Heather Cox Richardson was able to attend the dinner on Saturday night, and she had some insightful views about is:

https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/p/april-30-2023

I also watched Roy Wood Jr. on YouTube yesterday afternoon , and thought he was pretty amusing

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3_aYGvUpMPk

Townhall is an American politically conservative website, print magazine and radio news service. Previously published by The Heritage Foundation, it is now owned and operated by Salem Communications. The website features more than 80 columns (both syndicated and exclusive) by a variety of writers and commentators. The website also publishes news articles from the Associated Press.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Townhall

Townhall also provides five minute radio newscasts around the clock, detailing national and world news items.[2] These newscasts air at the beginning of each hour on many Salem-owned radio stations and on Salem Radio Network affiliates, as well as on Sirius XM Patriot Channel 125.

Townhall was founded on March 2, 1995 as one of the first conservative internet communities. In 2005, Townhall.com split off from The Heritage Foundation. (Heritage Foundation was run by Leanard Leo for many years. He is the guy who largely pushed the judiciary to the right)

It's instructive to read conservative publications because it highlights how wacky they are. Today was no exception:

https://townhall.com/columnists/kurtschlichter/2023/04/17/republicans-should-eagerly-support-the-tennessee-twerp-trio-n2622002

"I’m very excited about the prominence of the Tennessee Three Stooges. These ridiculous goofs figured that they could walk into the well of the Tennessee House with a bullhorn and take things over like, well, insurrectionists and that everything would be cool. But everything wasn’t cool. Suddenly these three got introduced to a new friend, Mr. Consequences. To their partial credit, the GOP legislators booted two of them out of the legislature. They should have booted all three. The one who looks like child-ruin advocate Randi Weingarten got a pass after groveling. The squishes who decided to have mercy were rewarded when she predictably repaid their weakness disguised as kindness by publicly calling them racists. So, that’s your lesson on having mercy upon cultural Marxists. Don’t. In any case, I highly support them being put on a pedestal as the latest icons of communism. Do more of that, Democrats."

Florida governor Ron DeSantis is also in trouble, although his trouble is political.

Today the Republican-dominated Florida legislature passed a bill that would ban abortion after six weeks of pregnancy, which is before many people even know they’re pregnant. The measure is popular with the Republican base, whose support DeSantis will need for a presidential bid, should he decide to make one. But abortion restrictions are hugely unpopular across the country, giving Democrats a big leg up in every election that has come since the Supreme Court last summer overturned the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision legalizing abortion.

DeSantis signed into law a bill banning abortion after 15 weeks last April, before the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health decision that overturned Roe. In that case, he held a midday press conference and made a speech. But Dobbs has created a powerful backlash. This time around, for this even stricter measure, DeSantis signed the bill late tonight and released a picture of the signing after 11:00 p.m., when few people would see it. He appears to be trying to appeal to the base while also keeping his actions quiet enough to slide them under the radar screens of non-MAGA voters.

DeSantis’s secret signing stands in marked contrast to the scene in Michigan, where Governor Gretchen Whitmer today signed into law two new gun safety measures, one requiring guns to be locked away rather than left loose in a home with a minor child, and one requiring background checks for gun show and private purchases. A mass shooting at Michigan State University two months ago killed three students and badly wounded five others.

https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/p/april-13-2023

http://Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg filed a federal lawsuit against Representative Jim Jordan on Tuesday, accusing the Republican of a “transparent campaign to intimidate and attack” him over his prosecution of former president Donald Trump. Bragg, a Democrat, is asking a judge to invalidate subpoenas that Jordan, the chair of the House Judiciary Committee, has or plans to issue as part of an investigation of the Bragg’s handling of the Trump case. Read the full story on Globe.com.

Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg filed a federal lawsuit against Representative Jim Jordan on Tuesday, accusing the Republican of a “transparent campaign to intimidate and attack” him over his prosecution of former president Donald Trump.

Bragg, a Democrat, is asking a judge to invalidate subpoenas that Jordan, the chair of the House Judiciary Committee, has or plans to issue as part of an investigation of the Bragg’s handling of the Trump case.

Read the full story on Globe.com.

The reason that an idiot like Jordan keeps getting 60% of the votes is that he lives in the most conservative district in Ohio. The state has a rating of R+6 on the Cook Partisan Voting Index, but his district is R+20

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/donald-trump/trump-raised-4-million-day-indictment-rcna77699

Former President Donald Trump raised more than $4 million in the 24 hours after news of his indictment in Manhattan became public, according to figures released by his campaign Friday.

The Trump campaign said that more than 25% of the donations came from first-time donors to the former president, "further solidifying President Trump’s status as the clear frontrunner in the Republican primary."

Trump's campaign sent out more than a half-dozen fundraising solicitations over email in less than 24 hours after his indictment, and he called for donations on his Truth Social platform as well.

A campaign official also told NBC News that it received 16,000 volunteer sign-ups over the past day as well.

The former president faces about 30 charges in relation to document fraud stemming from hush money he allegedly paid to cover up years-old affairs, two sources familiar the proceedings told NBC News following news of Trump’s indictment, which remains under seal until Trump appears in court for his arraignment.

