NATIONAL PAPER CLIP DAY UPDATES

-By the time this update is posted, the jury in Ex-President Trump (R-apist) LXXXVIII’s New York trial over his catch-and-kill scheme to keep the Stormy Daniels story from breaking during the 2016 election will have begun deliberations. The jury has 34 counts to sort through, the most important being the charges connecting the documents covering up the payoffs (which also has to be proven) in order to help another crime be committed. The prosecution called out three potential crimes – tax evasion, New York state election law, and campaign finance laws – and, according to the state of New York, any one of those three crimes can be used by jurors as that underlying crime which would elevate the document violations from misdemeanors to felonies.

-As expected, the strategies of the prosecution and Team Trump was clear from the start. Prosecutors told a story going from Trump’s virtual partnership with the National Enquirer to their balking at paying for the Stormy Daniels story after being told they could get into trouble, then pivoting to former Trump attorney Michael Cohen to raise the money from a second mortgage on his house and being paid back by Trump with a series of checks written while Trump was President – all with Trump knowing and approving of every step, with all documents shown to the jury. Prosecutors must get all 12 jurors to agree for a guilty verdict.

-In contrast, Team Trump portraying Dear Leader as The Lone Honest Man In All Of the Realm, who never told Cohen to pay anyone off and never so much as batted an eye towards Daniels – and also that Cohen is a lying human scumbag who cannot be believed and who should then make the entire prosecution’s case moot. Given that only one witness testified for Trump – that witness not being Trump himself – most do not see Not Guilty verdicts and instead are hoping for a holdout juror in order to hang the jury, in which case the case could be retried, albeit not likely before the November 5 election.

-Jurors can deliberate until 3:30 CDT each day and can work through the day, including lunch. Trump must stay in the courthouse for the duration of deliberations. Most observers think tomorrow or Friday are realistic times for verdicts to be reached.

-The Biden administration has kept silent for the trial, but yesterday it decided it was time to draw attention to Trump’s legal problems - though not specifically this trial - calling a news conference across the street from the courthouse to do so and assembling an interesting roster of personalities to do so: campaign representative Michael Tyler, January 6 DC officers Harry Dunn and Michael Fanone, and in the lead, legendary actor and New Yorker Robert DeNiro (who narrated a Biden ad highlighting Trump’s promise to wreak revenge on the country after “snap(ping)” from his 2020 election loss). The presser was interrupted by a surprisingly (and for Trump disappointingly) rare sight of MAGAts who came to attempt to heckle DeNiro and getting shouted down by the actor.

-Not surprisingly, MAGAland decided the best way to attack DeNiro was to call him a “washed-up actor,” among them Trump spokesweasel and deadbeat dad date rapist Jason Miller and DEUCE BIGALOW: MALE PROSTITUTE “star” Rob Schneider. Trump himself took time from a chain of social media post-rants last night calling DeNiro “wacko.” (And for the record, DeNiro got his ninth Oscar nomination this past year for KILLERS OF THE FLOWER MOON.)

-THIS JUST IN: Reporters in the courtroom are reporting Trump has fallen asleep as Judge Juan Merchan reads the jury its instructions.

-Back to actors and Presidents, as yesterday Team Trump got another cast member to join the likes of Schneider, Scott Baio, Kevin Sorbo and Stacy Dash: almost B-list actor Randy Quaid. The actor, who until now was considered to be the less crazy of the Quaid brothers, admitted to the unctuous Piers Morgan that he is a Trump supporter, proudly claiming “Some say he’s an asshole, but he’s MY asshole!” Quaid is starring as Ronald Reagan in a hagiography biopic coming out at the end of the summer, and any connection between promoting that movie and his endorsement would be so craven and cynical that nobody should even SUGGEST that Quaid’s motives are not real – and he is narrating shows on the Fox News streaming service, too, so maybe he is just an a-hole.

-And news of the Reagan movie comes on the heels of THE APPRENTICE, a new movie that received an 8-minute standing ovation at the Cannes Film Festival, that depicts Trump (portrayed by Sebastian Stan) as a drug-abusing violent near-rapist (depending on the camera angles of the scenes it is depicting), and which Trump has threatened to try to keep off screens through lawsuits (of course). No word on when THE APPRENTICE may be released in the states.

