Today is Tuesday, September 6, 2022. As you might have heard, the second incarnation of the Teflon Don received some stunning good legal news yesterday when a Dumpf-appointed federal judge granted the Orange Blob his request to appoint a “special master” to review the documents taken during a FBI search of Mar-a-Lago on August 8. Not only did this conciliatory judge grant Dumpf everything he wished for (the insurrectionist must be gloating in his Florida compound right now; I wonder if Melania is with him during this one definitely undeserved victory?), she went way beyond his request to grant an injunction instructing the Justice department to suspend use of the records for investigative purposes. The decision by this judge has already received fierce criticism from legal channels for her ruling. The judge comes under particular fire in an online article for Daily Kos by Mark Sumner entitled “Ruling from Judge Cannon isn’t just a gift to Trump, it’s a threat to both law and intelligence.”

The name of the judge who has offended most legal experts by her decision is Aileen Cannon, and, boy, did she shoot a volley into the air that came down with a thunderbolt. This decision stunned legal experts across the country, even among those who have a passing understanding of applicable law, by granting Dumpf’s request to appoint this master to examine the documents taken during this so-called “raid” on an innocent victim, such as himself.

Someone who had a definite opinion about Cannon’s decision is former FBI agent and attorney Asha Rangappa who notes this injunction was created from whole cloth by Cannon. He observed that Dumpf’s lawyers didn’t even ask for an injunction, so Cannon “did Trump’s lawyers’ work for them,” he indicated. Rangappa feels that “Cannon ignores the law, ignores precedent, ignores procedure, and ignores the government’s response.” In addition, Rangappa believes that Cannon simply mistakes everything from past rulings of the Supreme Court to President Joe Biden’s position on executive privilege.

Now this ruling can be appealed to the 11th Circuit Court, or the government might decide to take a different approach, such as taking action in a D.C. court. This step I couldn’t bear: the government could actually return documents to the Whiner-in-Chief and subpoena them again. Thus with this one ruling, Cannon has given the subject of her misapplied ruling a dramatic slowdown that was rapidly heading toward indictment. He’s done it again, folks! Delayed something that should have come to fruition right away.

The material under investigation has already been with the FBI for a month, as 103 classified documents were recovered from Dumpf’s estate, including human intelligence, signals intelligence, and satellite intelligence. No one has a clue as to how to proceed with Cannon’s poorly worded instruction within the injunction: “a temporary injunction on the Government’s use of the seized materials for investigative purposes.” Sumner wonders if Cannon’s direction can be understood in that the government can’t take action on the consequences of these documents being exposed? Or can the government continue to follow up potential threats or look into who may have seen classified materials, which is a real concern given who had the materials in the first place? It would seem then that the judge’s injunction is telling the government to freeze any action on Little Donnie – even if that halt idles chasing down the intelligence fallout from Dumpf’s theft.

Sumner believes that the government’s first recourse is to make a swift appeal to the 11th Circuit Court.

The ramifications of this panned legal decision are manifold: according to Sumner, the ruling lends support to a distorted view of the legal situation around executive privilege that would make dealing with any documents untenable.

Cannon’s ruling also seems to suggest that any defendant can seek such an injunction and a special master to stop the investigation of any crime even when officials have valid search warrants. The judge certainly put her foot in her mouth when she stated that if an indictment were to come down for Dumpf, it would provide him with “potential reputational harm.” This seems to be saying that if the review does lead to an indictment, it could hurt Dumpf’s reputation. Isn’t this priceless, folks? There is no rhyme or reason as to why these stupid words were inserted into the judge’s misapplied ruling. Dumpf stained his reputation when he wrongfully seized the documents for his own nefarious use, end of story!

In today’s edition of the Daily News, the article on this distressing development cites Dumpf’s own personal attorney general, William Barr, who is finally distancing himself from the Orange Menace, by testifying in front of the January 6 committee investigating the January 6 insurrection and criticizing him for taking the documents in the first place. He now dismissed the special master request, telling some far-right commentator on Fox News that “the whole idea of a special master is a bit of a red herring.” He admitted that the FBI has already gone through the documents and said this about this delaying procedure: “I think it’s a waste of time.”

Harvard constitutional law professor and frequent contributor on MSNBC, Laurence Tribe weighed in on the recent decision, saying that Cannon’s intervention could amount to a “speed bump” in the probe. Tribe called Cannon’s order “unjustified and ill considered,” saying that it ignores a wealth of precedent pointing against judicial interference in ongoing criminal investigations. He added, “I think her decision is most unfortunate. Whether the Department of Justice will in fact want to appeal it is a different and difficult question, because appeals can involve delays.” What would have been much better in this case was having the judge – who hails from the Sunshine State, of all places – butt out of doing anything in the ongoing investigation. That would have been the better step here. It would not have given Dumpf some glimmer of hope in a continuing criminal investigation of his activities.

