Rubber check

 Now we know why Giuliani missed the greatest golf tournament in the history of the world at Bedminster last week:  He was ducking a process server.  His ex-wife Judith is suing for $262,000 she says he owes on their 2019 divorce settlement.  Her attorney Dror Bikel (wasn't he in Revenge of the Sith?) says, "If he doesn't make the payment then she will seek incarceration."  It would be ironic if the first major January 6 insurrectionist was locked up for failing to cover some country club dues and bouncing a check for ten grand.  What did Ivana Trump say in The First Wives Club?  "Don't get mad -- get everything."

Speaking of movies, as we seem to be, Mike Lindell says he has spent $40 million on his latest push to finally overturn the 2020 election, possibly including a sequel to last year's Absolute Proof (which Fox News wouldn't touch and One America fitted with a disclaimer longer than The Crimson "Permanent Assurance.")  Say, Mike, can you stake a former mayor and nearly disbarred lawyer who's down on his luck?  

Yesterday we learned that Alex Jones's lawyers turned over two years' worth of text messages on their client's phone to the plaintiffs suing him in the Sandy Hook defamation case because they aren't very good.  Today it seems this treasure trove included messages between Jones and Roger Stone and the House Select Committee is interested in them.  Very interested.  

Somebody (McConnell?) must have told Ron Johnson, "Ix-nay on the afetynet-say" because he now denies telling The Regular Joe Show that Social Security and Medicare have to go.  Ron doesn't think people can hear him when he talks on podcasts.  Or read about the things he says.

After waiting two years for Kentucky to do something about the death of Breonna Taylor, the Justice Department stepped in and arrested the four Louisville police who shot up her apartment while serving a no-knock warrant.  They face federal civil rights charges and remind us why the 1964 Civil Rights Act was a watershed in American justice.  Derek Chauvin was convicted of murder and of violating the civil rights of George Floyd, but the White Power Twins Tucker Carlson and Laura Ingraham are still telling their followers that it wasn't murder because the "violent ex-con" died of a fentanyl overdose while violently passing a counterfeit bill.  Folks, what did Judge Gamble say?  "Your beliefs do not make something true."  Write that out a hundred times.

The knee-to-the-neck technique remains popular with police.  Donovan Johnson was on his way home last year in Arlington, Massachusetts, when a white officer ran up, threw him to the ground and knelt on him while the white suspect nearby was ignored.  Johnson, a hospital grants administrator, was handcuffed, put in a squad car, and subsequently released without charges.  He is suing Arlington for violating his civil rights.  (The actual suspect was arrested by others.)  Maybe an apology?  Too much to expect?

By a lopsided bipartisan 95-1 the Senate voted to allow Finland and Sweden to join NATO.  The holdout was Josh "Wheels" Hawley, which can mean only one thing:  He thinks Putin's bromance with Trump is over for good and hopes to be Russia's choice for 2024.  But Ron DeSantis, Governissimo of the People's Republic of Florida, is way ahead.  In the past week he suspended the state attorney of Hillsborough County for refusing to enforce the abortion ban and for supporting minors who seek gender-affirming treatment.  He rejected the CDC's declaration of a monkeypox health emergency ("We are not doing fear").  He addressed the flight of qualified teachers from the state with a law that allows veterans to replace them even if they lack a college degree.  (Schools can't teach any form of sex ed or the history of racism, which is why they're leaving.)  If Florida police decide your car stereo is too loud they can not only ticket you but search your car and even impound it for three days while more fines accrue.   Mr. Putin, he's ready for his close-up.

When is your next boat parade, Ron?