Aggrieved and defiant, former President Donald Trump spent a day in court Monday for the sometimes testy start of a trial in a fraud lawsuit that could cost him control of Trump Tower and other prized properties. “Disgraceful trial,” he declared during a lunch break, after listening to lawyers for New York Attorney General Letitia James excoriate him as a habitual liar.
On Friday, Leonard Bernal stood beside a friend amid a sea of MAGA paraphernalia and was absolutely buzzing. Former President Trump had just wrapped up a fiery speech to 1,500 paying attendees at the California Republican Party’s fall convention in Anaheim, where he spent the better part of 90 minutes trashing the Golden State, its politicians and its policies.
The death of California Sen. Dianne on Friday and Gov. Gavin Newsom’s selection of longtime political operative Laphonza Butler as her short-term replacement have thrust two critical questions to the forefront of the state’s political scene:
The question has come up many times in my writing career. Frankly, there are no specific answers. One day, fiction tops the chart; another day, non-fiction does. When "Gone With the Wind" was published, writers started clicking on their manual typewriters to emulate other sagas, and so it went.
A referral from a trusted source is the gold standard in marketing. It’s the basis of websites like Yelp, Trip Advisor and the entire “influencer” industry.