Monday, May 20, 2024

Weaving A Few Threads 🧵

A legal argument was then held on whether the defense could call an "expert" Brad Smith to give his interpretations of legal terms that are the subject of the predicate offense for these charges. The DA objected since experts are permitted to give an opinion about the facts of the case based on their analysis but not on the law since it is the province of the jury to apply the law to the facts, not a witness. Emil Bove argued that having their expert define those terms "is absolutely critical" to their defense. Judge Merchan ruled that Smith cannot testify since he will only be making legal conclusions.
I’m just going to say the defense argument there is absolutely a non-starter . Merchan’s ruling is horn book law. Bove knows better than to even try. A sure sign they know they got nuthin’.

Calling Costello is not looking too good, either.
They tried to do it without the risk of cross-examination. That didn’t work.
Legal arguments began with the DA objecting to Blanche's plan to use an email from the partner of former Rudy Giuliani associate Robert Costello, who claimed to represent Michael Cohen in 2018 despite Cohen's strong denials. Merchan excluded it on the grounds that it is hearsay and doesn't include Cohen's state of mind at the time, which would be the only relevance of it.
So, will they call Costello, and get him to testify he’s a Trump sycophant who never worked for Cohen? Signs point to “No.”

The reason Merchan called them in 45 minutes early:
Was to hear these arguments from Trump’s lawyers. Meanwhile, outside Fort Knox, Manhattan: Mission Accomplished.

And I thought some 40 MAGA Representatives were supposed to be in court this week. The judge seems to think it’s going to wrap up by tomorrow:
Those guys had better hurry.
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Nope. (Rhymes with “Dope”)

First: not even vaguely true.

Trump is just upset the “wrong” people are carrying signs.🪧  Trump really does live in a world of his own fabrication. It’s like the guy generates copying the way other people sweat.😅 
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Protesting WAY Too Much

"my Speech in Dallas this weekend at the NRA’s 'Endorsement of President Donald J. Trump,' was attended by a Record Crowd of very enthusiastic Patriots. The Biden Campaign, however, put out a Fake Story that I 'froze' for 30 seconds, going into the “Musical Interlude” section, when in actuality, the 30 to 60 second period of silence is standard in every one of my Speeches where we use the Music. Check out any of my Speeches!" 
"The reason they came up with this Disinformation is that Biden freezes all the time, can’t put two sentences together, and can rarely find his way off the stage without help," before insisting, "Donald Trump doesn’t freeze!”
"It is a MADE UP Biden Campaign story, put out in a dying Newspaper that I never heard of, and every Reporter knows it, including the large group that was there…."
So, the explanations are:

A) It didn’t happen.

B) It was for “dramatic effect,” (The only affect was: “Is he finished? Is he asleep?”)

C) The teleprompter broke. (He paused an earlier speech the same weekend to complain about that.)

D) Trump spaced. (Hardly a scientific term, I know. But that’s the lay version.)

Maybe he needs some of the drugs he says Biden is taking. Or maybe the drugs wore off because he was two hours late to start this speech.

There are more plausible explanations than what he’s coming up with.

(And actually the Biden campaign didn’t put it out. The Biden campaign just called it a “glitch.” Others said it was the teleprompter, or a psychological breakdown. Either way, it’s on video on the Internet. I guess the story made its way into the MSM. No wonder he doth protest too much.)

This, too, didn’t happen:
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Sunday, May 19, 2024

Clearly Grounds For Dismissal With Prejudice

And “baptized heathens” is my go-to in these situations, but really, the people Kinziger describes don’t even rise to that level. The effort to steal the tactics of your opponents has pretty much worn out, especially when those tactics haven’t had time to become the cultural norm.

Not much above whinging about how you were served for a criminal trial.
Sorry. This is sadder.

I still say it’s something about New York City.
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No Matter What

Will Rubio object/raise questions of fraud in races Republicans win?

Will Rubio object/raise questions of fraud if Trump wins?

Will he object to questions of fraud if Trump wins? If Republicans win individual races?

EOD.

