Time Going Forward.

 

The hush money case became more different. There were once five seated jurors in Donald Trump’s hush money criminal trial. Two jurors were excused recently. Ultimately 12 New Yorkers and possibly six alternates needed to be selected. There was a panel of 18 potential jurors who were questioned by prosecutors and Trump’s attorneys. Attorneys on both sides want any potential juror dismissed if the person is seen as biased. Judge Juan Merchant said that another batch of 96 jurors would be brought in to be sworn in. One dismissed juror said that former President Donald Trump was scowling at the jury. Now, there were 12 jurors sworn in. The jury is now made up of seven men and five women. The alternate juror is a woman who was also chosen on Thursday. Judge Juan Merchan said that court will resume on Friday morning. Jury selection is expected to continue until about six alternates are seated. Trump said that the court was uncomfortably cold. Trump is charged with 34 felony counts of falsifying business records for his alleged role in a hush-money scheme before the 2016 election. Trump has pleaded not guilty. Alternate jurors will listen to the entire trial but won't participate in deliberations.

The Supreme Court Code of Conduct says that recusal exists to stop the appearance of impropriety. That is why Justice Clarence Thomas must recuse himself from Trump's presidential immunity case next week. The reason is that his wife Ginni Thomas had an explicit role in trying to overthrow the legal 2020 election. President Biden wants a rule that would sharply limit credit card late fees, saving American families more than 10 billion dollars a year. Many people need credit cards. The House Republicans voted to block the rule on Wednesday. The Republican party doing this shows that they promote corporate interests instead of true economic justice.

There is a new witch hunt in American society found in college campuses nationwide. This witch hunt is trying to suppress pro-Palestinian voices. Like always, I believe in true free speech. That means that pro-Palestinian and pro-Israeli voices have the free speech to be expressed on college campuses in America without censorship. Yet, New York City universities stepped up their purging of pro-Palestinian faculty which is cruel and against the exercise of free thought. The appointment of Dr. Abdul Kayum Ahmed, an assistant professor teaching human rights at Columbia would not be renewed. This comes as the John Jay College, part of the City University of New York (CUNY) system, administrators sent notice to Professor Danny Shaw he would be denied reappointments in the summer and in the fall. The expulsion of students at Columbia, the disaffiliation of student clubs, and the banning of protests nationwide represents total fascism not free thought being promoted. Hamas's evil murder and rape of Jewish people in Israel indeed has no justification. Also, indeed, Israeli's forces overt war crimes and mass murder of Palestinian people, the destruction of Gaza infrastructure, denying much of the humanitarian aid in Gaza, displacing more than 2 million human beings, etc. have no justification either. The criminalization of protests is not right. It's evil.  Opposing anti-Semitism is a necessity, but supporting human rights of Palestinians is not anti-Semitism. Now, the University of Michigan desires to have a new policy suppressing campus protests too under threat of expulsion and arrest. It is no secret that the FBI and the NYPD are working together to monitor dissent. We know that German police officers raided a pro-Palestinian conference, shutting down the event, and arrested the organizers.

The Senate ends both articles of impeachment against Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas. The Democratic-controlled Senate on Wednesday made that reality happen. The trial of the cabinet secretary barely got underway. House Republicans had voted to impeach Mayorkas in February of 2024 over their views on the handling of the southern border by a narrow margin. Mayorkas was the first cabinet secretary to be impeached in almost 150 years. House Speaker Mike Johnson is facing growing threats by MAGA Republicans, because he plans to put a series of foreign aid bills on the floor, including funding for Ukraine. Many Republicans don't agree with any foreign aid, even humanitarian foreign aid to help starving people in the world. Many of them care more for a retrograde ideology than helping their neighbors themselves in the real world. The GOP is so extreme that Mike Johnson is not good enough for them. The Department of Homeland Security and the White House praise the end of the Mayorkas impeachment controversy.

We can't be naive in the real world. Chris Wary said that there are new threats to public gatherings in America. Back in April 1995, there was the bombing of the Federal Government building in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. I was in the 6th grade when it took place. I remember that time just like yesterday. Timothy McVeigh was part of the far-right movement that exists today. The MAGA movement is filled with far-right extremists, white nationalists, anti-Semites, and anti-government extremists. There is nothing wrong with disagreeing with oppressive government, but true government is not evil if it is used to promote the general welfare of the people. Now, you have nihilists who want to abolish all of the government and use terrorism against innocent human life. That is wrong. The Oklahoma City bombing (which came after the Waco situation in 1993) was filled with chaos and other forms of evil. This hate-filled movement grew to be part of the January 6th terrorist insurrection.

By Timothy