Crime

Donny’s Defense…

by MyBaconPress

Unlike Donny’s other lawyers, his defense team from the firm of Roberts, Alito, Thomas, Kavanaugh, Gorsuch, and Barrett is having some real success. I suppose it’s MUCH easier when you are literally both the team for the defense AND the judges in the case, like this group.

They’ve appealed to themselves to determine whether some of the pesky laws used to convict some of the J6 rioters – and to indict their precious defendant, Donny – might be made to, you know, just…go away. Specifically, they don’t like the charge of ‘Obstruction of an Official Proceeding.’ “Using ‘laws’ to try to determine whether or not someone is a ‘criminal’ makes it very difficult to defend criminals,” Chief Defense representative, John Roberts, didn’t say. “We would prefer to have fewer laws so our job is simpler.”

Fortunately, they’re not only the defense team. They’re the judges, too, so odds are good they’re going to honor their request. “This is why we get so much money,” Clarence Thomas didn’t confess, “we have more pull than most defense teams and our clients often prevail in the highest court. Spare a dollar?”

There is no word on how quickly the court will rule, but based on past issues they’ve taken up, if it helps their client to rule quickly, they’ll rule quickly. On the other hand, if it helps their client to wait, they’ll wait. “It is incumbent upon the court to provide the appearance of deliberation and deep thought on these very not-so-complex issues,” Samuel Alito didn’t add.

“Glorious President-for-Life Trump is finally paying the right legal team,” Gorsuch didn’t say, “and we’re going to give him his money’s worth. It’s our most precious legal standard, here at RATKG&B: come through for the highest bidder.”

“I can belch my name!” Kavanaugh has definitely said.
“Yes, Brett, we know…” answered Amy Barrett, who should be home – barefoot and pregnant – and so isn’t a “true” woman…

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Donny’s going to be relying on that legal team – RATKG&B – more and more in the coming months because he certainly can NOT rely on keeping his own big mouth shut. He’s GOING to spill the beans in each of his cases, one by one. It’s practically guaranteed. He has already done it in his “hush money” trial. It’s really a “cooking the books” trial but the hush-money-to-the-porn-star angle is more fun for the left.

Whenever he sees a camera these days, he likes to walk up and repeat his litany of lies – all in one sentence if he can. It has become quite tedious, listening to him. It’s always the same, boring collection of words that all boil down to, “Waah, poor me! I feel SO sorry for myself! These guys are such meanie-pants! Don’t they know I’m a big-boy tough guy? Why are they pushing me around so much?” Then as his mind melts, “Oh, what a world, what a world! Who would have thought a few little laws like these could destroy my beautiful wickedness?”

But then, AFTER the “poor me-gasm,” he gets into the specifics of his crimes and just – confesses. He did it again Tuesday morning when he told reporters that all he did was give money to his attorney and write it down as legal expenses. Yes, that IS what he did. That’s exactly what he did. The thing is, they weren’t legal expenses. They were, by legal definition, campaign expenses. He was paying women he had cheated on his wife with to keep their mouths shut in order to protect his campaign.

For clarity, in case you’re confused, he slept with Playboy model Karen McDougal ($150,000) while Melania was carrying Barron. Then, four months after Barron was born, Donny slept with porn star Stormy Daniels ($130,000). It’s pretty clear there were no “legal services” connected with any of that and they don’t suddenly become legal services just because you funneled your illegal payments through your shyster attorney.

Somebody should explain it to him. Donny, you’re accused of giving money to your lawyer to pass along to your paramours and then recording the cost as a “legal expense.” DON’T go out in front of the cameras you love so much and TELL them that “all you did” was give money to your lawyers and write it down as a legal expense. How the hell are we supposed to show you’re NOT guilty when you go running around proclaiming your own guilt?

I’ll tell you this: I’d bet that someone – many someone’s in fact – have tried to explain it to him. Over and over and over again. He’s just not capable of keeping his mouth shut when he needs to.

All Rise…

by MyBaconPress

I’ll tell you this right up front: I don’t like Donny. You may have noticed. I don’t make much (okay, any) effort to hide it. I’m not going to sugar coat it. I don’t like the guy. He strikes me as a terrible human being. I think he’s guilty based on all I’ve seen in the media. BUT… I honestly believe if I had been called to jury duty for his case, I could set aside my personal feelings for the guy and make a judgment based on the evidence. I really do.

For one thing, I think justice is more important that my feelings about the defendant and I would NOT want to participate in punishing an innocent person – even a person I don’t like. The other thing? News outlets get things wrong sometimes. I understand, clearly, that what I hear in the media and what comes out of a courtroom might be different things and I believe the courtroom has the higher standard.

I should acknowledge that maybe I’m just kidding myself, safe in the knowledge that I’m not going to be called for his trial but I don’t think so. Justice is important to me. As an example, like many people, I strongly suspect OJ killed his ex-wife and Ron Goldman, even though he was acquitted. But had I sat on his jury? I would have voted for acquittal, myself, because of the cop caught carrying around a vial of blood in his pocket for hours at OJ’s house, coupled with testimony that blood spots had not been noted, for example in the entryway, and then were suddenly, clearly present.

I never thought the cops were trying to frame an innocent man, there. I thought they were trying to secure the conviction of a well-connected rich man they had had more than enough trouble with through the years, only to watch him avoid legal consequences over and over. But mishandling evidence could mean anything from simple and honest oversight to outright framing the wrong guy. It would have kept me from voting to convict. I could do it with Donny, too, and if I could do it, others can do it…

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This is a day I didn’t think was going to happen. No, I know Mondays happen. I’m talking about Donny’s trial. The ‘cooking-the-books-to-pay-off-the-porn-star’ trial. It’s starting. Back in March, I wrote “At this point, I’ll believe Donny faces justice when he actually meets justice – and not one second sooner.” Yeah, I was having a rough day but I stand by the statement. A trial and a conviction are two different things and an upheld conviction is something else again. There’s STILL a long way to go, folks.

