Tuesday, April 23, 2024
Fascinating
Maggie Haberman
Reporting from the courthouse
It’s fascinating watching Pecker talk directly to the
jurors. Some, but not all, are watching him.
Almost
April 23, 2024, 11:56 a.m. ET
Maggie Haberman
Reporting from the courthouse
There are fire engine sirens wailing outside the courthouse, almost punctuating Pecker’s words like an emoji.
Text msg I sent to my family:
There are some hard-working people in this world. One of them is a handyman from Hollywood, Florida named Freddy who just left my place. He was replacing my old hot water heater (I’ve only been without hot water for about a month) with a new razz-matazz digital one!
Freddy is in his fifties. I asked him if he needed my help getting my old tub hot water heater into his pick-up. After hearing and feeling something crack in my right inner elbow, just a tendon or something and I have lots of those, we succeeded.
Since my car clutch conked out today and my son had to push me across the finish line to home, I then asked Freddy to sit in my car and feel for himself my clutch. “😲” by Freddy. He then got on the phone with one of his contacts and explained the clutch problem, “kaput”, and the guy is going to come out to my place Thursday, when Freddy will complete the digital hot water installation and fix my clutch. Great success.
My son responded:
This type of community, local support is something I value more and more as I age. [“As I age”: He’s 35 🙄] Similar to our relationship with Grouchy Store [local convenience store] Muhammad. Similar to Robert, our pharmacist. Over and over, local support has proven to me that it’s far more important and underrated than national issues in the short term.
National politics, or even state politics are losing their value in my eyes, when compared to county, city, or district elections. The latter will literally impact you directly and immediately.
It is vital for us to zoom out every now and again, to see the big picture. Of course.
However, I’m starting to believe that on a day to day basis, it’s far more advantageous to zoom in. Notice the small stuff. We don’t do it enough.
What an awesome story of someone I’d consider to be an extremely valuable figure in our local society.
Justice Merchan was entirely dismissive today of def arguments that Trumpie didn’t violate his gag order; and they lost a juror who had been chosen over Trumpie’s edited repost of a broadcast by a sober and intelligent 🦊 individual,
who called jurors “undercover liberal activists” who were trying to get on the jury, and who broadcast personal details about them. The next day the juror came in and said that people had been able to identify her from the 🦊 intelligent, non-drug user’s broadcast. The D.A. said this morning that they were not seeking to put Trumpie in jail for violating the gag order, merely to fine him.
Still, Merchan did not rule on whether he found violations of the gag order had occurred and if so what sanctions he would impose. He’s taking the night to mull it over, evidently.
As prosecutors argued Tuesday that former President Donald J. Trump had repeatedly broken a gag order, they called one episode “very troubling” — his sharing of a commentator’s quote disparaging prospective jurors as clandestine operators for the left.
Mr. Trump posted the remark by Jesse Watters, a Fox News commentator, on his social media site Truth Social last week, as jury selection was underway in his hush-money trial. Mr. Watters’s full quote, as shared by Mr. Trump, was: “They are catching undercover Liberal Activists lying to the Judge in order to get on the Trump Jury.”
In that Fox News segment, Mr. Watters also shared personal details about the jurors in his segment. The day after that post, the judge in the case, Juan M. Merchan, ordered reporters to withhold some information that could identify jurors.
“What happened here was exactly what this order was meant to prevent and the defendant doesn’t care,” a prosecutor, Christopher Conroy, said in court Tuesday.
A lawyer for Mr. Trump, Todd Blanche, argued that Mr. Trump was simply sharing a quote, a common argument used by Mr. Trump to put distance between him and reposts of other people’s comments.
Judge Merchan did not appear to buy that argument. “It’s not passive,” Mr. Merchan said about how a post is published on Truth Social.
Mr. Conroy said the timing of the “liberal activists” post was important. The next morning, a juror came into court and asked to be excused, saying that friends and colleagues had been able to identify her as a member.
