To honor the fallen on Memorial day, Trump sent out hate mail. Again. Apparently, that’s how he sees holidays, as a way to hate on his “enemies.” He wrote, “Happy Memorial Day to All, including the Human Scum that is working so hard to destroy our Once Great Country…” And so on and so forth for a rambling while. Hate, anger, revenge, and lies ruled his post, and presumably, his day. In fact, from what I’ve seen hate, anger, revenge, and lies rule his entire life.

It’s not the first time he’s used a holiday to attack people, showing none of the respect the holiday deserves (“Happy Memorial Day?”) and none of the decorum decent human beings expect of those around them…

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

Well, closing arguments happened. For hours and hours, they happened. The defense was pretty quick. There’s not much to say when there is no defense.
“That guy’s a liar!” the Defense said, pointing at Cohen. “Don’t trust him.”
“Yeah,” answered the prosecution, “but he’s Trump’s liar. Trump hired him because of the things he’d do. And we’ve shown you corroborating evidence for all of it, remember? There was this and this and that and those and this and that and more of those. Why would you have to rely on Cohen? He just tied it all together for you.”

Did you see how much longer the prosecution’s answer was? That represents how the closing arguments went. The Defense was quick, with nothing to say. The Prosecution took a long time, reviewing the entire case for a jury that had taken a week off between trial and closing.

At one point, the defense got in trouble with the judge, yet again, by asking the jury if they really wanted to send an ex-President to prison. It was an effort to either induce sympathy or produce guilt. Either way, it was a cheap, emotional manipulation. The thing is, the jury doesn’t send anyone to prison. The judge determines the sentence – and I doubt Merchan will give Trump jail time, special treatment being what it is.

Merchan told us as much when Trump kept violating the gag order. Merchan said, out loud, “Mr. Trump, it’s important to understand that the last thing I want to do is to put you in jail. You are the former president of the United States and possibly the next president, as well.” He’s SUPPOSED to be a normal citizen, subject to the same laws as anyone else.

MAGA keeps pretending that it’s special treatment that keeps getting in Donald’s way, but it’s really special treatment that has kept him out of jail up until now. So don’t get your hopes up on the whole jail thing. He ain’t going. Merchan has already (kind of) said as much. Still, he’ll be a convicted Felon, unable to vote for himself in November…

The case got to the jury Wednesday, the 29th. They worked on it for several hours. As of this writing? Crickets. Nothing. Nada. (In fairness, it’s been less than one day.) There will be more deliberations today. I presume the jurors want this over with as much as anyone so they’re, likely, not mucking about…

Quick question: will it affect YOUR opinion? I know I’ll accept the verdict, either way. But one way (acquittal or hung jury) will irritate me and the other (guilty) will satisfy me. I would not want to see an innocent man go to jail. Ever. Even the guy promising to destroy the country, if he didn’t do the crime for which he stands accused.

I think the evidence supports the charge, but I’m not in the courtroom. I ALSO think nobody’s opinion about Donald Trump will change one iota. He has already poisoned MAGA’S mind on the matter, pretending Joe Biden is secretly orchestrating the whole thing, which he most assuredly is not. But on the left, we’ve pretty much decided, too. I suspect nothing will change the voter’s positions one little iota.

There’s no amount of evidence one can bring that will change the mind of a MAGA. They don’t WANT to see it so they will NOT see it. (The “NOT sees?”) So, they’ll happily vote for the Felon, if convicted. Hell, by Friday, his conviction will be a badge of honor among MAGA. “I ignored his conviction before anybody else!” Yeah, you did. Hey, we see you…

Wow, Trump’s paranoia has really ramped up recently. Have you heard the one about the paranoid ex-president who claimed the current president tried to have him assassinated? Yeah, there’s no punchline. That’s just Trump’s current, insane message.

See, in MAGA world, the raid on Mar-a-Lago was NOT a legal process to retrieve stolen government documents. It was a big, evil RAID in which, apparently, FBI agents were supposed to kill Trump.

Now, it could be that Trump is just lying to his base. His whole shtick is that he’s some kind of warrior and that everybody – and I DO mean everybody – is out to get him. The perception he wants to leave is that, because he’s still around, he must be a great warrior and nobody has been able to get him. The fact that nobody has even tried never enters into the conversation.

