Right wing extremist violence - "Where's Nancy?"

Right-Wing extremist violence has been evident ever since Trump rose to power and encouraged it.  It goes back to native American slaughters, slavery, and the Klu Klux Klan, and elsewhere, of course, but was most disturbing on the January 6 coup attempt by Trumpist fanatics that injured scores and killed a few.  The insurrectionists who broke into the Capitol that terrible day called out for V.P., Mike Pence, and Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi, with intent to kill.  It was not a joke. It was deadly serious, and people died.

And today, it is reported that one of the fanatics broke into Nancy Pelosi's home asking, "Where's Nancy", and proceeded to use a hammer to violently assault Nancy Pelosi's 82-year-old husband.

The threats of Right-Wing extremist violence are flooding our country, and this assault is a loud shout that violence is their chosen path.

Damn.

How do we convince this Trump Cult that we are neighbors, not enemies?

(Update - the guy is apparently a QAnon, election denier, who said "Hitler did nothing wrong".  I'd like to write him off as a nutcase, but the delusions of election deniers and QAnon are widely held in today's delusional Republican Party.)  Sadly.

They will do what they say they will

James Carville suggests this message to voters:

You thought Republicans wouldn’t actually outlaw abortion - 

    THEY OUTLAWED ABORTION 

          just like they said they would. 

You think the Republicans won’t close down the government until the Democrats allow them to end Social Security and Medicare - but they said they will 

     CLOSE DOWN THE GOVERNMENT and 

         they will END SOCIAL SECURITY 

              

                and END MEDICARE -

                        Just like they say they will. 

Why?  Because they will be able to, and they have been trying to for DECADES, so THEY WILL - just like they say they will.

Welcome to the Right Wing extremists taking over your life. 

                                        VOTE. 

Biden’s Demand Side Economics

How is the economy doing under Biden? Pretty darn good actually. According to historian Heather Cox Richardson:

Added 10 million jobs

Dropped unemployment to a 50 year low of 3.5%

Added 700,000 manufacturing jobs

Cut the deficit $1.4 trillion – the largest cut ever

Cut the deficit $350 billion the year before

Trump rose the deficit every year in office

Ever since Reagan, Republicans have grown the deficit and Democrats have shrunk it

Reagan – $70 - 175bb increase 

HW - to $300bb

Clinton - to ZERO

W - to $1.2 trillion

Trump - skyrocket 

Biden - biggest reduction ever

But we about inflation?  I don’t see how U.S. social and infrastructure spending caused 10% inflation in England and Germany. Inflation is a global response to the pandemic and the Putin war. 

I know facts have very little influence on dogmatic political beliefs that but they do matter. 

 I was a believer in Reagan’s supply side economics for a couple of decades.  But it really did not work to grow the economy and the middle class the way Bidens demand side economics does. Put money into the middle and lower classes and they spend it on the economy. Money going to the wealthy grows their wealth but doesn’t do much for the middle class or the economy. 

This is the Land of the Free - if we vote for it

 The Republican Party has clearly chosen to strip Americans of their personal freedoms. Freedom is on the ballot this election. 

• Freedom to choose when to give birth - gone in many states, everywhere soon. 
• Freedom to use contraception and birth control - on the chopping block 
• Freedom to love and marry the same sex - on the chopping block
• Freedom to marry another race - eventual target
• Freedom to breathe fresh air - under constant attack
• Freedom to have clean water - under constant attack
• Freedom to read - going - book burning already
• Freedom from religion - the Christian Taliban is taking over
• Freedom for children to be safe in school - guns are more important than children
• Freedom to earn a living wage - opposed for decades
• Freedom from bankruptcy due to late life medical emergencies - profits above everything 

Freedom to vote - whites only is the goal

It’s not about taxes, or inflation, or immigration.  It’s about freedom. 