(Partisan replies indicate Democrats win by cheating, Republicans win outright. Which is a distinctly partisan, distinctly minority, view. It’s also as American as apple pie.)
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A Reminder MSM Pretty Much Parrot What Public Officials Say

Here’s the moment in question: One reasonable explanation is the teleprompter went down (different city, same problem). But the campaign explanation brushes that away. I’m not a trained observer: is this what a psychological condition looks like? I know it only from movies, which are all fake and false and imaginary.

Still, he just stops and seems disgusted (with the teleprompter?) or unsure what to say, or just in stasis. One thing is sure: “dramatic affect” it ain’t. No more than arriving over 2 hours late “heightens the anticipation.”

And if it happened to Biden, the GOP Fox 🦊 would be crying about it so loudly the MSM would follow like baying hounds.

But even Biden-Harris just call it a “glitch.” Here’s a hint: people are not computers. They don’t run on glitchy software.
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He Won’t Do It Until The Judge And The Prosecutor Take A Drug Test

He’s suddenly realized that’s very important to him.
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Saturday, May 18, 2024

The Lord Of The Flies, Or: Trump’s Greatest Hits

It shows. I suppose somebody has to. Don’t threaten us with a good time. I spent the day cleaning up half of a pine tree that blew out of my yard and into the street during a derecho two nights ago. I’m watching “The Three Stooges” and resting up enough to start making dinner. This is still more interesting. Pretty low bar, too. One we’ll spend the rest of our lives trying to forget. You’ll spend the rest of your life in courtrooms and jail cells. Aaaannd: scene! We’re done here. This man needs to end his days in a padded cell. He is clearly a danger to himself and others, and utterly out of touch with reality. I knew I walked away too soon. This just nails down my final point, though.
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Sad Truth

The majority of voters in those cities are more sympathetic to the NRA position on guns than not. Still. 

Abbott knows who his voters are. I’d like to say it should be different; but I know it isn’t.
Nope. None of them went to jail.
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But Nate Has…

… a lot of domain knowledge on this from having modeled out the effects on polling from the debates and similar events.
That makes him smarter than the average Bear!🐻 
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2 Observations

First off, he agreed, "Intimidation is first and foremost on the minds of Trump's call for these people to show up. The other aspect, though, is they're showing up because nobody else is. Donald Trump expected Americans to rush to his side and show up and be in the park and rally for him, and nobody is. Nobody is there for Donald Trump except the people with a direct political benefit from him. Elected officials." 
Finally, he said, "I would be fascinated how it works with the jury. Because yes, intimidation might be the intent, but you're telling me that if I'm a juror and I see Matt Gaetz and Lauren Boebert and Mike Johnson and Rick Scott come in the room, that somehow I'm going to think more favorably about Donald Trump? It's comical. This is an absurd cast of circus clowns showing up to defend the president, and I think it very well might backfire. It highlights that nobody else has his back at times, not even his own family, and suggests that the only people who do have his back are the most political crazies on the scene today."
Support for Trump is tissue thin. Don’t tell me about the money he raises from his trial. A fool and his money are soon parted, and nobody ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of the American public. Trump is a living exemplar of the truth of both statements.

But Trump is burning through the cash he raises, and there’s no sign he’s going to catch up soon.

Trump also thinks his rallies prove America loves him. But the same people travel from venue to venue to hear the same bedtime stories. Standing on the street in Manhattan is not listening to Trump for 90 minutes. Besides, who wants to stand in a park in NYC for four weeks?

Maybe all his rally goers will vote for him. All 3 to 4 hundred of them. Along with all the boaters in the boat parades. Oh, wait, that was 4 years ago…

And then there’s the circus clowns silently filling up the courtroom. Do all the jurors know who they are? Doubtful? Do they care? Equally doubtful. Are they impressed, in awe, intimidated?

Don’t make me laugh. A gang of strangers who go outside (where the jury can’t hear them) to spout Trump’s talking points? Who show up and leave after 45 minutes?

This is all a farce.
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📞?????

Wait a minute!

