MAGA

Immune To Reality?

by MyBaconPress

Donny’s legal team – Roberts, Alito, Thomas, Kavanaugh, Gorsuch, and Barrett (RATKG&B) – are doing what they can. They heard arguments on Thursday on the question of whether or not Presidents have perfect, blanket immunity for any and all actions, no matter what. Okay, arguments were presented. Whether or not they were “heard” remains to be seen.

They’ve come to the conclusion that others before them have already come to. Yes, the President of the United States DOES, indeed, have immunity for some official acts of the office while in office. Um…duh! That has long since been the case. How could a President drop a bomb on an unsuspecting civilian car carrying the “number two man in Al-Qaeda” (along with his wives and children) without immunity? If we’re not in a declared war, that’s murder. Unless you’re the President of the United States, right?

In fact, the actual question at hand is whether a President has immunity for criminal acts committed outside the duties of the office. For example, if a President, say, loses an election and then tries, over and over again to stay in office anyway, is he immune? Technically, he was in office at the time. Doesn’t that count?

No. But if it does, I hope Joe Biden uses HIS immunity to have Donny’s “legal team” rubbed out so he can pack the court with his own people, solving the problem of having Supreme Court Justices moonlighting as defense attorneys. (Dear NSA, that’s satire, used to make a point.)

Trump team loyalists Alito and Kavanaugh suggested that some of the charges against Donny were hard to defend so they shouldn’t count. They said that if using laws is going to be the standard, future prosecutors could prosecute future ex-Presidents whenever they wanted to. (Interestingly, they didn’t mention the part about needing to violate that law in the first place, a key point in Trump’s trials.)

When the lawyer for the Special Counsel’s office dismissed that idea, citing the Grand Jury process, Alito sneered that a grand jury could “indict a ham sandwich.” That’s true, but could the prosecutor get a conviction? Alito even argued that our entire society might collapse if Presidents can’t just murder people, willy-nilly. For clarity, ‘murder’ was not mentioned, specifically. But “any crime” is ANY crime, right?

Two of the smart, non-ideologically impaired Justices, Ketanji Brown Jackson and Sonya Sotomayor, tried to inject some logic and common sense into the “debate” but they’re outnumbered so logic and common sense have no real place on that court.

Court-watchers are suggesting the way-too-high court is going to remand the case back to the lower court to double check if crimes are still, you know, actual crimes and if they’re really, really sure they want to indict Donny just because he committed them. Alternately, they might just hold their “ruling” until June 30 and issue it as they slither out the back door for their two month vacation. (Sounds like a hard damn life to me…)

Either way, it’s a win (of sorts) for Donny. If the case is remanded, it will buy Donny time. The trial likely won’t happen before the election. If the case isn’t remanded, the delayed decision will ALSO prevent the trial from moving forward until after the ballots are cast.

I’ll tell you this: Donny has a VERY effective legal team in RATKG&B, the best lawyer/judge combo money can buy…

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Hey, I thought the trial was a trick to keep Donny off of the campaign trail! Donny said so himself. He has said so more than once, too. “They’re trying to keep me off the campaign trail.” “I should be out there campaigning but I have to come here.” That would be a problem, too.

But, it’s not a ploy. He has to attend his criminal trial. That’s not a special rule for Donny. That’s the way it is. (And, btw, the ONLY one enjoying special privileges is Donny, no matter what he tells you.) That trial takes up every Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday so the only days he has to campaign – get out there and press the flesh and meet the people as he claims he so badly wants to do – are Wednesday, Saturday, and Sunday.

So, THAT clearly explains why, when he had a day off from court when he could campaign he set out as quickly as he could and…hit the golf course? Wait, what? When he’s doing his “Woe is poor, poor me” shtick, all he wants is to be out campaigning. When the cameras are off, he DOES what he really wants to do: he golfs. That was his presidency, too. Golfing.

From what I hear, for someone who golfs as much as he does, you’d think he would be a better golfer. The number of people out there who have played with him and will tell you he cheats is huge. Pretty much everyone who isn’t beholden to Donny in some way confesses Donny cheats. I think that makes him a double terrible golfer. He plays every chance he gets and he STILL has to cheat to get a good score?