This is the Land of the Free.  But only if we vote for freedom

Trump’s limited tricks

 Maggie Habernan has her Trump book out - “Confidence Man: the Making of Donald Trump and the Breaking of America”. Apparently it is more about who he is and how he was formed than just a depressing chronicle of his time in office. I’m not sure I can stand to read 600 pages about this toxic person. But she lays out his surprisingly few tricks in the first few pages as to how he exploits the world around him:

• The counter attack
• The quick lie
• The shift of blame
• The distraction and misdirection 
• The outburst of rage
• The performative anger
• The designed-just-for-headlines action or claim
• The indecisiveness of masked by a compensatory lunge
• The backbiting about one adviser with another adviser, creating a wedge between them

His current trick is his made-just-for-headlines-claim that he wants to testify publicly to the January 6 Committee. He will never testify but it somehow gives his Trump Cult comfort to make the claim. I don’t know why. 

Soon, I hope, this endlessly repetitive bore will go away. Prison would be nice. 

House of cards is collapsing

 The January 6 Committee gave its final presentation today.  New evidence from Secret Service’s complete knowledge of armed men threatening violence, with Trump fully aware of their threat, being sent by Trump to the Capitol with the intent of mayhem and overthrow. He knew. He relished it. They were obeying his wishes.

He planned ahead of time to declare himself the winner regardless of the outcome. 

He knew he had lost. 

He told the Big Lie. The gullible believe him. Sigh…

He is planning the same thing in two years (but will likely either be barred from office or in prison). 

He is being subpoenaed to testify before the Committee. He’ll play the victim, of course and pretend that cowardly refusing to testify will be an act of Manly Courage. 

He thinks he is invulnerable.  He’s not. 

Time for the make believe house of cards to collapse. 

Authoritarian societies worship authoritarian tyrants

 In the late ‘40s, after the horrors of WWII, the great psychologist, Erich Fromm, wrote his seminal work “Escape from Freedom”.  He was trying to understand what the hell happened that created the German Nazis and thus the slaughters of the war, and what the hell happened that created the Russian Soviets who were at that time creating the Cold War.  His answers help explain some of today’s threats.

As I recall, his main conclusion was that authoritarian societies, and authoritarian upbringing of children, created countries easily embracing authoritarian leaders like Hitler and Stalin.  People were raised to be obedient, unimaginative, manipulated and bullied by dominant male hierarchical leaders. And so, in both Germany and Russia (and Italy and Japan too I suppose) tyrants rise to the top and created slavish, fanatical followers who placed all of their faith in the fierce, punishing, tyrannical father figures.  And, indeed, they gladly gave up their own individual identities to become identified with that domineering image and take it on as their own.  

This is scary stuff because it seems that Russia today has been taken over by their current punishing hyper-masculine leader who is on the brink of escalating his already horrific slaughters to unimaginable depths of depravity.  I am hoping, and counting on the people of Russia to be independent and free enough to resist Putin’s headlong charge into oblivion to stop his madness.

Where else is authoritarian society embracing authoritarian leadership?  Sadly, the American MAGA Cult, dressed in camouflage outfits, carrying AR15s, waving Confederate and American flags, and threatening to overthrow elections, are playing out that terrible drama here at home. 

But I think the authoritarian attempts cannot capture this country which is so deeply steeped in personal freedom of thought and expression.  I fully expect American liberal democracy will withstand the assaults coming from the authoritarian tribes within. 

It's the economy, stupid

Back when I was a Reagan Republican I thought Reagan’s Supply Side Economics was the key to our country’s prosperity.  But I have long ago seen that the Reaganomics Supply Side economics doesn’t work. When the government gives money to the wealthy they just get wealthier and very little trickles down.  The way they spend money doesn’t really pump up the economy.  And they don’t really expand their businesses, but rather buy back their stock so as to increase the value of the stock and boost their enormous income and satisfy their shareholders.  The economy?  Who cares?

 

Biden’s Demand Side Economics works wonders. When the Government spends money on the Middle and lower classes they spend it in the economy and the economy grows. They don’t fly off to Paris or buy estates in the Mediterranean.

