He knows what he did

 I keep in mind that the criminal always knows exactly what he did. So the more desperate he is to hide it, the greater the crime he is hiding.  Trump is calling for violence in the streets if he is indicted. His cult followers are threatening the FBI and Democrat Congresspeople. 

He knows what he did. It is not just having documents that he shouldn’t have. I believe he knows it is about a life in prison. And he will kill people to stay out of prison. And he will destroy American democracy to stay out of prison. Why his cult believes him, and even worse why they obey him, is very hard for me to understand. He represents something about their own pain and paranoia that they are willing to be violent for. 

I really don’t think that we are in for a civil war, but I do think there are some ready to attack at their cult leader’s “suggestion “.  They already did so on January 6, 2021.  That was just practice  

But America cannot afford to turn away from the rule of law because of threats from autocratic cult leaders and their subservient followers. To do so says that autocratic violence can and will overturn the rule of law, and we become a nation of rule by man, violent man. History has too many stories showing the horror of that. 

Why the FBI searched

 Some preliminary details revealed in the highly redacted affidavit authorizing the warrant to seize intelligence documents from Trump.  

“ In those initial 15 boxes, FBI personnel found 184 classified documents. Sixty-seven were labeled CONFIDENTIAL, 92 were SECRET, 25 were TOP SECRET. Some were marked SCS, FISA, ORCON, NOFORN, and SI, the very highest levels of security, involving human intelligence, foreign surveillance, intelligence that cannot be shared with foreign governments, and intelligence that is compartmented to make sure no one has full knowledge of what is in it. The former president had made notes on “several” of the documents.”

“ The person who made the affidavit said they were a special agent with the FBI, “familiar with efforts used to unlawfully collect, retain, and disseminate sensitive government information, including classified N[ational] D[efense] I[nformation].” They swore that “there is probable cause to believe” that locations at Mar-a-Lago “contain evidence, contraband, fruits of crime, or other items illegally possessed.” 

“… relevant to an ongoing investigation and the FBI has not yet identified all potential criminal confederates nor located all evidence related to its investigation.”

This could be beyond criminal activity.  This could be aiding and abetting a hostile foreign power. By the way, has he praised any hostile foreign powers in the last six years?

What was in it for HIM?

 Has Trump already sold American Intelligence for millions?  Is he just a really dumb patsy security risk?  Was he holding catastrophically important secrets in Florida as a way to blackmail America to stay out of prison?  … if you imprison me I will destroy America by telling your enemies what they need to destroy your country?  Are there any redeeming excuses that anyone can think of for him to have this kind of explosive information?  

“ A woman claiming to be Anna de Rothschild, a member of the European banking dynasty, was invited to Mar-a-Lago last year where she mingled with Trump and Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC). But the woman’s real name is Inna Yashchyshyn, a Russian-speaking Ukrainian immigrant fluent in several languages who is now the subject of a widening FBI investigation into her financial activities and the chain of events that led her to Trump’s Florida estate. Law enforcement agents in Canada have also confirmed that she has been the subject of a major crimes unit investigation in Quebec since February. The ease with which Yashchyshyn was able to bypass the security at Mar-a-Lago—multiple trips in and out of the club grounds—demonstrates how vulnerable the facility was and is.” 

What was in it for him?  That is really the only question ever to ask about Trump motivation.  

For HIM…

Another football CTE tragedy

Another of the endless reports of ex football players who end their lives with Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy CTE. This game is like boxing. It damages the brain. Often causes the tragedy of dementia. 

This story is about the great Alabama powerhouse teams of Bear Bryant. Including Ray Perkins and Ken Stabler. I can’t watch football any more. 

“…at least four fixtures of Alabama’s fearsome, Bryant-led teams of the 1960s, including at least one from each of Alabama’s three national-champion squads that decade, developed C.T.E”

Autocratic minority domination

 The white Christian nationalists are dedicated to the overthrow of democracy in America.  This is serious. They know they are in the minority so they are desperately trying to establish minority autocratic rule.  I think they literally saw Trump as a godsend to be used to accelerate their autocracy.  (By the way, the history of political leaders installing and thinking they can control pathological dictators is not a happy one)  Heather Cox Richardson wrote today:

Edward Luce of the Financial Times observed today: “I’ve covered extremism and violent ideologies around the world over my career. Have never come across a political force more nihilistic, dangerous & contemptible than today’s Republicans. Nothing close.”

Shocking though that observation was, it was nothing compared to what came next. General Michael Hayden, former director of the Central Intelligence Agency under presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama, retweeted Luce and commented: “I agree. And I was the CIA Director[.]”

I can feel some sympathy for a fading hierarchy desperate to cling to and extend their domination, but the world is turning, time passes, and it all changes. I believe democracy can and will prevail, but only if we are awake to the attempt at autocratic domination. And we say no.

Phony passports claim by Trump

 Golly, it turns out Trump didn't tell the truth about the FBI taking his passports.  I had thought it was true and that it implied that taking the passports was connected to crimes he was under investigation for.  Wrong.  It wasn’t taken intentionally and was returned.