-Defense officials in Israel warn that its war in Palestine against HAMAS is ‘likely’ to carry on through the rest of the year, in continued defiance of worldwide pressure demanding they pull back on their actions in reaction to the October 7 terrorist attacks that have created a catastrophic humanitarian crisis in the area. The country continues to lose support after an attack on a refugee camp killed 45 – an act Benjamin Netanyahu called “a tragic mistake” – and the White House said the attack did not “go over” a self-created “red line” of misbehavior that would lead to cutting off arms shipments to the country, keeping pressure on them in trying to get parties to negotiate a cease-fire.

-On top of that, heavy weather last week damaged the temporary pier the U.S. military built to try to allow desperately-needed shipments of aid to Palestinians. Officials estimate it will take about a week to get the pier back in operation for aid to resume from the sea.

-We got more we could talk about – longer-range analyses of the war in Ukraine (SLAVA UKRAINI!), more help in the documents case from Aileen Cannon, evil shite Texas Republicans are plotting – but, again, let’s end with some rather interesting and history-making Sportsball news …

-That news being, today Major League Baseball merged the historical statistics and records from the Negro Leagues of the early 20^th Century into the records of professional baseball going back into the 19^th century, ending the segregation of the two leagues and recognizing the achievements were equal in those decades. In making that change, there is now a new immortal on the list of baseball’s greats. Starting today, Josh Gibson is statistically recognized as the greatest hitter in the history of baseball. Gibson’s career .372 average is now number one (Ty Cobb’s .366 going down to second), his 1.177 slugging percentage places him ahead of Babe Ruth’s .718 OPS, and his 1943 average of .466 is now the best single-season hitting average in the game’s history. The statistical merge also adds 10 hits to Willie Mays’ career (3,293), Minnie Minoso becomes a member of the 2,000 hit club (now 2,113), and Satchiel Paige officially gets to be a 100-win pitcher (now 125). Congratulations ALL!

-… and THIS JUST IN: The jury in Trump’s Stormy Daniels catch-and-kill 2016 election interference trial has begun.

-On this date in 1830, Andrew Jackson signed the Indian Removal Act. On this date in 1942, Bing Crosby took 18 minutes to record “White Christmas.” On this date in 1953, Sir Edmund Hillary completed his Climb of Mount Everest. On this date in 1957, the Brooklyn Dodgers and New York Giants were given permission to relocate to Los Angeles and San Francisco, respectively. And on this date in 1999, the Space Shuttle Discovery docked with the International Space Station for the first time.

-Debuts on this date: Volkswagen (1937), YANKEE DOODLE DANDY (1942), Amnesty International (1961), the Palestine Liberation Organization (1964).

-Happy Birthday to Patrick Henry, Bob Hope, T.H. White, Tenzing Norgay, John F. Kennedy, Paul Ehrlich, Sylvia Robinson, Fay Vincent, Al Unser Sr., Bob Simon, Anthony Geary, Danny Elfman, Karla DeVito, Randy Walker,  Mars Williams, Mike Porcaro, Larry Blackmon, LaToya Jackson, Annette Bening, Rupert Everett, Melissa Etheridge, Eric Davis, Lisa Whelchel, Laverne Cox, Melanie “Scary Spice” Brown, Howlin’ Pelle Almqvist, Carmelo Anthony, Riley Keough, and Markelle Fultz.

-Rest in Peace/Rest in Power to W.S. Gilbert, John Barrymore, Fanny Brice, James Whale, Mary Pickford, Romy Schneider, Billy Conn, Margaret Chase Smith, George Fenneman, Jeff Buckley, Barry Goldwater, Archibald Cox, Steve Mizerak, Harvey Korman, Dennis Hopper, Doc Watson, Father Andrew Greeley, Betsy Palmer, B.J. Thomas, and Gavin MacLeod.

-Feed the Worms: John Hinckley Jr. and Noel Gallagher entered Earth on this date. Manuel Noriega bought it on this date.