 

This week we find out the manufacturing jobs have grown remarkably under Bidenomics:

 

American manufacturers have not only regained all the jobs lost during the pandemic, they have also added about 67,000 more.

 

Meanwhile, the real net worth of the bottom 50% of U.S. households has climbed 60% since Biden took office, now reaching $67,524

 

I believed in Supply Side for over 20 years until I saw the evidence that it did not help the middle class. It is hard to let go of political dogmas but I am proof that it is possible. 

 

What about inflation?  Inflation is a real problem the Administration is addressing, but doesn’t spending money on the poor and middle classes cause inflation?  I don’t think so. I don’t think American infrastructure and social spending is causing inflation in U.K. (9.9%), Germany (7.9%), or Russia (14.3%). It’s just failed dogma points being repeated endlessly hoping they will give Reps something to talk about in this election cycle. 

 

Feed the Middle and lower classes and they spend on the American economy.

It’s the economy, stupid.

Finally

 Finally the first legal action has been taken by Leticia James, Attorney General of New York, against The Former Guy. There are many more investigations underway, of course, and I have heard it said that everyone wanted to be the second one to bring charges, not the first, so as to avoid the demented hatred of the extremist Trump Cult. But New York leads off. Thank you, Leticia. 

This lawsuit claiming financial fraud of Trump and his corrupt organization go back to long before his presidency. This will likely cripple his fraudulent business, and she has referred criminal charges of bank fraud, tax fraud, wire fraud, etc. to federal prosecutors in Manhattan. Crimes that carry prison sentences if found guilty. 

The lawsuit is a civil action that could result in fines and restrictions on future business practices. Perhaps ending his business for good. Guilt in a civil charge is based upon a preponderance of evidence, and anyone who pleads the fifth amendment - refuse to answer on the grounds that the answer might incriminate me - can be seen as an admission of guilt. The Former Guy pled the fifth five hundred times in court. 

Criminal charges need to be proven beyond a reasonable doubt, and taking the fifth cannot be seen as an admission of guilt, so those legal actions will be decided according to that level of evidence needed to convict. 

Next up may be in Georgia where he is being investigated for trying to overthrow the votes for Biden in 2020.  Should be a slam dunk, just play the tape where he asks for 11,780 votes to be “found” for him. Tried to overthrow an election. 

Why a lifelong conman and criminal was dumb enough to become the most visible and most scrutinized person in the country is baffling. I guess it goes back to his statement on the campaign trail in 2016 - When you’re a celebrity they let you do it,  you can get away with anything. 

Until you can’t. 

Prison please. 

Autocracy vs. checks and balances

 We are being taught so many depressing and dangerous lessons about now autocracies seize power.  Today we look at the attempt to destroy checks and balances.

It has been said many times that the genius of the Constitution is that is provides checks and balances. Well, it doesn't provide checks and balances.  What it does provide is a framework, a structure, for the implementation of checks and balances by human beings.  For example, if a former president steals the nation's top secrets with the most likely purpose to sell them to a hostile foreign power, or to blackmail the government by threatening to sell them in order to stay out of prison, then the check and balance should be the Department of Justice to investigate, discover, uncover, indict if a crime is seen, try, and imprison that person for espionage.  

But what if the checks and balances are not there?  What if the Department of Justice is infiltrated with autocratic collaborators?  And the collaborators make sure that the DOJ cannot stop the autocrat's crimes?  And the collaborators destroy justice, and then also go on to destroy honest elections and go on the establish an autocratic regime with a corrupt, power mad and greedy autocrat at the top and a system of corrupt or ideologically fanatical collaborators below.  

Look at Russia.  Look at China.  Look at Venezuela.  Look at Hungary.  Look at Saudi Arabia.

Look at America.

It is clear that The Former Guy thinks he is going to be charged with this, and probably a number of other crimes.  And he is calling upon his fanatical collaborators to rise up in violence if he is.  Autocracy in action.

