Today is Thursday, April 13, 2023. Today the Orange Blob got a scathing New York welcome as his motorcade arrived in our fair city to chants of “New York hates you,” as the former president traveled to this region once more to participate in a deposition after New York Attorney General (AG) Letitia James sued him for what was called “staggering” business fraud. This development is covered in an online article for Raw Story by David Edwards entitled ‘New York hates you’: Trump motorcade gets hostile greeting in NYC.”

Protesters gathered at the AG’s office in downtown Manhattan to personally provide the twice-impeached commander in “grief” their own unique New York greeting that consisted of them chanting the sentence from above. I wonder if the now-indicted former president could hear the chants from the safety of his large, black limousine. Also, in his delusional mind, would he have even been able to grasp the condemnatory nature of the chants? Maybe in his deluded mind, he was hearing chants of admiration instead. Boy, I was able to watch the video shot around 9:48 a.m. in which crowds on both sides of the street chanted the negative words as the buffoon’s motorcade quickly passed by.

Another more probing online article examines Dumpf’s second deposition in front of the “racist” Attorney General Letitia James. This article is written for WGTC and it’s by Apeksha Bagchi with the title of “Donald Trump’s second deposition debuts hypocrisy 2.0 as he heads downtown to meet a ‘Racist.'”

The allegations this time against the former president include committing financial fraud by misrepresenting the value of his assets like the Trump Tower, Trump Turnberry, Mar-a-Lago gold resort, Scotland golf resort, and 40 Wall Street. Since he arrived at Trump Tower on Wednesday, April 12, Dumpf has been busy tweeting on social media that James was a racist and a “Trump-hating” attorney general and called her lawsuit a “ridiculous persecution.” When he last sat in front of James, the truth-challenged ex-president invoked his Fifth Amendment rights more than 400 – 400 – times. This time, though, Dumpf has claimed he will finally show “what a great, profitable, and valuable company I built, actually, some of the greatest real estate assets anywhere in the world.” You can’t be more hyperbolic than this, as you would have to imagine that these words come from a monumentally insecure person who has to show his fucking worth to the world all the damn time!

So far, James has not taken to retorting in the same fashion as the former president is prone to doing at the drop of a hat. She is too much a lady than to stoop to Dumpf’s base predilection to sling expletives toward his perceived foes. She should be applauded for maintaining stone silence in the wake of Dumpf’s rants.

I’m hearing explosive news right now on Lawrence O’Donnell’s The Last Word program concerning the newest scandal swirling around the ethically challenged Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas. He is now possibly being investigated for failing to disclose a 2014 real estate deal he made with a Guns Over People (GOP) megadonor, according to a ProPublica report published today.

The deal involved the sale of three properties in Savannah, Georgia, that were owned by Thomas and his relatives to the megadonor, Harlan Crow, according to ProPublica, which said that tax and property records showed that Crow made the purchases through one of his companies for a total of $133,363. This story appears in a CNN article first by Devan Cole entitled “Justice Clarence Thomas failed to disclose 2014 real estate deal with GOP megadonor, ProPublica report finds.”

Here the best friend of a very rich megadonor “never disclosed his sale of the Savannah properties, the report said, noting that ethics law experts told the outlet that his failure to report it “appears to be a violation of the law.”

This new report comes on the heels of another bombshell investigation published last week by the same news outlet that detailed Thomas and his wife’s luxury travel with the Crows, which included trips on the donor’s yacht and private jet. The justice even failed to disclose that travel, and he later defended (not too well, in my mind) the decision not to, saying in a rare statement that he was advised at the time that he did not have to report it.

One expert of the law, Virginia Canter, a former government ethics lawyer who now works for Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) told the outlet, “He needed to report his interest in the sale.” She added, “Given the role Crow has played in subsidizing the lifestyle of Thomas and his wife, you have to wonder if this was an effort to put cash in their pockets.”

The report will now lead to fresh calls for an investigation into the relationship and, as reported on O’Donnell’s 10 p.m. show, one Democratic senator already has, and his name is Sheldon Whitehouse from Rhode Island. Other congressional Democrats have also called for a probe into the matter and called for a stronger ethics code for the justices, and some federal judges also spoke out.

So there you have it. Maybe it’s too early to break out the champagne bottle to revel in the forced resignation or impeachment of a much-disliked jurist from the very beginning. I would love for this to happen very quickly so that President Biden could have a chance to nominate a more liberal justice to overturn the conservative bent of the current Supreme Court. The GOP will burn with outrage if this ever happens. We don’t have much time left.

Today was a long day, as I woke up to my phone alarm at 8:15 to drive to our service station to have our mechanic do a three-month oil and lube check. Actually, one of our garage attendants just a day ago mentioned to me to check the steering fluid, so that’s why I called our garage and scheduled an appointment today for after 9.

I got to the station just a little after 9 and left the car. I was able to go have breakfast at a local eatery called the Metro Diner. When I got the callback from our mechanic in the bathroom, I was told that the work was going to last a while longer: we needed rear brakes. I returned anyway and lingered in the waiting room until about 11 to get our newly reconstituted jalopy.

When I got back, we decided to drive to Oyster Bay to buy a senior pass to the national parks at Theodore Roosevelt’s home, Sagamore Hill, which is run by the National Park Service. This pass we would use for our upcoming cross-country trip with our dear friend “Patricia” who we will first meet up with in Palm Springs, California, on April 29 and then drive back to New York in her car after visiting several national parks.

After buying the pass and looking briefly in the book/gift shop, we drove to North Shore Animal League to look at cats. I had to repeat to Elliot that we were just looking, not adopting. So we walked up to the second floor and admired many of the felines in their little homes. The place has been totally remodeled since we went there 12 years ago to adopt a pet. There are now spacious areas that house the cats; one room was dedicated to Billy Joel; another was dedicated to the cook Rachael Ray.

We did admire two wonderful looking tabbies: Clio and her brother, Charlie. Clio looked amazingly like our departed Jocelyn and she was very friendly. She allowed me to pet her, as she was sitting way on top of a cat tree. Charlie, her brother, was more shy. He was sitting inside a cat house.

So we left North Shore without a cat – thank God – and drove to a Carvel ice cream parlor on Francis Lewis Boulevard since the weather was positively summery. (It was supposed to be 88 degrees here in New York.) The temperature was in the high 80s – unless it topped 90 degrees somewhere.

After enjoying our soft ice cream, we then drove home.

All in all, it was a very busy day.