In “Sunny” Balwani’s Trial… Is There A Juror Problem, As In Holmes’?

This is likely largely trivial, but just on a whim, we opened yesterday’s daily trial log, and downloaded it.

There, on the final page, after seeing many many of the same exhibits that the government offered to pin Ms. Holmes’ feet to the floor — on felony wire- and felony-securities fraud…

We see that a juror, labeled “No. 8” to protect his/her identity… at end of day, remained to discuss some matter, with the able USDC judge — and counsel for both sides were present.

But the jury had all been sent home — so it was clearly a private matter.

As I recall, Ms. Holmes ultimately lost two jurors, and as there — Mr. Balwani has four alternates, so if one or two fall away… the trial will continue uninterrupted. Now you know.

We shall see. Onward, smiling into Spring 2022, here. Be excellent to one another. Out.

[Tangent:] In Which John Hinderaker Is More Horrified By… Babies, Than By Male/Male Prison Rape — Or Vicious Beatings…

Well… I needed to get a drink of water, after reading Hinderaker’s latest.

My mouth got all cotton-ie and dry, after it began to sink in to me, that for trans-phobic John Hinderaker, the prospect of a woman being consensually pregnant, while incarcerated… is far more damnable (he says!), than say… in-prison male on male forcible rapes — or the more or less endemic in-prison violence, generally, often leading to horrific deaths. [And the “women impregnated in prison” figures are… vanishingly small, when compared to in-prison violent incidents.]

So, my point would be… for all humans, in prisons — male or female — the conditions are generally absurdly awful, especially if compared to the prison conditions in Norway, Sweden or the Netherlands. [And it seems John is unaware (or at least, made no stink about) the FACT that at least part of the reason Elizabeth Holmes had a child last summer, a boy named Will — was to be eligible for a higher end prison placement inside the State of California, where moms are specifically allowed to room-in with their babies. Through age 10, as I understand it. And since she could possibly get sentenced to more than a decade, she’d be beyond child bearing age, when released — so both were likely factors, there.]

Yet, and still — John only “has eyes” for a story about women who slept with humans who still have penises, but now self-identify as… women.

I do wonder… what is HE repressing? Yes, occasionally people scam to get to a safer prison placement. But it doesn’t remotely reach the five alarm fire, as to trans- matters that John would make it out to be (after being puppeteered by Candace Owens, re the same).

Out.

[Spoiler Alert] How “The Dropout” Ends — Seems It Might Be Worth Watching, Afterall…

I’ve posted this on both blogs, because Martin’s appeal of his lifetime ban is now about to flame out, and he may be one of the few stories like hers… where the consequences are both completely life-inverting, and permanently… immutable.

Linda Holmes, deftly writing for NPR this morning, offers a very cogent take on it all:

…She runs away, literally, through the big glass doors, down the stairs, out the front door of the building, pulling the dog behind her, as Linda [the former GC] calls after her that she hurt people. She runs, and then she spends a moment screaming, just screaming as hard as she can, and then she calmly climbs into an Uber with her bright smile back on, and that’s the end….

There’s an obvious way to structure a story about a figure like Elizabeth Holmes: she builds herself up, she’s on top of the world, and then she has a dramatic downfall….

So The Dropout builds not to Holmes’ fall from grace as a CEO or a billionaire, but to a scene in which you watch her flee under pressure. The climax is not the fall; it’s the moment when you learn who she is, what her flaw is, why her downfall won’t stick. You learn why it won’t change this version of Elizabeth Holmes, and why she’ll never admit what she did….

She developed the ability to entirely separate the past from the future, to sever any connections between those two things at any time. And without a connection between now and later, there is no connection between actions and consequences, and without that, there is no real room for a conscience to operate. It’s incredibly sad, because it starts at the point where she is harmed, and it moves forward to how she harms others. But it doesn’t frame that progression as absolution, only as an insight about one of the things, perhaps the many things, that went wrong to allow her to become the person she became….

Even as to Martin, I do agree that at some future point, people like this may no longer be defined by their crimes. But for now, and until they center their lives around something larger than returning to the circles of the glitterati… it will define them for 99% of America.

And, specifically as to Holmes — much will remain unclear, until we know how long she spends in the can. Her glitterati relationship (and son, perhaps, even)… may not be there, when she finally returns to breathing free air.

Then, and maybe only then — will her life no longer be defined by her crimes. [R. West is likely right, that the series probably takes too much air time to get there, but seems worthy, overall. Especially to the extent that asks us all. . . to think of those we’ve… hurt.]

Harsh? Yes. But it is my honest (and sadly… experienced) take.