Democrats Promote Trump By Claiming He Is A Criminal
Yesterday the Democrats launched their biggest fundraiser ever for Donald Trump:
Donald Trump and his 2024 White House campaign are cashing in on the former president’s indictment and Tuesday’s arraignment in New York City.Adviser Jason Miller announced on Monday night that the campaign had hauled in over $8 million in fundraising since last Thursday, when Trump became the first former president in U.S. history to be charged with a crime.
The charges brought against Trump by a partisan District Attorney are extremely weak. Reliable anti-Trumpers like the Washington Post's Ruth Marcus recognize them as such:
[T]he fears I had in the weeks leading up to the indictment about the strength of the case against Trump were in no way allayed by Tuesday’s developments.
The indictment and an accompanying recitation of the underlying facts offers almost nothing in the way of new evidence against Trump. No surprise there — the tawdry details of Trump’s “catch and kill” scheme to suppress damaging information from adult-film actress Stormy Daniels and former Playboy model Karen McDougal about their relationships with Trump have already been well-aired.They include the guilty plea by Trump fixer Michael Cohen, who admitted to paying off Daniels at Trump’s behest and then securing reimbursement for the $130,000 in hush money by falsely describing the payments as legal retainers.
...
The theory is this: New York law makes it a crime to falsify business records. Ordinarily, that is just a misdemeanor. But if the falsification is done with intent to defraud and intent to conceal another crime, that act becomes a felony.
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Okay, but what are the other crimes Trump is accused of covering up? The indictment doesn’t say, but Bragg was asked on Tuesday, and he offered a few possibilities. First, he said, the doctored records “violated New York election law, which makes it a crime to conspire to promote a candidacy by unlawful means,” including making false statements. Second, Bragg cited the federal election law cap on contribution limits.
Yves Smith picked these theories apart:
The indictment relates solely to Trump fixer Michael Cohen’s payment of hush money to National Enquirer to kill stories they had bought from Stormy Daniels and another woman, believed to be Karen McDougal. Those payments were reimbursed, some by Trump personally, some out of Trump Organization accounts. All payments were recorded in Trump Organization records (perhaps because Trump Organization also keeps records for Trump personally? Because all or some of the personal payments were later reimbursed by Trump Organization entities?). The indictment’s 34 counts all invoke § 175.10:1
§ 175.10 Falsifying business records in the first degree.
A person is guilty of falsifying business records in the first degree when he commits the crime of falsifying business records in the second degree, and when his intent to defraud includes an intent to commit another crime or to aid or conceal the commission thereof.
Let us stop and point out one elephant in the room. A big reason the DA has to try to bootstrap the alleged business records falsification into a first degree violation is that its statute of limitations is five years, versus two for a mere second class violation. If the Trump legal team can argue that there was no bigger crime this records hanky-panky was covering up, the case goes poof because the statute of limitations expired on the lesser offense.
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To get to a first degree falsification, there has to be an intent to commit or aid in or conceal the commission of another crime.
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The Statement of Facts [..] bangs on about the payoffs to American Media Inc. (AMI), the parent of National Enquirer, to kill the stories for the benefit of Trump’s election efforts, and depicts that as trying to illegally influence the election. As many readers know, there are a lot of problems with trying to make that the actual or intended crime that turns a second degree records violation into a first degree one.The first is that the election laws in question are Federal, and a New York state prosecutor lacks standing to enforce Federal law.
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The second is that Federal law requires that for a payment to be an election law violation, it must be made for the sole purpose of influencing the election.
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Finally (although I have not parsed it super carefully), the Statement of Facts appears to rely on Cohen as the sole source for what Trump’s intent was. Cohen is not a reliable witness.
The question of intent is critical here. The details of the Cohen case show that the intent of his reimbursement by Trump was likely not the one the prosecutor alleges. As Yves extends in a comment:
Cohen did plead guilty to tax evasion, but none of that was related to the payoffs.
The detailed DoJ discussion of the payoffs makes it utterly clear that Cohen freelanced in negotiating with and paying AMI to kill the babe stories. Only AFTER did he go to the Trump Organization to seek reimbursement. So even if Cohen’s motivation was “primarily” to influence the election, that does NOT prove it was the Trump Organization motive. In fact, the Trump Organization had not motive because they did not cook up the scheme! Cohen was on his own!
So why pay Cohen? Wellie, the $60,000 bonus does say they appreciated his initiative. But that does not establish why. Note that the Trump Org could contend that since they has not authorized the payments to AMI, they couldn’t treat them as reimbursements. You can argue they were trying to have it both ways, not technically reimbursing Cohen but making him whole economically. We’ll see how this gets argued if it becomes an issue in the case.
The long-winded point here is that if Team Trump can argue they were paying Cohen for something other than election influence efforts, then it’s a legit tax deduction.
The prosecutor will have to prove that the Trump administration has falsified business records. That is a dubious claim in itself.
The prosecutor will then have to prove that Trump intent in doing that was to hush up another crime. If there was no other crime then the whole case is mute. The other crime the DA asserts Trump wanted to hush up could be one of two.
The first is a violation of New York election law which makes it a crime to conspire to promote a candidacy by unlawful means. The second is a violation of Federal election law for which the DA has no jurisdiction and which the Feds themselves did not prosecute.
All those points are weak. I can see them being argued in court but I doubt that any jury can be convinced that these were intended crimes.
If you shoot the king make sure you kill him. Accusing Trump of crimes that can not be proven in court will only make him stronger.
The Democrats made a huge mistake in pushing this case. It will drag out over many months giving Trump all the media time he needs.
During the 2016 campaign the media were filled with 'bad stuff' Trump was allegedly doing. The endless promotion helped him to win the election. In 2024 the media will again be filled with endless stories about Trump and the trial against him.
The media like to do this because anything about Trumps increases their viewership. But it is also promoting him as the anti-establishment candidate. This at no cost for his campaign.
It is unlikely that the government can win the trial against Trump. What other means will the Democrats then use to fulfill Biden's promise that Trump will no again come to power?
Posted by b on April 5, 2023 at 15:34 UTC | Permalink
next page »I guess b got his rest!
This is such a replay of the lawfare waged against Lula da Silva in Brazil.
Only North is South. Down is up. What an absolute joke of a poorly constructed disaster.
Lord love a duck. Can't they come up with a better script?
It is insulting to anyone with less than half a brain.
Uh, maga.
Thank you, b!
Posted by: lex talionis | Apr 5 2023 15:52 utc | 2
Trump is the gift that keeps on giving because Dems and their media lapdogs are lost without him. CNN/MSNBC etc ratings tank when focus leaves him, and the Democrats have nothing to point to for motivation of their base so Big Bad Trump and a Danger to Democracy are all they have. It's been one hoax and smear after another to obfuscate chronic policy failure and the utter corruption of the Biden Crime Family.
The United States aka Empire of Lies, Great Satan and Outlaw Empire is very very mighty and will fall into its own footprint like a bunker buster.
cheers!
