That fact rose its ugly head yet again today when Judge Juan Merchan delayed sentencing Donald Trump in the New York hush money fraud case in which a jury found Trump guilty on 34 counts of falsifying business records, several of which were related to his attempt to conceal the payment he made to Stormy Daniels before the presidential election in 2016.
The only hope (besides voting against the SOB) we have is that when all is said and done, Trump gets defeated, Merchan will slap a sentence on Trump that will result in his being in jail or paying a huge fine that he will whine he can't afford.
Because at the same time this case is happening, the other "New York" case of E. Jean Carroll, will be decided by the New York State Appeals Court because a federal judge told Trump to get lost when he wanted it tracked into the federal system.
Yes, we do have a monster among us. We have the weapons to bring him down with, though: voting, judges, fines and prison.
Jack Smith is still waiting patiently, as is Judge Tanya Chutkan who will be dealing with Trump in DC. We can only guess at what will happen in the 11th circuit court of appeals because that is under way too.
I have the distinct feeling that the most patient unwanted guest of all, Karma (not the VP) will be waiting to greet Donald Trump with open arms on November 6th and telling him, "Hey, I've got tickets to a great set of parties! You're my date! Let's have at it!"
The dance will be a long, long Conga line of judgements, fines, prison sentences, forfeiture and other assorted legal moves that will destroy this particular monster.
Trump's strip mall lawyers had a bad day at the Appellate Division today. He is going to be forced to pay Carroll upward of $90M for his actions. And then he is going to be forced to pay upwards of $500M to NYS for his business fraud. New York ain't playin. And ain't full of Leo/McConnell Federalist Society stooges.
The very stable genius proceeded to go out and defame E. Jean Carroll again, prompting her attorney to note that "all options are on the table" to deal with his defamatory speech.
The 2nd greatest beneficiary of the DJT stock scam is E.J. Carroll. Over a billion dollars unencumbered cash will be in Trump's account, upon which she can demand payment. A silver lining to this outrageous stock swindle.
Janice thanks for all your likes. Give the dog a pat for me. Soon I'll be visiting with Sitting Bull, Crazy Horse, Geronimo, Edward Abbey and my pal Charles Bowden.
If the press covered Trump as he is and what he does and did not clean up his word salads and treat his actions as normal behavior, let alone that of his VP, and his children, Donald Trump would not be a candidate. If I were to write about this election, I would call the book, The American Media: The Making of a Candidate!
I agree.The media are a big problem and also are a lot of the reason we got TFG in 2016.They are actively promoting a traitor and liar and I will never forget or forgive them for it.
Trump will have a $1-2 Billion bribe paid to him after Sept. 19th. That's the date he can dump his 59% presently restricted shares of (symbol) DJT, FOR WHICH HE PAID NOTHING.
My guess is that Arabs, Russians, and other criminal governments will support the stock until he cashes out. Then it will die, sinking the hopes of some really dumb Trumpists who cannot afford the hit. This is one of the greatest stock pump and dumps in American History.
I'd like to read some comments from any Wall Streeters on this site.
By Wall Streeters do you mean soulless blood suckers that were at tRump’s child care speech yesterday or just your ordinary reduced marginal tax rate bros? Worthless Aholes either way…
I for one refuse to accept tyranny ,and I will fight this obscenity of a thing in any way possible! We let our guard down the past several decades….now the bill comes due ….Sad !
Exactly right. I have to bite my tongue whenever people act as if it all started with Trump and everything will be back to "normal" when he's over and done with. The "normal" that led us to Trump is unacceptable. We all, every one of us, have work to do after the election and after January 20, when Kamala Harris and Tim Walz take office.
I think Merchan is planning to give Trump significant jail time and, since he is far smarter than all MAGAs and all corporate media, decided to delay sentencing to avoid a major MAGA horde push on election day to keep their orange god out of jail by giving him an undeserved and disastrous second term.
I think that is an EXCELLENT insight, Peter. I’ve thought along the same lines. You expressed it nicely. No one can say — though Trump’s twisted cronies and Trump himself will anyway— that the orange monster hasn’t been given every possible consideration. This move by Merchand denies the MAGA hordes a sure fire major public grievance.
Be careful what you wish for. I can imagine Kamala Harris, with all her intelligence, toughness and fine preparation, being totally overwhelmed by the gush of sewage aimed at her from t-Rump's firehose!
Like the signs once commonly seen on rural barns in Vermont: “Take Back Vermont.” I always wondered, “From What” and “To What?” What it really meant was, “Kick out all them liberal-ass flatlanders (like me, originally from greater Boston) and bring back good ol’ conservatism.” When pressed, however, most native Vermonters didn’t really want pavements torn up and dirt roads to be reintroduced and three-party line, wooden, crank-driven telephones on the wall.