Ivanka still had a corded landline? In the kitchen? I was still a poor community college adjunct and I didn’t have a corded line in the house. We had three cordless handsets. (Or was it four? Damned things were as cheap as dirt.)

What century did this happen in?

Asking for a friend….
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Which One…?

Is the parody? And which one is a parody of thinking? 🤔 

Bonus question: must parody be intentional, in order to be parody? 🧐
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Back To The States, Where It Belongs

In a statement to the Post, Wren questioned whether it was "a good use of resources to send multiple agents across the country to storm an 80th birthday party like it was Normandy." Ted Goodman, whom the Post described as a "political advisor" to Giuliani, said it was "unfortunate that they chose to barge up and startle guests during a celebration of this man’s 80th birthday." 
"They could’ve shown a little more respect for the man who comforted the nation following September 11th and who stands up for law enforcement and the men and women in blue," Goodman said of the man who taunted authorities in a now-deleted tweet.
There is no “Get Out Of Jail Free” card in life. 😈
 
Eastman has also been disbarred and a stay of his suspension from the California Bar pending appeal has been denied. He also lost his job as a law professor at two different schools and has been indicted in the federal J6 case as well as the Georgia RICO case. 
Eastman was the legal architect of Trump's "fake elector" scheme.
ETTD. QED.
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RIP Nate Silver 🪦

He is also the very model of a modern Major General, with information vegetable, animal, and mineral. But with the simple tactic of using his own momentum against him: One could easily argue Trump already has. Hannibal Lecter? Sums up in two words the utterly baffling gibberish Trump spouts at nearly every public appearance. Puts it on a bumper sticker, if you will. Further examples are literally legion. Aside from Trump taking responsibility for ending Roe. Or ending public health mandates at schools. Or, as he’s already doing, trying to wriggle out of the debates he so eagerly agreed to.

But I’m sure, in all his “domain knowledge on this from having modeled out the effects on polling from the debates and similar events,” Mr. Silver has taken all of that, and Trump’s criminal trials, into account.

Is it any wonder pollsters and the reporters who love them still talk about Democrats “over performing”? Shit, Ezra is just playing the same “the incumbent is weak let’s imagine the impossible” game that gets played every 4 years. And Silver is dumb enough to imagine there’s such a thing as an empirical prediction of the future where politics is concerned.
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Friday, May 17, 2024

Whiskey Tango Foxtrot?

So let’s go straight to crazy: I can’t even… Small beer. Now we’re getting somewhere. Can’t have that! Minor stuff. Much more deranged. And just sad: Heh. Come for the routine, stay for the insanely delusional stuff that will never make it off of Twitter.
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Timing Is Everything

Odds are the case is over in a week.

And the gag order is moot.

But thanks for playing “Who’s The Dumbest Sycophant?”
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Does Anyone Remember 4 Years Ago?

Or even 3? Just confirmation, really. And as such, not really surprising. But even his lies are lies. Why is that?
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Asking For A Friend

And also for the Jared Moskowitz Fan Club.

Thx.😊 
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Wimmen! Amirite? You Guys KnowwudImean!

I know it’s an overly simplistic argument, but at its core, the tri-partite government established by the Constitution recognizes that somebody has to have the last word, and that somebody is we, the people.

Congress is the representative body, starting in the House. There we find Paul Gosar and Ronny Jackson and MTG, alongside AOC and Jasmine Crockett and Jared Moskowitz. It’s truly a representative gov. The Senate was meant to be the House of Lords, but we, the people, eventually democratized that, too. Still, Senators sit for six years at a time, Representative md only for two. And the Senate or House can refuse to seat those whom the voters send. Voter control is not absolute, nor is it the only power. That’s the nutshell of Art. I, for our argument.

Art. II puts the President in power with the votes of the people (and the other end of the 3/5ths compromise, the Electoral College), and the acceptance of Congress on January 6th. Here the Congress can reject the votes of the electoral college, dangerous though that power is to wield. The Congress also (on paper) remove the president. The President can’t remove Congress. The President can’t spend money Congress doesn’t authorize, or start a war (that one has weakened a lot),. The President answers to the voters every four years, for only two terms. A restriction decided, again, by we, the people.

