by Jeff Childers
The New York Times ran a story late yesterday afternoon headlined, “Full Jury Is Chosen in Trump Criminal Trial.” Inside the Manhattan courthouse, eighteen jurors were selected — twelve seated jurors and six alternates. Opening statements should begin first thing Monday morning. The Times included a helpful infographic summarizing the eighteen juror’s survey responses to the question of where they get their news:
Make of that what you will.
Meanwhile, just outside the courthouse, Max Azzarello, 37, a mentally-ill, former Bernie Sanders supporter (but I repeat myself), a former staffer for two democrat Congressmen, and a Florida man, died dramatically when he lit himself on fire in a sensational and terminal political protest. Max’s reasons remain enigmatic. His motives appear related to some kind of ‘uni-party’ conspiracy theory involving cryptocurrency and the covid pandemic that nobody seems able to fully explain, despite the angry young man’s manifesto and TikTok rantings immediately circulating widely on social media.
Max briefly survived his self-immolation. He was rushed to the hospital as soon as the flames died down. But unfortunately, the disturbed young man died a few hours later, succumbing to his self-inflicted injuries. However dreadful one imagines the global conspiracy to be, setting oneself on fire is unlikely to hurt the conspirators as much as the protestor, unless I am missing something. But it is likely to result in an impressive degree of discomfort, not to mention pretty poor prospects of seeing the protest project all the way through to the end.
Not recommended.
In other trial news, I found Maggie Haberman’s comment from the New York Times’ live stream to be professionally fascinating. Trump’s lawyers are creating a very detailed record of all Judge Merchan’s decisions, even small ones:
But legally speaking, Judge Merchan is wrong. There isn’t really any point where Trump must “accept his rulings.” The defense’s ability to draft motions for reconsideration is limited only by available time and available lawyers.
When a case is particularly important, and when the defendant is very well-funded, there will usually be two teams of lawyers in the courtroom at all times. The team we see is the litigation team. But the other team, a team of lawyers not seated at counsel table, is a team of appellate lawyers. Their job is to watch the case like hawks, and advise the litigation team in real time about how to help trap the judge into a legally fatal mistake, and about how to preserve any such errors for the appeal when they do happen.
The tobacco companies perfected this technique during the cigarette trials.
The reason a defendant might file motions challenging every little decision the judge makes would be to get the judge to talk more. Whenever a judge is officially talking, he might make an error. So the more a defendant can get the judge to talk and rule on things, the greater the chance he’ll make some kind of useful mistake.
Plus, all human beings are susceptible to a syndrome called “decision fatigue.” You’ve surely experienced it. The simple process of making repetitive decisions is mentally draining. Having to make many decisions in a row — like when you’re building a house, planning a wedding, or plotting a Ukrainian coup — can be taxing and exhausting.
Judges must make decisions all day long, every day. Often the decisions are important, hard, and contentious, and there are consequences for getting it wrong, because there’s an appellate court potentially peeking over the judge’s shoulder. By forcing the judge to reconsider every little decision, Trump’s lawyers are effectively doubling the normal decision fatigue the judge is experiencing. Being forced to make every decision twice doubles the odds he’ll make a mistake.
In light of these dynamics, I found Maggie’s next comment from the Times’ live stream to be a sign the judge may be starting to wear out a little:
Judge Merchan has a weekend to recover. But if this week was crazy, next week will be crazy times infinity.
Fight fire with fire, shit with shit.
What has an honest man to fear? The judge surely has nothing to fear, does he?
Kick out the Judge Bragg Soros the Jury and the DNC/UN/Globalists
The New York Slimes have been covering up for the enemy for far too long