Recently, I’ve been posting several articles I’ve read by Thom Hartman who, along with Robert Reich, is one of my “heroes” as I attempt to participate in the IMPORTANT process of STOPPING Trump from “getting anywhere near the Oval Office ever again,” in the words of Liz Cheney. I’m really tired of writing about Trump and today, while he was breaking the rules in the defamation trial he’s LOSING (again!), the judge actually said something like “I hope I don’t have to have you removed from the court because that is exactly what you want.” Of course, just as a sixth grade brat/bully would respond, Trump said something like “go ahead” as he waved his arms in the air.
I couldn’t help but be reminded of what caught my attention regarding the words of Ms. Carroll’s lawyers in their opening statement, “How much will it take to get Trump to stop” defaming Ms. Carroll. While Trump was sitting in the courtroom on the first day, apparently thinking he could affect the jury to consider him the “victim,” he posted a reported 22 messages on his “(un)Truth Social further DEFAMING Ms. Carroll. I did some research as to what the jury might award Ms. Carroll in an attempt to SHUT him up. It could easily be in excess of $100 MILLION – maybe even “north” of the judgement against Rudy Giuliani of $148 MILLION. In order to appeal the verdict of the jury I believe Trump must put up the money (an appellate bond which includes interest and is secured, in this case, by Trump real estate) in escrow before he can do so.
If you’re a republican, are you tired of all the LOSING? I still remember Trump saying “you’ll get tired of all the winning.” As Rick Wilson so aptly stated back during Trump’s reign in the “White House” – “Everything Trump touches dies.” Of course, he was speaking metaphorically – those who joined Trump’s administration saw their careers damaged and their lawyer bills grow astronomically. Sadly, many of Trump’s “collateral damage” – like Rex Tillerson, Mark Meadows, Jim Mattis, John Kelly, etc. etc. could be more VOCALLY active in warning “we the people” about Trump’s 2024 danger to our republic, but, don’t hold your breath. (Of course, Mr. Meadows is legally vulnerable due to his going along with the attempted coup d’etat – it’s understandable why he’s reluctant to “tell the truth.” – Cassidy Hutchison did it for him!)
Well, in the next two weeks Mr. Trump is likely to take LOSING to almost unimaginable heights. Trump COULD be facing judgements, in total, exceeding $500 MILLION. Of course Trump will appeal, but, as I said above, he’s going to have to put up collateral for the full amount of the judgements PLUS anticipated interest in order to make the appeals everyone is expecting him to pursue. From my standpoint, I can’t even imagine the interest which will be accruing while he attempts to drag things out. New York, in 2022 reduced the rate of interest on an unpaid judgement from 9% to 2% – which could still exceed one MILLION dollars added to the bill each year any appeal continues.
Trump’s supporters apparently don’t even know he’s been found guilty of sexual assault by a “jury of his peers” and his company has been accused of being GUILTY of fraud – to the amount of something like $2 BILLION each year. As I followed the so-called New York Civil Fraud Trial I can’t remember any discussion of Trump allegedly reducing valuations when it came time to pay taxes but INFLATING them when it was time to get financing or insurance coverage. Both instances, it seems to me, would be fraudulent. The judge in Trump’s fraud case made a “summary judgement” saying he was obviously guilty of FRAUD. Trump’s own lawyers agreed to a “non-jury” trial putting the decision in the “hands” of the judge – who, naturally, Trump has attacked viciously during the trial.
The absurdity that Trump is the likely republican nominee for president in 2024 tells you all you need to know about Americans. There have been numerous polls lately questioning the intellectual competence of “we the people.” One poll found that “15% of Americans believe that “the government, media, and financial worlds in the U.S. are controlled by a group of Satan-worshipping pedophiles who run a global child sex trafficking operation” – QAnon nonsense at the heart of Marjorie Taylor Greene’s belief system. But, as usual, there’s more: “Almost 30% of Americans, for example, didn’t know that the Earth takes 365 days to orbit the sun” according to a 2021 query by the Cleveland Museum of Natural History.
