Deadline Day for Trump to pay

DEADLINE: Donald Trump faces a deadline today to produce $454 million in cash or a bond to prevent the State of New York from starting to seize his bank accounts and properties to satisfy his civil fraud judgement.

  Also today, Trump is expected to be in court for the possible scheduling of his criminal trial in the Stormy Daniels porn star payoff.

  In the civil case, Trump claimed that 30 companies declined to back him with bonds, but that he actually has almost $500 million cash on hand. He charged on truth Social on Friday that the judge in the civil case knows how much cash he has and is trying to take it from him. 

  Trump has said he wants to use his own cash for his presidential campaign, but he’s already drained his campaign accounts of as much as $55 million to pay his personal legal bills.

 Trump’s real estate empire is where his ego lives.  Potential target properties for seizure are Trump Tower in Manhattan where he keeps his New York home, 40 Wall Street, as well as the Seven Springs and Trump National Golf Clubs in Westchester County, New York. Events today might reveal what Trump is willing or able to do to hold on to his prized properties.

MOSCOW TERROR:  Russia is in mourning over the terrorist attack in which 137 people died at a theater on the outskirts of Moscow Friday where a rock band was about to play. Children are among the dead and roughly half the victims will have to be identified by DNA, authorities say.

  Investigators say they have custody of 11 people, including the four gunmen who shot people point-blank and threw bombs igniting a fire that gutted the building. It’s an embarrassment to Vladimir Putin, a totalitarian who failed to protect national security.

  Although American intelligence agencies credit an Islamic State offshoot known as ISIS-K for the massacre, the Russians appear to be leaning toward blaming Ukraine, which has denied involvement.The four gunmen were from Tajikistan and worked as migrant laborers in Russia. 

CHANNELING: In an unusual display of internal dissent, NBC News political reporter Chuck Todd yesterday openly criticized his network for hiring former Republican National Committee chair Ronna McDaniel as a commentator. 

  At the RNC McDaniel was a staunch proponent of Donald Trump and wrongly claimed many times that the 2020 election was rigged. She accused the press of being “fake news” and is now accepting their real money.

  Todd fired both barrels after McDaniel appeared on “Meet the Press” with its host, Kristin Welker. “I think our bosses owe you an apology for putting you in this situation,” Todd said to Welker. “Because I don’t know what to believe. She is now a paid contributor by NBC News, so I have no idea whether any answer she gave to you was because she didn’t want to mess up her contract.”

  McDaniel in her appearance had finally admitted that Joe Biden won the 2020 election. Explaining her lack of condemnation of the January 6th insurrection she said, “When you’re the RNC Chair, you kind of take one for the whole team.”

  Todd went on, “There’s a reason why there are a lot of journalists at NBC News uncomfortable with this, because many of our professional dealings with the RNC over the last six years have been met with gaslighting, have been met with character assassination.”

  “It couldn’t be a more important moment to have a voice like Ronna’s on the team,” wrote NBC’s political director Carrie Budoff Brown in a canned statement. “She will support our leading coverage by providing an insider’s perspective on national politics and on the future of the Republican Party.”

THE OBIT PAGE: David Harris, a former Air Force bomber pilot who in 1964 at the height of the civil rights movement became the first Black pilot for a major commercial airline in the US, died earlier this month in Marietta, Georgia at 89.

   Harris broke through at a time when even experience military pilots couldn’t get hired. Before Harris was hired, airlines would not hire Black pilots because it was hard to get them hotel rooms in parts of the country and for fear that white passengers would not fly with them. He had flown B-47 and B-52 bombers but several airlines did not reply to his application. 

  American Airlines hired Harris and he flew with them for 30 years, being promoted to captain in 1967. In 1984 Harris again made history commanding the first all-Black cockpit crew on a commercial airliner.

THE SPIN RACK: Sen. Lisa Murkowski yesterday ruled out the possibility of supporting or voting for Donald Trump in his bid for re-election. “I wish that as Republicans, we had … a nominee that I could get behind,” the Alaska Republican said in a hurried hallway interview with CNN’s Manu Raju. “I certainly can’t get behind Donald Trump.” — In a rare attack by a mountain lion, a 21-year-old man was killed Saturday in Northern California and his 18-year-old brother was injured. Wildlife authorities tracked and killed the mountain lion.

BELOW THE FOLD: The tabloid press has been focused lately on the fashions of Bianca Censori, the current wife of rapper Kanye West and a champion of the “near naked” style of dress.

  Censori has appeared in a sheer body suit with nothing underneath and a five-inch miniskirt that was more of a wide belt than a skirt. Published photographs are blurred over vital parts.

  The near naked style is old news. Name any current female celebrity and she’s appeared at an event in naked style; Kendall Jenner, Chrissy Teigen, Emily Ratajkowski, Olivia Wilde … 

  Lately the paparazzi have been following Censori has she goes to lunch nearly naked at the Cheesecake Factory in West Hollywood with Kanye. The shock here is not that Censori is barely clothed, but that Kanye takes her to the Cheesecake Factory for lunch.   

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Friday, May 3, 2024

Page Two

The Most Corrupt Justice

Monday, October 2, 2023

Democracy and Video in the Dark

Sunday, February 26, 2023

Page Two: Do the Right Thing

Tuesday, February 1, 2022

Page Two: Sound Recall

Monday, September 13, 2021

Page Two: Cuomo Must Go

Friday, August 13, 2021

Trump and the Truth

Tuesday, November 3, 2020

The “Great” President

Monday, March 30, 2020

The Wright Stuff

Saturday, February 29, 2020

It's Been Said

"In my mind, I’ve never crossed the line with anyone, but I didn’t realize the extent to which the line has been redrawn. There are generational and cultural shifts that I just didn’t fully appreciate, and I should have, no excuses."

-Andrew Cuomo, resigning as governor of New York after accusations of sexual harassment

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