Today is Monday, February 14, 2022. Happy Valentine’s Day to all you lovers out there! Now that the Los Angeles Rams won the Super Bowl yesterday, we can all go on with our lives. More than the game itself, which supposedly was exciting – I don’t know since I didn’t watch it – what is generating a lot of buzz is the halftime show that featured those legends of hip-hop, Dr. Dre, Snoop Dog, Mary J. Blige, Eminem, and Kendrick Lamar. To be honest with you, folks, I did know almost everyone on the list, except for Lamar, who is the baby of the group at age 34. If you asked me, though, to state anything these performers are noted for, I wouldn’t be able to name one thing that they are known for. But if you asked me what songs appeared in Oklahoma, I could probably name a few. What I’m saying here is that I’m no fan of hop-hop, rap, or whatever. But there are people who adore it. I have nothing against them.

What is hilarious about this groundbreaking halftime show is that the performers allowed to perform onstage were on the older side; they are not the younger faces of hip-hop these days. From an online USA Today article on the show, I learned their true ages: Dr. Dre is the oldest, at 56, Snoop Dog is next, at 50, Mary J. Blige, the third oldest, at 51, and – Goddamn – Eminem is 49 (that’s hard to believe), 50 Cent, who was a surprise performer, is 46, and the last, Kendrick Lamar is only 34. For those who do read my blog, you may recall that I did see a hip-hop show – albeit accidentally – this past summer and I did sit for an interminable 3 and a half hours before finally exiting at the introduction of the headliner, George Clinton. I am still no fan of the musical genre.

The halftime show was marked by Eminem’s decision to take a knee after performing “Lose Yourself” in a show of solidarity with former NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick and other football players who have kneeled during the national anthem to protest racial inequality and police brutality. Eminem’s action certainly fueled a rash of tweets by users on the media platform. I’m very happy to hear that despicable right-wingers who have nothing to do but vent their anger at anything viewed as left leaning lost their minds on Twitter, people like the troll Sean Spicer who was Dumpf’s first press secretary and who debased himself on Dancing on the Stars a while back and this loathsome figure, Charlie Kirk, who is an American conservative (Ugh!) activist and radio talk show host (his true claim to fame is his role of chairman of Students for Trump), where he posted this tweet about Eminem’s bow to Kaepernick: “The NFL is now the league of sexual anarchy. This halftime show should not be allowed on television.” This is exactly what he wrote and it’s bullshit.

A very large story from Trump World today is the news that the accounting firm that represented the Trump Organization for so long has dumped the corporation because the accounting company can no longer believe it can vouch for the Trump Organization’s financial statements. This explosive development is reported in an online edition of Raw Story on my smartphone by Brad Reed entitled “Trump Org’s longtime accountants sever ties and warn ex-president’s financial statements can’t be trusted.”

“In a letter sent to Trump Organization chief legal officer Alan Garten, Mazars general counsel William J. Kelly states that statements about Trump’s financial condition ranging from the years 2011 through 2020 ‘should no longer be relied upon.'” Kelly went on to explain that Mazars came to this conclusion “based, in part, upon the filings made by the New York Attorney General on January 18, 2022, our own investigation, and information received from internal and external sources.” Kelly further informed Garten that Mazars will not be able to continue working with the Trump Organization because the false claims in the documents about the Orange One’s finances have created “a nonwaivable conflict of interest” with the company.

This news doesn’t bode well for the former dictator. The abandonment of his longterm accounting firm seems to corroborate claims by Attorney General Letitia James that Dumpf and his minions conducted a lengthy pattern of financial irregularities within his organization, accusations that James is actively investigating currently. Who would take on the Trump Organization now, especially when there is such a whiff of effluvia emanating from the corporation’s boardrooms? It would also seem that the accounting firm is desiring to protect itself after signing off on financial statements alleged to be inaccurate. Maybe Dumpf chief financial officer Allen Weisselberg is finally talking to New York district attorneys. Can we consider this story as a harbinger then of things to come in the ever-evolving Dumpf saga?

Another positive story emanating out of New York is the news that the judge in the Sarah Palin’s defamation lawsuit against The New York Times says he will dismiss the case. This story appears in an online CNN piece by Sonia Moghe and Brian Stelter entitled “Judge in Sarah Palin’s defamation suit against New York Times says he will dismiss case.”

