Thank you, 12 average Americans. A modicum of justice, delivered fairly and peacefully.
I know some expressed disappointment that what amounts to a series of paper crimes would represent Cheeto Von Tweeto's first brush with legal justice, in comparison to the other cases outstanding. I disagree. This case goes to the core of who this monster really is: a common lowlife and an utter fraud, lying and bullying with impunity. His nauseating disrespect for women, his virulent hatred of minorities, and his utter contempt for any semblance of ethics are the qualities that appealed to the lurking bigoted bullies among us that made up his base, and the facade of wealth and power propped up by a parasitic tabloid media duped the gullible beyond that base. These dynamics are the origins of his political rise without which the greater crimes would not have been possible. What poetic justice that porn stars and botched paperwork - simple sleaze, simple lies, and simple laziness - marks his first branding of GUILTY.
Today, the women he used like meat for sex and service wore bulletproof vests to provide the testimony against him. In 1989, this monster took up space in the NY Times demanding the death of innocent teens whose only crime was being black and in a park. Today, a black man of the same age and same city became the DA to take him down. In 2016, this monster began cheating his way to the White House by slandering Latinos and immigrants. Today, a distinguished jurist who happens to be a Latino immigrant decides how long the monster spends in the Big House. In too many years and instances to count, this monster fleeced average people with total contempt. Today, 12 of them took 12 hours to arrive at one word for his contempt: GUILTY.
Let's nail him and his syncophants one more time where it really hurts: at the ballot box in November. See y'all there!
But let's credit that one particular porn star for individual character, decency of language, and a sense of humor, too, as she so well stood up to the bullies and the moneyed.
I initially posted my comment without the entirety of what I wrote. (Sloppy me! Too much excitement!) In the paragraph I added, I give Ms. Clifford her due, along with other participants. Cheers!
And, ample credit to Hope Hicks, David Pecker & Madeline Westerhaut & all the more than 20 Witnesses.
The Jury Panel started deliberations & went straight to David Pecker's testimony about the broad scope of "Catch & Kill". Looking back now after evaluating the evidence ... the Defendant may have never been President "but for" the 34 felonies.
And I sure felt being one of the victims. I often fantasized how nice it would be to wake up on the morning after election day 2016 to find out that Clinton had won, and to realize that everything that had happened since was a bad dream.
The classic movie Citizen Kane directed, produced, and starred in by Orson Welles will one day in the future, have a remake only this time the main pseudo-fictional character will be Donald Trump. The movie scene will open with a very bloated relic of his former self; uneven orange-smeared makeup slobbed across his face in bed. His overgrown blond hair is found similar to the muss of Boris Johnson’s now showing gray roots from lack of up-to-date hair dye. He periodically wakes from a semi-conscious state at his future dilapidated Mar-a-Lago residence (for lack of having sufficient funds to upkeep the property due to previous constant litigation and losses.) He looks around demanding more Kentucky Fried Chicken wings as low paid personal rush in another bucket and his last word is not “Rosebud” as in the movie Citizen Kane but:
“Stormy.” And the ex 45th president of the United States expires. The camera fades to black then opens at Le Club in the early disco 1970s, a members-only Manhattan nightclub in the East 50s, where models, fashionistas and a variety of Eurotrash (including his wife) went to be seen.
“The government has just filed suit against our company,” said Trump, “saying we discriminated against Blacks. What do you think we should do?”
The Roy Cohn obedient ass-kisser to Senator Joe McCarthy hearings accusing entertainment personalities of being communists shoots back, “Tell them to go to hell and fight the thing in court and let them prove you discriminated against them.”
Roy Cohn has become Trump’s go-to lawyer and fixer.
Cohn admonishes the young Trump to 1. Never settle. Never surrender. 2. Counter-attack, counter-sue immediately. 3. No matter what happens, no matter how deep into the shit you get, claim victory and never admit defeat.
These lessons were found to be the essential attributes of his future self.
Love your way of getting Stormy into the screenplay, Bill.
Love your cutting to early disco era.
Someone -- you know this exactly, Bill -- has got to get started on this combination of so tracing our fashionable elites to the scum into which so many devolved.
But of course Stormy herself needn't appear. She has existed for long now only as slut-shamed stereotype -- so far from the real (and eminently decent, brave) character who so stood against our rich and powerful actual sluts.
In my opinion, Stormy is a little a tragic figure. Difficult upbringing I think I recall. But who hasn’t. Then she uses her body as many a woman might to get ahead. Used and abused by the wrong creeps so attracted to her like the attorney who is now rightfully imprisoned.
Jen, it is totally scarring to many females and more men than one would think. Right now one of my ex-students (who I am sure suffered some awful assault) is having the bear/man in the woods discussion. She actually said there are some things worse than death.
I had my border collie, Natalie, out a few nights ago, on a trail around a pond, frequented by many. At some point, a couple of large white retrievers began trying to shtup her, and I began trying to stop them. Someone asked if she was in heat and I said probably not at 12, but that I just didn't want the other dogs harassing her. A woman gave me a warm smile. It may sound strange, but with that, I suddenly understood at gut level what girls and women have to put up with, where I'd previously only thought about it intellectually.
I need to say this as a wake-up call. We seemingly should have the election wrapped up. However, maybe not. We are oblivious to the issues that are important to most Americans and we or the administration has shown a cavalier attitude towards these issues. All we can do after the fact is blame the loser like Trump blames losers. But I do t want to blame Biden for taking a loss. I’m though afraid he is quite dense on a lot of issues. Besides, he is simply not a good communicator. Aside of ideological differences, put him aside Reagan and look at the difference. Reagan used his acting abilities to communicate well I have to admit. Biden is non of that. Also bear in mind, we generally like having a father figure (or mother figure) of our country not a grandpa. Let’s face it, he is a grandpa. Trump doesn’t even rise to the level of such figures since he is simply not human but that doesn’t assure victory. I’ve sent my comments to the White House and cheeses be, they didn’t even listen or hire me. They really should give me an honorary post somewhere if only a direct text ability to Joe. Don’t laugh, I have such a line with my local mayor and even though he doesn’t often have time to respond, he told me he reads them and I know he does because one of my comments was acted upon and I drive by the results every day. I’m concerned.
Wow. Evidently one would do well to listen to Biden’s speeches—I have. He is empathetic, when appropriate, and shoots straight. His opponent sucks up the oxygen with his bloviations. Age, well yes younger would be better, but let us not ignore the obvious. Biden assembled and retains an outstanding Cabinet unlike the musical chairs of the last. I could go on…
Bill, do you not remember that Reagan communicated so badly that after virtually every public appearance he had a team of translators who would explain "what the president meant to say." TV ratings for his speeches were low. After a visit to the White House arranged by Reagan's daughter, Dr. Helen Caldicott, the leader of Physicians for Social Responsibility, took a checklist of symptoms of Alzheimer's Disease from her pocket and was appalled at how accurately that list described the president.
I too am concerned. Joe states the facts which I appreciate. He may try to address people’s feelings about issues. And people in all political parties choose ignorance over facts. For instance, grocery prices went up through Covid and have not come down. Not the fault of a political administration!
I really wish a younger person would have stepped up to bat. I got the impression that the only reason Biden is running is because no one else was. A younger democrat running would be a big plus as it would dispel any arguments about age issues . I love Jamie Raskin. Unfortunately he has had health issues, but how about the house minority leader?
I began translating and adapting Puccini's one act comic opera, Gianni Schicchi. Mine is called Donnie Skeazy. Most people don't know this opera except for the famous aria, O Mio Babbino Caro, which in mine is Oh, Daddy Dearest. Evanka sings (whines) it as a spoiled Valley Girl to her con man pop. I don't really have any hope of getting it produced. I'm not connected. But it amuses me mightily to write it.
I'm very familiar with Gianni Schicchi as I've sung the tenor lead, Rinuccio before. I can easily see it being adaptable with contemporary figures, as its lessons on the dangers of being greedy are pretty universal. Some Mozart operas work too, as I remember there was an updated production of Don Giovanni actually set IN T***p Tower. I think they also got some flak for having the Giovanni (who is the literary figure Don Juan) appear in a blond wig. In the end he gets drug down to hell. Opera has, for the length of its 430-year history, shown all the varieties of the human condition, either overtly or through metaphors in literature an mythology. A character like T***p shows up in any number of operas, since he's the personification of the 7 deadly sins and violations of the 10 commandments ALL rolled up into one disgusting person.
Always what comes to mind upon reading about or hearing, O Mio Bambino Caro is Kiri Te Kanawa's gorgeous soprano accompanying the beautiful love scene in the Merchant-Ivory film, A Room With a View. Still, my favorite film of all time. Enjoy your adaptation, Lauren. It's the arts that help us keep our sanity.
Many good people like you have had their efforts stymied due to the masses of billionaire money organized by the far-right foundations post-Powell-memo (1971).
Might America now more largely be waking up to the many outright fascists in U.S. government since then sucking up to the billionaire money?
Accuse others of crimes you have already done, BEFORE they accuse you.
(Note: when Trump delivers an accusation of criminality, this is his 'tell', that he's thinking about this crime since this is a crime he's already done himself.)
I like this idea, Bill, except “Rosebud” was about when he was loving his childhood and it changed painfully for him. It was a sweet time when he had a sled and enjoyed playing outdoors, etc. we’ve got to come up with something similar from Trump’s childhood before we submit the script. Ask his cousin, Mary Trump, what that might be. Seriously. There may be something. Maybe not.
Because trump has so much money, he can outlast anyone in appeals. Many people seeking redress run out of money or even lose money and are forced to drop their case.
Stephanie Clifford, aka Stormy Daniels, was cool and assured on the stand because she is a pro and had nothing to do but to tell the truth. I have a plan that could make a lot of money: start a lottery as to the date that Melania files for divorce. TFFG has caused her great humiliation. He ain't worth it. He could very well end up in bankruptcy court along with Giuliani.
Is Barron 18 yet? I think that's what holding her back. Trump would fight for custody, but as adult, Barron would have his freedom. I would advise the young man to change his name and get as faraway from his sperm-donor as possible.
Woooo, what a put-down. I think that Barron just turned 18 and we could see some real fireworks starting to go off in the Trump family. The assets seem to be disintegrating. If E. Jean Carroll files another lawsuit, it could be the coup-de-grace for the Trump family's fortune.
[I just checked: Barron Trump was born on 3-6-2006, so he is 18 years old.]
I have felt all along, but particularly after the disgustingly fawning display of Trump's obsequiousness toward Putin in Helsinki in June 2021, that Putin had blackmail material on Trump, probably photos and videos of Trump in hotel rooms with Russian ladies.
Will, your comment is so perfectly written, it summarizes Trump's sleezy life in 2 perfectly constructed paragraphs. Thank you and to Dr. Heather for doing so as well.
All true! And in 4 Grand Jury indictment jurors and 12 Trial jurors, we are to believe the lies DJT is spewing? No matter. His acolytes will cling to his facade of power as they have with how many—60?— failed challenges to the 2020 election results. Too many are of the mind that he could indeed shoot someone in broad daylight and get away with it. But in this case, May there be substantial consequences.
This is not only about the base, the undecided, or the pundits. Or this election. This is about the entire Republican party, plutocrats such as Charles Koch et al, apparatchiks such as Leonard Leo, and antidemocratic initiatives such as the Federalist Society, the Heritage Society Project 2025, and the Teneo Network - repurposing an American democratic republic as a corporate clerical fascist state. Through peculiarities of the Constitution they've skewed the Senate. Through gerrymandering they've skewed the House. Through court capture they've bent the judiciary. Through Trump they intend to institute an imperial presidency. David Remnick wrote of the 'treacly obeisance' of Speaker Mike Johnson. Add to that the sour obeisance of Mitch McConnell. These - and Russia, Iran, China, North Korea, and Elon Musk, Jill Stein, RFKJR, Cornell West,,et al - will shape what much of the country will hear about the trial. But it is heartening that a jury which heard the facts convicted Trump.
Lin, it all sounds so “conspiracy theory”, but it’s NOT…these folks are, as you say, now saying the quiet part out loud and even publishing their “mandate” & an accompanying website. It is very scary and so much is on the line. My hope is, as Susan Sontag said “courage is as contagious as fear” and that we the people, hopefully an overwhelming landslide majority of us, will have the honor and courage shown by the 12 jurors and the alternates had in seeing TFFFG (I added an extra F today for Felon) for what he is, and channeling that courage, we will make sure he never comes close to the White House again…the big house, yeah I hope, but not the people’s house!
We can all drop the 'theory' part. As Lin points out, these insidious cretins have been plotting for decades, and inserting their obedient minions in strategic locations. And we've allowed them. The tired old cliche that "this is the most consequential election of our lifetimes" just woke up. It's not just our lifetimes, it all of American history.
Daniel, as I recall the basis for this “mandate” started with the Powell memo during the Reagan years & was used as a seed to grow the movement….one backed by some serious big dollar donors.
Agreed. And I, like so many of my contemporaries, paid no attention to the damage they were doing. Life got in the way; career, family, etc, etc. Now, here we are. I humbly accept my portion of the blame, but I also accept my portion of the resolve to rectify.
Except the Powell memo was August 23, 1971 -- nearly ten years before Reagan took office.
For those first ten years the far-right foundations set up by the Powell memo worked methodically to rid American schools of humanities. The predators knew Americans needed to be blinded as to what predations would follow -- they knew that humanities kept the people alert, vigilant, aroused.
The predators also knew that a new kind of thinking must take over our schools, so as to ensure docility, obeisance, dutiful following of authority. So standardized testing entered with a vengeance.
Worst was not that it numbered all life, turned all life into units, but that these stamped-out units would occupy rote positions in a "life" that was supposedly linear, binary, chronological, and categorical.
By the time Reagan ran in 1980, that decade of prep work was done. The predators could freely turn their attention to the offshoring of tens of millions of decent-paying U.S. working-class jobs. U.S. predators formed alliances with the communist Chinese cadres and with the worst goon governments of the world. And our elites were mostly all too anesthetized to notice.
Things only worsened as the most empty of the biz school grads financialized all U.S. life -- and in alliance with the world's worst dictators, financialized (and U.S. hegemony militarized) pretty much all the rest of the world, too.
The worst of our worst floated the former Soviet nomenklatura.
They caused the rise of the Osama bin Laden cells first in Egypt, where young health professionals and social workers got stymied by the thug police there, using U.S.-trained torture and secret police surveillance to tighten thug government rather than needed reforms.
