You probably heard we had an earthquake in these here parts yesterday. It made an impressively loud roar, but it didn’t do any damage I’m aware of.

But here’s the fun part. I’m reading the epicenter was near Tewksbury, New Jersey. Guess what else is near Tewksbury, New Jersey?

Yep, the dadblamed epicenter was maybe within or very near Trump’s New Jersey golf course. COINCIDENCE???????!!! Of course, one could argue it was a very Trumpian earthquake — lots of noise, but not so much quake.

Speaking of the Bedminster golf course — Trump appears to be refusing to release anything substantive about the state of his health, including his cognitive fitness. The last thing he made public was a three paragraph statement with no details from a New Jersey osteopath named Dr. Bruce A. Aronwald. Aronwald, 64, is a member of the Bedminster golf club. Raw Story:

A November letter about Trump’s health, written by Aronwald and released by the former president’s campaign, stood in stark contrast to a White House report on Biden’s health, with the Post reporting it lacked “specifics like blood pressure and medications, the letter had just three paragraphswithout specific numbers proclaiming that Trump was in ‘excellent health’ and had ‘exceptional’ cognitive ability. It did not disclose Trump’s weight.”

An attempt by the Post to ask for more specifics was rebuffed after a visit to the doctor’s office, with the doctor explaining, “There is no need for President Trump to release another medical report in addition to the one he recently made public. The President is strong physically and sharp cognitively, and he’s in excellent health overall.”

In other words, Trump’s blood pressure and cholesterol are off the charts and his brains are held together with duct tape.

But now for something really disgusting — see what Mike Huckabee is pitching these days. IMO this is the best argument I’ve seen yet for outlawing home schooling.

Regarding Monday’s solar eclipse, this page let’s you plug in your zip code to see how much of an eclipse you’ll get. See also Greg Sargent at New Republic, Trump Is Accidentally Exposing Aileen Cannon’s Shady Pro-MAGA Game.

[Update: I’m just hearing that No Labels has abandoned its plan to run a presidential ticket in 2024. After Joe Lieberman died last week I suspected the plan would be called off.]

Some of the talking heads on MSNBC last night warned us that Judge Cannon appears to be preparing to accept some or all of Trump’s argument that he was entitled to keep whatever documents he wanted under the Presidential Records Act. He was not, and the PRA says no such thing, but neither Trump nor Cannon seem to be big on the reading comprenehsion thing. And if Cannon waits until jury selection has begun and then dismsses the case, double jeopardy is attached and Trump cannot be tried again in the documents case. Liz Dye at Above the Law writes,

The prosecution demands speedy resolution of the matter to provide it “the opportunity to consider appellate review well before jeopardy attaches.”

Indeed this has been the nightmare scenario put forth by former federal prosecutor Mitchell Epner on (my show) Law and Chaos and by Lawfare’s Roger Parloff: Judge Cannon will do something outrageous to throw the case, but she’ll do it after jeopardy has attached, when it’s too late for the government to do anything about it.

Jack Smith, no fool, sees this coming. Here is the conclusion from his Tuesday filing, page 23:

For the reasons set forth above and in the Government’s opposition to Trump’s motion to dismiss based upon the PRA, the Court should reject the legal premise that the PRA’s distinction between personal and presidential records has any bearing on the element of unauthorized possession under Section 793(e). As such, it should deny Trump’s pending motion to dismiss and adopt preliminary jury instructions as proposed by the Government above. If, however, the Court does not reject that erroneous legal premise, it should make that decision clear now, long before jeopardy attaches, to allow the Government the opportunity to seek appellate review.

Or, “You ain’t gettin’ away with this, lady. Don’t even try.” See also:

And see also Matt Naham at Law & Crime.

Smith’s filing doesn’t threaten to have Cannon removed from the case, but in two places it drops big hints that he’s ready to file a writ of mandamus with the appeals court that would force her to correct her errors before moving on to trial.

I also want to say that the photos of Jack Smith always remind me of a quote about Ulysses Grant: “He habitually wears an expression as if he had determined to drive his head through a brick wall, and was about to do it.”

