Today is Tuesday, April 30, 2024, the last day of April. Today the judge overseeing the first trial of the Orange Turd in Manhattan grew a set when he fined Donald Duck for repeatedly and with impunity for violating the gag order in his election interference case. Judge Juan Merchan ruled Dump violated the gag order nine times for criticizing expected trial witnesses in posts on his failing social media platform and his campaign page. Now Dump must pay the $9,000 fine by the end of the week. This is chump change for the alleged “billionaire.” But he’s finally been punished for threatening and intimidating witnesses which would have sent anyone to jail for at least 30 days for doing the same fucking thing! The judge also did not rule out sending the Orange Turd to jail if he continues to disrespect the gag order. I can’t wait to see him hauled to jail if he does continue his campaign of verbal diarrhea on his media platform.

This development in Dump’s second week of his election interference trial appeared online in a CNN article by Kara Scannell, Lauren del Valle, Jeremy Herb, and Eric Levenson entitled “Donald Trump fined $9,000 for violating gag order in his money case.”

Today the judge also threatened incarceration if Drumpf willfully violates the gag order again, writing in his ruling, “THEREFORE, Defendant is hereby warned that the Court will not tolerate continued willful violations of its lawful orders and that if necessary and appropriate under the circumstances, it will impose an incarceratory punishment.”

The snoozing defendant did not visibly react as the judge was reading his decision in court.

Finally, Dump did remove today the seven “offending posts” from Truth Social and the two “offending posts” from his campaign website, as Merchan ordered.

In last week’s hearing on gag order violations, Drumpf’s defense argued that reposts of other people’s words do not violate the gag order and that the posts represent protected political speech in response to attacks.

The judge did not buy either ridiculous argument in his contempt ruling today.

First, he found that reposts are, in this case, endorsements.

Second, Merchan acknowledged that the gag order does allow Drumpf to respond to political attacks, but said criticisms of key witnesses were not allowed.

Prosecutors had urged Merchan to hold Drumpf in contempt for violating the gag order, citing 10 social media posts from before and during the trial where the district attorney’s office accused Drumpf of violating the judge’s restrictions barring him from commenting on witnesses and jurors. They also want the posts withdrawn which is what the cowardly buffoon did just that today.

There were an additional four comments that Dump has made since last week’s hearing, including about Cohen and former AMI chief David Pecker, who testified last week. Merchan has scheduled another hearing this Thursday to address those comments.

New York State law allows only $1,000 per violation as the maximum allowed under these circumstances.

This is the first sanction against the Orange Turd for violating the gag order in this case.

This declaration by the persevering trial judge who just had it with this ogre actually indicates that Donald Trump is now a convicted criminal since this ruling finds the orange-haired defendant in “criminal contempt” for willfully disobeying a lawful mandate of the court. Remember, this is not a civil trial anymore.

In the meantime, the defendant has been observed to have fallen asleep during the trial. The low energy witnessed in the fading repugnican candidate for president appeared in a humorous online article for AlterNet by Carl Gibson entitled ‘Such low energy’: Trump relentlessly mocked for once again falling asleep during trial.” And, given how dangerously close we might be to fall into a dictatorship if this low-energy person wins the presidential race in November, we certainly need the humor at the expense of the orange buffoon.

Thus during the trial today, MSNBC producer Kyle Griffin tweeted that Dump was having trouble staying awake during court proceedings, writing that he “appears to have fallen asleep while listening to testimony – at times appearing to stir and then falling back to sleep.”

Griffin wrote, “Trump’s eyes were closed for extended periods and his head has at times jerked in a way consistent with sleeping.”

MSNBC legal analyst Lisa Rubin corroborated the network’s reporting on Drumpf “sleeping” in court, confirming that the former president was indeed “sleeping through a lot” of the trial.

This report of Drumpf dozing off drew a flurry of reactions on social media, with users on X ridiculing the ex-president over his apparent inability to remain conscious during the proceedings that will determine his freedom.

Video journalist Aaron Rupar inferred that the response from media outlets would likely be an uproar “if Joe Biden did this.” I say “amen” to Rupar’s comment here.

Liberal YouTube commentator Brian Tyler Cohen suggested that Mike Lindell – the MyPillow CEO who remains one of Drumpf’s most vocal supporters and is a big jerk – can save Dump from more ridicule by offering the old, tired man a pillow. One user on X offered this nickname for the former president (I hate to admit I used it in a letter to the Daily News that hasn’t been printed yet) modeled after a famous Marlon Brando criminal character, “Don Snoreleone.”

A breaking story out of New York is that dozens of antiwar protesters were arrested at Columbia University as New York Police Department (NYPD) officers cleared an occupied building. Columbia University property, including Hamilton Hall, has been cleared after officers entered the campus to remove people protesting Israel’s war in Gaza.

Dozens of people were arrested, ziptied, and escorted to awaiting NYPD buses, CNN reported from the scene. The university has asked NYPD to maintain its presence on campus until May 17.

Columbia has been the epicenter of all of this antiwar activity, but protests have been roiling universities across the country, with administrators taking different approaches to the encampments that have sprouted up in support of the Palestinian cause.

I haven’t written about these protests until now because I’m conflicted about the situation. I sort of agree with comedian and political host Bill Maher that these protests do not mirror the antiwar protests of the Vietnam War era since the aims of these young protesters are too muddled in my mind. Many of these protests have gone too far, in that they have opened up a wave of virulent antisemitism and even violence in some cases. I do support anyone’s right to protest but only peacefully and without malice toward any group of people. But these young people have not adhered to these fundamental principles in their rebellions on campus. I have also heard that there are outside agitators ginning up these university protestors. So the actual unrest is being spurred on by nonstudents which puts a whole different face on the situation. On yesterday’s Real Time show, Maher opined that these protests have only been started because it’s finals week. He also said that in prior protests, students were having sex in those tents, but not today. In fact, one of his panel members, Scott Galloway, argued that young people are having less and less sex these days.

Oh, it’s getting late here. Passover has ended and I can now return to chomping on bread.

Stay safe and be well.