April 23, 2024, 9:58 a.m. ET
Jonah Bromwich Reporting from the courthouse
Conroy points to the timing of the post, last Wednesday evening. The next morning, Juror #2 came into court and asked to be excused. This upset Justice Merchan. He complimented the juror after excusing her, saying she would have done a good job.
(NYT)
Pecker via Quasis
At that meeting, Mr. Pecker said on the stand, Mr. Cohen and Mr. Trump asked him what he and his magazines could do “to help the campaign,” a crucial statement that supports the prosecution’s argument that the men were not just protecting Mr. Trump’s personal reputation, but aiding his campaign.
Yes, crucial.
Pebbles beat La-La Bron-Bron last night on a last second shot by Jamal Murray. It’s like the tenth straight time they have beat them. La-La Lead-Lead by 20 in the third quarter. Pebbles just always finds a way and my immediate thought when I read the recap just now was that they aren’t going to be beaten, not even by Beans.
Monday, April 22, 2024
EARTHQUAKES COME BACK AND PREVAIL, GO UP 2-0, 104-101
A bitter, painful loss for the Quakers who fall into an 0-2 hole!
These are two well-coached teams with solid citizens and solid players. They're a credit to the Association.
There are at least 4 Villanova guys on these teams, three on Manhattan, Brunson, DiVincenso, and Hart. Philly has Kyle Lowry. You get professionals from Villanova. 96-94, 3:20 4Q. Manhattan FTO. Joel has 34 and 10 rebs; Electric Maxey, 30 and 10 asts; for the Quakes, Jalen has 21, Joe Hart 21 and 15 boards.
Quakes 29 Quakers 36, 6:56 2Q, Quakes Full Seismographic Interlude
Maxey has 16 points, 12 of them on threes.
Quakes 18 Quakers 25, End 1Q
⚡️Maxey scored the first nine points of the game on three treys in a minute 27 seconds of p.t. Quakes have never led.
Mimi lost, no, Mimi got ravished by Beans in G1 of the playoffs. Know when they last came back from 1-0 in a 7-game series? TWO THOUSAND FUCKING FOURTEEN! It was in the ECF agin’ the “Pacers”, who are now known as Indiana Marymount, when we were known as the Heatles. BOSTON IS THE BEST TEAM IN BASKETBALL! Mimi will not come back and win the series agin’ said Beans.
“The defendant, Donald Trump, orchestrated a criminal scheme to corrupt the 2016 presidential election."
I don't like that. I think that's reaching too high by the D.A. Alvin Bragg gave three conspiracy objects in his press conference announcing the charges. He has chosen this one for trial. I UNDERSTAND THEIR POINT and in a conspiracy it's the intent, just the attempt, that is enough. I wish Colangelo had put in "intent" and "attempt". I wish he had made clear that they don't have to prove Trump did in fact corrupt the election with the hush money.
In what jurisdiction did he attempt to corrupt the election? Nationwide? Why isn't it then a federal case, tried in the nation's capital? They have made this case into an attack on the United States, and that strikes me as beyond the caliber of the Stormy Daniels munition. I UNDERSTAND that it was a very close election and this might have tipped the minuscule margin in a few states to throw it. But they don't have to prove that. Trump survived the Access Hollywood tape, would Stormy Daniels really have been the straw? It seems to me anyway that reliance on this lone theory is going out on a slender limb.
This is a New York state case, in particular, committed in the borough of Manhattan in New York City. Did Trump intend (or attempt) to corrupt the Manhattan vote? Giggle. The New York City vote? Chuckle. The New York state vote? Trump got creamed in New York state.
Bragg has been criticized for aiming too low with this small potatoes case. Here, I think he's reaching too high.
“The defendant, Donald Trump, orchestrated a criminal scheme to corrupt the 2016 presidential election."
"Then he covered up that criminal conspiracy by lying in his New York business records over and over and over again.”--Prosecutor Matthew Colangelo, opening statement.