But I digress. Dear MAGA, What Donny says is that he wants to be out there, with you. What Donny does is blow off a chance to be with you so he can go golfing. Actions speak louder than words…

The Truth Will Out…

by MyBaconPress

Well, David is certainly not pulling his punches. Pecker, I mean. David Pecker. He’s on the stand in Donny’s hush money trial. He’s just spewing information. It could be because he has to after the ‘National Enquirer’ got in trouble for their part in his scheme, but I don’t think that’s it at all. It has been no challenge to get Pecker to share everything he knows and he’s not trying to hide things behind weasel words. That’s not a person forced to testify. That seems like someone salivating at the opportunity. Weird. I thought they were still friends.

David and Donny had made an “informal” agreement. Pecker would use his paper to assist Donny. They made up and published stories about Donny’s opposition candidates, not just from across the aisle but even fellow Roepublicans. Be clear about that: they made up stories. They published anything they could find (or make up) to shine a nice light on Donny AND they were involved in a catch-and-kill scheme for him. If someone had a bad story to tell about 45, the National Enquirer bought it as an “exclusive” – which they then never published.

As an “exclusive,” the seller of the story signed Non Disclosure Agreements and promised not to tell anyone else. Then, the Enquirer just filed the story in File 13 and that was the last of it. They paid a certain amount, then Donny was supposed to reimburse them. Pecker is Donny’s friend. He didn’t have any reason to think the scheme would work out any other way.

So, when the doorman wanted to tell his unverified story about Donny’s illegitimate child, Pecker was there. $30,000 dollars worth. And when Karen McDougal showed up with a story about an ongoing affair throughout Melania’s pregnancy, Pecker rose to the occasion. $150,000 dollars worth.

That’s a lot of media manipulation Donny participated in. ALL THE WHILE, he was out on the campaign trail complaining about media manipulations against him. MAGA was out screaming and yelling about “fake news,” remember? The “fake news” was coming from the right. I know. Who can be surprised? The right making an accusation that turned out to be a confession? When has anything like it ever…? Oh, right.

The Trump campaign was the source of much (most?) of the fake news of the 2016 election. Pecker has testified that these fraudulent stories were prearranged. Trump and Cohen had coordinated the manipulations with Pecker. Pecker was specifically asked what the Enquirer could do to help the campaign. The ‘Fake News’ and ‘Catch-and-Kill’ schemes were born. And MAGA was snookered.

I’ve been saying MAGA stays loyal because MAGA is deceived. Pecker has just confirmed that under oath in a court of law. Pecker laid out exactly how Trump, Cohen, and Pecker went about deceiving the base. He’ll be doing more of that today. Describing the scheme and it’s effects, I mean.

My guess? MAGA isn’t hearing ANY of it. MAGA media will simply not cover that aspect. Instead, they’ll cover how bravely Trump came into court and how persecuted he is and just how tough is this tough guy, anyway? There will be nary a peep about how Donny and the MAGA media worked together to deceive them…

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Before trial Tuesday, Donny came into the media ring and whined and cried that someone must be blocking all of his supporters from coming down to the building to show their support because there were precious few outside. It took no time at all for the media to debunk that bit – based entirely on the fact that Trump supporters ARE outside the building. Just not as many as Donny thought there might be. I suspect he was looking for a J6 crowd, hoping for some J6 intimidation. I ALSO suspect the J6 crowd, those not still in jail anyway, have learned a lesson.

So instead, he got a tiny, little crowd, even AFTER he tried to encourage people to come down and show support. It’s possible, his remaining supporters DID come out. There just aren’t as many as there used to be. He has fleeced his fan base into near-poverty. He has lied and lied to them, leaving them with egg on their faces, over and over again as they try to defend him only to learn he lied – again. (How many times are YOU willing to look like a fool defending him, especially when you KNOW not ONE of his stories has held up under scrutiny?)

Who knows, maybe they’ll show up en masse today. Maybe they’ve just been biding their time, looking for the perfect opportunity to get to the courthouse and show off their ignorance. Maybe. Maybe not. There seem to be some cracks in the loyalty. Even MAGA knows the famous phrase, “Fool me 107,286 times, shame on the Democrats. Fool me 107,286 times, eventually, shame on me.”