Dehumanize the schools, Barbara -- turn them over to the abstractions of commercial savages -- and nothing but bad will follow.
I’m sure the majority of Americans will vote for Biden but what will the gerrymandering, voter suppression, voter roll purging( the last number I heard was 17 million kicked off voter rolls) and the cheating that republicans have taken as a science do to the election. We’re dealing with very fine lines.
The GOP are still going after the justice system ( Speaker Johnston's comments as well as others yesterday saying it was all a sham is an alarm bell for all. If they outwardly denounce every day Americsns doing their job they will stop at nothing to protect their cult master. It is a n omen of what life wld be like if the GOP get power again. FASCISM. The battle to keep your democrats is still ongoing. GOTV. Flip the House and gain more Senate seats and of course elect Biden!
Having read the comments/responses to your post. lin, I have to say your vigilance is exemplary. There will always be clever, patient people who strategize to get into power. Our defense has to be to adopt some of your vigilance, which entails protecting public education, VOTING, demanding factual reportage from the media. No one who cares about the underlying principles of our form of government and the society it imagines can ever be complacent again. Terribly Pollyanna of me, I know. A fat and happy middle class will always slide into comfortable apathy. I think Marx said that revolution depends on people so disenfranchised and demeaned that they have nothing to lose. I don't know how to keep the moderate doing okay bourgeoisie engaged at your fierce level. In easy times, voices like yours sound like hysterical Cassandras. I guess we have to remind everyone that Cassandra was right about her predictions, and her curse was that no one would believe her.
Studying to become a family therapist, I came across the approach of a Georgetown psychiatrist Murray Bowen. He used the phrase “Undifferentiated Family Ego Mass” (UFEM) to describe the emotional stickness (sickness) gluing people to overblown parental or authoritarian figures. Your insightful comments about the individuals marching in tune with DT illustrate this “family” dynamic in spades.
They need to grow up, get a spine, and stand up on their own two feet, as exemplified by Liz Cheney, Adam Kinsinger, Max Boot, and others.
I had not heard of the Teneo Network. I'm appalled, but not surprised. Thank you, I suppose, for bringing it to my attention. It all sounds so very "alpha male, manosphere", it gave me the ick.
Republicans reorganized after Nixon to evade law, misuse law, pervert law, to bully their way to dominance. We the people, every single one, have duties to the law, or the Republic unravels. We cannot afford another "smoothing over" that brings us any closer to total tyranny.
This is correct. The Republican senators violated their oaths of office to acquit and obviously guilty president, but twelve ordinary jurors did what the Senate twice refused to do.
Kathy, my hope is that once (if/when?) Jack Smith is able to bring the federal 1/6 trial (unless SCOTUS grants immunity) & if TFFFG is found guilty, it will spawn “sequel” trials of all those elected/appointed officials who aided and abetted his efforts to overturn the election and hold them accountable as well. So far just the pawns in the game, the “stand back and standby” folks, are the only ones who have been held so.
Those convicted of January 6 related crimes are NOT hostages or political prisoners. They are people who believed Trump and his bs. So far, the small fry are the ones paying for Donald Trump's crimes. Not so different from when he would refuse to pay contractors for work completed. Twelve ordinary people held tffg accountable for his business fraud to cover up sexual misconduct. He wanted the misconduct kept from the American people because he thought he would lose votes. He has worked hard to earn the title of convicted felon.
I hope Aileen Cannon gets removed from the documents case. An impartial judge needs to be hearing that case. Trump took sensitive material related to national security.
Guantanamo is a good place to put tffg. No communication with the outside world. We all need a break from his toxicity. He is an abusive person and will never admit wrongdoing.
Guantanamo would poetic justice for a domestic terrorist, but the Guantanamo torture camp is a moral obscenity that should not exist; an a knife in the back of rule of law. Cannon and Trump is as if Benie Madoff had been assigned a judge he spent millions to seat; yet far worse, because what Madoff stole was "only money" and Cannon hired at Trumps pleasure. Trump and his confederates literally attempted a coup, and there is an armory of "smoking guns" to prove it.
I think that we humans all harbor mixtures of Jekyll and Hyde in our very human natures, and there those in every generation that try to gain by "summoning the devil" and those who are willing to follow. Germany, among other societies, proves that cultures are malleable. The Germans once used "big lies" to perpetrate horrors. Big lies are now destroying our future. Big lies and big liars need decisive and consistent rejection, and those who tell critical truths, as Brooksley Born did, as Alexander Vindman did, in the face of retaliation, made role models and social heroes. Even now.
True, and no one seems to have men looking to the senators, congress members or people like Julie Fancelli (one of the big fundraisers of Jan, 6,) or Ginni Thomas, who helped organize it.
In my "happy dream", the felon is fined the maximum (peanuts for him, but still, the symbolism is soothing) and sentenced to 34 months of house arrest in NY. One month for each felony charge. Doesn't that sound appropriate? No golf. Just TV and Cheeseburgers.
The dream continues. The other three major Trump trials will proceed into 2025. NY will be asked to release him to Georgia. Bernie Marcus (rabid billionaire fan of Trump) will host him (anklet bracelet included). Then guilty.
Jack Smith will then proceed with his two prosecutions. Guilty and guilty. Incarceration and isolation will be mandatory as the treasonous horrors of the stolen Top Secret Documents become obvious to all.
The response from the Biden White House will be the same with each case.
“We respect the rule of law, and have no additional comment.”
I am currently flying "Old Glory" in celebration. May 30th should be a National Holiday.
May 30 used to be a National Holiday. The original Memorial Day until the "Federal Holiday Monday" crept in. Maybe they could give the rotating Monday to "Conviction Day" and give Memorial Day back to May 30th.
Infiltrated by plutocratic minions of corruption. Like Reagan's appointments of James Watt and (mom) Ann Gorsuch, dispatched to sabotage what they were sworn to protect.
Corruption is a big deal. McCarthyism is a big deal. Plutocracy is a big deal. The fate of countess species is a big deal. We never should have let it get this bad, but we are now at the make or break stage. The same predatory emotions that have left a wake of tragedy though history are massing at the gate. I believe that collectively we need to focus and embrace solidarity for survival. As much as it takes.
Agree, but fear we cannot/will not even if it means our destruction of us and many of Earth’s species/ecosystems….tho, that said, Gaia would get on just fine (maybe better) absent us! Came across this recently….just another cautionary tale that there is no “planet B” to easily run to when it all hits the fan: First is a general article, followed by the “source” piece:
The fact that the indictments were returned showed that his lies held no sway in an actual court. The media needs to be pushing that as well as the democrats running against any and all republicans that claim the system is "rigged".
The media went nuts yesterday. Yesterday they broadcast Trump's post-conviction diatribe in full and I'm challenged. I assume the gag order persists through sentencing, so this should be interesting. Today they are rebroadcasting that, along with Trump's Tapdancers, out repeating the same; that the judge voted for Biden, so he's not impartial, he disallowed Trump's evidence, the jury was given wrong instructions, because of the gag order, Trump was unable to defend himself in court, nor campaign. All lies, and yet they broadcast that, asked a couple of questions marginally pushing back, then cut to a different story. No rebuttal interview, no correction of the lies.
Juan Marchand will live under threat of harm for the remainder of his life. At least when we send soldiers to war, they get to come home again when the battle is over.
I don’t see Trump debating Joe Biden. He’ll weasel out after being humiliated by the Libertarian party. If I’m wrong, he’ll spew gibberish. Blah blah blah stolen election, I’m your retribution…no punk, you’re nothing but a stupid rich kid who manages to squander every nickel. And with no Vanky around to look at your now a worthless dung heap of evil ashes.
On the eve of conservative Clint Eastwood's 94th birthday, the jury finds Trump guilty on all 34 counts. "Make my day." Tonight, Melania will invite Donnie to a private showing of "Soylent Green." On Friday, the overwrought members of the MAGANAZI Party will trot out the same spiel they've been using for ten years, a rerun of a rerun of a rerun. No doubt the number of phone threats will be off the charts. Tomorrow, Donald J. Trump will sue God. This will not be another Summer of Love.
Thank you, Will, from Cal! I always start my day out by reading HCR and I usually enjoy reading many of the comments too. Her letter and your comment today will help me start my day out on the right foot! There is a glimmer of hope for our democracy!
"You can fool all the people some of the time, and some of the people all of the time, but you cannot fool all the people all of the time" often attributed to A. Lincoln, is the quote for today.
Will, well stated! As HCR stated, Stormy Daniel’s, Alvin Bragg, David Cohen, Keith Davidson, Hope Hicks, David Pecker and 12 jurors had the courage to speak truth to power, unlike Cruz and the others who continue to support 45 by word and deed. I’m excluding Robert Costello since he had to have the truth dragged out of him through skilled questioning and obviously wanted to shade the truth to protect 45.
We need to vote Cruz and the others out in November and remember the senators who aren’t up for reelection so that we can vote them out for the next four years. If they’re willing to lie for 45 and their own power, they need to go.
Will, in all seriousness, have you ever considered becoming a speechwriter? Every time I see your name, I know that I’m going to read something thoughtful, incisive and pithy, often amusing, always to the point. You have a marvelous voice; thank you for sharing it with us.
It was music to my ears and Heather, I imagine it was to yours also. In fact, I was driving when I heard the news. I let out a guttural scream that I didn’t know my body could produce! As Neal Katyal said “34 for 45”.
I got to show the headline to my Mom in dramatic fashion on my tablet. The poor woman, who doesn't follow the news and is typically so poised, screamed so hard she almost fell over.
Then my Dad went and bought a celebration lemon merengue pie, because "this is a great day for justice and our country." He is correct, of course, both in his opinion and the choice of pie.
Something succulent, also bright, zesty, but more expressly Florida-local, thus maybe to some extent to compensate for the existence of pestilential Mar a Lago.
But, if you're from California, I can fully appreciate your (dad's) choice of the fruit there.
Marlene: please request our friends here to make a plan to support effective groups which are active in registering younger voters and then turning them out in November? The very best and most effective group is from Harvard www.TurnUP.US and is tax deductible! They already have registered recently 70,000 high school seniors in truly “competitive” congressional districts. They have a plan to register more than 100,000 Community College students in key districts. Please give a helping hand? 34 for 45 is not enough—we must protect abortion rights by winning in November! Please help? Many thanks
MAGA will lose support at the fringes, but better, the conviction should influence some "undecided" and "swing" voters and make it easier for us to reach the unregistered who trend Democratic. Register Democratic and sweep the swing states.
JL, that was my thinking/hope as well….they sure have been drifting back his way in recent months with visions of dollar signs (aka, tax cuts & deregulation) in their starry eyes—they who previously excoriated him after 1/6….guess the lure of money, um, trumps morality & democracy every time. They could learn a thing or two or more from those brave jurors who upheld the rule of law…hope they heed their example.
I continue to wonder why they think they will be spared from his vengefulness if reelected. As soon as someone makes the tiniest offense to him, they will pay.
They who remorselessly screw unto others will screw unto you.
"Destroy this spirit, and you have planted the seeds of despotism around your own doors. Familiarize yourselves with the chains of bondage and you are preparing your own limbs to wear them. Accustomed to trample on the rights of those around you, you have lost the genius of your own independence, and become the fit subjects of the first cunning tyrant who rises." - Lincoln
I’ve always wondered why folks can’t be satisfied with “enough” when they already have “more than enough”….found this article hope the “share” function works:
J L—unfortunately the, ‘if it smells it sells’ of media feeding algorithmic interests, they will make money off this by feeding distress, avoiding discourse, and undermining facts and reality…this is how they make money. If there were more communities like ‘Letters from an American’, this might change. There’s hope !
Given what I'm seeing from my MAGAt friends (an upside down US flag for a profile pic, and "More MAGA Than Ever"), I believe that the work by "turn up" and "field team 6" is a worthy cause.
Thank you for that info, Ira. Living abroad, I miss out on some info and this is great to know and support. I will indeed do so. There should also be some women's groups to support I would think. I haven't read that poor PP has any time or strength left to do voter registration with all it's need to protect itself from constant attack, but are there groups devoted to registering voters who's single issue is "choice"?
Thank you. I just received something from a group here doing that for all the non-voters who could. Not sure if it was Voteforward or not, but I will try and help. We're still settling in, so my life still seems like I'm working and not retired although I am. Lots to do to expat, with visas, living arrangements, all new medical, banking, transportation etc. And, I'm it for getting all arranged as my husband is 87 and had a stroke last year.
Wasn't that fabulous? I specifically want to help voter registration and getting them to the polls and I'm not sure that's her aim though, more to actually help them with life which is wonderful, but my goal is more immediate.
Thanks for the tip. I donate monthly to at least a dozen candidates in red or purple districts plus Justice Democrats, Sunrise etc. If I hadn’t moved to a cheaper lifestyle I couldn’t do it all.
Marlene, I was outside working in my garden when the verdict was announced. My younger daughter was here helping and it just felt great to be getting a handle on the weeds.
My neighbor, Priscilla, came screaming across the yard - literally. “Guilty, Guilty, Guilty! He was found guilty on all counts!” Then the neighbor who lives on the other side, arrived home with his 9 year old daughter. Sergio strolled over with a wide grin on his face and joined the celebration on my lawn. We decided it was time to break out some beer, wine and snacks and appreciate the moment!
Priscilla is Native American. Sergio arrived here with his parents as a four year old refugee from El
Salvador. My daughter is a proud member of the LGBTQ family.
And the racist, misogynistic, homophobic former President is guilty. On all counts. Lock him up!
Who amongst us, did not here this verdict and cheer, even if we were alone. I can't begin to imagine which is the reddest city, but even there people cheered.
My amusing story: I was doing our weekly "divestment run" with a friend. (She is working hard on clearing 20 years of clutter from her house, and has set a goal of a box of donations/dump/recycling per week.) Between the two of us, at this time of year, we generate enough yard debris for us to go to a yard waste place (or the dump; the dump is a bonus because there's several collection sites, like for light bulbs, used motor oil, or clothing/household donations) every week. She has been following a trial in Idaho involving a religious group called "General Assembly and Church of the Firstborn" where (and I grossly simplify) a "leader" killed his wife and kids, married another woman, other kids and family members were killed. The wife he married after killing his first wife had her trial last year and was convicted. The trial has been streamed on a YouTube site for true crime. My friend has been engrossed. They announced that verdict at about 1:30 PST, and so we spent our erranding time listening to that (well, I listened. She watched).
