Thanks, Robert, for this very detailed synopsis of today's events. I always look forward to reading your summaries and opinions.
I must admit, and perhaps it's petty of me, to a moment of glee and relief at this:
"Trump issued a plea before the trial, asking his supporters to “Rally behind MAGA” at the park across the street from the courthouse. Depending the source, it appears that less than a dozen supporters responded to Trump's call."
Perhaps his cultish followers are starting to come to their senses. One can hope.
What is President Biden doing today ?? He’ll be in Florida 😎 with a Pro-Reproductive Freedom/Pro-Amendment 4 message !
Speaking of billboards,the DNC has placed them in major cities in Fl. They’re in English and Spanish and read: ➡️“Abortion is banned in Florida thanks to Donald Trump. He won’t stop until it’s banned nationwide.”
"Reality is a pesky thing—facts cling to reality effortlessly while lies clink and thud as they miss their mark." I just love this sentence! That is all.
I had to seriously consider what I wanted to add to the conversation, that isn't snark nor unproductive.
First, these trials (and their delays) are so demonstrative of ("white") privilege.
Here's to finally "proving" "no one is above the law."
Second, the defense claims that "nothing he did was a crime"
- paying off people for silence, NDAs, "catch-and-kill" stories with tabloids, the sleaze of cheating on every one of his three wives
- which has a lot of people thinking, "then why did Michael Cohen go to jail?"
And why are hundreds who participated in the January 6, 2021 attack on the US Capitol convicted and in jail while the person benefitting is free and apparently not being held to account? In fact, is the presumptive presidential candidate for what once was a major political party, but has been taken over as a loyalist cult?
Prosecutors are helping juries "connect the dots."
So many people I know have basically stopped watching all news.
It is an effort to protect their mental health and well-being.
The media needs to do MUCH better.
WORDS MATTER.
It's not "the hush money case" - it's "the election interference conspiracy."
The defense spent quite a bit of their opening statements hammering why it is "President Donald Trump" (when millions of "us" are saying it should be "Defendant Trump" or "Mr. Trump" or "Former President Trump.") Considering he is intent on ENDING the Presidency (and installing himself as dictator), it doesn't seem to me he deserves to be addressed in such a manner.
As for the WHINING that he cannot get a "fair trial" in New York
(with attacks on the Judge, the staff, the witnesses, the jurors, the state legal system and of course, the current administration, let's throw the entire kitchen sink in our victim-hood claims),
it brings to mind the lyrics from the genius Lin-Manuel Miranda's HAMILTON Musical
"They don't like you."
(Reference in context, from Act 2 of HAMILTON:
Asterisks denote Burr's lyrics, lines without asterisks sung by Hamilton.
Burr?
Since when are you a Democratic-Republican?
* Since being one put me on the up and up again
No one knows who you are or what you do
*They don't need to know me
*They don't like you
Excuse me?
*Oh, Wall Street thinks you're great
*You'll always be adored by the things you create
*But upstate
Wait
*People think you're crooked
*Schuyler's seat was up for grabs so I took it
I've always considered you a friend
*I don't see why that has to end
You changed parties to run against my father-in-law
Voters today live in a bubble. In Today’s Edition Robert mentioned several initiatives the Biden Administration started and inaugurated over the past few days and as well read as I am I was unaware of some of them and did not see the appropriate news coverage of the events. Additionally a large majority of voters have tuned out the Trump trial and are not following the day to day courtroom drama because they have Trump fatigue. The reality is most voters have already made up their minds about Trump and who and what he is and there are some voters who still are unsure about Biden but they are not leaning towards Trump. Biden needs to keep performing as Trump begins disintegrating and becomes more volatile and out of control. The trial will demonstrate for everyone how unstable and unqualified Trump is to be our next President.
Overall happy about your reporting - but since when is it antisemitic to protest the mass killing of the Palestinian people? Biden needs to show moral clarity on this topic or he will deserve to lose the youth vote. I know there is antisemitism out there but let’s not lump that together with legitimate protests against the Israeli government.
Thanks for the information about the action in Ohio. I am convinced that billboards can be an effective messaging tool. You can’t get away from billboards.
I would love to see billboards up with Trump’s statements about punishing women and how immigrants are poisoning the blood of this country. This could get info to the low information voter.
