;)
The Conversation -- June 2, 2024
National Crime Blotter
A Crowd of Deplorable Men Cheers Trump. Shawn McCreesh of the New York Times: "Sixteen thousand people erupted into rapture when Donald J. Trump walked into the Prudential Center in Newark at 10 p.m. Saturday to attend an Ultimate Fighting Championship match. He stayed until the grisly end, at 1:15 a.m.... He walked out to Kid Rock's 'American Bad Ass,' a rock-rap trailer park anthem that ... has become the unofficial soundtrack of Mr. Trump's quest to recapture the White House.... A moment after Mr. Trump took his seat, the stadium took up a spontaneous chant of President Biden's name preceded by an expletive.... Mr. Trump had designed his appearance on Saturday as a reset -- cheaper than staging a campaign rally and possibly just as effective in casting him as a persecuted hero. His campaign quickly cut his triumphant march into the arena into a video that it used to launch his new TikTok account.... The crowd ... was almost entirely male."
Bloodshed, He Wrote. Rachel Leingang of the Guardian: A user wrote to right-wing talkshow host Dan Bongino, "'I see no way out of all this mess without bloodshed. When you can rig an election, then weaponize the government and the courts against a former President, what other alternative is there? I'm almost 70 and would rather die than live in tyranny.' That's a common version of how many people on the US right reacted to th Trump verdict, drawing on a 'mirror world' where Trump is seen as the selfless martyr to powerful state forces and Joe Biden is the dangerous autocrat wielding the justice system as his own personal plaything and a threat to American democracy. Calls for revenge, retribution and violence littered the rightwing internet as soon as Trump's guilty verdict came down.... Some posted online explicitly saying it was time for hangings, executions and civil wars.... For some, the convictions provide another reason to take matters into their own hands during a time when support for using violence to achieve political goals is on the rise."
Mariana Alfaro of the Washington Post: In an interview that aired Sunday, "... Donald Trump ... told Fox News that he never called for his 2016 presidential campaign rival, Hillary Clinton, to be sent to jail.... 'I didn't say "lock her up," but the people said lock her up, lock her up,' Trump said.... However, there are several instances in which Trump did agree with calls for Clinton's jailing.... 'Every time I mention her, everyone screams, "Lock her up, lock her up,"' Trump told the crowd. 'You know what, I'm starting to agree with you.' In the weeks before the 2016 election, Trump even said he would appoint a special prosecutor to investigate Clinton and seek to put her in jail for her use of the private email server.... In September 2020, Trump said 'I agree' during chants to lock up Clinton.
Glenn Thrush of the New York Times: "Hunter Biden will go on trial on gun charges on Monday in Delaware within walking distance of his father's campaign headquarters in Wilmington, less than a week after ... Donald J. Trump's felony conviction in New York.... It is relatively rare for such gun charges to be brought against a first-time, nonviolent offender like Mr. Biden.... [Another trial], set to begin in September, involves a series of tax offenses related to his failure to file returns for a number of years.... The spectacle of Hunter Biden's trial, and its timing, creates significant headaches for President Biden's campaign, as it seeks to maximize the effect of Mr. Trump's conviction...."
~~~ Michael Cavna of the Washington Post reviews political cartoonists' takes on Donald Trump's criminal convictions.
Not So Funny. Peter Baker of the New York Times: "The question of how to create an empowered executive without making him an unaccountable monarch absorbed the framers when they designed the Constitution.... [But] as hard as they worked to establish checks and balances, the system they constructed to hold wayward presidents accountable ultimately has proved to be unsteady.... The notion that 34 felonies is not automatically disqualifying and a convicted criminal can be a viable candidate for commander in chief upends two and a half centuries of assumptions about American democracy. And it raises fundamental questions about the limits of power in a second term, should Mr. Trump be returned to office. If he wins, it means he will have survived two impeachments, four criminal indictments, civil judgments for sexual abuse and business fraud, and a felony conviction. Given that, it would be hard to imagine what institutional deterrents could discourage abuses or excesses.... After leaving office, he advocated 'termination' of the Constitution to allow him to return to power right away without another election and vowed to dedicate a second term to 'retribution.'"