But I’m of the opinion that when you actually and honestly believe that everybody around you is against you and out to get you, that’s paranoia. So, he’s either lying through his lying teeth or he’s suffering from paranoid delusions.

During the execution of that warrant, the FBI had followed a standard use-of-force policy. It prohibits the use of deadly force except when the officer(s) conducting the search has a reasonable belief that the “subject of such force poses an imminent danger of death or serious physical injury to the officer or to another person”. In other words, if someone threatens a law enforcement officer while the officer is executing a warrant, the officer can defend himself.

But you DID catch that bit in there, didn’t you? The part where it prohibits the use of deadly force except to defend themselves. THAT means the FBI wasn’t going in “locked and loaded” as Trump lies and they were specifically NOT “authorized to shoot” him – unless he attacked them first. Interestingly, if his thoughts about perfect presidential immunity were anywhere near true, he wouldn’t be able to stop them if that’s what they were told to do. The FBI is FAR more efficient than Donny’s letting on.

Trump wasn’t even AT Mar-a-Lago the day the warrant was executed and that was by design. Their whole process had been coordinated with the Secret Service. If their goal had been to kill the guy, that’s some terrible planning.
“Hey, we have orders to go to that guy’s house and kill him.”
“When?”
“Sometime when he’s not home seems best…”
“I’ll set it up.”

But, of course, his paranoid rantings could put the lives of FBI agents in danger if some MAGA-minded moron decided to act on Donny’s delusions. So, Jack Smith’s team has asked the judge in the case, Aileen “Loose” Cannon, to stop Trump from making those claims, in view of how false they are and the danger he now poses to FBI agents.

In their filing, they wrote, “Trump’s repeated mischaracterization of these facts in widely distributed messages as an attempt to kill him, his family and secret service agents has endangered law enforcement officers involved in the investigation and prosecution of this case and threatened the integrity of these proceedings.” Cannon pretends she doesn’t understand things so she can make rulings favorable to Donny, so the prosecutors added, “A restriction prohibiting future similar statements does not restrict legitimate speech.”

The problem is, Cannon was nominated to the bench by Trump and she dearly, desperately wants to protect his paranoid, snowflake self. I doubt she’ll grant Smith’s request but it’s yet another log on the fire of her appearance of incompetence. Sooner or later, Smith has to move to force her recusal, and this decision will be part of that action if she ignores reality in favor of her preferred paradigm…

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

I really DO NOT like moving house. It’s a LOT of work. One comes face-to-face with all kinds of things one meant to get to, but hasn’t yet. It’s very disruptive to the daily routine. It takes months for life to settle back to some semblance of “normal.”

Nevertheless, that’s what I’m doing. Moving house. Yes, again. The last one was less than two years ago. Some of those boxes were still not unpacked. (That turns out to have been a blessing at this point.) This, of course, is all the result of out-of-control housing costs. We’re combining resources with one of our kids to make life more livable for all of us.

The reason I mention it is, it will likely affect my ability to publish next week. I can’t say for sure. If all goes well, the move might seem seamless (to you) but I have…concerns. So, I’m letting you know that if I don’t publish next Thursday, Saturday, Sunday, or Monday, it’s because of that. Stay with me. I’ll be back…

So, do you think it helped or hurt the case when defense witness Robert Costello threw a temper tantrum in front of the jury? Is THAT how we’re supposed to offer defense? Throw a fit? Should he have spit at the judge, punched the bailiff, and called the jury ugly, too? I guess decorum is too much to ask from MAGA.

The way I see it, the case was built around Michael Cohen. Cohen is what you might call a “problem witness.” He’s essentially a rat. But that’s how these cases break. Rats run with rats. One of the rats has to turn on another – but they’re still rats. So the prosecution didn’t ask the jury to take Cohen’s word for anything. The prosecution showed the evidence. They brought in supporting witnesses to detail the crime. THEN, they brought in Cohen.

But they didn’t just introduce Cohen. First, they made clear that Cohen has done many terrible things for trump and has lied and lied and lied some more. Prosecutors told the jury they didn’t have to trust Cohen. He was just there to tie all the loose ends together on the evidence the jury had already seen.

The defense has gone with the “he’s a liar and a rat” argument anyway. You can’t trust Cohen, they say, he’s a liar. But the jury knows that. AND they know they don’t have to “trust” Cohen. The evidence was proven before he even took the stand. Tearing at Cohen’s already tattered reputation doesn’t seem like it’s going to do much good.