Posted by: gottlieb | Apr 5 2023 15:52 utc | 3
"What other means will the Democrats then use to fulfill Biden's promise that Trump will no again come to power?"
Does he own a pipeline they can blow up?
Posted by: StirThePot | Apr 5 2023 15:55 utc | 4
New York DA Bragg did not reveal all his cards. There are more Trump crimes that will be revealed by the Manhattan DA.
https://twitter.com/AbrahamStein8/status/1643643107370491905?s=20
Posted by: Dave Oneil | Apr 5 2023 15:55 utc | 5
The resurrection of the Kabuki Theatre focused on Trump is more than a what we all see on the surface. The US Uniparty, itself controlled by globalist money interests, seeks to increase the polarization of the American social fabric in order to impose their globalist agenda via a “moderate”. It is a planned distraction from the problems of Empire such as loss of US$ hegemony and a increasingly accelerating national debt. Trump himself is merely a tool for that. His re-election is not sought by the populace; the vast majority of those who voted for him once or twice merely want the problems that he so well identified to be solved. They are no longer fooled by his skill at knowing the national pulse.
Posted by: Ciaran | Apr 5 2023 16:00 utc | 6
Ciaran @ 6 "They are no longer fooled by his skill at knowing the national pulse."
If Trump is smart he will refurbish his message. The anger we saw at the Capitol protest isn't there anymore.
Posted by: dh | Apr 5 2023 16:12 utc | 8
@ b Thanks for the airing.
[.]The first is a violation of New York election law which makes it a crime to conspire to promote a candidacy by unlawful means. The second is a violation of Federal election law for which the DA has no jurisdiction and which the Feds themselves did not prosecute.[.]
Jonathan Turley, professor and legal scholar, reminds of a third:
The John Edwards’ case and such similarities:[.] What we do know is the checkered history leading to this moment.
The Justice Department itself declined to prosecute the federal election claim against Trump. There was ample reason to decline.The Justice Department went down this road before and it did not go well. They tried to prosecute former Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards on stronger grounds (which I also criticized) and failed. In that case, campaign officials and donors were directly involved in covering up an affair that produced a child.
At the time, Edwards’ wife was suffering from cancer. The prosecution still collapsed. The reason is that you need to show the sole purpose for paying hush money in such a scandal. For any married man, let alone a celebrity, there are various reasons to want to bury a sexual scandal.
For Trump, there was an upcoming election but he was also a married man allegedly involved in an affair with a porn star. He was also a television celebrity who is subject to the standard “morals clause” that’s triggered by criminal conduct or conduct that brings “public disrepute, scandal, or embarrassment.” These clauses are written broadly to protect the news organizations and their “brand.”
Various presidents from Warren Harding to Bill Clinton have been involved in efforts to hush up affairs. They also had different reasons for burying such scandals, including politics. However, scandals are messy matters with a complex set of motivations. Showing that Trump only acted with the future election in mind — rather than his current marriage or television contracts — is implausible. That was likely the same calculus made by the Justice Department.
That is also why the use of the “bootstrapping” theory as the primary charge would be an indictment of the prosecution and its own conduct. The office has already been tarnished by the conduct of the prosecutors who pushed this theory.
When Bragg initially balked at this theory and stopped the investigation, two prosecutors, Carey R. Dunne and Mark F. Pomerantz, resigned from the Manhattan DA’s office. Pomerantz then did something that some of us view as a highly unprofessional and improper act. He published a book on the case against Trump — a person who was still under investigation and not charged, let alone convicted, of any crime.[.]
(emphasis added)
Whatever some view as Trump's failings --
there is a lot of meat precedents for Trump’s defense. In the end Alvin Bragg, the braggart, will face more than 15 minutes of sunshine. A shameful pity for someone who wears a colour enhanced birthday suit.
Posted by: Likklemore | Apr 5 2023 16:20 utc | 9
at this point, I think there is a small (I hope) possibility of assassination. The Biden administration is demented. the fish goes senile from the top or something.
Posted by: pretzelattack | Apr 5 2023 16:21 utc | 10
Posted by: Dave Oneil | Apr 5 2023 15:55 utc | 5
well, the DA revealed the duece of clubs, 7 of hearts waiting to be revealed.
Posted by: pretzelattack | Apr 5 2023 16:22 utc | 11
b asks what other means remain for the Democrats?
Imnsho, they will Nordstream him.
Posted by: marcel | Apr 5 2023 16:23 utc | 12
"The US Uniparty, itself controlled by globalist money interests, seeks to increase the polarization of the American social fabric in order to impose their globalist agenda via a “moderate”. It is a planned distraction from the problems of Empire such as loss of US$ hegemony and a increasingly accelerating national debt."
But not covid, no sir that wasn't a distraction from a collapsing banking system that began in 2008 and resumed in 2019. Nope everything they told you, the media B picks apart day in and day, was gods truth. Some of you might not have read this yet, but its food for thought:
Posted by: Mr. House | Apr 5 2023 16:23 utc | 13
"Trump himself is merely a tool for that. His re-election is not sought by the populace; the vast majority of those who voted for him once or twice merely want the problems that he so well identified to be solved. They are no longer fooled by his skill at knowing the national pulse."
Above Posted oh-so-confidently by Ciaran | Apr 5 2023 16:00 utc | 6 as if he/she/it had some magical personal insight into the populace as a whole.
Many of us were not fooled by him at all, but simply considered him to be a less-well-organized evil than the alternative and thus a reasonable choice to attempt to derail the Democratic and deep-state establishments which had for decades caused so much destruction. We hope that he'll manage to do better next time around (benefiting from the experience he had the first time) since that situation still requires rectification.
Posted by: StirThePot | Apr 5 2023 16:24 utc | 14
explanation of above post--the 7 2 is considered to be the worst hand in hold 'em poker.
Posted by: pretzelattack | Apr 5 2023 16:24 utc | 15
The point is that the West has asserted ad nauseam that it is fighting in Ukraine and killing the Ukrainian population en masse to ‘DEFEND DEMOCRACY”.
The rest of the World can see with awful clarity that American Democracy consists of a whore with her knickers round her ankles and a hundred dollar bill in her hand while she makes strident claims of sainthood and virtue.
Posted by: CitizenSmith | Apr 5 2023 16:31 utc | 16
The Democ-Rats WANT Trump to become the Republican candidate, and so they push him.
Posted by: Apollyon | Apr 5 2023 16:34 utc | 17
"The Democ-Rats WANT Trump to become the Republican candidate, and so they push him."
Its like neither wants to lay in the bed of collapse that they made or accept responsibility (which is the largest requirement of leadership and has been missing for quite some time in the west)
Posted by: Mr. House | Apr 5 2023 16:38 utc | 18
@ psychohistorian: post #1
Well said! Agreed! ( raises glass… clink…Cheers! )
Posted by: Trubind1 | Apr 5 2023 16:45 utc | 19
All this so called criminal case proves is that the establishment/elite want Trump in the presidential Palace of Washington in 2025.