But the fact that he’s even in a courtroom represents some of that justice I was on about earlier and I’m pleased it’s finally happening. According to the media, Trump didn’t just pay off Stormy Daniels, the porn star. He ALSO paid off a woman named Karen McDougal, a Playboy model he also slept with and paid hush money to. He paid Daniels $130,000 through Michael Cohen. He paid McDougal $150,000 through the ‘National Enquirer.’

They “bought” the story as an exclusive with the intent of never publishing it. It’s a trick called ‘Catch and Kill.’ As an “exclusive,” she couldn’t talk about it. Then, they locked the story away and that was that. Donny allegedly reimbursed his friend David Pecker, the owner of the Enquirer, using the same bookkeeping manipulation he used to pay back Cohen.

When Bill Clinton got caught having an affair, there was a howling chorus of people out there crying, “Why doesn’t Hillary leave Bill?” I haven’t heard the same about Melania. But from what I can tell, hers has become a marriage in name only, assuming it was ever anything else.

Melania appears to be contractually obligated to make a few campaign appearances with Donny. Very few. HE tries to present a picture of a happy marriage. HER presentation is more, “I hate this guy and I’m about to puke.” I guess they can make her show up but they can’t make her smile. Now she gets to be treated to the details of the affairs, laid out point by point as they move through the trial. Make that, “I hate this guy and I’m about to puke – but the money’s good.”

I imagine Melania will be free to divorce Donny AFTER the election. After the election, the divorce won’t matter. He’ll be in, and since he appears determined to never leave, why the hell would he keep a woman around who despises him all day, every day? But his sham marriage deceives the rubes and THAT’S what he needs.

I’ve heard polls show that a conviction in this trial could hurt Donny among his base. I’m not sure I believe that, either. MAGA has a seemingly endless capacity to convince themselves of the most ridiculous things and even if he’s convicted by a jury of his peers, how hard will it be for the deceived to decide he’s been framed? Donny’s already calling it the ‘Biden Trials,’ as if Joe had anything to do with them, whatsoever.

Still, the possibility that he might actually face some kind of justice is stronger today than ever. Yes, he’s been given every break. The deference from the system has been frustrating, angering, even. But, on balance, the system seems to be working, albeit glacially slowly. Maybe, just maybe, there’s hope, after all…

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Okay, speaking of glacially slow, I wish people would STOP ripping on Aileen “loose” Cannon and Alina Habba as “stupid” just because they do so many stupid-seeming things that delay the trials. Whether or not those things are stupid depends entirely on ones goals, doesn’t it? Sure, if the goal is a proper trial using proper procedure, Cannon is an idiot. But that’s not HER goal. HER goal is to disrupt and, hopefully, derail the trial. EVERY so-called “stupid” move she makes, facilitates that goal. If it advances her game, exactly the way it’s supposed to advance her game, how “stupid” could it be?

It’s the same with Habba. People keep sneering at her because she files motions that should be embarrassing to a lawyer. “WHY,” people ask, “would she do THAT?” I presume she KNOWS her motions are ridiculous. The point is not the validity of the motions. The point is the delay. Every one of those motions must be ruled on, dumb or not. That takes time. I have the exact same question about Habba I have about Cannon. If it advances her game, exactly the way it’s supposed to advance her game, how “stupid” could it be?

I suspect I could easily endure the entire world calling me a dummy if it resulted in millions of dollars in my pocket and these two women clearly feel the same way. The only true measure of how stupid they might be is this: did they got the money up front?

Desperately Poor “Billionaire…”

by MyBaconPress

Russia, Russia, Russia! It became something of a battle cry for MAGA since 2016, when the Trump campaign was found to be communicating with Russians. Donny used his political power and a few obsequious toadies to cover that one up and he got away with it. Then he started ridiculing those who had considered he had an improper association with the Russians. But you know who keeps turning up in Donny’s life, saving his ass (or trying to), over and over again? Russians, Russians, Russians!

They were there for him in 2016. We know they were trying to smear Joe Biden with misinformation about bribes, which the GOP glomed onto and ran with – until their “informant” was arrested for lying to the FBI. They were STILL there for him in 2022, when his media company was just about to tank. Donny tried to merge his company with another in 2021 but regulators opened a securities investigation into the company and while they were working that out, Trump media took emergency loans to keep afloat, including from an entity called ES Family Trust. ES Family Trust opened an account with Paxum Bank, a small bank registered in Dominica, in the Caribbean. Mostly, Paxum Bank’s claim to fame is that they provide financial services to the porn industry.

So, what is ES Family Trust? It’s a trust operated like a shell company by a guy named Anton Postolnikov. You’ll never guess his national identity. Okay, trick question. He’s a hybrid, Russian-American. His trust is set up in St. Petersburg, Russia although it lists it’s address as a residential home in Hollywood, Florida – a home which was sold in December, 2023. He’s a co-owner of Paxum Bank and he’s currently the subject of a criminal investigation by the FBI and Department of Homeland Security into the Trump Media merger. Oh, and did I mention he has close ties to Vladimir Putin? C’mon, at least pretend to be shocked. Yeah, me neither…

So, if Postolnikov owns a bank, why set up a shell company to finance Donny? Because Paxum Bank isn’t licensed to make loans in the US and Donny needed the money fast. $8 million dollars worth, according to the Guardian. The loans were provided in the form of convertible promissory notes, meaning repayment would come in the form of Trump Media stock. The estimate is that ES Family Trust’s stake is somewhere between $20 million and $40 million dollars, which makes perfect sense in a company with no value, no income, and no assets.