But as it turns out, Costello wasn’t a genuine witness. He was a stall. By leaving open the question of whether or not Donny would testify (he didn’t) and by having this “witness,” the defense sort of tricked Judge Merchan into setting the closing arguments for next week. Had they NOT brought on their disastrous last witness and been honest that Donny wasn’t going anywhere NEAR that stand, closing arguments could have been THIS week. The jury could have had the case by Friday. Donny could have been a convicted felon by this week’s end.

It got weird right at the end, though. Costello was supposed to show that Cohen was a liar. Instead, the prosecutor managed to prove Costello, himself, lied on the stand during his testimony. Quick question: Costello is an attorney, at least ostensibly. Courts might let a lie go from Joe Citizen, but for an officer of the court to knowingly lie, under oath, in court? Do you think there will be charges coming?

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

Have you heard that MAGA Mike and other extremist House members have made it against the rules to criticize Donald Trump on the House floor? They enforce it even if one makes a statement of fact that doesn’t particularly shine brightly on the trumpster. (Which is just about any verifiable fact that can be made about him…)

Full disclosure, the rule is actually that no one is allowed to criticize a current candidate for President on the House floor. Do you think MAGA will enforce the rule if another MAGA gets up and criticizes Biden? Have you not been paying attention? Hypocrisy is MAGA stock-in-trade. This rule is about protecting Donny’s soft, snowflake self.

From Rolling Stone: ‘On Tuesday, House Republicans voted to strike down comments made by Rep. Jim McGovern (D-Mass.) during a floor debate. What was McGovern’s great parliamentary offense? Pointing out that the former president is facing a myriad of criminal indictments, and has already been found liable for sexual assault in a civil fraud trial. 

“We have a presumptive nominee for president facing 88 felony counts, and we’re being prevented from even acknowledging it,” McGovern said. “These are not alternative facts. These are real facts.” 

McGovern went on to list out several of the criminal and civil cases against Trump, including that he is currently “on trial for sending a hush money payment to a porn star to avoid a sex scandal during his 2016 campaign, and then fraudulently disguising those payments in violation of the law,” and that he’s also charged with conspiring to overturn the election and stealing classified material, and that “a jury has already found him liable for rape in a civil court.”‘

He was admonished. As he tried to push back – the First Amendment being what it is and all – MAGA snowflake Rep. Erin Houchin (R-Ind.), terrified of facts, swooned and, while dramatically rending her garments, demanded that McGovern’s statement be taken down and stricken from the record. That’s a sanction and it prevented McGovern from speaking on the floor for the rest of the day. Who can be surprised that the party constantly whining about some imaginary threat to their Constitutional rights would be the people lining up to take rights from Americans?

I’ll tell you this: the rule should chill you to the core. Only being allowed to say nice things about ‘Dear Leader’ is VERY North Korean. These guys KNOW their guy is indefensible – so they just make it against the rules to say anything they might want to defend against. Thought police, anyone?

I think Donny thinks he’s losing votes to RFK, Jr. Kennedy was supposed to be a Biden spoiler but he’s a pretty conservative guy. He doesn’t appeal to the left. His own, very liberal family, has dismissed him. But he does seem to have an appeal on the right and that worries the trumpster. That explains why Donny used a few minutes at his Dallas rally to brand RFK, Jr a “radical left” guy.

The radical right likes to pretend there’s some, lurking radical left movement out there as the distraction to their radical right agenda. But “radical left” would mean communism. I don’t know any communists. I don’t know anyone seriously pushing for communism. The only people even thinking about communism belong to the radical right. These days, a middle-of-the road, mainstream liberal is viewed as “radical left” by the radical right. We live in a crazy world…

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

Bill Maher has lost his objectivity when it comes to Israel, assuming he ever had any to begin with. He had a guest on his last show, Michael Eric Dyson. Dyson is a professor in the College of Arts and Science and in the Divinity School at Vanderbilt University. Dyson challenged Maher’s one-sided view of the war in Gaza. Maher seemed to lose it a bit and actually gave away his lack of balance with one exchange.

After slapping down efforts to turn criticism for the Israeli government into some kind of antisemitism, Dyson explained that the campus protests were mostly about the indiscriminate killing of civilians in Gaza. Maher thought he had Dyson there, “Tell me one war where civilians aren’t killed!” Wow!

