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- Losing My Perspicacity, May 9, 2025
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Good morning and Happy Free Friday! Thanks for starting your day with me today.
I’m headed to Bloomington, IN, for my youngest’s college graduation this weekend. I’m very happy and proud, but it’s bittersweet. For the last eight years, while both my sons were at IU, I was able to reconnect with my alma mater in a way I hadn’t for 20 years. It’s hard to think of my (usually monthly, but sometimes more frequent) trips to Bloomington coming to an end. At least, I’ll have to come up with reasons to visit, rather than having trips auto-scheduled into my life. I refuse to say “goodbye” to a place that has meant so much to me for more than 30 years, so, on Sunday, I’ll simply be saying “Hail to old IU!” until we meet again. (sob)
The big news yesterday, of course, was that we got a new Pope, and he’s from Chicago, identifies as a White Sox fan, and eats at Aurelio’s Pizza when he’s back home. Outside of what neighborhood he grew up in (which is how Chicagoans put you on the grid) — turns out he’s from south-suburban Dolton — the only question we really have left is whether he’s an edge, corner, or center pizza guy. I must say, Chicago Bluesky was as entertaining as ever after the announcement came down. It was just stuff like this all day:
Chicago-born Pope Leo XIV's entrance with the Alan Parsons Project playing:
— The Digital DAM 🦫 (@thedigitaldam.com)2025-05-08T17:37:34.308Z
Conclave Selects First Chicago-Style Pope
— The Onion (@theonion.com)2025-05-08T20:41:00.000Z
A Chicago Pope implies the existence of an MLA Pope and APA Pope
— Hector Diaz (@iamhectordiaz.com)2025-05-08T17:36:39.191Z
Chicago Pope will be airing between Chicago Fire and Chicago P.D.
— Imani Gandy (@angryblacklady.bsky.social)2025-05-08T21:19:46.573Z
The selection of a reportedly liberal Pope who has been critical of both Donald Trump and JD Vance seemed to make all the right people mad, with right-wing trolls like Laura Loomer and Sean Davies screeching their heads off about the new Pope (checks notes) … following the teachings of Christ.
I would be lying if I said I wasn’t a bit disappointed that Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa didn’t win. (Yes, that’s a real guy.) But this Pope reportedly hates JD Vance, so, all in all, a pretty fun day to be on social media.
Before we get to the news, my weekly plea for you to consider becoming a paid subscriber to Losing My Perspicacity. You can do so for less than the cost of one Starbucks drink per month, and, unlike Starbucks, this newsletter is pro-union. If you can’t subscribe, please click on the ad below, which helps offset the cost of my monthly beehiv membership.
In today’s news: Trump managed to find a worse choice for DC prosecutor than Ed Martin; The US tries to bully Sweden and fails: An update on the latest legal wrangling over Trump’s illegal trafficking of immigrants; The hell is UCLA doing? And The High Note.
Here we go.
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Trump picked whom for DC US Attorney?
You have got to be kidding me. Yesterday, just days after Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC) informed the White House that he would not support January 6th conspiracy nut Ed Martin for US Attorney for the District of Columbia, Donald Trump showed us just how deep his bench of lunatic FOX News weirdos is.
President Donald Trump announced Thursday he’s appointing Fox News host and former prosecutor Jeanine Pirro the interim US attorney for Washington, DC, after his first pick faced what appeared to be insurmountable pushback from Republicans on Capitol Hill.
“I am pleased to announce that Judge Jeanine Pirro will be appointed interim United States Attorney for the District of Columbia,” Trump wrote on Truth Social, touting her as the first woman elected to several previous positions and calling her a “powerful crusader for victims of crime.”
“She excelled in all ways,” Trump went on, praising her television career. “In addition to her Legal career, Jeanine previously hosted her own Fox News Show, Justice with Judge Jeanine, for ten years, and is currently Co-Host of The Five, one of the Highest Rated Shows on Television,” Trump added.
I mean, if having a highly-rated TV show is what qualifies someone to be DC’s top prosecutor, I’d just as soon have someone from 60 Minutes or Matlock as US Attorney. Is Kathy Bates available? I’d be on board with her.
Full disclosure: There was a time when I liked Jeannine Pirro. She put a lot of effort into prosecuting domestic abusers when she was the DA of Westchester County, back in the early 1990s. If I recall correctly, she was one of the first DAs in the country to request federal funds to offer domestic violence victims more resources. I know she was the first to have a special office dedicated to fighting domestic abuse.
Then, of course, she went off the rails on FOX News, spewing all kinds of nonsense to her viewers, like President Obama releasing an “Islamic State terrorist” who was actually released by George W. Bush, and attacking Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) for wearing a hijab. (That remark got her suspended from her own show.) And she was one of the loudest voices during the 2020 “The election was stolen from Donald Trump!” blather, so much so that she’s one of the named defendants in the ongoing Smartmatic lawsuit against FOX for allegedly defaming its election equipment, alongside Lou Dobbs, Maria Bartiromo, Sidney Powell, and Rudy Giuliani. Woof. What a lineup. Pirro was so out there after the 2020 election that FOX took her show off the air.
She was also arrested in 2017 for going ONE HUNDRED AND NINETEEN MILES PER HOUR in a 65 mph zone. I don’t think I’ve ever gone that fast in a car in my life.
Pirro’s fall from being one of the country's most celebrated prosecutors was so spectacular that she even got her own SNL sendup, which is how you know someone has truly bottomed out.