A five year old can see through this obvious American uniparty bolox. Trump will keep capitalism grinding on for a few more years and then what?
Posted by: Eoin Clancy | Apr 5 2023 16:46 utc | 20
"Its like neither wants to lay in the bed of collapse that they made or accept responsibility"
No, no, the Dems/Biden-Mob want(s) to stay in office, and the only way to achieve that is when Trump becomes the Republican candidate. Against any other contender Biden (or Harris) will lose miserably.
Posted by: Apollyon | Apr 5 2023 16:47 utc | 21
Wouldn't the indictment itself violate NY's election law?
Posted by: witness matthias | Apr 5 2023 16:50 utc | 22
If anyone needed a confirmation that the wheels are coming off from the ukrainian racket machine, the overhyped Trump hate affair is there as a final evidence.
Posted by: Pierrot | Apr 5 2023 17:09 utc | 24
Posted by: StirThePot | Apr 5 2023 16:24 utc | 15
And many were no longer being fooled by the lying war-mongering democrats!!!
Posted by: nathan in WA US | Apr 5 2023 17:14 utc | 25
Apollyon @ 22
...the Dems/Biden-Mob want(s) to stay in office, and the only way to achieve that is when Trump becomes the Republican candidate. Against any other contender Biden (or Harris) will lose miserably.
That's exactly what Hillary thought. Of course they can repeat the same mistake, one of the definitions of stupid is to keep sticking your hand in the fire. I wouldn't mistake the DNC's one track, two dimensional, ruthless, relentless focus on control for smarts, so why not.
You know the movie Jaws where they keep shooting harpoons with floating barrels into the shark? That's what they are doing to Trump, wear him down with lawfare barrels, from the last primary to today. To Trump's credit he can dive with a whole lot of barrels.
Even if no charges stick in the courts they are hoping the voters run the other way once they see the ugly shark floating on the surface. It did work in 2018, people were plain tired of the roller coaster, Trump's mental incoherence and chaotic administrative skills didn't help, voters want stability not a roller coaster. People wanted succor not divisiveness during Covid, Roy Cohen acolyte Trump couldn't understand that.
I'm no fan of Trump, in any way, a born and bred charlatan, anti-worker, anti-human, but watching Jaws I rooted for the shark.
Posted by: LightYearsFromHome | Apr 5 2023 17:15 utc | 26
"People wanted succor not divisiveness during Covid"
Read the article i posted above. "They" didn't want you to have succor during covid, the whole point was the break the population. Forced isolation and so forth, along with looting the country by bailing themselves out again, by an even larger amount then in 2008. Lots of you missed that because you cling to this mortal shell in your apathy and belief in nothing.
Posted by: Mr. House | Apr 5 2023 17:18 utc | 27
correction @27: It did work in 2020... Roy Cohn acolyte...
Posted by: LightYearsFromHome | Apr 5 2023 17:19 utc | 28
Covid was a color revolution by the uniparty, change my mind.
Posted by: Mr. House | Apr 5 2023 17:20 utc | 29
Posted by: Mr. House @ 28
Didn't work to damn well for Trump. It broke him. Read what I wrote.
Posted by: LightYearsFromHome | Apr 5 2023 17:21 utc | 30
the economist/yougov poll is probably the best there is. polls have all sorts of flaws, so should never be taken too seriously.
many people misunderstand polling as providing an indication of the prevalence of an opinion in the population, which is how the media presents it. that is wrong. what polls actually provide accurately is a measure of the correlation between different opinions in the sample group. if you model out the bias of the sample group compared to the real population, then you can kind of make some guesses about the actual opinions of the total population, but that is more voodoo than math.
getting to the point:
26% want biden to run again
35% want trump to run again
both numbers are low, but obviously one is significantly worse.
41% of independents say that biden did not legitimately win the election.
that number has ticked up slightly over time. it was 36% a year ago. since trump has been pretty much banned from mass media for the past 2 years this would tend to indicate that all of the anti-trump insurrection propaganda is actually having the opposite of the desired effect and pushing independents into trump's camp.
14% of blacks and 36% of hispanics say that biden did not legitimately win the election.
if believing biden did not legitimately win the election is a pretty close proxy for voting for trump in a rematch, then these numbers are very good for trump.
if 40% of independents already believe that biden is illegitimate, and a typical monolithic partisan vote from republicans is locked in, then trump only needs to sell 10% of independents in order to close the deal.
some democrats are now trying to spin the prosecutions as being intentional to help trump because he would be a weaker candidate in the general, but that sounds like desperate wishful thinking from people whose plans have backfired spectacularly.
biden is so unpopular that he could probably only win against someone as unpopular as trump, but even that seems unlikely at this point.
https://docs.cdn.yougov.com/nr7yjreihl/econTabReport.pdf
Posted by: AnotherBoringShow | Apr 5 2023 17:27 utc | 31
Republicans/Conservatives: Trump will win 2024 now!
The American Election Fraud Machine: (chuckling) Yeah, you go, girls!
Posted by: Marielle Redclaw | Apr 5 2023 17:27 utc | 32
These inconvenient women are lucky they don’t get vanished by the guys they are blackmailing.
Of all the crimes though? Shagging pornstars…
While you have footage of Biden fondling little girls.
Posted by: Wokechoke | Apr 5 2023 17:31 utc | 33
I read the indictment. it's short
"The defendant, in the County of New York and elsewhere, on or about February 14, 2017, with intent to defraud and intent to commit another crime and aid and conceal the commission thereof, made and caused a false entry in the business records of an enterprise, to wit, an invoice from Michael Cohen dated February 14, 2017, marked as a record of the Donald J. Trump Revocable Trust, and kept and maintained by the Trump Organization."
There two elements to this offense:
The entry made in the business records is false.
AND
The entry is made with intent to commit or conceal another crime.
BOTH elements have to be present.
The alleged "indictment" only states one of the two elements of the offense.
Nowhere in the 16 pages is the second element identified -- either as an allegation (e.g. a charge against a person; that is, a pending criminal prosecution) or a conviction for a criminal offense that occurred.
The NY DA said in his "presser" he doesn't have to specify. That's false; an indictment is a formal charge of a specific crime and the elements of the offense must be pled. This is literal first-semester law school stuff; even a traffic citation has to specify the elements of the alleged offense. You prove the alleged elements at trial but you must identify all of the elements required to evidence a crime in the indictment.
A traffic citation, which typically is a civil infraction and doesn't even rise to the level of a misdemeanor, must state something like this:
"In violation of law or ordinance xxx.yyy the operator of vehicle zzz, specifically , did travel at an unlawful speed of ."
You can't be given a ticket that says " broke a traffic law; we'll let you know which one later on." Such a stop and "ticket" is facially defective, void and presumptively issued in malice.
Likewise you cannot be indicted for murder where the person allegedly murdered isn't identified. A blank murder indictment where the alleged victim is not identified is facially void and no Judge worth a bench to sit behind would permit such to be brought into his or her courtroom. This is the garbage the British did to Americans 250 years ago and started a real revolution.