Update: Cannon dismissed Trump’s motion to dismiss the case, but she did so leaving open the possibility of dismissing it later. after double jeopardy is attached.  MSNBC:

In a court filing ahead of Cannon’s ruling, Smith said that he wanted her to clarify her position on the instructions, so that he could appeal her before trial if she adhered to that fringe view, which he noted rested on a flawed legal premise.

But in her Thursday order, Cannon cast Smith’s request as outlandish, deeming it “unprecedented and unjust.” That might be a fair characterization had he made it out of thin air. But he made it in response to her strange previous order, in which she requested proposed jury instructions rooted in what one might call an “unprecedented and unjust” legal view. So without that context for how we arrived at this point, the judge’s characterization is misleading.

Cannon ended her order by stating, “As always, any party remains free to avail itself of whatever appellate options it sees fit to invoke, as permitted by law.”

Jack Smith has to take further action before the trial begins. Stay tuned.

In other news: A couple of days ago Trump coughed up a $175M appeal bond in the New York fraud case. What you may not have heard is that the bond was bounced back to Trump for correction. Law & Crime reports:

A review of the New York County Supreme Court docket on Wednesday shows that paperwork for former President Donald Trump‘s newly-secured bond of $175 million was temporarily rejected and “returned for correction.”

The cause for the rejection, according to the New York County Supreme Court website, is because the requisite paperwork lacked a current financial statement. …

… It is also missing the name of his attorney-in-fact. Trump will have a chance to resubmit his request….

… As Law&Crime previously reported, Trump secured a bond of $175 million thanks to Knight Insurance Company of California. Owner Don Hankey was effusive in his praise of Trump after the bond secured, calling himself a “supporter.” But Hankey was less clear about whether Trump used bonds as collateral for the final amount.

Well, okay. I wasn’t sure how big a deal any of that was. But now CBS News is reporting that the bond may not be valid.

When former President Donald Trump posted a $175 million bond in New York on Monday, it appeared that he had evaded a financial crisis. He had paused enforcement of the more than $460 million judgment against him following a civil fraud trial, while his appeal is pending. 

But the surety bond was missing vital information typically included in those filings, experts say. These standard elements include documents related to power of attorney for the bond provider, Knight Specialty Insurance Company, a financial statement from the company and a certificate of solvency from the Department of Financial Services.  

“There seem to be serious issues,” said Bruce H. Lederman, an attorney who has filed many bonds in New York, including for a real estate developer challenging a judgment. Lederman said he was struck by “glaring errors” in the bond.

“In all the years I’ve been doing this, you always have to have a certificate from the Department of Financial Services saying that you’re licensed to issue a surety bond,” he said, referring to the missing certificate of solvency under Section 1111 of New York Insurance Law. …

…Adam Pollock, a former assistant attorney general in New York, said, “This bond is deficient for a number of reasons.” 

“Including that the company doesn’t appear to be licensed in New York and doesn’t appear to have enough capital to make this undertaking,” Pollock said.”

You can read the whole thing for all the pros and cons. But it does seem that there’s a chance the bond could be rejected.  On March 25 the appeals court gave Trump ten days to come up with the smaller bond, so if this bond is rejected he’ll either have to be given another extension, or he’s out of luck.

pic.twitter.com/mUXtqVD9XY

— mike luckovich (@mluckovichajc) April 3, 2024

Chef Jose Andres told Reuters today that his World Central Kitchen workers were targeted by Israel and killed, systematically, car by car.

“This was not just a bad luck situation where ‘oops’ we dropped the bomb in the wrong place,” Andres said.
“This was over a 1.5, 1.8 kilometers, with a very defined humanitarian convoy that had signs in the top, in the roof, a very colorful logo that we are obviously very proud of,” he said. It’s “very clear who we are and what we do.”

I believe him. From everything I’ve read the destuction of that food convoy had to be deliberate. See also José Andrés: Let People Eat at the New York Times (no paywall).

I’m reading that while President Biden is very angry, there are no immediate plans to change policy. A shame; this incident would have been the time to make a change.

I wrote a couple of days ago that Israel’s ultra-orthodox faction would be drafted into the military for the first time. Today Fred Kaplan in Slate expands on this a bit.

