Readers here will have no trouble recalling the many times I have given the US legal system the “benefit of the doubt” regarding how we deal with Trump, as he has over at Talking Points Memo.
It feels like what started as a sleepy laidback raft trip down a slow moving river has hit the rapids, and now we can hear the roar of the waterfall around the bend. We should have started paddling toward the river bank a long time ago.
Tom, it appears that many of us have come to the same conclusion. Trump has been gaming the judicial system his entire adult life. He has no respect for the rule of law and mocks it every chance he has. The danger now is that he’s normalized his lawlessness and turned it into a badge of honor with his base. He’s primed 30% of the electorate to “fight for their country” using violence if necessary. Even if Biden wins, Trump will continue to foment violence. He needs to be in jail.
What a horrible thought but you are absolutely right. We know how much he hates Zelensky for causing his first impeachment so he must be happy about the funding being stopped. He managed that. Mass murderer/manbaby.
The way it looks now with all the appeal delays, we'll find out just how many of those who call themselves Americans will be willing to vote for a pig-in-a-poke un November. (Mostly a pig.)
Note: On local rightwing radio this AM a caller was insistent that the only one strong enough to "drain the swamp" in D.C. and save democracy is Trump. I laughed 'til I cried.
And exactly why does this caller think he DIDNT do that in his first term? Yeah, I know - it would have been like dealing with a troll to attempt to ask that! AND there would have been no even close to intelligent answer or any, for that matter.
At least the jury in New york wasn't impressed. Trump got hit with an $83 million judgement. And he has to put up the money, plus interest, immedidately, even if he appeals. This time, the clock has run out, at least on the fiscal side.
I suggest part of the problem is that many have internalized the concept of the “imperial presidency.” The term was coined during the Nixon administration to capture the hubris with which Nixon and his staff operated. (Remember when Nixon tried to change the uniforms of the White House security guards to something resembling the French Foreign Legion?) Anyway, the phrase captured a tendency that developed during the 20th century to treat the president as the first among branches of government. It accelerated during the Cold War as the president became the sole possessor of nuclear weapons, and started to throw troops at foreign policy problems without a Congressional declaration of war.
I think Trump is benefiting from the mantle of the presidency. Many “very serious people” blanch at the thought of subjecting the (former) great avatar of the nation to something as mundane as law. Unconsciously they seem to assume the presidency is just too august to be brought down low. It’s a habit of mind yet to be overcome, unfortunately.
Admittedly that’s just part of the problem. Also at work is the deference shown to the rich (and even the fake rich, it seems.)
Trump & Co. continue to get preferential treatment for their outrageous and CRIMINAL activities. If the FBI had done its job and properly vetted him, revealing his extensive connections with the Russian MOB, we wouldn’t be facing a constitutional crisis today. Years ago, the Village Voice reported : “Trump won’t do a deal unless there’s something extra — a kind of moral larceny — in it. He’s not satisfied with a profit. He has to take something more. Otherwise, there’s no thrill.” This is the sign of a mobster, a man who extracts loyalties while always holding a weapon over the head of his minions.
The RNC operates as an organized crime syndicate; it’s no wonder tRump found a place there.
Thank you again Tom. You have been very clear that this is a "Hair on Fire" moment. The 2024 election is all we have for sure, and winning is going to take all we have to communicate the danger if we do not GOTV.
She has to do something he can appeal, which so far she hasn't. She's getting excellent advice on how to ratfuck this case from somebody, because she's not that smart on her own.
I have been facinated by that little picture by your name. She is stunning. I'm a long time ear scratcher and they all seem to know it. Pooches seem to love me. My Irish Wolfhound was by my side for ten of his eleven years. When you love an animal, it might show to others. In the mean time, we have our work cut out for us. Tom's keeping us focussed, as are several others.
trump learned from his father and Roy Cohn how to game the legal system and delay, delay, delay any ruling against his interests. With his money, trump would just hire tag teams of attorneys to sue, countersue, and appeal judgments ad infinitum and outlast his creditors or cut deals with the government. It’s the old saw of “money talks and bullshit walks”….that and the glacial pace of the legal procedures themselves works to trump’s advantage. And even when he loses a judgment, it’s off to more appeals and suits to delay paying off, and the courts seem to have no teeth in forcing payments in the meantime.
