Glenn Kirschner – While Trump gets prosecuted in NY, the classified documents/MAL/obstruction of just case heats up!
The Lincoln Project – Indictment Requiem
Thom Hartmann – New GOP Motto Reveals Their Real Agenda
Liberal Redneck – Trump Indictment (For Real Though)
18-Pound Cat Decides To Be Dad To Teeny Kitten
Beau – Let’s talk about Disney vs Florida….
Yesterday, I received a small grocery order with nothing missing, no substitutions, and everything put into the correct cart (which I label based on how I’ll need to store tham.) That’s just about unheard of. I do have to say there were a few things I would have ordered, and will eventually need, but didn’t because they were marked out of stock or pickup only. That was a bit frustrating, but not nearly as frustrating as ordering and having them not come.
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The 19th – What a landmark sweatshop case tells us about Julie Su’s approach to labor
Quote – [J]ustice and remedy for what Jaknang endured would come years later. That happened with the help of a young lawyer who took the lead of a landmark case against the clothing companies that benefited from the workers’ labor. She secured millions in back wages, advocated for a visa that allowed Jaknang and others to remain in the United States and helped her find a fair job. That lawyer, Julie Su, was nominated last month to head the U.S. Labor Department, tasked with enforcing laws involving workers, workplaces and labor unions. Jaknang, 64, described Su as a “kind and hard-working woman” who empowered her to fight for justice at a vulnerable time. This early episode in Su’s career, supporters say, illustrates something important about Su: that the daughter of Chinese immigrants has cultivated a passion for advocating for the nation’s most vulnerable workers, including those who are low-wage, who are immigrants and whose English is limited.
Click through – It matters because Biden has nominated her for Secretary of Labor. Adnd there are people claiming she is hostile to small businesses. Nonsense. She’s hostile to egregious scofflaws. It’s not her fault so many of them own “small” businesses. Someone should do a study on the incidemce of Libertarians among small business owners. I suspect it would raise eyebrows.
Democratic Underground (mia) – TBA*
Click through for a comprehensive (although I do not claim complete) list of school shootings at all educational levels in chronologucal order. My first reaction was, “Someone should set that to music, as Tom Lehrer did with thechemical elements.” But then I thought, no, even that had to be updated eventually, and this… where would one stop?
Food For Thought
Glenn Kirschner – Trump’s attorney Tacopina spouts nonsense on TV; why Trump’s statute of limitations claim will fail
MSNBC – New Fox emails: CEO says Trump fact-checks are ‘bad for business’
Farron Balanced – Jim Jordan’s Report On ‘Weaponization’ Of Government Blows Up In His Face
Mark Russell died last week, aged 93. I surely remember him – there don’t seem to be any short clips from his prime, but he made this when h was 80.
Dog Dumped At The Shelter Discovers The Great Outdoors
Beau – Let’s talk about Nebraska, allies, and holding the line….
Yesterday, looking at the coverage, I decided thatright now we know as much about Trump**’s legal issues as we are going to know until he is arraigned, when the indictment will be unsealed. So instead of speculating, I’m going to feature other news today, and probably tomorrow, since I work ahead. So hopefully I won’t mention him again until Wednesday (with the possible exception of in the Video Thread.) So take a deep breath and go into a holding pattern for a while, and I’ll do the same. There is plenty of other news. If you must speculate, or just really want to, I recommend Joyce Vance’s “The Week Ahead” on her Substack. She is knowledgeable and cool-headed, and covers a number of “if”s which are likely to upset some people no matter how they are decided
Cartoon – 03 Cell RTL
(It weighed 2.5# – just over a kilo – and was nicknamed “the brick.” But it worked.)