Brace yourself: “A 2018 survey by the National Science Foundation found that 28% of Americans actually believe the sun orbits the Earth” (a theory debunked by Italian astronomer Galileo Galilei back in the 17th century). “The Annenberg Public Policy Center found in 2022 that approximately one in four Americans could not name a single right guaranteed by the First Amendment. 25% of Americans were also unable to name any of the three branches of government, according to Annenberg. And in 2018, the Institute for Citizens & Scholars found that a full two-thirds of Americans would fail the US citizenship test, which asks basic questions about US history and the nature of the US government.” I pasted this above info from an interview in “Alter Net” with Chuck Rosenberg. Is it any wonder close to a third of our population actually believes Trump tells them the truth.
I’ve pointed out here numerous times about Trump’s proclivity to use the tactics of Hitler and the Third Reich – focusing mainly on “The Big Lie Theory” and “Projection.” Today my focus is on projection. I was watching TV today and a clip of Trump being interviewed on Fox “news” as he defended his (absurd) claim Presidents must have “total immunity.” He, of course, pivoted to Joe Biden and used the pull out from Afghanistan as an example Biden could be legally exposed for the chaos which occurred during the process. (Trump obviously forgot two things – first, he’s the one who made the deal with the Taliban setting up the withdrawal and secondly, he clearly forgets the withdrawl from Viet Nam which was even more chaotic. It’s a b@#t to remove yourself from a “war” which should never have happened)
Just as his claim of “total immunity” is something concocted by a DESPERATE defendant and is ridiculous on its face, so is his memory lapse regarding the pull out from Afghanistan. And, unfortunately, the “experts” who were on MSNBC (where I saw the clip) also either weren’t aware it was Trump who negotiated the deal with the Taliban or chose not to point out the clear hypocrisy of his comments. “Person, woman, man, camera, TV” – OMG, I forgot Trump is a “very stable genius” – you would have to be a “genius” to claim in a stump speech, “They’re (no idea who he was talking about) going to ‘debank’ you from…???? (your political beliefs?) He didn’t finish the sentence switching to “liquid gold” and then switching to “non liquid gold” – corn. Acting as if that was a brilliant observation. Yikes!!!
This is a man who mistakenly said he was running against Barack Obama, said he would keep us from WW II and that he could solve the Ukraine war in “one day.” Of course, that last one might actually be true because he’s an official “lap dog” of Vladimir Putin. Trump makes absurd claims, slurs his words, often can’t pronounce words any ordinary adult would have no issue with, constantly is showing his ignorance regarding “current events,” and does one thing only – well. He can make absurd ATTACKING comments about those who challenge him with aplomb. This is why the republican party’s members of Congress have chosen COWARDICE to truth. They fear the personal attacks they would face with a negative comment about Trump.
The question I keep asking myself is will democrats, independents, and disaffected republicans join forces in the challenge of making sure Trump never gets near the Oval Office ever again. Not only is Trump a “clear and present” danger to the functioning of a democratic republic with “checks and balances” which “we the people” support just as Americans have for nearly 250 years. Trump, in my view, is simply a product of our corporate interests who could care less about anything beside their bottom lines. It is up to us, (yes, Mr. Trump those are the same letters as in “U.S.”) the VOTERS to decide where “we the people” go in the future. Are we OK with a renegade, corrupt Supreme Court – and, believe me, the rogue decisions of this court will continue until such time as at least two of the “conservative” justices are replaced which makes EVERY election going forward “the most important” of our lives. It will take several elections to extinguish “MAGA.”
For the indefinite future, EVERY time “we the people” go to the polls the results will be more critical to the future of this nation (and the world) since the day Trump used Russian, Saudi, UAE, and Israeli intelligence help him “win” in 2016. From the eyes of the younger VOTERS in this country issues like Climate Change, Civil Rights, Individual rights – including the right of women to control their own bodies, Education, Voting Rights, etc. etc. will be on the ballot – notwithstanding who the candidates are. There is as distinct a difference between republicans and democrats in my lifetime. (Unfortunately, I’ve read younger Americans are abandoning Biden because they believe he should be able to control Netanyahu)
I have always been an “independent voter” but, since the day the Supreme Court crowned GW Bush/Dick Cheney as our president and vice president I’ve been voting AGAINST republicans. Bush/Cheney LIED “we the people” into the worst disaster, maybe, in American History (worst than Viet Nam???) by invading Iraq and they left President Obama an unimaginable mess with the financial Crisis of 2007/2008 for Obama to solve – with, of course, NO help from republicans. That mess paled in comparison to the MESS Trump left for Biden – I mean 4000 Americans were DYING each day from COVID and Trump seemed to be oblivious to the FACT he was responsible for the circumstances President Biden inherited.
