One of Chris Cilizza’s favorite Trump quotes, since it reveals so much, is the one he gave in a 1990 Playboy interview: “The show is Trump, and it is sold-out performances everywhere.”
Tomorrow will be interesting. I'd love to be a fly on the wall of that courtroom to see his reaction when Judge Merchan finds him guilty of contempt and levees a fine of around $25,000.
It can indeed! Right now, at $1k/bad act, he's got a fine of $25,000 headed his way.
Also, as Neal Katyal pointed out, he can sentence Trumpski to 30 days in Rikers, and suspend enforcement, and tell Trump that it is now on him to keep himself out of jail, since any further violations will result in the immediate enforcement of the suspended sentence during the term of the trial.
Does swinging by before you are busy in the afternoon work for tomorrow? If you give me a time that works for you, I will leave plenty early, and knock loud!
Trump just might see 30 days in Rikers as yet another means of delaying the trial and making himself the consummate martyr. Clearly he needs the rest and the daily workouts.
Professor Vance's citation to the relevant NY states also laid the the terms of possible jail time. There're 10 Contempt Counts by my count on tomorrow's Docket. I am very interested in how Judge Merchan will handle count 4 as Trump and an accomplice changed the words of Fox innuendos to make them his own lies then on to counts 5 through 10. & the likelihood of additional violations of the Gag Order.
We will likely see another OSC, yes another contempt Count during Tuesday's hearing as Wreck attacked the entire seated Jury Panel as a Group.
I tend to defer to the people who are in charge. There must be a good reason the trial isn’t televised. I suspect it’s to keep the public’s voices calm so they can center on the evidence alone.
Human communication is a combination of verbal and non verbal cues. Reading transcripts provides neither. No voice inflection, no immediate facial reactions to testimony, no scowls or defensive crossed arms posturing
Its all important cues to reading the face and what is hiding behind it
Agreed, with some reservations given the quaddefendant's proclivity for grandstanding any time he's given a public forum. Judge Merchan has a major challenge keeping order and security in the courtroom already but, given that the press has a closed circuit feed in a separate room, there's no reason why the record shouldn't become public.
It is so wonderful to see him going down. That quote from Cohen, calling him Von ShitzinPants! He looks terrible in some of the photos from the courtroom. If he's not already--and he probably is--I think he's going to be totally ruined, a shell of his former self when this is over. If I were the GOP, I'd be searching hard for someone else to run, but it seems Von ShitzinPants has ruined the GOP.
This trial may well break Trump emotionally - he, and the people who have protected him for over 50 years, have succeeded in keeping the long arm of John Law off Trump's back and allowed Trump to live out his fantasy life as the Perfect Hero figure he has to believe in. The lack of control he has in the trial process will expose the true Donald, and his id and psyche may not survive that experience..... I have seen many other cases where he obviously was extremely uncomfortable - note the many photos showing him with his arms tightly folded in front of him, pulling in his shoulders - a wall to protect him from the outside (even in the Oval Office, with the greatest power in the world). The Donald is a very sick man, and this trial will be his greatest test, one I do not expect him to pass.....
I agree with you. DT is a sick man and he worships other sick men who he perceives as strong, like Hitler and Co. Pathetic and dangerous seem like such incongruous pairings, but there it is.
If only his followers could look at this trial and see a man "guilty of massive criminality" ...,,but they cannot. In their mind he is being persecuted not prosecuted. The more pitiful he becomes, the more his person is reviled, the more he becomes for them a "Jesus on the cross" or a martyr. Without a camera in the courtroom there is no unmediated "read" for folks on what is happening. His stand up press moments outside the courtroom are taking the place of campaign stops and probably, as we speak, being spun into campaign ads. This is Classic Trump-- diminishment gets turned on its head and becomes a campaign strength. Just my opinion and fear. I hope your read on it is what happens, TC!
Whatever happens, taking a close-up look at his face reveals a pathetic human being. Putin is as well. I think something must happen to wanna-be and already-am dictators that hurt them growing up or perhaps were already part of the DNA.
In all my research as an historian, and my personal experience in politics and Hollywood, I have never run across any "high achiever" (Trump and Putin are "high achievers of low results") who did not come from a fucked-up childhood. Putin was a "yard punk" in his youth - a Russian term for juvenile delinquent; most of his childhood friends ended up in prison. Trump was also a juvenile delinquent - he got sent to the NY Military Academy, aka "The NY Rich Juvenile Delinquent Factory" where he only became worse.
