The Supreme Court just stood in the middle of 5th Avenue and shot the Constitution. SCOTUS has decided to hear oral arguments on "whether and if so to what extent does a former President enjoy presidential immunity from criminal prosecution for conduct alleged to involve official acts during his tenure in office." The arguments will take place in April and the decision will come by June. In other words, the chances of a Trump Jan 6 trial concluding before the election is now quite unlikely. Aside from the timing, it's disturbing that the justices would even deign to hear more of the ridiculous arguments that any American, president or otherwise, is above the law. The SCOTUS should have rubber-stamped the ruling by the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals. To suggest anyone has total immunity flies in the face of every core principle of American jurisprudence from the revolution right through all 23 seasons of Law & Order. Supreme Court hands Trump a huge win before it even hears his case. And Rolling Stone: Trump’s Team ‘Literally Popping Champagne’ Over Supreme Court Taking Up Immunity Claim. 2Aid Raid"Crowds of waiting civilians descended on a convoy of lorries after it passed through an Israeli military checkpoint on the coastal road west of Gaza City. Israel's military said troops fired at some people they thought were a threat. In the ensuing chaos, the lorries attempted to move forward. A Palestinian witness told the BBC that most of those who died were run over." Another brutal tragedy in Gaza. More than 100 reported killed in crowd near Gaza aid convoy. A ceasefire deal just got more urgent and, one assumes, less likely. Here's the latest from CNN. 3Mobile DevicesMy dad once spent $164 on an electric bass that, aside from the Barney Miller theme, I never really learned to play ... and he never let me forget it, bringing up repeatedly for decades. I can only imagine the earful he'd be giving Tim Cook about the money he spent a car he never drove. "By the time of its death — Tuesday, when executives announced internally that the project was being killed and that many members of the team were being reassigned to work on artificial intelligence — Apple had burned more than $10 billion on the project." NYT (Gift Article): Behind Apple’s Doomed Car Project: False Starts and Wrong Turns. (I never got the whole Apple Car strategy. The whole point of having a computer is never having to leave your house.) 4Stop the (Wheel) Steal"Pavlik is part of an unusual army: amateur sleuths who find stolen bikes and return them to their owners. As bike theft becomes more profitable, grassroot efforts to thwart thieves are springing up nationwide. Part wannabe detective, part vigilantes, the volunteers say recovering bikes can be strangely fun and addictive." WSJ (Gift Article): Your Bike Just Got Stolen. These Vigilantes Will Get It Back. 5Extra, ExtraBorder Follies: On Thursday, the two presidential contenders are making dueling visits to the border. Instead of visiting the border, maybe they should visit Congress where negotiated legislation remains in a MAGA headlock. WaPo (Gift Article): Trump vs. Biden on immigration: 12 charts comparing U.S. border security. Meanwhile, "a federal judge has temporarily blocked a Texas law that would have allowed local police to arrest people suspected of being in the state illegally." 6Bottom of the News"After the first issue sold out in two days, the newsagents were clamoring for more copies - so we said fine, but only in four years' time!" Leap year: French readers enjoy world’s only four-year newspaper. (Given the news these days, it might be better for my health if I adopted the same publishing schedule.)
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