Today is Tuesday, March 29, 2022. The news that was heard around the world – no, not that “slap heard around the world” on Oscar night, which is still reverberating today – the findings by Federal Judge David Carter that damned the ex-president with words saying in effect that he committed felonious acts with respect to the January 6 siege on the Capitol continues to reverberate through the land with today’s pronouncement from a former federal prosecutor who served for more than 24 years in the District of Columbia’s U.S. Attorney’s Office saying that Donald Trump could be arrested or indicted on just the evidence included in Monday’s bombshell legal ruling by U.S. District Court Judge David O. Carter. This development is covered in an online AlterNet article on my smartphone by David Badash entitled “Trump could be arrested or indicted based on evidence in judge’s ruling: ex-federal prosecutor.”

The former federal prosecutor, Glenn Kirschner, who is now an NBC News/MSNBC legal analyst and host of the Justice Matters podcast, said today, “Judge Carter’s finding by a preponderance of the evidence [which says] more likely than not that Trump committed felony offenses is a HIGHER evidentiary standard than the one needed to arrest/indict Trump for his crimes, which requires only probable cause.” In response to Carter’s ruling, other legal experts are calling it “striking,” “massive,” “monumental,” and “historic.”

In competition with the missing 18-and-a-half-minute gap in former President Richard Nixon’s White House tapes is the bombshell story reported in The Washington Post and CBS News today concerning a gap of more than seven – yes, seven – hours in the ex-demagogue’s phone records from that infamous day in early January. This gap reveals missing phone records of calls placed to or placed from then-President Dumpf and do not list any calls made between the insurrectionist and lawmakers while the attack at the U.S. Capitol was ongoing. This new puzzling news is covered in an online CNN article by Veronica Stracqualursi which details this novel development in the ongoing Dumpf saga of malfeasance against the American republic.

This stunning turn of events was first reported in February by CNN as the records handed over earlier from the National Archives to the House Select Committee investigating the January 6th attack showed no record of phone calls for several hours made to or from Dumpf as the violence unfolded on Capitol Hill. There was no notation of calls from 11:17 a.m. to 6:54 p.m., according to the Post and CBS, which obtained the records.

The lack of documentation of the former dictator-in-chief’s calls leaves congressional investigators with holes so far in their understanding of what transpired in January. More than 100 people have been subpoenaed by the committee thus far.

House investigators are now probing whether Dumpf communicated on January 6 through backchannels, aides’ phones or burner phones, two people with knowledge of the probe told the Post and CBS.

Always displaying his ignorance of things that could implicate him in something more nefarious, the idiot ex-president said this about the use of burner phones, “I have no idea what a burner phone is. To the best of my knowledge [what knowledge?], I have never even heard the term.” If you believe that this pathological liar didn’t know what a burner phone is, you’re more gullible than I thought. Lawrence O’Donnell has already exposed the lie that Dumpf didn’t know what a “burner phone” was on his news show tonight. He quoted former National Security Adviser of the United States John Bolton who said that Dumpf used the term “burner phone” in several communications with him. In communications with his now-estranged niece, Mary Trump, who has trashed him on the nightly news and has written two unflattering books about him, Dumpf also used the term burner phone knowing exactly what type of device it was. So again, he doth lie again!

Some of those people whom the ignorant president supposedly called were Ohio Republican and lapdog Rep. Jim Jordan the morning of January 6, ubiquitously rumpled Steve Bannon, Dumpf’s White House strategist, personal lawyer and frequent schvitzer Rudy Giuliani, then-Republican Senator David Perdue of Georgia, conservative commentator William J. Bennett, Fox News host Sean Hannity, House Minority Lapdog Kevin McCarthy, Republican Senators Mike Lee of Utah, and Tommy Tuberville of Alabama.