Always have thought that Trump's addiction to power, unquenchable need for attention and total inability to empathize with or serve others come from having an overpowering father and an "absent" mother. Mary Trump's first book, Too Much and Never Enough, reveals a lot about his family of origin. His wound carried into adulthood. Marrying that severe dysfunction with extraordinary power ( as in Presidency of a country) only ends in terrible, toxic tragedy--in this case not only for the pitiable anti- hero but also for all of us he has poisoned. It seems our final antidote is the law--wobbly in his case. So we may die of the poison.
Grim, I know.
I hope I am surprised by a different denouement!!!
I took a close-up look at the face of Donald Trump you posted and for once, I almost felt pity at what a pathetic, delusional piece of work he is. This excuses nothing. It explains nothing. But it did remind me of a story I used to read to my kids about a woman who was able, through her wits, to shrink the Gennie she had released into the world back into the size that fit back into the bottle. Let's do this.
His lawyer in the same picture looks totally dumbfounded and lost too. What a job he has taken on! He looks like he would rather be anywhere else but there.
Then why isn’t he. I could never, in a million years, blather such nonsense, knowing full well, that it’s an effort to give credence to vicious bull Schitt.
I can’t even begin to imagine his motivation. My best guess would be publicity. But who would want exposure of any sort to tfg? Maybe he has been paid in advance and can’t get out of his role.
This performance is rated unbelievable fiction. May he be the leading character in the tragedy of the 21st century. He is ugly, boring, and not at all interesting. The only interest I have is seeing the balloon burst or a slow leak that represents a “tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.”
Thank you TC for this update. I expect he will lose at the ballot box this November. By a greater margin than the 7 to 8 million he lost on the popular vote in 2020 and sufficient to win the electoral college - undemocratic as it is. My concern is: Then what? A repeat of the 2020 loss? Another January 6 attack on the Congress? Knowing Trump we'd better be prepared, every National Guard Unit in the country on alert. Ok, there are a few hundred of his unrepentant maggots in jail, but there are still thousands just itching to load up and head for DC. We've had three years to prepare, yeah there are4 some differences; Biden will be in the White House, Mar a lago, or prison. It makes no difference, the trumpster still controls his maggots. If he has access to a phone he will order them to attack Congress and they will obey.
There are so many what-ifs at present. What if we rally enough support to turn our collective backs on this farce? What if we stop being scared of scary people? What if we vote the pants off these monsters, but be prepared for a violent counterattack? Sometimes I wish people weren't so down on Pollyanna. Maybe everyone should be given a copy of the book and a dip in the warm waters of Hawaii as well.
I think that’s helpful once in awhile. This has been a long, sad slog and there’s lots more to come. We’re going to need to build up our mental and psychological reserves to get through this one.
He may rule them but most have always known his so-called truth are pure lies. I don’t think they will rush to violence on his behalf for that reason alone. But, watch out for the “Christians “. They want power to rule over the rest of us and I think Mike Johnson is their guy right now.
information she is afraid to know. Yep, that's a big part of it. But maybe it was Twain who said that it's a lot easier to fool people than to convince them that they have been fooled.
Looking at photos of DT in the courtroom, and reading about it, I'm inclined to think he's going to do a lot worse than any of us were thinking even a couple of weeks ago. I think he's going to emerge from the trial a shell of his former self. He just looks terrible.
But I'd like to hear wht others hve to say about it--whether I'm off my rocker, or on point.
I’d like to be privy to 2 things. What is it his lawyer has been promised and/or paid to actually stand next to his client outside the courtroom and DO NOTHING as the former president violates the gag order time and time again…most notably yesterday. This pattern of behavior in Trump’s lackeys who held rather notable and key positions in the WhiteHouse continues to astound me. I used to say to repeat offenders, Littles in my schools where I held positions designed to keep order and decorum….”Enough is enough.” First offense is possibly a mistake, 2nd time is let’s go over that correction to your behavior again, 3rd time and after is let’s set this straight, Little, you do not run this show and be glad that I am. Now tell me what happened and start your sentence with “I”.
Trump’s lawyers and chiefs of staff etc designated to keep order and decorum have been such stupid failures. And as I always remind…stupid is a choice.