😔
Opening Statements Underway and…
I don’t know what this peculiar problem is about. It’s 9:30 a.m. for crissakes.
Sunday, April 21, 2024
La-La Clip-Clip Skinned the Fat Cuban Horse 109-97
Male Deer are doing the same to Indiana Marymount, 99-77, 5:30 4Q.
This is also a thing... something.
This afternoon I posted the annotated "Being Stripped of Control". I excerpted this, bolded just as I did at 1:17 pm:
Mr. Trump has often seemed to fade into the background in a light wood-paneled room with harsh neon lighting and a perpetual smell of sour, coffee-laced breath wafting throughout.
It was a criminal courtroom just like I spent forty years in. ...I did notice "breath" but I didn't bold it. Breath fade into the background too. In the foreground, the faux wood paneling, the lighting, there is sometimes a smell to the whole courtroom, dank, old, can be coffee if everybody's the judicial assistant has just made a pot for everybody. But breath. The only times (it's enough times, believe me) you notice someone else's breath is when you're huddled at sidebar whispering. Peoples' breath does not "waft throughout" the entire courtroom for godssake! How would Maggie Haberman know what peoples' breath in the courtroom smelled like anyway since she wasn't in the courtroom when court was in session?
I was googling "trump humiliated in court" (being "diminished") and I came across a video which I watched. The video was from another person who had not been in court, but stated and repeated and repeated that sources who were inside told him that there was a repulsive smell and that it came from Trump...farting. Haberman must have had the same, or similar, sources, people who were inside, for her comment on the smell of peoples' "breath." I didn't find credible Haberman's claim that foul breath was "wafting throughout" the courtroom. Breath doesn't do that. But passed gas does! Passed gas can stink up a whole courtroom and you can smell it after everyone has evacuated--meaning exited the courtroom--not evacuated their bowels. But I also didn't find Haberman credible that the smell permeated the entire courtroom for another reason: no juror who the media spoke to mentioned it and they were there, and Justice Merchan didn't mention it.
However but. There is evidence other evidence of Trumpie defiling an official public setting.
Now, I, Benjamin Harris, have no doubt, zero, that what Trumpie is doing there is either shitting his pants or (more likely) letting out a great long stench from his asshole.
And then there were the allegations in, I think, the Steele Dossier, that Trumpie had hired two Russian hookers to urinate on the bed that the Obamas had slept in when they visited Moscow.
Former Rep. Adam Kinzinger also alleged that Trumpie had a distinctive, "cologne, plus b.o., plus butt" smell to him.
Each of these instances, farting in the courtroom, farting in those 2018 photos, having others pee on a bed, is evidence of a scatological fetish. Combined, they are stronger evidence. However, not enough to convince me that he has a fetish with shitting and farting around other people.
And with that, this thing is a closed thing.
Doesn’t look good there
Secret Service guy looks attentive. Trumpie looks robotic, wooden, like Soviet leaders did waving to crowds from atop the Kremlin. Captioned by PBS as Trump returning to court after lunch break, Friday, April 19.
Just “another guy”; “simply a defendant”
…
A man, a dismissed juror, who contacted the Times after being excused:
Trump was simply a defendant, he thought.
90-69, 10:19 4Q
If you're the Fat Cuban Horse, this is humiliating. Clips DON'T have Kawhi Leonard, you were -3.5...and you're still losing by 20?!
Do you see that, Iz? YOUR war "ON Gaza".
Israel’s war on Gaza live: 180 bodies retrieved from Khan Younis mass grave
- Palestinian civil defence crews retrieve 180 bodies from a mass grave inside the Nasser Medical Complex in Gaza’s Khan Younis, two weeks after Israeli forces withdrew from the area.
- At least 18 children are among those killed in a series of Israeli attacks with dozens of Palestinians in Gaza killed overnight.
...
