The Former Guy indicted for financial fraud in New York City

 The Former Guy was indicted yesterday by New York City.  The headlines say he was indicted for the hush money he paid to a porn star and Playboy bunny for blow jobs.  Does his cult care that this unfaithful "Grab 'em by the pussy" pig had sex with these women?  They seem to admire his piggishness.

The details of the indictment haven't been released yet, but my money is on financial fraud.  He covered up his $130,000 and $150,000 hush money payments by cooking the books.  And I think this may be the window of opportunity for Alvin Bragg, New York DA, to go deeply into his long, long, long history of bank fraud and tax evasion.  Bragg refused to charge him about a year ago and his chief prosecutors were so incensed that they resigned in protest. But...

I am thinking the charges will start with covering up these payments and go on to the lifetime of swindling that this lifetime criminal has done over decades in New York City.

This is the first of at least four indictments for this entitled madman trying to overthrow American democracy.

April 7, 2023 update - the 34 felony charges all relate to the Stormy Daniels hush money payoffs, and do not seem to be aimed at other financial frauds of the Former Guy.  

Just turn away and turn the dial

Just a brief summary of the character of the Republican front runner for the 2024 presidential nomination from Michael Bender and David Goodman of the New York Times.  “In the last 28 months, former President Donald J. Trump:

• has been voted out of the White House, 
• impeached for his role in the Capitol riot and 
• criticized for marching many of his fellow Republicans off an electoral cliff in the 2022 midterms with his drumbeat of election-fraud lies.
• He dined at home with a white supremacist in November. 
• He called for the termination of the Constitution in December. 
• He declared himself “more angry” than ever in January. 
• He vowed to make retribution a hallmark of a second term in the White House in March.
• He has embraced the QAnon conspiracy theory movement, 
• described President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia as a genius and 
• used a gay joke to mock a fellow Republican. 
• He has become the target of four criminal investigations, including one in New York that 
• he warned might result in “potential death & destruction.”

Still, Mr. Trump remains a strong front-runner for the Republican Party’s 2024 presidential nomination.”

What on earth happened to the Republican Party that I once was part of?  This is nuts. But his Cult is drinking the kool aid.  And some have guns. 

I beg Republicans to just turn away.  Change the dial.  Just like The Apprentice fans finally grew weary of the ever more boring show and went elsewhere. Please, go elsewhere. Stop nominating mentally ill people. 

The Former Guy threatens Death and Destruction if indicted

  The Former Guy is upping his threats, upping his call for violence - specifically, he is calling for "death and destruction".  I don't think we need to be hesitant to say that this man is a violent fascist anymore.  There is no nuance here.  He called for the violent overthrow of the duly elected government, and now he is calling for "death and destruction" of law enforcement and the New York DA.  

"What kind of person can charge another person, in this case a former President of the United States, who got more votes than any sitting President in history, and leading candidate (by far!) for the Republican Party nomination, with a Crime, when it is known by all that NO Crime has been committed, & also known that potential death & destruction in such a false charge could be catastrophic for our Country? “Why & who would do such a thing? Only a degenerate psychopath that truely (sic) hates the USA!” Trump wrote. 

And he included a photo of himself holding a bat ready to strike DA Alvin Bragg.

I hope this is just a cornered maniac trying to get others to risk their freedom and their lives to save his corrupt skin.  I hope his cult sees the prison terms of those who answered his call to violence January 6, 2021 and tried to violently assault Congress and overthrow the election.  

To paraphrase a Vietnam protest slogan - What if they threw a revolution and nobody came?

By the way, this tweet in and of itself is a felony.  Legal expert Norm Eisen tweets:

Norm Eisen

@NormEisen

Threatening a prosecutor is a crime in NY. In fact MULTIPLE crimes: Harassment in the first degree NYPL 240.25; menacing in the second degree NYPL 120.14; stalking in the fourth or third degree NYPL 120.45 & 120.50 And that’s just for starters….