It’s like “I don’t want socialism.” MF, you don’t even know what that is. You want to use a hose on your house if it catches fire? You already made the point.
I like to think it means that native tribes get to take America back. Though I really don't want to have to move to Eastern Europe, where my great-grandparents lived before they came here.
Exactly what I've been saying all along. As a red state Democrat, I see it first hand. Local FB groups have some of the most racist people commenting on the election. It's clear they long for the good old days of lynching and Jim Crow.
I was shocked and disappointed by this delay, even after seeing every one of our vaunted "democratic institutions" show themselves to be paper-tigers falling one after another over the course of the Trump years. I think that's because the SDNY and Judge Merchan's performance through all phases of this prosecution and trial gave me false hope that his court would be the one that wouldn't let us all down until, of course, it did.
It's a particularly vexing delay in that Trump committed these crimes at the outset for the specific purpose of denying voters critical information, just prior to their casting votes in a pending election.
How is the postponement of his already delayed sentencing anything more than a full, court-assisted endorsement and actual perpetuation of Trump's original criminal motive?
Quoting Peter, above: "I think Merchan is planning to give Trump significant jail time and, since he is far smarter than all MAGAs and all corporate media, decided to delay sentencing to avoid a major MAGA horde push on election day to keep their orange god out of jail by giving him an undeserved and disastrous second term."
Runfastandwin, you could be right, but it doesn't look like that.
I'm trying to understand why this delay doesn't once again benefit Trump. Judge Merchan might not intend to give Trump a pass, but the effect is as if he is doing just that. Not sentencing him sends a message to MAGA and all Americans that Trump is OK. In my opinion, it is passive election interference - much like in 2016, with Comey not announcing Russia's interference in the presidential election.
I have a history of low blood pressure, but this year it has climbed to where I might need medication. I can only hope it'll revert to normal if we resoundingly defeat Trump, MAGA, and his scumbag family and cronies.
Judge Merchan had no choice. To do anything else, would have been perceived as a political statement. Unlike the US Supreme Court, the New York state system has standards. Because it is a state court and not a federal one, the ogre will be sentenced. Even if the felon does manage to finagle a presidential victory, he will not escape justice in New York state. He will still have to pay E Jean Carroll. He will still have to pay the fines for his actions. These are state convictions. He will always be an adjudicated sexual assaulter, he will always be a felon. Now we will see if he on his way to wearing a triple X orange jump suit. Attica might suit him.
If that thing is elected you can kiss it all goodbye the state courts won’t be able to do a fucken thing …this freak is the law at that point! The constitution is dead if he wins ! The New states of America are to decide via the right wing fascist mother fuckers that we allowed to come about thru our lack of protecting and advancing our democracy for decades …if you live love or die …..all courtesy of an Orange 🍊 Asshole we failed to recognize as malignant shit and neglected to flush ….while it’s cancer spread though out our country! SHAME ON US !
Most of the power of authoritarianism is freely given. In times like these, individuals think ahead about what a more repressive government will want, and then offer themselves without being asked. A citizen who adapts in this way is teaching power what it can do.
It's also very instructive to realize that you could never be part of a "Trump cult," since when you see flaws in an argument you previously embraced, you do the logical thing, Captain - you abandon it!
Actually, there is a way around this without messing with the Constitution. Here is how it reads:
"The number of representatives with full voting rights is 435, a number set by Public Law 62-5 on August 8, 1911, and in effect since 1913. The number of representatives per state is proportionate to population."
And "The Electoral College consists of 538 electors. A majority of 270 electoral votes is required to elect the President. Your State has the same number of electors as it does Members in its Congressional delegation: one for each Member in the House of Representatives plus two Senators"
And last but not least
Every 10 years, the 435 U.S. Representatives are reapportioned among the states in accordance with the latest federal census, thereby automatically reapportioning the membership of the Electoral College among the states. The map below shows the number of electoral votes for each state, according to the 2020 census. (See paragraph one)
It's time to change the number of electorates. The number is NOT part of the Constitution. That number was fixed in 1911. It can be changed, That's where our energy needs to go. It shouldn't be wasted fighting with the piddling states who are using a 1911 number to stymy the election and make it possible for the party of MAGA and it's predecessor the Republican party to continue to stifle the proper governance of the country.
Even better and simpler would be to get more states to join the National Popular Vote compact in which each state's electoral votes will go to the presidential candidate who wins the total national popular vote. Per www.nationalpopularvote.com, "It has been enacted into law by 17 states and DC with 209 electoral votes (Status in the states). It needs an additional 61 electoral votes to go into effect."
That doesn't relieve the inequity of votes in the house which is just as important, and in some cases, more so than holding the office of president. Until this disparity between the power of the smaller states, there will always be a problem.