"As suspected, the story was nothing like what Trump said," tweeted Robert Maguire, research director at the government watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington. "Two of the passports were expired. One was a diplomatic passport. And the DOJ alerted him when the filter team found it. It wasn't taken intentionally…DOJ discovered the passports and returned them before Trump even made his claim to attack law enforcement."

"In executing search warrants, the FBI follows search and seizure procedures ordered by courts, then returns items that do not need to be retained for law enforcement purposes," an FBI spokesperson told NBC.

Never believe anything the Former Guy says. 

Search warrant also took passports

The former president complained that his three passports were removed in the search warrant of his Florida residence.  That tells us a lot about what the Justice Department expected to find during the search.

One of the passports was expired.  

One of the passports was likely a special diplomatic passport which he is not supposed to have since he is no longer in the government.

One of the passports is likely his personal passport.

The fact that the Justice Department took the passports seems to communicate that he is considered a flight risk.  Why would he be considered a flight risk?  Because he knows what they are likely to find.  And he knows he could end up in prison.  And he could just decide to go to his dear friends in Russia or Saudi Arabia and hide out for the rest of his life.  

At any rate, the removal of his passports was certainly not some random act.  They had to be part of the affidavit authorizing the search warrant.  That very fact suggests imprisoning evidence was sought.  And given the Former Guy's reaction, he likely knows exactly what they found.

I believe the seizing of the passports may have been a second search warrant issued in response to a affidavit laying out probable cause to discover evidence of a crime committed by the Former Guy and which having and using these passports would be an actual part of the crimes.  Not just that he was a flight risk. This is speculation by former federal prosecutor, Glenn Kirschner. So, it could be that part of this particular crime would be fleeing the country - to his dear friends in Russia or Saudi Arabia?  Someplace with no extradition treaty with America?  

The MAGA Cult, also now known as the Republican Party, could be sticking their foot in it by screaming so loudly that this is a political event.  It looks to me like it is a very serious step toward a real indictment of a real crime that perhaps even the MAGA Cult will have to disavow.  

Update. The FBI returned his passports. So I guess he can fly. A puzzlement. 

Adverse inference and the fifth amendment

 Meanwhile back at the Southern District of New York’s civil case against the former president for tax fraud and bank fraud, the former president pled the fifth amendment well over 400 times. So what? You say. Is it not a constitutional right that you do not have to testify against yourself? Well…

In a criminal case you can plead the fifth and the prosecution cannot use that against you and the judge will confirm that there is no adverse inference in a person pleading the fifth amendment by refusing to testify against himself. But…

These charges of financial fraud are not a criminal case. These charges of financial fraud are a civil case. A ruling that could be made is that a person is Liable - not Criminal. And in civil cases the principle of Adverse Inference applies. That is, the prosecution can and will charge that the refusal to answer questions on the grounds that the answer would tend to incriminate the person is by itself an act of admission of guilt. And the final summary to the judge would include a list of all the civil violations performed by the accused with the summary statement that none of these allegations have even been contested, and have been de facto confessed to by the accused by the pleading of the fifth amendment  

The former guy, pretty obviously guilty on all counts, went to court and confessed over 400 times to his guilt.

No one ever said this man was smart. And since he doesn’t pay his lawyers, the only ones who will work with them appear to be not too smart either..

The massive fines that he will pay, or I hope should pay, for his bank fraud and tax fraud will be very important to him, but not nearly as important as the possible charges of espionage that seem to be impending as a result of the recovery of stolen documents from the White House hidden in his Florida residence. Rest assured that the warrant for that search was meticulous, the chain of custody will be meticulous, and if they find evidence of espionage - selling vital national secrets to hostile foreign powers - he will be prosecuted, just like any of us would be. 

Huge fines please.

Prison please. 

Espionage?

 Some current conclusions about the execution of the search warrant at the Trump property. 

The crime being investigated is a very serious crime. The search warrant had to go through extreme scrutiny before it was executed. This is not political. This is criminal. Prison is likely to be involved.

It looks like espionage may be the charge. Espionage. Stealing classified secrets about America’s nuclear armaments, procedures, protocols? and selling them to Putin? Saudi Arabia? China?

Signals intelligence! It looks like some of the stolen documents are what is classified as signals intelligence. What that means is information about signals, transmission of spy information. Revealing these secrets ends up in the death of the spies sending the signals. Everyone with security clearance knows that signals intelligence is sacredly protected. Selling this information could (already did?) be worth a fortune to our enemies. 

I believe that intelligence officers often did not share some highly classified information with this deeply corrupt man when he was in the White House because they considered him to be a security threat.

This is a man with absolutely zero integrity or character. This is a man who would sell his mother for money. Well his mother is dead, but America is still alive. Even though he is doing his best to kill her.

This is speculation on my part at this point. and we shall see what the charges are levied soon enough. The Maga Cult propaganda bubble is trying to incite violence against the FBI and America in order to protect this deeply corrupt and disgusting human being. Why?

