I think TV legal experts have been doing a very good covering details of the Trump trial and analyzing their importance, often even giving virtual play-by-play reporting at times about what’s going on in court.  Yesterday’s testimony from David Pecker seems to be generally thought to have been very strong for the prospection – all the more so because Pecker is a close Trump ally.  He’s laid out a strong vision of the long pattern over time of Trump’s efforts to commit election. Additionally, as former Watergate lawyer Nik Ackerman pointed out, his being able to identify and co ..read more

Jon Stewart made his Monday appearance on The Daily Show, and the main piece he did was a slam on the breathless, hyperbolic coverage of the Trump trial.  I thought his criticism was a bit off -- this, after all, is the first-ever criminal trial of former president, and wall-to-wall coverage is not terribly unreasonable, especially since no TVs are allowed in the courtroom.  However, the perspective on how over-the-top and repetitive  a lot of that coverage is was spot on.  More to the point, it's almost all very funny. And funniest of all, without giving it away, is some ..read more

The other day, I wrote here about a weird story that concerned Trump going on a bizarre social media rant about Jimmy Kimmel hosting the Oscars.  It was bizarre for many reasons.  One was that the former president, facing four indictments, running for the White House again, was writing about the Academy Awards.  Another was that the Oscars had been held five weeks earlier.  Also, that he was ranting about something related to the Oscars that had bothered him so much that it was building up angst inside him for five weeks and felt compelled to write about it all of a sudden ..read more

This was quite a find and will be a tremendous treat for people who watched the recent PBS three-part series Nolly, which starred Helena Bonham Carter.  If you haven’t seen it, there’s still a lot to like in this (and I’ll give some background), but again, for those who did see the show, it may blow you way.   A friend highly-recommended I watch.  While I wasn't bowled over by the show, I definitely enjoyed the first episode enough to keep watching, and liked the second episode even more.  It was very well-produced, Helena Bonham Carter was wonderful, and it ..read more

The hors d’oeuvres tray has been ordered, the popcorn has been popped, and the mint juleps have been prepared, complete with little umbrellas.  It’s going to be a fascinating week in the ongoing soap opera, "The Trials of Trump."   The festivities start on Monday with a double-header.  First, with the jury now selected, the Manhattan criminal trial of Trump for election fraud begins.  If Trump is melting down this much already, after merely jury selection when all he has to do is literally just sit and do nothing -- and his ALL CAPS social media rantings are pretty manicall ..read more

​Hosts Phil Rosenthal and David Wild are joined by Lily Rosenthal.  If her last name sounds familiar, that’s because she’s Phil's daughter and now his co-author for a new children's picture book called "Just Try It! (A Phil & Lil Book)" with illustrations by New York Times bestselling author Luke Flowers. As the show writes, “It's a book about a food-loving dad encouraging his picky eater daughter to just try something new ..read more

​On this week’s ‘Not My Job’ segment of the NPR quiz show Wait, Wait…Don’t Tell Me!, the guest is country music singer-songwriter Jason Isbell, a four-time Grammy-winner.  His conversation with host Peter Sagal is very breezy, quick-witted, self-effacing and fun, which is somewhat unexpected since he’s known for writing sad songs.   By the way, not discussed in the interview was how much Isbell said he loved and was inspired by John Prine, growing up listening to his recording, noting that “I value that time that I spent with John about as much as I value anything.”  And Pr ..read more

​The guest on this week’s Al Franken podcast is Wisconsin Democratic Party Chair Ben Wikler.  As part of what he plans to be periodic, ongoing discussions), Al writes -- -“The Republican Party has spent years undoing the will of the people in the state of Wisconsin. With gerrymandered voting maps, they’ve been able to lose the popular vote and still have a supermajority. But things are changing thanks to Ben Wikler and the Wisconsin Democratic Party! In our first Battleground State episode, Ben explains the work that is being done to preserve democracy in this critical swing state and how ..read more

Okay, a day late this week (under HBO's new "Thursday drop" schedule), if you missed Last Week Tonight with John Oliver this week, the Main Story was about healthcare, but specifically Medicaid. The report is terrific.  Extremely interesting, largely about changes that have been made to the program, largely by specific states who administer it, all of which are creating hurdles for the people the Medicaid is meant to assist.  And in some cases, essentially eliminating access. ​The piece is very detailed, information, galling, fascinating and often extremely funny ..read more

We'll let Tim O'Brien have his say today.  He's a biographer of Trump, who Trump sued  for defamation (claiming that O'Brien didn't make his as rich as he insisted he was),and O'Brien not only won -- but he got to see Trump's taxes on a non-disclosure agreement. O'Brien was a guest on Nicolle Wallace's show yesterday, and told a story that speaks loudly about who Trump is on a couple of levels.  The first is something that got hinted about early on, but has eventually gotten largely lost amid all the other Transgressions of Trump, like trying to overthrow the government, four i ..read more