Ben Protess, et al., of the New York Times: Donald Trump "has already outlined a plan to appeal a verdict that on Friday he labeled 'a scam.' But ... several legal experts cast doubt on his chances of success, and noted that the case could take years to snake through the courts.... Appeals courts typically frown upon overturning jury decisions, barring some glaring error or misconduct." The reporters outline some of the possible bases for appeals. ~~~
~~~ Marie: There are many reasons Felonious Don will not serve jail time. Because he is (legally, if not actually) a first-time offender, the judge very well could let him off with a suspended sentence or no jail sentence at all. Trump could win a New York state appeal overturning his conviction. Trump -- and the court system -- could delay his incarceration with endless appeals till the day he dies or becomes too ill and enfeebled to live in jail. The Supreme Trumplodytes could step in and overturn his conviction. Trump could become president* again -- or president* for life -- and delay incarceration. Trump could abscond to a country that won't extradite him. I don't expect Donald Trump to go to jail, but I do think Justice Merchan could sentence him in such a way that he would end up under the court's supervision for the rest of his life as he negotiates maneuvers to avoid jail time.
Reid Epstein & Nicholas Nehamas of the New York Times: "Post-verdict interviews with more than 50 Democrats -- including current and former members of Congress, statewide elected officials, veteran strategists, Democratic National Committee members and local officials -- revealed a party hungry to tell voters that Mr. Trump's conviction makes him unfit and worried that [President] Biden might not use the bully pulpit of the presidency to press that argument.... [Many] Democrats were much less cautious [that Mr. Biden], and happy to say what Mr. Biden did not. 'That Trump paid hush money to a porn star and jurors found he falsified business records to cover it up is just one short, tawdry chapter of a much bigger story: Trump is an aspiring tyrant who intends to rule, not lead, the United States,' said Senator Jon Ossoff of Georgia.... Mr. Biden's comments on Friday about the conviction indicated that he plans to stick with his strategy: Leave the most biting attacks on Trump's legal troubles to allies and outside groups while emphasizing the rule of law." ~~~
~~~ MEANWHILE. Lisa Mascaro & Mary Jalonick of the AP: "Embracing Donald Trump's strategy of blaming the U.S. justice system after his historic guilty verdict, Republicans in Congress are fervently enlisting themselves in his campaign of vengeance and political retribution as the GOP runs to reclaim the White House. Almost no Republican official has stood up to suggest Trump should not be the party's presidential candidate for the November election -- in fact, some have sought to hasten his nomination. Few others dared to defend the legitimacy of the New York state court that heard the hush money case or the 12 jurors who unanimously rendered their verdict.... The swift, strident and deepening commitment to Trump despite his felony conviction shows how fully Republican leaders and lawmakers have been infused with his unfounded grievances of a 'rigged' system and dangerous conspiracies of 'weaponized' government, using them in their own attacks on President Joe Biden and the Democrats."
Ruth Marcus, Karen Tumulty & Dana Milbank of the Washington Post discuss the implications of the crimes Donald Trump committed.
Maureen Dowd of the New York Times -- and her siblings -- have some thoughts about Trump's criminal conviction and his toadies' reactions to it. "The party of law and order evidently doesn't like any law it didn't order." (Also linked yesterday.)
Lois Beckett of the Guardian: "Donald Trump has spent years complaining that American police and the criminal legal system should be 'very much tougher', arguing that some criminals should not be protected by civil liberties, police should rough up suspects and a much wider range of people should face the death penalty for breaking the law.... Here's a recap of some of Trump's notable comments about 'felons' and 'criminals' -- and a look at how the convict himself has actually been treated." The contrast between the harsh treatment Trump recommends for felons and the kid gloves with which he has been treated is remarkable. Yet he's still a whiney baby as are his supporters.
