When you read this CNN headline, who do you imagine the “Senator” mentioned is?

Lazy prosecutors always seem to rely on their tea leaf reading skills when they don’t indict because conviction seems improbable. Robert Kuttner Writing at The American prospect makes the case that the Jan 6th hearting is taking this excuse away from Garland.

The most important thing to appreciate about the January 6th Committee hearings is the tandem act with Attorney General Merrick Garland. The hearings will succeed to the extent that they stiffen the attorney general’s spine to indict Trump.

Seemingly, there is already enough evidence on the record to charge Trump with a criminal conspiracy to overthrow a lawfully elected government. Specifically, Trump violated the provision of the U.S. criminal code that makes it a crime punishable by up to 20 years in prison for anyone who “corruptly obstructs, influences, or impedes an official proceeding, or attempts to do so.” The January 6th Joint Session of Congress presided over by Vice President Pence was such a proceeding, and Trump tried to obstruct it in multiple ways.

Trump pressured Georgia officials to find over 11,000 nonexistent votes. Trump conspired with John Eastman, in a multipart plot to have states send Congress competing slates of electors. He tried and failed to appoint a new attorney general, Jeffrey Clark, to send an official Justice Department request to key states to discredit the election results, based on claims the Justice Department had already rejected. Most importantly, Trump repeatedly pressured Pence, publicly and privately, to go along with this plot. And of course, he egged on the Capitol’s invaders.

According to Justice Department veterans, a few concerns explain Garland’s temporizing; and the hearings should move Garland closer to a decision to prosecute. One nuance is that to obtain a conviction, it’s necessary not just to prove corrupt behavior. You also have to prove corrupt intent.

Trump’s lawyers might argue that he really believed he had won the election, so there was no corrupt intent. To defeat that argument and reassure Garland, the committee yesterday played one clip after another of Trump’s closest advisers telling Trump that his beliefs had no basis in fact. This should help prove corrupt intent. (Delusion is not a serviceable defense.)

I feel like it is time for me to propose my DNC rules change again.

When picking a VP, whoever comes in SECOND at the Democratic National convention should have the right of first refusal for the VP spot.  Since 1984 this would have given us tickets like:

Mondale/Hart
Dukakis/Jackson
B Clinton/Brown
Gore/Bradley
Kerry/Dean
Obama/H Clinton
H Clinton/Sanders
Biden/Sanders

Not only do I see some winning tickets in that list (like the unbeatable Dukakis/Jackson ticket), but I see a party that acknowledges the existence and legitimacy of its liberal/progressive members.

Whatever happens, we can all agree that all of the failures of the Democrats can be laid at the feet of the all powerful liberal faction that ultimately controls everything.

Just listen to this Highlands Bunker:

There is just so much evidence that Trump organized and executed an attempted coup to unlawfully remain in power.  The shame of this continuing attempt to end our constitutional democracy touches every person in America who still calls themself a Republican.

Last time we looked at the Governors of yore and I’m glad I started there because we can dispense with who we’d like to be Governor and discuss who will probably be the 75th Gov of Smellaware.  There is no need for a drum roll. Based on the fact that 60% of recent Govs had previously served as Lt Gov and the probability matrix that fact establishes, the next Governor is going to be Matt Denn. …or Bethany Hall-Long.

But wait… 60% isn’t destiny, you might say. There is a 40% chance that the next Gov might NOT have counted the days while pacing around the 10×10 confines of the Lt Gov’s cell.. I mean office. So, ok let’s see who could be a member of the lucky 40%.

Continuing on with the theme of probabilities 100% of recent Governors have served in some statewide office. So Matt Meyer, NC County Executive, is out of the running. So is my pick, Sarah McBride. More to the point, these people are in the running: Chip Flowers, Park City Kathy, Colleen C. Davis, Lisa Blunt Rochester, and who am I forgetting?

So let’s take Chip and Kathy out of consideration based on Chip not being a Delawarean, and Kathy being eventually convicted.  US Rep to Gov has a track record, so LBR is in the running.  But LBR knows full well that she only needs to sit tight and Carper’s Lifetime sinecure in the US Senate will become LBR’s lifetime sinecure in the US Senate. That’s too big of a prize to screw around with, so I don’t think she is terrible interested.  And speaking of not terrible interested Colleen C. Davis is invisible.  I don’t know how she is making out as Treasurer, but as far as staYing out of the headlines is concerned, Davis needs to win an award for being the anti-McGuiness.

That brings us back to BHL, Matt Denn and what the heck…I’ll say Matt Meyer (using the Chris Coons precedent of being able to fluke-a-juke an even bigger jump from New Castle County Executive to the US Senate).

