LITERARY
UN GATE, Feb 4 -- Finally
the day came, or days. At 7 in the
morning, New York time, the
Genocide Games had their opening
ceremony in Beijing, complete with
stylized movies like the 1936
Olympics. Thomas Bach of the IOC
gave a long and empty speech,
after white washing the MeToo
black out of Peng Shuai. Somewhere
in there was Antonio Guterres, his
video given out under embargo to
the pro-UN scribes, who did
nothing with it.
Kurt live tweeted the
ceremony, noting that Nigeria had
only one athlete at the Winter
Games, while even Puerto Rico had
two. There was "Chinese Taipei," a
made up name for Taiwan. There was
Xi Jin Ping in a black glove,
raising his hand every so
slightly. Then it was time to head
down to the SDNY courthouse.
The Avenatti jury had been
deliberating for two days. Out on
Foley Square Avenatti had
explained to Kurt what his father
selling hotdogs stories was
supposed to convey; the anti
Avenatti crowd thought the Q&A
was too light. Now it looked like
Avenatti might win or at least get
a mistrial.
Later morning the jury sent
a note, that one of the 12 was
refusing to deliberate, going only
on emotion. There ensued a fight
over what Judge Furman should tell
the other 11 - that they could
complain again, and maybe get the
12th one bounced and replaced? No,
Avenatti said, that would be
error. Judge Furman split the
difference. Kurt called in to
other cases, and his other job.
It was past three o'clock
when word of a verdict came in.
There were sound problems, and a
rush back to the elevator. But
both counts came back guilty and
soon Avenatti was stone faced
leaving the courtroom,
gone with a
song. He would
have to surrender to jail on the
West Coast after the weekend.
Kurt asked him, out in the
rain, "Federal Defenders, one a
scale of one to ten?"
Avenatti
stopped and said "Ten." Then
stopped again and said "Fifteen."
This while Sarah Lawrence College
sex cultist Larry Ray was firing
his Federal Defenders. At least
they had a right to lawyers, and
the semblance of due process. It
was more than China, and the UN of
Guterres, offered.
*
* *
Upcoming
at SDNY, now that Avenatti had snatched defeat
from the jaws of victory and #The48 continued
spiking the football in gifs, was day 3 of
Palin versus New York Times. Kurt wrote a
song, focused on the Times and not COVID, but
it still got immediately demonetized by
YouTube. One trial run into the next; the beat
was more interesting than the UN but both left
genocide UNtouched. Meanwhile Big Tony flew
back to New York, his bags jammed with Chinese
cash, virtual perhaps.
Kurt wrote
up the story then headed up to the 8th floor
of the courthouse, to see if the Magistrates'
Court still had the three older Boricuas now
charged with the fentanyl overdose death of
ballyhooed Wire actor Michael K. Williams.
On
his way Kurt ran into another CJA lawyer, a
friend of Michael Randall Long's, who was
talking with another lawyer in the hall with
its windows looking out on the snowy balcony
and Chatham Green beyond it and the
Manhattan Bridge.
"How
do you like the Avenatti?" the lawyer asked
Kurt, phrasing as people did here like a
dish in a restaurant, how is the swordfish
tonight. Well, Avenatti did like Italian
food, even if his jury could not now
consider it.
"It's
a freak show," Kurt said, slowing down to
talk. He got some of his best stories this
way. At the UN he used to talk all day, in
the halls and then asking questions in the
Briefing Room. Here it was more quiet.
The
lawyer said she had a good story for him, a
Chinese lady she called the prospective
client, who wanted to sue China itself. "I
don't want to take the case myself," she
said, "you know my politics but I was
wondering if you might want to write about
it, or could think of another lawyer,
someone more like yourself than me."
Kurt
knew that Michael Randall Long was up to his
eyeballs in cases just now.
But maybe
he could take this one. Kurt decided to try.
He took
down the prospective client's number, said
thanks and ran further down the hall, to the
elevator to the Mag Court. By the time he
got there, the alleged killers of Michael K.
Williams had been processed and the doors
were locked. So he headed out across Worth
Street to the Ali Baba fruit stand, above
which was the Law Office of Michael Randall
Long. #GenocideGamesOfGuterres.
From January 21,
2022: UNSG Antonio
Guterres: This visit to
the Olympics is not a
political visit. We consider
that the Olympic Games are an
extremely important
manifestation in today's world
of the possibility of unity,
of the possibility of mutual
respect, of the possibility of
cooperation, of peoples of
different cultures, of
different religions, of
different ethnicities. And
this is more important than
ever when we see xenophobia,
when we see racism, when we
see white supremacy, when we
see anti‑Semitism, when we see
anti‑Muslim hatred
proliferating all over the
world... That is the reason
why I am going to the Olympic
Games. And it has nothing to
do with my opinions about the
different policies that take
place in the People's Republic
of
China.
Spokesman
Dujarric: Okay, sir, I
think you're then off the
hook.
Will
Guterres be taking his Deputy
Amina
J. Mohammed, supportive
of the killing and targeted
detentions perpetrated by
Buhari of Nigeria? See,
Identity Thieves - and,
forthcoming, Genocide Games of
Guterres. For now, Belt
and Roadkill.
***
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