The sad thing is how many Americans even know what the Electoral College is !A friend of mine once told me it was part of the Pro football draft ? And this is from a 68 year old college grad 🧑🎓 😵💫🤫
Hey ! I had to think about it for a second it sounded legit after a coupla cold ones !!🤪😉College +elect + draft = college players elected to a NFL team in the draft each year 🤪🤯
I’m glad these folks are thinking for me and they’re on our side ! Golden years my ass ! Oops ! Thinking aloud again .well not aloud !? Ala keyboard is better 🤪
There indeed lurks a Monster among us, and it keeps growing. That said, I think Merchan did the only thing he could do, any sentence handed down at this point would be a nullity as it would immediately be stayed or overturned by the Monster's hunchbacked lackeys on the S.Ct. Additionally if would just feed into the whole martyr industry the Monster has summoned up from the deep. We need heroes to save our country, first voters to vote blue and then Kamala to slay the Horror in the upcoming debate, if the Monster actually shows up.
I am losing faith that we will ever regain our way. School shootings, political corruption, unaffordable healthcare, ignored climate change...the fear democracy could end on the 5th of November. And even if it doesn't the damage has been done. The will is not present to actually change our trajectory, and the 1% has effectively bought our government representatives. Project 2025 shines a light on the hubris of the billionaire backed 'think tanks' whose aim is to remake the US into a religious autocracy. The Supreme Court is the perfect example of our inadequacy to control our present - or future. Minority rule is poison to a two party democracy. Our system of laws was not designed to deal with the likes of tRump and his shills. I don't see a way forward.
Right! Minority-rule roots are so deep and so jealously defended by the beneficiaries that overcoming the unfairness seems impossible. The big liar isn't the only one over there who projects. They assume blue unleashed would bulldoze them because insofar as they can they do that to us. Cf Dobbs.
Running for office is not a defense to criminality — at least it shouldn’t be.
IMO, for the exact same reason that the judge in this case made this decision, sentencing SHOULD happen before the election — that being so to “avoid the unwarranted perception of a political motive…”
As another judge, Judge Chutkan, said in another one of the felonious seditious self-admitted pussy-grabbing past perfidious potus’s criminal cases, “her concern was only the four criminal counts in front of her court. The timing of the election,” she explained, was “not relevant” to her decisions. “This court is not concerned with the electoral schedule,” she said. “That’s not something I’m going to consider.”
It seems to me in a country of laws such as ours where no one is above the law, Chutkan’s is the right perspective — isn’t it..?
It's not a defense and wasn't offered as a defense by Judge Merchan - moreover, any sentence would simply be challenged and used as a fundraising grift by Trump for the campaign. So in both cases, sentence before, sentence after, Trump doesn't head to prison, but in the latter case, no fundraising grift for floundering campaign, no extra motivation for his unhinged base.
All these statements about how unprecedented all of this is, yes, we have literally NEVER had such a cartoonishly evil/incompetent/unfit actual convicted felon seeking the most powerful office in the world. Buck up, be on the right side of history and do your damn job your honor! Thankfully all of the volunteers and organizations I have been working with aren't as timid! Harris Walz 2024!!!!!!
Watched a clip of his asinine “press conference”. (Why???) he’s incapacitated. It’s obvious. Plus he looks insane. Denies he groped a woman because - my god - “she wouldn’t have been chosen” ?? By who? The Emperor Whale of Cheeses???
It's even weirder, Trump's actual locution repeated twice was "she would not have been the Chosen One"! With the deranged, narcissistic, vile and odious Trump in the role of God Almighty.
It’s also a poem by Lewis Carroll that has given us a bunch of new words. I think it was Carroll who invented the word "jabberwocky," along with others that have entered our lexicon, such as "burble" and "chortle."
Me too… most of it, anyway. My siblings and I ran around the house reciting bits of it, which may explain our later dysfunction. You can correct my spelling!
And look here.The bottom line is that we crush this vermin in a landslide tsunami of votes that he and the horrible Magats will have no recourse except all of the lawsuits that will inevitably happen like clockwork with this creep,
Judge Tanya Chutkan was given the same excuse for delaying a trial and she told Trump’s lawyers that the issue of Trump running for president was “irrelevant “. Is it possible that only women can see through Trump’s lies??
I’m 82 but hope I live long enough to see both houses of Congress populated at least 51% by women. Yes, there will be Boeberts and MTGs, but there will also be more Elizabeth Warrens and Nancy Pelosis. They don’t make quid pro quo sweetheart deals on the goddamn golf course and promote jackasses who happen to be cronies. They focus on competence and merit and the job to be done.
Since the percentage of women in law school is currently 55.7%, I think a lot more women attorneys will be running for, winning and holding office in local and state governments and in Congress. And next January we will have a woman president!