On to news on the COVID front, where it was just announced that the federal government is rolling out a new round of boosters for the fall that target both the original coronavirus and the two omicron subvariants that are presently causing most infections. In an online article for National Public Radio by Rob Stein, this development is reported on in his piece entitled “The new COVID booster could be the last you’ll need for a year, federal officials say.”

The focus of the article is that COVID-19 could be treated more like the flu, with one annual shot offering year-long protection against severe illness for most people. At a press briefing today, White House COVID response coordinator Ashish Jha said, “Barring any new variant curveballs, for a large majority of Americans, we are moving to a point where a single, annual COVID shot should provide a high degree of protection against serious illness all year.”

Despite this optimism, Jha cautioned that older people and those with health problems that make them more vulnerable to severe disease may need to get boosted more often. But for most people, Jha hopes this latest booster will be the last shot they need for at least another year.

“Throughout the pandemic, SARS-CoV-2 has been incredibly unpredictable and has been evolving much faster than anyone expected, so officials say they will continue to monitor the virus closely and they are ready to reprogram the vaccines again if necessary.”

Not everyone is convinced, however, that the new boosters will be a panacea for avoiding getting infected again with COVID. Some infectious disease experts are not convinced the updated vaccines will be a game-changer, because they haven’t been tested enough to see how well they work.

Another factor to consider here with respect to the new boosters is the low number of people that have actually gotten their second booster, which stands at only 34% of people over 50. Federal officials are concerned then that not too many individuals will sign up for the new inoculations.

In terms of how long one should wait in between boosters, it’s recommended that people should wait at least two months since their last shot (I had my last booster on April 11) and should wait at least three months since their last infection (I did have COVID in late July, so that would mean that I would have to wait until at least November, I guess).

These new boosters are likely to be the last COVID shots provided for free because Congress has balked at providing additional funding to combat the pandemic. That just shows how short- sighted our lawmakers are and how everyone feels COVID is behind us, when in fact, it’s still there, hiding. People then who have insurance will get the shots covered through their policies. Supposedly, the Biden administration says it’s working to make sure those who are uninsured do have access to future COVID-19 vaccinations. We can only take them at their word.

So I’m not even sure if this is good news now, given how some infectious disease experts are ringing a cautionary alarm with this newest attack against getting infected or reinfected. Generally, I would be the first on line for getting a third shot, but now, I will have to see. Elliot could schedule his fourth shot – or his second booster – now if he wants to. It’s certainly within the time frame suggested. I can give him the gist of this article tomorrow.

Now I’m hearing on tonight’s edition of the Alex Wagner show on MSNBC that some of those Dumpf documents did contain nuclear secrets of various foreign powers. Sheesh! What does one make of this bombshell? Dumpf could now claim that he didn’t know these top-secret materials were in his house; maybe he’ll just say the FBI planted these documents like he first asserted. One has to be as demented as he is to believe his lies here!

Just wanted to point out that I did not continue watching that supposed psychological thriller called Fear of Rain starring Katherine Heigl and Harry Connick, Jr. I ventured into pirate territory instead by turning on MGM’s 1934 version of Robert Louis Stevenson’s Treasure Island starring Jackie Cooper and Wallace Beery. This film, based on the 1883 novel by Stevenson, focuses on young Jim Hawkins (Jackie Cooper) and his quest for pirate treasure on an uninhabited island and his fractious relationship with one-legged Long John Silver (Wallace Beery) who alternately pretends to be his friend while plotting the demise of his ship colleagues that include Squire Trelawney (Nigel Bruce), Captain Alexander Smollett (Lewis Stone), and Dr. Livesey (Otto Kruger). (Lewis Stone played Mickey Rooney’s father in all of those Andy Hardy movies of the 40s, if you recall.).

The only quibble I had with the film was that the actors did not even try to feign a British accent since the setting of the action is Bristol, England. The only real Britisher was Nigel Bruce who played Dr. Watson in all of those Sherlock Holmes films of the late 30s and 40s. But this is the 30s and that wasn’t done in productions back then. The director, Victor Fleming, wanted to shoot the film in the South Seas, but his wish was shot done because it was too expensive. The film was shot on Santa Catalina Island, California, instead, according to Dave Karger, one of the permanent TCM hosts who introduced the production.

Lawrence O’Donnell, by the way, is shredding the stupid judge’s defense of Dumpf and her insertion of “repetitional damage” in her ridiculous decision right now. Everyone else on his program is now voicing his or her distaste of Cannon’s ruling. The American people have no say in this area, unfortunately. How much more damage could be inflicted on this subhuman, I wonder. His reputation is scarred beyond measure, in my opinion.

Stay safe and be well.