Robert, this paragraph in Concluding Thoughts restores my hope in a fair outcome of the NY trial:
"The slow unfolding of the evidence is a positive aspect of trials. The mind is a causal inference engine. It attempts to impose patterns and explanations on facts that appear to be confusing and conflicting. That natural tendency favors discernment of the truth. Reality is a pesky thing—facts cling to reality effortlessly while lies clink and thud as they miss their mark."
The jurors see what we expect to be the whole, unvarnished, organized, and compelling story. We, on the other hand, see edited, curated, sound-bitten snippets designed to get our attention. Contributions to our fuller enlightenment, as you and Joyce Vance provide, give us a glimpse into the true reality, not the "reality TV" version. Now that it will soon be in their hands, I have confidence that the jury will decide based on the true reality.
Ohio is an interesting place. Well educated populace, sophisticated cities, great sports teams, and birthplace of 7 Presidents: Ulysses S. Grant (Point Pleasant), Rutherford Birchard Hayes (Delaware), James Abram Garfield (Orange Township - now Moreland Hills, Ohio), Benjamin Harrison (North Bend), William McKinley (Niles), William Howard Taft (Cincinnati), and Warren Gamaliel Harding (Corsica, now Blooming Grove). But recently, they've also managed to send Gym Jordan and JD Vance to Washington - two powerful people of questionable devotion to the truth.
Let me add to my earlier comment: The suffering of the Palestinians would be eased if Arab countries were to allow immigration. This is not a trivial point.
Like I keep saying: Biden, best president of my lifetime! And probably among the top 3-4. He's amazing!
As for Trump, I would note that he looks absolutely miserable in that courtroom. I took a few photos of photos of him that I wish I could post here. I think just this court case is liable to leave him a shell of his former self. If I were the GOP, I'd be looking for someone else to run in his stead. I'm glad I'm not--on general principle.
Allow me to dissent in part. Fox News is calling Biden’s comments about the people who don’t understand the Palestinians his “good people on both sides” moment. I usually detest Fox but it calls this one correctly. There are so many errors in what he says that I don’t know where to begin. First, the plight of the poor Palestinian would end if Hamas would return the hostages and surrender. The poor Palestinians elected Hamas and have only themselves to blame for their current plight. Second, people who try to distinguish between antisemitism and anti-Zionism are ignorant of the centrality of Israel to the soul of a Jew. To take but one point, when Israel was created (by the UN) Jews were expelled from, eg, Iraq and Yemen. They were told to go to Israel. They did, and joined refugees from Europe after the Holocaust who likewise had nowhere else to go. Same with Russian refuseniks. The history of the Jews is the history of a people always fleeing persecution and with no refuge, except Israel. Even after the UN created Israel the Arabs constantly declared war on Israel. Fortunately the Jews who settled in Israel were intent on rebuilding their lives and not complaining. And they did. So I am fed up with anguished cries about the poor Palestinians. It is antisemitism pure and simple. I fear for US young Jewish children who now must grow up in this environment. Biden abets the antisemitism - not intentionally but by his own unthinking comments. He needs to call out the US protests for what they are.
Thank goodness for the daily transcript! That should keep some of the pundits and supposed news people from misreporting what happens there. The transcript will not reflect "sleepy" Donald Duck or when he cuts the cheese, nor will it show that he is not standing for the jury (a faux pas the two attorney-jurors may well pick up on and share with the others when deliberations begin). But he is certainly showing the very ordinary side of himself, the side that Melania no doubt sees, that fills those closest to him with contempt. JFK and Obama had award-winning photographers camera-ready 24/7 (almost) and every shot is a beloved moment of iconic praise, and this jury gets a fly-on-the-wall view of a base, lowly bully. I wish there was a video or photographic view of what transpires - although I do enjoy how much Donald supposedly hates the way he appears at the hands of the courtroom artists. Ha!
I applaud the new format and your effort to present a balanced picture. The current set of issues forces me to reflect that I do read news for entertainment more often than I would admit. So, hearing the important daily efforts made by Biden is good but sometimes like eating my vegetables and reading about the Trump trial (s) should be dessert.
Thanks, Robert, for this very detailed synopsis of today's events. I always look forward to reading your summaries and opinions.