From there? It gets murky. Downright shady, some might say. Classic Donny, I’d say. Murky deals with hard to follow financial flows, unclear ownership, and ties to people subject to various misdeeds and criminal investigations? Yep, that sounds like Donny all over…

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Speaking of Donny’s failing media company, people are talking about him taking the cash from his overvalued stock before it crashes entirely. He’s not supposed to be able to take any for six months but that’s an impediment that the board can remove – and Eric and Don, Jr are on the board. But here’s the thing; who’s going to buy it?

Consider; this stock is worthless. I mean, it has value right now because MAGA (and possibly foreign actors) pumped the value up early on. They started buying shares at a furious rate, turning the stock into what’s called a ‘meme stock.’ Think Gamestop. It became a trendy thing to buy, even though the company behind it had horrible financials. It’s one thing for people to claim faith in their dear leader when nothing is on the line. It’s another thing entirely when there’s actual money people are actually losing.

And if you got in late, oh, boy are you losing money. It got up to nearly $70 dollars a share. Then the frenzy cooled and people started looking at what they were buying – and they didn’t like what they saw. What’s to like? A company that lost $56 million dollars in a year on revenues of $4 million? So, today, as of this writing, the stock is down to $37.20/share, just over half of that amount. It won’t be too much longer until it reaches it’s proper value. Then it will likely be de-listed. So if you got in at $35/share because you love Donny, and you hold, no matter what, because you love Donny? You’re going to lose your money.

If I told you I had a company with extremely low revenues, deep debt, an unpopular, failing product, few advertisers, and steadily dropping usage, how much are you going to in invest? Right. And that’s exactly how much people should be investing in Trump Media. So who does Donny sell to in order to realize that cash windfall? MAGA can’t buy that much stock. Nobody who knows what their doing will buy any of that stock. That leaves people who don’t give a rat’s tail about the stock – they intend to buy the GOP presidential candidate for their own purposes.

When I was in the Air Force, it was illegal for people to be gay. Now, I’m not gay so it didn’t affect me. But I always thought the position was stupid for one, glaring reason: the only reason being gay was illegal was because it might set someone up for blackmail, creating a security risk. But the only reason anybody could blackmail a gay person in the military is because the military made it illegal to be gay. That’s called circular reasoning.

But I’ll tell you this: Donny being financially beholden to international criminals and strongmen and other unsavory characters really WILL set him up to be blackmailed and controlled. That’s NOT circular reasoning. Donny’s financial desperation (unexpected from a self-described “genius businessman billionaire”) has put him in a vulnerable position where he can be exploited by any number of bad actors. Is MAGA really going to try and put THAT into the White House? Sadly, yes. Hey, America, how about we don’t let them?

I Thought Of A Buyer…

by MyBaconPress

Now that we know we have an ex-president for sale (damaged, as is) I have a tremendous concern over exactly who might end up buying him. I doubt it well be Putin. Clearly, Putin already has complete control over Donny so there’s no incentive. But it most likely won’t be anybody we would want controlling an active President, should the very worst occur. So that’s been on my mind. Then? Well, I figured out the best person to buy Donny: Chuck Schumer!

Okay, maybe $175 million is too big of a bite for a Senator. (Then again?) So how about the DNC? They could count it an investment. They end up controlling Biden as a Democrat AND Donny as a debtor. Their control over 45 only lasts until the case is over and the money surrendered (or returned, the less likely scenario). But Donny dances as he’s told to when he has no choice. We’ve SEEN it with Putin. Could you imagine him running a campaign and NOT being allowed to hurl mean, nasty, paranoid, terrified, little slurs and insults at anybody – because the DNC ordered him not to?

Do you think Donny would reject the lifeline because it came from Democrats? Don’t be ridiculous. That would require an ethical position and Donny’s lack of ethics is one of MAGA’S favorite features of the guy. C’mon, Dems. Buy Donny. You know you want to. Just do it. And then? FORCE him to behave like a human being…

Yeah, I know. But it would be fun…

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Coupla new frauds. Of course. They just never end with this guy. It seems Mr. Hankey, who tried to post Donny’s $175 million dollar bond, ALSO offered to post Donny’s original $464 million dollar bond. The thing is, if one has secured the money one needs to pay a bond, and then walks into court and says they don’t have the money? Why, that’s fraud on the court. It’s an ethics violation that could get his lawyers in trouble. This one won’t matter much. It’s too hard to prove exactly when the lawyers discovered that Hankey had offered to post Donny’s bond. Besides, it’s looking like Hankey can’t even cover the $175 million dollar bond, let alone $464 million. I’m just struck by the idea that even as he loses in court over fraud, he STILL engages in fraud. It’s easier to train a puppy! (Hey, has anyone tried a rolled up newspaper?)

Hankey’s company, Knight Specialty Insurance Company, has a net worth of $138 million dollars. If I remember my basic math, $138 million is LESS than the $175 million they’ve just promised to cover. If they haven’t fully collateralized the loan, that would wipe them out. Because Knight isn’t registered in New York, they have to prove they can cover the bond amount – and how they’ll cover it. They filed some of the paper needed but not all, so the bond was rejected. They quickly filed an amendment but it, too, falls short. They have 10 days from that day (April 4) to get this right or the bond will be “without effect.” The thing that gets me? Knight would STILL have to put the money up until Donny finds another bond. Knight could STILL lose the money – and it wouldn’t even help Donny.

Also, he’s trying to pump up his social media site. He claims it’s awesome, growing, and very popular. By any real measure, it’s none of the above. He’s hemorrhaging money. It already has comparatively low membership and many of those people are leaving the site. Those who stay are choir members, preaching to each other. (BOR-ing!) He’s hemorrhaging money. He’s locked up in legal battles with his co-founders. He’s hemorrhaging money. People who know stocks are betting against Donny’s company by short-selling the stock. They expect further losses. Oh, did I mention, he’s hemorrhaging money?