My wife sent me a text of "GUILTY" at about 2:15. I was so wrapped up in the "true crime" that I said "Who?". Her reply: t-Rump.
A glorious day, all around. It wasn't too hot, and there was tuba rehearsal last night.
I get about 7 emails a day from TFFG complaining about the injustice, that Biden is behind it all, and asking for money. Through it all TFFG showed real fear because he knew in his heart and mind that he was guilty and rightly feared that the jurors knew it, too.
I started getting 1 MAGA txt a day roughly 1 year after a donation to Liz Cheney for her Jan 6 work. Just recently increased to several a day. Liz has a mole on her staff.
... which sounds familiar, was that something Stormy said about tfg?
I heard Neal say that on MSNBC. When I got home my wife hadn't heard the news and her first reaction was 45 with 34. Apparently, it is a common reaction??
I was sitting on the toilet when I heard my wife scream several times so loud that I thought she had seriously injured herself. When I shouted back, "Are you all right?", she shouted back with glee,"Guilty on all counts." (One could have said I almost shit in my pants, but I was already where I needed to be.)
I sat down and cried. "After slightly less than ten hours of deliberation..." Had trump testified they would've reached the verdicts in less than five minutes....
"Today, twelve ordinary Americans did what Republican senators refused to do. They protected the rule of law and held Trump accountable for his attempt to rig an election."
The GOP senators are enablers and complicit in Trump's corrupt conduct.
No, ALL of them!! A very clear message needs to be sent to those identifying as Republican, ON ALL LEVELS!!! We The People have had enough. Those you deem 'not deserving' have been silent about all this, and silence is complicity. My House rep is Dave Joyce, R-OH. A good guy, really, but he's been silent. I've written and called often, warning him that if he won't speak up, I will lead the campaign to get him out. And I will. We all need to. We The People have had ENOUGH!!
I think decent citizens, who are republican elected legislators, may truly be afraid to speak out against djt; in part because of unhinged maga folk, who threaten violence. Maybe with this decision, they will take heart & aim at a democratic landslide in November. (Whispering..."No one is with you when you're casting your vote in the voting box. Vote blue..& save not only yourselves, but our democracy.")
This is my hope as well, Bonnie. But, if 12 'ordinary citizens' can buck-up and see the truth, then it's high time for the so-called legislators to grow a pair. Having said that, my crystal ball has been saying for some time now that this November will be an election of epic proportions. There will be no mistaking the will of the people.
I think there were 7 GOP Senators that held Trump accountable including Senator Collins (R-ME). I sent her an email again suggesting she switch her party affiliation to Independent like our other Senator. Only Lisa Murkowski comes close to voting against McConnell and the rest of the GOP Senators as many times.
The GOP is accountable for causing great harm in our country. Mitch Mc Connell is guilty for stacking the SCOTUS with the aid of the Federalist Society. Greed for wealth to buy power is the root of our National demise. Citizens United allows all of this destructive activity to continue. Sadly the voice of the people is faint because the megaphone MSM to lie daily. The people who count and should be heard are struggling to survive and find little energy to fight the battle for their life and sanity.
And they, along with the judge, his family, the DA and his staff all deserve protection that the government pays for. We know what the fringe is capable of. Let's not wait to have heartbreak.
It is a pity that trial by jury has become so rare in the United States. In its place, risky horse trading between prosecution and defendant. Transactions, transactions...
It is a pity that in our democracies there is no place in which groups of ordinary citizens can examine the issues of the day, accompanied by moderators who are neutral experts on the matter at hand. Outcome to be published by the relevant state or federal authorities.
It is more than a pity -- a severe flaw -- that citizens can stand for high office, even the highest, when in any other professional circumstances they would be labeled a security risk. This endangers the State and all its citizens.
Our Founders and Framers never once entertained the thought that our populace would--at some future point--be so hornswoggled and mesmerized by a grubby, chintzy real estate con artist: so befooled as to VOTE for him. Such an occurrence was inconceivable! Thus, no provision was included in the Constitution that would disqualify such a manifestly unfit candidate. We the people must do our duty as citizens and reject Trump at the ballot box...utterly and completely, with no room for challenges or doubt.
Nicely put. But it is plain that, after some 230 years, even the best built house would need some modernization... if only for safety's sake. The administrative negligence that permitted said con artist to wreak havoc with the State is as scandalous as the phenomenon itself.
Ahh yes T L Mills but now we must pursue such "grubby, chintzy real estate con artists" when we catch their malicious behaviors via enforcement of Section 3 of the 14th Amendment barring those who "have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same [United states], or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof."
I wish...but evidently, trumpy's $COTUS appointees have brushed away any possibility that we the people can use Section3 of 14th Amendment for the actual purpose that it was added to the Constitution in the first place. According to $COTUS, he has to be impeached first...but turn around and speak with the Senate and McConnell said the courts would have to deal with Trump. Between the Repubbies and $COTUS, they have made it nearly impossible to properly deal with the insurrectionists.
But the framers also didn't envision allowing the general populace to pick the Presidential candidates.
The corrupt GOP was questioning whether to replace Trump on the ballot multiple times in 2016 and as stated in the prosecutions closing remarks, "It's likely Trump's actions related to this case handed Trump the Presidency in 2016." (paraphrased)
Peter, it is difficult for even those with the most judicious temperaments to remain "neutral" moderators of any examination or even discussion in the face of such prodigious mendacity and vulgarity! Judge Merchan was a paragon of judicious temperament but one fears such paragons are in short supply...especially when we see with what extraordinary jubilation WE have celebrated 34 guilty verdicts!
And they returned a verdict so quickly! The prosecution must have been superb and the defense … well, when you have nothing to work with. Bet Blance and Bové get no more $$ from tfg’s sycophants (bc tfg sure isn’t paying). PS wonder if this outcome will move Loose Cannon off her high horse.
We live in Portugal (due to what I call the Trump Effect, and when we tell people we're from the States, and moved because of Trump, the laugh and say good on ya, or what took you so long, etc. Europeans just can't believe how our political system has gotten so out of whack that a man like Trump could have been elected let alone be able to run again. It doesn't matter what country they're from, they think we're insane in the US (not us as we had the sense to leave!).
I think deregulation of public media has a lot to do with the madness. That and the press fawning all over Reagan, a somewhat more refined creep who put us on the road to plutocracy and Trump.
Trump parades his sociopathic shamelessness as a virtue. I guess that it makes him seem bold and effective, when its really a predatory soul. He is relentless in denying reality, and openly call it a skill. He celebrates lying. He has got that going for him, as well the financial clout of sociopathic billionaires that Reagan unleashed. (Soros in among those not in the club, and thus demoniszed). Democracy is live and let live, but responsibility and accountability rises with one's imposed impacts on others, burning old tires in the backyard or releasing methane from an oil rig. With great power comes great responsibility, period. We are all accountable or it just isn't Liberty and Justice for ALL.
Opps, I should have looked at the thread before typing. I thought you were speaking of Reagan. I think that unlike Trump, Reagan may have believed*, or told himself he believed, the pernicious nonsense he was spouting. His coached core prescription of ditch democracy and yield authority to the ultra-rich gave us President Trump and the vociferously anti-republican "Republicans" of the day.
* He never struck be as very bright. Part of his faux-folksy "charm" I guess.
Well, it's still early in the day, so I haven't been out to talk to anyone yet. The fact that it took so long and he's "crimed" so much to get to his first trial is very telling about the US justice system, so I'm not dancing in the streets. There's still the appeals, the fund raising, the risk of violence, Faux' take on it all of which is why I had to leave the US.
I'm not dancing, either. I'm afraid it will change nothing. The Republicons will still follow Megatrump, he can still go where he pleases and he can still cast his vomit everywhere on radio, X and whereever - and he will spin this story into even more fundraising and more attention and more air time. The only thing that makes me smile is that he lost. He lost this case. And I know he will be SO angry about that, because in his mind, he's always winning. But today, he _lost_.
Yes, I can either vote in California or get a ballot from Democrats Abroad which I have joined. I have not renounced my citizenship which is the only way to not have the right to vote.
Yes. That is sad - as good as this is - it’s bittersweet… former US President- felon. He’s been a blight and embarrassment for the US - however, better convicted,than not, for crimes.
Dianne, I've read some people describe this as being a sad day for the country, and that we shouldn't gloat. What's sad is that he has gotten away with so much for so long, and became president in the process. These crimes likely led to Clinton's loss in the Electoral College (not to mention the figurative crimes committed by Comey mere days before the election, aided and abetted by the media.) But her emails...
I'm gloating, as Hillary herself is. Did you see the clip of her beginning a speech tonight? She started with "So, what's going on?" to great applause.
Obviously Democrats who are running for office will trot out the "It's a sad day" line. A major part of the brand right now is good sportsmanship, solemn moderation, etc etc.
I don't have to worry about how I look to voters, so I can express that I am honestly on Cloud 9 and have no intention of hiding it. I love a good comeuppance, what can I say?
It was a sad day when someone making the "grab them by the pussy" comment was elected. Finally a modicum of accountability with potentially more to come. I had a bit of the bubbly last night, but suspect the battle is far from over.
All of this could and likely would have gone away if the Senate had impeached Trump as they should have for the insurrection.
There are lots of blame to go around, but McConnell is an evil man who has done nothing helpful for the average American. He is just as transactional as Trump.
You cannot join the military with a felony conviction (although it's possible some non-violent felonies could be downgraded to misdemeanors in order to join) and yet, a felon could, conceivably, be elected President who is also Commander in Chief. How does that make any sense???
None. There are requirements of age and native birth, but not of character. There seems to be an assumption that the House and Senate would do the right thing if that character was fatally flawed. There was also far greater diversity of newspapers in Colonial times. I rather doubt the framers anticipated media monopolies. After reforms of "Yellow Press", pre-Reagan/Clinton press was more frequently a champion of the public's interests, or so it seems to me.
That seems too bizarre…a felon can not vote but he can run for president?? WHAT were they “originally” thinking….Let me get my headdress and crystal ball out…..
They did a pretty good job for release 1.0, and at least they had the foresight to make it updatable. In the end, there is no and probably cannot be a free and just foolproof system that is invulnerable to attack and misuse. We can be smart about handling it's errors, but liberty and justice are impossible without living good faith on the part of the preponderance of participants, And we have seen what can happen when bad faith goes septic.
Our guard and engagement against the malicious misuse of the very tools we have created to protect and sustain us requires ceaseless vigilance and engagement against such corruptions for the foreseeable future, likely as long as our species exists.
Christopher….let me tall you it looks even MORE bizarre from the inside! You know, like the scary movies where “the call” is coming from the inside of the house? Yeah, like that.
When the WaPo does polls of current events they will also ask at the end of the poll if you are a frequent WaPo reader? Their readers are far more likely to be aware of most of the current events than the average population.
IMHO Trump is his own worst enemy. Had he not attacked the judge and jury, had he not tried to use Robert Costello to manipulate Cohen, and called him as a witness, the result might have been different. Trump might have avoided the entire trial had he asked fir pre-trial intervention.
Yeah, but pointing out that a delusional narcissist felon could have gotten away with more if they weren't so high on their own imagined invincibility is kinda like saying "Those salamanders sure would have more room to maneuver if they grew wings and opposable thumbs!" It's a theoretical that asks the central subject to no longer be what it is.
Spot on Daniel. Also he could have stipulated to most facts and concentrated on the fact the records were generated in NYC while he lived in D.C. and thus argued 'I didn't know what records were being created'. Orange clown also refused lesser included Misd counts. But most of all, his insistence to deny all facts including facts he stipulated too in other civil proceedings like 'paying off Daniels $130k' and then at trial saying it was all legit legal fees...ha ha LMAO the orange clown instructed his lawyer to impale both of themselves. Could not have happened to a more deserving guy! :-))
Trump’s hands were in so many things Blanche said; you could hear tfg’s voice coming out of Blanche’s mouth. He wouldn’t let his lawyer do it his way because, you know, tfg is the smartest guy ever.
Sure, the conviction is nice, but will it hamper Rump? I don’t think so. He will still be walking around freely, spewing his vitriol, and turning this verdict around in even more attention and more money for him…
Thanks Heather! I for one thought I would never see this day in my life. I am sure others feel the same. What really is shocking, more than the conviction is the frontal attack on our sacred institutions that protect every citizen who in the United Stares are guaranteed equal protection under the law. Those attacking our legal system are no better, actually worse than the rioters who committed sacrilege in our Nation’s Capitol.
But maybe, again, they don't "know" anything about our legal system, given that our laws hang on some attachments to truth -- to verifiable facts, evidence, detailed experiences specific to situations where we can explore even the most complicated nuances.
It takes some skills to honor reality this way. Some skills to explore things. But our Republicans -- from the Clarence court, to Congress, to K Street, to Fox News peddling lies -- have as equipment only abstractions (and standardized testing to limit thinking to the linear, the binary, the chronological, and the consistent). Women? Per our Republicans women are all only liabilities for a theocrat state to package. All life is only more packaging for our predator billionaire classes to number, categorize as consumer demographics, label, market, and derive profits from.
They hate our humanities. Hate our laws. Want only a demagogue's vulgarity.
Like any other common crimminal, it's never their fault and they were totally framed. No different from the shoplifting kid with the chocolate smudges on his mouth.
JL, maybe someone should produce some red ball caps with a big “L” stitched on it….I might even wear one of those! Or “L X 34”?? Or “34/45”? Something like that…
Jl & Barbara it seems to me most efficient to hold one's right hand out with thumb out and forefinger pointed upward to form an "L" shape to the listener to get one's point across quietly but clearly.
He always has to be beyond all other beings,; the most knowledgeable, the "Least racist", the most wronged, and on and on. If it wasn't for ego, he wouldn't have a brain at all.
Melanie, I keep hearing in my mind Inigo Montoya saying “I do not think that means what you think it means” (Princes Bride) whenever folks keep spouting “rigged” on anything that tries to hold TFFFG accountable.
Yes and he looked like smoke was gonna start coming out of his ears at any second. He appeared to be completely infuriated. Well, good. Hopefully his blood pressure was through the roof and his stress cortisols went along for the ride.