William Schabas, a professor of international law at Middlesex University London, spoke to Al Jazeera about the legal implications of the mass graves found in the Nasser Medical Complex.
He said mass graves have “always been an indication that war crimes have been committed, whether it was in the former Yugoslavia, Ukraine and now in Gaza”.
“There’s an obligation under international law to see that the dead are treated with respect and with dignity, that they’re buried according to rights, and that they can be identified by their next of kin. And none of that appears to be done. So Israel has a lot of explaining to do,” he said.
The fact that some of the bodies were apparently bound up or tied “points to summary execution” and calls for full-blown criminal investigation with a view to holding the perpetrators accountable, Schabas said.
Okay, that does not sound like Israel to me. Now I have doubts. This story is from Reuters. Not even AP reports on this mass grave.
You're losing, Israel. I'm ashamed.
Israeli strikes on southern Gaza city of Rafah
kill 22, mostly children...
The first Israeli strike in Rafah killed a man, his wife and their 3-year-old child, according to the nearby Kuwaiti Hospital, which received the bodies. The woman was pregnant and the doctors saved the baby, the hospital said. The second strike killed 17 children and two women from an extended family.
...
“In the coming days, we will increase the political and military pressure on Hamas because this is the only way to bring back our hostages and achieve victory. We will land more and painful blows on Hamas – soon,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a statement. He didn’t give details.
Israel, what is it? It's not a Jewish thing, but it's not a Palestinian, Arab, or Muslim thing either? Is it the climate? Why does every group in the Middle East act like you are acting right now?
Geez, "Heat" ARE making a 4Q run, 29-12! Alas, the deficit is still 15.
Beans led 91-59 end 3. NINETY-ONE to FIFTY-NINE! Beans went into their every-game hibernation in the 4th.
“Sir, can you please have a seat.”
Trump’s Trial Challenge: Being Stripped of Control
The mundanity of the courtroom has all but swallowed Donald Trump, who for decades has sought to project an image of bigness and a sense of power.
“Sir, can you please have a seat.”
…
…when Justice Merchan admonished him to sit back down, the former president did so without saying a word.
…
Saturday, April 20, 2024
If God’s not a Democrat, why did She make the sky Blue?
I’m going to crow again so if you find it offensive be warned. I have said continuously and I say again:
Biden’s budding behemoth, Trump’s legal spending and
other takeaways from campaign finance reports
The major presidential candidates latest filings hardly could have been more different from one another.
Donald Trump is spending as much on legal bills as he is on campaigning. Joe Biden, meanwhile, is building a reelection behemoth.
…the two aren’t even in the same ballpark. A PAC controlled by Trump spent almost as much on legal bills as his campaign did on anything else — and Biden’s campaign outspent Trump’s by nearly eight-to-one.
Biden’s campaign is light years ahead of Trump’s
…just from the totals, you’d be forgiven for thinking the two men were running for different offices.
…
…when it came to core campaign outlays in March, Biden outspent Trump by nearly a factor of eight. Trump’s campaign spent less last month than Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) — perhaps the most vulnerable senator from either party — did for his reelection bid.
And it’s not as simple as Biden was advertising in March, and Trump wasn’t. In other ways outlined in their reports, the incumbent’s campaign is more robust. Biden spent $2.3 million on payroll in March — nearly four times Trump’s $597,000.
Legal fees continue to suck up pro-Trump money
Trump’s leadership PAC spent nearly as much on legal bills in March as his campaign spent on everything else. …Even with all his spending, the president is still banking money for the rest of the campaign. Across his fundraising vehicles and including the Democratic National Committee, Biden had $192.9 million in cash on hand as of March 30, the new reports show. Trump, meanwhile, had $93.1 million.
A Trump collab isn’t enough for the RNC to close its money gap
The Republican National Committee raised $20 million in March, by far its best month so far. A big reason for that surge in fundraising was the committee’s ability to team up with Trump after he became the party’s de-facto nominee…
But even that influx of cash did not put the RNC in the same league as its Democratic counterpart. The Democratic National Committee raised $34 million in March and has more than double the cash on hand of the RNC: $45 million to $21 million.
