Sheinbaum Wins

June 3: Mexico election … Trump verdict polling … Hundreds die in Phoenix … Fauci hearing …

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Mexican Pres.-elect Claudia Sheinbaum in undated BBC video. (Screengrab / BBC.).

North America has its first woman president and its first Jewish president, both of whom are the same person, both of whom are political leftists, and both of whom were elected yesterday in a country that smart people love to tell us is known for its patriarchal culture, still overwhelmingly Catholic, and growing more politically conservative.

Oh, and both of them are former climate scientists who, as mayor of Mexico City, wore a mask and shuttered businesses so that fewer people would die from COVID, which is airborne.

Newsfuckers, meet Mexican President-elect Claudia Sheinbaum!

She’s a secular leftist who enjoys the government having its own gas company and is focused on transitioning to clean energy. Sheinbaum also supports robust aid and relief for Mexico’s poor. And Mexico, lest we forget, is not only America’s largest trade partner, but the single greatest exporter to the U.S. of residents whose labor helps keep the economy afloat and who commit fewer crimes than Americans do.

Sheinbaum won in a landslide, with her party poised to claim a supermajority in Congress.

And if you think democracy’s on the line here in the U.S., 37 Mexican candidates were killed and hundreds more dropped out in order not to be killed in this round of elections. Compare that to the U.S., where the only campaign fatalities were Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) and former Gov. Nikki Haley (R-SC).

And if you thought crime was bad in the U.S., where it’s not, Mexico has one of the worst homicide rates on the planet. Ten women are murdered every day. One hundred thousand people are missing. And yet, Americans are still vacationing there to escape the killing fields of Central Park.

On immigration, while Pres. Joe Biden has had help from Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, Sheinbaum’s ally — including increased Mexican enforcement against border crossings — it’s less clear where Sheinbaum stands on the issue, or how the presidential transition may shift migration patterns. So stay tuned!

Here’s Who Still Believes in Jury Verdicts in the Absence of Evidence to the Contrary, Not Counting Unfavorable Verdicts

Gov. Larry Hogan (R-MD) was the focus of attention again yesterday for calling on “all Americans to respect” last week’s jury verdict convicting DCC3FRFP¹ Donald Trump on 34 counts of doing crimes.

Trump’s daughter-in-law and Republican National Committee (RNC) co-chair Lara Trump refused to say whether the party will support Hogan’s Senate run, a run that Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) strived as mightily to make happen as McConnell can strive to do anything.

Hogan “doesn’t deserve the respect of anyone in the Republican Party at this point,” said Trump, putting every Republican on notice that “anybody who’s not speaking up … [word salad] … doesn’t deserve the respect of anyone.”

But Hogan isn’t the only Republican to violate the Trump code of omerta. Here’s former Gov. Asa Hutchinson (R-AR), discussing an actual change of position based on empirical evidence, a clear violation of the RNC platform:

“This is a serious moment for America. And I’m one of those in the camp that, I didn’t think the charges should’ve been brought to begin with. I’ve made that statement. But when the prosecution put forth their case and you saw the seriousness of the jurors … you could see how they were following it, the reports of those in the courtroom, and it has to give you some respect, both for the prosecution and for the jurors that took this case so seriously. And throughout this trial, you didn’t have one juror saying Donald Trump is innocent. And so, as an officer of the court, as a lawyer, we ought to respect the findings of a jury.”

But hey, unlike the rest of the media, how about we Newsfuckers give time to some people who aren’t wrong 98% of the time?

Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights CEO Maya Wiley, a former New York City mayoral candidate, pushed back on the notion that Trump can appeal to voters of color because he, too, is oppressed by the justice system.

“Donald Trump’s conviction is going to be a problem for him with many Black people because, guess what, many Black people do not like people who violate our criminal laws,” Wiley said. “Black people are disproportionately the victims of crime. It’s not that they just side with people who’ve been convicted of a crime.”