I think a major difference is between a trial (Chutkan) and a sentencing (Merchan) that is very likely to set off a MAGA firebomb. I agree with other comments here that we need to crush him at the ballot box then let Merchan and others crush him after the election.
It's also possible Judge Merchan was already considering other factors and is simply opting for a different strategy: Trump gets his sentence on November 26, so no campaign financing grifts, and no motivation for unhinged base.
I’m afraid there’s a lot of truth in your comment, Ms. Fulcher. I’m a 9th generation American and a military veteran, but I can’t disagree. What we need is a massive, draconian overhaul and tightening of our dusty 237-year old operating manual so that a traitor and monster like Trump can never even be considered for high office… much less win the presidency even when losing the popular vote! My god, people! What were the Founding Fathers THINKING of???
My paternal roots are in 17th century New Amsterdam and 18th century Virginia and North Carolina, and my maternal ancestors came from Italy in the early 20th century. One of my uncles served with the 1st Marine Division at Guadalcanal and another landed at Utah Beach on D-Day. I protested the war in Vietnam but I always honored my uncles' service. My oldest and dearest friend was a Green Beret in Nam and died at 44 of a heart attack, just as much a casualty of that filthy war as those who didn't come back. We have to try to make this country live up to its professed ideals or we're all dead.
A lovely and moving comment, and I honor every one of the service members you cite. I served 26 years in the USN, including a year in Vietnam. I’m patriotic, but not blindly so. Your last sentence says it all.
Thank you. You're very kind my comment came from the heart. I miss my friend every day even though he died in 1993. I just want Trump and his goons held accountable and thrown in jail where they belong. A little sanity would be wonderful. I don't want to hear any more bullshit about "real Americans".
Let’s not deify the Toxic Bozo, but give credit where it’s due:
A sham politician, a great stage manager and fear-monger who has mastered the Ratings Game and is more interested in appearances than substance.
Notice the young lawyer by his side who is a stand-in for Putin. I expect he will stage a photo op of him skipping off into the sunset with Mr KGB, the way he did with lndia’s demi-god, Modi!
It’s gut-wrenching to watch the spectacle which is why we need to limit exposure to his kryptonite. The man is a toxic environment, with all it implies.
The only hope (besides voting against the SOB) we have is that when all is said and done, Trump gets defeated, Merchan will slap a sentence on Trump that will result in his being in jail or paying a huge fine that he will whine he can't afford.
Because at the same time this case is happening, the other "New York" case of E. Jean Carroll, will be decided by the New York State Appeals Court because a federal judge told Trump to get lost when he wanted it tracked into the federal system.
Yes, we do have a monster among us. We have the weapons to bring him down with, though: voting, judges, fines and prison.
Jack Smith is still waiting patiently, as is Judge Tanya Chutkan who will be dealing with Trump in DC. We can only guess at what will happen in the 11th circuit court of appeals because that is under way too.
I have the distinct feeling that the most patient unwanted guest of all, Karma (not the VP) will be waiting to greet Donald Trump with open arms on November 6th and telling him, "Hey, I've got tickets to a great set of parties! You're my date! Let's have at it!"
The dance will be a long, long Conga line of judgements, fines, prison sentences, forfeiture and other assorted legal moves that will destroy this particular monster.
But:
We must be patient, and
VOTE BLUE!
Trump's strip mall lawyers had a bad day at the Appellate Division today. He is going to be forced to pay Carroll upward of $90M for his actions. And then he is going to be forced to pay upwards of $500M to NYS for his business fraud. New York ain't playin. And ain't full of Leo/McConnell Federalist Society stooges.
The very stable genius proceeded to go out and defame E. Jean Carroll again, prompting her attorney to note that "all options are on the table" to deal with his defamatory speech.
"He can't help it. He was born with a silver foot in his mouth". to quote Ann Richards !
The 2nd greatest beneficiary of the DJT stock scam is E.J. Carroll. Over a billion dollars unencumbered cash will be in Trump's account, upon which she can demand payment. A silver lining to this outrageous stock swindle.
Good, a thousand times good.
Janice thanks for all your likes. Give the dog a pat for me. Soon I'll be visiting with Sitting Bull, Crazy Horse, Geronimo, Edward Abbey and my pal Charles Bowden.
Edward Abbey! He should be required high school reading. Forget Huck Finn; Abbey is more fun!
Rich, I agree on Abbey.
In case your interested , Nevada professor Ann Ronald did a book on Abbeys work.
"The New West Edward Abbey."
Thanks! I didn't know that. I'll read it.
If a heart attack steals him from our anticipated glee I will be pissed off!
For me the most needed thing is not him being punished. It’s him being gone.
GONE, as in dead as a f*cking doornail!!!
Hopefully not leaving JD Vance as prez.