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…

Justice Delayed Is Justice Denied…

by MyBaconPress

I was fully in the ‘Trump-is-going-to-jail’ camp. I debated it with people. I wrote as much in these pages. I don’t think so as much anymore. Not only do I NOT think Donny is going to jail, anymore, I’ll be amazed if he ever even sees any of his criminal trials start. My mistake? I had faith in the American criminal justice system. I mean, I knew it wasn’t perfect, but, overall, I feel like it does a pretty good job, or did, anyway. But now? Whatever happens with that guy, someone swoops in and saves him.

In the New York civil fraud trial he lost, the judge didn’t just pull a number out of thin air. Because of the statute of limitations, that trial only covered a small portion of the time Donny’s trumpery has gone on . During that time, the judge was able to determine that Donny had stolen something like $355 million dollars through his schemes and manipulations. He added in the interest and – voila! – he had a number. It was just math.

New York law says that if you want to appeal a finding, you have to post a bond equal to the amount you owe. Donny claimed, in court, he didn’t have the money – while simultaneously claiming, in social media, he DID have the money. (He’s lying to someone.) A three judge panel on the appeals court said Donny could just post a smaller amount and it would be okay. To be clear, he still owes the full amount should the appeal fail, but he only has to post 38% of the total amount owed because of…reasons. (Think ‘Special Treatment.’)

Yet again, Donny beats the system. Do you know what happens to a normal (meaning “not rich”) person who can’t pay his fine? They have their assets seized. No one simply reduces the amount you owe. The fine is the fine and if you can’t pay in cash, you can “pay” in other ways. I’m tempted to repeat, the devil takes care of his own. Sadly, this is less metaphysical. Rich people take care of their own – even when “their own” is Donny.

If Donny’s good at anything, it’s undermining people’s faith in institutions. I’m feeling that way right now. I’ve lost faith in America’s legal system. Oh, they set a date for the New York criminal fraud trial? April 15? Whoopee. Do you know what that means to me? It means some other judge better step in by April 14 and save his snowflake ass – and someone will. I don’t know who and I don’t know how. I know it shouldn’t be. But they will.

Set a trial date, BFD. Donny is facing four criminal trials. One of them is overseen by a full-blown MAGA and she resists setting a trial date at all. Between the other three, April 15 is something like the sixth trial date he has faced, but never faces. At this point, I’ll believe Donny faces justice when he actually meets justice – and not one second sooner.

I’ll tell you this: A system of law enforcement that doesn’t apply equally to everyone is NOT a system of justice. It’s a system of oppression…

Now I’m going to pull this thread a little bit and connect a couple of dots, thereby mixing my metaphors. (Please prepare your tin-foil hats.) Getting to the election is important to Donny. He’s not going to win. Not honestly, anyway. But… when is the last time you heard of Donny doing ANYTHING honestly? It doesn’t matter either way, though, because MAGA has a plan to simply install Donny, win or lose, so all he has to do is get to the election.

So, why do I think Donny will lose in November? He lost by 7 million votes in 2020. Since then, which voting group do you see that he might have picked up? I see several he has likely lost. Women, for example. No, not EVERY woman, obviously, don’t be obnoxious. But the GOP ought to see Marilyn Lands’ victory in Alabama as a harbinger. She ran a pro-choice, pro-IVF campaign and won – by 25 points – in Alabama. Apparently, women don’t LIKE being reduced to incubators. They KNOW that was the GOP. They KNOW that hasn’t stopped or even slowed. In fact, the GOP is ramping up efforts to make absolutely certain women suffer even more. Women are voting accordingly.

Latinos? Really? Why, because the border is a mess? Do you remember what Donny did at the border? They separated families. Not just while the families were being processed. Permanently. And they did such a poor job of keeping track, they were unable to reunite children with parents. The Biden administration has managed to reunite some 700 of those families but they STILL have nearly 1,000 to go! Did you forget? I’ll bet the Latino community hasn’t forgotten. Sure, the border is a mess and Biden hasn’t fixed it, but the Dumbass was hardly better and actively destroyed families in order to “discourage” immigration.