Netanyahu’s coalition, which put him back in power early last year, consists entirely of factions to the right of his own quite right-wing Likud party. If Netanyahu lets this draft exemption expire, he will alienate the ultra-Orthodox factions that support him; if he extends it, he will alienate the secular Jews that support him. Either way, he could be in trouble. His coalition’s majority in the Knesset, Israel’s parliament, is narrow. If just five of his partners were to resign, as some are threatening to do over the exemption issue, he would lose his majority. New elections, which otherwise aren’t scheduled to take place until 2026, would be held. Polls indicate that he would lose.

It’s not clear to me whether this draftng has begun. There were reports that some Haredi have received draft notices, but other reports say the military is still preparing to send draft notices and that there are some number of days to work out a compromise. But the end of the Haredi draft exemption has been called “an earthquake” in Israel.

It’s obvious Netanyahu would prefer Trump to win the election, with the assumption that Trump will give him everything he wants without having to apologize for killing civilians.

In other news:

David Kurtz at Talking Points Memo wants you to know that Special Counsel Jack Smith Is Done With Judge Aileen Cannon And Lets It Show.

Jack Smith takes a new tone of incredulousness and disdain for her mishandling of the Mar-a-Lago classified documents case.

The issue at hand is her failure to have yet ruled on Donald Trump’s motion to dismiss based on his inane, unprecedented, and counterfactual reading of the Presidential Records Act. Instead of rejecting the argument out of hand, Cannon not only is entertaining it but ordered the two sides to propose jury instructions based on two different deeply flawed interpretations of the PRA.

That set up an nearly impossible challenge for Smith: How do you draft jury instructions that are so wrong on the law without looking like an idiot, undermining your own case, and pissing of the judge?

The answer: You can’t.

So Smith went all in, no longer trying to placate, educate, or hand-hold Cannon.

Smith ripped her interpretations of the PRA: “both of the Court’s scenarios are fundamentally flawed and any jury instructions that reflect those scenarios would be error.” He said her “legal premise is wrong” and her requested jury instructions “would distort the trial.”

Smith all but threatened to take Cannon up on appeal, urging her to rule promptly and not wait until a jury has been seated and thereby deprive the government of the opportunity to appeal. At this point, Smith would prefer an adverse ruling to no ruling at all: “Whatever the Court decides, it must resolve these crucial threshold legal questions promptly. The failure to do so would improperly jeopardize the Government’s right to a fair trial.”

Just read the whole thing.

Before going into the outrages du jour, I want to point to a couple of recommended articles. First is Suicide Mission: What Boeing did to all the guys who remember how to build a plane by Maureen Tkacik at The American Prospect, and the other is The Boeing Nosedive: A once-venerable company turned its soul over to shareholders and courted disaster by Jeff Wise at New York magazine. Truly a disaster fable for the days of late-stage capitalism. What’s worse, I doubt the captains of industry who run everything will learn a thing from this. And the Ayn Rand libertarians still believe that government regulation is the root of all evil, I’m sure. More inspections/regulations might have saved Boeing’s ass, not to mention some lives.

The Florida Supreme Court made some moves yesterday that may or may not impact the November election. They upheld a 15-week abortion ban and cleared the way for a six-week abortion ban to go into effect on May 1. But the Court also allowed an abortion rights initiative to go on the November ballot, along with a legalizing marijuana initiative. Democrats are hopeful this gives them a shot a winning some elections in Florida, particularly the U.S. Senate seat currently held by Rick Scott. Scott won by a whisker in 2018. The Dem primary is in August, so we don’t know who will be running against him yet. Trump won Florida by 1.2% in 2016 and 3.4% in 2020, which is not too intimidating.  I hope some of you Floridians will comment on this.

I understand that in Florida a referendum needs 60 percent of the vote to pass, which may be too heavy a lift. But we’ll see.

House Republicans are pushing to rename Washington D.C.’s Dulles International Airport after Trump. Give me strength. I dimly remember there was an effort to rename it after Reagan some years ago, and we dodged that bullet. Not that I’m a big fan of John Foster Dulles. But anything but Trump.