I am no Trump supporter. I once was as I thought we needed a change agent. In my opinion he deserves to be indicted all right -- for involuntary manslaughter of one million Americans, deliberate fraud in the inducement within the medical system with his "Warp Speed" crap, payment of bounties to US hospitals for known worthless drugs and procedures and more, but this is crap. We need a national divorce in this country.
Posted by: Beltway Bandit | Apr 5 2023 17:33 utc | 34
Posted by: Eoin Clancy | Apr 5 2023 16:46 utc | 21
All this so called criminal case proves is that the establishment/elite want Trump in the presidential Palace of Washington in 2025. A five year old can see through this obvious American uniparty bolox.
_________________________________________________________
They are doing the things that will get him elected and five year olds won't be voting. Many adults can't see that this is yet another scam prosecution that will end again as another nothing-burger which will increase Trump's popularity.
Posted by: jinn | Apr 5 2023 17:36 utc | 35
Posted by: Wokechoke | Apr 5 2023 17:31 utc | 34
shagging porn stars isn't a crime far as i know, unless it falls under some kind of prostitution law maybe. they are trying to say he paid her to stay silent solely or primarily to win the election, and from what I read that is going to be, or should i say should be, very hard to prove. of course in kangaroo court that won't matter much.
Posted by: pretzelattack | Apr 5 2023 17:37 utc | 36
Dave Oneil @5: "There are more Trump crimes that will be revealed by the Manhattan DA..."
"Mueller... Mueller.... Mueller..."
The mindless gibbering hysteria of the poor Trump Derangement Syndrome victims must be kept at a high boil for another couple years!
Sorry, but your latest anti-Trump champion has nothing and everyone knows it. The tragic TDS victims are now clinging to Mueller's oops, I mean Bragg's secret "bombshell" to take out Trump when we all know it will be just another damp squib like all of the rest, no matter how much the presstitutes, hysterically squealing in comical desperation, try to hype it.
But go ahead and try hold out until the next election clinging to this imaginary hope for vengeance for the last six years of one's self-inflicted anguish; cling to this delusion that years of hilarious theatrics by lying presstitutes and broken-minded TDS victims will finally be vindicated.
But the poor TDS people will not be vindicated. They will not find relief from their Trump anxiety. Had they not abandoned reason in their anti-Trump hysteria they would know that there is no grand revelation on the horizon that will destroy Trump. The man has lived in the spotlight for much of his life and if there were any shocking dirt for the presstitutes to put on display, they would have put it on heavy rotation on the population's Plato's Cave displays long ago.
Posted by: William Gruff | Apr 5 2023 17:39 utc | 37
Posted by: Mr. House | Apr 5 2023 17:20 utc | 30
i think it was an accidental lab release they just took advantage of, it's not like they gave a shit how many people died to get there (see Ukraine, country 404).
Posted by: pretzelattack | Apr 5 2023 17:39 utc | 38
establishment/elite want Trump in the presidential Palace of Washington in 2025
sort of like they wanted to lose a war against russia in ukraine? i am all for assuming that every move the enemy makes is a stratagem, but sometimes they really are just corrupt senile fools.
Posted by: AnotherBoringShow | Apr 5 2023 17:40 utc | 39
The Stormy Dan case has resurfaced - perhaps after the statute of limitations has passed.
When it first surfaced several years ago, the case went away because an atty was dirty and got indicted, no?
That was suspicious.
The charge of paying hush money to a porn star was much stronger then than it is now.
What we have here is a major distraction from other pressing concerns.
Trump is raking in millions in donations already.
Seems to help more than hurt him.
Posted by: Chaka Khagan | Apr 5 2023 17:41 utc | 40
Posted by: AnotherBoringShow | Apr 5 2023 17:40 utc | 40
the fish goes senile from the top.
Posted by: pretzelattack | Apr 5 2023 17:44 utc | 41
"i think it was an accidental lab release they just took advantage of, it's not like they gave a shit how many people died to get there (see Ukraine, country 404)."
Did you read the article posted above? What a convenient lab leak then.
Why did B censor people during the "pandemic" who pointed out the stupidity of the "narrative" we were being told?
Posted by: Mr. House | Apr 5 2023 17:44 utc | 42
Where did the vaccine passports and unpeopling of unjabbed people fit in to taking advantage of a lab leak?
Posted by: Mr. House | Apr 5 2023 17:45 utc | 43
Posted by: Mr. House | Apr 5 2023 17:44 utc | 43
why does it censor people who point out they blew up the pipelne? everybody knows it was the US. they're incompetent, but it doesn't matter because they have so much wealth and power. I don't think we can change things here without a very bloody revolution, or a Russia/China ascension that supplants the US. what that will bring is uncertain, but it can't really be worse imo, given the character of those two nations.
Posted by: pretzelattack | Apr 5 2023 17:48 utc | 44
Another reminder that before trashing international law the US totally corrupted its own domestic legal system.
There is no justice in the United States whenever a case involves the power of the ruling class.That is swhy Assange is in jail- because he knows and so do we all that there is not a hope in hell of him receiving either a fair trial or decent custodial conditions.
We saw what happened to Epstein, almost certainly because he couldn't answer a question in court without threatening to expose powerful people. We have seen what is happening to Mumia abu Jamal, Leonard Peltier (both extremely high profile innocents), Donziger and hundreds of others.
This corrupt parody of justice is part of a system that Trump defends- he made no efforts to use the Pardon power to remedy any of the injustices noted- so it is entirely appropriate that the man who ordered the killing of General Soleimani, and, like the rest of the political establishment is unmoved by the daily murders carried out in Israel, is getting lynched.
The oly victim here is justice and that was buried in America centuries ago.
Posted by: bevin | Apr 5 2023 17:49 utc | 45
I wonder which is worse: giving someone money to buy their silence over some seedy dealings or demanding money to buy silence about something potentially embarrassing?
Looks to me like the one who should be on trial is the porno tart.
Posted by: William Gruff | Apr 5 2023 17:51 utc | 46
If you shoot the king make sure you kill him. Accusing Trump of crimes that can not be proven in court will only make him stronger.
Even if they kill the king (figuratively speaking) it won't be enough. The US Constitution states three qualifications to be POTUS: 1) Born on US soil as a natural US citizen, 2) Be no less than thirty-five years of age, and 3) Be a permanent resident of the United States for no less than fourteen years.
Do you know what the US Constitution doesn't say? You don't need a clean record, and you don't need to be walking free. Donald Trump (and anyone else - theoretically) can literally run for office from a jail cell, and even serve a term as POTUS from a inside a jail cell. It is perfectly legal.
Americans love their thug-life culture. The Millennial and Zoomer voter turnout would be historic, because Trump the felon with three baby mamas would be cool in their eyes.
Posted by: Monos | Apr 5 2023 17:52 utc | 47
"they're incompetent, but it doesn't matter because they have so much wealth and power."