~~~ Watch to the end (or at least watch the end). Thanks to RAS for the link.
This would be a good time to give some attention to one of the heroes of the day: Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg:
~~~ Here's a New York Times profile of him, by Michael Gold & Jonah Bromwich, dated April 13, 2023. ~~~
~~~ Shayna Jacobs of the Washington Post writes that the verdict vindicates Alvin Bragg, who "had weathered a tide of criticism for bringing charges against" Trump.
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Montana. Jonathan Weisman of the New York Times: "Law enforcement officers say they were pressured to lie when Gov. Greg Gianforte of Montana killed a [trapped] black wolf in 2021.... [Initially,] Mr. Gianforte was recorded as the killer of the animal ... and given a warning for not having taken a required trapping course. A spokeswoman for the governor said Mr. Gianforte had 'immediately rectified the mistake' by taking the course. A spokesman for the department said at the time that the matter had been handled as it would have been for anyone.... Law enforcement officers involved with recording Mr. Gianforte's wolf ... now say the procedures were anything put typical. They say that officials leaned on them to record the governor's hunting buddy, rather than governor himself, as the shooter..., and that the officials bristled when the [game] warden and his boss refused.... [After that, rumors disparaging the head of law enforcement for Montana's Fish, Wildlife & Parks Department, Dave Loewen, began to circulate. The department put Loewen on administrative leave.] Since the Montana Legislature was in session in Helena, the capital, at the time of Mr. Gianforte's kill, wolf experts doubt the governor could have set the trap and then made the 177-mile trip to shoot the wolf quickly enough to satisfy regulations designed to minimize suffering. [Gianforte, who should have received a fine and lost his hunting license, received neither punishment.]" ~~~
~~~ Marie: Weisman does mention that Gianforte is a dick. Well, he puts it more politely, writing that he is "a famously temperamental man who in 2017 was sentenced to 40 hours of community service and 20 hours of anger-management classes for assaulting a reporter the night before he won a seat in the House of Representatives." Gianforte body-slammed a Guardian reporter, knocking him to floor and breaking his glasses because the reporter asked the candidate a standard question about healthcare policy.
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China. The Far Side of the Moon. Liz Lee, et al., of Reuters: "China landed an uncrewed spacecraft on the far side of the moon on Sunday, overcoming a key hurdle in its landmark mission to retrieve the world's first rock and soil samples from the dark lunar hemisphere.... The successful mission is China's second on the far side of the moon, a region no other country has reached. The side of the moon perpetually facing away from the Earth is dotted with deep and dark craters, making communications and robotic landing operations more challenging."
Israel/Palestine, et al.
The New York Times' live updates of developments Sunday in the Israel/Hamas war are here.
Aaron Boxerman of the New York Times: "A day after President Biden called on Israel and Hamas to reach a truce, declaring that it was 'time for this war to end,' Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Saturday reiterated that Israel would not agree to a permanent cease-fire in Gaza as long as Hamas still retains governing and military power. In his statement, Mr. Netanyahu did not explicitly endorse or reject a proposed cease-fire plan that Mr. Biden had laid out in an unusually detailed address on Friday. Two Israeli officials confirmed that Mr. Biden's proposal matched an Israeli cease-fire proposal that had been greenlit by Israel's war cabinet.... 'Israel's conditions for ending the war have not changed: the destruction of Hamas's military and governing capabilities, the freeing of all hostages and ensuring that Gaza no longer poses a threat to Israel,' Mr. Netanyahu's office said in the statement released on Saturday morning." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~
~~~ Here are President Biden's remarks, as delivered, regarding the Israel/Hamas peace plan. Via the White House. Includes his brief remarks, at the top, regarding the criminal conviction of Donald Trump. (Also linked yesterday.)
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Reader Comments (11)
Seattle Times
"It turns out Washington has a law on the books against convicted felons running for office.