Who else? What I see is conservatives snuggling up to alternatives. They tried Haley. Now they’re looking at RFK, Jr. I suspect there are many cons out there who, if asked, will tell you Donny’s their boy but when they actually step into the booth, will vote the straight Republican ticket – and just…skip the ‘President’ box. So I can see several places where he’s lost support but I don’t see that he’s gained support, anywhere. You can’t judge by the primaries. The GOP primaries have been corrupted and controlled by MAGA but MAGA isn’t enough to carry him through a general election. Crazy, stupid, and incompetent was great for the primaries. It won’t be so great later.

Thus, the MAGA plan. (“If you can’t win, cheat!”) The thing about the MAGA plan is that, except for the initial big lie – “abnormalities with the election”- every step would be “legal.” Absolutely wrong and unethical in every conceivable way, but technically, legal. The current breakdown in the House? Dems have 213 seats. The GOP has 218. That’s a five seat spread. There are currently four vacancies, all to be decided by pending special elections.

In what I hope is a helpful move by the GOP, they’ve decided that all donations will be diverted to defending their Presidential candidate through all of his criminal trials. THAT means that none of the down ticket candidates can expect help from the national party, and many of the local parties are in disarray, leaving Dems a money advantage. Still, some of the vacancies are in bright red districts so they may not need help. Worst case? One of the vacancies goes Democrat, three go GOP.

That would leave a seven person advantage for the GOP in the House, and that’s enough to pull off their evil deeds. Get this: if that happens, it would mean the ONLY path the United States of America has toward NOT failing, is if there are at least seven Republican congressmen with integrity who love America more than their party or dear leader. SEVEN Republican Congressmen with integrity? Better get out the torches and pitchforks. I think we’re going to need them…

Burning and Crashing, Crashing and Burning…

by MyBaconPress

So, Putin runs for “re-election” saying he’s the guy to count on for security. He “wins.” Not a month later, four armed men start shooting up a concert. Then, in the chaos, as the crowd flees in panic, the shooters reportedly set the building on fire. There’s a possibility it wasn’t them intentionally. But they’re still responsible. All of this happened IN Moscow. 137 dead. More than 180 injured. The four men who did it have been arrested. They showed up in court, already beaten. One had to be brought in from intensive care. I presume, no matter HOW long they’re sentenced to serve, they’ll “serve” only a short time. Then, they’ll die. Maybe, “out walking.”

The shooters say they’re Islamic State. The Islamic State has claimed both the shooters AND responsibility for the attack. (On non-combatant civilians, it should be noted.) Putin? He goes on state TV (Foxacova Newsinski?) and blames… Ukraine! Well, kind of. There was a heavy implication that the shooters were escaping to Ukraine using a prepared escape route, leaving open the possibility that it was a Ukrainian attack without actually blaming Kyiv for orchestrating the attack. For their part, Kyiv has denied any knowledge of, and all responsibility for, the attack.

The attack was carried out by a group of people associated with a known terrorist group called Isis-k. (Now with more vitamins?) They’ve been critical of Putin and his policies for years. They think he does things to harm Islam. Peculiar, isn’t it, that they DON’T think killing a bunch of civilians – who don’t have any more control over policy than the shooters to – doesn’t harm Islam in any way? It might just be me, but I think killing innocents “in the name of Islam” gives Muhammad something of a black eye.

In a completely unrelated side note: how come all these tough guys with guns always attack unarmed, unprepared civilians and never – and I do mean never – attack the actual people who set the policies they’re mad about? No, I’m not calling for political assassinations but, really, if you’re pissed off at the government for something, don’t attack civilians. Attack the government you’re pissed off at. If you’re angry with Putin and really need to kill someone over it, kill Putin. Yeah, it’s going to be harder than killing a bunch of concert-goers. But it will be FAR more direct in expressing your outrage.

I don’t think we’ll ever know much more than that. Officially, the Kremlin will work to protect Putin, making sure he continues to look like the strong, resolute leader he isn’t. Russia will continue, I believe, to pretend it has something to do with Ukraine so they can try to create some support for Putin’s war. But I don’t think much trustworthy news will be forthcoming…

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Hey, Boing’s, no Boeing’s CEO, Dave Calhoun, is “stepping down.” That’s usually corporate speak for “fired,” but he’s not leaving until the end of the year so, maybe. Calhoun came into the job in 2020, after Boeing’s 737 Max airplanes started falling out of the sky. Technically, I guess he DID improve things. Now, only pieces of 737’s are falling out of the sky.