Yesterday Judge Juan Merchan expanded the gag order he had placed on Trump to include the families of the judge and prosecutor. Judge Merchan said,

[T]his pattern of attacking family members of presiding jurists and attorneys assigned to his cases serves no legitimate purpose. It merely injects fear in those assigned or called to participate in the proceedings, that not only they, but their family members as well, are “fair game” for Defendant’s vitriol.

Further,

The average observer, must now, after hearing Defendant’s recent attacks, draw the conclusion that if they become involved in these proceedings, even tangentially, they should worry not only for themselves, but for their loved ones as well. Such concerns will undoubtedly interfere with the fair administration of justice and constitutes a direct attack on the Rule of Law itself.

Trump was put on notice that that “he will forfeit any statutory right he may have to access iuror names if he engages in any conduct that threatens the safety and integnty of the jury ot the jury selection process.”

The judges don’t want to put Trump in jail right now, even thoughhe belongs there. I understand that. But Rolling Stone is reporting that Trump isn’t taking these gag orders seriously.

According to two people who have recently spoken to Trump about the upcoming criminal trial, one of the reasons the presumptive 2024 Republican presidential nominee has been convinced he can get away with attacking Merchan’s daughter without punishment is because, as he’s privately boasted, he has tested judges and prosecutors on gag orders before — without any serious repercussions. 

This included a time late last year when Judge Arthur Engoron threatened Trump with a possible night in jail for his behavior during his New York civil fraud trial. Every time, Trump has gotten away with it. So far, judges have not moved to rein in or punish Trump the way they would with virtually any other U.S. citizen, had they behaved in the same manner that the ex-president has.

So now, the former — and perhaps future — president seems emboldened to bring that aggressive, taunting approach to his history-making criminal trial.

“A criminal trial is different than a civil one, so this could turn out differently,” one of the sources tells Rolling Stone. “But from talking to [Trump] about this … you can tell he thinks these guys have tried to be tough guys, tried to rattle him, and then, it was all talk. He’s said this time it’s the same: He has to show he’s not afraid of these people, simple as that.”

I haven’t heard that he’s badmouthed anybody covered by the gag order today. But I’m not watching that closely.

There were massive protests in Israel this weekend.

Tens of thousands of people across Israel joined the families of hostages this weekend to protest against the government and call for the removal of Benjamin Netanyahu, as the Israeli prime minister grappled with one of the most serious threats yet to his coalition.

The protesters in Tel Aviv, Jerusalem, Haifa, Be’er Sheva, Caesarea and other cities on Saturday – and at a further demonstration outside the Knesset in Jerusalem on Sunday – demanded the release of those still held captive in Gaza after close to six months, and labelled Netanyahu an “obstacle to the deal”, vowing to persist until he leaves power.

I take it this is more about Netanyahu’s apprent disinterest in the several remaining hostages more than it is about the ongoing inhumanity toward Palestinians in Gaza, but anything that might pry Netanyahu out of power is a step in the right direction.

Another source of friction that is getting less attention in the U.S. is the protected status of the ultra-orthodox, or Haredim, in Israel. the Haredi are exempt from military service and also receive government subsidies not available to non-Haredi. I understand this was done to allow them to spend more time at study. But at first they were a tiny portion of the Israeli population; now they are about 13 to 14 percent, and growing. I take it the non-Haredi in Israel have issues about this.

This happened last week:

A couple of hours ago, the Times of Israel reported that Haredi are protesting the Israeli Defense Force.

Hundreds of ultra-Orthodox, or Haredi, protesters block the Route 4 highway in the center of the country during a demonstration against IDF conscription, Hebrew media reports.

The demonstrators belong to the extremist Jerusalem Faction, Ynet reports, which numbers some 60,000 members and regularly demonstrates against the enlistment of yeshiva students.

The protest comes on the same day that a High Court of Justice order comes into effect, freezing financial support for Haredi yeshivas with students who receive annual deferrals from military service, and as the Defense Ministry has been instructed to begin the process of drafting Haredi men.

