurts.
-Rest in Peace/Rest in Power to Oliver Hardy, Salvatore Ferragamo, Red Adair, Peter Jennings, Bernie Brillstein, Judith Crist, Stan Mikita, Jane Withers, Markie Post, David McCullough, and Roger E. Mosley.
-The Number One Novel in the country on this date ... in 2023, FOURTH WING by Rebecca Yarros ... in 2013, THE CUCKOO'S CALLING by Robert Galbraith ... in 2003, THE DA VINCI CODE by Dan Brown ... in 1993, THE BRIDGES OF MADISON COUNTY by Robert James Waller ... in 1983, THE NAME OF THE ROSE by Umberto Eco ... and in 1973, BREAKFAST OF CHAMPIONS by Kurt Vonnegut.