So, setting aside the Geneva conventions rules about NOT killing non-combatants in war, and certainly NOT targeting non-combatants in war, Maher’s answer kind of waters down his own complaint about October 7, doesn’t it? Hamas launched rockets into Israel along with a simultaneous attack aimed at civilians. 1,200 Israelis died. That’s the basis for the actions Israel is taking in Gaza.

But couldn’t it be dismissed using Maher’s own “logic?” Oh, Hamas attacked civilians on October 7? Oh, well, tell me one war where civilians aren’t killed. I think old Bill would be apoplectic if someone said that to him about the Israeli civilians. I suspect he would answer that there was no war when Hamas attacked. I’m not sure I agree with that, either.

To my mind, that region has been at war since at least 1947. Sometimes the war is hot. Sometimes the war is cold. But the war continues. I wish they would ALL stop killing each other but that doesn’t look like it’s going to happen any time soon, so my next best choice is that the US should NOT be an active participant in the killing. At the very least, we should stop supplying weapons…

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

I’ve seen articles from both sides of the aisle in which the author tries to predict the outcome of Donny’s embezzlement trial, called the ‘Hush money to porn star’ trial because that’s more sensationalistic.

The right thinks the prosecution messed up by not bringing in Allen Weiselberg, Donny’s long-time CEO, to testify. They don’t think Michael Cohen carried the day and the prosecution needs just a little bit more if they want the conviction.

The left thinks Cohen comported himself well and landed enough blows to deal serious damage to Donny. The left thinks that because the prosecution basically proved everything Cohen had to say before Cohen even said it, Cohen’s testimony tied up the loose ends nicely.

The defense cross-examination of Cohen continues but that’s mostly because the defense wanted the jury to have the cross-examination they had done to that point to stay in the jury’s minds over the weekend. The defense is focused on the many terrible things Cohen did to people while he was serving as Donny’s “fixer.” I think the goal is to show Cohen’s unsavory past. But the jury already knows all about it because the prosecution told them.

I think pointing out immoral things Cohen did for trump is a risky move. Yes, Cohen did those things and that’s bad. But…the “for trump” part kind of shines a negative light on Donny, too. The cross-examination is expected to end soon. Word is, the trump team is not planning to put on a defense, but that’s not set in stone, yet. Donny keeps pretending he might testify. I doubt he will. I’m not sure how ranting about losing the 2020 election is going to help his case in any way.

The defense doesn’t have to present a case. The burden of proof is on the prosecution and if the defense feels the prosecution hasn’t made their case, THAT’S what they argue – and they don’t even need a defense. That’s very convenient, considering Donny HAS no defense in the matter.

Judge Merchan has said it has “become apparent that we’re not going to be able to sum up tomorrow.” He has said closing arguments will be next Tuesday, the 28th of May. Then we wait on the jury. How LONG we wait on the jury is strictly up to them…

Oh, Rudy. (Giuliani, of course.) He got just a little ahead of himself Friday. He posted in social media that if Arizona authorities couldn’t find him by midnight, they “must dismiss the indictment” and “concede they can’t count votes.” Ha, ha, zinger, right? He was at a celebration of his 80th birthday. I think he was having a good time and decided to show off a bit by sticking it to Arizona. What fun!

Then, as he was leaving the party? He was served. He is facing conspiracy, fraud, and forgery charges in connection with the fake elector scheme, one of the many lies in the MAGA cavalcade of lies. Shortly thereafter, his ‘taunt Arizona’ post was removed. He was the last to be served in the matter. Has he been hiding? Well, he’s served now. Of course, he looks “forward to full vindication soon,” which is the classic line criminals use after they’ve been caught but before they’re convicted…

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

Everything every MAGA says about the 2020 election is a lie. Everything. All of them, from the very top to the lowest pustule, are lying. Donny, MAGA media, toadies, MAGA members of Congress, and rank-and-file base, all of them. They all know Biden won, fair and square. They don’t care. They keep pretending that if they don’t confess it, they might still pull it off.

People like me have been fighting back as we could, matching fact against fiction, fact against fiction, fact against fiction in a vain attempt to convince MAGA rank and file that they’ve been deceived. But the stories continue to flow. They WANT to preserve the lie, so they lie. (Some of them claim to be Christians. They’ll look you right in the eye and lie to your face. That’s a violation of God’s law, ‘Thou shalt not bear false witness.’ MAGA doesn’t hesitate to lie anyway, making clear they don’t give two figs about their God’s law.)