But, this is not going to work.  I choose to insist that our checks and balances are there to be implemented by people of honor and integrity, and this latest attempt to establish a right wing extremist autocracy is going to fail.  

Putin and Trump in trouble - danger for all

 It could be that Putin's army is being pushed back and has deep morale problems, plus he has officials from 18 Russian districts calling for him to resign.  

Trump's legal problems grow by the day - from suspicion of espionage using the top secret government documents he stole, to an attempted coup on January 6, 2021, to ... about a half dozen or so other crimes that he is being investigated for. Hard to keep count.

Even though both of these developments are good news, it is also a time to be very wary of very dangerous possibilities when power mad and perhaps mentally ill people are cornered.

Very recently two Putin critics "fell" their deaths - one from a hospital window and one from a "boat". What madness will the dying Putin come up with to keep from being humiliated in Ukraine?  No nukes, please...

And apparently The Former Guy is posting on his wanna-be Twitter site a couple of pictures - one showing a very intimidating looking self with a Q-anon pin on his blue suit and the headline "The Storm is Coming".  For those of us who don't know, "The Storm" is where a military junta captures the federal government in a coup and executes political enemies on TV.  These people are bat-shit crazy terrorists, and he is calling for them to be violent to keep him from prison.  Plus it seems that he is "tweeting" about 50 - 100 "tweets" every morning.  The ravings of a madman.  Very disturbing.

So, I celebrate the fall of these two monsters - I understand how terrified and panicked they are - and I hope and pray that their desperate attempts at survival does not include terrible violence for the rest of us.

Search Trump’s Bedminster property for espionage evidence, please…

 So it seems that we have a smoking gun of The Former Guy deliberately hiding highly classified government secrets.  There is video…

“The video, shot on May 8, 2021, shows the former president boarding a plane from Florida to his resort in Bedminster, New Jersey . In the two-minute clip, Trump is seen climbing aboard before a series of helpers carry four boxes from multiple SUVs and load them onto the jet. 

The footage was shot just two days after he was first informed of missing documents by the National Archives”

I sincerely hope the FBI is given a search warrant to scour his Bedminster property immediately.  

Prison please…

Worse than the coup attempt?

 It is hard for me to imagine a crime against America more dangerous than an attempted coup by a president refusing to peacefully transfer power to his successor, but the Former Guy may actually have topped himself by committing the treasonous crime of espionage.  

The FBI seized documents at Mar-A-Lago that the Former Guy refused to give back to the government that included highly classified secrets that cannot be held by civilians under any circumstances.  He pretended to return all the docs months ago, but that was a lie, which he had one of his attorneys tell on his behalf (disbarment to come I hope).  Now he is trying to arouse violent attacks against the FBI and the Department of Justice for executing a properly authorized search warrant to recover the classified documents they had reasonable cause to suspect were still hidden on the property. And they found them.

The more we hear about the documents the worse it gets - 48 EMPTY secret files! - total info on the nuclear secrets of a foreign power!  

What else?  Why isn't the DOJ issuing search warrants on all of the Trump properties now that there is reasonable cause to suspect that he is hiding American secrets elsewhere as well as Mar-A-Lago?

Biden called this "semi-fascist" behavior on his part and the part of his MAGA Cult.  Harsh words, but that seems pretty accurate to me.

What possible reasons could there be for this person to have stolen these documents?  

The obvious one is that this man is desperate for money and he sold/planned to sell them for hundreds of millions of dollars.  Espionage.

Another one is that he was keeping them as a planned blackmail against America by threatening to give them to hostile foreign powers if America tried to imprison him.  Espionage and blackmail.

Another one is....??  I can't think of any non-criminal reason for him to fight to keep these documents.  I can understand that this incompetent, bumbling pathological narcissist had documents that he wanted as some kind of souvenirs to show how important he had once been as he faded into oblivion over time.  But all he had to do is what all ex-presidents have always done and have appropriate stuff sent to his presidential library.  Duh.

Any suggestions as to non-treasonous, non-criminal reasons to hide and refuse to turn over the top secrets of America back to their rightful owner - America?  I can't think of one.

