You are the former president of the United States and possibly the next president as well... but at the end of the day, I have a job to do and part of that job is to protect the dignity of the judicial system.

Merchan said Trump’s actions “constitute a direct attack on the rule of law [and] I cannot allow that to continue”:

So as much as I do not want to impose a jail sanction…I want you to understand that I will, if necessary, and appropriate.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/live/2024/may/06/donald-trump-hush-money-trial-case-resumes-following-tearful-hope-hicks-testimony-live-updates?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other

Washington
CNN
—
President Joe Biden said he will debate former President Donald Trump ahead of this year’s election, though he said he didn’t know in what format.

“I am, somewhere. I don’t know when,” Biden said when asked by interviewer Howard Stern whether he planned to debate his predecessor. “I’m happy to debate him.”

It’s the first time Biden has said explicitly he would debate Trump in this election cycle. Previously, he has equivocated, saying it would depend on Trump’s behavior.

Kristi Noem is trash.

Decades with hunting- and bird-dogs, and the number I've killed because they were chicken-sharp or had too much prey drive is ZERO. Puppies need slow exposure to birds, and bird-scent.

She killed a puppy because she was lazy at training bird dogs, not because it was a bad dog.

Not every dog is for the field, but 99.9% of them are trainable or re-homeable. We have one now who was never going in the field, but I didn't kill her. She's sleeping on the couch.

You down old dogs, hurt dogs, and sick dogs humanely, not by shooting them and tossing them in a gravel pit.

Unsporting and deliberately cruel...but she wrote this to prove the cruelty is the point.

The script-flipping here is a remarkable: rather than focus on the severity and precedent of what’s before them - whether Trump should be prosecuted for allegedly attempting to overturn the 2020 election - they appear focused on the potential for a future president to be frivolously prosecuted. There appears to be little concern among the conservative justices for the substance and significance of the January 6 case.

Roman Gabriel had big size and a big arm when he was the No. 2 draft pick of the Los Angeles Rams in 1962. Even while playing in an era of grinding it out on the ground, he still holds the Rams’ team record with 154 touchdown passes.

Gabriel, the first Filipino-American quarterback in the NFL and the league MVP in 1969, died Saturday. He was 83. His son, Roman Gabriel III, announced his father’s death on social media, saying he died peacefully at home of natural causes.

…Gabriel, who played at North Carolina State and was a two-time player of the year in the Atlantic Coast Conference, was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 1989. He was 6-foot-5 and 235 pounds, big for a quarterback in that era. Green Bay coach Vince Lombardi once described him as “a big telephone pole,” according to the Los Angeles Times.

…Gabriel was such a hot prospect that the Rams made him the No. 2 pick in the NFL draft, and the Oakland Raiders of the rival AFL selected him No. 1. Gabriel wound up signing with the Rams, though it took until George Allen was hired as coach in 1966 for Gabriel to start leaving a mark. From 1967 to 1970, Gabriel led the Rams to a 41-14-4 record and two division titles, though never a playoff game. He was voted MVP in 1969 after throwing for 2,549 yards with 24 touchdown passes and five rushing scores.

https://nypost.com/2024/04/21/sports/roman-gabriel-former-rams-and-eagles-qb-dead-at-83/

After months of stalling, the US House of Representatives finally approved more than $61bn worth of military assistance to help Ukraine in its desperate defense against Russia.

The bipartisan vote saw 210 Democrats and 101 Republicans join to support Ukraine, with 112 Republicans voting against. It came after the Republican speaker, Mike Johnson, forced a series of bills onto the floor in the face of fierce resistance within his own Republican party, many of whom oppose spending more on Ukraine’s defense.

Voting began hours ahead of schedule in an extraordinary Saturday session that delayed the House’s planned recess.

In a powerful effort to sum up the stakes before the vote, the former Democratic speaker, Nancy Pelosi, made a stridently graphic appeal: “I hope our colleagues will choose democracy and decency rather than autocracy and evil because I fear if you choose the Putin route, you will have blood on your hands, blood of the children, blood of their mothers raped in front of their parents, raped in front of their children,” she said.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/apr/20/us-house-approves-61bn-aid-ukraine?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other