Any registered voter can “challenge the right of a candidate to appear on the general election ballot” for any of five causes, state law says. One of those causes is flashing in bold neon lights today: “Because the person whose right is being contested was, previous to the election, convicted of a felony by a court of competent jurisdiction, the conviction not having been reversed nor the person’s civil rights restored after the conviction.”"
I'm sure the SC will take their time when this comes up after the convention.
RAS,
Interesting, but it's not as if the Pretender has a snowball's chance here in this very blue state.
Now, if it were only Ohio...
@RAS & @Ken Winkes:
Calling John Eastman.
Unfortunately, this is an easy one. States can't impose general requirements on candidates for federal office other than those that appear in the Constitution.
They can and do, however, impose filing requirements that make it hard for independent general election candidates and primary candidates to get on their ballots.
It seems to me we've just let states "get away with" imposing additional requirements on ballot access. No doubt this "tradition" is related to the "tradition" -- developed over time -- of holding presidential elections in the first place. The Constitution requires only that states appoint presidential electors, not that they hold popular elections to choose the electors. I refer you to the infamous case of Bush v. Gore, which -- ha ha -- was not supposed to set precedent. But still, the Constitution Center writes,
"We have no uniform national system for appointing Electors, which means the legislatures do not have to consult the public at all. When members of the Florida legislature in 2000 threatened to abandon the results of the statewide popular contest and appoint Electors for a particular candidate, the Supreme Court in Bush v. Gore (2000) appeared to endorse their power to do so by denying that citizens have a constitutional right to vote in presidential elections. As the majority put it, 'The individual citizen has no federal constitutional right to vote for Electors for the President of the United States. . .' When it comes to presidential elections, the voters are at the mercy of the state legislatures."
I'm still laughing about the 8 Republican senators saying they would try to slow down the Senate's business in response to the verdict. How does one slow down from doing anything of consequense??
Marie,
The shenanigans and scurrilous scheming surrounding electors attempted by Party of Traitor acolytes of the convicted felon Trump are just more examples of how Republicans look for loopholes they can make use of in subverting the will of the people in their eternal goal of kneecapping democracy. The fake elector scheme put forward in an effort to steal the last election and install a fat fascist as president was barely avoided.
The updates to the Electoral Count Act have temporarily put a stop to that particular scheme, but as we saw with the attempt in Ohio to keep Joe Biden’s name off the ballot, via some piddly-ass local technicality, the traitors continue to run around, like dogs sniffing for tidbits on the ground, looking for similar loopholes they can drive their trucks of treason through.
The fake elector scheme is done for (we hope), but never doubt that scumbags like Eastman and an entire phalanx of Federalist Society legalistic connivers are scrounging up dozens of new and ever sneakier ways to get what they want.
Just look at the Loose Cannon’s latest barrage against national security. Hard on the heels of Trump’s latest lie about being the target of assassination, a lie, like all of his baseless, dangerous claims, that could trigger MAGA nuts to pick up guns and help him out (this actually happened after he accused the FBI of planting evidence at Marred a Lardo), Jack Smith filed a motion with Cannon to prevent that fat fuck from issuing any further lies connected to his theft of national secrets.
Smith was obliged, under Florida law (Florida law being one of the more obvious oxymorons these days) to confer with Fatty’s mouthpieces. He tried. They whined that taking time to talk to Smith would interfere with their weekend barbecues and golf games. “Get back to us next year” they mewled. Smith said “Fuck that. Lives are at stake. People could get killed. I tried, now I’m filing.”
Now, one of the requirements of being a judge is the ability to balance the various interests of the parties. This case involves national defense secrets and could endanger not just the greater interests of the nation but the lives of men and women on the ground. Cannon could take that into account. But nooooo…her primary interest—and clear goal—is to help Trump avoid a trial at all costs, and giving short shrift (actually no shrift) to National security. And so instead of saying “Okay, Jack, you have a point, but let’s get everyone together asap to talk about this”, she whacked Smith and the justice department for not being nice to Fatty’s lawyers whose goal is to drag this out as long as possible, and she relied on the language of some piddly-ass local technicality to get her (and Trump’s) way.