The (possibly) one great accomplishment during Trump’s reign was the development of the mRNA vaccines which led the “fight” against COVID. It took a massive (and incredibly impressive) movement originating from Biden’s “White House” to get these vaccines distributed to clinics all across America. I, personally, get my Pfizer vaccine at a community medical clinic close to my semi-rural home. That vaccine required special equipment to keep it refrigerated and, somehow, this (little) clinic has been able to provide the “shot” to me each time it was appropriate. (I’ve had several “boosters” since the first shot) I’m 76 and been able to make it this far (3 years) without contracting the virus. Trump actually backed off recommending the “shot” after getting booed by a group of republican sycophants who were pushing the “anti-vaxx” campaign.
Regarding the “virus” we get a great example of Trump’s propensity for LYING. I’ve listened to him lately suggesting he protected us “all” from a nuclear holocaust – “saving millions of lives.” Apparently that LIE is in response to reports coming out once again that he was responsible for maybe 500,000 lost lives during the height of the COVID crisis – due to his lackadaisical response to the outbreak of the pandemic. I remember watching reports from Worldometer almost daily keeping track of the abysmal record of Trump as he seemed to take offense to the reality of bodies dying at a rate where they were being stored in refrigerated trucks because the morgues were full.
Final Thought: I’ve let this post sit for a couple weeks and, in that time, the Appeals Court in Washington DC made their ruling today – no surprise, Trump can NOT shoot someone on 5th avenue and avoid criminal prosecution. Not only that, he can’t participate in a coup d’etat (ie January 6th, 2021), he can’t STEAL classified documents, he can’t pay off a porn star to block negative info from an election and he can’t hide the payments as a business expense, and he can’t ask a state’s election officials to “find the ballots to give him a victory where it was proved he lost) – NONE of that is OK if a jury of his peers vote to convict him of the charges. He’s facing 4 indictments which include 91 alleged FELONIES. Will this ever cause his cult to begin to break? Well, not likely. Just this morning I brought up with the young lady who cleans our house each week (and is a die hard republican) Trump’s sexual assault (rape?)/defamation issue and $83 MILLION judgement and she immediately brought up Clinton and Monica Lewinsky. Neither are the 91 FELONIES an issue for her. Yikes!
As I’ve predicted over the previous three years republicans will be fronting third party candidates in an attempt to peel off democratic leaning voters who, for various reasons don’t see President Biden in the same light I do. This country will be in dire straights if the American people fail to keep this mob boss out of the “White House.” Republicans cower in fear of his social media posts and have totally abandoned their obligation to “we the people” out of fear of this DEPLORABLE person. Sadly there are MILLIONS of Americans who are willfully IGNORANT (I didn’t say stupid – but thought about it) and even go so far as to fund Trump’s legal bills. If you remember when Trump first was running for the presidency he said he wasn’t going to fund raise because he didn’t need to – he said, “I’m really rich.” Just as Mexico was NEVER going to pay for a wall! Stay tuned…..
After Judge Engoran makes his final decision in the New York Civil Fraud Trial Trump is likely to be a LOT less “rich.” I’m speculating that between the E. Jean Carroll judgement and the Fraud trial judgement Trump could easily be out between $400 and $500 MILLION. (It could be even more because it appears Trump’s CFO has pled guilty to perjury in the trial and it doesn’t seem to be sitting well with the judge.) New York’s Attorney General is seeking Compensatory damages of $370 MILLION – I have no idea if there could be “punitive damages.” I’ve heard some estimates the final amount could be approaching $600 MILLION. Trump was operating what appears to be a wannabe organized crime “family” business.