Why disinformation and propaganda are so powerful

 “ Lies are often much more plausible, more appealing to reason, than reality, since the liar has the great advantage of knowing beforehand what the audience wishes or expects to hear.” — Hannah Arendt.

Hannah Arendt did a deep study on the authoritarian Nazi and Stalinist regimes. Her insights help us today. The current example of the application of this principle of lies is Fox News, which chose to tell its audience what Fox News knew what it’s audiences wanted to hear - that Trump won the election and it was stolen from him by the socialist/communist/anti-capitalist/anti-Christian/anti-white/ anti-man/woke deep state. And, as sworn testimony and discovered communications revealed, Fox News knew that Biden had won, and Trump had lost, and they disdained and hated Trump BUT they told the lie that their audience wanted to hear.  

And some of their audience tried to overthrow the government.  And about a thousand of those who did so have been arrested and charged with crimes, about half of them have pled guilty, and nearly two hundred of them are in prison.  And some police died, by the way.

But, what the heck, Fox News kept its audience. 

And the Trump Cult believes what the Trump Cult wants to believe. 

Propaganda.  A deadly weapon. Watch out.  

The Christian "Taliban" forces hospitals to stop delivering babies in Idaho

It is no surprise that the half century obsession to end Roe v Wade, and the further obsession to criminalize everything that these fundamentalist Christian obsessives detest, is dramatically harming the health and wellbeing of women in particular and Americans in general.  An Idaho hospital, Bonner General Health in rural Sandpoint, Idaho, will stop delivering babies.  Because of the extremist fundamentalist laws being passed in Idaho.  Result? They lose top doctors.  

“Highly respected, talented physicians are leaving,” it said. “Recruiting replacements will be extraordinarily difficult. In addition, the Idaho Legislature continues to introduce and pass bills that criminalize physicians for medical care nationally recognized as the standard of care.”

How can they recruit new doctors?  How soon will small regional hospitals close for lack of ability to serve the community?

Gustafson said she fears that Idaho’s maternal death total — which more than doubled from 2019 to 2020, the most recent year for which data is available — will rise with one fewer unit of doctors trained in labor and delivery.

The fundamentalist extremists have taken over the Republican Party and are attacking the freedoms of women, gays, transexuals, and anyone whom they hate. And they seem to hate everyone except white fundamentalist Christian men (and their obedient women).  But not all Christians are in their extremist wing of the Party.  When will they turn their back on this unrecognizable Republican Party?

Believe the Former Guy’s threats

 The Former Guy is pretty much only one thing - a hate filled, terrified, vengeful, snarling cornered rat.  The law is closing in. His entire life is focused on revenge. Violent destruction of all those he hates and/or fears. His latest video:

“ In the face of this mounting legal pressure, Trump took to video to demand: “The State Department, the defense bureaucracy, the intelligence services, and all of the rest need to be completely overhauled and reconstituted to fire the deep staters.” Then, he said, his people need to finish the process he began of “fundamentally revaluating [sic] NATO’s purpose and NATO’s mission.” “[T]he greatest threat to Western civilization today is not Russia,” he said, but “some of the horrible USA-hating people that represent us.”

The first part of what he said is a call for his cult to “stand back and stand by” for his call to attack.  Believe the threats. He will do all he can to destroy all that he hates. And he really hates and hates and hates a lot. His threats and hate cover his terror. If he becomes president his vengeance will be real. Believe his threats. 

The second part is his undying support for the murderous Putin, whom he admires so much.  I don’t know if he actually hates NATO or is just doing what Putin demands of him, but if he becomes president he will do all he can to destroy NATO.  

This man is mentally ill. He is consumed by grievance and hatred. He cannot be allowed anywhere near political power. 

Believe him. 

Autocrats-to-be want other autocrats to win

 Potential Republican candidate for president, Ron DeSantis, has claimed that America has no national interest in the Russian invasion of Ukraine.  I think this is terrible.  Fox News Tucker Carlson has apparently been promoting pro-Putin propaganda ever since the invasion.  MAGA politicians are calling to stop aid to Ukraine.  Trump's initial reaction to the invasion was gleeful admiration of how smart Putin was to so easily get what he wanted.  

