February 4, 2022
President Biden and local officials gathered yesterday at Police Plaza downtown vowing to do something about the tsunami of guns flooding our city and about all of the people getting shot with them. Outside of the news conference, in Foley Square, a small band of vaccine mandate resisters protested people having to get a shot.
This odd juxtaposition reminded us of a funny scene from the Monty Python film, “Life of Brian.” In that instance a crowd struggled to hear what Jesus was saying, finally guessing incorrectly that it was “blessed are the cheesemakers.”
Then, this morning, celebrity lawyer Michael Avenatti was convicted of stealing money from his former client, Stormy Daniels. It wasn’t that long ago that he was riding high as the personification of resistance to all things Trump, appearing in countless cable tv news hits. In fact, he stood outside of this very courthouse just a couple of years ago heaping scorn on the freshly sentenced former Trump consigliere, Michael Cohen. Crowing that Cohen deserved every day of his sentence, Avenatti then predicted that Trump himself would be next.
Turns out that Avenatti himself was next. He now faces decades in prison, a vivid example of how “the bigger they are, the harder they fall” is as true today as it ever was.