As I understand it — and full disclosure, this is not one of my areas of expertise — Netanyahu’s political coalition depends on the support of the Haredi. Josh Marshall explains,

Men from the ultra-orthodox community are exempted from the draft and a great proportion of their families live on public assistance, notionally because they spend their days in religious study. This has been a simmering issue for years. But for a complicated set of reasons it came to a head last week when there was a deadline to formalize a new system which would either continue these privileges and benefits, scrap them or do something in between.

The critical context is that over the last three decades the ultra-orthodox parties have become a central pillar of any right-wing government. They supply about a quarter of the seats. The issue is basically irresolvable if you rely on those votes and seats. No them, no majority. That all hit the fan last week. There was no decision Netanyahu could make and hold his government together. So basically he just didn’t. And we’re now seeing how long that lasts. This seems to have both thrown new light on the precariousness of Netanyahu’s government and shown again that the whole country is hostage to the Prime Minister’s need to give them basically anything they demand. In the context of a national emergency the existence of a whole community that refuses to serve in the army and lives off everyone’s taxes is simply too much for many people.

A big chunk of Netanyahu’s Likud party is made up of the ultra-orthodox and the “settler crazies,” per Josh Marshall. If that coalition falls apart, Netanyahu goes down too. And without Netanyahu the coalition will probably be shattered for some time.

Juan Cole wrote a couple of days ago,

The exemption from military service for the ultra-Orthodox has become enormously unpopular during the Israeli campaign against Gaza, where some 500 troops have been killed and thousands wounded. The resentment has grown in part because of the high birthrate among the ultra-Orthodox, such that they now make up some 13 percent of Israel’s population, up from 2 percent when Israel was founded. To have such a large group paid to pray while other Israelis are fighting and dying is increasingly untenable.

The need to subsidize the ultra-Orthodox, many of whom do not receive a practical education and therefore end up unemployed or under-employed, has driven the Israeli government to support their relocation to the Palestinian West Bank, where the government usurps Palestinian land for inexpensive housing for these Jewish fundamentalists. Some 55.8% of ultra-Orthodox men are unemployed.

Needless to say, this bears watching.

In Other News: Joyce Vance writes that she’s watching to see what happens with Trump’s gag order in the Manhattan hush-money trial. On Friday, Alvin Bragg asked the judge to toughen up the gag order. Trump responded to this by reposting images of the trial judge’s daughter, presumably so that Trump’s goons can recognize her. Joyce Vance also speculates how Trump might try to stop the trial, scheduled to start in two weeks. Sickness or a death in the family could do it. He might also try to fire his lawyers.

This is the sort of thing I wish got much bigger coverage in news media, especially television. Ronald Brownstein writes at The Atlantic:

House Republicans dramatically sharpened that partisan contrast last week when the Republican Study Committee—a conservative group whose membership includes more than four-fifths of the House Republican Conference’smembers and all of its leadership—issued a budget proposal that would not only repeal the ACA but also fundamentally restructure Medicare, Medicaid, and the federal tax incentive for employers to provide insurance for their workers.

Here’s a list of the members of the House Republican Study Committee. Yeah, there’s a mess of them. All running for re-election. But will the voters in their districts ever hear about this?

The sweep of the House GOP health plans, like similar proposals in the Project 2025 policy blueprint put together by a consortium of conservative groups, “sets up a clear contrast with the direction Democrats have gone,” Larry Levitt, the executive vice president for health policy at KFF, a nonpartisan think tank, told me. “At the root of a lot of these Republican Study Committee proposals is reducing what the federal government spends on health care, and putting the risk back on individuals, employers, and states.” …

… Among other things, the House Republican Study Committee blueprint would: repeal the federal protections the ACA established for people with preexisting conditions and instead allow states to decide whether to retain such reforms, transform Medicare into a “premium support” or voucher system that instead of paying seniors’ health-care bills directly would give them a stipend to purchase private insurance, end the federal entitlement to Medicaid and instead bundle the program into a block grant for states along with a separate federal program that covers children, and rescind the authority Biden won for Medicare to negotiate lower drug prices. (The Project 2025 plan embraces many of these same ideas.)

This is extreme stuff that, I believe, the enormous majority of voters oppose. This includes elderly conservative voters who depend on Medicare, flawed as it is, thank you very much.

This budget was released on about March 30. Here is what the President had to say about it.

