Beekeepers, Bourdieu, Biden, and Bragg: The Week in Politics
The political week in review, featuring stories on the approaching Trump trial, the 2024 presidential campaign, and the California and Ohio primaries.
Last week, lawyers for Boeing executive Richard Barnett released the (redacted) text of his complaint, making Boeing's Charleston plant look like a hellhole.
"After watching his son create buzzing colonies of honeybees on Staten Island, [Jonathan] Landes was hooked. Upon his return to Melbourne a few weeks later, Landes gathered up four of his lifelong friends and founded a small urban beekeeping company called Chevra Honey, named for the Hebrew and Yiddish word for a society or close-knit group…. The idea was simple: In a city like Melbourne, where most people tend to live in houses with ample space and backyards, the chevra would help to set up beehives to encourage urban beekeeping.
Today, a decade on, Chevra Honey manages around 40 hives around Melbourne… ‘Beekeeping suits me,” said Landes. “I really enjoy it. People are so nice. They are very engaged in making the urban environment healthy with bees. It’s a really good gig.”
Trump (R): "Stormy Weather Ahead for Trump" [Jonathan Alter, Washington Monthly]. Bragg (NY). "After jury selection begins in April, we’re looking at the first criminal trial of a U.S. president in American history…. Last week, the trial was delayed--probably for a few weeks--pending a hearing about the mysterious release of thousands of pages of documents from federal prosecutors who had pursued the hush money case but declined to prosecute Trump.”
And:Judge Merchan ruled that Trump's lawyers will not be allowed to:Compare this prosecution to that of former Senator John Edwards, the North Carolina Democrat who was acquitted in a similar case.Argue selective prosecution (the District Attorney routinely brings these kinds of business fraud cases).Argue that the District Attorney is using a "novel" interpretation of the law, which many anti-Trump legal experts believe to be true.Refer to a decision by the Federal Election Commission (then dominated by Republicans) to clear Trump.Refer to federal prosecutors' concerns about the credibility of former Trump henchman Michael Cohen, the key prosecution witness in the case, or their decision to drop their investigation.Introduce into evidence a book by Mark Pomerantz, a former top prosecutor in the District Attorney's office, that criticizes the Hush Money prosecution.Invoke the advice-of-counsel defense, Trump's familiar excuse that he was just listening to his lawyers and, therefore, isn't guilty.
That's a lot! Meanwhile: "District Attorney Bragg's whole case is admissible.” Concluding: "It ain't overthrowing the government. It ain't stealing classified documents. But it'll do.”
I doubt it. I mean, come on. "Squillionaire pays off mistress. Film at 11.”
Trump (R): "GOP primaries flash warning signs for Trump" [The Hill]. "In primary elections in Ohio and other states, a sizable number of GOP voters still cast ballots for former rivals to the ex-president. That’s potentially a big problem for Trump, because it suggests not all GOP primary voters are warming to him… A handful of states cast ballots Tuesday in the presidential primaries, including Ohio, Florida and Arizona. Trump won Ohio and Florida by roughly fourth-fifths of the vote, but former United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley