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.