My dad had an expression, “Don’t tell me what you value. Show me your budget, and I’ll tell you what you value.” The Republican Study Committee budget shows what Republicans value. This extreme budget will cut Medicare, Social Security, and the Affordable Care Act. It endorses a national abortion ban. The Republican budget will raise housing costs and prescription drugs costs for families. And it will shower giveaways on the wealthy and biggest corporations. Let me be clear: I will stop them.

My budget represents a different future. One where the days of trickle-down economics are over and the wealthy and biggest corporations no longer get all the breaks. A future where we restore the right to choose and protect other freedoms, not take them away. A future where the middle class finally has a fair shot, and we protect Social Security so the working people who built this country can retire with dignity. I see a future for all Americans and I will never stop fighting for that future.

I did some googling to see who did report on this. I realized I had seen something about this budget, at The Intercept:

ON WEDNESDAY, THE Republican Study Committee, of which some three-quarters of House Republicans are members, released its 2025 budget entitled “Fiscal Sanity to Save America.” Tucked away in the 180-page austerity manifesto is a block of text concerned with a crucial priority for the party: ensuring children aren’t being fed at school.

Eight states offer all students, regardless of household income, free school meals — and more states are trending in the direction. But while people across the country move to feed school children, congressional Republicans are looking to stop the cause.

The budget — co-signed by more than 170 House Republicans — calls to eliminate “the Community Eligibility Provision (CEP) from the School Lunch Program.” The CEP, the Republicans note, “allows certain schools to provide free school lunches regardless of the individual eligibility of each student.” 

House Republicans rise up to stop us from feeding our children. How noble. They aren’t against school lunches altogether; they just think only the “truly needy” should get it for free. Just feed the kids already. The Intercept discusses other outrages in the budget, such as blocking environmental and gun control initiatives. And they want to raise the retirement age for Social Security, But it doesn’t mention Medicare.

Axios Pro reported on it, but that report is behind a subscription paywall. And the Washington Post published a story under the headline “Democrats seize on a GOP budget proposal that would raise Social Security retirement age.” Why wasn’t it just “GOP budget proposal would raise Social Security retirement age”? But I also see,

Every Republican in the House who signed this thing should be repeatedly called on to answer for it.

In other stupid Republican news, see Greg Sargent in The New Republic, “MAGA’s Ugly, Hateful Response to Bridge Horror Is About to Get Worse.” The horrendous bridge collapse in Baltimore isn’t just an inconvenience for Baltimore. In this case, Sargent writes,

… the horror doesn’t only impact the immediate area. It has hamstrung operations at the Port of Baltimore, whose operations are essential to export traffic that comes from other regions, including storied Trump country.

For instance, billions of dollars in autos, coal, agricultural and construction machinery, soybeans, and many other products pass annually through the Port of Baltimore, according to U.S. Department of Transportation data. A lot of those products come from states like Wisconsin, Iowa, Ohio, West Virginia, and Pennsylvania (whose western part abuts northern Appalachia and the industrial Midwest), that data shows.

In other words, this bridge collapse is going to cause problems throughout the nation. But Republicans in Congress are acting as if appropriating money to set the harbor right and replace the bridge is doing Baltimore, and somehow Democrats, a favor.  And that such appropriation is an extraordinary burden that has to be offset with cuts to other programs, or no deal. What, exactly, do they think the federal government is for? Don’t bothering answer that.

In other news: Trump’s rhetoric is getting more and more vicious and violent. He’s been attacking Judge Juan M. Merchan of the hush-money trial, the trial that starts in two weeks, and his daughter. One assumes Trump is doing this because he thinks he can intimidate the judge into going easy on him. Otherwise it’s just insanity. And yesterday he shared a video that showed President Biden bound and gagged in the back of a truck.

Joyce Vance writes, “If you or I did this, the Secret Service would be on our doorstep within hours.”

Donald Trump, by the way, is out on bond ahead of trial in four separate criminal cases. Today, he threatened the President of the United States. It’s time for the people with authority to do so to deal with him. Sure, he’s the Republican Party’s presidential candidate, but they won’t reign him in. And someone is going to get hurt if he isn’t.

