06/21/24

Good morning! It’s Friday, June 21st.

National Selfie Day.

I don’t… really know what to say about it. Take selfies. Enjoy! You deserve it.

And now, the news.

Donald Sutherland

-via Deadline

Okay, we’re going to open with a downer. I apologize. It’s a Friday show and I don’t know how else to organize this episode. So here we are.

Donald Sutherland, the Canadian (I had no idea he was Canadian – we love Canadians) actor who just absolutely knocked it out of the park with every part he had, including Animal House, Ordinary People, Pride & Prejudice, and The Hunger Games, died on Thursday.

He was 88 years old.

I found some really great quotes for this piece, including this incredibly charming one: “I love grabbing my wife and going to a distant location to film.”

But here’s one I really loved: “Fundamentally, people are suckers for the truth.”

Michigander Exercises Second Amendment

-via AP News

Here’s kind of a weird story…

Michigan State House Rep Neil Friske, was arrested just before 3:00 AM Thursday morning on a felony-level offense after police responded to gunshots.

It’s not yet known what he was shooting but a post on his Facebook page said, “Rep Friske is always exercising his 2nd Amendment right,” before asking for thoughts and prayers.

Thoughts and prayers… for what?

Anyway, this is just a really great time to remind you that it’s an election year. Mr. Always Exercising His 2nd Amendment is running for re-election. Michigan, I’m going to work really hard to make sure as many of you all as possible are voting.

So before you cast that ballot, please give some really good thought to whether a bozo like this is your best option.

Trump Judge Was Asked to Step Down

­-via NY Times

This is not Trump Crime Update Time, but most just… adjacent.

Judge Aileen Cannon is the Trump-appointed judge overseeing the classified documents case. You may not have heard a lot about the case lately, and that’s because Cannon has hit pause on the case, indefinitely.

Now, Judge Cannon getting this case is random. She drew the assignment. It happens.

But whether she should be able to stay on the case has been an open question since the beginning. First of all, she’s fairly inexperienced which, no matter how you feel, is not exactly what you want in a case that’s going to set presidential precedent for the rest of the time the country is a country.

The other issue people have with Judge Cannon is that she intervened during the criminal investigation into the classified documents case before she was even the judge on it. She was the one who ordered that a special master review the documents and then blocked prosecutors from continuing their investigation until that special master had finished their review.

A move so clearly made to buddy buddy up to Trump that a conservative appeals court panel overturned her move, saying: “The law is clear. We cannot write a rule that allows any subject of a search warrant to block government investigations after the execution of the warrant. Nor can we write a rule that allows only former presidents to do so.”

Well thanks to the New York Times, we now know that, after Judge Cannon was given this case, two colleagues on the federal bench privately approached her and encouraged her to recuse herself from the case.

She refused.

Which isn’t necessarily huge news but does show that she knew exactly what she was getting into, and why she absolutely shouldn’t be doing it, before she jumped in with both feet, essentially saying – I’m taking the case and I’m delaying the trial and it’s possible I can be both a judge that’s not good at her job as well as a judge sucking up to some ding dong who couldn’t even sell steaks!

Anyway, can I tell ya something? I’m not a huge fan of hers.

Columbia Student Cases Dropped

-via NBC News

And finally, we’ll end on a surprising up of a story.

Nearly everyone who was arrested last month at Columbia University’s Hamilton Hall had their cases dropped, or almost dropped, on Thursday.

By which I mean… of the 46 charged, 31 had the charges dropped outright while another 14 will have their charges dropped if they avoid arrest for the next six months. Those 14 did, however, reject the offer and will be back in court next month.

31 plus 14 is only 45 though. The final person charged has two other cases against him including flag burning after he grabbed an Israeli flag out of a man’s hand near the campus and set it on fire. The man, James Carlson, was also arrested in 2005 during a violent protest in San Francisco. Carlson, who is not associated with Columbia at all, still has his charges against him.

This is a well-timed story because I just went on my whole First Amendment lecture in yesterday’s episode.

Students have a right to protest. We are a country that, kind of, runs and makes progress on protest.

If no people or property were harmed in the protest, then all we’re looking at is a picture of college students standing up against the murder of tens of thousands of people in Gaza, the majority of which are women and children.

And that’s it. That’s the news.

I’m proud of people who exercise the First Amendment. Even when I’m annoyed by it. That’s the magic of the First Amendment – sometimes you’re going to be annoyed. Especially when it’s me talking about how annoying it is that the WB show Jack and Jill isn’t streaming anywhere.

I’m also proud of selfies.

But more than that… more than a picture of you, because the real-life version is just as absolutely aces… I’m proud of you.