04/19/24
Good morning! It’s Friday, April 19th.
National Garlic Day.
Ooh sorry vampires! Hey, did you know garlic has been used for trade since 3000 BC? I remember it well…
And now, the news.
Pro-Palestine Protesters Arrested
-via CNN
More than 100 people were arrested in New York on Thursday after police broke up a pro-Palestine protest at Columbia University.
They were arrested for trespassing and detained without resistance, with students warning that more protests would follow.
On the other end of the spectrum, University leaders vowed that they would crack down on unauthorized student protests.
Which begs the question… what protests are authorized? Isn’t the very nature of a protest for it to be unauthorized and force a change in someone’s day-to-day, so that a bigger, more necessary change, could happen?
UN Fails to Pass Palestinian Bid
-via NPR
Meanwhile, over in the UN, the U.N. Security Council failed to pass the Palestinian Authority's bid to join the UN as a full member, thanks to a no vote from the United States.
Palestinians have participated in UN sessions as a nonmember observer, which means they’re not technically a member but are able to participate in other international groups, like the International Court of Justice, but unable to vote on resolutions.
The United States has long maintained that Palestinian statehood should come after a peace negotiation between Israel and Palestinians, so this vote is a continuation of that stance.
Iran Hit with Sanctions
The United States and Britain announced new sanctions against Iran on Thursday, aimed at disrupting their ability to produce the aerial vehicles used in their attack on Israel, as well as blocking steel exports that bring in billions of dollars in revenue.
And in the meantime, the world is just… waiting to hear how Israel will retaliate against Iran for last weekend’s attack.
I would suggest, you know, not retaliating. But no one’s asking me, unfortunately.
Maine Passes Gun Control
-via NPR
Following last October’s deadly shooting spree in Maine, the state legislature passed a series of new gun laws including background checks on private gun sales, waiting periods for gun purchases and criminalizing gun sales to prohibited people.
So wild. So what’s happened here is that there was a horrific act of violence, and then the state took action to try and prevent it from happening again.
Really something to see.
Trump Trial
-via Washington Post
But of course, the big story on Thursday was, after two jurors in the Trump election information interference crimes case were dismissed when questions of impartiality and truth arose following their being sworn in, Thursday ended with twelve whole jurors being selected and sworn in.
That’s right, we’ve got ourselves a jury!
We just need five more alternate jurors to be found – one alternative was found in addition to the full jury.
Judge Merchan expects the full jury to be found and sworn in today, meaning this show could get on the road as early as Monday.
To prepare for that possibility, Team Trump asked who the first three witnesses would be. Judge Merchan refused to give up that information, because, even though Team Trump promised that Trump wouldn’t tweet about the witnesses, the Judge said “I don’t think you can make that representation.”
To which Team Trump said – ah! Ya got me!
So the jurors are selected and sworn in, beyond those five additional alternates that will hopefully be found today, and I want to talk about something. One of those two jurors who was excused today said that they didn’t feel like they could be impartial because their friends and family had figured out that they were likely on the case. Because of that, the Judge ordered the press not to report on physical descriptions or where they currently work.
Which means it absolutely makes sense that CNN has incredibly detailed descriptions up on their site about where they work, where they’re from, their marital status, and whether they have kids.
Great job CNN!
I can’t really give you an example because I don’t want to do what they did, but I’m not kidding, if I were on the jury, CNN would be like “juror number three is lives in Los Angeles, is not married, works in television production and runs a nonprofit for voter education. Her hobbies include staring at her cat for hours at a time.”
Yeah, hobbies are also noted.
So uh… all of that to say, that I’m not going to be doing that here.
Also of note – Prosecutors say Trump violated his gag order another seven times, so… at some point someone should probably do something about that.
And that’s it. That’s the news.
I’m proud of garlic! It’s so good! Can I give you a tip? Anytime a recipe calls for garlic – put more in than it calls for. I know, mind-blowing.
But more than that… because you’re also a revolution…
I’m proud of you.