Thoughts on Trump Indictments

I find writing helps. Thoughts bounce around up there. Then I feel better. This is just my “notebook.”

Bernie and Me

Bernie and I did not indict Trump.

A word about the Democratic Party.

They’re going to pretend that this is all about the Democratic Party.

They’re screaming about Democrats already, as if the Democratic Party had anything whatsoever to do with Trump’s current legal problems:

Did the Democratic Party cause Trump’s private company to commit insurance fraud in NY? For decades?

Did the Democratic Party cause Trump to direct his firm to cheat on his taxes, numerous felonies? No.

Did the Far Left Democrats cause Trump to assault that woman? I don’t believe so.

The Democratic Party may have had to do with a provision that allowed the woman to bring suit, but still. She won her case. Trump presented no defense…because of the Far Left?

Did the Democratic Party suggest he get entangled in a stupid dispute with the National Archives and cause him to bullshit federal counterintelligence agents when they politely asked for our stuff back? No.

The Democratic Party had no power in those situations, and Trump knew NY was Democratic when he did his crimes there. So yes, Bragg might be Democrat, but does that mean it’s unfair for Trump to be indicted for crimes, or that malfeasance should be ignored? Because …huh?

No. Let’s look back.

The Democratic Party did not impeach Trump for Russia. That did not happen.

There were a few calls and resolutions to impeach Trump for the Russia thing but Speaker Pelosi repeatedly refused and the majority of the party did not support it.

The Democraticic Party refused to impeach Trump for Russia. Repeatedly refused. Adamantly opposed the idea.

Also.

The Democratic Party did not issue the Mueller Report. Mueller was appointed by the Trump Administration and answered to Trump’s appointed Attorney General. He was in the Trump Administration, acting independently and silently. Mueller did not promote any findings, did not publicize , did not say one word about Donald Trump and did not charge or indict or in any way defame him for any crimes.

Mueller refused to cooperate with the Democratic Party doing its own inquiry, and its inquiry had no real impact on the political support for Trump. No minds were changed by the Democrats’ inquiry into Russia. Trump knew that he benefited by himself flogging the issue daily for donations and publicity.

So Trump a victim?

No. That’s a joke.

No, he’s not a victim of the Democratic Party.
I’m Far Left and Bernie and me had nuthin to do with any of this.

Here come the rabid Democratic wolves to eat up the Trump campaign!

They’re saying Democrats are ruthless “bandits” but wait: Al Gore, conceded after the Supreme Court decision though he disagreed; John Kerry immediately conceded; Hillary Clinton immediately conceded. So that’s pretty rapacious presidential politics in the last 23 years! Also were denied a constitutionally mandated seat on the Supreme Court zzzz. Etc. terrifying!

***

I can’t resist writing, I find it helpful. This is just my “notebook.”

The One He Forgot

I find details fascinating and as a Watergate kid I’m watching indictments closely.

I noticed something tonight.

Trump spoke at Georgia, (one day after being indicted for national security crimes) and as usual he attacked America, his political opponents, everyone in every country- of course.

As usual, Trump called the special counsel names and threatened all the radical district attorneys everywhere.

He left one person out. An important person, one person without whom there would be no indictment, no evidence, no charges.

She was not named, not mentioned, not insulted.

He did not attack the Federal judge in DC overseeing all the cases in the district.

That judge found that the attorney/client privilege did not apply in the Documents Case that led to yesterday’s Indictments,
because the lawyers were instrumental in the alleged crime(s), so all of Trump’s lawyers had to give up their notes and texts and testify under oath against their client.

Trump lawyers testified against Trump and turned over all personal communications with the target of the investigation, providing compelling, astounding, voluminous evidence in granular, multimedia detail, for a prospective jury. Evidence against Trump comes from his own lawyers and there is video evidence to corroborate their account.

That was one person’s decision, to compel the lawyers’ testimony, and without it there would be no grand jury indictment.

It is practically unheard of, according to the legal commentaries, to compel attorneys to testify against their client! The privilege is sacrosanct. I think of, maybe, John Dean. Watergate.

The effect on history of Judge Howell’s decision will be absolutely immense.

I can’t imagine how Trump, who attacked everyone else on the planet, left this significant one out. Her decision f-d him completely.

Federal Judge Beryl Howell. Now she has retired, her term at an end, but she is the one reason and the only reason he is in such hot H20.

Without that judge’s finding of criminal conspiracy, Special Counsel Jack Smith would have zilch.

And in each case facing Trump in the coming months there is a Federal judge- many are Republican appointees- finding sufficient evidence that Trump is, more likely than not, a criminal, in the view of a United States court of law.

If anyone thinks Trump cannot be remanded and taken into custody, or has any viable defense strategy, I just place this on the table for your consideration. It’s kind of strange.

Come to think of it, he hasn’t attacked these powerful figures. Federal judges.

