Guilty - 34 Counts

 Trump was found guilty of all 34 charges of financial fraud to commit campaign fraud. Here is historian Heather Cox Richardson:

“Republican senators could have convicted Trump, but they acquitted him. 

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.

Trump stared blankly ahead as the verdict was read. “Guilty. Guilty. Guilty. Guilty. Guilty. Guilty. Guilty. Guilty. Guilty. Guilty. Guilty. Guilty. Guilty. Guilty. Guilty. Guilty. Guilty. Guilty. Guilty. Guilty. Guilty. Guilty. Guilty. Guilty. Guilty. Guilty. Guilty. Guilty. Guilty. Guilty. Guilty. Guilty. Guilty. Guilty.” 

Trump has managed to escape accountability from the political system, but in a court of law, where prosecutors brought facts, witnesses were under oath, and jurors did not need him to keep them in positions of power, he lost.”

Thank you.  The rule of law prevailed over the threat of a wannabe king. Time for actual conservative voters to just turn away from this pathetic little criminal. 

Fooling audiences for TV ratings, WHAT COULD GO WRONG?

 One of the producers of “The Apprentice “ was released from a 20 year NDA, and tells how TV hid the racist, misogynist dumb fuck Trump and made up a successful billionaire for TV audiences.  Fooling the audience for TV Ratings, what could go wrong?….…

”I was one of four producers involved in the first two seasons. During that time, I signed an expansive nondisclosure agreement that promised a fine of $5 million and even jail time if I were to ever divulge what actually happened. It expired this year…. there is deception at play in every single reality program…. Audiences responded to Trump’s arrogance, his perceived abilities and prescience, but mostly his confidence. The centerpiece to any confidence game is precisely that—confidence….. 

Before I leave, I have to ask: Why Trump? …. The idea is to have a new and different billionaire every season…. Trump is the only one who agreed to sign on…. Trump’s actual offices are, however, less than telegenic. They are cramped, and a lot of the wood furniture is chipped or peeling….

He hesitates. “I wasn’t paid what was promised,” he says. I just listen. “Trump pays half upfront,” he says, “but he’ll stiff you for the rest once the project is completed….

Yeah,” he says to no one in particular, “but, I mean, would America buy a n— winning?”  Kepcher’s pale skin goes bright red. I turn my gaze toward Trump. He continues to wince. He is serious, and he is adamant about not hiring Jackson….

next phase of our assignment, the editing. In stitching the footage together, the swindle we are now involved in ascends to new levels….Without a doubt, the hardest decisions we faced in postproduction were how to edit together sequences involving Trump. 

We needed him to sound sharp, dignified, and clear on what he was looking for and not as if he was yelling at people….Trump was overwhelmed with remembering the contestants’ names….Bienstock instigated additional dialogue recording that came late in the edit phase. We set Trump up in the soundproof boardroom set and fed him lines he would read into a microphone with Bienstock on the phone, directing from L.A. And suddenly Trump knows the names of every one of the contestants and says them while the camera cuts to each of their faces….we insert a sequence with Trump, seated inside his gilded apartment, dispensing a carefully crafted bit of wisdom. He speaks to whatever the theme of each episode is—why someone gets fired or what would lead to a win….

So, we scammed. We swindled. Nobody heard the racist and misogynistic comments or saw the alleged cheating, the bluffing, or his hair taking off in the wind. Those tapes, I’ve come to believe, will never be found….”  

And about 45% of voters were suckered by the scam.  Please wake up, America, who he really is is not hard to see. 

Trump is not a politician

 Tragically, it seems to me, many Americans are seeing Trump and the Republican Party as a politician and political party.  I don't believe that is the case.  I think that Trump is the Caesar that the Founding Fathers tried their best to protect America from, and the Republican Party has become the anti-democratic authoritarian dictatorship that the Founding Fathers were most afraid of.  

Republican White Supremacist Christian Nationalists gave up on national elections long ago.  And the super-rich Oligarchy has always tried to push democracy aside and pursue their businesses (and corruption as the shoe fits) unimpeded.  

Of course, Trump has never understood the entire meaning and import of America and the American democratically elected Republic.  He only wants to be a corrupt king, and the party he has conquered only wants to rule forcibly and tyrannically without opposition.