The reason it’s important is this: they’re already lying about the 2024 election and they’re not going to stop. They NEED the lie if they do plan to actually follow through with their January 3 coup attempt, and MAGA Mike Johnson showing up to publicly fluff Donny at Donny’s trial has resurrected my concern. (MAGA Mike is a key player in the scheme.) The rest of us need to take a page from 2020. We KNOW they’re lying. We need to call them out on it. No more trying to convince. Just a straight up challenge.

“Bring the evidence or I’ll know you’re lying.” Just that sentence. When they try to obfuscate, “Bring the evidence or I’ll know you’re lying.” When they try whataboutism, “Bring the evidence or I’ll know you’re lying.” When they call you names, “Bring the evidence or I’ll know you’re lying.” Stay on point. Don’t let them distract you.

Just know – and trust – they they are lying. This will be the most scrutinized election in history. Our biggest problem is going to be MAGA who managed to slither into positions of import regarding the elections and might interfere. But remember, the people caught trying to steal elections or tamper with machines or cast multiple votes are MAGA. Always MAGA. The only problems with the last election were caused by MAGA and the only problems with the next election will come from MAGA, too. But they’ll be lying…

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

Donny is trying to slither out of the debates already. He has said he was going to insist on drug tests before the debate. This is yet another MAGA story. They tell themselves over and over that Biden is incompetent and can’t speak. Then, he gave the State of the Union address and it was a VERY well done, VERY articulate speech. Due to their own limitations, MAGA can only acknowledge it was a great speech with a backhand. “He must have been on drugs,” they say. The quiet part is, “…because he did a very good job.” So now it’s MAGA dogma that Biden used drugs to prop himself up in that effort so he’ll use drugs to prop himself up for the debates.

I think Biden should accept the challenge. Drug tests for BOTH candidates, with full screenings and a complete list of drugs found in BOTH candidates systems would be very enlightening, would it not? MAGA has rumors that maybe Biden was using drugs to up his game. Thinking Americans have records proving that Trump’s White House was awash in drugs.

I’ll tell you this: I think Trump is bluffing. It doesn’t even matter if Biden WAS using drugs to up his game. He’ll never have to follow through. When trump realizes that he, too, would be required to test, he’ll drop the whole thing…

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

I saw video from a March 24 rally in Ohio the other day of Trump bitching about the teleprompter and how it wasn’t working well for him. “Don’t pay these suckers,” he said. (As if he pays anybody…) But wait. If I remember correctly, among MAGA claims of trump superiority is that Biden has to use a teleprompter and Donny doesn’t. But now, everyone knows Donny uses one, too! It begs the question, is there anything MAGA is honest about? Anything at all? I’ll wait…

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

Donny got booed the other day. By MAGA. They booed him. He had taken the day off to attend his son’s graduation, which he did. Then, he had time for a couple of campaign events, one in Minnesota and the other at an NRA rally in Dallas. For reasons as yet unrevealed, he kept the NRA rally waiting for over two hours before taking the stage. What a Prima Donna, or in his case, a Prima Donny. The crowd didn’t like it, but they DID stay.

The reward for their patience? They got to witness Donny glitch out like Moscow Mitch does from time to time. He had been blathering his MAGA blather for about an hour when he suddenly stopped talking. He didn’t freeze. He just… stopped. He stood quietly for a little over thirty seconds. No one knows what was going on. He shook his head a little. It looked to me like the kind of head shake a pitcher gives a catcher when he’s shaking off a suggested pitch. It was weird.

To me, it suggests the possibility that Donny uses a hidden ear piece and he either wasn’t receiving, or he didn’t like what he was receiving. The other possibility is that he just… stalled. He’s not going to confess to either one, though. He doesn’t confess error and he certainly wouldn’t confess his failing mind.

MAGA will come up with an excuse for him. They’ve already called it a dramatic pause for the music but there was nothing special about the music and there was nothing dramatic about the pause. He just looked lost. So first he makes them wait, then he glitches and won’t explain. He’s disrespecting his own base but they don’t care – and neither does he.

He needs their money and their votes but mostly their money. After that, he doesn’t want to hear from them…