That underscores how difficult it will be for the RNC to claw its way back toward any sort of financial parity. Even as the committee starts to right the ship, the Democrats’ advantage is tough to surmount. As the fall approaches, it means the DNC is likely to have more resources to boost Biden and downballot Democrats, while the RNC is more likely to be stretched thin.
Seeking “the right side of history”
Isn’t that somethin’? All credit to Johnson. And I’m going to gloat a little because I told you this guy was different.
Pebbles Sink the Lake
This was a game, not a procession for the Champions. And it was a game between two very good teams.
This is a thing.
And I confess I never gave this thing a thought.
Trump was forced to listen silently as potential
jurors offered their unvarnished assessments of
him
He's not used to that, you see.
NEW YORK (AP) — He seems “selfish and self-serving,” said one woman.
The way he carries himself in public “leaves something to be desired,” said another.
His “negative rhetoric and bias,” said another man, is what is “most harmful.”
...
"I wouldn’t believe Donald Trump if his tongue were notarized’”
...
“Get him out and lock him up!”
...
...one of the women with the harshest assessments of him will be among those who will [be on the jury]!
“I don’t like his persona, how he presents himself in public." The woman said she didn’t agree with some of Trump’s politics, which she called “outrageous.”
“He just seems very selfish and self-serving, so I don’t really appreciate that in any public servant,” she said, adding that while she doesn’t “know him as a person,” how he “portrays himself in public, it just seems to me it is not my cup of tea.”
Trump’s legal team took issue with her responses, but they were out of challenges by the time she was up for consideration.
Over the past week, Donald Trump has been forced to sit inside a frigid [courtrooms are kept cold to keep jurors from falling asleep] New York courtroom and listen to a parade of potential jurors in his criminal hush money trial share their unvarnished assessments of him.
It’s been a dramatic departure for the former president and presumptive 2024 GOP nominee, who is accustomed to spending his days in a cocoon of cheering crowds and constant adulation. ...
"He’s the object of derision. It’s his nightmare. He can’t control the script. He can’t control the cinematography. He can’t control what’s being said about him. ...said Tim O’Brien, a Trump biographer and critic.
Contrast with:
While Trump is occasionally confronted by protesters, generally he lives a life sheltered from criticism. After leaving the White House, Trump moved to his Mar-a-Lago waterfront club in Palm Beach, Florida, where he is surrounded by doting paid staff and dues-paying members who have shelled out tens of thousands of dollars to be near him.
Many days, Trump heads to his nearby golf course, where he is “swarmed by people wanting to shake his hand, take pictures of him, and tell him how amazing he is,” said Stephanie Grisham, a longtime aide who broke with Trump after the storming of the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
When he returns to Mar-a-Lago in the afternoon, members lunching on the patio often stand and applaud. He receives the same standing ovation at dinner, which often ends with Trump playing DJ on his iPad, blasting favorites like “It’s a Man’s Man’s Man’s World” by James Brown.
Grisham, who spent long stretches traveling with Trump and at Mar-a-Lago during his 2016 campaign and as White House press secretary, described staff constantly serving as cheerleaders and telling Trump what he wanted to hear. To avoid angry outbursts, they requested motorcade routes that avoided protests and they left a stack of positive press clips every morning on the Resolute Desk in the Oval Office.
Now, Trump...will have to listen to more critics, without being able to punch back verbally — something he revels in doing.
WITNESSES! And he has to sit there quietly and take it until it's his turn. No, not what he's used to a'tall. One outburst and Justice Merchan will rock his strange new world:
Court rules require Trump to be present throughout the trial. He can’t storm out of the courtroom like he did during a recent defamation trial. He is also barred by a gag order from attacking any of the jurors, including on his Truth Social platform.