He can’t be allowed to get away with this.

I’m not missing him already. Let’s see if No Labels continues to attempt to float a presidential ticket, as I suspect Joe, along with No Labels CEO Nancy Jacobson, were the primary forces behind that project. Just yesterday Chris Christie declined to be their candidate. I understand Joe Manchin and even Krysten Sinema turned them down, also. NBC News:

Among the Republicans who have said no after approaches from the group: former Rep. Liz Cheney of Wyoming, former Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan, Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp, former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, former Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels and New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu, according to public statements and sources familiar with their responses. The group was still trying to lure Sununu to the ticket within the last two weeks as Sununu, an avowed critic of former President Donald Trump, fell in line behind Trump, the GOP’s presumptive nominee.

No Labels had also openly suggested that it was interested in former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley, who shut down any openness to running on a third-party ticket in an interview early this month.

On the Democratic side, Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia and former Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick declined No Labels’ entreaties, as did Democratic-turned-independent Sen. Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona. The group also engaged with former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo.

Maybe Andy hasn’t turned them down, yet.

Well-known non-politicians like businessman Mark Cuban and retired Navy Adm. William McRaven did not reciprocate interest from No Labels, either. No Labels’ search has gone far and wide — it even tried to make overtures to Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson.

The latest rejection, on Monday, came from former Georgia Lt. Gov. Geoff Duncan, an anti-Trump Republican who had been reported to be under consideration to lead the No Labels ticket. But Duncan told The Atlanta Journal Constitution that he withdrew himself from consideration to instead focus on “healing and improving the Republican Party.”

Apparently Nancy Jacobson sincerely believes that the moment is ripe for a centrist third party ticket to come forward and break us out of the two-party box. Nancy Jacobson is married to Mark Penn. Remember Mark Penn? Michael Tomasky wrote of Penn several years ago:

But there are two people who appear ready to stand by Penn, hell or high water, and they are the two who matter: Bill and Hillary Clinton. Penn joined Bill Clinton in the mid-90s, after the early woes (gays in the military, healthcare), and he kept the president on the ideological middle ground. He did the same for Hillary while overseeing her 2000 Senate campaign. In the course of these experiences, both Clintons came to swear by Penn’s advice. They saw his gift for numbers and demographic analysis, but they failed to grasp his obvious weak point.

Pennism is a kind of Democratic politics that one could argue was right for an era of conservative dominance: take few risks, and move as far to the centre and even right as possible so you couldn’t be labelled soft on defence or wobbly on support for the free market.

Definitely a Joe Lieberman kind of guy. Stuck in the 1990s.

The New York Post is reporting that NBC has un-hired ex-RNC chair Ronna McDaniel after most of the senior on-air staff revolted this week. NBC News has yet to issue an announcement, so we’ll see. But when even Chuck Todd pushes back against the establishment, you’re in trouble. And Rachel Maddow pretty much had the last word.

Update: It’s now being announced on MSNBC that McDaniel is out.

In other news: Trump has a new gag order.

The judge presiding over the New York criminal case against Donald Trump on Tuesday slapped the former president with a partial gag order.

The ruling from Judge Juan Merchan orders Trump to “refrain” from “making or directing others to make public statements about known or reasonably foreseeable witnesses concerning their potential participation” in the falsifying business records case, as well as about individual prosecutors, court staff, jurors and potential jurors.

The order does not apply to the judge or Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg.

Today the Supreme Court heard arguments about mifepristone, the so-called abortion pill. The broad consensus in commentary today is that the Court doesn’t seem inclined to restrict the drug. Most of the rightie judges seem mostly concerned that physicians should be able to refuse to perform an abortion if it is against their personal beliefs. Which I’m pretty sure is how things work in this country anyway.

