It's Arraignment Day...!
Thanks to Alan for the cartoon!
"Not braggadocious."
"He looks like a defendant."
~ various pundits
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1:00:00 AM
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Wow! I guess those folks out in California really did get a lot of rain! Owens Lake Flooded for First Time in 110 Years After Atmospheric River [Click]
ReplyDeleteOh my goodness!!
DeletePoor Donald is delusional, but his performance is mesmerizing. So, the lawyers and advisors have been exploiting him for decades.
ReplyDeleteI suspect his cognitive deficits prevent him from registering experience and, if it does not register, he cannot respond or change his behavior.
I remain of the opinion that mental incompetence to stand trial would be his most effective defense; the drawback for him would be that if successful he would be confined in a mental hospital rather than a prison until such time as he was deemed competent.
Delete---Alan
listener4/03/2023 08:59:00 PM:
ReplyDeleteRepublicans need to read a book on Projection. They wouldn't know it if they tripped over it...which they do, all the time. Lately they've been accusing President Biden of weaponising the Justice Dept. What. a. shock."
=========================
I have been of the opinion for decades that the Republican Party was following the Whigs on the road to irrelevance and extinction. There is no standard script for the collapse of a major political party, but just because the US hasn't had it happen for about 165 years doesn't mean it can't happen here again. I am not thrilled with the Democratic Party, but think they are demonstrating the ability to reinvent themselves. I am again hopeful that I will live to see it all happen. I still like the premise of George Friedman's The Storm Before the Calm: America's Discord, the Coming Crisis of the 2020s, and the Triumph Beyond.
---Alan
The founders warned against "factions" and, along with the press and establishments of religion gave them no position in the processes of government. So, they have insinuated themselves, largely by persuading legislators to let them help organize and sponsor the participants in the legislative bodies.
DeleteSince modern communications have facilitated direct citizen action, the factions and their buddies in the press are scrambling to retain, if not extend influence. Letting the parties sponsoring presidential candidates designate electors is part of that effort. Then the designation of fake electors caused a loophole to be closed.
The Bulwark has a nice little league table of Trump’s current lawsuits. [Click] It doesn’t include everything (e.g. the E. Jean Carroll case), but does cover at least one more obscure and evolving case that could be a big one.
ReplyDelete—-Alan
Florida Dems Try to Use Ron DeSantis’ Book Ban on His Own Book [Click] So far they haven’t found a school library that has the book.
ReplyDelete—Alan
Something came up recently in a spiritual guidance meeting that I feel poignantly on this day.
ReplyDeleteMind you, this was in the context of a church congregation. But the same applies to any office of power and any leader who needs to serve every person in the group (congregation, nation, etc.)....
It is in removing a harmful person from power (in a congregation)
that a (clergy) leader helps that person
first, by giving them less to answer for on their day of judgment,
next, by being now able to be in relationship with that person as leader (pastor),
to which office that leader (pastor) has been called.
Far-right [California] county throws out voting machines – with nothing to replace them [Click]
ReplyDelete—-Alan
DT is making his way by motorcade to the courthouse.
ReplyDeleteThey have closed off streets for him to pass.
And all I can think of is two lines from the school play MEAN GIRLS
which we attended on Saturday (VT*Grand was in the play).
If you've seen the play, you'll understand...
"My name is Regina George,
And I am a massive deal."
LOL
DT has entered the courthouse and is officially under arrest. (As of 1:24pmET)
ReplyDeleteWil is chanting "Citizen's Arrest! Citizen's Arrest!" LOL
Cheeseberder eating surrender monkey! Now to make a quick run to the nearby deluxe ice cream shop.
ReplyDelete---Alan
They shop didn't have an indictment day special; we got three pints: rocky road, honeycomb, and honey matcha.
Delete---Alan
This is also election day in several places, including here. Surpirsingly, I've decided not to vote. For different reasons I like all the five candidates running for the three Village Board seats and really don't want to choose among them. And I'm confident my candidates will win in ther other two contested races.