I pray for it daily and I am not religious.
I feel that our media needs to be replaced to get him gone. The only way this would happen if we had press that actually reported the news with analysis. I am agreeing with Rebecca Solnit at how appalling the coverage of this election has been. https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/article/2024/sep/06/trump-clinton-harris-election?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other&utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email
If the press covered Trump as he is and what he does and did not clean up his word salads and treat his actions as normal behavior, let alone that of his VP, and his children, Donald Trump would not be a candidate. If I were to write about this election, I would call the book, The American Media: The Making of a Candidate!
I agree.The media are a big problem and also are a lot of the reason we got TFG in 2016.They are actively promoting a traitor and liar and I will never forget or forgive them for it.
Prison and/or heart attack = not in office.
I would rather see him get anal cancer and die a slow, lingering, painful death.
It's VERY rare that I wish a painful, slow death on anyone, but for t-Rump, a stroke or heart attack is too kind.
If a heart attack removes the orange pustule from our national life, that would be wonderful.
Trump will have a $1-2 Billion bribe paid to him after Sept. 19th. That's the date he can dump his 59% presently restricted shares of (symbol) DJT, FOR WHICH HE PAID NOTHING.
My guess is that Arabs, Russians, and other criminal governments will support the stock until he cashes out. Then it will die, sinking the hopes of some really dumb Trumpists who cannot afford the hit. This is one of the greatest stock pump and dumps in American History.
I'd like to read some comments from any Wall Streeters on this site.
By Wall Streeters do you mean soulless blood suckers that were at tRump’s child care speech yesterday or just your ordinary reduced marginal tax rate bros? Worthless Aholes either way…
Here, here!
Hear, hear.
I for one refuse to accept tyranny ,and I will fight this obscenity of a thing in any way possible! We let our guard down the past several decades….now the bill comes due ….Sad !
Exactly right. I have to bite my tongue whenever people act as if it all started with Trump and everything will be back to "normal" when he's over and done with. The "normal" that led us to Trump is unacceptable. We all, every one of us, have work to do after the election and after January 20, when Kamala Harris and Tim Walz take office.
Very well stated, Mary!!
I think Merchan is planning to give Trump significant jail time and, since he is far smarter than all MAGAs and all corporate media, decided to delay sentencing to avoid a major MAGA horde push on election day to keep their orange god out of jail by giving him an undeserved and disastrous second term.
I think that is an EXCELLENT insight, Peter. I’ve thought along the same lines. You expressed it nicely. No one can say — though Trump’s twisted cronies and Trump himself will anyway— that the orange monster hasn’t been given every possible consideration. This move by Merchand denies the MAGA hordes a sure fire major public grievance.
Imagine Insurrection II managed from a jail cell!
I don't believe he will win!
Me neither! Can't wait for the debate!
Be careful what you wish for. I can imagine Kamala Harris, with all her intelligence, toughness and fine preparation, being totally overwhelmed by the gush of sewage aimed at her from t-Rump's firehose!
I think she is ready for anything at this point...she's heard plenty of his sewage spewed (lies) over the past 8 years! I am hopeful.
I agree with you. He would become the greatest martyr to them and they will not stay home!
Makes sense to me.
WHOA!
Correct
Sounds about right!
What his worshipers want from t-Rump is simple: they believe he will restore white supremacy. All the other stuff is just window-dressing.
Exactly. “Take America Back.” To where? From who? As if we don’t know.
Like the signs once commonly seen on rural barns in Vermont: “Take Back Vermont.” I always wondered, “From What” and “To What?” What it really meant was, “Kick out all them liberal-ass flatlanders (like me, originally from greater Boston) and bring back good ol’ conservatism.” When pressed, however, most native Vermonters didn’t really want pavements torn up and dirt roads to be reintroduced and three-party line, wooden, crank-driven telephones on the wall.
I
It’s like “I don’t want socialism.” MF, you don’t even know what that is. You want to use a hose on your house if it catches fire? You already made the point.
Plus, there won't be any water either.
Correct! We don't! We're not going back and Vermont has wised up considerably since those days!
I like to think it means that native tribes get to take America back. Though I really don't want to have to move to Eastern Europe, where my great-grandparents lived before they came here.
Um. that would be white MALE supremacy.
Precisely. And that's why nothing he does, no matter how unethical, illegal or just plain stupid will ever cost him votes from his MAGA cult.
Exactly what I've been saying all along. As a red state Democrat, I see it first hand. Local FB groups have some of the most racist people commenting on the election. It's clear they long for the good old days of lynching and Jim Crow.
Fear of brown grandbabies.