My 2nd “wish to be privy to” is who is on top of the communications and orders from Putin’s Russia to the whole lot of foolish legislators and traitorous corporate and judicial leaders? Or is it that people just do not understand the implication or fact of being controlled by a vicious foreign government? I mean we know it, why does it continue right under our noses? It is this series of continuous acts of treason that muss my hair more than anything. Who in the Uncle Sam heck has the keys to the woodshed because whuppin’s are due.
slight correction....TFF attended Kew Forest (the same shit private school my idiot nephew attended and the one in which James Grey's terrific "Armageddon Time" takes place...it's the T***p "school of choice") until early in Senior High he hit a teacher and the Military Academy was the only option left.
Tomorrow will be interesting. I'd love to be a fly on the wall of that courtroom to see his reaction when Judge Merchan finds him guilty of contempt and levees a fine of around $25,000.
Unfortunately, the fine is dictated by statute, as well described by Joyce Vance, as $1,000 per offense, as I remember. That could add up, though.
It can indeed! Right now, at $1k/bad act, he's got a fine of $25,000 headed his way.
Also, as Neal Katyal pointed out, he can sentence Trumpski to 30 days in Rikers, and suspend enforcement, and tell Trump that it is now on him to keep himself out of jail, since any further violations will result in the immediate enforcement of the suspended sentence during the term of the trial.
That will definely keepus in suspence!
Does swinging by before you are busy in the afternoon work for tomorrow? If you give me a time that works for you, I will leave plenty early, and knock loud!
I have to leave at noon tomorrow, so anytime after 9am-11:30 works.
Great. I'll shoot for 11:30.
Trump just might see 30 days in Rikers as yet another means of delaying the trial and making himself the consummate martyr. Clearly he needs the rest and the daily workouts.
The trial would not be delayed by Trump going to jail. It will be held in his absence; that's part of the punishment.
He will "become ill," real or feigned. It may be his next gambit as testimony goes forward. (Has anyone ever squirmed to death?)
Professor Vance's citation to the relevant NY states also laid the the terms of possible jail time. There're 10 Contempt Counts by my count on tomorrow's Docket. I am very interested in how Judge Merchan will handle count 4 as Trump and an accomplice changed the words of Fox innuendos to make them his own lies then on to counts 5 through 10. & the likelihood of additional violations of the Gag Order.
We will likely see another OSC, yes another contempt Count during Tuesday's hearing as Wreck attacked the entire seated Jury Panel as a Group.
Yup. I was not sure about the total. No notes to refere to. Have you stashed enough popcorn? This will be a long show.
Thanks, I read Joyce's article after I wrote that and it was too late to go back and correct it.
The public should have access to video. This is as much about our faith in the justice system as it is about him
I tend to defer to the people who are in charge. There must be a good reason the trial isn’t televised. I suspect it’s to keep the public’s voices calm so they can center on the evidence alone.
Human communication is a combination of verbal and non verbal cues. Reading transcripts provides neither. No voice inflection, no immediate facial reactions to testimony, no scowls or defensive crossed arms posturing
Its all important cues to reading the face and what is hiding behind it
Agreed, with some reservations given the quaddefendant's proclivity for grandstanding any time he's given a public forum. Judge Merchan has a major challenge keeping order and security in the courtroom already but, given that the press has a closed circuit feed in a separate room, there's no reason why the record shouldn't become public.
It is so wonderful to see him going down. That quote from Cohen, calling him Von ShitzinPants! He looks terrible in some of the photos from the courtroom. If he's not already--and he probably is--I think he's going to be totally ruined, a shell of his former self when this is over. If I were the GOP, I'd be searching hard for someone else to run, but it seems Von ShitzinPants has ruined the GOP.
It couldn't happen to a better party.
They will hang with the evil that they have wanted for decades
David, I guffawed aloud when I read Cohen’s sobriquet. The cat eyed me askance. 😉
They love shitty pants
Do you think the GOP could recover by denouncing Trump and every one of the extremists, J6ers, Q’s, Putin puppets, et al and bring in a new candidate?
They could, but they don’t want to. It would take a force of will that this iteration of Republicanism simply does not possess.
Exactly!
Nah
🤣
This trial may well break Trump emotionally - he, and the people who have protected him for over 50 years, have succeeded in keeping the long arm of John Law off Trump's back and allowed Trump to live out his fantasy life as the Perfect Hero figure he has to believe in. The lack of control he has in the trial process will expose the true Donald, and his id and psyche may not survive that experience..... I have seen many other cases where he obviously was extremely uncomfortable - note the many photos showing him with his arms tightly folded in front of him, pulling in his shoulders - a wall to protect him from the outside (even in the Oval Office, with the greatest power in the world). The Donald is a very sick man, and this trial will be his greatest test, one I do not expect him to pass.....