In fairness, this is 21st century, “free-market” Capitalism America. It wasn’t Calhoun’s job to keep the planes (and all of it’s pieces) in the air. His job was to shore up the stock price, which he did, by making lots of noise about keeping the planes in the air. Then, when plane parts and the stock price started falling, Calhoun had to go. Hey, don’t let the door hit you, Dave. No, not in the ass. The one that just fell from one of your planes…

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Speaking of crashing and burning, Donny has a SPAC set to go public sometime this week. A SPAC is a ‘Special Purpose Acquisition Company.’ It doesn’t DO anything of it’s own. It just buys some private company someplace, and then takes it public. A SPAC does it faster than an IPO because it doesn’t have the same oversight. It’s not a perfect statement, but it’s safe to say that if you have a company that can’t meet the stringent requirements of an IPO, use a SPAC. They’re often instruments of, well, trumpery. (Ergo, Trump.)

The company going public is Donny’s social media company. The company will be called ‘Digital World’ and it’s stock symbol is going to be ‘DJT.’ MAGA is running up the stock price. Think Gamestop. Remember when Gamestop’s share price suddenly shot through the roof? The financial fundamentals of Gamestop couldn’t support such pricing but people liked Gamestop and tried to help. The thing is, early investors “trying to help” started running up the stock price and, pretty soon, people who shouldn’t be in the market at all were buying and the whole thing became a feeding frenzy – with nothing real to feed on.

IF you get in early on such a run and then get the hell out, you can make some money. It’s the later investors who are going to take it in the shorts. But these are MAGA people investing, not in some company, but in their glorious dear leader. They’re already in and they won’t get out. That would be disloyal to Donny. There are a LOT of red flags, but these guys only see red hats. Soon? They’re likely to be seeing only red ink.

First, it’s a Trump company. I don’t know a single Trump company Donny has started that has succeeded. In truth, I think he uses them as fleecing vehicles. He never even intends to run a going concern. He just wants the short-term income. His last public offering (also trading as ‘DJT’) was his casino. The casino found itself in worse and worse financial condition and all the while Donny was raking in millions in “compensation.” That’s his standard model.

He starts a company, pays himself a substantial wage for his “services” (privatizing all the revenues), then bankrupts the company and starts another somewhere. It’s harmful to whatever industry it is, it’s harmful to the community it happens in, it’s harmful to investors. But Donny makes money so, I guess it’s just business?

Truth Social had revenues in the first nine months of 2023 of $3.4 million dollars. Yeah, that’s a lot. But not as much as it spent, so they lost $10.6 million. It is keeping itself afloat by taking out loans. In total, since it started, Trump Media is $49 million dollars in the hole, after only nine months of operation! Spending more than it is bringing in AND getting deeper and deeper into debt? Yeah, that sounds exactly like a trump company. HE takes his cash up front. The investors have to wait for theirs. So far, ALL of his investors in ALL of his companies are still waiting to see a penny of return.

It’s not going to be any better for any of his investors in this venture, either. I don’t know if Donny really knows HOW to run a going concern. He has never even tried. It’s yet another part of the MAGA mania sweeping large parts of the country that fascinates me. I wonder how long MAGA can keep this guy living the lifestyle of a wanna-be Billionaire. Should this stock crash and burn, as expected, MAGA is going to have a LOT less money to give…

Two Tales of Trumpery…

by MyBaconPress

There’s an actual, English word; ‘Trumpery.’ It means – and you can look this up – “Nonsense, rubbish, deception, trickery, fraud.” These two bits are about about MAGA trumpery. It seems when Donny’s grandpa had to change his name because he had brought such shame and disgrace through cowardice to the original family name, Drumpf, he chose well. These people are the personifications of deceit…

Early on in Donny’s political career, I read a story in the news about a guy who supplied pianos for Donny’s eventually bankrupt casino. Five pianos were ordered. A price was agreed to. Five pianos were delivered. Then? Donny told the piano supplier he wasn’t going to pay the agreed upon price. He would pay them significantly less, or they could go to court. The guy who supplied the pianos was a small business owner and faced a significant loss if he took what was being offered – but he took it.