Been waiting up for your letter So well done Love the repetition makes it even more powerful A good day for democracy for justice for all equal under the law At last he is a convicted felon determined by a jury of peers Admirable brave and quick work by the jurors and judge Justice is at last done Thanks
Today’s verdict was stunning and not a little unexpected - being that Trump is adroit at gaming the system. Of course he’ll appeal. Of course he’ll play the victim and turn it all into a spectacle and a fundraiser. Trump does as Trump is. But sooner or later, his luck will run out, the curtain will drop, the fat lady will sing, and that will be that. Till then…
Hopefully, Special Counsel Smith has the tipping point necessary to take Judge Cannon off the insurrection case. (EDIT: oops, classified documents case.) 🤭
Hopefully the new judge will permit the trial to proceed immediately thereafter, notwithstanding the vacillation of a compromised Supreme Court. Hopefully . . . .
⚖️
Sure wish we had someone, outside of politics, with the stature of President Grant these days: “If we are to have another contest in the near future of our national existence, I predict that the dividing line will not be Mason and Dixon's but between patriotism and intelligence on the one side, and superstition, ambition and ignorance on the other."
On the other news about Ukraine (i.e., President Biden allowing ordnance to be fired deep into Russia, at this point to defend Kharkiv), ¿How about a no-fly zone?
I am no genius; but even I could see where things were heading two years ago.
¿Why should Ukraine bear the brunt, alone, of Putin’s war against Europe?
Who else thinks a perfect SNL opener would be Hillary Clinton reading the NY jury’s verdicts?
Grateful to Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg and his prosecution team for pursuing justice, Judge Merchan, and to the jury. Justice not only for New Yorkers, however, for everyone else who believes no person should be above the law.
Next episode of SNL is sometime in September, I think, so your opener idea would be a little stale.
I'd prefer to see a gathering of the various SNL team members who've played DJT (Criminal) do a special of their own this Saturday. NBC could just take 10 minutes from whatever else they'll dump on us that night and say, "Ya know what? This is more important..."
Legal experts have said the NY records falsification case was the weakest of the various criminal cases hanging over the head of Donald Trump. It does not bode well for the former president that the New York jury was able to find him guilty on all 34 charges.
It is a great day for the American justice system, and a great day for American democracy.
Frankly, this is another example of too many experts and pundits pooh-poohing the chances of holding the baddies to account and ending up with egg on their faces. Their underestimation of America's resilience in the face of this existential threat is an insecurity that I choose not to share.
Your point assumes Trump is kept out of the White House so he can’t pardon himself. I will not be sure until Nov. 6th, when the votes are in. I am cautiously confident he’ll lose, but I was the same in 2016 too.
Don’t forget Gary that Cohen got 3 years for the underlying crime and he was an underling, doesn’t the instigator usually get a stiffer sentence. When you add in lack of remorse, gag order violations, along with just who he is, a 5 year sentence would start to seem close to right, in Attica that is. 💥😎
With hindsight, perhaps a synchronised oil autocracy takeover, also responsible for the breaking of socialist One Nation Conservatism by the Profumo Scandal in GB. Those involved’s children continue to benefit politically and economically from mass media social control via the the cultural conflict fall out from both ‘hits’.
I was at Sprouts, and rushed the cashier, saying "there's a verdict!"
She looked at me blankly and said what verdict?
Didn't really dim the excitement that much. Coming so quickly I expected guilty. Other drivers looked at my bouncing around a bit strangely. But i saw quite a few of us doing it.
Sleep well tonight folks. It's going to be a raucus few months ahead that require all of us to stand strong and do all we can to get out the vote of the young, the vacilating and those who have lost hope.
As Joyce says to us all, "We are in this together."
Thank you Heather for keeping us focussed on reality.
We are circumstantially and deliberately barraged with distractions. I think that only judicious focus, sharp and sustained focus, will get us though this. What really matters after all? Deathbed matters, when all the obstacles and clutter gets in the way? I think that successful social movements hold a focus on something that REALLY matters that is obscured or which we would rather not acknowledge. I recall the claim of someone who lived though the London Blitz, who said that while Britain was under attack, there was a voluntary suspension of the pretty machinations of class (that soon returned after victory). We seem to be far more in this together than we tend to acknowledge, and in many ways a livable future is just as threatened.
I am sure the court took precautions to ensure their anonymity. This is not their first rodeo dealing with dangerous people. I read in WaPo that they were led out the back of the building into black and white vans to a separate location before going home.
These are the bravest 12 Americans in the US today! They were randomly picked to potentially be on this jury. If any maganazi dares to threaten any of them may they be prosecuted to the full extent of the law.
Now: the dictators of Russia, China, North Korea, and Iran.
They know they more than ever need their set of enablers in the U.S. for their plans to kill democracy.
The 34-count, unanimously convicted criminal will now double down on what his niece, Mary Trump, calls another “alternative reality,” as he did first, she says, following his awareness of his 2020 election humiliation. He will again but more viciously turn to his cult followers – the rally-goers always up for goon shows. He will more dangerously enlist Republicans in Congress, rancid others on the Clarence court, and Fox News and related outlets.
They’ve all zero humanities. Zero awareness as to how our laws pair with our humanities, both necessary for each other as for our personal freedoms.
The dictators are now extra alarmed how democracy yet has decency, resilience, depth. So they’ll extra aid our most squalid, dehumanized Republicans.
Let's be happy for one day when the right prevailed, can't we, Phil? We can not have the energy to be in it for the long haul if we do not take the wins when they come. Today was an unmistakable, inarguable win for justice in a country needing a burst of it.
My date-stamp on this site, Will, says yours came "8 hrs ago."
I think you know, from your own bountiful responses, or those many generously responding to you, too, that we inhabit a community of many floating, relieved, alert to our many good, fine, decent neighbors.
This was a powerful ruling today for Trump. I wouldn't throw the towel in yet. Democracy won today and the rule of law over ruled Trump. The dictators of Russia, China, Iran and North Korea were watching our Democracy , which is govern by the rule of law, convict Trump by our jurisdictional system.
Thank you, 12 average Americans. A modicum of justice, delivered fairly and peacefully.
I know some expressed disappointment that what amounts to a series of paper crimes would represent Cheeto Von Tweeto's first brush with legal justice, in comparison to the other cases outstanding. I disagree. This case goes to the core of who this monster really is: a common lowlife and an utter fraud, lying and bullying with impunity. His nauseating disrespect for women, his virulent hatred of minorities, and his utter contempt for any semblance of ethics are the qualities that appealed to the lurking bigoted bullies among us that made up his base, and the facade of wealth and power propped up by a parasitic tabloid media duped the gullible beyond that base. These dynamics are the origins of his political rise without which the greater crimes would not have been possible. What poetic justice that porn stars and botched paperwork - simple sleaze, simple lies, and simple laziness - marks his first branding of GUILTY.
Today, the women he used like meat for sex and service wore bulletproof vests to provide the testimony against him. In 1989, this monster took up space in the NY Times demanding the death of innocent teens whose only crime was being black and in a park. Today, a black man of the same age and same city became the DA to take him down. In 2016, this monster began cheating his way to the White House by slandering Latinos and immigrants. Today, a distinguished jurist who happens to be a Latino immigrant decides how long the monster spends in the Big House. In too many years and instances to count, this monster fleeced average people with total contempt. Today, 12 of them took 12 hours to arrive at one word for his contempt: GUILTY.
Let's nail him and his syncophants one more time where it really hurts: at the ballot box in November. See y'all there!
Beautiful, on-target, pithy rhetoric, Will.
But let's credit that one particular porn star for individual character, decency of language, and a sense of humor, too, as she so well stood up to the bullies and the moneyed.
Thanks, Phil.
I initially posted my comment without the entirety of what I wrote. (Sloppy me! Too much excitement!) In the paragraph I added, I give Ms. Clifford her due, along with other participants. Cheers!
Add E.Jean too…and hopefully, soon, Fani as well (if the state of GA does not remover her)…bet it just chaps his misogynist ass!
Accountability...FINALLY!
And, ample credit to Hope Hicks, David Pecker & Madeline Westerhaut & all the more than 20 Witnesses.
The Jury Panel started deliberations & went straight to David Pecker's testimony about the broad scope of "Catch & Kill". Looking back now after evaluating the evidence ... the Defendant may have never been President "but for" the 34 felonies.
Excellent point in the last line!
Thank you David. At sentencing I do not give any weight to the "first-time offender" pitch. All 2016 Voters were victims of the 34 crimes.
I do not believe Judge Merchan can accommodate millions of Victim's statements at sentencing on July 11.
Plus, Trump’s contempt for the court (and that of his lawyers) could be an aggravating factor justifying a stiffer-than-usual sentence.
and much of the world....
I hope some write these statements or submit them however it’s done. The felon’s lack of contrition will be a factor in his sentencing too, I believe.
And I sure felt being one of the victims. I often fantasized how nice it would be to wake up on the morning after election day 2016 to find out that Clinton had won, and to realize that everything that had happened since was a bad dream.
maybe the populace had more morals then and this would have seriously affected the outcome.
I think it's time to revive this old Doonesbury frame from May 29, 1973.
https://ki6mnk.substack.com/p/guilty
The Citizen Kane Movie of Tomorrow: Citizen Trump
February 17, 2024
The classic movie Citizen Kane directed, produced, and starred in by Orson Welles will one day in the future, have a remake only this time the main pseudo-fictional character will be Donald Trump. The movie scene will open with a very bloated relic of his former self; uneven orange-smeared makeup slobbed across his face in bed. His overgrown blond hair is found similar to the muss of Boris Johnson’s now showing gray roots from lack of up-to-date hair dye. He periodically wakes from a semi-conscious state at his future dilapidated Mar-a-Lago residence (for lack of having sufficient funds to upkeep the property due to previous constant litigation and losses.) He looks around demanding more Kentucky Fried Chicken wings as low paid personal rush in another bucket and his last word is not “Rosebud” as in the movie Citizen Kane but:
“Stormy.” And the ex 45th president of the United States expires. The camera fades to black then opens at Le Club in the early disco 1970s, a members-only Manhattan nightclub in the East 50s, where models, fashionistas and a variety of Eurotrash (including his wife) went to be seen.
“The government has just filed suit against our company,” said Trump, “saying we discriminated against Blacks. What do you think we should do?”
The Roy Cohn obedient ass-kisser to Senator Joe McCarthy hearings accusing entertainment personalities of being communists shoots back, “Tell them to go to hell and fight the thing in court and let them prove you discriminated against them.”
Roy Cohn has become Trump’s go-to lawyer and fixer.
Cohn admonishes the young Trump to 1. Never settle. Never surrender. 2. Counter-attack, counter-sue immediately. 3. No matter what happens, no matter how deep into the shit you get, claim victory and never admit defeat.
These lessons were found to be the essential attributes of his future self.
And so it was.
Love your way of getting Stormy into the screenplay, Bill.
Love your cutting to early disco era.
Someone -- you know this exactly, Bill -- has got to get started on this combination of so tracing our fashionable elites to the scum into which so many devolved.
But of course Stormy herself needn't appear. She has existed for long now only as slut-shamed stereotype -- so far from the real (and eminently decent, brave) character who so stood against our rich and powerful actual sluts.
In my opinion, Stormy is a little a tragic figure. Difficult upbringing I think I recall. But who hasn’t. Then she uses her body as many a woman might to get ahead. Used and abused by the wrong creeps so attracted to her like the attorney who is now rightfully imprisoned.
And her smarts and sense of humor to best Todd Blanche.
Her "difficult upbringing" included rape by a neighbor male at 8, and a mother who told her no to tell so she could keep the support checks coming.
Men seem to not want to understand what that does. It destroys some women, and hardens others.
Jen, it is totally scarring to many females and more men than one would think. Right now one of my ex-students (who I am sure suffered some awful assault) is having the bear/man in the woods discussion. She actually said there are some things worse than death.
I had my border collie, Natalie, out a few nights ago, on a trail around a pond, frequented by many. At some point, a couple of large white retrievers began trying to shtup her, and I began trying to stop them. Someone asked if she was in heat and I said probably not at 12, but that I just didn't want the other dogs harassing her. A woman gave me a warm smile. It may sound strange, but with that, I suddenly understood at gut level what girls and women have to put up with, where I'd previously only thought about it intellectually.
This man can't even imagine rape to begin with, never mind that of a child -- be it boy or girl.
This is the last story in my book, “Donald’s Vanity Tantrums.” Most of it was written during his presidency.
I need to say this as a wake-up call. We seemingly should have the election wrapped up. However, maybe not. We are oblivious to the issues that are important to most Americans and we or the administration has shown a cavalier attitude towards these issues. All we can do after the fact is blame the loser like Trump blames losers. But I do t want to blame Biden for taking a loss. I’m though afraid he is quite dense on a lot of issues. Besides, he is simply not a good communicator. Aside of ideological differences, put him aside Reagan and look at the difference. Reagan used his acting abilities to communicate well I have to admit. Biden is non of that. Also bear in mind, we generally like having a father figure (or mother figure) of our country not a grandpa. Let’s face it, he is a grandpa. Trump doesn’t even rise to the level of such figures since he is simply not human but that doesn’t assure victory. I’ve sent my comments to the White House and cheeses be, they didn’t even listen or hire me. They really should give me an honorary post somewhere if only a direct text ability to Joe. Don’t laugh, I have such a line with my local mayor and even though he doesn’t often have time to respond, he told me he reads them and I know he does because one of my comments was acted upon and I drive by the results every day. I’m concerned.
Putting down Biden is a vote for Trump
Wow. Evidently one would do well to listen to Biden’s speeches—I have. He is empathetic, when appropriate, and shoots straight. His opponent sucks up the oxygen with his bloviations. Age, well yes younger would be better, but let us not ignore the obvious. Biden assembled and retains an outstanding Cabinet unlike the musical chairs of the last. I could go on…
Bill, do you not remember that Reagan communicated so badly that after virtually every public appearance he had a team of translators who would explain "what the president meant to say." TV ratings for his speeches were low. After a visit to the White House arranged by Reagan's daughter, Dr. Helen Caldicott, the leader of Physicians for Social Responsibility, took a checklist of symptoms of Alzheimer's Disease from her pocket and was appalled at how accurately that list described the president.
I too am concerned. Joe states the facts which I appreciate. He may try to address people’s feelings about issues. And people in all political parties choose ignorance over facts. For instance, grocery prices went up through Covid and have not come down. Not the fault of a political administration!
I'll be seeking a copy of your book, Bill.
May involve some hassles via affiliates of Amazon, Jp. May be I have to turn again to my son in Big Sur.
But I'm glad to know it's out there, awaiting.