If my math is correct, Pirro is the 23rd Fox News host Trump has nominated since his re-election. She also hasn’t practiced law, that we know of, since 2005.
So what do Pirro’s former colleagues at FOX have to say about her? Surely they’re on her side, right?
Internal Fox communications also show her executive producer describing her as a “reckless maniac” who is “nuts,” promotes “conspiracy theories,” and “should never be on live television.”
Oh.
Trump tried to bully Sweden, who laughed in his face
This is really the kind of thing the Trump administration is out there doing.
A city official in Stockholm has said the municipality has no plans to comply after one of its offices received a letter seeking to impose Donald Trump’s rollback of diversity measures, in what is believed to be the first such missive sent to a foreign government.
“It’s so bizarre,” said Jan Valeskog, Stockholm’s vice-mayor for planning. “It’s our political priorities that count, not the ones from this embassy or any other embassies.”
Proving that Trump has spent little time learning about Europe in general, and Scandinavia in particular, the Swedes were not amused. For reference, here’s Joel Kinnaman, of The Killing, For All Mankind, and Suicide Squad, explaining how Sweden feels about the Orange Menace:
I went through this bizarre two-month period where it seemed everything I watched had Kinnaman in it. It was bizarre. Anyway.
After Valeskog spoke to the Swedish newspaper Dagens Nyheter about the letter, emails and social media responses came pouring in from city residents and others across Sweden. “Thousands of people are really upset,” he said. “I guess most people are following the news about what is happening in the States. But suddenly it felt closer with these demands.”
***
Valeskog said Stockholm had no intention of complying. “Of course, we’ll not sign it, we won’t return it, we’ll do nothing about it,” he said. “So now it’s up to the embassy to decide what happens next.”
***
After describing the fallout over the letter as “their headache, not ours” earlier in the week, he again stressed that the US embassy stood to lose much more if it decided to break off its relationship with the municipality. “The embassy now and then needs our building permits, of course, so it’s in their interest to have a good contact and cooperation with the city of Stockholm,” he said. “And so this is really strange.”
Sadly, Mr. Valeskog, Sir, it’s not that strange. Our President is just an idiot. We are very sorry.
The latest on Trump’s immigration chaos
I’m going to run through these quickly before I get the warning from beehiv that this newsletter is too long for Gmail.
On Wednesday, Tufts’ student Rumeysa Ozturk won an appeal in the Second Circuit, upholding a lower court order mandating that she be transferred back to Vermont from Louisiana. A bail hearing on her release will be held today (Friday).
On Tuesday, U.S. District Judge Alvin Hellerstein became the second judge to declare Trump’s use of the Alien Enemies Act to justify the removal of undocumented immigrants unlawful.
In a case returned to his courtroom after SCOTUS invalidated his Temporary Restraining Order, Judge James Boasberg used Trump’s own words from the Kristen Welker interview against him.
This one is set for a briefing schedule, meaning there will be more legal arguing before we reach a ruling.
Federal Judge Brian Murphy issued a stern warning that Trump’s proposed plan to start trafficking immigrants to Libya would violate his previous order.
A Georgia college student faces removal from the US following a right turn on a red light. Her father was recently detained by ICE for going 19 mph over the speed limit.
UCLA has lost the plot entirely
The way this school continues to brutalize its students is criminal. UCLA students planned a showing of the Oscar-winning documentary “The Encampments,” about the pro-Palestinian movement.
Here’s what the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR) wrote about the incident in a press release:
Yesterday, April 30, UCLA students gathered at Wilson Plaza on campus to watch a screening of the documentary film “The Encampments.” After being told by a UCLA representative that visuals were not allowed in the area, the group moved to another campus location, where a UCPD officer also informed the group that they could not hold the screening. Shortly after, dozens of UCPD officers armed with less-than-lethal weapons gathered near the students. Several security personnel from CSC, a private crowd management company, and police cars were also reportedly stationed around the area.
At 9 p.m., around 30 UCPD officers wearing riot gear ran into the crowd of students, detaining two individuals and confiscating the screening equipment.
UCLA, as always, was completely unapologetic.
Steve Lurie, UCLA's associate vice chancellor of campus and community safety, said that the protesters were violating internal UCLA policies by setting up screens and attempting to show the documentary.
“We attempted to stop them from doing that,'' Lurie told NBC 4.
Having taken part in a fair number of protests during my college years, I really don’t understand what these people are so afraid of. They’re students. College is where you go to figure out who you are and what you care about. Let them protest. It’s part of growing up into an informed citizen of the world. And it’s not like “Stop bombing and starving innocent people in Gaza” is some kind of radical agenda. According to Pew Reserach, more than 53 percent of Americans now hold an unfavorable opinion of how Israel has conducted itself regarding Gaza.
The High Note
Each Day, I do my best to leave you with a smile on your face, a song in your heart, and the will to fight another day.
I don’t know who this moron in the middle is, but here is Elizabeth Warren schooling her on how the authority to impose tariffs is laid out in the United States Constitution.
Friendly reminder that she could have been our President, but instead we wound up with a 78-year-old Joe Biden who was in no shape for a second term. No, I’m not over it.
Hey, survive and advance out there today, kids. Don’t let the bastards get you down. And have a great weekend — get some sun, go for a walk, read a book, and for crying out loud, turn off the news for a little while.
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