And then we have this! Maybe next week a decision will bar him from doing business in New York, let's hope. Step by agonizing step the little man with the wandering wee wee may actually be held to account for his sorrowful time on this earth.
Ka-ching: $18.3 M + $65 M = $83.3 million verdict against Trump
I'm not so sure it is the legal system overall that is the problem--it is the roadblocks that partisan appointments have set up and the way that those magnify the weaknesses that are simply inherent in the way it works, particularly for criminal. People think the system is going to deliver Truth, but it fact it delivers the opinion of 12 people constrained by what a judge--with anything from ordinary human failings to a full agenda --can tell those 12. It also, needless to say, depends on the particular skill of those lawyers presenting their case. Witness the problems of being represented by an overworked public defender. At least in the trump criminal prosecutions the prosecution shows many signs of exceptional competence.
Ask any 12 random people in some parts of the country and you may well get the "truth" that flaunting snowballs in Congress means climate change isn't happening.
What the system has difficulty coping with is the propaganda about what the issues are. The folks who still think that hearsay or speculation or outright lies is actual evidence are legion: you can see it in any Stop the Stealer. And you can see it in all the free promotion by all ranges of media of trump's persecution complex. Bravo to the judge who called BS on that. And bravo to the jury in the E. Jean Carroll case who also called BS on it. But the number of people who STILL "moderately" will only abandon trump if he is actually convicted is terrifying, quite apart from those who will never abandon him. That circles back to the idea that only conviction can be "proof" of actions disqualifying someone from wielding power. The evidence is out there and anyone with a brain not totally atrophied should be able to see it. We can see the evidence out there and draw our own conclusions, so long as we recognize what evidence IS. We don't need twelve people to tell us. But people uneducated in how the system works plus a relentless propaganda machine have made that not count.
The problem I have with "it should move faster" is that the actual system is filled with safeguards and of of finding and marshalling actual, not anecdotal evidence. That is NEEDED for the system to work. I have no idea why the trump cases got off to a "slow start" because neither I nor you nor Kurtz -know what was actually started before Smith was involved nor what the motives of Garland were in how he proceeded. Those motives are sheer speculation, just as a witness who assumed boxes going into a poll counting center must be fake votes is sheer speculation. I do know that the chances of actually convicting trump are WAY better now than they would have been if DOJ had gone off half-assed earlier without a solid case it can rely on.
As the trump cases show, the system is at odds with our election cycles. Those require faster resolution than the law is set up to deliver--the controls on resolution that benefit you and me should we find ourselves sued or indicted. Yes, those obstacles I mentioned, folks like Judge Cannon, are slowing it down more than it should be. I wish the "gag order" rules were a whole lot more strictly enforced. The system isn't really set up to deal with those because they actually aren't needed a whole lot--except for Dons, Mafia and otherwise, not a lot of defendants have the inclination nor the clout to ignore them or even NEED them. Again, the law is at odds with the the prevailing influence of the propaganda mongers. And part of that propaganda is a relentless undermining of trust in the system that overall has been the best available and that we've lived with overall successfully since the common law jury system was born.
Sure it has glitches--the various Innocence Projects show that, particularly for "Others" caught in the system. Those are fixable glitches if we work hard enough at it. I'm not sure the effects of propaganda and the way all the media falls for it in pursuit of the clickable story and the effects of political appointments to the judiciary are fixable because they turn out to be baked into the Constitution itself.
But before anyone simply writes off the legal system they should be able to come up with a more acceptable alternative. Orban's? Netanyahu's? George III's?
Kind of delicious, if that's the right word, that the first massive thing to bring him down is a sex scandal. How perfect, in this world of sleaze that predominates, for the threats to the world of the other charges against him to rest on his disgusting personal behavior.
The laws of this country were always written with back door loopholes! At an early age, The orange creature learned to disrespect the Legal system!
Now with suspect sources of money funding him, every unfavorable decision is challenged and even the legitimacy of the indictment itself is challenged!