I really wish a younger person would have stepped up to bat. I got the impression that the only reason Biden is running is because no one else was. A younger democrat running would be a big plus as it would dispel any arguments about age issues . I love Jamie Raskin. Unfortunately he has had health issues, but how about the house minority leader?
I began translating and adapting Puccini's one act comic opera, Gianni Schicchi. Mine is called Donnie Skeazy. Most people don't know this opera except for the famous aria, O Mio Babbino Caro, which in mine is Oh, Daddy Dearest. Evanka sings (whines) it as a spoiled Valley Girl to her con man pop. I don't really have any hope of getting it produced. I'm not connected. But it amuses me mightily to write it.
I'm very familiar with Gianni Schicchi as I've sung the tenor lead, Rinuccio before. I can easily see it being adaptable with contemporary figures, as its lessons on the dangers of being greedy are pretty universal. Some Mozart operas work too, as I remember there was an updated production of Don Giovanni actually set IN T***p Tower. I think they also got some flak for having the Giovanni (who is the literary figure Don Juan) appear in a blond wig. In the end he gets drug down to hell. Opera has, for the length of its 430-year history, shown all the varieties of the human condition, either overtly or through metaphors in literature an mythology. A character like T***p shows up in any number of operas, since he's the personification of the 7 deadly sins and violations of the 10 commandments ALL rolled up into one disgusting person.
Good to know, Bruce.
Your last sentence sums up why so many of us have been anxious for years for the law -- human decency -- to catch up with the orange sleaze.
And now, all these Republican sleazes -- including the most hypocrite pious -- rushing to defend the blatantly criminal, humanly indefensible.
Always what comes to mind upon reading about or hearing, O Mio Bambino Caro is Kiri Te Kanawa's gorgeous soprano accompanying the beautiful love scene in the Merchant-Ivory film, A Room With a View. Still, my favorite film of all time. Enjoy your adaptation, Lauren. It's the arts that help us keep our sanity.
Good for your efforts, Lauren.
Many good people like you have had their efforts stymied due to the masses of billionaire money organized by the far-right foundations post-Powell-memo (1971).
Might America now more largely be waking up to the many outright fascists in U.S. government since then sucking up to the billionaire money?
Roy Cohn's 4th:
Accuse others of crimes you have already done, BEFORE they accuse you.
(Note: when Trump delivers an accusation of criminality, this is his 'tell', that he's thinking about this crime since this is a crime he's already done himself.)
TC, here’s the outline. You write the movie!
👏👏👏
I like this idea, Bill, except “Rosebud” was about when he was loving his childhood and it changed painfully for him. It was a sweet time when he had a sled and enjoyed playing outdoors, etc. we’ve got to come up with something similar from Trump’s childhood before we submit the script. Ask his cousin, Mary Trump, what that might be. Seriously. There may be something. Maybe not.
I
Because trump has so much money, he can outlast anyone in appeals. Many people seeking redress run out of money or even lose money and are forced to drop their case.
Make this movie asap!! Truly, so good.
Stephanie Clifford, aka Stormy Daniels, was cool and assured on the stand because she is a pro and had nothing to do but to tell the truth. I have a plan that could make a lot of money: start a lottery as to the date that Melania files for divorce. TFFG has caused her great humiliation. He ain't worth it. He could very well end up in bankruptcy court along with Giuliani.
Melanoma won't leave him. She's already proved she's as craven as he is.
she can't. Binding contract and she'd lose $$$$
She should take whatever money she can get now and run. TFG may end up bankrupt before this is over.
She’s known what he is since the beginning, she refuses to be humiliated….she’ll take care of herself, always
Is Barron 18 yet? I think that's what holding her back. Trump would fight for custody, but as adult, Barron would have his freedom. I would advise the young man to change his name and get as faraway from his sperm-donor as possible.
Woooo, what a put-down. I think that Barron just turned 18 and we could see some real fireworks starting to go off in the Trump family. The assets seem to be disintegrating. If E. Jean Carroll files another lawsuit, it could be the coup-de-grace for the Trump family's fortune.
[I just checked: Barron Trump was born on 3-6-2006, so he is 18 years old.]
Richard, I expect Melania's TFG's handler (for Putin).
Mark, Melania TFG's handler for Putin? That is a very interesting thought, that she's not the tail but really the dog. thank you for this.
the person who has HIM by the short hairs
I have felt all along, but particularly after the disgustingly fawning display of Trump's obsequiousness toward Putin in Helsinki in June 2021, that Putin had blackmail material on Trump, probably photos and videos of Trump in hotel rooms with Russian ladies.
She’s a bright star.
She did indeed.
Ok, Will, but tell us what you really think😎😎😎🤣🤣🤣
Bravo Phil, you said everything I’ve attempted to say & share with the handful of people I know that are “trumpets.” Well said!!!
Will, your comment is so perfectly written, it summarizes Trump's sleezy life in 2 perfectly constructed paragraphs. Thank you and to Dr. Heather for doing so as well.
Unbelievably sleazy,.
Sleazy, and his entire ego is built on lies.
May sleeze cease to be the lodestar for so many…
Or the “Blue Sky” they hope to reach as Trump hopscotches his way through multiple lawsuits.
All true! And in 4 Grand Jury indictment jurors and 12 Trial jurors, we are to believe the lies DJT is spewing? No matter. His acolytes will cling to his facade of power as they have with how many—60?— failed challenges to the 2020 election results. Too many are of the mind that he could indeed shoot someone in broad daylight and get away with it. But in this case, May there be substantial consequences.
This is not only about the base, the undecided, or the pundits. Or this election. This is about the entire Republican party, plutocrats such as Charles Koch et al, apparatchiks such as Leonard Leo, and antidemocratic initiatives such as the Federalist Society, the Heritage Society Project 2025, and the Teneo Network - repurposing an American democratic republic as a corporate clerical fascist state. Through peculiarities of the Constitution they've skewed the Senate. Through gerrymandering they've skewed the House. Through court capture they've bent the judiciary. Through Trump they intend to institute an imperial presidency. David Remnick wrote of the 'treacly obeisance' of Speaker Mike Johnson. Add to that the sour obeisance of Mitch McConnell. These - and Russia, Iran, China, North Korea, and Elon Musk, Jill Stein, RFKJR, Cornell West,,et al - will shape what much of the country will hear about the trial. But it is heartening that a jury which heard the facts convicted Trump.
Lin, it all sounds so “conspiracy theory”, but it’s NOT…these folks are, as you say, now saying the quiet part out loud and even publishing their “mandate” & an accompanying website. It is very scary and so much is on the line. My hope is, as Susan Sontag said “courage is as contagious as fear” and that we the people, hopefully an overwhelming landslide majority of us, will have the honor and courage shown by the 12 jurors and the alternates had in seeing TFFFG (I added an extra F today for Felon) for what he is, and channeling that courage, we will make sure he never comes close to the White House again…the big house, yeah I hope, but not the people’s house!
We can all drop the 'theory' part. As Lin points out, these insidious cretins have been plotting for decades, and inserting their obedient minions in strategic locations. And we've allowed them. The tired old cliche that "this is the most consequential election of our lifetimes" just woke up. It's not just our lifetimes, it all of American history.
Daniel, as I recall the basis for this “mandate” started with the Powell memo during the Reagan years & was used as a seed to grow the movement….one backed by some serious big dollar donors.
Agreed. And I, like so many of my contemporaries, paid no attention to the damage they were doing. Life got in the way; career, family, etc, etc. Now, here we are. I humbly accept my portion of the blame, but I also accept my portion of the resolve to rectify.
Seeds are powerful things, our garden needs so many
Add Nixon. He shares the beginnings.
Exactly, Barbara.
Except the Powell memo was August 23, 1971 -- nearly ten years before Reagan took office.
For those first ten years the far-right foundations set up by the Powell memo worked methodically to rid American schools of humanities. The predators knew Americans needed to be blinded as to what predations would follow -- they knew that humanities kept the people alert, vigilant, aroused.
The predators also knew that a new kind of thinking must take over our schools, so as to ensure docility, obeisance, dutiful following of authority. So standardized testing entered with a vengeance.
Worst was not that it numbered all life, turned all life into units, but that these stamped-out units would occupy rote positions in a "life" that was supposedly linear, binary, chronological, and categorical.
By the time Reagan ran in 1980, that decade of prep work was done. The predators could freely turn their attention to the offshoring of tens of millions of decent-paying U.S. working-class jobs. U.S. predators formed alliances with the communist Chinese cadres and with the worst goon governments of the world. And our elites were mostly all too anesthetized to notice.
Things only worsened as the most empty of the biz school grads financialized all U.S. life -- and in alliance with the world's worst dictators, financialized (and U.S. hegemony militarized) pretty much all the rest of the world, too.
The worst of our worst floated the former Soviet nomenklatura.
They caused the rise of the Osama bin Laden cells first in Egypt, where young health professionals and social workers got stymied by the thug police there, using U.S.-trained torture and secret police surveillance to tighten thug government rather than needed reforms.
Dehumanize the schools, Barbara -- turn them over to the abstractions of commercial savages -- and nothing but bad will follow.
I’m sure the majority of Americans will vote for Biden but what will the gerrymandering, voter suppression, voter roll purging( the last number I heard was 17 million kicked off voter rolls) and the cheating that republicans have taken as a science do to the election. We’re dealing with very fine lines.
NPR reported yesterday the post office in Richmond VA is so screwed up people shouldn't vote by mail.
It confounds me that Biden has neglected to rid us of Louis DeJoy.
I don’t think he can. The board has to do that. I’m not sure where they are on that.
I also think it has to do with nominations and appointments to the board which have to be confirmed thru congress. Not going to happen.
Listen to Jon Tester in Montana in regard to DeJOy.
The xtra 'F' is brilliant!
The GOP are still going after the justice system ( Speaker Johnston's comments as well as others yesterday saying it was all a sham is an alarm bell for all. If they outwardly denounce every day Americsns doing their job they will stop at nothing to protect their cult master. It is a n omen of what life wld be like if the GOP get power again. FASCISM. The battle to keep your democrats is still ongoing. GOTV. Flip the House and gain more Senate seats and of course elect Biden!
Cheers America
Might I suggest TFCF as a new moniker?
Project 2025
Yeah, Rickey, a “Cliff Notes for Theocratic Fascism”!
Thank you , Lin, for this excellent point.
Lin, great comment!
Jane Mayer “Dark Money”. The plot explained in detail
that book made my stomach churn I was so disgusted
Money and power
Having read the comments/responses to your post. lin, I have to say your vigilance is exemplary. There will always be clever, patient people who strategize to get into power. Our defense has to be to adopt some of your vigilance, which entails protecting public education, VOTING, demanding factual reportage from the media. No one who cares about the underlying principles of our form of government and the society it imagines can ever be complacent again. Terribly Pollyanna of me, I know. A fat and happy middle class will always slide into comfortable apathy. I think Marx said that revolution depends on people so disenfranchised and demeaned that they have nothing to lose. I don't know how to keep the moderate doing okay bourgeoisie engaged at your fierce level. In easy times, voices like yours sound like hysterical Cassandras. I guess we have to remind everyone that Cassandra was right about her predictions, and her curse was that no one would believe her.
Pollyanna and Cassandra.
Ha! Says it all ; )
Brilliantly said. Thank you!
Studying to become a family therapist, I came across the approach of a Georgetown psychiatrist Murray Bowen. He used the phrase “Undifferentiated Family Ego Mass” (UFEM) to describe the emotional stickness (sickness) gluing people to overblown parental or authoritarian figures. Your insightful comments about the individuals marching in tune with DT illustrate this “family” dynamic in spades.
They need to grow up, get a spine, and stand up on their own two feet, as exemplified by Liz Cheney, Adam Kinsinger, Max Boot, and others.
Very well said. Thank you. I hadn't heard "treacly" as a description of Johnson.
I think he is much much worse than that.
Right on target. The Entirety of Conservative Leadership.
I had not heard of the Teneo Network. I'm appalled, but not surprised. Thank you, I suppose, for bringing it to my attention. It all sounds so very "alpha male, manosphere", it gave me the ick.
Republicans reorganized after Nixon to evade law, misuse law, pervert law, to bully their way to dominance. We the people, every single one, have duties to the law, or the Republic unravels. We cannot afford another "smoothing over" that brings us any closer to total tyranny.
This is correct. The Republican senators violated their oaths of office to acquit and obviously guilty president, but twelve ordinary jurors did what the Senate twice refused to do.
Kathy, my hope is that once (if/when?) Jack Smith is able to bring the federal 1/6 trial (unless SCOTUS grants immunity) & if TFFFG is found guilty, it will spawn “sequel” trials of all those elected/appointed officials who aided and abetted his efforts to overturn the election and hold them accountable as well. So far just the pawns in the game, the “stand back and standby” folks, are the only ones who have been held so.
Those convicted of January 6 related crimes are NOT hostages or political prisoners. They are people who believed Trump and his bs. So far, the small fry are the ones paying for Donald Trump's crimes. Not so different from when he would refuse to pay contractors for work completed. Twelve ordinary people held tffg accountable for his business fraud to cover up sexual misconduct. He wanted the misconduct kept from the American people because he thought he would lose votes. He has worked hard to earn the title of convicted felon.
I hope Aileen Cannon gets removed from the documents case. An impartial judge needs to be hearing that case. Trump took sensitive material related to national security.
Guantanamo is a good place to put tffg. No communication with the outside world. We all need a break from his toxicity. He is an abusive person and will never admit wrongdoing.
Guantanamo would poetic justice for a domestic terrorist, but the Guantanamo torture camp is a moral obscenity that should not exist; an a knife in the back of rule of law. Cannon and Trump is as if Benie Madoff had been assigned a judge he spent millions to seat; yet far worse, because what Madoff stole was "only money" and Cannon hired at Trumps pleasure. Trump and his confederates literally attempted a coup, and there is an armory of "smoking guns" to prove it.
I think that we humans all harbor mixtures of Jekyll and Hyde in our very human natures, and there those in every generation that try to gain by "summoning the devil" and those who are willing to follow. Germany, among other societies, proves that cultures are malleable. The Germans once used "big lies" to perpetrate horrors. Big lies are now destroying our future. Big lies and big liars need decisive and consistent rejection, and those who tell critical truths, as Brooksley Born did, as Alexander Vindman did, in the face of retaliation, made role models and social heroes. Even now.