They only get away with BS because we let them. Those people who would shriek and yell at you if you were walking down the sidewalk outside to get fresh air are the problem or cross to the otherside because the media turned everyone into a plague carrier. They are the Nazis and those who would censor to help their "narrative" aren't any better. Those are the type who itch to be "informers". The .01% can't get shit done without the 10% below them that grovel for acceptances from their "betters".
Posted by: Mr. House | Apr 5 2023 17:52 utc | 48
Posted by: Mr. House | Apr 5 2023 17:44 utc | 43
This is a thread about Trump NOT Covid so please stop abusing it. Thank you.
Posted by: Zet | Apr 5 2023 17:57 utc | 50
Apologize for abusing everyone else the past few years and i will.
Posted by: Mr. House | Apr 5 2023 17:58 utc | 51
Posted by: bevin | Apr 5 2023 17:55 utc | 50
yes that's the original version. this fish is the democratic party, and it's demented. it was rotten when it had all its marbles.
Posted by: pretzelattack | Apr 5 2023 17:59 utc | 52
Posted by: Mr. House | Apr 5 2023 17:52 utc | 49
how are we going to stop them though? it's a 2 party rigged system, so not by voting. I would like to see a general strike, i guess people aren't desperate enough yet and maybe americans are too propagandized to go for it. isolated action just gets you slaughtered, maybe after a trial first.
Posted by: pretzelattack | Apr 5 2023 18:02 utc | 53
The press published a mass of stories incorrectly painting DeSantis as leaning left at about the same time that charges against Trump were filed. Both actions increase Trump's probability of getting the nomination. Is the left more afraid of DeSantis than of Trump?
Posted by: barstool | Apr 5 2023 18:03 utc | 54
"I would like to see a general strike, i guess people aren't desperate enough yet and maybe americans are too propagandized to go for it. isolated action just gets you slaughtered, maybe after a trial first."
I agree with this, the collapse is the solution. People have to be ready to accept what you are telling them, and the general populace isn't ready yet, but they're getting closer. Just keep pointing out the stupid.
Posted by: Mr. House | Apr 5 2023 18:05 utc | 55
"What other means will the Democrats then use to fulfill Biden's promise that Trump will no again come to power?"
The next likely step is pretty clear: JFK, MLK, Walter Reuther, Malcolm X . . .
http://libgen.rs/book/index.php?md5=621A97D2B9A801E85045CCBED48C0547
Posted by: Fiona Jenkins | Apr 5 2023 18:05 utc | 56
It's my understanding that: the National Enquirer paid Daniels for the exclusive as a catch and kill deal previously arranged with Trump's attorneys. Enquirer paid Daniels, Trump's attorneys paid the Enquirer, supposedly with campaign money, that Trump says he reimbursed. Daniels got partially taken, she got money but her story got eighty sixed. Do correct me if I'm wrong.
Still, not much of a big legal deal, but the DNC did manage to deliver some kryptonite to Trump's teflon super powers. Like Berlusconi he figured out long before his run how to turn sex scandals to his favor by making them a sign of his prowess and vigor, make it entertainment rather than transgression and create vicarious sympathy. Real men don't hide their womanizing, only inadequate weenies like Bill Clinton do. Whether that's an advancement in the anglo political milieu is to be determined.
Posted by: LightYearsFromHome | Apr 5 2023 18:06 utc | 57
@bevin | Apr 5 2023 17:55 utc | 50
I've never sat and watched a fish rot, but it seems to me that they would start rotting from the bacteria in their digestive system. The first indication of them going bad might be the eyes sinking in from dehydration, but that doesn't, in my layman's opionion, indicate that the totting began there.
Don't orginizations often get their bad leaders because of division and petty pride within the ranks? Wouldn't a really rotten leader often be disposed or neutralized if the masses are awake and watching?
Posted by: barstool | Apr 5 2023 18:13 utc | 58
How are you going to fix America?
You are not. Simple as that.
If a new labor movement could be built in the US, and this time with the expressed intention of building a socialist and/or labor party in parallel, then you might have a chance. With the country being deindustrialized and the workforce mostly consisting of fey service workers and identify-fixated gig workers, where are you going to find any class conscious political muscle? You can’t defeat the capitalist establishment by threatening it with limp noodles.
Posted by: William Gruff | Apr 5 2023 18:15 utc | 59
My guess is Trump will be found guilty on at least one of the charges, that's the whole point of a multi count indictment - give a skeptical and tired jury something to pick through, a varied selection, till they find something they like, and then be able to get the hell out and go home. At the moment I'd say he's toast, this time the fix is in, they are going to do a spring offensive on him, keep sending in arms and men till he falters. The shark in Jaws did a lot of havoc but lost.
Posted by: LightYearsFromHome | Apr 5 2023 18:22 utc | 60
William Gruff @ 60
With the country being deindustrialized and the workforce mostly consisting of fey service workers and identify-fixated gig workers, where are you going to find any class conscious political muscle? You can’t defeat the capitalist establishment by threatening it with limp noodles.
In a similar vein, I was talking with a friend who half-jokingly wondered whether the Italian army could at a minimum defeat the Swiss army, he was sure it could. I answered, who are you going to send into the trenches your son and all his pussy friends. He thought for less than split second and said, yeh, you're right.
Posted by: LightYearsFromHome | Apr 5 2023 18:32 utc | 61
@Monos
"Do you know what the US Constitution doesn't say? You don't need a clean record, and you don't need to be walking free. Donald Trump (and anyone else - theoretically) can literally run for office from a jail cell, and even serve a term as POTUS from a inside a jail cell. It is perfectly legal."
Correct. But isn't this a good thing? Not everyone sitting in prison is guilty.
Posted by: Apollyon | Apr 5 2023 18:43 utc | 62
So, reading between the lines, the consensus is that this is a Golden Opportunity for Trump?
Now there’s a catchy presidential slogan!
Posted by: anon2020 | Apr 5 2023 18:43 utc | 63
What’s happening re Trump so far fits Jackrabbit’s prediction for the regime to being Trump the Antihero back on a second, larger wave of phony populism to direct people’s anger “where it belongs” (according to some): Chayna.
Haven’t heard from Jackrabbit in a long time. If you’re out there, JR, you are missed.
Posted by: natokraine | Apr 5 2023 18:46 utc | 64
Weighing in on the Jerry Springer show drama, the next election is Trump's to lose. If he has half the smarts he should have he'll change his image just enough to keep the MAGAs with him (border issues should do that) while carving out the image of a tired, wise old warrior (channel Jimmy Stewart) who is done with foreign fiascos. Easy to find supporting cast-- Macgregor and his people would sign up. Avoid the neocons like Pompeo, Bolton, Bannon, Abrams.
However, Trump is a sociopathic, spoiled rich kid-- a con man-- and the empire he might want to appear to be in charge of is melting. And he's old, fat and aging fast. I still think he'll drop out.
Bottom line, US elections are degrading and moving more into infotainment, eventually won't carry much more importance than high school class officer voting. I look for the military to continue to step up politically, supported by 3 letter agencies. They will be forced to manage imperial decline until the U.S. breaks up unless they blow everything to smithereens.