New York City Council Member Yusef Salaam said, “We should be proud that today the system worked,” a statement with special power, as Salaam was one of the Central Park Five whose execution Trump sought before Salaam’s conviction was overturned. Salaam said, “We should be somber that we Americans have an ex-President who has been found guilty on 34 separate felony charges.”

But it wasn’t just Black Democrats and a handful of Republican pariahs backing the Trump jury. Y’know which other Americans accepted the verdict? Most!

Pollsters were polling America’s reaction before the ink was dry on the jury form and the toner was dry on the face of guilt. Morning Consult reported that 54% of voters approved of the verdict and believe that Trump is a criminal, which he is. Only 34% of voters disapproved of the verdict. (h/t)

Almost half of independent voters — 49% (which is still almost half!) — said that Trump should do the honorable thing and step down from his campaign, stop making false claims about the judge and prosecutors and jury and federal officials, accept his punishment, and atone for his misdeeds and volunteer for Habitats for Humanity so he can pick up a hammer and actually build a building for once in his tawdry benighted life.

The poll found that 15% of Republican voters believe Trump should drop out, what with being a convicted criminal. And that includes eight percent of people who otherwise describe themselves as Trump supporters but will be rounded up and taken to the de-education camps anyway.

This means that political geniuses who said the prosecution was political kryptonite were wrong. Any time Democrats stand up for the Constitution and the rule of law, there will always be naysayers, lovers of unity-uber-alles, who beg the authorities never to punish those who seek to end the American experiment but aren’t Muslim.

Take Sen. Mitt Romney (R-UT). The Republican Party’s Voice of Reason™ said that District Attorney Alvin Bragg “should have settled the case against Trump.” This, Romney said (still under the delusion that his brain was working correctly), “would have been the normal procedure.” (h/t)

Settling such cases is, in fact, the normal procedure. Settling such cases when the defendant refuses to settle such cases is not only not the normal procedure, it’s impossible. A settlement is an agreement between the two parties.

When exactly did Romney urge Trump to settle? Oh, right, it was Goinkday, Borvember 34.

Maricopa County Human Sacrifices Rise Tenfold

Heat contributed to the deaths of 645 people last year in Maricopa County, AZ, Politico reports. That’s more than ten times the 61 heat-related deaths there in 2013.

So, what’s happening here? It’s getting hotter! And by “it” I mean all the things that there are.

For almost a month last summer, the daily highs topped 110° and the coolest it got when the sun was hidden safely behind the planet was rarely below 95°.

Towns and cities in Maricopa County include:

• Phoenix

• Surprise

• Goodyear

• Sun City

• Paradise Valley

• Carefree

• Sun Lakes

And those are just the ironically named ones!

Remember, this is the county whose brave Republican election officials were willing to flout the law in order to keep then-Pres. Donald Trump in office. Because Trump wants America to produce even more than it is under Pres. Joe Biden, which is more than any country has produced ever.

And Big Oil can only be preserved by continuing our human sacrifices to appease the gods Moloch and ExxonMoloch.

It’s not just gun “rights” that America sacrifices hundreds thousands tens of thousands of people for. The autonomy of fossil fuel companies also requires human sacrifice to appease the gods (including not just Moloch but also Jesus, His Father, and um, whatever that other thing is supposed to be).

The umbrella principle all these people are being sacrificed for is the concept of individual autonomy — which, of course, restricts the kinds of collective action that actually increase individual freedom. (Autonomy is license to do what you want, freedom is the ability to do what you want — which is expanded when we act collectively to increase the things you can do; autonomy is a caveman’s right to hoard rocks, freedom is the ability to go to school to be a geologist.)

In the case of fictional gun rights, we appease the gods of autonomy by driving tiny metal stakes through our human sacrifices very very quickly. In the case of the right to destroy our atmosphere, that requires ritual burning alive.

So, those selfless Maricopa County officials literally now have 645 less selfs² in their county, in the name of auto autonomy.

Of course, it’s not enough to put Trump in place and merely allow people to sacrifice themselves randomly. So local officials are doing what they can to turn up the heat. As it were.