As much as MAGA might ask you to believe his company is great because it’s associated with Donny, it turns out, the only thing that matters to smart investors is the possibility of profit. Smart investors don’t see that at TMTG. They see leadership in-fighting and huge financial losses, with nothing suggesting a turn-around. In short, an unstable, non-viable organization destined for bankruptcy. You know, a Trump Company. You know who else thinks Trump is lying about ‘Truth Social’ in an effort to bump up the stock? The SEC. That’s the Securities and Exchange Commission.

It turns out, when one goes public, there are rules one must follow. The SEC has a rule barring “manipulative and deceptive devices” to pump up stocks. Lying about the success of the site is definitely ‘manipulative and deceptive.’ The SEC will be looking into this. It could cost the company even more money – the very last thing TMTG needs. MAGA is already out there, working three jobs to try to maintain the lifestyle Donny prefers. Maybe it’s time to mortgage the house, too. It’s looking like Donny is going to need more of their money soon. They should just cut to the chase, send him every last dime and move into the streets. He’s not going to be happy with anything less…

For Sale: Former President, as is…

by MyBaconPress

So now Netanyahu has attacked a non-profit charity trying to supply humanitarian aid to Gaza, killing seven of it’s members. I’ve heard Israel knew the timing of the delivery of the humanitarian aid. They knew the route the group was taking to and from the drop-off location. So how do they “accidentally” blow the thing up in an “unfortunate incident?”

Actions speak louder than words. I believe now more than ever before, Netanyahu has a goal: elimination of ALL Palestinians in Gaza – and he has provided NO path for escape, so “elimination” MUST mean something else, yes?

I’ll tell you this: I know Biden may not be able to stop Netanyahu. That guy has a single-minded, dedicated goal. But Biden can sure as hell stop providing the weapons Netanyahu is using to do his dirty work. I believe Netanyahu is DEEP into the world of war crimes, now, and because the US is providing many of his weapons, we’re complicit. I don’t WANT to be complicit in war crimes…

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Nor would I want to be complicit in any of Donny’s crimes, either. People around him go to jail. He keeps slithering away. But did you hear that the $175 million “discount” bond he posted got rejected? The judge said the filing lacked important details – including a current financial statement. That dude seems unable to tell the truth, even when it’s in his own interest. The bond was “returned for correction,” and that’s all it should be. It SHOULD be nothing, a “clerical error” kind of thing. But this is Donny the Trumpery, here.

He got his bond from a subprime lender in the first place, meaning he paid extra high fees (if he paid any at all to his sycophantic “lender”), and now they “fail” to supply the required financial information along with the filing? Okay, it should be made clear, it’s the bonding company that needs to include it’s financial statements, not Donny. It’s not enough to claim they have the $175 million. They have to show it.

Letitia James still has to cool her heels, though. She can’t start the collection proceedings right away. Donny gets a chance to re-file and, if he can, he will.

But, hey, now’s your chance! If YOU would like to own and operate Donald J. Trump, give him the $175 million dollars he needs now. Think of how cool it would be to order Trump to do something, and watch him hop to it, like Reek in Game of Thrones. He’d still spit his hateful rhetoric at the world, except you. He’d have to be nice to you, no matter what.

You could get your hands on strategic goals of the United States. You could order him to give you military secrets. You could get the nuclear codes. (You could probably get his nude photos of Ivanka, too, ’cause when you own him, he’ll let you do it. What choice does he have?) Oh, hey, wait a minute. Doesn’t that mean that some foreign person or power could get the SAME control the same way? Hey, is THAT why Donny never – EVER – has a negative word to say about Putin?

You know what? I think it might be a bad idea to put a person bound and beholding to others into the most powerful office on Earth. Especially if the “others” are from adversarial nations. I, for one, don’t WANT a President who answers, first and foremost, to Vladimir Putin…

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I saw this headline from Fox Not News: “Former teacher opens up after OnlyFans gig led to her resignation…'” It seems, to me, that girl “opened up” before her resignation. “Here, let me open up my top for you.” That’s what led to her resignation! She was put on administrative leave for “conduct unbecoming of a professional educator.” What?!? Professional educators don’t have sex? My FATHER was a professional educator! How did I get here? (Stow it. I look too much like him…)

To me, it says a LOT about teacher pay in Ohio, where this happened. She tried other side gigs first but they took too much time with not enough return. I know that teachers take a lot of guff about “not working” because of the summers thing. But during the school year? A decent teacher works their ass off. Between class time, homework corrections, and lesson plans, there’s a LOT going on – and they NEVER get the resources they need, so they dip into their own pockets – which, clearly, already don’t sustain them.

I get the conundrum. On the one hand, participating in adult fare offends the puritanical sensibilities of many Americans. On the other hand, it might be difficult for some of her students to separate her in-class activities from her after-hours activities. In a perfect world, of course, children are “protected” from seeing such dirty, dirty stuff. But we all know this world ain’t perfect. Kids have the advantage when it comes to technology. And, really, how smart does one have to be to click ‘yes’ to the question, ‘Are you 21?’ Well, that was easy…

I’ll tell you this: the answer, along with that woman’s breasts, seems to be right in our faces: pay the teachers a living wage. How about we DON’T force our teachers to publicly display their “ends meeting” in order to make ends meet? Of course, we’d likely have to tax rich people to cover it and we can’t have that so I guess we’d better get used to the ‘teacher by day, dominatrix by night’ paradigm. You can’t have it both ways.

Well, you can, but it costs extra…

It’s the Guilt, Stupid…

by MyBaconPress

I saw Mark Esper, one of 45’s many Secretaries of Defense, on Bill Maher this weekend. Esper has the advantage of having witnessed, first hand, Donny in action. He’s SEEN the man operate. Not to put too fine a point on it, Esper knows Trump better than any of the campaign attendees who sing Donny’s praises. Esper isn’t operating on how he imagines Donny does things. Esper doesn’t have delusional hopes about how Donny does things. Esper’s knowledge isn’t theoretical, nor is it driven by sycophancy. Also, it doesn’t come from slanted news outlets. Esper knows.