So, do they have a point?  Why should we care?  Should we just shrug and say we don't want to spend MONEY to help Ukraine.  Isn't MONEY the most important thing in the world.  Isn't MONEY more important than democracy or freedom or human rights in the world? in America?

Well, no, actually.  Democracy in the world is much more important than the size of our budget to help Ukraine fight the invasion of Putin's Russia, it seems to me. Why?  Because democracy all around the world, and our own democracy, is at risk.

So, what happens if Russia wins?  What happens if Russian autocracy crushes Ukrainian democracy?  What happens is that autocracy advances around the world.  China is encouraged to invade Taiwan.  Hungary strengthens its corrupt autocracy.  Venezuela, Cuba, Saudi Arabia, Iran, India, Belarus, and autocratic and autocratic leaning kleptocracies all around the world are empowered and emboldened.  Human rights, the rule of law, justice, and human dignity are assaulted and crushed more easily.  

And, oh yes, in America too.  Desantis and Trump are just the figureheads of the autocratic movement in America.  The white supremacist, white Christian nationalists in America are hell bent on becoming our own Christian Taliban imposing their harsh morality on us all. And the oligarchs are free of those pesky life saving, environment saving, human dignity saving regulations and constraints.  Plundering corruption becomes unhindered by the rule of law. Happy times for American autocrats. 

DeSantis is about 50 IQ points smarter than Trump, so in some ways he is more dangerous.  (Trump is mentally ill, so I am still more afraid of him)

The point I am trying to make is that autocrats-to-be want other autocrats to win, so they themselves can rule, so they can rule by rule of autocrat rather than rule of law, so they can rule with impunity, with no checks and balances.  The triumph of authoritarian, autocratic rule.

The stakes in Ukraine are democracy in Ukraine, and democracy in Europe, democracy in Taiwan, and democracy in America.  It is no accident that the anti-democratic forces in America (DeSantis, Trump, Carlson, White Christian Nationalists, MAGA Cult, oligarchs, etc.) support Putin's assault on democracy and the rule of law.

Bank collapse - deregulation outcome?

 Is it shocking that Silicon Valley Bank has collapsed?  Not really, I guess. Was it alarming that ideologically blinded Republicans and Trump deregulated the bank?  Yes, especially after banking deregulation was a major contributor to the financial collapse of 2008.  

“Critics have focused on a list of Republican senators who voted to reduce regulatory oversight on Silicon Valley Bank in 2018. Howard Forman, a professor at Yale, shared the list which includes names like Senators Marco Rubio, Lindsey Graham, Rand Paul, and Mitch McConnell, as well as a few Democrats, including Senators Joe Manchin and Tim Kaine.”

And, I guess this bank was entangled in crypto currency?  I have long distrusted crypto as a ponzi scam as well as a climate destroying energy suck. 

It seems to me that deregulation does not spur the economy or jobs or growth,   But rather endangers us all to greed and corruption of those who do not want what they are doing to be seen.  

I hope that this bank collapse is contained and the damage minimal. 

Abortion laws threaten women’s lives and health - of course…

 The Texas abortion plan damages and endangers the lives of women.  I wonder if that isn’t the desire of the cold hearted evangelical Man-is-The-Boss ministers and lawmakers - keep women down and weak.  

“Amanda was forced to wait until she was septic to receive abortion care, causing one of her fallopian tubes to become permanently closed.

Without further explanation, physicians do not know if, for example, ‘a patient with pulmonary hypertension, for whom we cite a 30-to-50% chance of dying with ongoing pregnancy,’ is sufficiently at risk of death or substantial impairment of a major bodily function to permit abortion.”

I want every woman voter in America to know how much suffering, damage, and death is the result of these fanatical, heartless moral scolds passing these dangerous personal freedom robbing laws. 

Unsustainablities

 What things are unsustainable in our country and world? We are in a phase of chaos and destruction, so what are things that might disappear?