True, and no one seems to have men looking to the senators, congress members or people like Julie Fancelli (one of the big fundraisers of Jan, 6,) or Ginni Thomas, who helped organize it.
it took 10 years to make all the convictions in Watergate, all except for one ...Nixon
This is Watergate on steroids. More will be convicted
Trump is only a lying, self-aggrandizing arsewhole without his enablers.
In my "happy dream", the felon is fined the maximum (peanuts for him, but still, the symbolism is soothing) and sentenced to 34 months of house arrest in NY. One month for each felony charge. Doesn't that sound appropriate? No golf. Just TV and Cheeseburgers.
The dream continues. The other three major Trump trials will proceed into 2025. NY will be asked to release him to Georgia. Bernie Marcus (rabid billionaire fan of Trump) will host him (anklet bracelet included). Then guilty.
Jack Smith will then proceed with his two prosecutions. Guilty and guilty. Incarceration and isolation will be mandatory as the treasonous horrors of the stolen Top Secret Documents become obvious to all.
The response from the Biden White House will be the same with each case.
“We respect the rule of law, and have no additional comment.”
I am currently flying "Old Glory" in celebration. May 30th should be a National Holiday.
May 30 used to be a National Holiday. The original Memorial Day until the "Federal Holiday Monday" crept in. Maybe they could give the rotating Monday to "Conviction Day" and give Memorial Day back to May 30th.
"Trump Squawks Day"
"Remember today, thirty of May, the (first) Trumpian Treason and Plot.
I see no reason why Trumpian Treason should ever be forgot."
Yes, me too! I put up my American flag, and a Biden/Harris sign in my window.
I'll accept 4yrs total for his sentence.
Like the way you dream, Bill….may it comes to pass…likely millions are sharing it even in as daydreams!
The SC is complicit, sad to say
Infiltrated by plutocratic minions of corruption. Like Reagan's appointments of James Watt and (mom) Ann Gorsuch, dispatched to sabotage what they were sworn to protect.
Corruption is a big deal. McCarthyism is a big deal. Plutocracy is a big deal. The fate of countess species is a big deal. We never should have let it get this bad, but we are now at the make or break stage. The same predatory emotions that have left a wake of tragedy though history are massing at the gate. I believe that collectively we need to focus and embrace solidarity for survival. As much as it takes.
Agree, but fear we cannot/will not even if it means our destruction of us and many of Earth’s species/ecosystems….tho, that said, Gaia would get on just fine (maybe better) absent us! Came across this recently….just another cautionary tale that there is no “planet B” to easily run to when it all hits the fan: First is a general article, followed by the “source” piece:
https://gizmodo.com/drake-equation-update-fermi-paradox-intelligent-life-1851503974?utm_source=gizmodo_newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=2024-05-30
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-024-54700-x
My hope also.
this is the second jury to do so.
The Constitution. and a habitable earth, are too good to let die.
As David Pepper wrote in his book, they learn from their mistakes.
They are the experts at going Goebbels one better
Practice, practice, practice.
Indeed
The fact that the indictments were returned showed that his lies held no sway in an actual court. The media needs to be pushing that as well as the democrats running against any and all republicans that claim the system is "rigged".
The Media finds no profit in reporting the truth. No headlines there
The media went nuts yesterday. Yesterday they broadcast Trump's post-conviction diatribe in full and I'm challenged. I assume the gag order persists through sentencing, so this should be interesting. Today they are rebroadcasting that, along with Trump's Tapdancers, out repeating the same; that the judge voted for Biden, so he's not impartial, he disallowed Trump's evidence, the jury was given wrong instructions, because of the gag order, Trump was unable to defend himself in court, nor campaign. All lies, and yet they broadcast that, asked a couple of questions marginally pushing back, then cut to a different story. No rebuttal interview, no correction of the lies.
Juan Marchand will live under threat of harm for the remainder of his life. At least when we send soldiers to war, they get to come home again when the battle is over.
The media will push whatever they see as potentially the most profitable. That part of the system is definitely rigged.
Will someone explain to me how a trial is rigged with a jury of ordinary citizens who been approved by both prosecution and defense lawyers?
Hope Trump is searched for weapons before the debate.
The only weapon Trump has is his mouth. WMD.
And we won’t hear it with his “microphone cut ” at the appropriate times. Thank God!!
I don’t see Trump debating Joe Biden. He’ll weasel out after being humiliated by the Libertarian party. If I’m wrong, he’ll spew gibberish. Blah blah blah stolen election, I’m your retribution…no punk, you’re nothing but a stupid rich kid who manages to squander every nickel. And with no Vanky around to look at your now a worthless dung heap of evil ashes.
I hope he’s tested for Covid.
He’d never do actually something himself. See bone-spurs & borrowed xrays.
On the eve of conservative Clint Eastwood's 94th birthday, the jury finds Trump guilty on all 34 counts. "Make my day." Tonight, Melania will invite Donnie to a private showing of "Soylent Green." On Friday, the overwrought members of the MAGANAZI Party will trot out the same spiel they've been using for ten years, a rerun of a rerun of a rerun. No doubt the number of phone threats will be off the charts. Tomorrow, Donald J. Trump will sue God. This will not be another Summer of Love.
I will have a special treat on my BD, the chump will be sentenced,
My birthday too! July 11. Friends and family are already sending well wishes.
My sis who would have, died in Feb, bros - not likely. I'll be tuned in anyway. Seeing him face a judge will be gift enough. Early Happy Birthday
Love your references/imagery/humor! Blends so nicely with my lightened mood, which I haven't felt much lately. Yay for something good happening!
“Let's nail him and his syncophants one more time where it really hurts: at the ballot box in November. See y'all there!”
Love your last paragraph
Well said. My like button has ceased to function. Here is a 🎯instead.
Ha ha...Cheeto Von Tweeto's,
LMAO
Yup. That made me chuckle.
💙
"what amounts to a series of paper crimes". Reminds me of another infamous person who was brought down with "paper crimes": Al Capone.
Thank you, Will, from Cal! I always start my day out by reading HCR and I usually enjoy reading many of the comments too. Her letter and your comment today will help me start my day out on the right foot! There is a glimmer of hope for our democracy!
"You can fool all the people some of the time, and some of the people all of the time, but you cannot fool all the people all of the time" often attributed to A. Lincoln, is the quote for today.
He is a disgusting human.
Will, you have outdone yourself. Thank you!
Will, well stated! As HCR stated, Stormy Daniel’s, Alvin Bragg, David Cohen, Keith Davidson, Hope Hicks, David Pecker and 12 jurors had the courage to speak truth to power, unlike Cruz and the others who continue to support 45 by word and deed. I’m excluding Robert Costello since he had to have the truth dragged out of him through skilled questioning and obviously wanted to shade the truth to protect 45.
We need to vote Cruz and the others out in November and remember the senators who aren’t up for reelection so that we can vote them out for the next four years. If they’re willing to lie for 45 and their own power, they need to go.
Excellent comment Will. I totally agree.
Will, in all seriousness, have you ever considered becoming a speechwriter? Every time I see your name, I know that I’m going to read something thoughtful, incisive and pithy, often amusing, always to the point. You have a marvelous voice; thank you for sharing it with us.
It was music to my ears and Heather, I imagine it was to yours also. In fact, I was driving when I heard the news. I let out a guttural scream that I didn’t know my body could produce! As Neal Katyal said “34 for 45”.
I got to show the headline to my Mom in dramatic fashion on my tablet. The poor woman, who doesn't follow the news and is typically so poised, screamed so hard she almost fell over.
Then my Dad went and bought a celebration lemon merengue pie, because "this is a great day for justice and our country." He is correct, of course, both in his opinion and the choice of pie.
How wonderful for your parents and for you. It was my birthday and that verdict was the best birthday present in 81 years. ♥️
Happy birthday! What a gift for you (and the rest of us!)
Thank you ❤️
Happy birthday, Francine!
Thank you ❤️
Happy Belated BDay, Francine! What a treat you were gifted!🎂
Thank you Marlene! And a surprise present.
That is the greatest birthday present Francine💖🥳
It was❣️Thank you❤️
Happy Birthday, Francine! What a birthday present!!
Thank you Anne ♥️ and it was such a surprise. I didn’t expect 34 “guilty” - frosting on the cake
👏🏻👏🏻🙏
Gave me chills, as well.
He's finally no longer Teflon Donald. And life seems a little more fair.
How about key lime, Will?
Something succulent, also bright, zesty, but more expressly Florida-local, thus maybe to some extent to compensate for the existence of pestilential Mar a Lago.
But, if you're from California, I can fully appreciate your (dad's) choice of the fruit there.
Or apple pie - because it's so AMERICAN.
I live far away, Debbie, in the mountains of Kyushu, Japan.
At the holidays, how I long for pumpkin pie with whipped cream, and pecan pie, too. In spring, rhubarb pie.
Apple pie with vanilla ice cream is my favorite. Pumpkin pie with whipped cream is my second favorite. No fan of rhubarb pie. :)
Who needs pie? Chocolate for all!
Or French Silk pie ….
We had a celebratory bottle of Prosecco!
Love your parents reaction Will!
Marlene: please request our friends here to make a plan to support effective groups which are active in registering younger voters and then turning them out in November? The very best and most effective group is from Harvard www.TurnUP.US and is tax deductible! They already have registered recently 70,000 high school seniors in truly “competitive” congressional districts. They have a plan to register more than 100,000 Community College students in key districts. Please give a helping hand? 34 for 45 is not enough—we must protect abortion rights by winning in November! Please help? Many thanks
MAGA will lose support at the fringes, but better, the conviction should influence some "undecided" and "swing" voters and make it easier for us to reach the unregistered who trend Democratic. Register Democratic and sweep the swing states.
https://www.fieldteam6.org/all-volunteer-ops
Perhaps some of Trump's uber wealthy backers will get uneasy by the specter of increasing risk.
JL, that was my thinking/hope as well….they sure have been drifting back his way in recent months with visions of dollar signs (aka, tax cuts & deregulation) in their starry eyes—they who previously excoriated him after 1/6….guess the lure of money, um, trumps morality & democracy every time. They could learn a thing or two or more from those brave jurors who upheld the rule of law…hope they heed their example.
I continue to wonder why they think they will be spared from his vengefulness if reelected. As soon as someone makes the tiniest offense to him, they will pay.
They lock themselves in their own prisons. Fancy as they are, they are still prisons
They who remorselessly screw unto others will screw unto you.
"Destroy this spirit, and you have planted the seeds of despotism around your own doors. Familiarize yourselves with the chains of bondage and you are preparing your own limbs to wear them. Accustomed to trample on the rights of those around you, you have lost the genius of your own independence, and become the fit subjects of the first cunning tyrant who rises." - Lincoln
The "love of money", to the extent it excludes any other thing of value, in known to be problematic.
I’ve always wondered why folks can’t be satisfied with “enough” when they already have “more than enough”….found this article hope the “share” function works:
“At a certain point, another million dollars doesn’t make anything newly affordable. That’s when other motivations take over” from The Atlantic mag: https://www.theatlantic.com/family/archive/2018/12/rich-people-happy-money/577231/
J L—unfortunately the, ‘if it smells it sells’ of media feeding algorithmic interests, they will make money off this by feeding distress, avoiding discourse, and undermining facts and reality…this is how they make money. If there were more communities like ‘Letters from an American’, this might change. There’s hope !
Seems to me that that was the issue with "yellow journalism", sensationalist crap to beguile the suckers.
Given what I'm seeing from my MAGAt friends (an upside down US flag for a profile pic, and "More MAGA Than Ever"), I believe that the work by "turn up" and "field team 6" is a worthy cause.
Thank you for that info, Ira. Living abroad, I miss out on some info and this is great to know and support. I will indeed do so. There should also be some women's groups to support I would think. I haven't read that poor PP has any time or strength left to do voter registration with all it's need to protect itself from constant attack, but are there groups devoted to registering voters who's single issue is "choice"?
Dotty, If you’re not aware, Vote Forward has a letter writing campaign for voters living abroad.
Encourage U.S. voters living abroad to return their overseas ballot request form, in order to vote in this year's general election⬇️
https://votefwd.org/district/US_2024_ABROAD
Thank you. I just received something from a group here doing that for all the non-voters who could. Not sure if it was Voteforward or not, but I will try and help. We're still settling in, so my life still seems like I'm working and not retired although I am. Lots to do to expat, with visas, living arrangements, all new medical, banking, transportation etc. And, I'm it for getting all arranged as my husband is 87 and had a stroke last year.
Wow, Dotty. I admire your fortitude with such a major life change. Enjoy the next chapter on your life journey …💙
I don’t know, Dotty, but perhaps the list of women’s charities that MacKenzie Scott just donated to might be a place to start looking.
Wasn't that fabulous? I specifically want to help voter registration and getting them to the polls and I'm not sure that's her aim though, more to actually help them with life which is wonderful, but my goal is more immediate.
I think Ira’s group would be a good choice. I’ve donated to them myself.
Thanks for the tip. I donate monthly to at least a dozen candidates in red or purple districts plus Justice Democrats, Sunrise etc. If I hadn’t moved to a cheaper lifestyle I couldn’t do it all.
Ira, thanks for the recommendation and website re registering young voters. They will definitely get my donation!
Done!
I think you just did that and very effectively, Ira!
I am a monthly donor to turnup, thanks to Ira
Marlene, this evening I (along with MANY others, I'm sure) donated $34 to Joe Biden's reelection campaign. $34 for 46!
This is a hilarious and apropos notion. I shall do so myself first thing in the morning!
I can't claim it as mine, but I agree — it's apropos.
Love this, Doug! No doubt your post will boost the campaign with many $34 donations!!!!
Thanks Barbara — the Felon has been soliciting donations off his conviction, so I'm happy to do a small thing.
Just donated $34 to Joe’s reelection campaign!
What a great idea! I’m going to do that too!
34/45 - that's a bumper sticker just waiting to happen :)
34/45ths of a man...
Marlene, I was outside working in my garden when the verdict was announced. My younger daughter was here helping and it just felt great to be getting a handle on the weeds.
My neighbor, Priscilla, came screaming across the yard - literally. “Guilty, Guilty, Guilty! He was found guilty on all counts!” Then the neighbor who lives on the other side, arrived home with his 9 year old daughter. Sergio strolled over with a wide grin on his face and joined the celebration on my lawn. We decided it was time to break out some beer, wine and snacks and appreciate the moment!
Priscilla is Native American. Sergio arrived here with his parents as a four year old refugee from El
Salvador. My daughter is a proud member of the LGBTQ family.