I must admit, and perhaps it's petty of me, to a moment of glee and relief at this:
"Trump issued a plea before the trial, asking his supporters to “Rally behind MAGA” at the park across the street from the courthouse. Depending the source, it appears that less than a dozen supporters responded to Trump's call."
Perhaps his cultish followers are starting to come to their senses. One can hope.
What is President Biden doing today ?? He’ll be in Florida 😎 with a Pro-Reproductive Freedom/Pro-Amendment 4 message !
Speaking of billboards,the DNC has placed them in major cities in Fl. They’re in English and Spanish and read: ➡️“Abortion is banned in Florida thanks to Donald Trump. He won’t stop until it’s banned nationwide.”
"Reality is a pesky thing—facts cling to reality effortlessly while lies clink and thud as they miss their mark." I just love this sentence! That is all.
I had to seriously consider what I wanted to add to the conversation, that isn't snark nor unproductive.
First, these trials (and their delays) are so demonstrative of ("white") privilege.
Here's to finally "proving" "no one is above the law."
Second, the defense claims that "nothing he did was a crime"
- paying off people for silence, NDAs, "catch-and-kill" stories with tabloids, the sleaze of cheating on every one of his three wives
- which has a lot of people thinking, "then why did Michael Cohen go to jail?"
And why are hundreds who participated in the January 6, 2021 attack on the US Capitol convicted and in jail while the person benefitting is free and apparently not being held to account? In fact, is the presumptive presidential candidate for what once was a major political party, but has been taken over as a loyalist cult?
Prosecutors are helping juries "connect the dots."
So many people I know have basically stopped watching all news.
It is an effort to protect their mental health and well-being.
The media needs to do MUCH better.
WORDS MATTER.
It's not "the hush money case" - it's "the election interference conspiracy."
The defense spent quite a bit of their opening statements hammering why it is "President Donald Trump" (when millions of "us" are saying it should be "Defendant Trump" or "Mr. Trump" or "Former President Trump.") Considering he is intent on ENDING the Presidency (and installing himself as dictator), it doesn't seem to me he deserves to be addressed in such a manner.
As for the WHINING that he cannot get a "fair trial" in New York
(with attacks on the Judge, the staff, the witnesses, the jurors, the state legal system and of course, the current administration, let's throw the entire kitchen sink in our victim-hood claims),
it brings to mind the lyrics from the genius Lin-Manuel Miranda's HAMILTON Musical
"They don't like you."
(Reference in context, from Act 2 of HAMILTON:
Asterisks denote Burr's lyrics, lines without asterisks sung by Hamilton.
Burr?
Since when are you a Democratic-Republican?
* Since being one put me on the up and up again
No one knows who you are or what you do
*They don't need to know me
*They don't like you
Excuse me?
*Oh, Wall Street thinks you're great
*You'll always be adored by the things you create
*But upstate
Wait
*People think you're crooked
*Schuyler's seat was up for grabs so I took it
I've always considered you a friend
*I don't see why that has to end
You changed parties to run against my father-in-law
*I changed parties to seize the opportunity I saw
*I swear your pride will be the death of us all
*Beware, it goeth before the fall.)
Voters today live in a bubble. In Today’s Edition Robert mentioned several initiatives the Biden Administration started and inaugurated over the past few days and as well read as I am I was unaware of some of them and did not see the appropriate news coverage of the events. Additionally a large majority of voters have tuned out the Trump trial and are not following the day to day courtroom drama because they have Trump fatigue. The reality is most voters have already made up their minds about Trump and who and what he is and there are some voters who still are unsure about Biden but they are not leaning towards Trump. Biden needs to keep performing as Trump begins disintegrating and becomes more volatile and out of control. The trial will demonstrate for everyone how unstable and unqualified Trump is to be our next President.
Overall happy about your reporting - but since when is it antisemitic to protest the mass killing of the Palestinian people? Biden needs to show moral clarity on this topic or he will deserve to lose the youth vote. I know there is antisemitism out there but let’s not lump that together with legitimate protests against the Israeli government.
Thanks for the information about the action in Ohio. I am convinced that billboards can be an effective messaging tool. You can’t get away from billboards.
I would love to see billboards up with Trump’s statements about punishing women and how immigrants are poisoning the blood of this country. This could get info to the low information voter.
