An Incredible Historic Trial; Nobody’s Ever Seen a Trial Like This…
It’s Friday, time to catch up with the first criminal trial in US history of a former president. This, my friends, is history being made. Let’s take a look at the big picture. I’ll leave the nuts and bolts to the prosecution, defense, judge, and, most importantly, the jury.
The idea of criminal charges for actions taken by the chief executive, is precedent setting. As many times as people called for prosecuting former president George W. Bush for war crimes, nobody (should have) thought it could happen.
We have a history of letting our leaders escape the consequences of their actions, at least partially motivated by an understanding that the institution of the presidency would be damaged by legal reckoning. People understood that putting leaders on trial was something the bad guys did.
In recent times, the truths of a presidency have largely been revealed through the published efforts of insiders or people who think they have insight.
Until Trump.
Our former 45th president is being charged for violating the laws of the State of New York in his quest to win an election. Forget the media shorthand about “hush money;” this trial is about how and why he and assorted minions committed fraud for the purpose of influencing an election.
The spectacle of it all, Trump’s mutterings in and out of the courtroom, a judge trying to prevent damage to an institution, a subservient press amplifying every nuance, and political allies taking actions to taint the jury, has captivated public interest.
Donald Trump’s best chance at salvation –which for him is staying up in the polls– is for a hung jury. I’m not saying that he can’t be found innocent; trials are complex and humans are not always predictable.
The impact of having to stay in the courtroom day after day is about the surest path for understanding how the trial will affect Trump. His tutelage under attorney Roy Cohn taught him to never admit defeat, so a change of heart is out of the question. To date, nobody or thing has challenged Trump in a way holding him accountable in a way that matters to the guy staring back at him in the mirror after a makeup professional is done with him.
Niece Mary Trump, who trained as a psychologist and is now earning a living writing at Substack, penned a column with insights from her unique perspective about what’s happening underneath the orange facade.
We’re going to be seeing Donald Trump in a unique context for which he is totally unprepared. At a rally or at a press conference, he controls the room. He is determining the narrative, and any gaps or ramblings can be put down to the fact that he’s riffing or being extemporaneous or doing improv.
In the courtroom, however, Donald can’t speak out of turn — he will be subject to the judge’s rules. And a lot of people are going to see certain traits, like his thuggishness, his temper, his sense of grievance, that may play well to some in certain settings, but that in this setting will come across very differently. He will be seen to be rude, weak, and incapable of controlling himself when bound by the same rules to which the rest of us must conform.
There’s a reason he tried to get this case delayed until the 11th hour. Even after one day, it was clear Donald wasn’t faring well. He’s experiencing serious psychological trauma. The narcissistic wound that he’s suffering right now is basically short-circuiting him.
The former president’s life prior to this trial has been insulated from reality and the feelings of his victims. Trump surrounds himself with sycophants, is the star at rallies attended by thousands, and gets treated like royalty at his Mar a Lago palace. Now, in the grand scheme of things, the man is utterly alone.
Already, via jury selection, he’s heard a procession of personally expressed disparaging commentary. Via Politico:
During jury selection, Trump has heard himself described by those under consideration as racist and sexist and a narcissist. He’s been presented with social media posts calling for officials to “lock him up.” He’s been told, to his face, that he’s “very selfish and self-serving.”
And through it all, Trump has been required to remain seated, not gesturing, not talking and not using his phone. He has not even been allowed to adjust the temperature a few degrees in a courtroom he described as “freezing.”
To top it off, some of those people — including the one who called him selfish and said she outright dislikes him — are now members of the jury of 12 Manhattanites who will decide whether to convict him of 34 felony counts of falsifying business records to conceal a sex scandal.
The personal trauma for the man will continue in abbreviated form next week, as prior commitments have limited trial time to two half days, and a hearing on Wednesday to review prosecution charges about violations of the judge’s gag order.
It’s almost as if much of the media are acting as surrogates for Team Trump. Outlets including NBC News, CNN, CBS News, and ABC News publicized identifying information along with details about the now-excused juror number two.
Given the number of threats made against perceived antagonists to Donald Trump on other matters, it’s no wonder that Judge Merchan felt the need to caution reporters about revealing juror information.
Over at Fox News, Jesse Watters cheerfully shared the information, adding without evidence that "liberal activists" are lying to get on the jury. If you haven’t observed this phenomena by now, know that these sorts of allegations coming from Team Trump are actually confessions of what they’re hoping for. Now deleted social media posts did appear encouraging the MAGA crowd to try and infiltrate the jury.
Chances of Donald Trump going behind bars either for contempt or jury conclusion are slim and none, starting with endless appeals and ending with near-impossible logistical details.
What’s on trial here is the reputation of a man currently seeking a return to the presidency. His cult-like followers will remain loyal, it’s the “meh” voters we need to keep an eye on.
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Friday’s Other Stories of Note
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After Ten-Year Battle, a Younger Generation Leads the Way at Volkswagen by Mike Elk at Payday Report
“I just hope it goes through,” says 25-year-old Manny Perez. “And I’m not well informed about it. I just know. Being able to have a voice of your own is more important than just letting other people decide for you.”
Over the last decade, there has been a sea change among workers at Volkswagen’s Chattanooga plant, in large part due to this newer, younger workforce. It could lead to a historic victory in the union election, which concludes today, and the signature victory for organized labor in the South that has eluded them for years. Votes will be tallied this evening.
“A lot of the people who’ve been staunchly anti-union are from an older generation,” says 32-year-old Caleb Michalski, a safety lead, who has worked on various assembly teams at the Volkswagen plant. “A lot of the younger generation, through a combination of social media and education and stuff like that, they realize, like, hey, it doesn’t make sense.”
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An Open Letter to San Diego from the Baristas of Better Buzz Hillcrest via The Jumping Off Place
We are advocating not only for our fellow baristas, but for all employees of the food and service industry. We are more than cogs in a wheel. We are the fuel that keeps these corporations going, and without us, they are nothing. If our hours get cut their pockets stay lined. If they hire ineffective management and refuse to fix broken machinery then we leave, hoping the next job pays us 50 cents more per hour. It won’t, but we hope nonetheless. And when we get to the register, apron tied and smile painted, we ask the customer if they want to add a chocolate croissant to their order.
If we stay silent, then we let those in power continue the cycle that has profited from the working class for hundreds of years. That era is over. The time to organize is now.
To the San Diego community, be still and await our call for help. We are only in the preliminary stages of this fight, but if Better Buzz deploys union busting efforts then we will need your support in any way you can offer.
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‘Water is more valuable than oil’: the corporation cashing in on America’s drought via The Guardian
Nearly a decade ago, Greenstone Resource Partners LLC, a private company backed by global investors, bought almost 500 acres of agricultural land here in Cibola. In a first-of-its-kind deal, the company recently sold the water rights tied to the land to the town of Queen Creek, a suburb of Phoenix, for a $14m gross profit. More than 2,000 acre-feet of water from the Colorado River that was once used to irrigate farmland is now flowing, through a canal system, to the taps of homes more than 200 miles away.
A Guardian investigation into the unprecedented water transfer, and how it took shape, reveals that Greenstone strategically purchased land and influence to advance the deal. The company was able to do so by exploiting the arcane water policies governing the Colorado River.
Experts expect that such transfers will become more common as thirsty towns across the west seek increasingly scarce water. The climate crisis and chronic overuse have sapped the Colorado River watershed, leaving cities and farmers alike to contend with shortages. Amid a deepening drought and declines in the river’s reservoirs, Greenstone and firms like it have been discreetly acquiring thousands of acres of farmland.