Prison please.

“When you’re a star, they let you do it. You can do anything.” —Donald Trump

 In 2016 Trump infamously bragged about grabbing women by the pussy:

• When you’re a star, they let you do it - grab 'em by the pussy

• When you're a star, they let you do it - cheat the banks

• When you're a star, they let you do it - cheat on taxes

• When you're a star, they let you do it - commit impeachable crimes

• When you're a star, they let you do it - cheat at golf

• When you're a star, they let you do it - launder Russian money

• When you're a star, they let you do it - be a total ignoramus about foreign policy

• When you're a star, they let you do it - be a total ignoramus about pandemics

• When you're a star, they let you do it - lie 30,000+ times while in office

• When you're a star, they let you do it - steal classified documents

• When you're a star, they let you do it - try to overthrow the government 

Oops... try to overthrow the government?  Really?  Maybe not.  Maybe not. 

This entitled witless "star" has always done whatever he wanted to do and has always gotten away with it.  He is the definition of an overgrown spoiled brat.  It could be that the real world is finally catching up with him.

FBI executed a search warrant at Trump's Mar-a-Lago resort

 The FBI executed a search warrant at Trump's Mar-a-Lago resort.  This is after presenting evidence of a suspected crime to a judge who authorized the search.  The right wing propaganda world is calling it a political act but that is nonsense, of course.  There is evidence of criminal activity that is being investigated.  The FBI is not a wing of the Democratic Party - even though Trump did his best to make the entire Justice Department a wing of the Trump Kingdom while he was in office.

We don't know what criminal activity at this point (Trump's lifetime of crime is a pretty target rich environment).  But it could be the documents he illegally stole from the White House when he left which he has refused to return - some of which was highly classified, and some of which may well have been connected to his treasonous planning and execution on January 6, 2021.  

I am hoping that the crime they are investigating is serious enough for an indictment and prosecution and imprisonment. I most hope that there is solid evidence of his treasonous coup attempt leading up to and during the assault on the Capitol.  And perhaps evidence of his ongoing attempt at his next coup attempt.

Deep red Kansas protects women's right to shape their own lives

White Christian Nationalists succeeded in taking away the rights of women to make their own decisions and choices about if and when to be pregnant and bear children with their atrocious Supreme Court victory.  It is not working well for the Republican Party.  

Deep red Kansas just voted overwhelmingly to protect abortion rights in Kansas.  This after the Republicans tried to bias the vote by having that vote be held on the day of Republican Primaries rather than the normal November election day on the expectation that more Republicans than Democrats would go to the polls yesterday compared to November.  

Oops.

If I were a Democrat running for office in November I would make the Republican assault on the freedoms of half the population in America front and center in my campaign.

New tax break for The Former Guy

 So much of The Former Guy is repulsive it is hard to be newly repulsed. But he managed to do so, again.  

Technically, his Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster, N.J., is now acting as a “cemetery company.” (Suggested slogan: “People are dying to get into Bedminster!”) And he has already landed his first occupant: He just buried his late ex-wife, Ivana Trump, right near the first tee….operating a cemetery at the Trump National offers “a trifecta of tax avoidance. Property, income & sales tax, all eliminated.” She tweeted that it “looks like one corpse will suffice to make at least 3 forms of tax vanish.”

I know some people voted for The Former Guy (twice) so they could get lower taxes.  Wow!  They now have a new model for tax evasion - bury your family in your back yard and declare it a cemetery.   

What a really really really SMART GUY, kind of a genius really....

Vomit. 

Trying to understand fascist impulse

We live in chaotic and destructive times.  I get very upset when White Christian Nationalists go full fascist and impose their limited "Christian" values on the nation.  I put "Christian" in quotation marks because so many of their values are so contradictory to the teachings and life of Jesus Christ himself - from declaring the white race to be superior to all others (Christ himself was a brown skinned Jew who saw the divinity in all of people), to crushing women's lives by trying to eliminate women's ability to choose if and when they become pregnant, to violating the First Amendment and establishing their own brand of Christian dogma as the law of the land.

But I can identify with the desire to drop an anchor in a stormy sea.  Especially if you think God is punishing America for immoral behavior and you see any behavior that does not conform to your own dogmas as punishable.  

Our times are wildly chaotic and the desire to make the boat stop pitching and yawing by dropping anchor and establishing rigid rules and order is something I can understand.  But their "anchor" is what has become a very un-Christlike Bible Belt dogma.   

I can have some understanding of the desire, but the terrible damage they are doing to the lives of all of us is not OK.  

Women get to choose to shape their own lives.  Gay men and women get to love in ways that are natural and normal to them.  Races are allowed to intermingle and intermarry.  Democracy gets to have all votes counted.  No matter how scary any of that is to the White Supremacist Christian Nationalists.

The way to sail the stormy seas is not to drop anchor and be capsized, but to ride the waves and let things become new.