Every day President Biden does more for the future of the US than Donald Trump did in four years
Robert, this paragraph in Concluding Thoughts restores my hope in a fair outcome of the NY trial:
"The slow unfolding of the evidence is a positive aspect of trials. The mind is a causal inference engine. It attempts to impose patterns and explanations on facts that appear to be confusing and conflicting. That natural tendency favors discernment of the truth. Reality is a pesky thing—facts cling to reality effortlessly while lies clink and thud as they miss their mark."
The jurors see what we expect to be the whole, unvarnished, organized, and compelling story. We, on the other hand, see edited, curated, sound-bitten snippets designed to get our attention. Contributions to our fuller enlightenment, as you and Joyce Vance provide, give us a glimpse into the true reality, not the "reality TV" version. Now that it will soon be in their hands, I have confidence that the jury will decide based on the true reality.
Ohio is an interesting place. Well educated populace, sophisticated cities, great sports teams, and birthplace of 7 Presidents: Ulysses S. Grant (Point Pleasant), Rutherford Birchard Hayes (Delaware), James Abram Garfield (Orange Township - now Moreland Hills, Ohio), Benjamin Harrison (North Bend), William McKinley (Niles), William Howard Taft (Cincinnati), and Warren Gamaliel Harding (Corsica, now Blooming Grove). But recently, they've also managed to send Gym Jordan and JD Vance to Washington - two powerful people of questionable devotion to the truth.
What is going on with Florida case? Think I heard Cannon decided to make witness list public. Is this enough to get Smith to toss her?
Let me add to my earlier comment: The suffering of the Palestinians would be eased if Arab countries were to allow immigration. This is not a trivial point.
Like I keep saying: Biden, best president of my lifetime! And probably among the top 3-4. He's amazing!
As for Trump, I would note that he looks absolutely miserable in that courtroom. I took a few photos of photos of him that I wish I could post here. I think just this court case is liable to leave him a shell of his former self. If I were the GOP, I'd be looking for someone else to run in his stead. I'm glad I'm not--on general principle.
Let the blue tsunami sweep the country.
Allow me to dissent in part. Fox News is calling Biden’s comments about the people who don’t understand the Palestinians his “good people on both sides” moment. I usually detest Fox but it calls this one correctly. There are so many errors in what he says that I don’t know where to begin. First, the plight of the poor Palestinian would end if Hamas would return the hostages and surrender. The poor Palestinians elected Hamas and have only themselves to blame for their current plight. Second, people who try to distinguish between antisemitism and anti-Zionism are ignorant of the centrality of Israel to the soul of a Jew. To take but one point, when Israel was created (by the UN) Jews were expelled from, eg, Iraq and Yemen. They were told to go to Israel. They did, and joined refugees from Europe after the Holocaust who likewise had nowhere else to go. Same with Russian refuseniks. The history of the Jews is the history of a people always fleeing persecution and with no refuge, except Israel. Even after the UN created Israel the Arabs constantly declared war on Israel. Fortunately the Jews who settled in Israel were intent on rebuilding their lives and not complaining. And they did. So I am fed up with anguished cries about the poor Palestinians. It is antisemitism pure and simple. I fear for US young Jewish children who now must grow up in this environment. Biden abets the antisemitism - not intentionally but by his own unthinking comments. He needs to call out the US protests for what they are.
Thank goodness for the daily transcript! That should keep some of the pundits and supposed news people from misreporting what happens there. The transcript will not reflect "sleepy" Donald Duck or when he cuts the cheese, nor will it show that he is not standing for the jury (a faux pas the two attorney-jurors may well pick up on and share with the others when deliberations begin). But he is certainly showing the very ordinary side of himself, the side that Melania no doubt sees, that fills those closest to him with contempt. JFK and Obama had award-winning photographers camera-ready 24/7 (almost) and every shot is a beloved moment of iconic praise, and this jury gets a fly-on-the-wall view of a base, lowly bully. I wish there was a video or photographic view of what transpires - although I do enjoy how much Donald supposedly hates the way he appears at the hands of the courtroom artists. Ha!
I applaud the new format and your effort to present a balanced picture. The current set of issues forces me to reflect that I do read news for entertainment more often than I would admit. So, hearing the important daily efforts made by Biden is good but sometimes like eating my vegetables and reading about the Trump trial (s) should be dessert.