She is the sixth federal judge, I believe, to issue a binding legal finding that Trump committed crimes. And that sticks.

This is not a “Democrat” thing. No such luck. Sorry, right-wing shills and pundits.

When the history is written these judges are writing the first draft.

Emmet Sullivan, Judges Mehta, Carter, Howell, these are a few of the judges that held that the former president met a standard of criminal behavior in the many various cases- including election fraud and the Documents indictment- so prosecutions could go forward on all fronts.

Their decisions are scathing and definitive, for all time.

Trump has attacked and threatened and incited against all perceived opponents- but not the judges that could determine his fate.

The demagogue has serious limitations. He has no power here.

This is the first time in my entire life I’ve seen a chandelier in a bathroom and I wept openly at the poverty of my existence. Life is not fair.

I need a moment.

It’s like Sadaam Hussein’s palace over there!

***

I guess it will be a contest between the Little Criminal and Governor Fingerpudding in “24.

The Little Criminal complains that law enforcement is meddling while he is in “the middle” of his presidential campaign, yet most campaigns aren’t announced two years before the election. It may be a case of premature exasperation.

As usual, the United States does not disappoint when it comes to candidates who represent the interests of the citizenry.

***

It’s interesting, the talk about civil war.

I thought of this today, that the beginning encounter of the Civil War was a sort of property dispute: Fort Sumter.

The nation was wondering, after secession, whether the President would hold Federal sites.

“All the power at my disposal will be used to reclaim the public property and places which have fallen, to hold, occupy and possess these, and all other property and places belonging to the government.” Lincoln’s inaugural address draft.

So here we are at Mar-a-Lago and the US government wanted its stuff back- those famous boxes, the National Archives. We know that there is a criminal probe as well.

And in both eras people said “what’s the big deal? Fort Sumter has no value and the boxes at Mar a Lago might be nothing.”

But a small thing at first might become huge when things go critical.

Trump’s refusal to give up documents that he feels are his- is an interesting unconscious symbol of the internal secession movement he leads.

In this light one can really see his absolute defiance of the United States. He feels equal in authority to the actual government. His ego is titanic right now.

Property of the United States. That’s the dispute. Trump doesn’t care. And the secessionists are with him.

***

I had the sound turned down but I don’t believe I heard an appeal to Americans by the President or a promise that he is concerned about the well-being of others. I didn’t see a smile, a note of humor, an understanding of the deepest concerns of life. I didn’t see the eloquence of a person that knows their own heart. A politician has to be able to ride a bus without everyone else wanting to get off immediately.

Turning the other cheek is a way of moving toward the light. It’s a movement that calls for healing, despite appearances and base reaction. It’s a movement toward the most benevolent outcome for all.

Why did I write that? No idea.

Well, not quite. I’m thinking of how to think about people going to prison for January 6. How to end the whataboutism of the situation. And the violence we are confronted with in our daily lives, sometimes in the form of outward confrontation, sometimes of our own impulses, or those around us, held in check. Thinking. Meditating. Healing.

We are almost there. We are so close to a better world.

Here’s Daisy:

To make Routine a Stimulus

Remember it can cease –

Capacity to terminate

Is a specific Grace –

Of Retrospect the Arrow

That power to repair

Departed with the torment

Become, alas, more fair –

Emilie Dickinson

A postscript to Man Without Country collection

Note to Self:

I don’t wish to offend any animals but.

Did you hear?

The Elephant is leaving the GOP.

Elephant would like to be removed from political logos due to centuries of gun violence against elephants.

Yes. The elephants know all too well.

Usually animals take no stand on political matters, by minding their own business.

Times have changed.

Other animals have refused to be Republican Party mascots:

Snake
Porcupine
Skunk
Jellyfish
Dung Beetle
Buzzard
Junkyard Dog
Chicken
Termite
Cockroach
Lizard
Slug

Animals that object to being hunted down like humans (such as Wolf) have stood with Elephant against gun violence.

They are too numerous to list here. But they know gun violence can pretty much destroy paradise.

WAAG. Wild Animals Against Guns. They have neither website nor social media.

They do have feelings- and intelligence; it was the animals that originally taught humans what to eat and how to survive. They know a lot. We should listen.

---

Lions have asked not to be stuffed and displayed in your penthouse. Thank you.

-So far we have 90% of the humans, and all of the animals, against gun violence and for common sense.

(No animals were harmed in the making of this public service announcement.)

Tiny Violins

Did someone ask my opinion of Rep Jim Jordan? Take a deep breath. I will tell.

Yes, of course I watch this shit! Jim Jordan’s Thing today.

Jordan Committee today is not about whistle blowers. The Red Party’s Coloring Book Club, the House Judiciary.

No, today’s meeting on the weaponization of govt is not courageous whistleblowers, it’s just more people with personal grievances.