The arguments today included mention of the Comstock Act. I learned about the Comstock Act of 1873 in undergraduate college courses more than 50 years ago, and even then it was presented as some kind of freakish curiosity from less enlightened times. Like Victorian waist-cinchers. Back in the day the Comstock Act prevented information about birth control from being sent in the mail, because birth control was “obscene” and “illicit.” This part of the law was amended in the 1930s. I had not realized the law was still on the books, though. It was kind of unreal to have the Fetus People dredge it up in their argument in favor of a national abortion ban. The BBC reports,

Over the next century, various court rulings clarified the law’s meaning, gradually narrowing its scope. In 1971, Congress removed most of Comstock’s restrictions on contraceptives and two years later, through Roe, the Supreme Court established a constitutional right to abortion. By then, the act was seen as a largely unenforceable relic, and remained dormant for 50 years.

Good morning! As I write this, New York Supreme Court Justice Juan Merchan is about to begin a hearing in the hush money case brought by Manhattan D.A. Alvin Bragg. I understand Trump has just arrived at the courthouse.

I hope Trump enjoyed staying in his gaudy penthouse apartment in Trump Tower. Hard to say how many more times he can stay there. His appeal bond is due today.

Today’s hearing is to discuss the belated disclosure of records and to re-set the trial date. .

NY Times:

Merchan doesn’t have a whole lot of patience for Trump’s attempt to take the late release of the Southern District documents and spin it, through the barrage of papers filed by his lawyers last week, into a broader narrative of prosecutorial shenanigans and misconduct.

There is no news anywhere saying that Trump will have the money to post his appeal bond, btw.

NY Times, again:

It is clear that Merchan is interested right now only in the timing of this trial. He is pressing Trump’s lawyers on the number of documents they think are relevant, but he says: “I just want to get a sense of how much time you need.”

NBC News reports that Trump wants to be compared to Jesus.

While Trump was sitting in the courtroom, the former president’s Truth Social account posted a message purportedly from a supporter that compared Trump to Jesus. Trump is not using his phone in the courtroom so it seems like a staffer posted it.

The post connected the timing of the hearing to Easter saying “It’s ironic that Christ walked through His greatest persecution the very week they are trying to steal your property from you.”

Trump called the sentiment “beautiful”.

According to the prosecutors, a big chunk of the recently released documents are Michael Cohen’s bank records.

NY Times:

1 minute ago

Alan Feuer

When the judge questions your professional biography, it’s probably time to change tactics.

 

NBC News:

The subtext of this entire hearing has been Judge Merchan appearing highly suspicious of the defense team’s effort to delay this trial. He’s pressing Blanche to now explain why he waited until this past January to request documents he likely knew existed last spring. He’s even brought up Blanche’s past experience in the U.S. Attorney’s office in New York to highlight he should know the diligence that’s required.

“Why did you wait until two months before trial. Why didn’t you do it in June or July,” Merchan asks.

 “It’s not our job,” says Blanche. Merchan shoots back that it’s not the D.A.’s job either.

The hearing is in recess.

Here we go: I’m seeing that the appeals court will allow Trump to post a smaller bond of $175 million within 10 days. 

I don’t know if A.G. Tish James could appeal that to a higher court.

[Update: I sincerely hope that Trump’s “babysitter,” Barbara Jones, be required to keep track on Trump’s business dealings and distribution of assets and keep reporting back to the court to be sure Trump has the means to pay the penalty when he loses his appeal. And when the time comes if Trump lacks the assets to pay the entire pentalty,. I think those five judges on the appeals court panel should have to make up the difference out of their own pockets.]

Here is the appeals court statement on the bond.

From the New York Daily News:

A New York appeals court showed Donald Trump some mercy Monday, allowing him to post a bond of $175 million in his civil fraud case — rather than half a billion — to ward off foreclosures while he appeals. 

In a brief order, the First Dept. Court of Appeals agreed to pause enforcement of the the most severe elements of the devastating February court decision finding Trump liable for fraud while he appeals it if he secures a portion of the money he’s been ordered to pay within 10 days.  …

… The appeals court also paused other parts of Engoron’s judgment from taking effect, including industry bans against Trump, his sons, Eric and Don Jr, and former finance execs Allen Weisselberg and Jeffrey McConney. They said the extended and enhanced role of court-appointed monitors to babysit Trump’s company would remain in place. 

The AG’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment, nor did Trump’s lawyers in his fraud case. 

Switching back to the hush money case, the Judge has set the new trial date for April 15. The Judge also ruled that no harm was done to Trump’s legal defense.