He described Trump the same way most of Donny’s one-time staffers describe Trump – as a clear and present danger to the United States of America. (Remember, this guy’s JOB was identifying clear and present dangers to America.) He maintains that America should not, CAN not, put Donny back in the White House. He stated flatly, he would not vote for Trump again. Lots of the people who worked most closely with Donny have said the same thing. They won’t vote for the guy again because of the threat he represents to America.

So, Maher asks the obvious followup question: then will you vote for Biden? Esper hems. Esper haws. He hesitates. As it happens, he’s not ready to go that far. He knows he’s not voting for Trump but he’s not sure who he will vote for. Maher seemed to find that answer just as frustrating as I do. He kind of blurted out that he needed Esper to explain that. Maher asked him, straight up, “What is it intelligent people don’t understand about binary?”

It’s a fair question. If you don’t cast a ballot for Biden, you’re helping Trump, whether you mean to be or not. It’s a one or it’s a zero. There are no other choices. Binary. Those of us who could not be convinced in 2016 can be excused for 2016. NOBODY knew, for sure, the danger Trump is. But EVERYBODY knows now. There’s ONE vote to stop Trump, and that’s to vote Biden. Period. Full stop.

Now, understand: I’m a life-long third party ready voter. I’ve always voted my conscience and that, sometimes, has meant voting outside the mainstream. I didn’t care. I didn’t see it as “throwing away my vote.” I saw it – see it – as making a commentary on the often less-than choices thrust upon me by the parties. Sure, perhaps just “tinkering around the edges,” but I thought the commentary important. I despise the binary choice I face. I think of it as a failure of the system. But if we don’t vote Biden in November, there won’t BE any edges to tinker around.

I’ve seen interviewers from lefty websites go to rallies for his competitors, like Nikki Haley, when she was relevant, RFK, Jr now. Over and over, the attendees say they won’t vote Trump because he’s too dangerous or too chaotic. When asked what they’d do if their alternative conservative isn’t the candidate, though, several of them say that in that case, they’d probably vote for Trump.

Obviously, I have to acknowledge the possibility that they just don’t want to say, out loud, in public, and certainly not on video, that they would vote for Biden. Maybe, they’ll get into the booth, hold their nose, and press the Biden button but tell everybody they voted some other way. That’s possible. And, listen, MAGA is SO rabid, these days, it’s hard to blame them. Who the hell wants a barrage of invective dumped on them?

But sooner or later, the people who stand against Donny need to get to the point where they can state flatly that they oppose Donny. Cult 45 isn’t going to go away easily. It’s going to take a strong stance by people who know if it’s going to happen at all…

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Oh, you want an example? Donny has a new target in his latest criminal case: Judge Merchan’s daughter. No, she’s not a child. Neither is she in any way, shape, or form related to the charges Donny faces. She’s just the offspring of the judge. A “civilian.” I’m not in a position to know, for sure, but it’s my understanding that even the mafia won’t attack family. They’re understood “non-combatants.”

But not for Donny. He knows he can’t win his case on the merits. Hell, everybody knows that. So he’s trying to intimidate the judge by threatening his family. I can hear MAGA now, “What threat did he make?” All they have to do is pretend that they don’t understand Donny has an intention when he points out innocent bystanders and attacks.

There’s a word for a person who attacks like that: coward. Donald J. Trump is a coward. At least when he was attacking Engoron’s law clerk, she was related to the case, however distantly. Now it’s the daughter of the judge. It’s a straight up attempt at intimidation. But did you catch the other bit, there? What do these two women in Donny’s crosshairs have in common? What, oh, what could it be? Wait a minute. I think I see it. Ah, there it is. They’re women. Donny attacks women.

I’m not sure it was obvious before. When he attacked Letitia James and Fani Willis, well, they were/are the prosecutors going after him. Judge Engoron’s law clerk was helping Judge Engoron keep facts straight in Donny’s civil case. At least she was directly related to the events taking place. But Judge Merchan’s daughter’s only relationship to this case is her relationship to her father.

I think Donny should stop with all the threats and intimidation and all the stomping and stalling. You know what he SHOULD do? He should strut right into that courtroom and show all the lovely evidence he claims he has that proves his innocence. I guess he’s waiting for the right moment. Or something. Why, it’s almost as if he can’t prove his innocence at all.

The easiest solution for him would be to just win his cases. He claims he can. So do it! He doesn’t need to attack anyone. He doesn’t need to grandstand. He doesn’t need to lie about his situation. All he needs to do is provide the evidence the proves his innocence. Easy. IF you have the evidence. But if you CAN’T prove your innocence? Well, then, I guess you have to stall – and attack women – and call your cases “witch hunts.” Oh, AND fleece your supporters into poverty.

I’ll tell you this: Actions speak louder than words. Donny’s actions indicate guilt, not persecution…

Objectives…

by MyBaconPress

Okay, I don’t know if this qualifies as a correction, per se. I think it’s more like an update. Word I’m hearing now is that it’s most likely the Appellate court in the NY fraud civil trial, the one that lowered Donny’s bond amount, thinks the lower court made mistakes in valuations. I wrote Thursday, “It was just math.” That’s still true, but you’ve got to do your math correctly. If you don’t carry the one (or whatever) when you’re supposed to, you’re going to get the wrong answer.

The thinking is, the court probably used assessed values to arrive at it’s number, not resell value, which is usually higher – but, I would add, more subjective. THAT thinking, in turn, means that, on appeal, the higher court will lower the amount of the disgorgement, in addition to having lowered the amount of the bond. The two will again align, just at the lower number.

The thing is, there’s this problem with that I’ll call “The Problem of the Toos” but only just this once and then never again because that’s kinda dumb. The appellate court says using the old appraisals was inaccurate because appraisals were too old, but clearly, using the resell values is FAR too subjective. True, appraised values don’t keep up with resell values. But if the appellate court tries to go with resell value, they’re opening up a can of worms that can play out forevermore.