He has already been admonished by Merchan for audibly uttering something and gesturing while one juror was answering questions.
“I will not tolerate any jurors being intimidated in this courtroom,” said Merchan, who previously warned Trump he could be sent to jail for engaging in disruptive behavior in court.
Among the expected witnesses in the trial are his former lawyer and fixer, Michael Cohen, and the porn actor who alleged she had sex with him, Stormy Daniels.
Manhattan Earthquakes (2) 36 7'6"ers (7) 38, 8:49 2Q
This is a legitimate playoff match-up. Quakes had a special regular season and 7'6"ers have won nine in a row and would not have been 7th seed with Joel. Very interesting game. I will be following this one.
Orange Over Yellow. Like a Creamsicle.
Jimmy Kimmel pointed out the contrast between face and hands. That’s the heartbreak of fake bake. You can’t get it even.
“Moscow Marjorie”! 😂
“The Ukrainian government is attacking Christians, the Ukrainian government is executing priests,” she said. “Russia is not doing that. They’re not attacking Christianity.”
JARED! JARED! JARED!
Revolving Door
Guess who?
"THIS SCAM ‘RUSHED’ TRIAL TAKING PLACE IN A 95% DEMOCRAT AREA IS A PLANNED AND COORDINATED WITCH HUNT... IT IS BEING PRESIDED OVER BY POSSIBLY THE MOST CONFLICTED JUDGE IN JUDICIAL HISTORY, WHO MUST BE REMOVED FROM THIS HOAX IMMEDIATELY.”
Politics and Justice in the Miami State Attorney’s Office
Oh my goodness.
That was my honest first reaction when I texted my family the two news stories linked below.
Rundle prosecutors disqualified
Florida Association of Criminal Defense Attorneys
That’s two separate cases in two months.
Subsequent to the family text I read the judge’s Order of disqualification:
Judge Wolfson Order Disqualifying
There is so much more that could be said about that office, like here, the danger of working with flips, which has become sop there, and I have said a lot of it. In my best effort to schematize the constellation of issues into an equation, I get:
Imbecility+Incompetence+Lassitude+Unprincipled+Dotage+Power=
And it is inter-institutional: D.A.’s Office + Police Departments + Press.
Katherine Fernandez Rundle is 74 years old, she has been the State Attorney of Miami-Dade County for 30 yrs. She has prosecuted one police officer for a shooting in those 30 years.
Rundle developed a practice of hiring back older former ASAs. I worked with everyone mentioned in those articles, including the two judges, who are also former prosecutors. Maybe as you get older your ethics become elastic, I don’t know, but Rundle has to go. She’s up for reelection this year and she will win again. We can’t get her out through the ballot box. DeSantis should replace her, but he won’t. She’s a Law & Order Democrat, the only good kind for him.
Democrats Get Things Done
The votes were,
Ukraine 311-112 “a majority of Republicans — 112 —“ voted against.
Israel 366-58
Taiwan 385-34
The Republican Special etc. 21st Century Whatever 360-58
“I wouldn’t believe Trump if his tongue were notarized.”—(dismissed) Prospective Juror #2
🤣
“…she did not get picked as a juror, but I would like to hire her as a writer if she’s interested.” — Jimmy Kimmel
Sounds like a reasonable basis for a cause challenge.😂
I’ll bet you that silver-tongued truth-teller is a member of my favorite demographic cohort, Black women. 😂
🥳👏
Volkswagen workers in Chattanooga overwhelmingly voted to join the United Auto Workers late Friday, giving the union a decisive foothold in the historically anti-union South.
They’re used to slave labor!
Nearly three quarters of the workers voted to support the UAW, according to the final results from the National Labor Review Board. Of the 4,326 workers eligible to vote, more than 3,600 casts ballots over the three-day election.
As the votes were counted Friday night, first a trickle — and later, a wave — of bold, red T-shirts with white lettering peppered the union hall Friday evening at I.B.E.W. Local 175.