And the racist, misogynistic, homophobic former President is guilty. On all counts. Lock him up!
What a fabulous celebration!!!!
Maybe one of those "Everyone remembers what they were doing when the news was announced" moments?
In some cities, there was cheering. HCR
"In all cities, there was cheering." (corrected).
Who amongst us, did not here this verdict and cheer, even if we were alone. I can't begin to imagine which is the reddest city, but even there people cheered.
My amusing story: I was doing our weekly "divestment run" with a friend. (She is working hard on clearing 20 years of clutter from her house, and has set a goal of a box of donations/dump/recycling per week.) Between the two of us, at this time of year, we generate enough yard debris for us to go to a yard waste place (or the dump; the dump is a bonus because there's several collection sites, like for light bulbs, used motor oil, or clothing/household donations) every week. She has been following a trial in Idaho involving a religious group called "General Assembly and Church of the Firstborn" where (and I grossly simplify) a "leader" killed his wife and kids, married another woman, other kids and family members were killed. The wife he married after killing his first wife had her trial last year and was convicted. The trial has been streamed on a YouTube site for true crime. My friend has been engrossed. They announced that verdict at about 1:30 PST, and so we spent our erranding time listening to that (well, I listened. She watched).
My wife sent me a text of "GUILTY" at about 2:15. I was so wrapped up in the "true crime" that I said "Who?". Her reply: t-Rump.
A glorious day, all around. It wasn't too hot, and there was tuba rehearsal last night.
34 and counting.
It’s like the saying “death by a thousand cuts”. First felony conviction . . . ✔️
T shirt
Even better.
I get about 7 emails a day from TFFG complaining about the injustice, that Biden is behind it all, and asking for money. Through it all TFFG showed real fear because he knew in his heart and mind that he was guilty and rightly feared that the jurors knew it, too.
I started getting 1 MAGA txt a day roughly 1 year after a donation to Liz Cheney for her Jan 6 work. Just recently increased to several a day. Liz has a mole on her staff.
... which sounds familiar, was that something Stormy said about tfg?
I love it, 34 for 45!!
I heard Neal say that on MSNBC. When I got home my wife hadn't heard the news and her first reaction was 45 with 34. Apparently, it is a common reaction??
I was sitting on the toilet when I heard my wife scream several times so loud that I thought she had seriously injured herself. When I shouted back, "Are you all right?", she shouted back with glee,"Guilty on all counts." (One could have said I almost shit in my pants, but I was already where I needed to be.)
I sat down and cried. "After slightly less than ten hours of deliberation..." Had trump testified they would've reached the verdicts in less than five minutes....
"Today, twelve ordinary Americans did what Republican senators refused to do. They protected the rule of law and held Trump accountable for his attempt to rig an election."
The GOP senators are enablers and complicit in Trump's corrupt conduct.
a lot of those sycophants that have tried to cover for him are on the ballot in November too. I say crucify the lot of them...
If they deserve it, yes. It's time for people to be getting what they've deserved.
No, ALL of them!! A very clear message needs to be sent to those identifying as Republican, ON ALL LEVELS!!! We The People have had enough. Those you deem 'not deserving' have been silent about all this, and silence is complicity. My House rep is Dave Joyce, R-OH. A good guy, really, but he's been silent. I've written and called often, warning him that if he won't speak up, I will lead the campaign to get him out. And I will. We all need to. We The People have had ENOUGH!!
I think decent citizens, who are republican elected legislators, may truly be afraid to speak out against djt; in part because of unhinged maga folk, who threaten violence. Maybe with this decision, they will take heart & aim at a democratic landslide in November. (Whispering..."No one is with you when you're casting your vote in the voting box. Vote blue..& save not only yourselves, but our democracy.")
This is my hope as well, Bonnie. But, if 12 'ordinary citizens' can buck-up and see the truth, then it's high time for the so-called legislators to grow a pair. Having said that, my crystal ball has been saying for some time now that this November will be an election of epic proportions. There will be no mistaking the will of the people.
Like Daniel said 'vote them out', their silence negates the 'decent citizens' title.
No, I don't think I made myself quite clear: the complicit are among those who must get what they deserve.
And this verdict marks the beginning.
Vote them all out!
💙
The whole friggin' party, in the House, $COTUS, the RNC, are partners in crime. They are all in on the swindle.
I'd never thought of it, J L -- but perfect, your spelling of $COTUS.
$C from now on
Sadly, so correct.
👍
I think there were 7 GOP Senators that held Trump accountable including Senator Collins (R-ME). I sent her an email again suggesting she switch her party affiliation to Independent like our other Senator. Only Lisa Murkowski comes close to voting against McConnell and the rest of the GOP Senators as many times.
She will never
The GOP is accountable for causing great harm in our country. Mitch Mc Connell is guilty for stacking the SCOTUS with the aid of the Federalist Society. Greed for wealth to buy power is the root of our National demise. Citizens United allows all of this destructive activity to continue. Sadly the voice of the people is faint because the megaphone MSM to lie daily. The people who count and should be heard are struggling to survive and find little energy to fight the battle for their life and sanity.
Thank God the jury paid attention! Must have been an exceptional burden to be one of them. They all deserve the Nation's thanks for their diligence.
And they, along with the judge, his family, the DA and his staff all deserve protection that the government pays for. We know what the fringe is capable of. Let's not wait to have heartbreak.
It is a pity that trial by jury has become so rare in the United States. In its place, risky horse trading between prosecution and defendant. Transactions, transactions...
It is a pity that in our democracies there is no place in which groups of ordinary citizens can examine the issues of the day, accompanied by moderators who are neutral experts on the matter at hand. Outcome to be published by the relevant state or federal authorities.
It is more than a pity -- a severe flaw -- that citizens can stand for high office, even the highest, when in any other professional circumstances they would be labeled a security risk. This endangers the State and all its citizens.
Our Founders and Framers never once entertained the thought that our populace would--at some future point--be so hornswoggled and mesmerized by a grubby, chintzy real estate con artist: so befooled as to VOTE for him. Such an occurrence was inconceivable! Thus, no provision was included in the Constitution that would disqualify such a manifestly unfit candidate. We the people must do our duty as citizens and reject Trump at the ballot box...utterly and completely, with no room for challenges or doubt.
Nicely put. But it is plain that, after some 230 years, even the best built house would need some modernization... if only for safety's sake. The administrative negligence that permitted said con artist to wreak havoc with the State is as scandalous as the phenomenon itself.
Puts my needed home repairs in a positive light. Gracias.
Ahh yes T L Mills but now we must pursue such "grubby, chintzy real estate con artists" when we catch their malicious behaviors via enforcement of Section 3 of the 14th Amendment barring those who "have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same [United states], or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof."
I wish...but evidently, trumpy's $COTUS appointees have brushed away any possibility that we the people can use Section3 of 14th Amendment for the actual purpose that it was added to the Constitution in the first place. According to $COTUS, he has to be impeached first...but turn around and speak with the Senate and McConnell said the courts would have to deal with Trump. Between the Repubbies and $COTUS, they have made it nearly impossible to properly deal with the insurrectionists.
But the framers also didn't envision allowing the general populace to pick the Presidential candidates.
The corrupt GOP was questioning whether to replace Trump on the ballot multiple times in 2016 and as stated in the prosecutions closing remarks, "It's likely Trump's actions related to this case handed Trump the Presidency in 2016." (paraphrased)
true...the political process has been greatly altered* since the early days of the country.
(*in some ways that are better and in some ways that are definitely NOT better)
Peter, it is difficult for even those with the most judicious temperaments to remain "neutral" moderators of any examination or even discussion in the face of such prodigious mendacity and vulgarity! Judge Merchan was a paragon of judicious temperament but one fears such paragons are in short supply...especially when we see with what extraordinary jubilation WE have celebrated 34 guilty verdicts!
I, for one, am not jubilant. Just grateful for a momentary breath of fresh air. Always hopeful.
But none of us can breathe easy so long as this man walks free.
And they returned a verdict so quickly! The prosecution must have been superb and the defense … well, when you have nothing to work with. Bet Blance and Bové get no more $$ from tfg’s sycophants (bc tfg sure isn’t paying). PS wonder if this outcome will move Loose Cannon off her high horse.
No, she is on the take, one way or another
YES!!!!, Thank you, Frank
Justice held. The rule of law matters. Facts matter.
And yet he is still a candidate for the Presidency of the United States.
I tell you, from outside it looks bizarre.
We live in Portugal (due to what I call the Trump Effect, and when we tell people we're from the States, and moved because of Trump, the laugh and say good on ya, or what took you so long, etc. Europeans just can't believe how our political system has gotten so out of whack that a man like Trump could have been elected let alone be able to run again. It doesn't matter what country they're from, they think we're insane in the US (not us as we had the sense to leave!).
I think deregulation of public media has a lot to do with the madness. That and the press fawning all over Reagan, a somewhat more refined creep who put us on the road to plutocracy and Trump.
And got rid of the Fairness Doctrine while he was at it
I remember the blather. He was a better actor than I ever gave him credit for. He did so much damage that was ignored
Trump parades his sociopathic shamelessness as a virtue. I guess that it makes him seem bold and effective, when its really a predatory soul. He is relentless in denying reality, and openly call it a skill. He celebrates lying. He has got that going for him, as well the financial clout of sociopathic billionaires that Reagan unleashed. (Soros in among those not in the club, and thus demoniszed). Democracy is live and let live, but responsibility and accountability rises with one's imposed impacts on others, burning old tires in the backyard or releasing methane from an oil rig. With great power comes great responsibility, period. We are all accountable or it just isn't Liberty and Justice for ALL.
Opps, I should have looked at the thread before typing. I thought you were speaking of Reagan. I think that unlike Trump, Reagan may have believed*, or told himself he believed, the pernicious nonsense he was spouting. His coached core prescription of ditch democracy and yield authority to the ultra-rich gave us President Trump and the vociferously anti-republican "Republicans" of the day.
* He never struck be as very bright. Part of his faux-folksy "charm" I guess.
I remember the first criminal president, and the second, and the latest. They brought us where we are, sadly
And , once again, it all began with Scotus.
Too bad you left. We need your boots on the ground here before November.
Dotty, at least you can point to the 34 convictions and say 'us Americans have not totally lost their minds', perhaps?
Well, it's still early in the day, so I haven't been out to talk to anyone yet. The fact that it took so long and he's "crimed" so much to get to his first trial is very telling about the US justice system, so I'm not dancing in the streets. There's still the appeals, the fund raising, the risk of violence, Faux' take on it all of which is why I had to leave the US.
I'm not dancing, either. I'm afraid it will change nothing. The Republicons will still follow Megatrump, he can still go where he pleases and he can still cast his vomit everywhere on radio, X and whereever - and he will spin this story into even more fundraising and more attention and more air time. The only thing that makes me smile is that he lost. He lost this case. And I know he will be SO angry about that, because in his mind, he's always winning. But today, he _lost_.
I get it, Dutch.
Don’t count your chickens - yet…
If you are still Americans, can you vote here?
Yes, I can either vote in California or get a ballot from Democrats Abroad which I have joined. I have not renounced my citizenship which is the only way to not have the right to vote.
Portugal is on our list. We've got friends in Loule, so we'd like to be close to them.
Over half of us still here agree.
From the INSIDE it looks equally bizarre. Would that the Insurrection trial was underway.
Yes. That is sad - as good as this is - it’s bittersweet… former US President- felon. He’s been a blight and embarrassment for the US - however, better convicted,than not, for crimes.
Dianne, I've read some people describe this as being a sad day for the country, and that we shouldn't gloat. What's sad is that he has gotten away with so much for so long, and became president in the process. These crimes likely led to Clinton's loss in the Electoral College (not to mention the figurative crimes committed by Comey mere days before the election, aided and abetted by the media.) But her emails...
I'm gloating, as Hillary herself is. Did you see the clip of her beginning a speech tonight? She started with "So, what's going on?" to great applause.
Obviously Democrats who are running for office will trot out the "It's a sad day" line. A major part of the brand right now is good sportsmanship, solemn moderation, etc etc.
I don't have to worry about how I look to voters, so I can express that I am honestly on Cloud 9 and have no intention of hiding it. I love a good comeuppance, what can I say?
The smell of Schadenfreude is heavy in the air, Will.
It was a sad day when someone making the "grab them by the pussy" comment was elected. Finally a modicum of accountability with potentially more to come. I had a bit of the bubbly last night, but suspect the battle is far from over.
As did I. But since I decided to give up alcohol over a year ago, I cracked open a nice cold Athletic Brewing Free Wave hazy IPA (no alcohol).
It was the saddest day of my life, and I have had some doozies
What a perfect opening!! "What's going on?" Kimmel, Colbert, Myers -- eat your hearts out. Hillary won best line of the day.
And it was delivered with such sublimity — a perfect line.
Agreed
All of this could and likely would have gone away if the Senate had impeached Trump as they should have for the insurrection.
There are lots of blame to go around, but McConnell is an evil man who has done nothing helpful for the average American. He is just as transactional as Trump.
Agreed
Agreed.
A lot of places won't let you vote if you are a felon, but be president???
You cannot join the military with a felony conviction (although it's possible some non-violent felonies could be downgraded to misdemeanors in order to join) and yet, a felon could, conceivably, be elected President who is also Commander in Chief. How does that make any sense???
None. There are requirements of age and native birth, but not of character. There seems to be an assumption that the House and Senate would do the right thing if that character was fatally flawed. There was also far greater diversity of newspapers in Colonial times. I rather doubt the framers anticipated media monopolies. After reforms of "Yellow Press", pre-Reagan/Clinton press was more frequently a champion of the public's interests, or so it seems to me.
If he wins, it will go away, pronto
🤪
That seems too bizarre…a felon can not vote but he can run for president?? WHAT were they “originally” thinking….Let me get my headdress and crystal ball out…..
They hadn’t met such. At least such hadn’t crawled out from under the rocks
They did a pretty good job for release 1.0, and at least they had the foresight to make it updatable. In the end, there is no and probably cannot be a free and just foolproof system that is invulnerable to attack and misuse. We can be smart about handling it's errors, but liberty and justice are impossible without living good faith on the part of the preponderance of participants, And we have seen what can happen when bad faith goes septic.
Our guard and engagement against the malicious misuse of the very tools we have created to protect and sustain us requires ceaseless vigilance and engagement against such corruptions for the foreseeable future, likely as long as our species exists.
Christopher….let me tall you it looks even MORE bizarre from the inside! You know, like the scary movies where “the call” is coming from the inside of the house? Yeah, like that.