This is an ongoing initiative by the traitors, and for every loophole that gets closed, they’ll find five more they can sneak through.
The rats find all the holes.
Forrest,
You mean slow it down any further? How does one go slower than a dead stop?
Guardian
"Revenge: analysis of Trump posts shows relentless focus on punishing enemies
Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington documents former president’s threats against perceived political opponents"
Pride Month
"Study: Same-sex marriage in 20 years had no negative effects"
@Akhilleus: Cannon's behavior re: the safety of FBI agents is inexcusable and, frankly, inexplicable. If Trump had claimed Cannon had put a hit on him, would she dilly-dally and make up fake excuses to delay or perhaps deny an application to tell Trump to STFU? I don't think so.
I was dismayed when I felt as if I were nearly alone in running around with my hair on fire after Trump, MTG and others claimed Biden had tried to assassinate him. However, after several days, others were talking about it and in less than a week, Smith's team filed the motion that Cannon denied. Andrew Weissmann said this weekend that he had never seen his podcast partner Mary McCord, a former national security lawyer, as upset as she was about Trump's assassination claim. So I'm no longer alone.
To me it is not only possible but likely that one or more of Trump's fans will believe Trump and try to assassinate President Biden to "prevent" Biden from assassinating Trump. It's not surprising, I guess, that right-wing "reporters" first aired the false claim about Biden's orders to to shoot Trump, but it's unconscionable for a former public official* and current members of Congress to make such inflammatory claims.
They are so close to flat-out asking someone to shoot Biden that I think the FBI should haul them all in for a "briefing" in which they come as close as legally possible to ordering these miscreants to retract their lies about the assassination attempt. If FBI personnel can't embarrass these clowns into retracting their claims, then I think the DOJ should bring some kind of incitement charges against them. These people are truly dangerous.
Satan’s Grand Ball
This happens to be the title of a chapter in a wild ride of a novel I’m reading right now. This book, “The Master and Margarita”, is a retooling of the Faust legend by the Russian writer Mikhail Bulgakov, written in the 30’s as Stalin’s Great Purge was getting going. It’s a surrealistic symphony of a novel worked up with that classic Russian symbiotic combination of fatalism and black humor.
In this particular chapter, Satan throws a big party. The guests in attendance constitute a horde of deplorables, connivers, liars, and scumbags that resemble nothing so much as a CPAC clambake.
There’s a long litany of horribles come to genuflect before Satan. At one point Bulgakov introduces someone responsible for poisoning hundreds of innocents, then a guy who weaseled his way to political power only to turn traitor. Next a king who allowed his country to fall into chaos and ruin by pursuing his sole interest in the study of alchemy to enrich himself. He is followed by a crazy woman who destroyed others with false tales of fictional horrors, then a slimeball who lured young girls into prostitution. I thought, at this point, that Bulgakov could have saved time by introducing Trump, MTG, and Gaetz. Why waste time listing dozens of wicked evildoers when you can tick off a handful of MAGA rats?
Hell, Trump poisoned way more than hundreds. He was responsible for millions of deaths.
Satan has competition. Fortunately for readers of this book, Bulgakov’s Satan is a more interesting character than convicted felon Trump.
By the way, doing a bit of Wikipedia-ing, I learned that “The Master and Margarita” was the inspiration for one of the Rolling Stones’ best songs. Early on in the book, Satan lets on that he was present for all sorts of horrible happenings. I thought “Hmmm…that sounds like ‘Sympathy for the Devil’”. Sure enough, Mick Jagger credits his reading of this book with the idea for that song.
Bar bet material, for sure.
Had Mick waited, he could have added the election of the Donald to Satan’s truiuphs.
Jennifer Rubin lays it out:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2024/06/02/alito-letter-flags-controversy/