In olden days an astrologer could be executed for treason if he prophesied the death of the king, but times have changed. To be clear, the purpose of this article is not to say that Joe Biden will expire in office, but that there is a window opening shortly which could produce that result, and it’s something we should take note of. Given the pressures of the office and Biden’s status as the oldest serving president, this should come as a shock to no one.
House Republican Conference Chair Liz Cheney (R-WY) must feel as if she’s gone down the rabbit hole these days. The conservative stalwart, daughter of former VP Dick “Darth Vader” Cheney, with a 78% lifetime rating from the American Conservative Union and a record of voting with President Donald Trump 98% of the time, is being booted from her leadership position, likely to be replaced by a woman with a 44% ACU rating, who only voted 77% with Trump. The reason for Cheney’s fall from GOP grace? Her apostacy in refusing to accept and promulgate the Big Lie, that Donald Trump won the 2020 election in a landslide and had it stolen out from under him. Liz also voted to impeach Trump after the January 6th assault on the US Capitol, and has called him to account for his role in that abortive coup, for which she is now paying the penalty.
Ten months after his murder, George Floyd’s family received some closure and a form of justice when the jury convicted his killer, former Officer Derek Chauvin, on all three counts of murder and manslaughter charges, after less than 11 hours of deliberation. The evidence against him was so egregious, that outcome should have been beyond dispute, but in such racially charged cases of police misconduct, nothing is certain.
Not ten miles away from the George Floyd murder trial, another unarmed black man needlessly lost his life during a traffic stop in the Minneapolis suburb of Brooklyn Center. When police pulled him over, Daunte called his mother, worried what the outcome might be. The official story of why Daunte was stopped has changed; apparently, the initial charge was car deodorizers hanging from his rearview mirror. This shortly morphed into an expired license plate, during a pandemic where the DMV has been closed for months and processing of registration renewals has been notoriously delayed.
During Holy Week 2021, the New York Times broke the story that GOP firebrand Representative Matt Gaetz (R-FL) was under federal investigation for possible sex trafficking of a minor and related offenses. Begun by the William Barr Justice Department, the investigation has been ongoing for more than a year, with the FBI characterizing Gaetz as a “subject”, not a “target.” Gaetz stands accused of multiple incidents involving exchange of cash or goods for sex, but so far only one allegation of underage trafficking; if proved, Gaetz faces up to life in prison. Gaetz’ response to the story being made public has been a staunch denial, and a rather tortured quasi-justification alleging a complicated and improbable blackmail and extortion scenario at the root of the investigation.
The deteriorating situation at the US/Mexico border began to gain traction in the Press in mid-March, as waves of unaccompanied minors flocked to seek asylum. Mostly from violent, corrupt, climate-devastated regions in Central America, some of the overwhelming numbers of migrants were released from holding camps established on the Mexican side of the border during the Trump administration. Others were new arrivals, emboldened by Biden’s election victory and the hope that his administration would deal more humanely with them than the previous one had.