This is beyond sad for America, and the world.  Without America leading the free world against authoritarian takeover of the world the world normal people become serfs submitting to the greedy corrupt Oligarchy and to the puritanical Theocracy of their rulers.

Just disgusting, ugly hearted

 There are hundreds of things to say why I could never vote for, support, or admire Trump.  But maybe the simplest thing to say is just that he is a disgusting, ugly hearted person. Who surrounds himself with disgusting, ugly hearted people. 

America is so much better than him and those that surround him. 

He’s not being tried for illicit sex

In case you were wondering…

Trump is not being tried for cheating on his wife with a porn star and Playboy model.  He’s being tried, once again, for business fraud. It seems to be the only way he does business. And he is being tried for very big election finance violations. Seems to be the only way he campaigns

And he has been found guilty on ten counts of violating his gag order. A gag order is not an infringement on one’s free speech.  A gag order is a condition of release from jail while being tried. Jail can be imposed if he violates the condition of his release. 

Why the gag order? He is being gagged to prevent him from threatening witnesses, prosecutors, juries, and their families.  But he is threatening all of them by naming them and making them targets for his violent Cult. He knows what he is doing. He will kill to stay out of prison. 

Prison please. 

The actual goals of Democrats' liberalism

 Heather Cox Richardson made a quick summary of the goals of liberalism in her May 1, 2024 Substack letter when she described William F Buckley's attack on liberalism:

"William F. Buckley Jr., fresh out of Yale, published "God and Man at Yale: The Superstitions of “Academic Freedom.”" Fervently opposed to the bipartisan liberal consensus that the federal government should 

• regulate business, 
• provide a basic social safety net, 
• protect civil rights, and 
• promote infrastructure, 

Buckley was incensed that voters continued to support such a system”

The "conservative" notion that we should give it all to business and they will take care of everything was always foolish and has proven to be nonsense.  I believe in the need for government to do what business cannot do, and I believe that unregulated business is just a doorway to Oligarchy and Plutocracy - good for the very top of the grasping, greedy, heap and too bad for all the rest.  

The financial crash of 2008 showed the lunacy of deregulated Financial Systems, and we have not recovered from that disaster yet.  The endless march deeper into disastrous Climate Change and Global Warming show the lunacy of deregulation of the fossil fuel and factory farming industries.  And the Supreme Court assist to the return of Jim Crow type voting restrictions in the South show the lunacy and cruelty of deregulated voting laws.

The Republican scare tactics decrying liberalism as Communism and Socialism are meritless, it seems to me.  It seems to me that the four goals of liberalism outlined by Heather Cox Richardson above are worthy goals.

Six things to remember

 Simon Rosenberg on The Bullwark Podcast of April 26, 2024 listed out six things that people who voted for Trump last time didn't know, but do know now:

1. Trump raped E Jean Carroll in a department store
2. Trump oversaw one of the largest financial frauds in history and has been fined about half a BILLION dollars
3. Trump stole American secrets and lied to the FBI about it and shared those secrets with other people, which is the greatest betrayal of America by any American president
4. Trump tried to forcibly overthrow an election, led an armed attack on the Capital with all 435 congresspeople inside, and is promising to end America democracy for all time if in the White House in 2025
5. Trump and his family has corruptly taken more money from foreign governments than any political family in American history
6. Trump was singularly responsible for ending Roe v Wade and taking rights and freedoms away from half the population

Let's pretend that all of these horrors are actually surprises to those who voted for Trump in 2016 and 2020.  Well, they aren't surprises any more.

These are excellent reasons to turn away in 2024.  The man is astonishingly corrupt, immoral, treasonous, violent, and cruel.  

A second Trump presidency is unthinkable to me.  I deeply hope my conservative friends understand that Trump is not a Republican, and the "Republican Party" is no longer the Republican Party.  

All that is left of the "Republican Party" is submission to the violent whims of a mentally ill, onset dementia, overgrown six-year-old. And the very smart and fanatical White Supremacist Christian Nationalists, dedicated to their Unconstitutional Theocracy, along with the usual Oligarchs wanting freedom to hoard unbelievable riches as they destroy the environment, destroy the Middle Class, and destroy the Rule of Law are planning and poised to pounce and take over the country while the moron in chief is distracted with his revenge agenda.

Just turn away.