On Mark Meadows, deadly tornadoes, President Biden, and Meghan Thee Stallion
The Tuesday Talking Points!
If it’s Tuesday, with a nod to Peter Abelard's Sic et Non, it’s time for Hobbs’s Talking Points!
1. Could the Mayfield (Kentucky) Candle Factory be held liable for the tornado related deaths of employees that managers threatened to fire if they left the facility to shelter from the storm?
Yes, absolutely!
My stomach turned into knots this morning after reading reports that eight people died in the Mayfield Consumer Products factory, one which made scented candles, after managers threatened to fire any employees that left the facility due to the tornado warnings. As you can tell from the photo below, the facility was totally razed and is being depicted across media spectrums as the symbol of the terrifying destructive power of tornadoes.
During a press conference yesterday, Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear (D) fought back tears while confirming that 74 people—including one who was only two months old—died during storms this past weekend. And while natural disasters are surely a part of life, I cannot help but to shake my head at the cruelty that managers would show in demanding that workers stay and work when calamitous weather is en route.
What's worse is in knowing that while some workers shrugged their shoulders and left for safer ground anyway, that the families of others who died, or those employees who remained but will be forever impacted by knowing that co-workers and friends did not make it, will be filing wrongful death and intentional or negligent infliction of emotional distress lawsuits against Mayfield Consumer Products in the very near future. Here's hoping that the insurance providers for that company don't stall and will do the honorable thing by providing some measure of financial compensation for the company's grievous error.
2. Will former Donald Trump Chief of Staff Mark Meadows get held in criminal contempt of Congress?
Yes!
Earlier this fall, I predicted that former Trump aide Steve Bannon would be held in criminal contempt for refusing to answer to congressional subpoenas and, sure enough, Bannon was arrested and is slated to go on trial next year. Well, the same logic holds true for Mark Meadows, Trump's loyal ally whose insouciance during the January 6th MAGA Riots at the Capitol Complex could portend legal troubles for the former president for his own complicity in stoking the emotions of those who ripped into the Capitol and caused millions in damage—and led to six deaths.
What I found totally fascinating last night is that during the January 6th riots, that text message records from Meadows's cell phone show that both Donald Trump Jr. and Fox News personalities Sean Hannity and Laura Ingraham sent multiple messages to Meadows pleading with him to get the former president to urge his followers to stand down.
Trump Jr.'s last text that day about his father was the most ominous: "He's got to condemn this shit ASAP." Unfortunately, the riots raged for nearly two hours before the former President, the same one who encouraged his followers to storm the Capitol to “stop the steal,” issued his first call for law and order; by that time, at least one rioter was already dead and then V.P. Mike Pence had been hurriedly removed via secret tunnel only seconds before the armed and madding crowd made it into the senate chambers where he had just been presiding over the election certification proceedings.
Stay tuned...
3. Are questions that President Joe Biden is in a state of mental decline legitimate?
Yes!
As I push closer to age 50, my quiz bowl Hall of Fame long-term memory can still name each U.S. president in order, recite the leaders of the Union Army of the Potomoc during the Civil War in short order, and tell you the names and positions of each member of Adolf Hitler's High Command during World War II the Soviet Union’s premiers in rapid succession; at the same time, I often forget what I went into the kitchen to retrieve or that the eyeglasses that I'm looking for are right on top of my head. Indeed, anyone that's blessed with long life will experience some level of mental and/or memory decline.
Such normalities in cognitive decline, though, are more critically pronounced when the person in decline is the President of the United States. Yes, I can remember when I was a teenager when concerns were whispered about then President Ronald Reagan's cognitive decline; thirty years later, we now know for certain that Reagan was already suffering from Alzheimer's and that his wife, Nancy, was in many ways serving as the de facto president!
Back then, there was no 24-hour news cycle, thus, Reagan was so heavily scripted during the latter years of his administration that few questioned his authority. But today, even as one who voted for President Joe Biden, I, too, have been left scratching my head at times by some of his "mis" remembrances (like being a liaison for Israeli leader Golda Meir in the 60s), or his Oval Office chats where he looks like the kindly or, at times, curmudgeonly grandpa who needs a good nap.
Still, when CBS News journalist Rita Braver interviewed the First Lady, Dr. Jill Biden, yesterday, she asked: “there have been some recent polls that show that quite a few Americans have some questions about the President’s current mental fitness." The First Lady shook her head and abruptly responded, “I think that’s ridiculous.”
But is it really ridiculous? Again, I found it curious that when President Biden's recent physical was released, that there were no reports of his mental acuity which, essentially, places Democrats on notice that by 2024, Reagan 2.0 may be inhabiting the Oval Office. If so, President Biden will be unable to avoid the questions that most certainly will arise as to whether an 82-year-old President is fit for a second run for office?
We shall soon see...
Graduation Congratulations!
Kudos to rap music star Meghan the Stallion for earning her degree this past weekend from Texas Southern University, a storied HBCU in Houston, Texas!
Kudos, Meghan Thee Graduate!
Thank you for subscribing to the Hobbservation Point—have a great day!
Congrats to Meghan! And we just had a president that was crazy af so Biden's cognitive decline due to age, does not panic me as much as the clown of 2020 did out there telling people to drink bleach.
I hope Mayfield is sued into non-existence. I can’t imagine what those families are going through - the death of their loved ones over candles.