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SPLC – TRASHING THEIR RIGHTS: ALABAMA TOWN USES ‘DEBTORS’ PRISON’ FOR PEOPLE WHO FALL BEHIND ON GARBAGE BILLS
Quote – Even though the concept of “debtors’ prison” has been declared unconstitutional, the town of Valley was dragged into the spotlight for its practice of arresting people who could not pay their bills. In November, 82-year-old Martha Menefield was arrested for owing $77 for trash pickup. Her story went viral online, and national media outlets carried it through several news cycles because of how preposterous the situation sounded. But Menefield’s case was not unusual. The city of Valley has been arresting its citizens for years over past-due trash bills, adding hundreds if not thousands of dollars to the owed amount in fines and court costs by the poorest of its residents.
Click through for story. Sorry about the shouting headline, though I can’t very well maintain shouting is not appropriate.
DU (LiberalArkie) – Google Co-Founder, Other Billionaires Are Issued Subpoenas in Lawsuit Over JPMorgan’s Ties to Jeffrey Epstein
Quote – The U.S. Virgin Islands issued subpoenas this week to Sergey Brin, Thomas Pritzker, Mortimer Zuckerman and Michael Ovitz to gather information for its civil lawsuit against JPMorgan Chase & Co. over the bank’s relationship with Jeffrey Epstein, according to people familiar with the matter.
Click through for a bit more. The source of the story is the WSJ, but it is paywalled. My respect for the USVI continues to increase. Stacey Plaskett is the House delegate from there. She’s not entitled to a vote on the floor, but she’s so competent she was an impeachment manager over Trump**, and she’s a ranking member on at least one Committee. Statehood for PR, DC, and USVI!
Food For Thought
Glenn Kirschner – Trump set to be arraigned on his criminal indictment on Tuesday. Then, it’s on to “The Trump Trials”
MSNBC – New Fox emails: CEO says Trump fact-checks are ‘bad for business’
Ring of Fire – Trump’s Entire Life Just Got Turned Upside Down
Rocky Mountain Mike – I’m So Indicted
Cat Hides From Her Foster Mom For A Year — Then She Does This
Beau – Let’s talk about the GOP, Obamacare, and Wyoming….
Yesterday, the radio opera was Verdi’s “Falstaff,” based on Shakespeare’s “The Merry Wives of Windsor. Back in the day when the filmed matinees were replayed on PBS, I remember there were a couple of very odd (to put it nicely) schedulings – like for instance “Medea” being replayed on Mothers’ Day (and there were others.) And then, of course, , hthey were being played after the fact, so that those scheduling them could have looked at the calendar and noted that “Medea,” for instance, was not the best choice for Mothers’ Day. That’s the one I remember, but I also remember that similar contretemps occurred several times. They seem to do better when the related real life occurrences are spontaneous – such as “Falstaff” being on radio (and also HD broadcast into theaters) in a week when a real life misogynistic conman has just been indicted after way too long a hiatus (of course, they were thinking of April Fools’ Day). There are differences – Falstaff gets his comeuppance from the very ladies he planned to seduce and swindle, and (ar least apparently) learns from the experience. I don’t anticipate any learning from experience to be happening in a Manhattan courtroom any time soon. The prodution is apparently the second one within about ten years – the previous one was very 1950’s, including a midcentury modern kitchen (through the window of which Falstaff got dumped into the Thames in a laundry basket.) This production doesn’t look consistently like any particular time and place, but it does appear to have a lot of color – reds, blues, and for one of Falstaff’s costimes an almost flueorescent orange. Also a lot of standing on tables. But then with such an absurd play it’s not out of line for the production to be a bit absurdist. (The play was supposed to have been inspired by Queen ELizabeth I telling Shakespeare she wanted to see “Sir John in love.” If so, evidently the best he could do was Sir John in heat, and certainly not forgetting about money. Falstaff may have been a knight, but he was not a noble character.) But it’s all in good fun, and the singers always seem to have at least as much fun as the audience – maybe more.
