Courting Disaster

GA DA PDA, Weekend Whats, Feel Good Friday

During the endless hearings on her affair with lead prosecutor Nathan Wade, we learned that Georgia DA Fani Willis regularly carries a large wad of cash. She should throw some of that scratch to my therapist because the twists and turns of these Trump cases have had an impact on my anxiety levels not disimilar to a few thousand gavel blows to the amygdala. Watching these cases (often fail to) unfold is a case study in delayed gratification; a bizarre version of the Stanford Marshmallow Test where you'd need a time travel machine to approach getting even a nibble of the confection. In the latest addition to our judgment daze, "Fulton County Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee did not find that Willis’ relationship with special prosecutor Nathan Wade amounted to a conflict of interest that should force her off the most sprawling of the four criminal cases against the former president." Fulton County DA Fani Willis must step aside or remove special prosecutor in Trump case, judge says. Hours after the ruling was released, Nathan Wade resigned from the case. We live in an era when each of us is strictly prohibited from presenting news in a way that counters our side's deepest desires, but I'll risk breaking that rule. Of course, there was never any legal conflict here. But Wade's and Willis's choices were bad. The Willis testimony wasn't impressive. The testimony of others was even worse. And nothing about this whole affair is indicative of a level of professionalism required of those involved in a case of epic historic seriousness. We should be talking about Trump's treachery, not the GA DA PDA. As Judge McAfee wrote in his ruling: "Georgia law does not permit the finding of an actual conflict for simply making bad choices – even repeatedly." The rest of his digs were less subtle. CNN: Takeaways from the scathing ruling that allows DA Fani Willis to remain on the Trump election subversion case. And here's the full decision.

+ Of course, part of all this is about Willis being relentlessly targeted by an army of lawyers intent on helping Criminal Trump run out the clock long enough to become President Criminal Trump. And that targeting won't stop with this decision. Subpoenas, sanctions and shaming: Fani Willis' ordeal is far from over.

+ Legal analyst Andrew Weissmann argues that "for the good of the case, given that ethics issues will abound now as to Willis, she should voluntarily recuse herself from the case and allow another prosecutor to oversee the GA trump case." (I'd bet all the cash in Fani Willis's pocketbook against that happening. We don’t live in the for the good of the case era.)

2

Screenage Wasteland

"Something went suddenly and horribly wrong for adolescents in the early 2010s. By now you’ve likely seen the statistics: Rates of depression and anxiety in the United States—fairly stable in the 2000s—rose by more than 50 percent in many studies from 2010 to 2019. The suicide rate rose 48 percent for adolescents ages 10 to 19. For girls ages 10 to 14, it rose 131 percent ... As the oldest members of Gen Z reach their late 20s, their troubles are carrying over into adulthood. Young adults are dating less, having less sex, and showing less interest in ever having children than prior generations. They are more likely to live with their parents. They were less likely to get jobs as teens, and managers say they are harder to work with. Many of these trends began with earlier generations, but most of them accelerated with Gen Z." Jonathan Haidt is back with some analysis that you don't want to think about but that you know is true. The Atlantic (Gift Article): End The Phone-Based Childhood Now. The environment in which kids grow up today is hostile to human development. "Once young people began carrying the entire internet in their pockets, available to them day and night, it altered their daily experiences and developmental pathways across the board. Friendship, dating, sexuality, exercise, sleep, academics, politics, family dynamics, identity—all were affected. Life changed rapidly for younger children, too, as they began to get access to their parents’ smartphones and, later, got their own iPads, laptops, and even smartphones during elementary school."

+ In fairness to smartphones, they had some help. WSJ (Gift Article): The Rough Years That Turned Gen Z Into America’s Most Disillusioned Voters. "Young adults are more skeptical of government and pessimistic about the future than any living generation before them." (Sounds like they're at least seeing things pretty clearly.)

3

Watch Your Six

"In a sweeping move expected to dramatically reduce the cost of buying and selling a home, the National Association of Realtors announced Friday a settlement with groups of homesellers, agreeing to end landmark antitrust lawsuits by paying $418 million in damages and eliminating rules on commissions." The 6% commission on buying or selling a home is gone after Realtors association agrees to seismic settlement. (The internet has disintermediated a lot of middlemen and commissions, but the holy 6% has held pretty steady.)

