Today is Friday, November 18, 2022. Today Attorney General Merrick Garland appointed a special counsel to oversee the criminal investigations into the retention of national defense information at former president Dump’fs Mar-a-Lago resort and parts of the January 6, 2021, insurrection. This unprecedented move is covered in an online article for CNN by Tierney Sneed and Evan Perez entitled “DOJ announces special counsel for Trump-related Mar-a-Lago and January 6 criminal investigations.”

Both investigations implicate the conduct of Dumpf, who on Tuesday declared his candidacy two years from now, in the 2024 presidential race, making him a potential rival of President Joe Biden if he so chooses to run then himself.

The reserved attorney general publicly announced that he was appointing a special counsel because of recent developments swirling around the former insurrectionist who just proclaimed his unfitness for office in 2024.

That special counsel appointed by Garland is Jack Smith, the former chief prosecutor for the special court in The Hague, where he investigated war crimes in Kosovo and received praise from Garland as building a reputation as an impartial and determined prosecutor.

The target of such investigations continued to whine and portray himself as a fucking victim of “politically motivated” investigations, saying he was a poor victim of a “weaponization” of the justice system. Aw, baby, this country feels for you, Her Donald, it does! To the point of wishing that you were indicted already without all of these conciliatory measures by an extremely cautious, timid attorney general.

Releasing a statement today regarding his dedication to overseeing the investigation, Smith stated, “I intend to conduct the assigned investigations, and any prosecutions that may result from them, independently and in the best traditions of the Department of Justice.” He also promised that “The pace of the investigations will not pause or flag under my watch.” Let’s sincerely hope so; let this new development not just be “window dressing,” as MSNBC anchor Joy Reid referred to it on her show tonight, before the Justice Department just drops all the charges against the orange fiend and lets him walk.

Justice Department officials had been debating for weeks whether to appoint a special counsel, and it seems that now they have made the decision to do so.

We should all be disappointed in the news that batshit crazy Lauren Boebert did win the race for Colorado’s 3rd Congressional District and will be retuning to Congress. Oh shit! Her saner opponent, Democrat Adam Frisch, who was not a raging liberal himself, conceded the race today and did something that his opponent would never have done if the numbers were that close: he did not ask for a recount nor dispute the results of the election, which is exactly what this crazy far-right firebrand would do if the shoe were on the other foot.

Still, what was intriguing about the race is that Frisch gave Boebert a run for her money, making the race so competitive up to the last moment, in which the deranged gun enthusiast led Frisch by only 551 votes in what had been considered a safely Republican Western Colorado district. So this is something that an opponent even got this close to defeating the one-term representative anyway. I am still very disappointed that this worthless congressperson convinced enough voters to vote for her again, despite her terrible record. Maybe we can unseat her the next time – in two years. By then, she will probably have disgraced herself even more to sicken her voters in the 3rd Congressional District to want to vote for anyone but her to send to Congress two years later!

I can say that today Elliot and I had a nice day out, despite the chilly weather (at least we were not being clobbered with four feet of snow as in Buffalo), where we had breakfast at Jackson Hole in Astoria and went to my first movie since before my procedure. We saw the dark comedy The Menu at the Kew Gardens Cinema at 2 p.m. I hadn’t really done my homework and read a review before agreeing to see it, so I didn’t know what I was getting myself into as the film unfolded. However, it was quite obvious before the second course was served, so to speak.

This black comedy boasts a fine cast, in the casting of Ralph Fiennes as a deranged super-chef who invites a gaggle of heterogeneous privileged, rich clients to a deserted island to partake of a very expensive dinner. Along for the ride is Anya Taylor-Joy (from The Queen’s Gambit) as Margot with her date, Tyler (here played by Nicholas Hoult), who picks her at the last minute since his real date abandons him at the last moment. He is a foodie snob and is at odds with Margot’s more plebeian interests. She is immediately recognized by Fiennes as not truly belonging to the crowd of very snobby, pampered attendees who all lead lives of privilege and even illegality.

These unpleasantly privileged diners include food critic Miriam (Janet McTeer) who specializes in shutting restaurants down with her scathing reviews; three entitled, tipsy tech bros; a film star (John Leguizamo) and his assistant; and a miserable couple who’ve been to the restaurant 11 times but can’t remember anything they’ve eaten there. This couple is portrayed by Judith Light and Reed Birney.

Before long, horror is served on the pricey menu and the movie takes a stunning turn to whether these “guests” will leave the island not only with their appetites intact but with their lives preserved.

It’s almost akin to an Agatha Christie novel – like who will survive and who will not. I liked how each section off the film is dividcd into courses, with the ingredients of the fare being shown on the screen. For the most part, the food is rarefied nad insubstantial, featuring, for example, scallops perched on rocks, a lot of micro-purees and foam, and a breadless bread plate. At this point, the three tech pals timidly ask for bread, and they are slapped down by the chef’s alarmingly cool maitre d’ Elsa (Hong Chau).

I won’t give away the climax here, but if you’re in the mood for a different type of movie, this is it. Go for Fiennes’s dispassionate depiction of a truly obsessed chef who wreaks revenge on a certain subset of society.

I was just happy that I could sit throughout the film without experiencing not too much discomfort in my left groin.

Anyway, life goes on.

Have a good weekend.

Stay safe and be well.