I agree with you. DT is a sick man and he worships other sick men who he perceives as strong, like Hitler and Co. Pathetic and dangerous seem like such incongruous pairings, but there it is.
Right, Susan, and sick men worship him. And sick women too, like Kari Lake and mtg and so many more.
But he is the Jesus come back, don’t dismiss the crazy
He's late for his crucifixion.....but it is coming.
Now that's a performance that I would so enjoy
I agree completely. As you say, just looking at the photos of him in the trial suggests as much.
You can only lie and cheat for
so long, before it all catches
up to you.
You can only weight the
scales of Justice in your
favor, with your fingers on
the scales, before Justice
rips off her blindfold and
exposes the real you and all
your duplicity.
You can only compare
yourself to Jesus Christ of
Nazareth once, before there's
a shift in the universe and
you're revealed to have a
charred and shriveled soul.
Thank you Tom, for That's Another Fine Mess. We will
make it through this together
here.
It only takes one to have a “doubt,” and that’s the one he is talking to. This was the lesson of W, the shrub.
Von Shitzin Pantz is the best one yet. Jeff Tiedich's are always good fora gut busting laugh, but Cohen is on his toes.
If only his followers could look at this trial and see a man "guilty of massive criminality" ...,,but they cannot. In their mind he is being persecuted not prosecuted. The more pitiful he becomes, the more his person is reviled, the more he becomes for them a "Jesus on the cross" or a martyr. Without a camera in the courtroom there is no unmediated "read" for folks on what is happening. His stand up press moments outside the courtroom are taking the place of campaign stops and probably, as we speak, being spun into campaign ads. This is Classic Trump-- diminishment gets turned on its head and becomes a campaign strength. Just my opinion and fear. I hope your read on it is what happens, TC!
Whatever happens, taking a close-up look at his face reveals a pathetic human being. Putin is as well. I think something must happen to wanna-be and already-am dictators that hurt them growing up or perhaps were already part of the DNA.
In all my research as an historian, and my personal experience in politics and Hollywood, I have never run across any "high achiever" (Trump and Putin are "high achievers of low results") who did not come from a fucked-up childhood. Putin was a "yard punk" in his youth - a Russian term for juvenile delinquent; most of his childhood friends ended up in prison. Trump was also a juvenile delinquent - he got sent to the NY Military Academy, aka "The NY Rich Juvenile Delinquent Factory" where he only became worse.
Such an “academy” is where they teach you to become worse. Saw it more than once.
Agree, Susan.
Always have thought that Trump's addiction to power, unquenchable need for attention and total inability to empathize with or serve others come from having an overpowering father and an "absent" mother. Mary Trump's first book, Too Much and Never Enough, reveals a lot about his family of origin. His wound carried into adulthood. Marrying that severe dysfunction with extraordinary power ( as in Presidency of a country) only ends in terrible, toxic tragedy--in this case not only for the pitiable anti- hero but also for all of us he has poisoned. It seems our final antidote is the law--wobbly in his case. So we may die of the poison.
Grim, I know.
I hope I am surprised by a different denouement!!!
Yes, the US will have to cope with the "long Trump" effects like "long Covid." Some will never fully recover.
This dude is going down and his poison with him.
Nah, you called it
Damaged and no cure. Goal is to do unto others what was likely done to them.
You know the script. Sad but true
I took a close-up look at the face of Donald Trump you posted and for once, I almost felt pity at what a pathetic, delusional piece of work he is. This excuses nothing. It explains nothing. But it did remind me of a story I used to read to my kids about a woman who was able, through her wits, to shrink the Gennie she had released into the world back into the size that fit back into the bottle. Let's do this.
His lawyer in the same picture looks totally dumbfounded and lost too. What a job he has taken on! He looks like he would rather be anywhere else but there.
Then why isn’t he. I could never, in a million years, blather such nonsense, knowing full well, that it’s an effort to give credence to vicious bull Schitt.
I can’t even begin to imagine his motivation. My best guess would be publicity. But who would want exposure of any sort to tfg? Maybe he has been paid in advance and can’t get out of his role.