The judge, Jed Rakoff, overseeing the former Alaska Governor’s defamation lawsuit against the titan of journalism, said today that he will dismiss the suit, ruling that Palin’s team did not prove a key element of its case. The judge’s ruling came while the jury is continuing its deliberations in the trial, wherein Rakoff asserted that he will allow the jury to continue deliberating and even reach a verdict, but he will dismiss the case once it has done so.

The judge said that Palin did not prove “actual malice,” which is the standard her legal team had to meet in her defamation case. The paper said all along that it made an honest mistake involving Palin – and issued a swift correction. Palin, however, argued that the publication smeared her on purpose. In the landmark 1964 New York Times vs. Sullivan case, it was specified that public figures who sue for defamation must prove that the offender knew the claim was false or showed “reckless disregard” for the truth.

Thus Rakoff sided with the publication today after hours of discussion about the paper’s motion that the Palin camp had not presented a “legally sufficient evidentiary basis” for the case.

After hearing the judge’s joyful ruling, attorneys for The Times hugged each other after the decision was made in court. Palin’s attorneys refused to comment to CNN.

The jury of nine, five women and four men, has deliberated for more than nine hours. The jury has been released for the day; it is expected to resume deliberations tomorrow at 9:30 a.m. The judge was fulsome in his praise of the jury when he said this: “I love this jury and wish you a Happy Valentine’s Day.”

It seems that the case is not over even with Rakoff’s ruling, as the Palin camp will inevitably file an appeal, which could end up being heard by the second circuit court and, potentially, the Supreme Court. So we’re not out of the woods yet with this case.

So the only thing that Palin achieved thus far with her sojourn to New York is getting COVID-19 and attracting much negative publicity for dining inside restaurants while testing positive for the virus. I’m sure she didn’t expect to be going home with this recorded in her diary of her adventures in the Big Apple.

This being Valentine’s Day, Elliot and I exchanged cards and gifts earlier in the morning. I bought him a stuffed, pink dog with fluffy ears that, when you press its paw, immediately plays the song popularized by The Contours called “Do You Love Me?” It was heard a lot in the film Dirty Dancing. Elliot gave me a nice card. I forgot to mention that he did pay for dinner at the White Radish last night, so that was my pre-Valentine’s Day gift from him.

Later we went out with our friend “Mark” to have brunch at Sanford’s in Astoria. We waited outside for Mark around 2:10 to be picked up at 2:15 since we had a 3 p.m. reservation.

Mark was fortunate in finding a spot around the corner where the restaurant was located, on Broadway. However, we experienced a comedy of errors, if you will, when we tried to register the car for two hours at the meter on the side. Mark couldn’t see his phone screen very well in order to use his parking app. When I walked to the meter to put in quarters instead, the machine began to spit out my quarters and failed to register the time. I had to stand in the cold several minutes to finally get the two hours registered on the meter.

We were finally able to walk now to the restaurant. Elliot had walked away from us sometime before our parking problem was resolved. He was inside when Mark and I entered. I mentioned our 3 p.m. reservation and we were quickly escorted to a table.

At the table, we gave Mark our Valentine’s Day gift and he gave us what he bought us for the occasion, chocolate hearts. Our brunch was very good, overall. However, I received both my onion soup and my duck confit with waffles at the same time. My entree should have been served after the soup, not with it. But I didn’t say anything since we were informed by our server that the brunch menu was over at 4. So maybe that explained the alacrity of receiving everything at once.

Our comedy of errors progressed when we returned to the car and saw the odious orange envelope and ticket placed on the dashboard of Mark’s car. I then wondered if we were parked in a No Standing zone, but the explanation for the ticket obviated that rationale. It seemed that the officer thought the ticket was face down or hidden in the dashboard and couldn’t see when the ticket actually expired. We definitely had more than a half hour on the ticket when we returned to the car. So this was very infuriating, we all thought. We offered to share the $35 violation, but Mark wouldn’t hear of it. He did say that he would probably write a letter to the judge explaining this discrepancy and see how the chips might fall. We still felt bad for our friend. Elliot reaffirmed his belief that getting tickets is the price to pay for driving in New York City. We all get tickets, one time or another, it appears. I won’t mention how many times we’ve been ticketed through the years.

Other than that unpleasant blip, we all had a very enjoyable Valentine’s Day. Mark drove us to our building and we said our goodbyes.

We stayed in for the rest of the day. I look forward to a warming spell later in the week. Today was quite cold.

Stay safe and be well.