Clearly, there is a separate legal system for those who have an unlimited source of money to fund the challenges to the law!!!
Hind-to-present sense recorded. I too remember framing the ridiculous election of Trump in the same blanket with a horrified family member who knew he wouldn't get elected (but, I suspect voted against Hilary). Our institutions are strong, we have checks and balances, Congress has guard rails, there is fairness and reason in the courts and government agencies, foolish acts will be called out, and Trump will be tamed because our governance and Constitution are strong. He will play out like other accidents of mass hysteria. Then. He started holding rallies to cement his following. And. The horror began. And. Worse. His surly brand of business doing has worked. He shot America on his ride to the White House and America has suffered a spinal cord injury and all the nation's horses and resources and principles and laws and procedures have neither the sense of urgency nor the will to contain, repair, and rehabilitate the injured body that is ours. America is in a wheelchair. Accessibility and equal treatment of our founding principles is years away. Will it be prayer or policy or a Court of Democracy that hammers at the steep marble steps that prevent us from building ramps and a will and whole spirit and conforming voices for the choir of faithful progressives and conservatives who will sing "No More, No More. Let Justice be Done. And Let our People Enjoy the Promise that Was Once in Sight and Well Within Reach."
It feels like what started as a sleepy laidback raft trip down a slow moving river has hit the rapids, and now we can hear the roar of the waterfall around the bend. We should have started paddling toward the river bank a long time ago.
Tom, it appears that many of us have come to the same conclusion. Trump has been gaming the judicial system his entire adult life. He has no respect for the rule of law and mocks it every chance he has. The danger now is that he’s normalized his lawlessness and turned it into a badge of honor with his base. He’s primed 30% of the electorate to “fight for their country” using violence if necessary. Even if Biden wins, Trump will continue to foment violence. He needs to be in jail.
What a horrible thought but you are absolutely right. We know how much he hates Zelensky for causing his first impeachment so he must be happy about the funding being stopped. He managed that. Mass murderer/manbaby.
The way it looks now with all the appeal delays, we'll find out just how many of those who call themselves Americans will be willing to vote for a pig-in-a-poke un November. (Mostly a pig.)
Note: On local rightwing radio this AM a caller was insistent that the only one strong enough to "drain the swamp" in D.C. and save democracy is Trump. I laughed 'til I cried.
And exactly why does this caller think he DIDNT do that in his first term? Yeah, I know - it would have been like dealing with a troll to attempt to ask that! AND there would have been no even close to intelligent answer or any, for that matter.
it's amazing to me that they use this horseshit from 2016, without managing to remember that the "promises" are the same...
I'm done thinking about this for tonight and I'm already toking on this cute little vape.
Trump will only add more nasty creatures to the existing MAGAt swamp.
you can't listen to that shit...EVER.
Trump has replaced the swamp with his cesspool! Please be kind to our swine creatures! He is of an unknown genetic aberration !
At least the jury in New york wasn't impressed. Trump got hit with an $83 million judgement. And he has to put up the money, plus interest, immedidately, even if he appeals. This time, the clock has run out, at least on the fiscal side.
Vote for every Democrat you can and end this with a conclusive rejection at the polls. Then, fight to get rid of every MAGA judge in the country.
I suggest part of the problem is that many have internalized the concept of the “imperial presidency.” The term was coined during the Nixon administration to capture the hubris with which Nixon and his staff operated. (Remember when Nixon tried to change the uniforms of the White House security guards to something resembling the French Foreign Legion?) Anyway, the phrase captured a tendency that developed during the 20th century to treat the president as the first among branches of government. It accelerated during the Cold War as the president became the sole possessor of nuclear weapons, and started to throw troops at foreign policy problems without a Congressional declaration of war.
I think Trump is benefiting from the mantle of the presidency. Many “very serious people” blanch at the thought of subjecting the (former) great avatar of the nation to something as mundane as law. Unconsciously they seem to assume the presidency is just too august to be brought down low. It’s a habit of mind yet to be overcome, unfortunately.
Admittedly that’s just part of the problem. Also at work is the deference shown to the rich (and even the fake rich, it seems.)