I think Engoron was right to use the objective number, but I can understand how that same, objective number is outdated. So, the solution presents itself, doesn’t it? The court should order an immediate reappraisal of all trump properties, and then use THAT number. I like that solution for two reasons: one, it’s the most fair and, two it’s a double-edged sword for both sides.

On the one hand, the court would have a current, objective number to work with, but Donny would get a break on the crimes he committed at the earliest date of the frauds in question. (Because the appraised value goes up, the extent of his earliest frauds goes down.) On Donny’s side, he gets that break (and so pays a lower fine than he otherwise might), but now has to pay taxes on the new values going forward.

It’s a win/win or a lose/lose, depending upon how one looks at it. But it solves the problem in an objective way and removes all the subjective valuation possibilities. I don’t know what they’ll do, but I hope they do that…

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I find myself amazed at what happened in Baltimore. A ship hits a bridge and the bridge falls down? It’s going to cause havoc for awhile. Some 8,000 workers are out of work until the port opens again. (That’s millions out of the local economy.) Trucks pulling hazardous materials were required to use THAT bridge to move their cargo. Now what? It’s an economic disaster. It’s also amazing only six people lost their lives. That bridge is a major thoroughfare. It COULD have had hundreds, maybe thousands of people on it. A disaster – that could have been far worse.

Of course, MAGA media did it’s level best to MAKE it worse – by adding the stink of conspiracy theories. MAGA spends it’s days – and nights – searching, desperately for someone to blame and/or fear. No incident is too small but this one? This is a big one. It needed big lies. Lying Alex Jones suggested it was a cyber attack on the ship. “WW3 has already started!”

Fox Business host Maria Bartiromo suggested it was somehow related to the chaos on the southern border. Other’s tried to blame the crash on Obama. Some said they saw explosions. All fake. All fictions. Oh, of course, there was also the inevitable, ‘medical emergency caused by a Covid-19 vaccination.’ YEARS later, and MAGA STILL doesn’t understand science. Okay, so, none of the above.

The ship lost power for reasons still being investigated. Then, it drifted. It turns out, water has currents and those currents can move a ship, especially since it was already under way. Who knew? (Okay, everybody but MAGA.) I DO have one question: why weren’t the supports for that bridge better protected for such an event? I mean, that’s an important lifeline in Baltimore. I know, some things are inconceivable but it was somebody’s job to conceive of something like that. It’s not like it was ever absolutely impossible.

But that’s hindsight, and not a conspiracy. I’ll bet the new bridge has better protection. First, though, they’ve got to get that channel open, thereby opening the port again. Then they have to clear the rest of the debris. That’s going to take a long time before they can even start thinking about rebuilding, which will also take a long time.

I’ll tell you this: This thing is going to fade from the national news pretty quickly but in Baltimore, they’re going to be struggling with this for years to come…

A Photo-Shopped Picture (redux)…

by MyBaconPress

Okay, then. More on the SAME two bits I wrote about just this last Thursday. That’s never happened to me before…

I’m sorry to hear that Princess Catherine has cancer. It’s still none of my business but now she can have the whole world hold good thoughts for her during her fight and, hopefully, eventual recovery…

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The second thing? Donny has a legal team out arguing to a judge that he just doesn’t have the money to pay his $454 million dollar (and climbing) bond. Donny, himself, is simultaneously out there claiming he has $500 million in cash and he plans to use “most of it” on his campaign. When it comes to trump, it’s possible those two sentences contain three lies. Maybe he has the money, maybe he doesn’t. That’s the first sentence. AND, from the second sentence, maybe he has THAT money and maybe he doesn’t, but since he has been directing more and more money to his legal defense, I doubt he has suddenly decided to focus on his campaign. Three lies in two sentences…

He used his popularity in “Ze Party” to install Lara Trump, his daughter-in-law, as the new head of the GOP and the first thing SHE did was re-vamp the revenue sharing arrangement of the GOP. If you give to the GOP, for any campaign, some of that money (say, $.99 cents of every dollar) is being funneled directly to Donny for his legal defense and expenditures. Some of it never even reaches the GOP. It goes straight into Donny’s PAC, which he’s using to pay lawyers.

I’m guessing that GOP candidates across the land and up and down the ticket are going to be greatly underfunded so Donny has enough to cover he legal debts. The truth is, it’s hard for me to get my head around that. This dude is fleecing his flock to the tune of millions of dollars every month. They seem to know it, yet they KEEP giving to him from their Social Security checks so HE doesn’t have to touch any of his personal wealth. They won’t give a dollar to a homeless person but they’ll hand their entire Social Security check over to a self-proclaimed “Billionaire.” ‘A fool and his money…’ Indeed…

Oh, I’ve ALSO learned that, no, in fact, the bond companies don’t want his buildings as collateral. They’re not set up to handle hard assets. Of course, I ALSO learned that that’s not the way it’s done, anyway. See, Donny goes to a bank (which he’s allowed to do now) and gets a Guaranteed Letter of Credit, secured by some or all of his buildings as collateral, and takes that to the bond agencies.

The bond guys get cash, the banks get the buildings, should that need arise. Banks, at least, have the capability of dealing with Real Estate in ways bond companies don’t. Neat and tidy. Also, he doesn’t have to get all the money from one bond agent. He can go to several. The thing is, each bond agency is going to want their own fee. Donny doesn’t want to pay ONE fee, let alone several.

So NOW all he has to do is find a bank willing to guarantee $500 million dollars to a person literally JUST found liable for defrauding banks and he’s good. I know, that sounds silly but I’d bet there are banks out there that will do that deal, assuming New York Real Estate is the collateral. The problem is, they don’t have time to get the buildings independently valued and they’re greedy, not stupid. The one thing every rational (and probably MAGA) American knows, by now, is that if Donny is talking, he’s lying. So you would need independent valuations.