Art. III starts the judiciary, with a “Supreme Court” atop it. That Court’s authority and jurisdiction are still set by Congress, despite the fact the Court since 1925 has acted more and more like a co-equal branch of government.  Under Art. III, the only thing established is the name. Congress decides its size, jurisdiction, and largely its function. The Judiciary Act of 1925 arguably created the modern Court, but what Congress gives, it can as well take away. That doesn’t mean you couldn’t have another Taney Court, but another Roberts Court is nothing to be resigned to, either.

(When I agree with Bill Kristol, you know the Apocalypse is nigh.)

The point is, the people have oversight over Congress, and Congress itself can exercise oversight of its members. Congress has oversight over the president, including the power of impeachment. Congress cannot (and should not) direct the outcome of cases, but it can dismantle the entire federal court structure and start again with a three person Supreme Court, or a Court with 30 justices. It could alter the Court’s jurisdiction, even bring justices under the same rules as the rest of the federal courts, including mandatory retirement. The Court doesn’t answer to the people the way the Congress and the President do, nor necessarily should it. It’s an ugly thing when judges get on state courts in order to pursue political agendas. But those judges are also subject to the vote of the people. No state gives their judges lifetime sinecure. There is a wisdom in that.

The Court, in some respects, does answer to Congress. The fact that it is established in Art. III already indicates that. The fact that its title, and the title of “Chief Justice,” is the only specific directive given in Art. III, and Congress is empowered to do the rest, is a stronger indication of the Court’s position in the tripartite structure. The judiciary needs a measure of independence, yes. But it’s not a legislature, and it’s not the executive. And it doesn’t get to make up its own excuses based on “We’re the Supreme Court, bitchez!”

Everybody was doing it. As one does. Notice he blames the neighbors for being political, but takes no responsibility for his (or his wife’s) response. Nice work, if you can get it.
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Twitter For Fun And Foolishness

That’s actually beginning at the end. So, in the beginning: Now I know it’s not just me.
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It’s Probably Just Me

But I detect some not-so-subtle racism in the way Comer and Boebert respond to Rep. Crockett.

Keep in mind loud-mouth lout MTG started this exchange with an assault on AOC (in the MAGA mind “The Squad” is still a thing, not a label made up by the DC Press, and AOC is still the ringleader and scourge of all true Americans. Getting her scalp would be a badge of MAGA honor.

Exactly.) Rep. Crockett then raised the question of how Comer was running the hearing (by the rules? Or by letting MTG say whatever the hell she wanted to?). Comer first feigns innocent incomprehension as he realizes the position he’s put himself in. He then decides the best escape is to shoot the messenger, and he acts like Rep. Crockett is speaking in a strange dialect this close to English. Black women from Texas, who can understand what they’re saying half the time, am I right, boys?

Boebert picks up on this and condescendingly tells Rep. Crockett to settle down, to which suggestion Rep. Crockett responds as the condescension deserves.

All in defense of a mouthy white woman who acts like she’s still in the trailer park. Who proves again she’s not fit to be in the halls of Congress, even as a visitor.

But it’s probably just me.
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🤔

