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Good Morning,
Georgia and Trump
President Joe Biden has framed the Senate runoff victory of Democrat Raphael Warnock over Republican Herschel Walker, as a defeat of Republican extremism and Donald Trump’s “Make America Great Again” philosophy.
Trump, who has vowed to tear up the American constitution if elected when he runs for President in 2024, had backed Walker, so the defeat of a bizarre candidate who was mired in controversy is another bruising defeat for the former President, and cements the Democrats 51 seat majority in the Senate.
Trump had a bad day because the verdict in the trial of the Trump organization and the Trump payroll Corporation was guilty, and that’s on all counts for a range of criminal offences connected to a smoke screen of benefits paid to employees including apartments and car, to dodge taxes.
The guilty verdicts include findings of schemes to defraud, criminal tax fraud, falsifying business records and conspiracy and the CFO Allen Weisselberg who pleaded guilty was blamed by Trump for everything.
And another problem for Trump - The House Select Committee investigating the Jan 6 attack on the Capitol has announced it will make criminal referrals to the Dep’t of Justice against organizers of the attack.
But as one Republican commentator said this morning, the only way Trump will be truly defeated, is not in Senate runoffs or investigations, but in voting by his own Republicans when they select their next leader.
Trump still commands roughly a third of his party.
His losses will embolden other Republicans to challenge Trump, but it won’t change the fact he can still potentially lead his party and American democracy remains in peril.
Warnock’s victory speech was poignant “Let’s dance because we deserve it,” he told a crowd of his supporters. “But tomorrow we go back into the valley to do the work.”
Meghan And Harry
Ohhh…here we go again with more Royal scandal and hand ringing in the British tabloids over Prince Harry and his wife Meghan, who are rattling the gates of Buckingham palace with more revelations of acidic family revelations.
There is huge anticipation of a Netflix documentary on the couple to be released tomorrow.
Already there are calls for the former Duke and Duchess of Sussex to be stripped of their titles, as they have been making headlines for years but none more so than when they took a step down as senior members of the Royal Family in 2020.
The interviews will of course centre on Harry’s view he is unfairly treated and that his wife may have been subjected to racist views in the palace. And the promo’s seem to cast a dark shadow over his brother Prince William and Kate who up until now have largely avoided negative public scrutiny.
Kate is clearly in Meghans cross hairs, and the series promises to reveal their bitter differences.
Note: Harry and Meghan left England for American claiming the press wouldn’t leave them alone and they needed to escape. But since their move to the U.S. they have continually it seems sought and profited greatly by interviews with Oprah and beyond now to Netflix. So a private life it seems is not what they seek but revenge of some sort and money.
Prince Harry on promos has said how he didn't want "history to repeat itself", referencing the death of his own mum, Princess Diana.
He adds: "Everything changed, there's a hierarchy in the family.
"You know, there's leaking, but there's also planting of stories."
Ohhh…the tabloids will have a feast. The Royals and much of Britain will be watching to assess reputational damage done, but it promises to be doozy.
Ukraine Russia War
Don’t under estimate the news that Ukraine was able to attack three Russian air bases in the past two days using drones.
Damage was done to fuel depot’s, long range bombers, and several Russians killed all inside Russian territory including Saratov, Ryazan, and Kursk.
In one attack the drones were deep inside Russia, only 150 miles from Moscow, and the Russians clearly are questioning how Ukraine managed to penetrate their air defences.
The Kremlin says President Putin convened a meeting with his Security Council, but not much more than that was said.
The drones appear to be reworked Ukrainian Soviet era contraptions, old but all lethal none the less.
The war has come home to Putin.
And while some have said this opens a new front in the conflict, others say in fact the new front was opened by Putin’s relentless and brutal missile attacks on Ukraine in recent weeks, to destroy the Ukrainian electrical grid leaving millions of Ukrainians without heat or water.
Victoria Nuland, the U.S. Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs, all but confirmed the drone attacks were Ukrainian by commenting how “enormously innovative” they have become in making their own drones.
Nuland said “Putin has brought this war to every civilian home” and added “that’s a war crime”.
That’s a lot of news today. Have a good Wednesday!
Dana Lewis