I was shocked and disappointed by this delay, even after seeing every one of our vaunted "democratic institutions" show themselves to be paper-tigers falling one after another over the course of the Trump years. I think that's because the SDNY and Judge Merchan's performance through all phases of this prosecution and trial gave me false hope that his court would be the one that wouldn't let us all down until, of course, it did.
It's a particularly vexing delay in that Trump committed these crimes at the outset for the specific purpose of denying voters critical information, just prior to their casting votes in a pending election.
How is the postponement of his already delayed sentencing anything more than a full, court-assisted endorsement and actual perpetuation of Trump's original criminal motive?
Quoting Peter, above: "I think Merchan is planning to give Trump significant jail time and, since he is far smarter than all MAGAs and all corporate media, decided to delay sentencing to avoid a major MAGA horde push on election day to keep their orange god out of jail by giving him an undeserved and disastrous second term."
This makes a great deal of sense to me.
It isn't.
Runfastandwin, you could be right, but it doesn't look like that.
I'm trying to understand why this delay doesn't once again benefit Trump. Judge Merchan might not intend to give Trump a pass, but the effect is as if he is doing just that. Not sentencing him sends a message to MAGA and all Americans that Trump is OK. In my opinion, it is passive election interference - much like in 2016, with Comey not announcing Russia's interference in the presidential election.
I have a history of low blood pressure, but this year it has climbed to where I might need medication. I can only hope it'll revert to normal if we resoundingly defeat Trump, MAGA, and his scumbag family and cronies.
The victory will be all the sweeter if we beat him soundly before he’s convicted.
People shouldn’t get special treatment because they’re running to be president. So this decision is political by trying not to be political.
Control if for now with medication!
Judge Merchan had no choice. To do anything else, would have been perceived as a political statement. Unlike the US Supreme Court, the New York state system has standards. Because it is a state court and not a federal one, the ogre will be sentenced. Even if the felon does manage to finagle a presidential victory, he will not escape justice in New York state. He will still have to pay E Jean Carroll. He will still have to pay the fines for his actions. These are state convictions. He will always be an adjudicated sexual assaulter, he will always be a felon. Now we will see if he on his way to wearing a triple X orange jump suit. Attica might suit him.
If that thing is elected you can kiss it all goodbye the state courts won’t be able to do a fucken thing …this freak is the law at that point! The constitution is dead if he wins ! The New states of America are to decide via the right wing fascist mother fuckers that we allowed to come about thru our lack of protecting and advancing our democracy for decades …if you live love or die …..all courtesy of an Orange 🍊 Asshole we failed to recognize as malignant shit and neglected to flush ….while it’s cancer spread though out our country! SHAME ON US !
LESSON 1: Do Not Obey In Advance
Timothy Snyder 32.3K subscribers
42,585 views Sep 27, 2021
Most of the power of authoritarianism is freely given. In times like these, individuals think ahead about what a more repressive government will want, and then offer themselves without being asked. A citizen who adapts in this way is teaching power what it can do.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_4T9aGYoONU
"The constitution is dead if he wins"? Wrong.
We will have to engage in extended nonviolent resistance until hell freezes over and
then fight them on the ice.
DO NOT OBEY IN ADVANCE, even by mistake.
Very true ! I sometimes let my anger rule my better side and thoughts .😵💫
It's also very instructive to realize that you could never be part of a "Trump cult," since when you see flaws in an argument you previously embraced, you do the logical thing, Captain - you abandon it!
the fault lies with the stupid electoral college!
Actually, there is a way around this without messing with the Constitution. Here is how it reads:
"The number of representatives with full voting rights is 435, a number set by Public Law 62-5 on August 8, 1911, and in effect since 1913. The number of representatives per state is proportionate to population."
And "The Electoral College consists of 538 electors. A majority of 270 electoral votes is required to elect the President. Your State has the same number of electors as it does Members in its Congressional delegation: one for each Member in the House of Representatives plus two Senators"
And last but not least
Every 10 years, the 435 U.S. Representatives are reapportioned among the states in accordance with the latest federal census, thereby automatically reapportioning the membership of the Electoral College among the states. The map below shows the number of electoral votes for each state, according to the 2020 census. (See paragraph one)
It's time to change the number of electorates. The number is NOT part of the Constitution. That number was fixed in 1911. It can be changed, That's where our energy needs to go. It shouldn't be wasted fighting with the piddling states who are using a 1911 number to stymy the election and make it possible for the party of MAGA and it's predecessor the Republican party to continue to stifle the proper governance of the country.
Even better and simpler would be to get more states to join the National Popular Vote compact in which each state's electoral votes will go to the presidential candidate who wins the total national popular vote. Per www.nationalpopularvote.com, "It has been enacted into law by 17 states and DC with 209 electoral votes (Status in the states). It needs an additional 61 electoral votes to go into effect."