4

Weekend Whats

What to Celebrate: We (in general, and me in particular) spend so much time focused on politics, world events, and daily news that we can miss what really matters; the interpersonal relationships and life choices that create our communities. Do yourself a favor and enjoy this remarkable reminder the power, grace, and music of the human spirit. And if you need the usual externalities, this documentary is also about education, inequality, immigration, gender preferences, and just about everything else. The Last Repair Shop | 2024 Oscar-winning Documentary Short. I guarantee it will be the best 39 minutes and 58 seconds of your weekend.

+ What to Doc: These days, a lot of sports docs are self-produced ego pieces; often enjoyable, but never hard hitting and none of the key players ever come off looking bad. In The Dynasty: New England Patriots, plenty of people come off looking pretty bad -- and that includes the coach, the media, and even by extension, we the fans. In fact, if anything, the series could be criticized for presenting one of the greatest runs in sports history as an era devoid of any joy. But it is incredibly enjoyable to watch. I binged 10 episodes in a week and I could have used 10 more.

5

Extra, Extra

Raising Cain: "In a groundbreaking verdict, a Michigan jury on Thursday found James Crumbley – whose son killed four students at his high school in 2021 – guilty of involuntary manslaughter, a result experts say could set an important precedent for the extent to which parents of school shooters can be held responsible." (Actually, it wasn't that groundbreaking since "just last month, the shooter’s mother, Jennifer Crumbley, was convicted of the same four charges.") As I wrote at the time: School shootings have become an epidemic, a childhood crisis, and a national shame. Aside from the shooters themselves, where do we place the blame for America's deadly pastime? What about gunmakers who lobby for fewer regulations? What about lawmakers who tell social media execs they have blood on their hands while responding to mass playground slaughters by loosening already loose gun laws? What about those who make the deadly farcical argument that the musket-toting Founding Fathers wanted the second amendment to cover widespread ownership of deadly automatic weapons? So far none of the above, but parents have now been charged and convicted.

+ Playing Children: "The multibillion-dollar industry of family vlogging is awash in accusations of exploitation, but these creators insist that making content out of their kids is worth it." The Parenting Influencers Who Won’t Stop Posting Their Children.

+ Viktor Scale: Just back from Mar-a-Lago, Hungary’s Orbán rails against the EU and ‘the Western world’ in a speech on a national holiday.

+ Pregnant Pause: "At six months pregnant, H decided enough was enough. She had endured years of abuse from her husband and had recently discovered he was also physically violent towards her child. She contacted an attorney to help her get a divorce. But she was stopped short. Her lawyer told her that she could not finalize a divorce in Missouri because she was pregnant." Missouri law prevents divorce during pregnancy – even in cases of violence.

+ Anyone Can Do It: "It marks a quantum leap from a few years ago, when creating phony photos, videos or audio clips required teams of people with time, technical skill and money." Election disinformation takes a big leap with AI being used to deceive worldwide.

+ Texas Hold 'Em Cancelled: P-rnhub has disabled its website in Texas following a court ruling that upheld a state law requiring age-verification systems on p-rn websites. (That explains all the extra I-10 U-Haul traffic headed back to California.)

6

Feel Good Friday

"I’ve really sometimes wondered if my timidity or refusal to step up and say this was wrong, whether this was a moral failure on my part...It was a worry that made me feel that I was failing in a duty that I had as an American. That sense of duty has propelled him to commit his life to redressing one of the most deadly legacies of the war: the millions of unexploded bombs and land mines that continue to kill and injure people every year." NYT (Gift Article): An American Who Has Helped Clear 815,000 Bombs From Vietnam.

+ "The unlikely pair are now headlining joint public appearances to make the case for disagreeing more agreeably at a time when the country is more polarized than ever and public opinion of the Supreme Court is at historic lows, with approval divided sharply along partisan lines." The Supreme Court seems bitterly divided. Two justices say otherwise.

+ Mountaineer Anna Wells has become the first woman to have reached the top of all of Scotland's 282 Munros in one winter season.

+ "They targeted Alcaraz first, and he scurried to the umpire; Zverev flattened himself against the back wall of the court. Both players fled—Alcaraz's agent confirmed that Carlitos was stung on the forehead—and play was halted while the intruders were addressed." An Interview With The Bee Hero Who Humanely Vacuumed Thousands Of Bees Out Of A Tennis Stadium.

+ The ‘drinking bird’ makes a comeback and could power your gadgets with clean energy.

+ Whatever Happened to Fun? An interview with Carol Burnett.

+ Australian farm grows world's biggest blueberry. (Seems like a good time for a reminder that not all blue berries are blueberries.)