Apparently, he took it because he simply didn’t have the resources to fight a rich guy in court for what Donny had promised would be years and years of litigation. FINALLY, something Donny said that turned out to be true. Donny is a MASTER of legal delay. No, I don’t like the guy, either, but we have to hand it to him, NOBODY can slime up the legal process better than Donald J. Trump. And he’s doing it again.

His New York criminal trial over the hush money he paid Stormy Daniels to keep quiet about their sex rendezvous while he was married to a very pregnant Melania was supposed to start Monday, March 25 – tomorrow. Instead, the Dumbass Team will seek, no, don’t get ahead of me, here, they’ll seek delay (ah, you guessed it) while they thumb through some “discovery.”

This is a master class in legal manipulation and I’ve learned a lot! One DOES have to have lawyers willing to be cast as completely incompetent morons in order to take it to the level he takes it to. I WANT to say one must be rich, too, but there’s no promise Donny will ever actually PAY anybody over all of this. I mean, sure, he’s supposed to but he has a long, long trail of non-payment and when one is dealing with a trump, it’s ALWAYS a risk. (Maybe, “probability?”) So, one doesn’t actually have to be rich, but your lawyers have to believe you’re rich and that they’ll get their money or they wouldn’t file such frivolous motions.

Over and over I see stories about someone opining that Alina Habba is a big dummy because she did this silly thing or filed that completely erroneous claim no rational human would believe. Over and over, those “dumb” filings have bought Donny time, the most precious commodity in the world to him, right now. The expression ‘Crazy like a fox’ springs to mind.

In the latest I know of, he’s going to request a delay to review a bunch of papers he claims he “just received” from the prosecution. He claims the prosecution “dragged it’s feet” in delivering the goods. For their part, the prosecution points out that the request was only made in January and that the documents requested were not in the possession of the DA Bragg. (They had to do with the investigation of Michael Cohen, Donny’s long time “fixer,” who delivered the actual money to Daniels.)

It doesn’t matter, and Donny doesn’t care that there’s no “there,” there. The papers weren’t the point, the delay was. So his team will ask for at least 90 days to review the documents and, failing that, maybe just drop the whole thing, since the prosecution was slow to deliver.

They won’t get the dismissal, since the prosecution was NOT slow to deliver. Even a MAGA judge would see that requesting documents in January might take a bit of time to collect – especially since DA Bragg didn’t have them – but the “review” part seems very likely. The only bit that might help justice is if the judge holds them to the idea that they KNEW these files existed in the first place and shouldn’t have taken so long to make the request. But everybody, everybody, EVERYBODY is treating this scumbag like he’s something special and they baby him and fawn over him and give him delay after delay after delay.

Look, I’m no lawyer but I DO know that it’s a common tactic of defense attorneys to try and delay trials. I just had NO idea how many different tricks and techniques exist to do that, especially if you’re rich – or pretend to be.

I’ll tell you this: Donny is right when he says there’s a two-tiered justice system. He just leaves out the part where he’s the beneficiary, not the victim of such a system…

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Did you see the video of the Dems handing the GOP “impeachment inquiry” their asses? I mean, there’s no other way to describe it. The Dems came out on the offensive (for once) and just took to Comer and his sidekicks.

I think we all know the game, by now. The Dems impeached Donny. So, the GOP thinks THEY have to impeach Biden. It’s only fair. The fact that there were specific crimes attributable to Donny – crimes that became known to law enforcement, nobody had to “go looking” – and none pointed at Biden is only a minor point. Give them some time. They’ll find something.

What they hoped they had found, though, turned out to be smoke and mirrors. No, that’s wrong. It turned out to be Russian misinformation, transmitted by a Russian agent. (It sometimes seems the entire GOP is closely aligned with Russians – against America. Lovely.) The GOP Russian agent is now under arrest and, needless to say, the GOP “case” against Biden has… well, there’s no other way to put it, the case is closed.

Oh, but that didn’t stop the GOP, did it? They don’t need no stinkin’ charges to hold hearings. It seems good enough just to smear Biden. Sure, it’s a bit fraudulent, but that’s the GOP way. Oh, by the way, these “hearings” cost the American taxpayer dearly. I think it’s totally worth it when one needs to figure out if a President worked with the Russians to get elected or when the President organizes an insurrection to try to overturn an election. Less so – FAR less so, when it’s a fishing expedition in search of… something.