Joseph McMullen walked into the hall around 9 p.m. expecting many of his Volkswagen colleagues to have voted to establish a union. But he was not prepared for the overwhelming pro-union support displayed on a projection screen.
…
When the news of the final victory was announced, members of the crowd jumped, cheered and hugged. Minutes later, UAW president Shawn Fain arrived to congratulate the VW workers.
“Many of the talking heads and the pundits have said to me repeatedly, before we announced, that you can’t win in the South," Fain told the cheering crowd. "But you all said, watch this. You all moved the mountain.”
The victory came despite strong opposition from a coalition of six Southern governors, including Gov. Bill Lee of Tennessee who urged workers to reject unions in a letter on Tuesday.
Once the victory was announced, President Joe Biden responded directly to those governors in a statement.
"Let me be clear to the Republican governors that tried to undermine this vote: there is nothing to fear from American workers using their voice and their legal right to form a union if they so choose," Biden said.
…the UAW has seen its fortunes rise under the leadership of Fain, who was elected in 2023. Last year, the UAW staged a strike against Ford, General Motors and Stellantis that led to a favorable new contract for 145,000 workers.
The UAW's ability to organize Southern workers will be tested again in May, when workers at the Mercedes-Benz plant near Tuscaloosa, Alabama, will vote on whether they also want to join the union.
"This is a new day and we're just getting started," Fain said.
Friday, April 19, 2024
Democrats Make Things Work
Johnson’s reliance on Democrats to get these bills* over the line can’t be overstated for its weirdness.
The Rules Committee (9-4 Repubes) had to approve a special rule (makes sense) to make even debate on the bills possible. The Taliban had 3 of the GOP votes. For the special rule to pass, Dems votes on the committee were needed, "which...almost never happens." "[T]he majority is expected to provide all the votes in favor while the minority always votes against..."
All four bills are expected to pass.
*The four, which will be voted on separately, are: Ukraine, Israel, Taiwan, and a GOP thing called the “21st Century Peace through Strength Act.” That bill "includes using seized Russian assets in the U.S. financial system to aid Ukraine, new sanctions against Iran and Hamas, and a newly drafted TikTok ban giving its Chinese-owned parent company up to a year to sell the app to an American company."
Cows Walk Nimbly, HT Mimi 47 Wind 37
We led by 20 and 17 End 1Q. They out-walked us 20-13 2Q.
One of these teams, 8th and 9th in a 15-team conference over 82 games, each without their best player, is going to have the opportunity to lift the Larry O'Brien Trophy as the best basketball team in the world. That should not be possible.
Democrats Make Things Work
Ukraine Aid Bill Clears Critical Hurdle in the House as Democrats Supply the Votes
Democrats stepped in to support bringing the aid package to the floor, in a remarkable breach of custom on a key vote that paved the way for its passage. (Quasis)
Meanwhile, Paul Gosar became the third Grand Old Phascist to join a motion to vacate the chair on Speaker Mike Johnson. Credit where credit is due: Johnson gets things done, too.
Apie
Appeals court refuses to halt hush money case
An appeals court judge has once again denied a request by Trump’s attorneys to halt his criminal trial as they seek to have the case moved outside of Manhattan.
Justice Marsha Michael issued the ruling just minutes after a brief hearing. The arguments in the midlevel appeals court came hours after the jury selection process concluded in Trump’s criminal trial, which is currently taking place roughly two miles south.
The ruling will allow opening statements to take place as soon as Monday in Trump’s criminal trial.
Fair and Impartial
Michael Ian Black. Never heard of him, maybe you have, not me:
Could I set aside my own somewhat biased (I hate him) feelings regarding the defendant to ensure that he gets a fair trial?
Me too.
...my understanding of the job of “juror” isn’t to sit in judgment of the person, only the acts which that person is accused of having performed. I could do that.
Me too.
...
