ORANGE ALERT: In an insult to the Republican Party and Fox News, which is hosting the event, Donald Trump appears to be skipping the first debate between Republican contenders for the presidential nomination and instead sitting for an online interview with fired Fox host Tucker Carlson.

  The debate is scheduled for Wednesday. Trump posted on his Truth Social website, “Reagan didn’t do it, and neither did others. People know my Record, one of the BEST EVER, so why would I Debate?”

  Trump has previously said he will not sign the pledge to support the ultimate nominee if it’s not him, but that doesn’t seem to be the issue. He doesn’t appear to want to be seen with the pack polling so far behind him.

  The interview with Carlson is another issue. Carlson is still being paid by Fox and they have issued him a cease and desist order after conducting online programming. This time he’ll be going directly against his former employer.

RED HAT REVOLUTION: Pictures and videos reviewed by news organizations seem to show that Kenneth Chesebro, one of the lawyers indicted in Georgia who were part of Donald Trump’s attempts to overturn the 2020 election, was in the crowd outside the Capitol during the January 6^thinsurrection and spent part of the day following conspiracy monger Alex Jones, one of the inciters of the mob. 

  it’s unknown why Chesebro, an expert on election law, was present with the angry crowd looking to overturn the election by force of voice and violence. He did not appear to be among those who illegally entered the Capitol.

  Wearing a red MAGA hat, Chesebro joined Jones’s group outside the Capitol shortly before 2 pm that day. A lawyer for Jones told the NY Times that he didn’t know that Chesebro had been following his entourage that day.

  Chesebro is accused in the Georgia indictment of taking part in the plot to create slates of fake electors pledged to Trump in several swing states that Joe Biden had legitimately won. 

MUTUAL DEFENSE: After a meeting with President Biden at Camp David, the leaders of Japan and South Korea put aside their historical animosities to hammer out a defense agreement with the United States aimed at deterring Chinese and North Korean aggression.

  The language of the agreement is a poke in the chest to China, criticizing that country’s “dangerous and aggressive behavior” in the South China Sea, and reaffirming the “importance of peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait.” Read that to mean defense of Taiwan itself from Chinese invasion.

THE WAR ROOM: Russia continues to hit civilian targets. A Russian missile today slammed into the center of Chernihiv in northern Ukraine, killing at least seven people and wounding 90, Ukrainian officials say. 

  It’s been a costly war in lives. The total of Ukrainian and Russian troops killed or wounded since the start of Russia’s invasion is approaching half a million, US officials say.

 By US estimates, while the Russians control Ukrainian territory, it’s the Russians taking the worse beating. Russian deaths are as many as 120,000 while injuries are 170,000 to 180,000. Ukrainian casualties are put at close to 70,000 killed and 100,000 to 120,000 wounded.

  These are intelligence estimates because neither side is fully candid about their losses.

SMALL TOWN NEWS: Police in Kansas returned cellphones, computers, and other materials and equipment to the weekly Marion County Record newspaper, less than a week after a raid on the small-town newspaper was widely criticized as a violation of federal law protecting freedom of the press. The paper published with a blaring headline saying, “SEIZED … but not silenced.”

  It’s a complicated story that began when the paper found out that a local restaurant owner was driving without a license. The paper did not publish a story about it, choosing instead to inform the local sheriff and police chief that their officers were aware a local resident couldn’t legally drive but were ignoring it.

  What resulted was the restaurant owner making a complaint and a local judge issuing the search warrant without the proper affidavit, which resulted in the whole matter being voided. Now it turns out that the judge has an 11-year-old record of two arrests for driving under the influence.

THE SPIN RACK: Hurricane Hilary, now a Category 4 storm off Mexico’s Baja Peninsula, is projected to hit Southern California as a tropical storm by tomorrow night bringing high winds and possible flooding. Parts of Southern California could get a year’s worth of rain in a few days. — The FBI has joined the investigation of threats made against Fulton County Georgia officials and the grand jurors who indicted Donald Trump and 18 others. — The city of Paris has decided to ban pony rides for children in its public parks following a campaign by animal rights activists who argued that the ponies are not well treated.

BELOW THE FOLD: Aggrieved white American men appear to have a new anthem. 

  Oliver Anthony’s Rich Men North of Richmond was posted on a radio station YouTube channel and has since had two million views. Anthony’s song touts the image of the rural, put-upon white working-class hero while complaining about welfare, Washington, and big government. 

    “I’ve been sellin’ my soul, workin’ all day/ Overtime hours for bullshit pay,” Anthony sings. “It’s a damn shame what the world’s gotten to/ For people like me and people like you.” 

  Right wing politicians immediately adopted the song. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene called it “the anthem of the forgotten Americans”. Kari Lake, the Trump-backed Republican who won’t admit she lost the race for governor of Arizona, said it was “the anthem of this moment in American history”. 

  Even some liberal politicians have said “Listen, the guy has a point.”

  Anthony goes on, “Cause your dollar ain’t shit and it’s taxed to no end / ‘Cause of rich men north of Richmond.” That would be Washington.

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