Posted by: migueljose | Apr 5 2023 18:47 utc | 65
Trump this and Desantis that, don’t kid yourself.
Enough mail-in ballots in democrat cities in key swing states will be found to ensure a democrat holds the White House for the foreseeable future.
Posted by: Fred777 | Apr 5 2023 18:50 utc | 66
Time for the Rs to go after the Bidens for their criminality.
Posted by: karlof1 | Apr 5 2023 16:07 utc | 7
-------------------------------------------------------------
Why didn't the skeleton cross the road?
No guts!
Posted by: Acco Hengst | Apr 5 2023 18:54 utc | 67
Posted by: bevin | Apr 5 2023 17:49 utc | 46
precisely.
the conflict between trumpster dumpster and the "deep state" is more fake than a WWE RAW wrestling match.
the ruling class fights among itself. i wouldn't want to sit at a dinner table between one time best friends and still long time business partners, HRC and DT.
trump made his money screwing over natives and poor NY'ers and building casinos.
trump is amerikkka. he couldn't find Mexico on a map, but he's ready to invade. just like his "rival", Biden.
anybody who looks at a billionaire as a change agent is under the influence of some serious "dragon power:" fear, envy, resentment, greed, etc.
Posted by: rjb1.5 | Apr 5 2023 18:56 utc | 68
Could the case be a distract from the stunning defeat of Ukraine and fall of Bakhmut?
Posted by: alaric | Apr 5 2023 19:00 utc | 69
Follow up on the above: I think the neocons are going to be seriously hurt by the Ukraine debacle and Biden's jawdropping "leadership". Speaking of MacGregor, it's possible that his kind of so-called patriots within the deep state will emerge and begin to flex their muscle. Sy Hersch's expoze ay demonstrated yet again that there are people within the military, CIA etc who are disturbed about imperial overreach and willing to blow the whistle especially if they don't get caught. If Trump or whoever taps into this vein of people there might be a chance but the game is very dangerous on a personal level and the neocons tend to fight dirty. I still don't think Trump is really the kind of street fighter needed to jump into that kind of battle. comparing him to Latin American leaders, Putin, Erdogan, Asaad, he's pretty wimpy.
Anyway, the action won't be the election. It will be within the above agencies and military, especially if they are listening to their families and people on the street. Including the Blacks and the Mexican Americans. Others too, of course.
Posted by: migueljose | Apr 5 2023 19:00 utc | 70
It does not matter what kind of case the prosecutor has. All he needs is the right Jury and everyone on the Jury in NY will know how he/she is expected to vote and will know how easy it will be the turn their lives upside down if they vote wrong.
The US political system is binary. You vote for one or the other. Agreed that voting for the Uni-party may or may not make a difference. But I am capable of holding 2 positions at once: I vote and hope it matters while understanding that it mostly doesnt matter.
Since DeSantis seems to be moving toward the donor side of the GOP, I'll probably vote for Trump in the primary and general (if he's the nominee). It may not matter, but it's all we have except for embracing the determination not to listen to anything our rulers tell us.
Posted by: Dan Farrand | Apr 5 2023 19:01 utc | 71
I mean, this little shite-show is a sideshow, however-- 1. "The prosecutor will have to prove that the Trump administration has falsified business records. That is a dubious claim in itself."!!! Now really, Conman Don's entire "business" career was skeezy scams, fraud, not paying vendors (collapse of Trump "Taj Mahal"), then daring the victims to take him to court, I have "the best lawyers" & won't pay, etc!! Now I grant that if Garrick Marland were "prosecuting" this case it would go right down the terlet, but any competent prosecutor in charge shouldn't face too great a challenge when the Don's corruption is so obvious. (When he's paying taxes, the property's only worth $5 million-- in statements to investors the same building is worth $580 million, etc.) Now, what do I care one way or the other what his followers in the Trump is Jesus cult throw money at his "billionaire" feet!? No skin off my nose, one way or another, anyone who joins a cult surrenders all their rights, judgment etc. at the door & there's a sucker born every minute. Like me, there are a lot of anti-Zionists (not anti-Semites) on this site, & let's not forget the BS "Abraham Accords" for his "pal" Bibi (who by the way, like Rupert Murdoch is currently not taking DJT's phone calls) are an affront to humanity, as was running as pretend anti-Imperialist (like Bush Jr. who claimed his admin wouldn't "nation build", look it up) then put the likes of Mike (We lied, we cheated, we stole) Pompeo & Walrus face Bolton in charge of NatSec. Oh, & when Pompeo's Austin Powers style plot to create a diversion outside the Peruvian embassy & send someone inside to murder Assange fizzled and was revealed insisted the reporter be jailed for exposing it. Now, a little credit to Bunco Donny, canceling OBomber's TPP handover of 'Murican law and economics to the global elites was actually populist-- but the giant tax cuts to the richest (which Bidet of course continued) were quite the opposite . . . I agree with other commenters that it's a Uniparty, & I'd like to see them jail one another, it's past damn time, since Ford pardoned Nixon (when I was in high school) the Loot and Steal with Impunity monopoly card the elites hold has benefited only them & hurt the rest of us. I hate Shit-Libs nearly as much as Zionists, but living in the reality based community, the Dimmies' strategy to promote the Trumpy MTG style wackos (Liberals & gays are pedophiles; the wonderful Catholic priests who control the GOoPer party and SCOTUS aren't, oh, & I never heard of teen-raper Denny Hastert, who's that?) at the primary level so they lose in the general election worked well in the last cycle, so this all makes sense. Trump is a joke, he was briefly entertaining (I shed zero tears when $Hrillary lost, one of the politicos I hated for decades), but his 15 minutes of fame should be over by now. Maybe he should go hide in a closet for awhile like his buddy the Hitler loving "Ye" finally did. A pox on both their houses, while I don't expect actual prosecutions of the 0.1% Grifter class (Dimmie & ReThug) to go far, it'd be nice if it did. As Gandhi was quoted to say when asked about the value of Western "civilization", "It sounds like a good idea."
Posted by: SkepticalThinker | Apr 5 2023 19:02 utc | 72
Trump wouldn't even exist without the good and faithful service to finance, war, oil and propaganda (e.g., FOX News' very existence) performed by Biden and Clinton and Co.
obama, trump, clinton, etc., each of them has a "style" about this, but each proclaims the Oedipal delusion of self-creation, i.e., that Trump is the success that he is because of his private virtue: namely, personal hard work and intelligence. but everyone in the west says this about himself, specifically to the boss. if you don't and you don't do it successfully, you don't get to eat.
trump is america. from raping a world that existed before he got here and by plundering people poorer than him, he professes his own unsurpassed heroism. he's no better than someone who set up a robo-call scam to screw old people out of their social security checks but who made a billion bucks out of it.
OUR HERO! history's greatest martyr. just ask him.
