So, everyone was even more right than they thought: Alvin Bragg’s breathlessly awaited arraignment of former president Donald Trump really was the Oakland of all arraignments. It was just as Gertrude Stein said of that California city: there is no there there. The indictment had thirty-four counts — thirty-four!

Everyone expected them to be more or less the same count, just repeated with some sort of elegant variation to hold the attention of his audience.