Law, Power, and Justice

AFTERNOON NEWS NOTES: Israel, Rap Stars Supporting Trump

ISRAEL

• The Israeli strikes in Rafah continue.  There is widespread condemnation of the attacks.
• There is a cease-fire proposal written by Israel.

THURSDAY 30 MAY 2024

AFTERNOON NEWS NOTES

• (Note: It is the second day of jury deliberations in the Trump election interference trial.  The corporate news anchors are not very bright people as a group, and they are having a difficult time coming up with anything interesting to talk about.  Mostly they are repeating the same information over and over again.  It makes me want a news channel for people who actually follow the news rather than people who walk through the room every once in a while. If they are not repeating the same information, for example, Jake Tapper interrupted an attorney commentator this morning to explain to the audience what “catch and kill” was.  Jesus Christ, if you don’t know what catch and kill is by now, you might as well give up.  I think I even heard Kasey Hunt wonder to the panel about what they were going to talk about all day.  Given the limited participation she has had in these panels, I think she must be bored out of her mind.  Of course, with dangerous right-wing movements active all over the world, corporate news might cover some international news, but that would be too much to ask, and too expensive.  There are two major wars going on in which the United States is heavily involved.  But, you wouldn’t guess it from watching corporate news.  Podcasts are a much more fruitful source of information for those who actually think.  Oh, over on Fox News, they are telling their listeners that the judge will not allow the jury to have a copy of the jury instructions.  This is a lie.  New York law does not allow them to have a copy of the instructions, or a copy of the testimony for that matter.  When the jury wants to hear testimony, a court reporter reads it back to them.  Apparently, there is a way in which the instructions can be sent back with the jury, but it would have to be first brought up and second approved by both sides.  That hasn’t happened.)

Random Notes of Interest

• Charles Blow, NYT, has an article about how those two rap stars became Trump evangelicals.  Both rappers are facing felony charges.  Of course, Trump pardoned another rapper (who had plead guilty to a federal gun charge) after he appeared for Trump just before the 2020 election.  During what is called the “get money” phase of hip-hop, Trump was often name checked in songs.  Blow notes the misogynistic nature of hip-hop and Trump.  “But it was the hustler-cum-gangster vibe of Trump, particularly with his ostentatious displays of wealth, that endeared him to many in the rap community.”  In apparent response to another pardon, Snoop Dogg said: “I have nothing but love and respect for Donald Trump.” Blow, notes: “The way Trump uses the pardon power reduces our conception of justice to capricious acts of forgiveness, not so much bestowed as traded for loyalty, creating unwritten indentureship for the recipients.”  “…Trump believes in an inherent and endemic link between Blackness and criminality.”  “the testimonials that Trump buys with his pardons matter — not because people take direct voting advice from musicians but because these musicians quite literally have the mic and what they say can soften the ground in the culture, making support of Trump for some feel less like treachery and more like rebellion.”
• Excerpts from Charles Blow’s column (3/13/24). “Some black voterd are souring on Democrats. It may be part of a natural drift.” 
• “Trump used us, and at the same time bamboozled us by his charm and his humor and his straightforward talk. Not that it’s all true, but he just didn’t bite his tongue about certain things. And a lot of people want to see someone down to earth.”  This was said by a black voter in Georgia that Blow interviewed.
• According to Pew, in 2020, 95 percent of Black women and 87% of Black men voted for Biden.
• Blow notes the stimulus checks that went out in 2020 with Trump’s name on them.  He notes that many people believe that the business environment was better under Trump. 
• “Biden has done a better job than he’s being given credit for, but he’s done a bad job of selling it.”  Trump, however, like all con men, “knows how to message.”
• Blow also notes the religiosity of Blacks and the opposition to LGBTQ rights, and the tendency of the religious to believe that whoever wins it will be part of God’s plan.
• Really, what’s happening is that Blacks are becoming more like other voters.