A glorious Monday to you!

The Brew starts the week with eyes still on Manhattan. 

Trump Indictment Watch Continues … Or Is It Over?

The Grand Jury looking into Trump’s alleged payment to Stormy Daniels is scheduled to re-convene today after last week’s sudden cancellation. There’s some hint Manhattan D.A. Alvin Bragg is having second thoughts about indicting the former president, especially now that both Michael Cohen’s former lawyer and legal advisor made clear Cohen acted on his own to pay Daniels.

In fact, Trump told a small group of reporters on his way back from his Texas rally, ‘I think they’ve already dropped the case. From what I understand … I think it’s been dropped.” 

Oh, you thought there’d be trouble from Trump supporters if there was an indictment. Imagine the trouble from Never Trump World if Bragg backs away now.  

Trump got support over the weekend from an unlikely source: disgraced former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo. “You have a cynical public,” Cuomo told WABC 770 Friday, “they don’t believe anyone and when you start to see these prosecutors bring political cases, it just affirms everybody’s cynicism.” He said the never-ending line of prosecutors trying to get Trump is a “cancer in our body politic right now.”

Meanwhile, liberal legal lion Alan Dershowitz had a suggestion for Trump. He told 45, if arrested, make campaign posters and t-shirts out of the mug shot.

A New York grand jury is weighing a possible indictment for former President Donald Trump with more hurdles.

Harvard law professor Alan Dershowitz says that if Trump gets arrested, he’ll have a mug shot that the former president could benefit from.

MORE: https://t.co/1dgpsg5xxW pic.twitter.com/3oKNkxxCb0

— The National Desk (@TND) March 22, 2023

Don’t think Trump wouldn’t.

Say What?

The other day, Joe Biden was up in Canada, speaking to the Canadian Parliament. He opened by declaring “I want to applaud China … I mean, Canada.”

Biden: “Today I want to applaud China… I mean Canada” (while in Canada).

What an embarrassment to the United States of America pic.twitter.com/N9ZZiSB0MR

— Eric Trump (@EricTrump) March 25, 2023

Of course, Biden’s getting mocked for the blunder. Even his hosts burst out laughing. An “embarrassment to the United States,” is the assessment from critics. But c’mon. Wouldn’t you applaud a country that put millions of dollars in your family’s coffers?

Seriously … think it might be a problem having a president who doesn’t know where he is, especially when Russia is moving tactical nukes into Belarus? (NATO on Sunday called the move by Putin “dangerous and irresponsible.”) Seems not invoking the 25^th Amendment is increasingly dangerous and irresponsible.

Biden Only Running Because He Doesn’t Think Harris Can Cut It?

So why aren’t we seeing the 25^th Amendment invoked? Or Joe rushing to retire to the beach? One reported reason? Joe doesn’t think Kamala Harris can cut it.

According to Reuters, Biden doesn’t think Harris (or any of the other Democrats for that matter) can beat Trump. More crucially, Biden is frustrated by Harris.

“While the pair have a good working relationship, Democratic sources say Biden has frustrations about some of her work.” (Curious how Reuters uses such a passive construction, and tries desperately to soft-pedal the situation.)

“A point of tension in their relationship is that I don’t think that the president sees her as somebody who takes anything off of his plate,” a second former White House official said, adding a ‘fear of messing up’ had led Harris to be late to the game on important issues.

And again this official: “If he did not think she was capable, he would not have picked her. But it is a question of consistently rising to the occasion.”

Biden is stuck with Harris if he runs. He can’t very well dump the first Black and first female VP. We do know Joe’s been talking her up recently … before sending her halfway around the world to Africa.

Maybe he can take her with him next time he crosses our northern border into China.

DeSantis: I Don’t Want to Be Trump’ VP. Trump: Don’t Worry, I Wasn’t Going to Ask You

Ron DeSantis was asked Thursday by Newsmax if he would consider being Trump’s running mate. A hard rule in politics. If you are running or considering running for president, you never suggest you are open to being VP. However DeSantis gave a good answer. He responded he is “more of an executive guy,” adding “I think that you want to be able to do things.”

