Today is Friday, March 3, 2023. Today disgraced lawyer and prominent South Carolina muck-amuck Alex Murdaugh learned his fate after being convicted of two counts of murder, of killing his wife and 22-year-old son, on his vast, 17,00-acre estate. This morning he was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole for those terrible crimes – another chapter in the stunning downfall of the disgraced lawyer whose dynastic family had significant legal reach for decades in parts of South Carolina’s Lowcountry. These details appear in an online CNN article by Christina Maxouris and Ray Sanchez entitled “Alex Murdaugh will spend the rest of his life in prison for killing his wife and son.”

Judge Clifton Newman spoke of the opioid addiction that Alex Murdaugh admitted on the stand. Before handing down two consecutive life sentences, Newman reminded the defendant that he had to remove his grandfather’s portrait from the courtroom to ensure a fair trial. Newman admonished the 54-year-old about his testimony not being credible and not believable. He chastised Murdaugh with this observation, “You can convince yourself about it but obviously you have the inability to convince anyone else.”

Murdaugh’s wife, Maggie, and son, Paul, were found fatally shot on the family’s Islandton property on June 7, 2021. When he took the stand, Murdaugh maintained he didn’t kill them and found the bodies after returning from a brief visit to his sick mother that night.

At one point in the Colleton County courtroom, the disbelieving judge told Murdaugh that “I know you have to see Paul and Maggie during the night times when you’re attempting to go to sleep. I’m sure they come and visit you.” At that point, Murdaugh grimly answers, “Every night.”

Murdaugh’s defense attorneys are preparing to appeal the sentence within 10 days.

The convicted killer left the courtroom wearing a brown jumpsuit and handcuffs and was released into the custody of the South Carolina Department of Corrections.

The hearing on Friday stood out for not including victim impact statements, but was noted for Newman’s direct exchanges with the defendant. The judge mentioned the pedigree of the Murdaugh name and the many portraits of judges and other court officials in the courtroom and that Murdaugh’s descendants had been prosecuting people for much less and have received the death penalty.

Another exchange centered on the lies that Murdaugh told in court, many representing his addiction to opioids and his numerous instances of financial irregularities when he was a big-shot lawyer in his South Carolina firm. At one point, Murdaugh confessed to Newman that he continued to lie during the trial. Newman then postulated when the lying would end. Here Newman acknowledged that the jury was unconvinced of Murdaugh’s stories repeated during his emotional testimony. Newman then concluded that the jury believed that he continued to lie and, especially, during his testimony. That’s why it took a very short time to convict him.

Another exchange involved Murdaugh’s longterm addiction to painkillers. Now Newman addressed Murdaugh’s overreliance on these terrible opioids when he said, the killer “might not have been you. It might have been the monster you become when you take 15, 20, 30, 40, 50, 60 opiate pills. Maybe you become another person. I’ve seen that before.”

After more than a month and dozens of witnesses, jurors took less than three hours Thursday to convict Murdaugh of two counts of murder in the June 2021 slayings, as well as two counts of possession of a weapon during the commission of a violent crime.

Prosecutors had argued that Murdaugh’s motive for the horrendous killings was to distract and delay investigations into his growing financial problems. They argued that Murdaugh stole millions of dollars from his former clients and law firm and lied to cover his tracks – theft and lies that Murdaugh admitted in court.

One of those jurors, Craig Moyer, told ABC News that it took the jury less than an hour to reach the unanimous decision that Murdaugh was guilty. Speaking first to the public about the trial, Moyer said, “The evidence was clear.” As it began its deliberations with a vote, Moyer said, “It was two not guilty, one not sure, and nine guilty,” regarding the guilt of the defendant.

This story must be seen as one in which the defendant, once privileged and wealthy, has sunk so low as to actually scrape the ground. Murdaugh will now be shorn of his freedom and his once-respected name, and his 1,700-acre estate. There is a surviving son, Buster, who will be left with picking up the shards of his father’s once-sterling reputation. I don’t envy him at all.

The right’s disgusting war against what is considered “woke” in this country is just getting worse and worse, especially in the red state of Kentucky – Senate Minority Leader “Bitch” McConnell’s state – in which Republican lawmakers advanced a bill on Thursday to limit drag shows in the “unwoke” state. One senator, Karen Berg, invoked the memory of her late transgender son, transgender rights activist Henry Berg-Brousseau, to shame GOP lawmakers for the bigotry their votes enabled. This sad story was covered in the online magazine, the Advocate, in an article by Christopher Wiggins entitled “Kentucky Senator Whose Transgender Son Recently Died Blasts New Antidrag Bill.”

Under Senate Bill 115, drag shows would not be allowed on public property or in places where children could glimpse a queen.

During a hearing on Thursday, Republican lawmakers continued to dismiss the concerns of LGTBQ+ people who urged them not to move forward with their prejudice, but those calls fell on deaf ears, northern Kentucky news site Link NKY reports.

This is when Democratic state senator Karen Berg, a physician, and mother of Henry Berg-Brousseau, a transgender man who worked as deputy press secretary for the Human Rights Campaign and died by suicide recently, invoked her son’s memory to explain her “no” vote.

Talking to witnesses who had spoken to the GOP-led panel, Berg apologized, saying, “I really do want to apologize for the hate that you have received. Because the hate you give is the hate you get.”

Berg decried the hate coming from the far right, saying, “The hate that is coming out of this country is disgusting. It is scary. It is undemocratic, and [this bill] is unconstitutional.”

Repugnicans disagree with this position, saying ridiculously that they are the saviors of children. They argue that the existence of transgender people and acceptance of trans kids is a manifestation of a “woke agenda” being pushed by liberals. What the fuck are these people so afraid of? The drag performers do not take off their clothes during these performances. It’s far-right men who abuse children more frequently than any drag queen. The odious Republican Senator Lindsey Tichenor, the bill’s lead sponsor, said, according to an Associated Press report, “This bill is pro-children. For some reason, people want this type of content in front of children. And I would dare ask, why? Why do we need to sexualize our children?”

As everyone should know, it’s far-right activists and GOP politicians across the country that falsely claim that drag queens are “grooming” or “sexualizing” children at kid-friendly Drag Queen Story Hour events in libraries or at family-friendly drag brunches, popular at restaurants on weekends nationwide. Have these anti-Americans actually attended such a reading and have they actually observed this behavior from the drag queens at all? I seriously doubt that they have even attended these events, so why are they targeting this vulnerable population in the first place? Because they can and they are just pandering to their ignorant, white supremacist base.

And Kentucky is not the first state to ban these shows, Tennessee is the first since its legislature on Thursday recently passed a similar bill which criminalized drag queens, making it the initial state in the nation to do so. I’m afraid a trend is emerging in repugnican-led states on this issue. First, it’s the right to an abortion, now it’s drag queens and transgender children, what the fuck is next? Oh, we have book banning in “DeSant-ASS”‘s state and in others as well. There is also the “whitewashing” of American history being conducted in the Sunshine State as well. Everything is just so abominable. We must get these antidemocratic GOPers out of office fast.

Stay safe and be well.