To quote Casey Stengel, "it ain't over 'till it's over" - and it's just beginning for Trump.

I’m sure you’ve seen the news: Our disgraced, twice-impeached former president Donald Trump has officially been indicted in New York, stemming from an investigation into potentially fraudulent payments he made to Stormy Daniels back in 2016. This is unprecedented -- no president (not even Richard Nixon) has ever been indicted in the history of our country. And because of his total inability to operate within the bounds of the law, we all know that no one has earned the distinction of being the first quite like Donald Trump has.

We've officially entered the era of Donald Trump’s criminal accountability. Whatever happens with this indictment, the ground has shifted for Trump and those who would do anything to see him get re-elected. It’s not a matter of if Trump will face charges at this point, it’s a matter of when -- and not just in this New York case. Trump is also under investigation by a Department of Justice special counsel and in Georgia for his now-infamous phone call demanding Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger “find 11,7800 votes” so he could steal the presidential election.

Trump’s response has been unhinged, because he knows his fate is in the legal system’s hands, and no longer with his MAGA sycophants in Congress. As activists, we worked for years to hold Trump accountable. Now, we must demand that Republicans answer for the leader of their party and the criminal charges that he’s facing.

Dutch:

The obvious question is why is a person who is receiving treatment for an emotional disorder able to buy a gun?

The attacker who killed six people at a small Christian school in Nashville had been receiving treatment for “an emotional disorder” and hid several weapons from their parents before opening fire, police said Tuesday.

The parents thought 28-year-old Audrey Hale “should not own weapons” and wrongly believed Hale had sold the only one they owned, according to John Drake, the Nashville police chief. But the shooter had legally purchased seven guns at five local gun stores, Drake said, and on Monday morning used three of them to attack their former school, killing three small children and three adults.

While the attacker left behind what Drake called a “manifesto,” he said investigators are still trying to determine what could have motivated the massacre at the Covenant School, an academy within a Presbyterian church that averages about 200 grade-school students.

Tennessee just LOOSENED their gun laws.

Although President Xi still plans to visit, Putin's arrest by the International Criminal Court complicates the trip.

https://www.ksat.com/news/politics/2023/03/17/how-a-warrant-for-putin-puts-new-spin-on-xi-visit-to-russia/

Chinese President Xi Jinping’s plans to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow next week highlighted China’s aspirations for a greater role on the world stage. But they also revealed the perils of global diplomacy: Hours after Friday's announcement of the trip, an international arrest warrant was issued for Putin on war crimes charges, taking at least some wind out of the sails of China's big reveal.

U.S. President Joe Biden said Friday he believes the decision by the International Criminal Court in The Hague to charge Putin was “justified.” Speaking to reporters as he left the White House for his Delaware home, he said Putin “clearly committed war crimes.”

While the U.S. does not recognize the court, Biden said it “makes a very strong point” to call out the Russian leader for his actions in ordering the invasion of Ukraine.

The Biden administration believes China's desire to be seen as a broker for peace between Russia and Ukraine may be viewed more critically now that Putin is officially a war crime suspect, according to two U.S. officials. The officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the matter publicly, said the administration hopes the warrants will help mobilize heretofore neutral countries to weigh in on the conflict.

Asked about the Xi-Putin meeting, Biden said, “Well, we’ll see when that meeting takes place.”

Speaking before the ICC warrant was unveiled, Ukrainian analysts cautioned against falling into a potential trap ahead of the Xi-Putin meeting. “We need to be aware that such peace talks are a trap for Ukraine and its diplomatic corps,” said Yurii Poita, who heads the Asia section at the Kyiv-based New Geopolitics Research Network.

Fortunately, we have a Democratic governor, who just announced that she will veto any bill that bans the teaching of critical race theory.

https://www.azcentral.com/story/news/politics/arizona/2023/03/09/arizona-gov-hobbs-vetoes-bill-restrict-school-lessons-race-crt/69990457007/

Up until January, Arizona had a Democratic school superintendent, but she lost to Republican Tom Horne. who just started a hotline so people can report if teachers are teaching CRT.

People who want to report lessons that allegedly use critical race theory or emotional support curriculum rejected by Arizona’s new superintendent can now do so through a hotline launched this week.

The Arizona Department of Education’s “Empower Hotline” will take calls during weekday business hours. It’s a key campaign promise of newly elected superintendent Tom Horne, who ran on a platform that promised to focus on math and reading instruction and “declare war” on conversations about emotions and identity.

Arizona residents should report “inappropriate lessons that detract from teaching academic standards,” the department said on its website. That includes topics like social and emotional learning or that could be considered critical race theory.

This is absolute bullshit.

Critics say that effort is a waste of limited educational resources — and only will heighten the political tensions that have pushed teachers out of the classroom.

This effort “continues to politicize and disrespect educators and their profession and the relationships that they have with their families,” said Arizona Education Association president Marisol Garcia.

https://www.azcentral.com/story/news/local/arizona-education/2023/03/08/state-schools-chief-tom-horne-opens-hotline-for-inappropriate-lessons/69985559007/