(Which raises the question, how can Kamala Harris be failing to do a job where you don’t really have to do anything?)

The next day, Newsmax asked Donald Trump if he would consider DeSantis. He gave an honest answer. “No, I never thought of it. I think we have a lot of great people in the Republican party, but I never thought of Ron as a VP choice. It’s an unlikely alliance.”

Give both men credit for recognizing a Trump-DeSantis ticket in the White House wouldn’t work. However … Trump at his Waco rally did mention that he wishes he had had a “tougher” Attorney General. DeSantis would certainly be tough enough to clean up DOJ and FBI. And the two wouldn’t be in each other’s face every day.

Though it’d be a great fit, would Trump bring DeSantis in if he still considere DeSantis disloyal for running against him? (A point that becomes moot if DeSantis decides, in the end, not to run.)

Today’s Episode of “Why CNN Has Tanked.”

From an ‘Analysis’ by John Blake at CNN: “If you’re White and you’ve posted a GIF or meme of a Black person to express a strong emotion, you may be guilty of wearing ‘digital blackface.'”

But if I pass over using a Black person that best expresses what I want to express … in other words, refusing to enlist the best person for the job … aren’t I being racist and discriminatory?

I believe it was Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. who said we should just meme images not by the color of their skin, but the quality of their humor.

Today’s Episode of “Why NPR is Laying Off Employees”

NPR announced Thursday it’s laying off 10% of its workforce and cancelling 4 podcasts. The network says its “financial woes can be traced mainly to advertisers’ growing reluctance to spend money … in an uncertain economy.” It lists a bunch of other media and big tech outlets that are having cutbacks. (Oddly enough, all liberal.)

Which gets to perhaps another reason NPR is underwater. Could it be that insulting and treating a majority of the public like dirt when you are National Public Radio is a bad business model?

Gaslighting is no help either, NPR. Check out this tweet:

The international governing body for track and field will ban trans women athletes from elite women's competitions, citing a priority for fairness over inclusion despite limited scientific evidence of physical advantage.https://t.co/X6wySybGlY

— NPR (@NPR) March 24, 2023

“Limited scientific evidence of physical advantage”?!?!?

Tell that to cyclist Hannah Arensmen. She won 35 times on the national cyclocross circuit. She has just retired because she is fed up getting beaten now by biological men. “I lose no matter how hard I train,” she tells the Supreme Court in an amicus brief.

‘Moving forward, I feel for young girls learning to compete and who are growing up in a day when they no longer have a fair chance at being the new record holders and champions in cycling because men want to compete in our division.

‘I have felt deeply angered, disappointed, overlooked, and humiliated that the rule makers of women’s sports do not feel it is necessary to protect women’s sports to ensure fair competition for women anymore.’

Protect women? Even the sporting world’s top network is giving them a shiv.

ESPN Honors Lia Thomas as Part of Women’s History Month

How do you spell “WOKE”? Try E-S-P-N. Funny, it’s also the way you spell “ridiculous.” Why? ESPN just honored the biological male Lia Thomas, who spent the year whipping up on females in women’s NCAA swimming competitions, during it Women’s History Month campaign. Think of the walls that had to be blasted through, the sweat that had to be poured for pioneers like Wilma Rudolf and Billie Jean King to gain respect for women’s sports. Now some mediocre male athlete can call himself a girl, take a few shots, jump into the pool with girls, easily set some records and ESPN will hoist the banners and champagne.

Along The Stream

John Zmirak has a suggestion: “Let’s Stop Shooting Our Wounded, Like the Brave Kari Lake.”

 

Al Perrotta is the Managing Editor of The Stream, chief barista for The Brew and co-author, with John Zmirak, of The Politically Incorrect Guide to Immigration. You can follow him at @StreamingAl at GETTR, Gab, Parler, and now at TRUTH Social.