So I was very happy to see the Dems come out swinging. AOC came out and challenged GOP storyteller Tony Bobulinski to name the specific crime Biden should be charged with. She said, “Is it your testimony today that you personally witnessed President Joe Biden commit a crime?” Bobulinski began his song and dance. AOC interrupted, “Did you witness the President commit a crime?” So, feeling trapped, Bobulinski pitched out a “yes.”

AOC did the follow-up cons dare not do. “And what crime have you witnessed?” Bobulinski is certainly a team player. He tried not to answer while maintaining the fiction. “How much time do I have to go through it?” But AOC was ready. “It is simple. You name the crime.” Bobulinski started naming areas of crimes, not crimes themselves. AOC repeated, “What IS the crime?” He didn’t have an answer, so AOC reminded the GOP that they’re supposed to have a charge to open an inquiry, not open the inquiry to find a charge.

My favorite part, though, was when Rep. Jared Moskowitz had his turn. First, he asked Bobulinski if he thought Comer had proven Biden committed crimes. Bobulinski said he did. So Moskowitz followed up, “So I assume you believe Joe Biden should be impeached?” Bobulinski said he did. Moskowitz pointed out that the inquiry has been going on for 15 months. The GOP has steadfastly contended they have the evidence (they’re just not showing it), they know the crime (but, no, they won’t tell you), and they’re GOING to get Biden (you know, eventually. Really!)

So, Moskowitz called their bluff. “Why continue to waste millions of dollars of taxpayers money if we’re going to impeach because you believe you’ve shown he’s committed a high crime and misdemeanor? What are you waiting on? Let’s just do it.” Moskowitz taunted the GOP leadership for a bit longer. Jim Jordan thought he came up with a clever response, “We don’t do snap impeachments like you guys.” So, Moskowitz just brought it, “You’re never going to call for it.” After a bit of back and forth, he said, “If you believe you can’t call for the impeachment now, what you’re admitting is that you haven’t yet proven that he’s committed a high crime or misdemeanor.”

Moskowitz, dripping with sarcasm, said he was just there to help the GOP chairman out, so he would. He told Comer to call for the vote and he, (Moskowitz) would second. Comer refused, so Moskowitz volunteered to call for the vote and allow Comer to second. “No. Nothing. Okay, we got nothing.”

I’d say Moskowitz and AOC won the day. They have pretty clearly indicated the GOP has nothing, is wasting money, and is lying to it’s base, making claims that are simply, provably, at this point, not true. Liar, liar, and all that.

Sadly, I don’t believe for a moment that the GOP will stand down just because they have nothing. Their game is to smear Biden, not convict him of anything, and for a smear, one doesn’t need evidence. They only need innuendo, which is good because that’s all they’ve got.

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…

The MAGA Bulge…

by MyBaconPress

I don’t have any evidence of this. It’s more like a feeling, or a sense. But it feels, to me, like conservatism is making a big push right now, worldwide. It seems like they feel like NOW is their hour. The pieces are in place. They’ve corrupted Congress. They’ve corrupted the courts. They’ve undermined many institutions. They’ve caused Americans to doubt their own Constitution. Now all they’ve got to do is seal the deal.

I see the push most clearly here in the United States, obviously, but it’s all over Europe, too. Not coincidentally, where ever MAGA media reaches, there are conservatives trying to bring down democracies and representative republics – and they get just a bit more bold every day. The MAGA media message is clear. Anything and everything a conservative does is good and pure. Anything and everything anyone else does is evil, and a mistake. Cons hear it so much, they believe it. It’s pretty much the exact opposite of the truth, of course, but cons aren’t big on checking details. They accept their information on faith, and one cannot argue faith.

It just feels like the screaming is a bit louder. It feels like, they are a runner in a race and they can see the finish line, so they push just a bit harder, the classic “reaching down deep.” It feels like the entire MAGA world sees hope in Donny. They KNOW he can bring about the MAGA dream – fascist dictatorships for all. But there’s nothing subtle about Donald Trump and he has pulled their game out of the shadows and into the light. He likes to say the quite parts out loud. So they seem to be making their move. Right now? For them? It’s Donny or bust.