All you gotta do is show me the law in question, and let me figure out whether he broke it. My personal animus towards the defendant is irrelevant.
Easy.
Black is 75% right. The missing 25% makes it easier. The job of juror, understood 100% is to judge the prosecution's evidence. Weigh it, that's the language of the law. Weigh the evidence. Does it meet the weight limit of beyond a reasonable doubt? I used that law with a metaphor when I was picking juries in criminal trials. It's like Olympic weightlifting. It's not a contest between two big strong fat guys. There are consequences, to be sure, for winner and loser, but the contest is against a standard. Can you lift 400 lbs or whatever the standard is? Can you lift it above your head and then hold it there for a second without "wavering or vacillating". That also is from the law. A reasonable doubt does not waver or vacillate. It's stable. In a criminal trial the "burden" of proof rests solely on the shoulders of the prosecution. The defense, as we routinely say, doesn't have to do anything. We can sit there and read the newspaper. Glance up every so often and see if he's lifting it, argue in closings that he didn't lift it completely over his head or didn't hold it there stably, "You saw him, his arms were shaking and his legs quivering." Easy.
“They crucified so many people that they ran out of wood.”
Jonathan Lord
Jonathan Lord, head of the Middle East security program at the Center for a New American Security, a U.S. think tank, said that
"seems to indicate that Iran is seeking to step down off the ledge, minimise the impact of the attack, and perhaps walk back down the escalation ladder from here".
Now, according to "reporting", Iran previously said that any Israeli strike on their homeland would be met with massive, unwarned retaliation on Israel. Maybe all of those reports, which were sourced to American, Israeli and Iranian officials, are false and Jonathan Lord is correct. Or maybe this is the notorious fog of war. Or maybe it's propaganda and tits will be replied to with tats as they have been for nearly 2,000 years in the Mid East.
John Kirby
The Pentagon spokesman could have been replying personally to the undersigned:
“Can you imagine a world in which Iran would pick up the phone and say, ‘We’re about to try to whack Israel with 300 cruise missiles and drones, we just wanted to let you know it’s coming and oh by the way, here’s what we’re going to hit.'”
Weird, man.
Iranian Official
"The foreign source of the incident has not been confirmed. We have not received any external attack, and the discussion leans more towards infiltration than attack."
Weird. Either Iranian Official is disguising the strike for domestic consumption or Iz launched its drones from inside Iran on Iran.
Thursday, April 18, 2024
Paper Moon (1973)
I have watched four or five of the cognoscente's consensus all-time greatest films. I didn't like any of them as well as The Thomas Crowne Affair (1999), imo a severely underrated film. Same with this one, Paper Moon. I watched Paper Moon on the big screen in a theater when it first came out. I haven't been able to rewatch it for free, just clips.
The late Ryan O'Neal and his real life daughter Tatum are the co-stars. Tatum is the youngest actor (10 yrs old) ever to win an Academy Award (for this film, as supporting actor).
Moses Pray is a lovable midwest conman, in the grand American tradition of Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn, during the Depression. Addie Pray, Moses' daughter, whose paternity Moses never acknowledges, is smarter than her father and both learns from him and out-learns him, willingly participating in Moses' scams and making them better, morally and lucratively. One of Moses' scams is "widow business". He and Addie scan the rural Kansas newspapers for recent deaths and then show up at the widow's house claiming that the dearly departed ordered a dee-luxe bible for someone named...[insert name of widow].
There are two scenes of widow business in this clip. Note director Peter Bogdanovich's use of deep focus keeping both foreground and background in crystal clarity. And note the subtle screenplay. Paper Moon is a masterpiece, underappreciated at release but now gaining recognition and a following. I have watched this short clip three times and laughed out loud at the contrast between first and second scenes and Moses' futile attempts keep control of the business template from interference by his ten-year old daughter in stealing the scenes (and the widows' money). It's absolutely adorable.
"Praise the Lord." 😂