I really can’t improve on what Joe Scarborough said:
"A neighbor upsets me, comes out and upsets me because the Rays beat the Red Sox, and the Red Sox really suck, and so I'm mad," Scarborough said. "I'm not hanging my flag upside down. This is dumb as when I heard about the Dobbs leak – nobody believes him." 
"These people, these Trumpers, who have spent their entire life attacking people for being insufficiently patriotic, then they lose, and they just hate America," Scarborough said. "They hate America. They're constantly going around saying how weak we are. They hate our military, they say our weak our military is when it is the strongest in the world. They hate our economy, they claim the president of the United States is a socialist. The Dow [Jones on Thursday] made all of these people a lot richer, breaking 40,000 for the first time, despite Donald Trump's lies that it would collapse if Joe Biden was president of the United States. They hate this country, they attack this country." 
"The only time they love it is when their person is in office, and I've got to say, and we have a lot of legal, brilliant minds around this table, they can speak to this later if they want to," Scarborough said. "I will tell you, growing up, one of my friends' fathers was a federal judge. I had no idea until I got older whether he was Republican or Democrat. That was the case in northwest Florida, very conservative place. The federal judges kept themselves beyond reproach, they never talked politics, ever. In the privacy of their homes, if you ask them an opinion, they would just say, 'Not my job,' right? 'I'm a judge.' They actually took their oath seriously. For a Supreme Court justice, and I will say, my opinion only, but the guy most likely to have had something to do with the leaking of the Dobbs decision, leaking it to the Wall Street Journal or somebody connected to him leaking it to the Wall Street Journal because he wanted to keep Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett frozen in place. I think history will show that." 
"But that aside, for a guy who is a Supreme Court justice, to let that happen at his own home in one of the most fraught times in American history since the Civil War, it's just sad," Scarborough added. "It shows how little respect he has for the institution. It shows how little respect he has for the law, it really does. It's disgusting, it's just disgusting."
So let’s talk about Justice Alito: Lifetime appointment? Who was it decided that was a Constitutional provision? Oh, yeah, the Supreme Court. No judges in the federal system enjoy that privilege except the Justices on the “High Court.” Maybe it’s at least time to reconsider that “good behavior” clause and what it covers. 
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🍿

I repeat that because it appears that could come true:

The prosecution is expected to rest following the end of Cohen's testimony. The defense plans to call an election law expert, and may also call Cohen's former attorney Robert Costello following his testimony against Cohen in a House committee hearing earlier in the week.

The election law expert is a definite "Probably not."
Costello could show up, but I'm not sure what he brings to the party besides more lies. Merchan wants the case to conclude: Which still leaves the possibility for Trump to have a "Come to Jesus" moment and decide he is the Chosen One who must speak his truth. 

That would be fun.
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🧇

Trump doesn’t pray. He expects to be prayed to. Like Alice, I try to do that every day before breakfast.🧇 
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Thursday, May 16, 2024

That’s Gonna Leave A Mark

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And Did It A Month Before The Election

The jury knows that, too. So I guess their defense is a groundless conspiracy theory?
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Rich GOP White Man Privilege

Probably tweeted from the courtroom, in violation of the justice’s standing order.

When the former POTUS is a felonious criminal (nothing petty about these charges), he deserves to be treated as one.
Let’s see them dare to even draw the Justice’s rebuke, much less actually defy/disrupt/protest the proceedings.
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Making A Point

Santa’s little helpers are all in Manhattan, doing the job they get paid to do. Trump sleeping? 🤔  Fair call. The judges will allow it. Isn’t that what “No one is above the law” means. And does he think he’s in France? Judges in this country adjudicate cases, they don’t bring them. Your son is in court in Colorado. I think I understand why he doesn’t miss you there. Law and order for thee, but not for me! Free speech is free. They probably left before it got good.😊 
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Fool’s Gold

At the end of the day, he added, "The thing that would be pure gold is if they can bring out lies that he told on direct, right? If they can show that he lied about something in this courtroom. "That's far more valuable than than all of the history of lies that he has to Congress and everybody else."
Well, yeah, a Perry Mason moment would be dramatic, but surely Parlatore knows that. This is “Wish in one hand, shit in the other, see which fills up faster.”  Where is this coming from?

 Oh, maybe this.

You can take the lawyer out of MAGA, but… Exactly. Without that, none of this comes into the courtroom. In fact, how Parlatore thinks the evidence of Cohen’s supposed lies in direct can be introduced now, is beyond me. He really is calling for a Perry Mason moment where Cohen provides the evidence in a confession of his “lies.”
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Commies In The State Department