That doesn't relieve the inequity of votes in the house which is just as important, and in some cases, more so than holding the office of president. Until this disparity between the power of the smaller states, there will always be a problem.
I vaguely remember learning this years ago and it’s not entered my mind in years …DOH! Thanx for bringing this up !
Thanks for the lesson..had no idea about 1911!!
The sad thing is how many Americans even know what the Electoral College is !A friend of mine once told me it was part of the Pro football draft ? And this is from a 68 year old college grad 🧑🎓 😵💫🤫
Good God!!
Hey ! I had to think about it for a second it sounded legit after a coupla cold ones !!🤪😉College +elect + draft = college players elected to a NFL team in the draft each year 🤪🤯
HA!!!
:)
Good and important information. Thank you for the reminders and distinctions.
I’m glad these folks are thinking for me and they’re on our side ! Golden years my ass ! Oops ! Thinking aloud again .well not aloud !? Ala keyboard is better 🤪
I will put that on my hope that’s a go ! List
I really think that the NY illegal intelligentsia is playing a medium game here.
Trump is a known boil on the buttocks of humanity.
Given the craziness of SCOTUS it makes sense to keep this out their reach until after the orange is soundly defeated.
I have no doubt that Merchan is going to nail him to the wall after the election.
Wasn't the boil Cheney's deferment?
There indeed lurks a Monster among us, and it keeps growing. That said, I think Merchan did the only thing he could do, any sentence handed down at this point would be a nullity as it would immediately be stayed or overturned by the Monster's hunchbacked lackeys on the S.Ct. Additionally if would just feed into the whole martyr industry the Monster has summoned up from the deep. We need heroes to save our country, first voters to vote blue and then Kamala to slay the Horror in the upcoming debate, if the Monster actually shows up.
I’m afraid I agree, Tom. It was painful and a foregone conclusion, but I think your scenario is pretty accurate.
I am losing faith that we will ever regain our way. School shootings, political corruption, unaffordable healthcare, ignored climate change...the fear democracy could end on the 5th of November. And even if it doesn't the damage has been done. The will is not present to actually change our trajectory, and the 1% has effectively bought our government representatives. Project 2025 shines a light on the hubris of the billionaire backed 'think tanks' whose aim is to remake the US into a religious autocracy. The Supreme Court is the perfect example of our inadequacy to control our present - or future. Minority rule is poison to a two party democracy. Our system of laws was not designed to deal with the likes of tRump and his shills. I don't see a way forward.
Keep the faith, don't give up. There's more of us than there is of them! Don't stop believing!
Hope springs eternal...
and has so far been summarily crushed
Hope has not been crushed! Hope is in our fearless hearts!
I believe it will help a lot that Liz and Dick Cheney are voting for Kamala!
Liz, also, is endorsing Colin Allred against Cruz. I was really pleased to hear that.
His latest utterances have been chart toppers!
Right! Minority-rule roots are so deep and so jealously defended by the beneficiaries that overcoming the unfairness seems impossible. The big liar isn't the only one over there who projects. They assume blue unleashed would bulldoze them because insofar as they can they do that to us. Cf Dobbs.
Speaking of ignored climate change, the Guardian has an excellent piece. The Stakes, by Bill McKibben. What Trump means for the next thousand years. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/ng-interactive/2024/sep/06/presidential-election-climate-crisis-project-2025-trump?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other
You nailed it perfectly.
Running for office is not a defense to criminality — at least it shouldn’t be.
IMO, for the exact same reason that the judge in this case made this decision, sentencing SHOULD happen before the election — that being so to “avoid the unwarranted perception of a political motive…”
As another judge, Judge Chutkan, said in another one of the felonious seditious self-admitted pussy-grabbing past perfidious potus’s criminal cases, “her concern was only the four criminal counts in front of her court. The timing of the election,” she explained, was “not relevant” to her decisions. “This court is not concerned with the electoral schedule,” she said. “That’s not something I’m going to consider.”
It seems to me in a country of laws such as ours where no one is above the law, Chutkan’s is the right perspective — isn’t it..?
I agree with Chutkan on that point. Taking the election into consideration is like peeping out from underneath the blindfold.
It's not a defense and wasn't offered as a defense by Judge Merchan - moreover, any sentence would simply be challenged and used as a fundraising grift by Trump for the campaign. So in both cases, sentence before, sentence after, Trump doesn't head to prison, but in the latter case, no fundraising grift for floundering campaign, no extra motivation for his unhinged base.
It seems DT is above the law! No way! Hopefully, when he loses, he will get a good jail term sentence!
All these statements about how unprecedented all of this is, yes, we have literally NEVER had such a cartoonishly evil/incompetent/unfit actual convicted felon seeking the most powerful office in the world. Buck up, be on the right side of history and do your damn job your honor! Thankfully all of the volunteers and organizations I have been working with aren't as timid! Harris Walz 2024!!!!!!