Now let’s let Denn (sadly) off the hook. So it is the odds on favorite, BHL vs the longest of long shots, Meyer.   I’d vote for Meyer in that contest, but Hall-Long is very well liked.

In closing, Sarah McBride for Lt Gov!

A coup against the people and government of the United States failed. That should be seriously and publicly unpacked. Arrests and convictions must made or we’ll invite bigger and more effective coup attempts.

And yet, we all know that the “objective” media coverage is going to be a nauseating “both sides” bullshit fest where the mid-term horserace is the central narrative and the FACT THAT REPUBLICANS TRIED TO OVERTHROW THE GOVERNMENT is brushed aside.

Carney, at best, is a cardboard cutout of a man.  In fact a cardboard cut out of a man has a little utility, so calling him that is an un-merited compliment.  El Som has documented his lack of creativity, energy and low character. With his veto I’m just over that fucking waste of space.  So let’s get out over our skis and think about who will be the 75th.    But first let’s take a look at the luminaries that have served since I moved to Delaware as a wee socialist sprout in 1975.

Sherm Tribbitt.  (1973-1977) All I know about him was that Celia Cohen liked him.  I think he lived in Dover.

Pete du Pont (1977-1985) I guess when you elect the scion of the state’s wealthiest most influential family you get what you get.

Mike Castle (1985-1992) Compared to the current GOP, he was a bearded marxist.  Yes, he was for everything that further enriched the rich and further comforted the comfortable, but he wasn’t openly racist while doing it.

Tom Carper (1993-2001) Horrible.

Ruth Ann Minner (2002-2009). Indoor smoking ban.  it would never pass if it came up again today.

Jack Markell (2009-2017) Gets a lot of credit for shit that happened while he was Governor, not because he was governor.

John Carney (2017-2022) Every bit as horrible and Carper but without the charisma, or Navy experience.

Well, we’ve been repeatedly hosed in the Governor department.  Can someone break our long running streak of a-holes and incurious boobs?  I sort of doubt it, but we’ll take up that question on Monday.

Imagining that teams of teenage boys are transitioning to win the girl’s softball state championship is a “problem” that only exists in the fever dreams of MAGAT nation. No matter,

Ohio House Republicans passed a bill late Tuesday that bans all transgender students from playing high school and college sports, and requires genital exams in any disputes. …

“This is truly bizarre medically and nonsensical, but looking at it practically, this bill means that if anyone decides to question a child’s true gender, that child must undergo a sensitive exam,” Liston said. “I struggle to understand why we keep discussing bills focusing on children’s genitals,” Liston added

The hate is the point.

Here is some other shit that’s happening.

Johnson’s days are numbered.  Even if he survives the vote of no confidence, the track record of survivors isn’t great.

I’m an office person.  I like the dividing line between work and not work.  I also like being around people.  In my experience, being part of an effective team requires occasional bullshitting ..or let’s call it “non-work” interactions.   But I can also see that I’m not like some people who are way more productive without the commute and office bullshit.

Either way, showing up in an office because some middle manager is justifying their job by taking attendance is probably going away.

At its heart, the battle over remote work is a test of corporate America’s definition of an ideal worker. For decades or even longer, that has been a person who prioritizes their job above all else and has no outside commitments.

It’s “an incredibly powerful story,” said Brigid Schulte, the director of the Better Life Lab program at the think tank New America. “It’s part of our culture. It’s part of our DNA.”

It’s probably not shocking that people who are lower on the org chart tend to be less enthusiastic about returning to the office than the senior leaders and executives who thrived in the in-person Before Times.

“For many C.E.O.s and managers, that’s how they worked. That’s how they succeeded and that’s the only way they know,” Ms. Schulte said. “All of this was completely false; it was totally a fake story we’ve been telling ourselves.”

Even though I practically am one (born early in 1965), I’ve got nothing but contempt for the “Baby Boom” generation (people born between 1946 and 1964).  They wrecked the vibrant and inclusive post war economy by repeatedly cutting their own taxes, and driving a stake into the heart of American manufacturing.  They cavalierly gave us two deficit funded wars, ignored climate change, and did all that while continuously and loudly congratulating themselves for being sober moderates and above crass party politics.

All this to say, by accident or intention, Obi-Wan Kenobi is the quintessential  boomer.

I’m cooked. These days I cannot even skim the news, let alone come up with some kind of trenchant comment on it.   That’s why it is almost 2:30 and I’m just getting to this.

To be honest, if it wasn’t for providing a home for El Som’s coverage of Leg Hall, I’d have folded up the tent a while ago.

It is also the archive of El Som’s coverage of Leg Hall, so that alone argues in favor of keeping this jalopy on the road.   I may come around as election season heats up.  Who the fuck knows?