Prison please....

Collaborators

 Trump is not the only autocratic “semi-fascists” in our country. He is supported and aided and abetted by collaborators. 

He found a true believer Federalist Society young, inexperienced judge, Aileen Cannon, that he appointed after he lost the election, to interfere in the FBI and Department of Justice investigation of his stolen documents, many of which were secret, Top-secret, and the highest level of secrecy in our intelligence community.  Her only qualification seems to be being a member of the Federalist Society which seems to be dedicated to turning the country into a White Christian Nationalist autocracy.

It is pretty clear to me that he is being investigated for espionage. Life in prison. And he will do anything to keep that from happening. 

But I don’t believe the DOJ will allow someone being investigated for espionage simply to be let off by this unprecedentedly flimsy legal ploy. How about the DOJ simply tell Judge Cannon that she has no standing to make this unprecedented “order”.

I remain hopeful that non-authoritarian Republicans will get sick of all this corrupt depravity and turn away 

Biden warns against anti-democracy Trumpists

 President Biden warned yesterday against the Trump led MAGA Cult extremists bent upon overturning democracy in America.  I have been trying to make this same warning in my blog posts for about six years.

Biden was very clear to make the distinction between the Autocratic wing of the Republican Party and the normal Republicans. I hope my writings can be seen by conservatives as a warning that the Republican party has been taken over by autocratic/authoritarian/fascist elements.  And I hope they see that they are no longer part of this violent extremist threatening force.

A few examples of the autocratic activities from the top of my head

The Coup attempt on January 6, 2020.  

The first time in American history where a losing president did not peacefully transfer power to the incoming president.

Election of Republican officials who will have the power to count and/or decertify votes and appoint Republican victors. 

Shutting down polling booths in black and brown liberal neighborhoods. 

A vast host of voter suppression laws.

A constant drumbeat of propaganda lies pretending that Trump won the election and had it stolen from him

Attacks on the FBI for carrying out a highly vetted and authorized search of Trump property looking for evidence of espionage by the civilian Trump. 

There are countless other examples but I find these depressing enough for now. 

My deepest hope is that conservatives finally get sick of trying to justify the anti-democracy actions, threats, and violence of the extremists in what used to be the Republican Party and walk away. 

Enough. Please. Enough. 

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.

Chips

 Good news!  The American Government actually got something done that will help America - Congress passed a bill to finance probably the most important technology in the world - semiconductor manufacturing.

“The United States has invested “nearly nothing” in semiconductor manufacturing, she said, while China has invested $150 billion to build its domestic capacity.”

A moment of sanity.  Thank you.

Sig Sauer because AR-15s aren’t violent enough

 I believe that there were approximately 40 million AR-15s in America. These are semi automatic assault rifle weapons of war. I expect that about 95% of the owners of these horrible weapons of slaughter are Trump supporters, ready and willing do use them in political warfare. 

But wait! These weapons which are so destructive that some of the children killed in the Uvalde massacre were unrecognizable and had to be identified using DNA evidence are about to be replaced with an even more destructive assault weapon. Welcome to the world of Sig Sauer  

SIG Sauer’s new MCX-SPEAR fires bullets with twice the kinetic energy of those from an AR-15. That means double the horrifying force that mangled the victims of the mass shooting in Uvalde, Texas, and left one youngster essentially decapitated. 

 Guaranteed to penetrate law enforcement body armor  

Fascist violence locked an loaded  

Shit. 

Pence's security members called their families to say goodbye

The eighth presentation of the January 6 Committee was given last night.  VP Mike Pence's security forces were so threatened by the coup rioters searching to find and kill the VP that they called their loved ones to say goodbye in case they did not survive.  

They thought they might be killed.  

They thought that Mike Pence might be killed.

One way you can look at Trump's behavior on the 6th was that he "did nothing".  Absolute nonsense. Trump very actively "did something" - he kept the military from intervening in the coup attempt - he refused to call the Military of any kind to come to the aid of the White House police to put down the rioters. That is an active action to aid and abet the attempted Coup.  Eventually, Mike Pence did call the military and the violence was ended.

