WICKED: President Trump delivered a rare political speech at the Justice Department yesterday railing on about the prosecutions against him, the Ukraine war, and  even the price of eggs.

  In an hourlong speech, Trump denounced by name the lawyers and former prosecutors who had investigated him. He accused the department’s previous leadership of trying to destroy him and called former President Joe Biden the head of a “crime” family.

  Trump was indicted twice by the Justice Department during the Biden administration. Speaking yesterday in Biblical terms, Trump said the law had been used to punish the “innocent” and “reward the wicked.”

  Blaming former Justice Department officials for the criminal cases against him, Trump said,  “We must be honest about the lies and abuses that have occurred within these walls.”

  The President who pardoned the January 6th insurrectionists said, “We’re turning the page on four long years of corruption, weaponization and surrender to violent criminals, and we’re restoring fair, equal and impartial justice.” 

  Trump also praised the federal judge in Florida who made several rulings in his favor. He claimed news organizations attacked Judge Aileen Cannon alleging “they do it all the time with judges” and that they “will write whatever these people say.” 

  He went on claiming to be the victim saying, “The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal and MSDNC, and the fake news, CNN and ABC, CBS and NBC, they’ll write whatever they say,” Trump said. “And what do you do to get rid of it? You convict Trump.”

  Who the “they” are he didn’t say.

  “It’s totally illegal what they do,” Trump went on about the press to an audience of DOJ employees. “I just hope you can all watch for it, but it’s totally illegal.”

SHUTDOWN AVERTED: The Senate voted 54-46 later yesterday to pass a temporary spending bill to avert a government shutdown that would have come at midnight. Three Democrats, including minority leader Chuck Schumer of New York, voted in favor.

  The dilemma for the Democrats was whether to vote in favor of the Republican financial agenda or be blamed for a government shutdown. Schumer said in a statement later that, “A shutdown would enable Donald Trump and Elon Musk to unilaterally determine that the vast majority of federal workers are not essential.”  

  The Republican legislation largely keeps federal spending at levels set during the Biden administration, but increases military spending by $6 billion. It does not include money for any of the legislators’ pet projects, saving roughly $13 billion. But the bill also slashes the District of Columbia’s budget by roughly $1 billion over the next six months at a time of spiking unemployment in the District because of federal layoffs. 

 BUT WAIT, THERE’S MORE:

— The Department of Education launched investigations into 52 universities in 41 states, accusing the schools of using “racial preferences and stereotypes in education programs and activities.”

  The Ed department’s Office of Civil Rights said that 45 schools, particularly their graduate programs, violated the 1964 Civil Rights Act by partnering with The PhD Project, a nonprofit that helps Black, Latino, and Native American students earn doctoral degrees in business. 

— As the Trump administration tears through the structure of the federal government firing thousands of employees, angry voters at town hall meetings have been shouting down Republican members of Congress. 

  Some of the Republican Reps claim that Democrats are being paid to disrupt the meetings … and they have as much proof of that as they do 2020 election fraud.

  Instead of listening and maybe thinking we’re making the voters angry, a lot of Republicans have shut down and cancelled meetings with voters.

— Republican leaders are firing and erasing the memory of people and things they don’t like. The National Institutes of Health removed a mural in the front hall featuring Dr. Anthony Fauci, who was director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases for 38 years but became a boogeyman to Republicans during the Covid pandemic.

  The mural included a quote from Fauci saying, “Science is telling us that we can do phenomenal things if we put our minds and our resources to it.” 

THE OBIT PAGE: Alan Simpson of Wyoming, at six foot seven once literally a towering figure in the US Senate, died in Cody, Wyoming at age 93.

  Simpson was a three-term Republican senator from 1979 to 1997 with varying views. He was a moderate on abortion and gay marriage but ranted against environmentalists, calling them “bug-eyed zealots” and “super-greenies.”

  His later years were rough. About five years ago Simpson had a case of frostbite in his left foot that required  amputation of his left leg below the knee.

 THE SPIN RACK: A tornado outbreak in southern Missouri killed three people with the threat of more twisters to come. —  The number of cases in a multi-state measles outbreak that started in Texas has surpassed 300. That’s more than all of last year in just 2 ½ months. — Legendary golfer Tiger Woods is dating Vanessa Trump, the ex of Don Jr. — A Canadian comic has suggested that Canada could win the trade war with the US by blocking the Canada-based website Pornhub from US viewers.

BELOW THE FOLD: Former television doctor Mehmet OZ, who was the modern version of the door to door elixir salesman, used to hawk a remedy made of green coffee extract that he described as a miracle pill that can burn body fat.

  Up for appointment as head of Medicare and Medicaid, Oz is facing questions from Democrats about his record of making a fortune off questionable cures. Under some amount of pressure in a confirmation hearing OZ admitted that, no … green coffee extract is not a weight loss miracle.

  He’s become another confirmation convert to truth. 

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