Posted by: rjb1.5 | Apr 5 2023 19:11 utc | 74
What's interesting is not what they charged him with but what they didn't charge him with. You'll note that he's not being charged in the assassination of Solimani or the occupation of Syria and Iraq after both countries told us to leave'
Posted by: Jeff Harrison | Apr 5 2023 19:13 utc | 75
The twists and turns - just yesterday
Stormy Daniels must reimburse Trump – court
The porn star has been ordered to pay $122,000 in legal fees that the ex-president incurred in fighting her failed defamation suit
Stormy Daniels, the porn star at the center of an historic criminal indictment against Donald Trump, has been ordered to pay an additional $122,000 in legal fees that the then-president incurred when she sued him unsuccessfully for defamation in 2018.A federal appellate court in California ruled on the fee dispute on Tuesday, right around the same time that Trump was pleading not guilty in New York City to criminal charges stemming from an alleged $130,000 hush-money payment that was made to Daniels while he was running for president in 2016. Daniels, who claimed to have been threatened to keep quiet about an alleged affair with Trump, sued the then-president after he dismissed her accusations as a “total con job.”
The latest court order covers legal fees that Trump ran up in defending against Daniels’ appeal of a judge’s decision to throw out her defamation lawsuit. Harmeet Dillon, one of the lawyers representing Trump in the defamation case, said Tuesday’s ruling brings to more than $600,000 the combined fee awards that her firm has obtained against Daniels.[.]
R and T sourced
SD was dreaming; seeking defamation of character is indeed a long stretch.
Posted by: Likklemore | Apr 5 2023 19:15 utc | 76
Mr Trump is psycho , criminal , corrupt and con man who deserves to be locked up in jail for years to come.
The people who loves him are as sick as he is , they think they are above the law and no body deserve a success as they are .
He raped women , cheated and manipulated his income to not to pay his share of income tax, bombed Syrian territory and killed Iranian general , he is ignorant of the law and he think he is above the law , well he will figure this thing very soon .
He and his Jewish cook the books and treated the people who worked for them like dirt .
Con man your days are over .
I am surprised at B who could not figure this guy out
Posted by: Bobby | Apr 5 2023 19:17 utc | 77
"Weighing in on the Jerry Springer show drama..."
Posted by: migueljose | Apr 5 2023 18:47 utc | 66
Good line :)
And let's have a big hand for Jerry's special guest, Randy Rainbow with anotherRandy Rainbow Song Parody
Posted by: waynorinorway | Apr 5 2023 19:19 utc | 78
my heart was never so broken, into so many pieces, i never had all the feels, until Trump bore the whips and scourges and thorny crown on my behalf. i doubted i could ever learn to love again after 2020, but now, i know, my heart will go on.
anyway, even if he is convicted of anything at all, which isn't going to happen, but if it does, will he do any jail time? of course not.
but the shame of it all, the naked shame...our moneychanger Messiah still bears the horrible shame...of maybe being fined. and getting lots and lots of free advertisement. from his "enemies".
Trump already deserves a national holiday. have there been any sorrows like unto his sorrows?
-----
Posted by: migueljose | Apr 5 2023 18:47 utc | 66
(Jerry Springer is a good analogy.)
Posted by: rjb1.5 | Apr 5 2023 19:22 utc | 79
Posted by: Mr. House | Apr 5 2023 17:20 utc | 30
«Covid was a color revolution by the uniparty, change my mind.»
COVID did not happen just in the USA, the Uniparty did not impose it as a color revolution in China or Peru. Unless you believe that the elites of every country in the world belongs in the Uniparty.
So COVID was real, but it is arguably that it was used by the Uniparty in the USA and by other elites in some (not all) other countries to make some changes for their benefit (e.g. a giant marketing campaign for the profit of "national champion" Big Pharma). Why let a real crisis go to waste?
Posted by: Blissex | Apr 5 2023 19:43 utc | 80
The DA is definitely partisan (Corporate Democrat), but to use an article attempting to link him to convenient right-wing bogeyman George Soros is a bit lazy or even disingenuous, IMO. For one thing most of the articles you'll find at places like Washington Examiner, Breitbart, etc. all seem compelled to say "Soros is a socialist" or quote Republican lawmakers or officials who say that. This is abjectly ridiculous. Soros is an arch-capitalist currency speculating billionaire. Socialist LOL.
In any case, while he did donate to the PAC that ended up funding Bragg's campaign, he didn't know who the money was going to at the time of his donation (one of hundreds I'm sure) and didn't know Bragg personally or, as he claims, at all.
As I've said from the beginning - Trump and his (mostly) whacked out fanbois are 100% correct. This is *purely* political BS from the Democrats who don't seem to ever realize that the more of a martyr Trump can become, the more popular he will be - including with people like me even though I'd never actually vote for him. That having been said, I really do hope Trump at least has to spend a few nights in a cold, cramped jail cell and frankly wouldn't care if "something happened to him" inside* for what he did to Assange, Gen. Soleimani and the Central Park 5. Karma is a bitch, even if it's purely partisan political theater that brings it forth.
*-A should-be obvious disclaimer: I feel the same about Obama, Bush I, Bush II, Clinton, Ronny Raygun and Joseph Bidet. They are all not only war criminals but financial criminals and grifters who also deserve some karma.
Posted by: Tom_Q_Collins | Apr 5 2023 19:43 utc | 81
Posted by: Blissex | Apr 5 2023 19:43 utc | 81
Do you think the rest of the world wants a disorderly fall of the dollar? Or something more gradual, like locking everyone down for a year or more to prepare?
Posted by: Mr. House | Apr 5 2023 19:47 utc | 82
"I called a Danger Zone on 9/17/19, the day the overnight REPO rate spiked to 10%. That post ended with the line (from Nosh), "The smell of Lehman is in the air." Then on 10/9/19, I wrote, "The danger zone continues." And on 1/22/20, I wrote, "Hang on tight, because we’re still very much there. We’re still very much stuck in the danger zone, as far as the eye can see."
Less than two months later, we had a financial crisis, a run on the shadow banking system that was nominally larger than 2008, but hardly anyone noticed, because A) there was no Lehman moment, and B) COVID. That was followed by bailouts, lockdowns, riots, massive cash giveaways and the 2020 election, and somehow the $IMFS survived."
Posted by: Mr. House | Apr 5 2023 19:49 utc | 83
To the Trump haters or people with "TDS" - Yes, the man is a career grifter, con man and political wrestling heel, but you need to also realize that he's the perfect case study for what the "establishment" or "system" will do once a politician actually represents a threat to the status quo. Trump was scarcely less a war criminal than Obama, Bush, Shrub, Raygun, and Clinton as the full spectrum of corporate media played cover for the MIC (including the dramatic uptick in drone killings under his watch, his obsequious pandering to right wing Zionists and Prince Bone Saw) by presenting us with countless scandals and hoaxes like Russiagate and Ukrainegate -and- rehashing his previous predatory sexual behavior with women which everyone already knew.
