It’s another multiple-featured-post week, as attempts at short notes repeatedly got out of hand. Fortunately, all three featured posts will be relatively short.
The subjects are obvious: the student protests, Trump’s Manhattan trial, and the depressing Supreme Court discussion of Trump’s immunity claim.
The main thing I learned from the Manhattan trial so far is captured in the post’s title: “The Manhattan case against Trump is stronger than I expected”. In particular, two aspects of the case I expected to be problems are looking pretty solid: The jury isn’t going to be asked to trust Michael Cohen’s word for much of anything, and connecting Trump’s fraudulent business documents to another crime shouldn’t be that hard. That post should be out shortly.
Next, the student protests. I realized I had to write about this because the mainstream coverage has been all over the map. Is it true (as Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu claims) that “antisemitic mobs have taken over the leading universities”, or are the pro-Palestinian encampments made up of peaceful students who just want the killing to stop? That post should appear by 10 EDT.
Finally, Thursday’s arguments before the Supreme Court were deeply disillusioning to the liberal legal experts on cable news networks. Most of them are institutionalists, and had been strongly committed to the idea that the Court’s recent behavior has been due to a difference in philosophies, rather than partisanship and corruption. That view was really hard to square with what we heard Thursday, particularly from Justice Alito. A lot of crow has been eaten on CNN and MSNBC these last few days, as people who have devoted their lives to the US justice system have had to admit that, no, the Supreme Court really is a bunch of partisan hacks. I’ll try to get that out by 11.
After diverting all those stories to separate posts, the weekly summary should be short. There are new 2020-election indictments in Arizona. Harvey Weinstein’s rape conviction was overturned, but he won’t be going free anytime soon. There’s that bizarre story about Governor Noem and the dog. A few tidbits related to the Trump trials didn’t fit into the featured posts. And I’ll find a few other things. Hopefully that appears by noon.
The Weekly Sift 