I'll be very plain and simple," said Murphy, a urologist and chair of the House Doctors Caucus. "I was in the State of the Union and Joe Biden must've been jacked up on something, and I absolutely believe that from a medical viewpoint, and I actually have a little bit of good knowledge that it happened. He can't stand and he can't stand under the lights for that long, and I don't think you can keep a concept in his brain for that long." 
"It will be important that President Trump stays presidential," Murphy added. "He did that during the last debate but not the first debate, but he stays on track and shows the American people how much worse they are from four years ago and what this President Biden has done to destroy this country. He has to stay in his lane, President Trump has to stay in his lane and act presidential. Sometimes he can get off on a wheel, we all know that and love that about him, but sometimes it hurts his issues. But Biden will falter and falter if he doesn't have it right in front of him telling them what to do." 
Bartiromo followed up on his claims about Biden using drugs and asked him to explain what he meant, and the host was caught off guard by his reply. 
"I believe they gave him something to help them sustain the lights and sustain the vigor that he had," Murphy said, as Bartiromo raised her eyebrows. "That was not Joe Biden. I was in there, he screamed for two hours. He screamed for two hours, and maybe we can talk off-line and I'll show you something that proves that."
Joe McCarthy claimed to have a list of Communists in the State Department. He never made that list public, either.
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Wednesday, May 15, 2024

🎶Turn Out The Lights, The Party’s Over! 🎶

Precisely how Biden got Trump to agree to 2 debates on Biden’s terms in less than 8 hours.

Now think about what that means for Trump’s ability to negotiate with world leaders. We’ve been told they manipulated him when he was in office. Now we’ve seen it, undeniably, in real time, in public, on the record.

And soon will come the back-down; then the crawfishing, and finally the denial that the agreement ever happened.

I don’t think we need the three other criminal trials to finish Trump. I think Biden has finally exposed him, for once and for all. Not in a courtroom where spin can determine what happens, where reports can be inconsistent and varied. In public, every step of the way. Negotiated and agreed to on Twitter.

And the internet is forever.
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The Bubble Is Real

And it’s choking off the blood to their heads. And then there are the reports from Bizarro world:🗺️ 

How much copium is FoxNews consuming right now?
Excuses, excuses. Trump is all powerful, but he needs his bubble. How does that work, again? Reality seeps in around the edges. Well, not everybody is delusional:
Can’t imagine why.
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You Mean There Was A Time When It Didn’t?

What paradisial moment was that? When the Founding Fathers were of one hive mind? Right before they agreed on the 3/5ths compromise? Or right after we herded all the Native Americans onto reservations, and took even Oklahoma away from them?

It’s like some people wake up in a new world everyday. Or at least every 10 years or so.
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On The Other Hand…

The next group of MAGA Republicans need to come to court as soon as possible. As many as can get there!
What does it say to you about where the Republican Party, historically the party of law and order, is at the moment, where you have top leaders accompanying Trump to his criminal proceedings?" Keilar asked. 
"Well, I don't know how effective that's going to be for the jury," said Parlatore. "I mean, I heard that there was an incident where a couple of elected officials walked in and made kind of a bustle, not waiting for a break. And so I think that when you do that kind of thing, it does have the potential for a negative impact on the jury."  
"Again, I'm a lawyer. I'm not a political guy," Parlatore added. "But I don't think that doing that kind of theatrics within the courtroom is going to necessarily be helpful, especially when you have the judge who apparently was visibly annoyed by that as well, that also has an effect on the jury."
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😹😹😹

Do the kids still say “Pwned”?
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Save The Norns!

Oh, the “Norms”? What, not enough parents naming their kids “Norm”? Or are we supposed to save the norms Nate Silver knows? Because I remember when debates were not the norm. Kennedy/Nixon pretty much resurrected them and then buried them again for about a quarter century.

Norma are relative, after all. Presidential debates are pretty much a joke, anyway.

Speaking of norms: Unless Trump puts on a defense, the public testimony part of the trial could be over by then. Besides, can they each spare ten minutes?
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🤡 🤡🤡

"The only reason the Stock Market is high is because I am leading in all of the Polls," Trump declared. "I don’t win, we will have a CRASH of similar proportions to 1929."
And the sun will refuse to rise! And the seas will all gang dry! And the moon will be red as blood, and the dead will rise! Dogs and cats! Living together! Mass hysteria!

And Trump is the nation’s hysterectomy (let the reader understand).

The correct way for Biden to handle the debates is to laugh; point and laugh.
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