Trump & Co. continue to get preferential treatment for their outrageous and CRIMINAL activities. If the FBI had done its job and properly vetted him, revealing his extensive connections with the Russian MOB, we wouldn’t be facing a constitutional crisis today. Years ago, the Village Voice reported : “Trump won’t do a deal unless there’s something extra — a kind of moral larceny — in it. He’s not satisfied with a profit. He has to take something more. Otherwise, there’s no thrill.” This is the sign of a mobster, a man who extracts loyalties while always holding a weapon over the head of his minions.
The RNC operates as an organized crime syndicate; it’s no wonder tRump found a place there.
Thank you again Tom. You have been very clear that this is a "Hair on Fire" moment. The 2024 election is all we have for sure, and winning is going to take all we have to communicate the danger if we do not GOTV.
Rough Justice is in order. The
courts need to get the lead out and expedite anything with the name Trump on it.
As for Florida Cannon, she
needs the 11th Circuit to bring her up there, en blanc,
and question her priorities for
the rule of law. Is there any way to find out what her court calendar looks like for
the next few months? What
kind of trials she's presiding
over?
And why is Smith not there yet? This is something to run by Joyve Vance tonight.
I sure like the ears on your pooch too.
She has to do something he can appeal, which so far she hasn't. She's getting excellent advice on how to ratfuck this case from somebody, because she's not that smart on her own.
That's for sure. The Federalists are pro bono for those that do their work, perhaps.
Thank you Ransom for the compliment on my Sadie's ears. She passed away in
July. She was a certified service and hearing alert
companion. She served me
faithfully for 17 years as a
my guardian and best friend. She was part Belgian Malinois and German Shepherd. A stunning girl.
Her enduring spirit lives on
in our mountain enclave.
I agree that Cannon has her
orders to delay, delay, delay.
Heritage Foundation, Federalist Society or others.
Just look at her eyes; vindictive. And too, she has
a grudge to settle from her
last go around with Smith.
I have been facinated by that little picture by your name. She is stunning. I'm a long time ear scratcher and they all seem to know it. Pooches seem to love me. My Irish Wolfhound was by my side for ten of his eleven years. When you love an animal, it might show to others. In the mean time, we have our work cut out for us. Tom's keeping us focussed, as are several others.
Deepest condolences, Victoria, on the loss of your beautiful companion.
trump learned from his father and Roy Cohn how to game the legal system and delay, delay, delay any ruling against his interests. With his money, trump would just hire tag teams of attorneys to sue, countersue, and appeal judgments ad infinitum and outlast his creditors or cut deals with the government. It’s the old saw of “money talks and bullshit walks”….that and the glacial pace of the legal procedures themselves works to trump’s advantage. And even when he loses a judgment, it’s off to more appeals and suits to delay paying off, and the courts seem to have no teeth in forcing payments in the meantime.
As tffg is gaming the legal system, he is gaming his base, grfting money from them..
And then we have this! Maybe next week a decision will bar him from doing business in New York, let's hope. Step by agonizing step the little man with the wandering wee wee may actually be held to account for his sorrowful time on this earth.
Ka-ching: $18.3 M + $65 M = $83.3 million verdict against Trump
LUCIAN K. TRUSCOTT IV
JAN 26, 2024
I'm not so sure it is the legal system overall that is the problem--it is the roadblocks that partisan appointments have set up and the way that those magnify the weaknesses that are simply inherent in the way it works, particularly for criminal. People think the system is going to deliver Truth, but it fact it delivers the opinion of 12 people constrained by what a judge--with anything from ordinary human failings to a full agenda --can tell those 12. It also, needless to say, depends on the particular skill of those lawyers presenting their case. Witness the problems of being represented by an overworked public defender. At least in the trump criminal prosecutions the prosecution shows many signs of exceptional competence.
Ask any 12 random people in some parts of the country and you may well get the "truth" that flaunting snowballs in Congress means climate change isn't happening.