But at the end of the day when you look at the whole thing objectively - if you're capable - what has been happening to Trump since he first took office demonstrates the establishment's "immune system" instinctively swarming to a perceived threat to its "health" (in reality, sickness). You may hate Trump for the right reasons, even, but you cannot ignore that we're being presented with exactly how the system protects itself against unwanted intruders to their club.
Posted by: Tom_Q_Collins | Apr 5 2023 19:51 utc | 84
bevin | Apr 5 2023 17:49 utc | 46
_____
The only victim here is justice and that was buried in America centuries ago.
Perceptive commentary, as always. Yes, a parody, another distracting skit of democracy theater, featuring donkey and elephant puppets. As Hellen Keller once put, you may vote for Tweedledum or Tweedledee. Which is the lesser of two weevils?
Although presently a bit distracted himself, I suppose Netanyahoo may be up for a bit more meddling again for his buddy Trump as the electioneering season heats up. He certainly proved his allegiance to Israel during his first term.
Posted by: Doug Hillman | Apr 5 2023 19:58 utc | 85
All good knockabout fun, but where’s that laptop gone? You know, the one that got taken into a repair shop and the diligent, upstanding proprietor was so disturbed by what he found that he notified the authorities.
Where is it now?
Posted by: West of England Andy | Apr 5 2023 20:03 utc | 86
Posted by b on April 5, 2023 at 15:34 UTC | Permalink
All those points are weak. I can see them being argued in court but I doubt that any jury can be convinced that these were intended crimes.
Any jury? How about one in Manhattan? I think if it goes to jury trial, they will find him guilty of something somehow.
Even if he beats this one, though, as he should (given it's obviously all trumped-up BS), there will be others. It's never going to stop. Even if he wins again.
Looks to me like Trump the Reality TV President Series 1 playbook being hauled out and used again, namely: keep him playing defense and never let him get ahead of things and able to do us some real damage on offense. Keep surrounding him with bad advisors as much as possible. Keep him married to the Republican Party which means he can't do anything substantive at all because he'll never get a working majority like he could with a genuine Third Party which it's now too late to mount (unless he did it with RJK as a Coalition Party play but again, it's too late thank God they are no doubt saying). Keep the Press on overdrive attack mode never ever EVER saying anything reasonable or even vaguely respectful of someone who got so many votes. And so on.
Although not a US voter I agree with one poster above who said he was the best of a load of bad options. Actually, I think if he had goodwill on the part of all republicans and most federal workers and a 50-50 press not in psycho-attack mode that he could have been a fine President. But we'll never know. He will never, ever, ever be given the chance. (He wasn't the first time around and he won't be this time around. And if too many Republican voters start to see the light in that desired way, he actually might not get the votes in the Primaries.)
And nor will any other person elected to that office (be given a chance to do a good job). The Republic fell a while ago, they just aren't telling. Doing the same thing again and again and expecting a different result is one smart man's definition of insanity. Voting in US Presidential elections qualifies as one of those things.
Voting in US Presidential elections qualifies as one of those things.
Posted by: Scorpion | Apr 5 2023 20:04 utc | 88
Exactly. And about 10 years ago I would have made the argument that it might actually matter in trying to get SCOTUS justices with a philosophy more to one's liking appointed, but by now it's obvious to me that the SCOTUS is there to protect the system, not stand as a check against its excesses. Not only that, but the appointee justices - on the balance or majority - always support the stripping away of civil liberties. In an ironic little twist, it was two of the more rightwing justices (Kavanaugh and Gorsuch) that just the other day wrote the dissenting minority opinion on the case of Steven Donziger.
At this point, voting in the presidential election is a farce and a complete waste of time unless you like to feel like a participant in political theater.
Posted by: Tom_Q_Collins | Apr 5 2023 20:10 utc | 88
Yes, Trump was a Roy Cohn acolyte. Roy was very selective. Roy didn't do straight men. Gay men don't do female pornstars. They use women for cover and to beget heirs. Has anyone ever seen DJT and Melania simmer? She models the clothes and hits her marks and wants nothing to do with the guy. The simmer is sure there in old photos with Roy.
Next court appearance is December 4. This is going to be dragged out.
Posted by: oldhippie | Apr 5 2023 20:16 utc | 89
And we should not forget the incredible hypocrisy being shown here by the Democrats and the media. Trump was impeached because the Democrats said that asking how the Ukrainian investigation into Burisma's corruption was going, was interfering in the election, by compromising his chief opponent.
This ridiculous indictment is obviously much worse, but they are celebrating it. Hypocrites.
PLUS, part of the impeachment was them complaining that Trump held up weapons to the Kiev regime.
The Kiev regime was using the weapons to kill the people in Donbass since 2014.
But when Russia stepped in to protect the people of Donbass last year, the Democrats and media tell us that the war started then.
Posted by: wagelaborer | Apr 5 2023 20:22 utc | 90
Isnt it a false dichotomy to say democrats this or republicans that?
Its a uniparty and trump is in...not out of it. Seems to me this type of navel gazing is on tptb wish list.
Posted by: Tannenhouser | Apr 5 2023 20:25 utc | 92
Tom_Q_Collins @ 85
Trump's real crime was that he wasn't vetted, apparently he believed that any billionaire can be president. It's not even a real democracy for oligarchs.
Posted by: LightYearsFromHome | Apr 5 2023 20:31 utc | 93
Oh, and how could I have forgotten Rose Royce - Car Wash ?
Posted by: lex talionis | Apr 5 2023 20:32 utc | 94
thanks b.. the trump circus shitshow is back.. it had a short holiday..
@ bevin | Apr 5 2023 17:49 utc | 46
good comment.. thanks...
@ Tom_Q_Collins | Apr 5 2023 19:51 utc | 85
tom - i agree with you... i wonder how many can even see that?
@ lex talionis | Apr 5 2023 20:32 utc | 95
lol.. no one writes a pop song with a long instrumental out front like that anymore!
Posted by: james | Apr 5 2023 20:39 utc | 95
I hope some demented lunatic kills Trump that will really cause some carnage within the dying empire
Posted by: A.z | Apr 5 2023 20:42 utc | 96
lex - all this talk - its a family affair, lol..
Sly & The Family Stone - Family Affair
Posted by: james | Apr 5 2023 20:43 utc | 97
Global Times:
US risks sinking into disorder as Trump indicted, political system in disarray
Posted by: Norwegian | Apr 5 2023 20:53 utc | 98
I hated HRC, I hated Biden, and I hate Trump and DeSantis. What’s a reasonable person to do?
Posted by: sick and tired | Apr 5 2023 21:02 utc | 99
This works for Mr. Trump right up to the point where the judge slaps him in Rikers for civil contempt and he ends up being Epsteined or Arkancided.
Posted by: Cato the Uncensored | Apr 5 2023 21:09 utc | 100
The comments to this entry are closed.
Good to see the US blue and red teams devouring each other in front of the RoW.
While this kabuki trundles on the caravan of the RoW will continue to build a new future for humanity that deprecates circus performances like we are seeing.
The shit show continues until it devours itself completely.
Posted by: psychohistorian | Apr 5 2023 15:51 utc | 1