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Crooks & Liars – DeSantis Gets Caught In The Disney Mousetrap
Quote – The previous board, Disney controlled Reedy Creek Improvement District, approved the last minute agreement on Feb. 8, the very day before the Florida House voted to put the governor in charge. They knew what was coming and had a plan. The Board had a public meeting, but didn’t get into great detail about the document before unanimously voting to approve it…. One of the funniest parts of the declaration is the following rule: The declaration is valid until “21 years after the death of the last survivor of the descendants of King Charles III, king of England.”
Click through for details. DeSantis thought he was so smart appointing his own board to control Disnet territory. Dunning-Kruger prevented him from realizing that Disney has real lawyers – and real mockery.
The First Amendment Encyclopedia – Actual Malice
Quote – Actual malice is the legal standard established by the Supreme Court for libel cases to determine when public officials or public figures may recover damages in lawsuits against the news media…. Beginning with the unanimous decision in New York Times Co. v. Sullivan (1964), the Supreme Court has held that public officials cannot recover damages for libel without proving that a statement was made with actual malice — defined as “with knowledge that it was false or with reckless disregard of whether it was false or not.”
Click through for article. When we non lawyers hear the word “malice,” we think of feelings – a hatred of someone or something, and a desire to harm that target. But that’s not what it means in law. Dominion has received summary judgment against Fox for everything except Actual Malice (and therefore damages.) Given the texts and emails, I believe that too could be proven without a trial. The judge is probably thinking that those texts, emails, and other evidence need to bemore widely publicized.
Bonus: In the Public Interest – The Privatization of Everything: Now in Paperback
Just to announce that this book, subtitled “How the Plunder of Public Goods Transformed America and How We Can Fight Back,” has been reissued, now in paperback, which makes it both easier to handle and less expensive. So many people have fallen for the myth that “Government should be run like a business” -which may be applicable to authoritarian governments, but certainly not to a democracy – and if you are seeking talking points to push back, this would be a great source.
Food For Thought
Glenn Kirschner – Donald Trump INDICTED! What will happened when he’s booked by the police & arraigned by the judge?
MSNBC – Maddow: Prepare for New York D.A.’s Trump case to be… boring.
Ojeda Live – No More Thoughts and Prayers
Mrs. Betty Bowers – Trump Indicted!
Tiny, Scared Puppy Falls In Love With A 120-Pound Great Dane
Beau – Let’s talk about making the right move….
Yesterday, reading Heather Cox Richardson’s Letter from an American for Thursday, I stumbled on a piece of information which I suspect has mostly gotten lost in the brou-ha-ha over The Indictment. And that is that Turkey has dropped it’s objections to Finland joining NATO – and that this was all that was needed for Finland to become a NATO member. That is great news for Finland, but also for all democracies, since it also strengthens NATO, both in reality and symbolically.
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Daily Kos (Dartagnan) – Oh no! CNN says we’re in ‘uncharted waters!’
Quote – We had a president who embraced white supremacy and intentionally inspired terrorist attacks against Americans. Those are “uncharted waters.” We had a president who was defeated soundly in 2020, then proceeded to lie about the results, corroding our democracy, probably irreparably. Those are “uncharted waters.”… So please, don’t even talk to me about “uncharted waters.” That ship sailed a long, long time ago.
Click through for aall the points. This should go viral.
Civil Discourse – Indicted
Quote – Expect a circus in the courthouse on Tuesday when Trump arrives for arraignment. He is a different kind of defendant, so there will be some differences in how he’s treated—for one thing, he’ll be accompanied by at least one Secret Service agent as he goes through the booking process and there will be a focus on safety so don’t expect a traditional “perp walk”. But essentially, Trump will find himself in the same position as any other defendant, submitting to the booking process, being fingerprinted, photographed and arraigned in open court. He will also face a judge. There has been some suggestion it will be Judge Juan Manuel Merchan, who was in charge of the Manhattan DA’s prosecution of the Trump Organization, and who ran a tight ship.
Click through for details. There is a lot of speculation on what the arraignment will look like, and I wanted to capture the speculation of a former federal prosecutor in her own words. It’s still speculation, but it experience-based.
Food For Thought