If rational people lose this fight, measured by Donny’s “glorious” return to the White House, we get fascism, like it or not. If we win, measured, at a minimum, as Donny NOT returning to the White House (and so, likely having to stand trial) we’ll be okay – for awhile. (Stupid doesn’t go away but it CAN be relegated to the corner for a time.)

With the ascension of Lara Trump to the leadership of the GOP, people started saying that MAGA had taken over the GOP, and it’s true. MAGA came from the extremist Libertarian movement but everybody knew Libertarians were unrealistic and downright ridiculous in many of their positions. When they infiltrated and then took control of the GOP, many members didn’t know what to make of it. They went along to get along.

But have you noticed how many of them are falling away? MAGA HAS taken over the GOP and rational, traditional conservatives have been fleeing the party in droves. MAGA is celebrating their “win,” but their base is getting smaller every day. MAGA had the numbers to foist Donny on us in the primaries but only because their primaries are closed and MAGA were the only voters. Do they have the numbers to carry the day in the general? I’m not so sure.

Look at what Ken Buck (R-Co) just did. Buck is sick and tired of the b.s. coming from MAGA. He sees that Congress has become just the dysfunctional failure MAGA wants it to be. But HE wanted to be part of a government that works and his frustration with MAGA finally led him to step down at the end of his term. This had the overall effect of reducing MAGA power in the House on it’s own. But then? He decided not to wait. He’s leaving early.

It seems the only reason he decided to leave early was to mess with MAGA moron Lauren Boebert. She was elected by Colorado’s third district but they’ve made clear; there’s no way she’s winning in the third again. So, she’s going to run in Colorado’s fourth district, instead. It’s a more conservative district. (One that, apparently, doesn’t care so much about handjobs in public at children’s plays.)

By stepping down early, Buck forced a special election, leaving Boebert in a tough spot. Does she run for the seat in the special election in the fourth? In order to do THAT, she would have to resign her seat in the third, further weakening MAGA power in the House. But if she doesn’t run in the special election, someone else gets to claim the mantle of incumbent. THEN Boebert has to run an already uphill battle against an incumbent. Even at that, she’s asking voters to vote for someone else in the special election and also vote for her in the general, against the person they just voted for, in the special. Either way, it sucks to be Boebert right now and that’s specifically because Buck walked away.

Nobody is surprised Democrats want to stop MAGA. But Buck is a Republican, doing what HE can to stop MAGA and, really, his is just the latest name in a line of Republicans who have taken a stand against MAGA. For the record, Buck says his decision had nothing to do with Boebert. But he ALSO said he’s leaving now so he can work toward improving “the caliber of the candidates running for office up and down the ballot.”

I think there are a LOT of Republicans out there who still love America, thank the gods. They’re FINALLY organizing to try and stop these crazies from breaking the nation for MAGA delusional reasons. They’re finally pushing back. It took awhile. They were trying to keep their jobs. But now they’ve realized, they’re losing their jobs, anyway, in short, leaving them nothing to lose by doing the right thing.

During the general election, will these rational Republicans vote for trump? I doubt it. I don’t think you’ll see them saying out loud they won’t vote for trump, but when they get into the voting booth? I wouldn’t expect them to vote Biden, of course, but it’s quite possible they simply skip that line. And SOME of them will, I presume, vote Biden to block.

There are cracks in the facade all over the place. I see them. You can see them. MAGA sure as heck sees them. So expect this to get louder. Expect the threats from Donny to get more extreme. Expect the voices of doom to get more shrill. Expect MAGA media lies to ramp up to all new levels of terrifying and angry. It’s their ‘Battle of the Bulge,’ the infamous desperate and final push of the Nazis near the end of WWII. It’s an all-in, last ditch effort to do or die.

I’ll tell you this: I hope that’s true. I hope that this, right now, is their final, desperate push. Because, in a sense, they’re correct. This likely IS their last, best hope for awhile. Most rational people are on to their game. We know what they want. We know what they’re about. We know what they’re willing to do to get there. But we also know what fascism is and what it looks like and NO rational people anywhere want fascism. Let us, every American, work together to make sure they don’t succeed, shall we?

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.

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

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…