One avenue we know Donny could take is to turn to Putin or one of his Saudi buddies. Under normal circumstances, I would have said that taking such a drastic step would harm his attempts to re-gain the White House. But we don’t live in normal circumstances, now, do we? We live in bizarro America, where ‘crazy’ bends the knee to ‘stupid’ and ‘stupid’ rules the day! Who, I wonder, would vote for an American leader completely – and rather desperately – beholden to a foreign power? MAGA, that’s who.

So, we’ll see but I’ll tell you this: For now, I’m sticking to my story. I think he’ll post that bond as close to the last minute as he can. But I think he’ll post the bond…

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Okay, let’s lighten this up a bit. I heard, recently, that the castaways on ‘Gilligan’s Island’ (see? Lighter!) each represented one of the Seven Deadly Sins. (MY, that darkened up quickly.)

I’m not buying. Granted, the case starts off strong. Mr. Howell clearly represents Avarice. That was easy. The Skipper is a big guy, suggesting he might be Gluttony. One could make a case that Ginger represented Pride. After that, though, it falls apart pretty quickly. The suggestion was that Gilligan represented Sloth, but Gilligan wasn’t lazy, he was stupid.

So who was Envy? Mary Ann? Envious of, I presume, Ginger? No. There’s the immortal (but only for Boomers, apparently) question, “Ginger or Mary Ann?” I’m a Mary Ann guy. Ginger had NOTHING on Mary Ann and Mary Ann was too down to earth to spend time being envious of Ginger.

Nobody was Wrath. Yes, the Skipper got frustrated from time to time but that was always after Gilligan had done something stupid. He wasn’t walking around angry all the time. Hell, the Skipper was a pretty chill guy. Besides, he’s already Gluttony.

That leaves Lust. Right. On this “family show?” We’ve just covered the Ginger/Mary Ann thing but they were the objects of lust, not Lust itself. In fact, the inhabitant of Gilligan’s Island all seemed pretty asexual, to me. I was just a boy when that show ran originally and even I wondered why we never saw either Ginger nor Mary Ann (or, what the hell, maybe both!) sneaking out of the Professor’s hut from time to time. They were on that island for years. Really? Never once?

So if you want to see the personification of the Seven Deadly Sins, don’t bother with ‘Gilligan’s Island.’ Watch Donald J. Trump. He’s ALL of them; Pride, Envy, Gluttony, Lust, Avarice, Wrath, AND Sloth. At this point, all we have to do is strand him on a tropical island, somewhere, and leave him there. Now THAT’S a show I’d watch…

Donny’s Bad Day…

by MyBaconPress

Alexander Smirnof, the absolutely irrefutable, impeccable, perfect, and oh-so-honest FBI witness the cons built their entire trumped up impeachment of Biden around, lied. Yeah, we know that. Joe and Hunter did NOT take $5 million dollar payments from Burisma – or anybody else. (You’re thinking of Jared, who accepted $2 BILLION from the Saudis.) An obvious question? Why did Smirnof lie? Turns out, he was paid to tell the story he told. $600,000! By an American company, Economic Transformation Technologies (ETT), a shadowy, Texas-based company. ETT is owned by some business associates of – wait for it – Donald Trump. ETT investments, the arm that delivered the actual cash was dissolved shortly after the cash was delivered. What a remarkable coincidence.

All we really know is that Smirnof was paid by ETT in 2020, exactly when he started weaving his tale of bribery for the FBI using “information” from his Russian sources. Does that mean Donny is behind it? No. But it’s stronger evidence than anything the GOP had while trying to impeach Biden so I guess the impeachment wheels will be turning again, this time against Donny, right? Because the cons are so interested in doing the right thing? Right?

(Crickets.) Yeah. The world knows who you are, MAGA.

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A bad day for Donny. Aileen “Loose” Cannon rejected the Dumbass’ request to toss the stolen documents case. Surprised? Not really. Jack Smith had given her a brief that was quite clear. She really couldn’t do anything else without being reversed, again, by a higher court. If she keeps getting reversed, she runs the risk of involuntary recusal. Then she couldn’t help Donny at all, so she’s playing it a bit safe, here. She DID give Donny an entire day to try to make his case. But, as always, his case was stupid and even a desperately sycophantic Cannon couldn’t help him this time. Next time, maybe, but not now…

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Donny’s bad day got worse when the judge in the Willis/Wade “scandal” decided to let Fani continue as the prosecutor. By now, MAGA media has created hundreds of articles claiming that the court got it wrong and that Fani should have been removed from the case in Georgia. No, tossed in jail. No, shot at dawn. After all, Fani and Nathan had sex! What more evidence do you need that they hated Donald Trump? Or something.

I’m pretty sure the only person on the planet thinking about Donald Trump during sex is Donald Trump. But, that was the charge. Oh, to be sure, Ashleigh Merchant, the lawyer who brought the charge claimed it was about money, somehow. An already successful lawyer with a thriving practice got a side gig helping to prosecute trumpery just so Willis could funnel money to Wade so Wade could take Willis on better dates? Yeah, dumb enough. But then the trial focused mostly on who touched what and when. (Hubba-hubba. Ain’t they dirty?)

The judge overseeing the trial, Scott McAfee, said there WAS an appearance of impropriety. (If you stand on your head, close one eye, and look at it from exactly a 36.2 degree angle with the sun behind your left, no, right shoulder at exactly 3:17 in the afternoon, Central Standard Time, you can juuust make it out.) Of course, he also said there was no actual impropriety – as Merchant’s own team acknowledged – and the appearance problem could be remedied with a resignation, which Wade offered up, directly, and Willis accepted. So, Wade’s out, Willis is back, and Donny’s looking for yet another stall. (He’s got a million of ’em…)

I was worried about this case. I still am. Because the Supremely Kangaroo Court has made clear they’ve joined Donny’s legal defense team, this state case is the best chance America has of punishing a traitor for traitorous behavior. (You know, instead of putting him in the most powerful office in the world.) The GOP in Georgia has aligned against Willis (and against justice) and taken positions supporting Donny (and injustice) and they have a LOT of evil tricks up their sleeves.