• Massive inequality between the super wealthy and the middle class and poor?
• Fossil fuels and corporate agriculture creating environmental destruction?
• Nuclear weapons in the hands of unreliable, authoritarian regimes?
• Military slaughter weapons in possession of a violent American populace?
• Disinformation and lying propaganda media obliterating the news to create autocratic and corrupt forms of rule?
• Political parties dedicated to the overthrow of democracy? 

I don't know how any of these go away, and they never will entirely.  I don't believe in either/or thinking, but rather in both/and thinking - e.g. Fossil fuels will continue, AND green forms of energy will grow, and maybe dramatically.  And I believe agriculture can evolve to both feed billions AND nurture the environment. For example.

But how does America and the world move into a good future with these millstones around their necks?  We'll never have an utopian country or world, but these imbalances are becoming more extreme than ever, it seems to me.  Structures will fall.  

Ultimately, I believe in the future, and I believe that young people and today's kids have a clear view of the problems, and it is their human nature to take the problems on, and solve them, or at least make improvements, and not be trapped in the thinking of the old paradigms that are failing so tragically.

I believe in hope.

Hatred and revenge

 The Former Guy made his declaration of intent in a speech to a diminished but loyal crowd at this year's CPAC event.  He promised only hatred and revenge.  Little vision of the future other than destroying everyone and everything that he hates. And he hates, and hates, and hates a lot.  He said:

“Today, I add: I am your warrior. I am your justice. And for those who have been wronged and betrayed, I am your retribution.”

He repeated the phrase for emphasis: “I am your retribution.”

Bolton said "“It would be, first and foremost, getting back at the people he thinks deserve some kind of punishment for not doing what he tells them to do,” Mr. Bolton said. “And it’s a big group of people.”

“I think that’s also a signal that he’s not going to accept a second defeat, the same way he didn’t accept the first defeat,” Mr. Bolton said of Mr. Trump’s election lies.

This is a very disturbed and mentally ill person.  And he still has a devoted, cult like following. I'm afraid that there are too many in his base that share his hatred and craving for revenge.  And they are being fed incendiary hate fuel by the Right Wing propaganda bubble.  Once inside the bubble it is hard to get out.

There is no doubt that he will refuse to concede an election loss, and there is no doubt that he will lead a group of armed and violent followers to the Capitol to stage a coup if he loses.  He tried it before and failed. He will have people much smarter than himself (not hard to find) that could do a better job of succeeding.

I expect America to do better than a second Trump campaign, coup, and autocratic reign of hatred and revenge.  But he has to be stopped, and the first line of defense against this dangerously ill man are Republican voters. I hope and pray that they vote against him and keep him from the nomination.

What happened to the Republican Party?

What has happened to the Republican Party since the rise of the Former Guy?  Interestingly, I am reading a nice murder mystery novel, "The Cruelest Month" by Louise Penny.  In it she describes what went wrong in the leadership of the Homicide Division of the police department of her story:

"He was a bully.  Demanded absolute conformity.  Eventually the really good agents dropped out of his division.  Leaving him with the dregs.  Bullies themselves or agents too scared to stand up to the bully", said Lacoste.  "Thought you said you didn't know the inside story?"  "I don't, but I know schoolyards.  Same everywhere".

That description of the Former Guy's White House, especially at the end, is pretty accurate, and that also pretty much describes what is left of the Republican Party today - when you end up with Tucker Carlson and Marjorie Taylor Green bullying and driving from the party Liz Cheney and Adam Kinziger, what you have is a demonstration of the good ones gone and the dregs left.

Sad, pathetic, but also dangerous.  I keep hoping actual Republicans realize their party has disappeared and is just keeping the name in place in hopes of keeping a few to hold their noses and vote.  It's too late now, as best as I can tell, the Former Guy may be beaten by other bullies for the nomination, but all that is left is MAGA extremism, competing to show who is the most vile bully.  

By the way, "The Cruelest Month” was written in 2008, long before the orange one soiled American democracy.