Trump sat his filthy fat ass in the Dining Room next to the Oval Office and watched it all on Fox News (where else?).  Trump was pleaded with by virtually everybody on the White House staff in the White House to call off the violence.  He VERY ACTIVELY let the violence continue because they were doing exactly what he asked them to do - trying to overturn the election.  

All the phone logs and diary entries for that day while he was in the White House were wiped out - admission of guilt via coverup.

He allowed no photos in the White House on that day - admission of guilt via coverup.

These are admissions of guilt via coverup of his ACTIVITIES that day.  He did NOT "do nothing".  He actively stoked and promoted the violence. 

At a critical juncture he tweeted that Mike Pence was a coward and didn't do what he was supposed to do.  That tweet was read as it was intended - an order from Trump to the rioters to go find Pence and kill him.  

At one point Trump tweeted to stop attacking the police - and that was understood by the rioters to go after the Congress People, not the police, and do them harm.

One fabulous image was the despicable Josh Hawley running for his life along the halls as police watched him go.  This after he raised his fist in defiant solidarity with the rioters-to-be prior to the violence.  Hawley is apparently making his presidential run on the notion that real manly manly men are no longer allowed in this country because of ??? liberals ???  Nice to see the manly manly man turning tail and running.

Finally Trump was forced by fear of the invoking of the 25th amendment that would remove him from office because of mental incompetence, he robotically read something telling the rioter to go home, that he loved them, that the election was stolen, stolen, stolen, he loved them, loved them, loved  them.

Fascism in action.  It is still ongoing.  The Party that Used to be called The Republican Party has become the fascist party dedicated to ending democracy in America - limiting votes of color, installing fascist operatives to "count" the votes, and "certify" Republican victories.

America is in trouble.

Prison please.

When you eliminate the right to privacy, don’t be surprised that your privacy is disturbed

 I don’t approve of nor condone protestors disrupting Supreme Court Justices at restaurants or their homes. I believe in civility. But didn’t these justices just declare that there is no constitutional right to privacy?

Trump commits the crime of witness tampering

 When you have always “gotten away with it” all your life, what do you do when the noose  tightens?  Well, the Former Guy just commits another crime. In this case - witness tampering. He has very publicly witness tampered throughout his presidency by praising witnesses publicly who would not testify against him and publicly threatening those about to testify. And I guess he thinks he got away with it. Liz Cheney revealed at the end of today’s seventh presentation that a witness we have yet to hear from got a call that they refused to answer from the Former Guy but turned it over to their lawyer who turned it over to the Committee who turned it over to the Department of Justice. It’s a crime.  One of thousands. 

Take him down, please. 

Today’s hearing detailed the military style planning to use weapons to overthrow the government by radical white supremacist fascists. Compelling. At the request and direction of the Former Guy. 

Take him down, please. 

Europe appalled by U.S. Supreme Court

 It is not just American liberals that are shocked by the American Christian Fundamentalists crushing of women's freedom to choose and shape their own lives.  The European Parliament condemned such tyranny and offers themselves as a safe haven for reproductive health care for all.

"There was international condemnation of right-wing policies in the U.S. today, when the European Parliament voted 324 to 155, with 38 abstaining, to condemn the Supreme Court’s recent decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health, overturning the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision recognizing the constitutional right to abortion. It also demanded that the European Union recognize the right to abortion in its charter, and to provide “safe, legal and free abortion services, pre-natal and maternal healthcare services, voluntary family planning, youth-friendly services, and HIV prevention, treatment and support, without discrimination.” 

America and Europe have been moving toward individual liberties for decades and it is pretty distressing to me to see America stripping freedom from over half of its population.  It would be so nice if Christians focused on trying to enroll people into their churches rather than turning America into their church.  