Exactly
It is so unbelievable.
WaPo readers (over 5000 when I looked) basically said YES! Rule of law! this is our America!
When the WaPo does polls of current events they will also ask at the end of the poll if you are a frequent WaPo reader? Their readers are far more likely to be aware of most of the current events than the average population.
And so much for "jury nullification."
IMHO Trump is his own worst enemy. Had he not attacked the judge and jury, had he not tried to use Robert Costello to manipulate Cohen, and called him as a witness, the result might have been different. Trump might have avoided the entire trial had he asked fir pre-trial intervention.
Yeah, but pointing out that a delusional narcissist felon could have gotten away with more if they weren't so high on their own imagined invincibility is kinda like saying "Those salamanders sure would have more room to maneuver if they grew wings and opposable thumbs!" It's a theoretical that asks the central subject to no longer be what it is.
Hubris, thy name is Trump.
JL, he’s the number 1, biglyest & best ever example of Hubris sapiens (how I now refer to our species)….he is the primo primate pirate.
Spot on Daniel. Also he could have stipulated to most facts and concentrated on the fact the records were generated in NYC while he lived in D.C. and thus argued 'I didn't know what records were being created'. Orange clown also refused lesser included Misd counts. But most of all, his insistence to deny all facts including facts he stipulated too in other civil proceedings like 'paying off Daniels $130k' and then at trial saying it was all legit legal fees...ha ha LMAO the orange clown instructed his lawyer to impale both of themselves. Could not have happened to a more deserving guy! :-))
100Panthers you describe a near literal example of "being hoist on their own petards!" Nice!
Trump’s hands were in so many things Blanche said; you could hear tfg’s voice coming out of Blanche’s mouth. He wouldn’t let his lawyer do it his way because, you know, tfg is the smartest guy ever.
I wonder how much of an impact some of that will have on sentencing.
Sure, the conviction is nice, but will it hamper Rump? I don’t think so. He will still be walking around freely, spewing his vitriol, and turning this verdict around in even more attention and more money for him…
To some, Sue. To some. But thank goodness they do.
Thanks Heather! I for one thought I would never see this day in my life. I am sure others feel the same. What really is shocking, more than the conviction is the frontal attack on our sacred institutions that protect every citizen who in the United Stares are guaranteed equal protection under the law. Those attacking our legal system are no better, actually worse than the rioters who committed sacrilege in our Nation’s Capitol.
They attack our legal system knowing fully that it’s working. Such short-sighted power-hungry people. Such poor students of history.
Maybe, Mike.
But maybe, again, they don't "know" anything about our legal system, given that our laws hang on some attachments to truth -- to verifiable facts, evidence, detailed experiences specific to situations where we can explore even the most complicated nuances.
It takes some skills to honor reality this way. Some skills to explore things. But our Republicans -- from the Clarence court, to Congress, to K Street, to Fox News peddling lies -- have as equipment only abstractions (and standardized testing to limit thinking to the linear, the binary, the chronological, and the consistent). Women? Per our Republicans women are all only liabilities for a theocrat state to package. All life is only more packaging for our predator billionaire classes to number, categorize as consumer demographics, label, market, and derive profits from.
They hate our humanities. Hate our laws. Want only a demagogue's vulgarity.
That “guilty” written 34 times in this letter, pure genius! Let it sink in, he is a convicted felon.
And he had to listen to it, 34 times. Until he got outside and started shrieking VERY INNOCENT! RIGGED!
Like any other common crimminal, it's never their fault and they were totally framed. No different from the shoplifting kid with the chocolate smudges on his mouth.
Lame.
Did someone say, "sore loser"?
JL, maybe someone should produce some red ball caps with a big “L” stitched on it….I might even wear one of those! Or “L X 34”?? Or “34/45”? Something like that…
Jl & Barbara it seems to me most efficient to hold one's right hand out with thumb out and forefinger pointed upward to form an "L" shape to the listener to get one's point across quietly but clearly.
Yeah, I do that w/ it placed on my forehead!
"34/45" yeah, or some variant like POTUS34...
I'm sure it's coming.
Or why not just show the score:
NY 34, Trump 0
J.L. - They should reprise "The Biggest Loser". Trump would be the perfect first contestant.
Oh, I like that
The Sorest Loser, he'd win hands down.
In every category
Why? Was someone a sore loser? s/
Really—can one be VERY innocent? Is that more innocent than average innocent? Tfg’s complete lack of articulation has always grated.
The more of the modifier the less of the subject.
“Very innocent” makes as much sense as “happy Memorial Day”, whatever comes out of his mouth either makes no sense or is an outright lie.
Always
He always has to be beyond all other beings,; the most knowledgeable, the "Least racist", the most wronged, and on and on. If it wasn't for ego, he wouldn't have a brain at all.
I'm hearing that word, "rigged" all over MAGA world. Nice simple word. Works for the feeble minded.
Melanie, I keep hearing in my mind Inigo Montoya saying “I do not think that means what you think it means” (Princes Bride) whenever folks keep spouting “rigged” on anything that tries to hold TFFFG accountable.
"Hello! My name is America! you tried to kill my democracy! Prepare to go to jail!"
🤣🗡️
LOVE THIS!!
But how many of them are thinking about this meaning of the definition of rigged -
"Fitted or equipped with necessary rigging (sails and shrouds and stays etc)." /S
Much HAS been rigged, and sometimes conspiracies ARE real. Just not the way they think.
I'll amend that: he got outside and started squealing, etc.
Yes and he looked like smoke was gonna start coming out of his ears at any second. He appeared to be completely infuriated. Well, good. Hopefully his blood pressure was through the roof and his stress cortisols went along for the ride.
Hopefully the stress hastens his Alzheimer's.
It did not seem to make Reagan any less dangerous, and the press found his jaw-dropping memory lapses mostly endearing.
I'm with you on that.
Only the good die young.
As Biden said in his speech on Wednesday - "hate, resentment, anger", when describing Trump.
That is ALL we hear from Trump.
Trump cowardly back out of testifying. Will he back out of the debates?
If he was so VERY innocent, why didn’t he elaborate under oath?
He couldn't handle the truth?
Yes he will back out of the debates.
Ether that or it will be a temper tantrum to remember; melting his way "to China", .
And that's just the tip of his life of crime.
X 34
Been waiting up for your letter So well done Love the repetition makes it even more powerful A good day for democracy for justice for all equal under the law At last he is a convicted felon determined by a jury of peers Admirable brave and quick work by the jurors and judge Justice is at last done Thanks
Today’s verdict was stunning and not a little unexpected - being that Trump is adroit at gaming the system. Of course he’ll appeal. Of course he’ll play the victim and turn it all into a spectacle and a fundraiser. Trump does as Trump is. But sooner or later, his luck will run out, the curtain will drop, the fat lady will sing, and that will be that. Till then…
Hopefully, Special Counsel Smith has the tipping point necessary to take Judge Cannon off the insurrection case. (EDIT: oops, classified documents case.) 🤭
Hopefully the new judge will permit the trial to proceed immediately thereafter, notwithstanding the vacillation of a compromised Supreme Court. Hopefully . . . .
⚖️
Sure wish we had someone, outside of politics, with the stature of President Grant these days: “If we are to have another contest in the near future of our national existence, I predict that the dividing line will not be Mason and Dixon's but between patriotism and intelligence on the one side, and superstition, ambition and ignorance on the other."
🤞
https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:6963114645016461313/ (Linked to Buda Pest Memorandum of 1994 embedded in the essay.)
🙏
On the other news about Ukraine (i.e., President Biden allowing ordnance to be fired deep into Russia, at this point to defend Kharkiv), ¿How about a no-fly zone?
I am no genius; but even I could see where things were heading two years ago.
¿Why should Ukraine bear the brunt, alone, of Putin’s war against Europe?
I had never heard that U.S. Grant quote before.
Fan fu**ingtastic!!
As Shirley Maclaine once exclaimed in a memorable film.
Why indeed, on your last point. Every day, I think of the bombs falling on them and feel that they are taking it for us all.
Thank you Professor Richardson.
Who else thinks a perfect SNL opener would be Hillary Clinton reading the NY jury’s verdicts?
Grateful to Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg and his prosecution team for pursuing justice, Judge Merchan, and to the jury. Justice not only for New Yorkers, however, for everyone else who believes no person should be above the law.
Next episode of SNL is sometime in September, I think, so your opener idea would be a little stale.
I'd prefer to see a gathering of the various SNL team members who've played DJT (Criminal) do a special of their own this Saturday. NBC could just take 10 minutes from whatever else they'll dump on us that night and say, "Ya know what? This is more important..."
Welcome to Orange is the new orange.
Legal experts have said the NY records falsification case was the weakest of the various criminal cases hanging over the head of Donald Trump. It does not bode well for the former president that the New York jury was able to find him guilty on all 34 charges.
It is a great day for the American justice system, and a great day for American democracy.
Frankly, this is another example of too many experts and pundits pooh-poohing the chances of holding the baddies to account and ending up with egg on their faces. Their underestimation of America's resilience in the face of this existential threat is an insecurity that I choose not to share.
Your point assumes Trump is kept out of the White House so he can’t pardon himself. I will not be sure until Nov. 6th, when the votes are in. I am cautiously confident he’ll lose, but I was the same in 2016 too.
He cannot pardon himself from these state charges. Federal charges, yes; state charges, no.
Should he get re-elected, Trump, with the help of the Alito wing of SCOTUS, will weasel and wrangle his way out of any further legal liabilities.
If he is kept out of the White House, Trump's goose is certainly cooked.
Therefore.....
When Comey spoke my confidence melted away.
Furthermore, his sentencing for this conviction will likely be lighter as this is his first felony conviction.
By the time he is convicted at the 4th trial, he could get a life sentence thanks to this conviction and hopefully the others.
But don’t forget the repeated violations of the gag order.
Don’t forget Gary that Cohen got 3 years for the underlying crime and he was an underling, doesn’t the instigator usually get a stiffer sentence. When you add in lack of remorse, gag order violations, along with just who he is, a 5 year sentence would start to seem close to right, in Attica that is. 💥😎
I hope he gets 3 years and then 10 years of probation. He will likely violate probation terms and end back in the slammer??
This might end up being one of those days that you remember exactly where you were when you heard this news.
I was flying from BOS to SFO. This was the first news I saw when I flipped my phone from Airplane Mode.... The best end of vacation news ever!
That is a certainty. Just old enough to remember my teacher in NYC public school bursting into tears in 1963.
That was a day.
That was a coup.
C'était aussi un coup très dur.
Oui. C’est vrai.
Adieu, America
With hindsight, perhaps a synchronised oil autocracy takeover, also responsible for the breaking of socialist One Nation Conservatism by the Profumo Scandal in GB. Those involved’s children continue to benefit politically and economically from mass media social control via the the cultural conflict fall out from both ‘hits’.
I was at Sprouts, and rushed the cashier, saying "there's a verdict!"
She looked at me blankly and said what verdict?
Didn't really dim the excitement that much. Coming so quickly I expected guilty. Other drivers looked at my bouncing around a bit strangely. But i saw quite a few of us doing it.
Very true M A. I'm sure it will be. And hopefully 3 more days just like this to come.
Sleep well tonight folks. It's going to be a raucus few months ahead that require all of us to stand strong and do all we can to get out the vote of the young, the vacilating and those who have lost hope.
As Joyce says to us all, "We are in this together."
Thank you Heather for keeping us focussed on reality.
We are circumstantially and deliberately barraged with distractions. I think that only judicious focus, sharp and sustained focus, will get us though this. What really matters after all? Deathbed matters, when all the obstacles and clutter gets in the way? I think that successful social movements hold a focus on something that REALLY matters that is obscured or which we would rather not acknowledge. I recall the claim of someone who lived though the London Blitz, who said that while Britain was under attack, there was a voluntary suspension of the pretty machinations of class (that soon returned after victory). We seem to be far more in this together than we tend to acknowledge, and in many ways a livable future is just as threatened.
All for One, One for All, Double R!!!
I do fear for the jurors. They may have been photographed when leaving and followed home by goons.
My thoughts too. They and their families and friends will now be on the MAGA hit list. I hope they are receiving protection and security advice. 🐈⬛
I am sure the court took precautions to ensure their anonymity. This is not their first rodeo dealing with dangerous people. I read in WaPo that they were led out the back of the building into black and white vans to a separate location before going home.
I have vague memories from childhood hearing a broadcast of organized crime figures repeated;y pleading the "Fifth".
Good plan.
These are the bravest 12 Americans in the US today! They were randomly picked to potentially be on this jury. If any maganazi dares to threaten any of them may they be prosecuted to the full extent of the law.
Three lawsuits in a row = too bad tfg.
I was thinking the exact same thing… I hope they will be safe.
Now: the dictators of Russia, China, North Korea, and Iran.
They know they more than ever need their set of enablers in the U.S. for their plans to kill democracy.
The 34-count, unanimously convicted criminal will now double down on what his niece, Mary Trump, calls another “alternative reality,” as he did first, she says, following his awareness of his 2020 election humiliation. He will again but more viciously turn to his cult followers – the rally-goers always up for goon shows. He will more dangerously enlist Republicans in Congress, rancid others on the Clarence court, and Fox News and related outlets.
They’ve all zero humanities. Zero awareness as to how our laws pair with our humanities, both necessary for each other as for our personal freedoms.
The dictators are now extra alarmed how democracy yet has decency, resilience, depth. So they’ll extra aid our most squalid, dehumanized Republicans.
Let's be happy for one day when the right prevailed, can't we, Phil? We can not have the energy to be in it for the long haul if we do not take the wins when they come. Today was an unmistakable, inarguable win for justice in a country needing a burst of it.
Very happy, Will.
I'm still floating.
GOOD!
My date-stamp on this site, Will, says yours came "8 hrs ago."
I think you know, from your own bountiful responses, or those many generously responding to you, too, that we inhabit a community of many floating, relieved, alert to our many good, fine, decent neighbors.
This was a powerful ruling today for Trump. I wouldn't throw the towel in yet. Democracy won today and the rule of law over ruled Trump. The dictators of Russia, China, Iran and North Korea were watching our Democracy , which is govern by the rule of law, convict Trump by our jurisdictional system.
I thought I heard Putin say "Curses! Foiled again.", but he's far from out of the picture.
In Russia, foil curses you!
Nice to see the guard rails working.
More than a few dents and scratches. Still strong.