Watched a clip of his asinine “press conference”. (Why???) he’s incapacitated. It’s obvious. Plus he looks insane. Denies he groped a woman because - my god - “she wouldn’t have been chosen” ?? By who? The Emperor Whale of Cheeses???
It's even weirder, Trump's actual locution repeated twice was "she would not have been the Chosen One"! With the deranged, narcissistic, vile and odious Trump in the role of God Almighty.
Just so! A lunatic has a cult in thrall.
JABBERWOCKY
Part of speech: noun
Origin: British English, 1871
1: Invented or meaningless language; nonsense.
'Twas beyond any mere word salad, he created a rantatouille.
Nice pun!
🤣
It’s also a poem by Lewis Carroll that has given us a bunch of new words. I think it was Carroll who invented the word "jabberwocky," along with others that have entered our lexicon, such as "burble" and "chortle."
Like:
‘‘Twas brillig, and the slivey tothes
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe …”
Can’t swear by the spelling..
I can still recite the poem from memory. I spent years as a teen, entertaining the kids I babysat for by reciting it for them.
Me too… most of it, anyway. My siblings and I ran around the house reciting bits of it, which may explain our later dysfunction. You can correct my spelling!
In the Macalester College Drama Choros shows we did it in translation: French, German and Russian - that "vorpal blade" went "Sneesko-Snasskoh," etc.
That’s Trump’s middle name!!
And look here.The bottom line is that we crush this vermin in a landslide tsunami of votes that he and the horrible Magats will have no recourse except all of the lawsuits that will inevitably happen like clockwork with this creep,
Judge Tanya Chutkan was given the same excuse for delaying a trial and she told Trump’s lawyers that the issue of Trump running for president was “irrelevant “. Is it possible that only women can see through Trump’s lies??
I’m 82 but hope I live long enough to see both houses of Congress populated at least 51% by women. Yes, there will be Boeberts and MTGs, but there will also be more Elizabeth Warrens and Nancy Pelosis. They don’t make quid pro quo sweetheart deals on the goddamn golf course and promote jackasses who happen to be cronies. They focus on competence and merit and the job to be done.
Since the percentage of women in law school is currently 55.7%, I think a lot more women attorneys will be running for, winning and holding office in local and state governments and in Congress. And next January we will have a woman president!
I think a major difference is between a trial (Chutkan) and a sentencing (Merchan) that is very likely to set off a MAGA firebomb. I agree with other comments here that we need to crush him at the ballot box then let Merchan and others crush him after the election.
It's also possible Judge Merchan was already considering other factors and is simply opting for a different strategy: Trump gets his sentence on November 26, so no campaign financing grifts, and no motivation for unhinged base.
Alan Lichtman called the 13 Keys for Kamal Harris today. Only 4 favored the orange.
We still have to show up and vote to protect our democracy.
Harris is going to win.
This is a monstrous country and always has been. Trump is only a symptom.
I’m afraid there’s a lot of truth in your comment, Ms. Fulcher. I’m a 9th generation American and a military veteran, but I can’t disagree. What we need is a massive, draconian overhaul and tightening of our dusty 237-year old operating manual so that a traitor and monster like Trump can never even be considered for high office… much less win the presidency even when losing the popular vote! My god, people! What were the Founding Fathers THINKING of???
My paternal roots are in 17th century New Amsterdam and 18th century Virginia and North Carolina, and my maternal ancestors came from Italy in the early 20th century. One of my uncles served with the 1st Marine Division at Guadalcanal and another landed at Utah Beach on D-Day. I protested the war in Vietnam but I always honored my uncles' service. My oldest and dearest friend was a Green Beret in Nam and died at 44 of a heart attack, just as much a casualty of that filthy war as those who didn't come back. We have to try to make this country live up to its professed ideals or we're all dead.
A lovely and moving comment, and I honor every one of the service members you cite. I served 26 years in the USN, including a year in Vietnam. I’m patriotic, but not blindly so. Your last sentence says it all.
Thank you. You're very kind my comment came from the heart. I miss my friend every day even though he died in 1993. I just want Trump and his goons held accountable and thrown in jail where they belong. A little sanity would be wonderful. I don't want to hear any more bullshit about "real Americans".
Let’s not deify the Toxic Bozo, but give credit where it’s due:
A sham politician, a great stage manager and fear-monger who has mastered the Ratings Game and is more interested in appearances than substance.
Notice the young lawyer by his side who is a stand-in for Putin. I expect he will stage a photo op of him skipping off into the sunset with Mr KGB, the way he did with lndia’s demi-god, Modi!
It’s gut-wrenching to watch the spectacle which is why we need to limit exposure to his kryptonite. The man is a toxic environment, with all it implies.