ReplyDeleteBut the mayoral race a few miles east in Chicago is a big deal there. And there is an important race for the Wisconsin supreme Court.
Yes indeed, the Chicago mayoral race IS a big one. I have been checking on it from time to time.
Delete---Alan
Trump was indicted on 34 counts of falsifying business records in the first degree, all class E felonies (!!!), which is the lowest category of felony offense in New York. They carry a maximum prison sentence of four years each.
ReplyDeleteThe case against the former president involves hush money payments to two women and a doorman during the 2016 campaign.
All I have for now.
---Alan
“. . . the indictment and an accompanying statement of facts provide little new information or argument. As filings from the DA’s office note, much of this material is already a matter of public record through previous proceedings against Cohen and American Media Inc. . . .
DeleteThe eye-popping total of 34 felony charges stems from the scheme under which Trump reimbursed his aide. Cohen paid Daniels $130,000 for her silence, after Trump agreed to cover the costs. According to prosecutors, Cohen and Trump Organization Chief Financial Officer Allen Weisselberg—who last year pleaded guilty to tax fraud—agreed on a $420,000 payment: “They reached that figure by adding the $130,000 payment to a $50,000 payment for another expense for which [Cohen] also claimed reimbursement, for a total of $180,000. [Weisselberg] then doubled that amount to $360,000 so that [Cohen] could characterize the payment as income on his tax returns, instead of a reimbursement, and [Cohen] would be left with $180,000 after paying approximately 50% in income taxes. Finally, [Weisselberg] added an additional $60,000 as a supplemental year-end bonus. Together, these amounts totaled $420,000.”
This still left the problem of how to disguise the scheme for record-keeping purposes. But they found an arrangement for that, too: Each month, Cohen would invoice Trump $35,000 for legal services as part of a supposed retainer agreement—yet “at no point did [Cohen] have a retainer agreement with the Defendant or the Trump Organization,” prosecutors allege. Trump faces one to five charges of falsifying records for each payment between February and December 2017.”
Sounds like the DA has the case nailed down VERY well. Now for gardening; beautiful weather, warm and no wind to speak of.
Delete---Alan
We're hearing that the case looks rather weak.
DeleteI could just scream.
I wouldn't take that sort of thing seriously. I think it was around a week or ten days ago that I posted an Ari Melber interview with a prominent former prosecutor who predicted that Bragg would frame the case exactly as he has. It makes it very easy to explain to the jury and to get a conviction. You only have to explain a typical one in detail, then sail through more and more instances of the same. The more examples of the malefaction there are, the easier conviction becomes. He had or knew of cases with 200-250 instances of the illegal conduct at issue. In short, it is a well known and effective strategy.
Delete----Alan
Dare I say the more nails in the coffin, the better?
Delete---Alan
Clarification: "He had or knew of cases. . ." should read "The former prosecutor had or knew of cases . . ."
DeleteAlso to be more precise, I posted a LINK to the Ari Melber interview.
---Alan
Remember that Cohen and Weisselberg are going to sing for the jurors, and there is extensive documentary evidence of all the allegations. It's a classic RICO case.
Delete---Alan
Ari Melber/MSNBC/Breaking Trump News [6PM] 4/4/23 [Click]
DeleteI think a lot depends on how good Trump's lawyers are at creating reasonable doubt regarding intent and purpose. And whether he undermines them by boasting about how clever he is.
DeleteJust got word that the Democrat won the Wisconsin Supreme Court seat. This means Democrats control the court.
ReplyDeleteHey, thanks Bill!
Delete----Alan
I see that Johnson beat Vallas in the Chicago mayoral election.
Delete----Alan
As I was soaking in the bath, it occurred to me that it is exceedingly strange that Trump would go through all that money laundering, leaving tracks all the way, to buy someone's silence. The guy is supposed to be a multi-billionaire; $130K should be chump change for him. He could just withdraw $5K a week in cash from one or more bank accounts, put it into a shoebox, and give it to her, either directly or through an intermediary. Did he object to doing it that way, or did it simply not occur to him?
ReplyDelete---Alan