The Land of the Free

 It is hard to celebrate the 4th this year right on the heels of the Supreme Court severely restricting the freedoms of women and couples to choose the shape of their own lives by being the ones who make their own personal decisions about family size. 

Of course The Land of the Free wasn’t very free for Native Americans, black slaves, Jim Crow blacks and browns, women’s endless supressions, or Chinese being hunted for scalps in early California.  

But the American Dream of freedom has always been stronger than the tiny, petty little tyrants trying to kill freedom.  And this too shall pass.  

Screw the Supreme Court  

They're not here to hurt ME

The January 6 committee held a sudden January 6th hearing where they questioned and revealed video of earlier under oath testimony from Cassidy Hutchinson, 25 year old former aid to Trump Chief of Staff, Mark Meadows.  It was strong.

Meadows told her on Jan 5 that it might get real bad on Jan 6.

Trump was furious (he seems always to be furious) that security kept several thousand who came to see him in the Ellipse from entering because they had weapons (knives, batons, body armor, gas masks, AR-15s, pistols, bear spray, spears on the end of flags, etc.) on them and refused to go through the mangetometers.  Was he concerned that they had weapons? Of course not, the weapons were meant for others...

“I don’t f-ing care that they have weapons. They’re not here to hurt me. Take the f-ing mags away. Let my people in. They can march to the Capitol from here. Let the people in. Take the f-ing mags away.”

So what did the president do when he discovered so many in his crowd were carrying weapons?  Sent them to the Capitol and told them to fight like hell. This is a premeditated weaponized assault on the people guarding and in the Capitol as far as I can see.  And he promised to go with them.  And he was prevented from going down to the Capitol by his security when he was in "The Beast" (the presidential armored vehicle) and he lunged forward to grab the wheel, had his arm restrained and used the other hand to attack his security man's "clavicle" (probably neck).  They drove him to the White House.

In the White House some approached Mark Meadows and told him that a violent, armed crowd was approaching the Capitol and that he should do something.  Meadows was unconcerned and just said that Trump didn't want to do anything.

By the way, this same Mark Meadows - Chief of Staff, former founder of the Freedom Caucus in the House to obstruct and cripple as much of the Federal Government as he could - was going to join the War Room on the 5th at the Willard hotel with "lawyers" Rudy Giuliani and John Eastman, but eventually was talked out of it and said he would dial in instead.  The War Room pretty clearly were part of the planning of the coup.

During the riot inside the Capitol the rioters chanted "Hang Mike Pence" and Trump was implored to calm the rioters, but instead he sent out an inflammatory text expressing his "disappointment" in Mike Pence.  The rioters read out the text over a bullhorn.  When Meadows was told he had to do something to affect Trump, Meadows said that the president didn't think the rioters were doing anything wrong, and that Pence "deserves it."

Matthew Pottinger, Deputy National Security Adviser decided to quit the moment he saw that tweet.  Others decided to quit that day as well.  

Hutchinson categorized people in the White House as falling into three categories in their reaction to that day

1. Urged Trump to take action to quell the riot - like Herschmann and Ivanka
2. Neutral group that knew something had to be done even though he didn't want to
3. Those who immediately shifted to deflecting and blaming others (BLM, Antifa) - Like Meadows

Hutchinson heard that Cabinet Members were discussing invoking the 25th Amendment declaring the president mentally incapable of governing.

Eventually Trump was forced to give a speech on the 7th to calm things down but was talked out of offering a pardon for all those in the coup (Meadows wanted that as well ... including himself clearly), but it looks like he did this to keep from being removed from office via the 25th amendment.

When Hutchinson was finished, Liz Cheney read a couple of sworn statements from other witnesses who testified to the Committee showing illegal and frightening witness tampering.  One said they got a call "as long as you continue to be team player, and protect who you need to protect, you will stay in good graces with Trump, who reads the transcripts, so keep that in mind in your depositions".  In case you missed it, this is a Mafia style death threat.

It just gets more and more nauseating.  Unhinged madman megalomaniac inciting unhinged cult followers.