At this point, I’m convinced that everybody on the planet – everybody, MAGA or rational – believes Donald J. Trump is guilty of the crimes with which he’s charged. They KNOW he can’t even get to trial because if he goes to trial, he loses. Period. Just like he has, so far, lost nearly EVERY other trial he’s been in since he decided to host a coup in the first place. (Full disclosure, he DID win one case where people watching vote counters got to stand a little closer. BFD.)

I wish Willis could start her trial first thing Monday morning. She can’t, of course. Merchant will appeal McAfee’s ruling, knowing he’s right but ALSO knowing she’s stalling successfully, the primary goal. Besides, Willis has to provide trump with time to prepare his case, which he COULD have been doing all along, just in case. But he didn’t, likely because he doesn’t have any real defense. So he’ll get a little extra time.

McAfee’s ruling was a win (so far) for the rule of law and for justice and for America. The GOP HATES those things, though, and just because there was this little, initial setback doesn’t mean they can’t subvert justice some other new and clever way. All you gotta do is hate America. And they do that in spades…

Charges, Claims, and Evidence…

by MyBaconPress

I know. It can be difficult to keep track of which judge goes with which trial so I’ll try to keep it clear. Judge Scott McAfee, the judge in the Georgia trial, has dismissed 6 of the 41 charges Donny and his co-conspirators face, assuming the GOP can’t get the case tossed over some technicality, a pretended conflict of interest. (Hey, now that I think about it, that’s a good “band name” for that pretend patriotic “song” the cons – and in this case, that’s “convicts” – put out, ‘Donny and the Co-conspirators.’)

The 6 tossed charges include 3 of the 13 against Donny, himself. It’s important to note that McAfee did NOT dismiss the charges permanently. He said the prosecutor hadn’t provided enough detail as to the underlying felony for the defense to prepare. Basically, his order is drop it or revise it for clarity. But they CAN revise it for clarity.

I think sometimes, prosecutors throw in everything but the kitchen sink in case something gets thrown out and these charges might be that. So even if they don’t revise those charges, the allegedly criminal group still faces 35 charges and Donny, personally, still faces 10. And none of those charges raised any questions with the judge at all…

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I saw a story out of conservative media the other day. It asserted that certain charges the cons have made are too true, so there! It asserted these things have been proven and STILL the liberal media won’t report on them. (In the MAGA mind, if three people shout it loudly enough, and it might help Donny, then it’s “proven.”) One of them was about how it has now been proven, beyond question, that the Dumbass Don did too offer up 10,000 troops to protect the Capitol on J6! The point to that charge, in their minds, is that PeLOsi (you have to spit that. It’s the law.) is at fault for J6, not Donny, because she didn’t protect the Capitol properly.

It’s just a short step to the next, obvious question but the MAGA mind just never seems able to get there. Specifically, what was Pelosi protecting the Capitol from on J6?
“Hey, nice Capitol building you got, here. It would be a shame if something were to happen to it. We can get you, say, 10,000 National Guard troops to help protect the Capitol on J6?”
“Why would I need 10,000 National Guard troops to help protect the Capitol on J6? What do you know?”
“Oh, nothing. Nothing. No reason at all, really. We just thought it might be nice.”
“What’s ‘nice’ about surrounding the Capitol with 10,000 troops?” she wondered. “Look, nobody has ever done anything to disrupt this procedural event in the history of this country. Why would they start now? I’m sure we’ll be fine.”
“We’re going to remember you said that.”

On January 6, 2021, the Capitol building would not have needed 10,000 additional troops, let alone even the Capitol police if only Donald J. Trump had not decided to send an (admittedly ragtag) army to try to cling to power.

Hey, Dumbass, that was an option, too. The preferred one, in fact. The course EVERY defeated candidate before you had taken: accept your defeat like a man (even Hillary has bigger balls than you), walk away with a modicum of your little dignity still intact, and maybe run again in the next round. But no. You chose ‘whiny tantrum insurrection.’ THAT was MAGA. THAT was trump. Pelosi was not the problem, here…

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The right puts out video of President Biden stumbling over words from time to time. They call it incontrovertible proof that Biden has dementia. So, the left puts out video of their own, Donny stumbling over words. Also proof of dementia? Don’t be ridiculous. That’s just super clever stupidity – or something.

Here’s the thing. Biden has a long-since acknowledged speech impediment. It makes sense he might stumble over words from time to time. He’s done it as long as he’s been alive. But Donny? Donny presents himself as perfect. Infallible, in fact. When HE stumbles over words, he WILL NOT confess an “error.” He claims it was intentional. (It is not.)

For a dude who’s perfectly infallible, Trump messes up a LOT. I mean, it doesn’t take that much time to put together a blooper reel of the guy stumbling over even basic words and there’s video evidence out there of him locking up entirely. Can you imagine if Biden were giving a speech that included a sentence like, “We’re a nation that just recently heard that Saudi Arabia and Russia will ree… pee… too… ahhh…” and then just…blank out for a moment? To their credit, even MAGA seemed startled by that one. To their discredit, they just tucked their concerns away and started attacking Biden again.

Still, it’s down to these two again. An old man who occasionally stumbles over words vs an old man who occasionally stumbles over words but also faces multiple felony charges, has been adjudicated a rapist, has been adjudicated a thief, stands credibly accused of abusing prescription drugs, and regularly brags about someone thinking he needs yet another cognitive test. I swear to the gods, I don’t understand how this is even a question…