04/26/24

Good morning! It’s Friday, April 26th.

National Pretzel Day.

It’s also Arbor Day but everyone’s gonna be talking about the trees. Not as many people are going to be talking about pretzels, and they should be.

But only soft pretzels. Keep those crunchy ones away from me.

And now, the news.

Harvey Weinstein Charge Overturned

-via ABC News

Let’s start with the pretty shocking headline that Harvey Weinstein, former film producer and always worst type of human, has had his rape conviction overturned by a 4-3 ruling out of the New York Court of Appeals, blaming it on the judge’s allowance of testimony about other sexual assaults that weren’t about the three women the case was about.

In other words… Harvey Weinstein’s rape charges have been overturned because, in the case, we learned about other sexual assaults that he did.

Now, he will not be out on the streets, luckily, because he was also convicted of sex crimes in LA and is serving time for that as well. He will be transferred to a prison in LA while the DA works to retry the case.

Let me tell you something – in all the pictures and video of him arriving at court on Thursday, he looks really terrible. And I just think… he should still look worse.

USC Cancels Graduation Ceremony

-via AP News

As college protests continue around the country, Los Angeles’ USC announced that they are cancelling their main graduation over fears that the protests will disrupt the ceremony. Other schools are rewriting rules that ban encampments, like the ones being set up in protest, as well as cancelling in-person classes and moving final exams to different locations.

At Emerson, there are videos of police moving forcefully through crowds and pushing protestors to the ground.

In Texas, 57 protestors were arrested on Wednesday, making for what they say is a calmer Thursday.

I don’t really know what else to say here – we’ll see what Friday and the weekend bring.

Trump Crime Update Time

­-via NY Times (2016 election interference), CNN and NBC News (SCOTUS), and CBS News (Arizona)

And hey, how about some

Trump Crime Update Time

(Spin-Offs too, edition)

There are a few different Trump crimes to cover, so let’s go through it, starting in Arizona where, as I mentioned yesterday, indictments have been handed down for the 2016 fake electors scheme. A total of 18 indictments were handed down. Donald Trump is not one of them, but is unindicted coconspirator one. The fake electors were indicted, as were others that are currently redacted, likely because they haven’t been served yet, but are believed to be Mark Meadows, Rudy Guiliani, Mark Roman (the campaign's Director of Election Day Operations), and attorney Jenna Ellis.

Charges include fraud, forgery, and conspiracy.

Unofficial charges include making terrible life decisions when choosing who to hang out with. Imagine risking it all for Trump. Oof. Could never be me.

The indictments are the results of what the states AG says was a thorough 13-month investigation.

And from Arizona to New York and the 2016 election interference court case, where the National Enquirer’s David Pecker was still on the stand and, through the start of a cross-examination, painted quite the picture of the plot to suppress stories about Trump ahead of the 2016 election.

Other people he’s suppressed stories for were also brought up – including Tiger Woods, as well as Arnold Schwarzenegger and John F. Kennedy Jr.

It’s interesting to note, but not a part of this case, that the Schwarzenegger cover up happened during his California gubernatorial election. So he’s got some experience in suppressing information from voters, I guess.

The point of all the name dropping was to help jurors believe this is standard operating procedure.

First of all – not in a real new organization it doesn’t.

And also, more importantly, this isn’t a standard operating procedure. This was hiding information from voters ahead of the presidential election, so that you, the voter, would not have all the facts you needed to make an informed decision about who should be the leader of our country.

The cross-examination will continue today.

But of course, that was not the only court in session dealing with Trump’s crimes on Thursday.

The Supreme Court heard arguments about how, as president, Trump (and therefore every president ever) should have complete immunity.

After nearly three hours of oral arguments, the Justices appear to be split on whether complete immunity should exist (which again… is so wildly possible that I dare you to go back in time, find a Founding Father, and try to explain to them what’s going on. Once they get over the shock of regular showers, they’ll be absolutely furious because this is not even close to what they had in mind).

Even though this seems like the case most in need of expediency on the docket this year, Thursday ended without any real, true, indication of how they’ll rule.

While it doesn’t look like the Justices are going to accept the full immunity argument, it also doesn’t appear ready to give Coach Beard the keys to justice let him pursue all of his charges, because so much of the hearing was about whether there should be a distinction between official acts and private conduct.

There are two things here to keep an eye on… what will their ruling be, and when will they hand it down? Donald Trump wants everything to slow down. Because he did it. He created, and carried out, with the help of others, a multi-pronged coup to overthrow the government, an election, and the will of the people, to keep Donald Trump in office. He doesn’t want a court case, because he knows he did it.

There is precedent for ruling quickly, but don’t expect it to happen here.

Some believe that the court will toss it back down to the lower court that ruled, 9-0, that no obviously having anyone, let alone a president, have complete immunity would be absolutely bonkers so no way. If they toss it back down to the lower court, telling them to think new thoughts, that would push this case back for months.

I think something we all need to start wrapping our heads around is that this case, the Jack Smith-led federal election stealing crimes case heard by Judge Chutkan, will not happen ahead of the election.

We are the only ones who can save ourselves.

VOTE.

And that’s it. That’s the news.

I’m proud of voters. It’s just… it’s just so important.

Also pretzels. Warm pretzels!

But more than a warm pretzel, because you are also a delight when leaving Disneyland… I’m proud of you.