Democracy Doesn't Defend Itself
Drawings from the start of the fourth week of the NYC Trump Trial
The NY Times reports almost every morning when the trial is in session about how the Prosecution brings lots of boxes of evidence into the courtroom. It’s a signal that the day’s proceedings will begin soon. I just thought it was an amusing image, in my imagination of course.
As soon as Judge Merchan arrives today, he rules that if the Defendant continues to violate the gag order, he has no recourse but to put him in jail, adding he does not want to. CNN reports that his options to do so could include only jail time for a few hours.
Jeffery McConney, former Trump organization executive who handled a lot of the money transactions, is on the stand today. He is here because of the accusations that the Trump organization made and caused false statements into business records. McConney testified in the 2023 trial, and his boss, Alan Weiselberg, is in jail because of that trial.
The morning is in part about the Prosecution showing invoices and emails between McConney, Weisselberg and Cohen about payments to Cohen (Trump’s “fixer”) , allegedly for having paid Stormy Daniels off to keep her quiet in 2016. The Prosecution is seeking to show that they were falsified. The payments continued even after Trump became President, and they came from the White House, from his personal account. The Prosecution has to show that these payments were made by Trump for campaign purposes— that’s illegal. They are setting up the groundwork.
I want to share two quotes from Rachel Maddow from the other night when I went to hear her talk. Her new book, Prequel, is about a period in our country’s history where Americans were enthralled with the fascist leader, Charles Coughlin. Coughlin had a hugely popular radio show in the 1930’s with 30 million listeners each week (our country only had 130 million people), during which he voiced ant-semetic views and other hate; the broadcasts have been described as "a variation of the Fascist agenda applied to American culture". According to Maddow, and in her book (which I have not read yet), his influence was diminished in part by ordinary citizens who were well aware of the danger. During her discussion the other night, Maddow rarely mentioned Trump (only twice and indirectly, humorously): but her message was clear. We need to do something now to stop Trump, and everyone can do something. I wrote down two poignant quotes from the evening:
“This is an important time and it calls for us to rise to it.”
“Democracy doesn’t defend itself. If we give it up, we will never give it back.”
I hope to post more later, stay tuned! Thanks for being here, happy Monday.
Why, Liza, would you make Rachel Maddow look like Woody Allen?
I hope to read Maddow's book one of these days. Another book, probably at least as disturbing came out in April; I also want to read this one -- "A Fever in the Heartland. The Ku Klux Klan's Plot to Take Over America, and the Woman Who Stopped Them," by Timothy Egan. This is a story from the 1920s, and if you haven't heard it (or read it), it's probably worse and scarier, politically, than the 1930s -- and perhaps it set up America (or at least Catholics) to be ready for Fr. Coughlin's hateful messages. I wonder if Rachel makes the connection?