What the system has difficulty coping with is the propaganda about what the issues are. The folks who still think that hearsay or speculation or outright lies is actual evidence are legion: you can see it in any Stop the Stealer. And you can see it in all the free promotion by all ranges of media of trump's persecution complex. Bravo to the judge who called BS on that. And bravo to the jury in the E. Jean Carroll case who also called BS on it. But the number of people who STILL "moderately" will only abandon trump if he is actually convicted is terrifying, quite apart from those who will never abandon him. That circles back to the idea that only conviction can be "proof" of actions disqualifying someone from wielding power. The evidence is out there and anyone with a brain not totally atrophied should be able to see it. We can see the evidence out there and draw our own conclusions, so long as we recognize what evidence IS. We don't need twelve people to tell us. But people uneducated in how the system works plus a relentless propaganda machine have made that not count.
The problem I have with "it should move faster" is that the actual system is filled with safeguards and of of finding and marshalling actual, not anecdotal evidence. That is NEEDED for the system to work. I have no idea why the trump cases got off to a "slow start" because neither I nor you nor Kurtz -know what was actually started before Smith was involved nor what the motives of Garland were in how he proceeded. Those motives are sheer speculation, just as a witness who assumed boxes going into a poll counting center must be fake votes is sheer speculation. I do know that the chances of actually convicting trump are WAY better now than they would have been if DOJ had gone off half-assed earlier without a solid case it can rely on.
As the trump cases show, the system is at odds with our election cycles. Those require faster resolution than the law is set up to deliver--the controls on resolution that benefit you and me should we find ourselves sued or indicted. Yes, those obstacles I mentioned, folks like Judge Cannon, are slowing it down more than it should be. I wish the "gag order" rules were a whole lot more strictly enforced. The system isn't really set up to deal with those because they actually aren't needed a whole lot--except for Dons, Mafia and otherwise, not a lot of defendants have the inclination nor the clout to ignore them or even NEED them. Again, the law is at odds with the the prevailing influence of the propaganda mongers. And part of that propaganda is a relentless undermining of trust in the system that overall has been the best available and that we've lived with overall successfully since the common law jury system was born.
Sure it has glitches--the various Innocence Projects show that, particularly for "Others" caught in the system. Those are fixable glitches if we work hard enough at it. I'm not sure the effects of propaganda and the way all the media falls for it in pursuit of the clickable story and the effects of political appointments to the judiciary are fixable because they turn out to be baked into the Constitution itself.
But before anyone simply writes off the legal system they should be able to come up with a more acceptable alternative. Orban's? Netanyahu's? George III's?
Kind of delicious, if that's the right word, that the first massive thing to bring him down is a sex scandal. How perfect, in this world of sleaze that predominates, for the threats to the world of the other charges against him to rest on his disgusting personal behavior.
The laws of this country were always written with back door loopholes! At an early age, The orange creature learned to disrespect the Legal system!
Now with suspect sources of money funding him, every unfavorable decision is challenged and even the legitimacy of the indictment itself is challenged!
Clearly, there is a separate legal system for those who have an unlimited source of money to fund the challenges to the law!!!
The Courts are failing our Republic
Justice is hampered both by incessant delays and by politically aligned judges willing to set aside impartiality for personal gain
The problem stems from the lack (or weakness) of process to hold them (the judges)to account
Hind-to-present sense recorded. I too remember framing the ridiculous election of Trump in the same blanket with a horrified family member who knew he wouldn't get elected (but, I suspect voted against Hilary). Our institutions are strong, we have checks and balances, Congress has guard rails, there is fairness and reason in the courts and government agencies, foolish acts will be called out, and Trump will be tamed because our governance and Constitution are strong. He will play out like other accidents of mass hysteria. Then. He started holding rallies to cement his following. And. The horror began. And. Worse. His surly brand of business doing has worked. He shot America on his ride to the White House and America has suffered a spinal cord injury and all the nation's horses and resources and principles and laws and procedures have neither the sense of urgency nor the will to contain, repair, and rehabilitate the injured body that is ours. America is in a wheelchair. Accessibility and equal treatment of our founding principles is years away. Will it be prayer or policy or a Court of Democracy that hammers at the steep marble steps that prevent us from building ramps and a will and whole spirit and conforming voices for the choir of faithful progressives and conservatives who will sing "No More, No More. Let Justice be Done. And Let our People Enjoy the Promise that Was Once in Sight and Well Within Reach."