{pain} generally okay, but living without allergy medicine & one of my asthma meds is a special kind of torture. I’m wheezy with a strong chance of snot. (I’m definitely in a Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs kind of mood). I have had a head ache for days, I’m coughing up nastiness, & each time Lady Diana comes near my face I feel my lungs. This process sucks.
published in the New Yorker 9.April.18
Today is the first day of the first criminal trial of a sitting or former U.S. president. We never thought we would get to this point, the time it has taken to get here seems to have passed as molasses through the hour glass. Here is a quick rundown of the case from a criminal defense attorney I appreciate, CLRBruceRivers (a 38m watch).
This process is going to take longer than we’d like. The anatomy of a trial is this:
• Jury Selection. They’re calling 500 New York citizens for jury selection in their attempt to find 18 people (12 jurors with 6 alternates) who say they can be objective.
• NY State opening statement.
• Defense can either offer an opening statement or reserve the right to do so after the prosecution rests their case.
• Prosecution lays out their case through the calling of witnesses & evidence.
• Defense cross examines
• State rests; usually the defense will make a motion for acquittal.
• Defense presents their case, witnesses, evidence.
• State cross-examines.
• Defense rests; state can present rebuttal witnesses.
• State closing arguments.
• Defense closing arguments.
• State has the option of a short rebuttal.
published in the New Yorker 26.May.08
Trump is charged with 34 counts of falsifying business records to cover up other crimes. Those crimes included paying off two women to keep them silent as well as payments to news agencies to kill the stories and disguising the payments as legal fees. Michael Cohen went to jail for these crimes. There are also tax issues, campaign finance issues, and other federal charges involved.
The most serious infraction, really, is how he’s treated the judicial system, and people within it, specific people – like the judge’s daughter.
Bruce Rivers, Criminal Lawyer
Not certain if I will continue to cover this so closely. If you’d like to see how both sides are covering the trial, you should go to ground.news – which is the absolute best place to get your news. It gives you the bare facts of the story, then access to many news outlets across the political spectrum – left to right, so you can see how everyone is covering the story.
Today will be full of more laundry & cleaning for me; I took a break yesterday, living with chronic pain means stretching out every day tasks. I’m moving much more slowly as a result of the snot clouding my brain, which is making typing this much more difficult than it should be. Ugh. On that note, I’m going to wish you a quick Monday.
🗣️Talk Soon,
Cecelia ✌🏻🌊💙
sustain.able.future 