Egos cause people to do things their conscience would not. If they have a conscience.
“If” is right!
Tom, you garner my wry smiles from six and a half thousand miles.
This performance is rated unbelievable fiction. May he be the leading character in the tragedy of the 21st century. He is ugly, boring, and not at all interesting. The only interest I have is seeing the balloon burst or a slow leak that represents a “tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.”
Nice nod to the Bard's birthday on 4/23 (estimated, based on his baptismal record). Love it.
Didn't know it was his BD, but he surely knew the clones of our critters back then.
Thank you TC for this update. I expect he will lose at the ballot box this November. By a greater margin than the 7 to 8 million he lost on the popular vote in 2020 and sufficient to win the electoral college - undemocratic as it is. My concern is: Then what? A repeat of the 2020 loss? Another January 6 attack on the Congress? Knowing Trump we'd better be prepared, every National Guard Unit in the country on alert. Ok, there are a few hundred of his unrepentant maggots in jail, but there are still thousands just itching to load up and head for DC. We've had three years to prepare, yeah there are4 some differences; Biden will be in the White House, Mar a lago, or prison. It makes no difference, the trumpster still controls his maggots. If he has access to a phone he will order them to attack Congress and they will obey.
There are so many what-ifs at present. What if we rally enough support to turn our collective backs on this farce? What if we stop being scared of scary people? What if we vote the pants off these monsters, but be prepared for a violent counterattack? Sometimes I wish people weren't so down on Pollyanna. Maybe everyone should be given a copy of the book and a dip in the warm waters of Hawaii as well.
Just make the world go away? If only!
I think that’s helpful once in awhile. This has been a long, sad slog and there’s lots more to come. We’re going to need to build up our mental and psychological reserves to get through this one.
Don’t assume anything. He still rules the fools
He may rule them but most have always known his so-called truth are pure lies. I don’t think they will rush to violence on his behalf for that reason alone. But, watch out for the “Christians “. They want power to rule over the rest of us and I think Mike Johnson is their guy right now.
You are so right. But the repubs have lost any souls they had. I’ll watch both. Sadly, I know them…
It’s an advantage to know them. I only know one. A militant Christian with a mind that guards against any information she is afraid to know.
information she is afraid to know. Yep, that's a big part of it. But maybe it was Twain who said that it's a lot easier to fool people than to convince them that they have been fooled.
I’ll say!
Looking at photos of DT in the courtroom, and reading about it, I'm inclined to think he's going to do a lot worse than any of us were thinking even a couple of weeks ago. I think he's going to emerge from the trial a shell of his former self. He just looks terrible.
But I'd like to hear wht others hve to say about it--whether I'm off my rocker, or on point.
'
Everyone's noticing how diminished he is.
👍👍
‘Hatealongs’ must make into the dictionary this year!
Fine summary!
I’d like to be privy to 2 things. What is it his lawyer has been promised and/or paid to actually stand next to his client outside the courtroom and DO NOTHING as the former president violates the gag order time and time again…most notably yesterday. This pattern of behavior in Trump’s lackeys who held rather notable and key positions in the WhiteHouse continues to astound me. I used to say to repeat offenders, Littles in my schools where I held positions designed to keep order and decorum….”Enough is enough.” First offense is possibly a mistake, 2nd time is let’s go over that correction to your behavior again, 3rd time and after is let’s set this straight, Little, you do not run this show and be glad that I am. Now tell me what happened and start your sentence with “I”.
Trump’s lawyers and chiefs of staff etc designated to keep order and decorum have been such stupid failures. And as I always remind…stupid is a choice.
My 2nd “wish to be privy to” is who is on top of the communications and orders from Putin’s Russia to the whole lot of foolish legislators and traitorous corporate and judicial leaders? Or is it that people just do not understand the implication or fact of being controlled by a vicious foreign government? I mean we know it, why does it continue right under our noses? It is this series of continuous acts of treason that muss my hair more than anything. Who in the Uncle Sam heck has the keys to the woodshed because whuppin’s are due.
Thank you TC.
Salud, friends.
🗽
On the upside, the Central Park Five must be high-fiving blisters onto their hands as they see all of this unfold.
slight correction....TFF attended Kew Forest (the same shit private school my idiot nephew attended and the one in which James Grey's terrific "Armageddon Time" takes place...it's the T***p "school of choice") until early in Senior High he hit a teacher and the Military Academy was the only option left.