For instance, a lot of cooling centers don’t accommodate pets, ensuring both higher death tolls for people loyal to their animals and the absolutely assured admission to these centers of Gov. Kristi Noem (R-SD). The Supreme Court pitched in, by ending eviction moratoriums, thereby hiking the number of homeless people participating in the human sacrifice program.

Biden, of course, is meddling, with a first-time $2 million infusion for cooling centers to stay open overnight, potentially reducing the 2024 human sacrifice totals. Buzzkill!

As of last year, heat was the second-biggest cause of death for the county’s homeless people, behind drugs. Of course, stopping drugs from coming over the border is a top priority for Republican officials. Preventing deadly climate change made right here in America? Not so much, praise Moloch.

Luckily, given all of this, U.S. cities don’t have to worry about their water supplies. Right, Atlanta?!? Or the electricity for their air conditioners. Right, Texas?!?

(And if you still have any flicker of jolly left in you after that slice of American dystopia, climate activist Bill McKibben has an account of Delhi and Gaza that should snuff it right out.)

Biden, Fauci in the Spotlight, in Court and in the House

Hunter Biden goes on trial today, because his father went to bed after the Trump conviction without remembering to turn off the Justice Department.

Biden is charged with possessing a gun while using crack, making false statements about said crack-age on the form he filled out to buy the gun, and lying to the gun dealer. Ironically, in Texas, most of these charges are sufficient to get you elected as a state representative.

Jury selection starts today…in this case. A separate tax case — three felony counts and six other counts — begins in September. 

At one point, the whole mess looked like it would be wrapped up: Biden would plead guilty to tax shit in return for skating on the gun/crack shit. Prosecutors and the defense team agreed on the deal — which was subsequently blown up by Judge Maryellen Noreika, an appointee of then-Pres. Donald Trump. That led U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland to name another Trump appointee, David Weiss, as special counsel, leading to the two trials Biden faces now.

Appropriately, Noreika has little trial experience. And this isn’t the first case where she decided prosecutors weren’t being tough enough. In a similar gun case, she doubled the sentence that prosecutors recommended.

And if you’re wondering whether a special counsel would’ve been appointed if the Joe involved were named Shmoe and not Biden, you are correct. Meaning, yes, this case has been politicized by the Justice Department.

Which doesn’t mean Hunter’s innocent, of course.

That said, the whole thing is more tawdry and sad than it is redolent of political corruption. Two of Hunter’s ex-wives will testify, including the one who was previously married to his late brother. And the public will finally hear from the most heartbreaking participant of them all: Hunter’s laptop.

Biden faces possibly serious prison time if convicted, but there’s also apparently real grounds for appeal. That’s assuming his screwups don’t end up ensuring that there’s no Justice Department left next year, in which case at least he’ll have his dad for company in jail.

FAUCI Meanwhile, a House hearing today will look at the political weaponization of the, uh, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID). Its retired director, Anthony Fauci, America’s most famous medical-stuff guy, is expected to testify.

And there’s reason to think Fauci might have cause for concern. While it doesn’t seem likely that Republicans will nail Fauci for secretly helping China cook up deadly superviruses and killing millions of people, there does seem to be some indication of a NIAID culture of circumventing public-records laws.

Federal agencies are supposed to release internal records upon request, barring a set of well-defined exceptions. But some of the researchers there appear to have developed a regimen of techniques to evade the searches that agencies use to locate those records, and to have used private g-mail accounts for some communications instead of agency email accounts.

So, don’t be surprised if today gets a little rough for Fauci and if Democrats don’t automatically push back against Republicans. There might actually be some there there here.

TCB

NICOLE SANDLER Catch me every Monday with the weekly “The Fucking News” segment on The Nicole Sandler Show, which you can watch/listen to live every Monday at 5pm, or on demand, here.

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Go get ‘em, kids…!

1. DCC3FRFP = Disgraced, criminally convicted, tridicted, fraudster, rapist, former President.

2. I know: “Fewer.”