A lone voice against the FBI? Oh brother. Please. Stop it.

These people aren’t taking about Countelpro, or illegal surveillance, or Earth First environmental attacks on activists. No.

The FBI sucks, but these guys practically volunteered to be dumped on. Their allegations may be serious, but they have more than a hint of the spurious.

The witnesses supposedly exposing FBI malfeasance did not act on duty. They did not expose facts. No. They actually withheld facts today!

They made a pretense, before the Judiciary Committee, of non-disclosure of their super-secret whistle-blowers activity.

Well, that’s unhelpful, and actually the exact opposite of what blowing the whistle is.

No: When they took actions that befell harshly upon them, they were acting on mood-altering Donald Trumpism , leveled against their superiors at the Bureau. Not much more.

There are facts to bear that out. But why bother? No minds to change.

When you elevate a grievance in a work situation it often does not work out well. Because it’s a form of insubordination. You are free to do so, but there are consequences to one’s own actions.

(That is the most conservative sentence I’ve ever written, right there. And here am I, a Far Left proponent of Democratic Socialism, preaching personal responsibility to Republicans.)

So: Tiny violin, for pathetic tea party Freedom Caucus minions.

Sadly, without exception, today’s witnesses before the Judiciary Committee on Weaponization, these capable Americans, are being used as political theater by Jim Jordan. They look like idiots, just by proximity to this doofus from Norwalk Ohio.

I find today’s witnesses credible, and pathetic. Much to admire, as long as they keep hidden their deep antagonism to American democracy. Which I believe they picked up listening to buttheads on right wing networks. Or from the pulpit on Sunday.

And, by the way, these ranking senior FBI employees, these guys, did not take their claims to the proper authorities.

They took their claims to Mark Meadows, who plausibly and even perhaps unwitting nearly destroyed the entire Federal Govt on Jan 6! Hoping for a loophole in the Constitutional Order the Red Party could exploit.

Oopsie! (And that gives Meadows huge undeserved benefit of a doubt , in terms of actual seditious conspiracy, components of which have already been found guilty and are facing decades in prison.)

Fortunately this letter includes the statutes required to make determinations, even if one distrusts Libtards.

And ps the Republicans were told exactly what to do and how to behave on January 6, 2020. The Constitution is crystal clear about the peaceful transition of power.

Actually Republicans also blew off the actual election results after many recounts and legal cases; they ignored the obligations of the General Service Administration to fund and support the transition to the Biden Administration after the the Electoral College determined the outcome; and in so so doing they increased vulnerabilities in terms of national security.

Who cares? We lost the election! We can’t lose an election! We are God’s Americans!

They disregarded every law and norm and guideline in their pathetic zeal to hold power indefinitely.

And now they are what we used to call wankers. Not whistle-blowers.

Oh yeah:

Morning May

Morning, May
We’ve confirmed your stay
-4 full weeks
Beginning today

Sunlit days and moonlit nights
Flowers in fields scenic delights
Luxurious accommodations for your stay,
May

For thirty one days you’ll have a splendid view
Just relax au naturel nothing else to do
Technically off- season so it’ll just be you
So voulez-vous

Oh May there’s one more thing
Each morn a bell will ring
The birds awake and they will sing
It’s a thing we do
In spring.

…Only one more thing to say
Good morning May

jk
5/1/18

The Antonin Scalia Memorial Pool of Bad Judgement

…High dive competition: Supreme Justices compete in the Justice Antonin Scalia Memorial Pool to see who has the most outrageous technique in the Olympic Bad Judgement Category:

First in was the Chief doing one double twist screwdriver of bad judgement right into the pool. The Mrs was standing poolside and is completely soaked! Did everyone see that? Amazing!

Next Clarence Thomas did a flailing floundering belly-flop of bad judgement, with a splash-out and all the bystanders are hit with a massive wave and then …he climbed the ladder and did it again! There’s nothing subtle about his performance. The crowd has moved back from poolside.

Next here comes Gorsuch. He’s steady, good form, and then does a tricky backflip into a pike position of bad judgement and that may be a winner. He looks confident that he has perhaps the worst judgement. We shall see.

Here’s Amy. She’s looking nervous, stands at the edge of the board but wait- she looks like she’s praying and just leans over and drops like a potato into the deep end of the bad judgement pool. Wow. It was a failed attempt at the classic cannonball. She’s coming up for air now. She needs a towel and a hug.

Now here is big Sam Alito. He’s on the high dive and he’s sitting there- drinking a snifter of wine. Wait he’s got friends up there on the diving board and they’re having a picnic up there. He’s shaking his head like he’s not going to perform his dive of bad judgement- Wait! there he goes! Uh oh , looks like he’s having trouble with his suit! Uh oh, we’re losing our picture-

We are back. Yes that was totally bad judgement!

It looks like all the justices performed with Olympic bad judgement all around!

Scores: 10!

***