The call logs obtained by the Post and CBS did not show the multiple calls former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie attempted to make to Dumpf. Christie previously told CNN about his multiple efforts to reach the former liar-in-chief by phone during the riot through the White House switchboard, the President’s assistant, body man, and personal cell phone. If the former governor of the Garden State could have gotten through to his Golden Idol, he might have convinced the stubborn man to intervene earlier and talk his supporters down from their violent tendencies. But there are no records of these attempted calls.

As for the use of making calls on aides’ phones, this was a habit that Dumpf frequently practiced where the communications were rarely tracked or recorded, according to a former Trump White House staffer.

Records do show that Dumpf made his now-infamous “Save America Rally” speech on the National Mall and urged his acolytes to march to the Capitol and “fight like hell” to stop lawmakers from certifying the 2020 election results. The records do note that Dumpf returned to the White House at 1:19 p.m. and “met with his valet” at 1:21 p.m., according to the Post and CBS.

From the documents obtained by the two sources, we know about the next event listed in the presidential diary is Dumpf heading to the Rose Garden at 4:03 p.m. to record a video message, in which he told the mob attacking the Capitol to “go home” and “we love you.” The records say that the inciter-in-chief returned to the Oval Office at 4:07 p.m. and went to the Second Floor Residence at 6:27 p.m., the Post and CBS reported.

So now we have a mysterious seven-hour gap in call records from that notorious day in American history to add to the myriad “crimes” committed by the ex-president during his one tumultuous term in office. Cover-up, anyone? And he wants to run in 2024? What a fucking joke!

As for our attitude toward what propelled me to write this blog more than two years ago, COVID-19, a new online analysis by Chris Cillizza, CNN’s editor-in-chief, says it all about how we feel about this long-term pall over our heads. The title says it all: “We are so over COVID-19.”

The results of a new poll from Monmouth University are reported by Cillizza in his analysis. He cites these statistics: More than 3 in 4 Americans (77%) support the relaxing of CDC guidelines on masking and social distancing in areas with low COVID rates. Also roughly 3 in 4 (73%) also agree with the statement that “it’s time we accept that COVID is here to stay and we just need to get on with our lives.” Do you agree with this assessment? The last poll result shows that, among that last group, more than 4 in 10 want there to be no future COVID regulations or mandates put in place.

According to a new AP-NORC poll, 44% of Americans said they often or always wear masks around people outside of their homes. That’s down from 65% in January 2022 and 82% in February 2021. These numbers emerge even as new Omicron subvariant BA.2 has become the dominant strain in this country.

These polls clearly indicate that, almost no matter what, most people do not want to return to where we were three months ago, or a year ago, or two years ago. That is why politicians of both stripes, Democrats and repugnicans, fell over themselves over the past two months to revoke mask mandates and other mitigation measures. (Mull over this: No state currently has an indoor mask mandate in place.)

This situation is presently gripping the country, despite COVID cases rising in 13 states this week compared to last week, according to Johns Hopkins University data. Cillizza says, “There’s no question the highly contagious subvariant will continue to spread in the coming weeks.”

It’s equally clear that the days of government-mandated mitigations – primarily through mask mandates – are over. Thus the major takeaway from this analysis is that the pandemic feels like it’s over for the majority of Americans, even if the virus isn’t quite done with us. Are you in this group then? I’m still afraid that we are not over yet with the virus since there is still a large subsegment of the population that hasn’t received any vaccinations yet and will probably not do so in the foreseeable future. So take off that mask if you feel like it and don’t get mad if you contract COVID.

That’s it for me. Oh, I just wanted to mention that we will be expecting some visitors from Greg Abbott’s state, Texas, tomorrow who will be in New York until Saturday, April 2, and I don’t know if I’ll be writing the blog on those days. These are Elliot’s cousins from Dallas/Fort Worth. They haven’t been here in at least 6 years. Unfortunately, they will not be able to spend time with us in our apartment because of the continuing kitchen project. But we can meet them on the outside and spend time with them in restaurants or cultural venues.

Stay safe and be well.