Well that certainly didn't take long! After less than 10 hours of deliberating, the jury in Donald Trump's first criminal trial returned their verdict. It was a sweeping one: guilty on all 34 charges. Donald Trump will henceforth be known as: "convicted felon Donald Trump."

The speed of the jury's deliberations was astonishing. Ten hours is barely enough time to get organized and take care of all the procedural requirements, for a case with 34 charges. In the midst of their deliberations, the jury requested that the judge read back about half of his jury instructions to them and also that they hear read in court some testimony from two of the witnesses: David Pecker and Michael Cohen. This was done this morning. The judge read the jury instructions again, then clerks took the place of lawyers and the witness and read back three selections of testimony from Pecker and one from Cohen. The jury then disappeared back into their room to consider it all. All the court-watchers thought the judge was going to let the jury off for the day at 4:30, but right before then the jury reported that they had reached verdicts and just needed another half-hour to fill out all the official verdict paperwork.

But it seems there wasn't any real point of contention between one faction of jurors and another -- they were likely just being overcautious and dotting every legal "I" and crossing every "T." For them to return a verdict this quickly, they must have all been pretty much in agreement all along. So a little after 5:00, the verdicts were read: "Guilty... guilty... guilty..." for all 34 counts. Trump was not a happy camper, obviously. Sentencing has been tentatively scheduled for July 11th.

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I realize that there is big legal news breaking today on two fronts -- to wit: the jury in the first criminal case against Donald Trump beginning their deliberations, and Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito's "What are you going to do about it, huh?" letter to Democrats in Congress (where he refused to recuse himself from any cases dealing with the January 6th insurrection or election cases concerning Donald Trump) -- but I am not going to comment on either of them (yet). Instead, I think an extreme anti-democratic idea in Texas needs highlighting, mostly for the brazen and shameless nature of it.

Last weekend, the Texas Republican Party met and approved their party platform for the year. It was chock-full of all the expected culture-war firebreathing, but there was one provision in it which is just breathtaking in its disregard for the majority of votes winning elections. Texas has long been wistfully viewed by Democrats as an enticing candidate for flipping red to blue, but this has so far not come to pass in any meaningful way whatsoever. Democrats get close to unseating people such as Senator Ted Cruz, but always seem to fall just short of doing so in statewide races. This appears to be worrying the Republicans, as evidenced by what they are now proposing.

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The first criminal trial of an ex-president is nearing its end. Today, the jury heard (and is still hearing, as I write this) the closing arguments of both the defense and the prosecution. Tomorrow, they will get their instructions from the judge and they will then start to deliberate as to whether Donald Trump is guilty or not guilty of what he has been charged with.

They can take as long as they want, of course. The media (and the country at large) will have to wait. Much will be made over how long they take -- if the deliberations stretch into weeks, assumptions will be made about what is taking them so long. But sooner or later they'll report back and we'll all get to hear what they concluded.

Will it cause a political earthquake? It's doubtful, at this point. No matter what the verdict, most voters long ago made up their minds on who Donald Trump is and what they believe about him. If Trump wins, he'll try to use it for fundraising and boosting his support. If Trump loses, he'll try to use it for fundraising and boosting his support. President Joe Biden has so far been rather leery of commenting on the trial (for obvious reasons), but once the jury is in it'll have to be woven into his campaign somehow or another. But the key question -- will any of this change anyone's mind? -- is still rather doubtful.

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The reason I'm running this Memorial Day column again should be pretty obvious, at some point. Baltimore strong!

Near where the bridge stood (you can see it in the background in this photo), each spring the Coast Guard sets up a buoy that is, quite appropriately, star-spangled. It floats near the spot where Key saw the whole battle.

The bridge, of course, is now sadly gone. Here is hoping that they build it back quick, and build it back even better than before....

Originally published June 28, 2018

Since today is Memorial Day, I'd like to begin with a remembrance of our most forgettable war, the War of 1812. How forgettable was this war? Well, its bicentennial passed by a few years ago, but the country as a whole took little notice. That's pretty forgettable, as these things are measured. In fact, only one event during this war has become what one might call (if one were in the mood for a pun) a "Key" moment, but more on that in due course.

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It is supposed to be a metaphor, of course. It's supposed to be said when a person or company is about to try out a new idea or product: "Let's run it up the flagpole and see who salutes." In other words: "Let's try it out and see how it goes -- it might wind up being popular." But this week the saying sprang to mind in a much more literal fashion, since Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito already knew who was going to salute the two very real insurrectionist-themed flags that got run up the flagpoles in front of both his house and his vacation home. Flying them after the January 6th attack on the U.S. Capitol signified support for those who had besieged the building, plain and simple. It was a rather treasonous thing to do, when you get right down to it. Which Alito fully knew (or should have, at any rate).

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It has become increasingly hard in our politically divided country to find any one single issue that pretty much everybody agrees with. The Biden administration just found one, though -- one that will resonate with football fans, hockey fans, basketball fans, country and western fans, rap fans, blues fans, rock-n-roll fans, and fans of almost every other type of music, sports, or pretty much any large performance of any type. And that's even before you add in the considerable power of the Taylor Swift fans. All of the people who enjoy all of these performances and sporting events have one thing in common no matter what their politics may be -- because nobody likes getting forcibly and brutally ripped off for ticket prices. Nobody. So the news today that the Biden administration and 30 individual states have filed suit against Ticketmaster/Live Nation for being a monopoly will be hailed as good news by pretty much everybody who doesn't directly earn their paycheck from the conglomerate.

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With most of the "must-pass" legislation already out of the way for this year, both the House and the Senate are now planning a series of what are commonly called "messaging bills." These are bills that have one main intent -- not to pass the other house of Congress and become law, but instead to "send a message" to the voters. It's a polite way of saying "generating partisan talking points to use on the campaign trail."

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Donald Trump has broken many parts of the American political system. His supporters revel in this destruction, lumping it all in with Trump's battle to "drain the swamp" or fight back against a supposed "Deep State." His opponents decry Trump's shattering of political norms and conventions and rules (both written and unwritten) as a direct and existential threat to American democracy. But whatever you think, one thing seems more and more obvious. A lot of Trump's bull-in-a-china-shop destruction will outlive his time on the national political stage. And one of the biggest of these might be called "the death of shame."

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Sorry, there will be no column today. I forgot I had an appointment at the eye doctor, and after getting my eyes dilated I can barely see the computer screen, much less type. So even posting a re-run column today is an impossibility. Mea culpa and regular columns will resume tomorrow. (Maybe I'll write one next week for Memorial Day, to make up for it....)

-- Chris Weigant

Follow Chris on Twitter: @ChrisWeigant

Presidential debate announcements, Michael Cohen testifying, and The Jerry Springer Show breaking out in a House committee -- it's been an eventful political week all around, folks!

But we have to begin today with a very sobering piece of data, just to put everything in some perspective. We (rather obviously) personally live and breathe the political scene, and it is a fair assumption that anyone who regularly reads this column all the way to the end (a weekly marathon, 'tis true...) is also pretty plugged in to the follies of the everyday political landscape as well. We all pay attention, in other words. Not just to the large and meaningful events, but also to the small and amusing. But it cannot be repeated enough: this is not exactly normal. Most Americans just don't pay all that much attention to politics. Like, at all.

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