What did we learn from the testimony of John C. Floyd III today at the hearing in Georgia? Floyd, the father of Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis, was called by prosecutors defending Willis from charges that she has a conflict of interest in her prosecution of 19 defendants, including Donald Trump, that he led a “criminal racketeering enterprise” to overturn the 2020 election results in Georgia.
Personally, I don't understand this case. Willis and Wade are both on the same side of the case against Trump and the other defendants. Who cares who paid what on a vacation to Belize? Surely there must be a better use of our judicial system.
Exactly. They’re on the same side, for Chrissake. If Wade were on the non-prosecutorial side it would be a pretty serious conflict of interest. But he’s not. Another hollow sham case. A classic Republican farce.
Yes, Trump is desperate to avoid a trial as are all the others and he will spend whatever it takes to discredit Willis. But it is pathetic how the lawyers are doing their best to humiliate her and her father and Wade but based on Lucian's observations, the father took it all in stride and gave good answers. The credit card humiliation reminds me of a music video by Trevor Jackson "Danger" where he and seven friends go into a very high class expensive restaurant and it is immediately assumed they would be unable to pay, even by the black maitre d' I am familiar with this as I was one of two snooty white men with our rather young dates who look aghast when the group enter the restaurant But this explains it better from Billboard: "Jackson’s self-directed flick finds him and a group of friends pulling up to a five-star restaurant in their most dapper attire following a round of golf. The maître d’, who is played by Jackson’s Grown-ish co-star Deon Cole, tries every trick in the book to deter them from coming inside.
Cole begrudgingly leads the crew to their table following a conference with the owner, as elder white couples stare at Jackson and his friends like they had just seen a ghost. A raucous party scene quickly ensues, which finds the Superfly star playing off the perception of what some expected from the young group of Black individuals. This is my twist on what it’s like to be Black in America, or any minority for that matter,” Jackson explains to Billboard. “Accused, judged, and penalized all due to your appearance. So I decided to have a little fun and the idea of our reality vs their idea of us.”
“Warning” serves as the lead single to Jackson’s forthcoming Rough Drafts Pt. 2 album. Watch the video below.
Doesn't this really say/explain it all? CRT, BLM, The Great Replacement....all because of Racism? Well done. Thanks for bringing this to our attention as well....and for being part of it.
The nerve of Trumps lawyers expressing disapproval of two consenting adults in a private relationship in an effort to protect a child rapist, showboater who brags constantly about his conquests is beyond chutzpah.
My reaction exactly to almost everything that comes out of a Republican mouth. "Jared Kushner did this, but you have the nerve to accuse Hunter Biden of that?" "Donald Trump is borderline incoherent whenever he opens his mouth, but you accuse President Biden of being senile?" "Aileen Cannon is obstructing justice 24/7 but you have a problem with Fani Willis paying her own way on vacation?" Beyond chutzpah is right. *Way* beyond chutzpah.
And the cowardly snake raising money from his rabid fans to pay his $355 million court judgment. Whatever happened to “I’m so rich”? Poor little rich boy!
But if an elected or appointed official is vacationing on someone else's dime, especially when that person is not a family member, especially when the official is doing public business with that person, that is at least potentially problematic. As Ln Em noted above, a SCOTUS justice accepting expensive trips (and other gifts, like a house for his mother) from a billionaire is *very* problematic. Willis was absolutely right to pay her own way, and to make a point of it once her detractors raised the issue.
For most of us it wouldn't be. But Fani Willis is a public official in a very high-profile case, and there's no level the Trump people won't stoop to retaliate against anyone who stands in their way. Willis stands in their way, plus she's a Black woman, so she's an obvious target. Personally I think she should have been more careful, e.g., not have hired Nathan Wade as special prosecutor -- but that's not to say she didn't have the right to do so.
it's not chutzpah - it's privelege. white, weatly, male privelege. he may be a total asshole, but he still has privelge - the assumptions of "fairness" - even if he is blatantly abusive - are still granted to him.
I posted this on Shadowcloud's substack before I saw your post. It bears repeating:
I watched the interrogation of Willis and Wade and was embarrassed to be a white female who has lived in TN for 35 years. The 'attorneys' were rude, arrogant, prying, repetitive, condescending and out-of their-depth. Their hubris was on prominent display while their competence was not. It was an effectual display of racism which is still alive and well in this country.
"Alive and well" is an understatement. I'm afraid that many, many white people wouldn't recognize the racism in play here, and too many men wouldn't get how sexist it was. And if you tried to call their attention to it, they would laugh and call you "woke."
I watched some of Fani’s father’s testimony earlier today but had to turn it off.It was over-the-top unnecessary roughness and had no bearing to this case.The mean-spiritedness was just too much for me to continue to leave the tv on.
If this country doesn't start getting sick to death over this kind of cruelty, we're all doomed. I cannot understand for the life of me a total lack of compassion and empathy. I hate these people.
I wrote about this yesterday. It showed a pathetic lack of cultural awareness, not only of POC, but also of women. As a retired professional woman, I knew exactly how she felt. If viewed through a gender lens and a racial lens, it is perfectly clear why white attorneys and especially white male attorneys would never...could never understand how a proud, independent professional woman would feel when accused of doing something so totally against her values and beliefs as to accept handouts from a date. It's abhorrent and downright insulting.
I too watched the whole thing on TV. And the good old boy former Georgia governor put another hole in the silliness of the defense attempting to get Fani. She had asked him if he would be the prosecutor in the Trump trial. He said no cause he did not want to live the rest of his life with bodyguards. Ya know the MAGA people would come for him. The last weeks have been a picture of the grifter sinking deeper into the doo doo. The slam by the appellate court destroying his position of total presidential immunity. The New York 355 plus million and 100 million in interest, 450 million total, that he has to either bond up or put up cash in escrow, plus another nine percent interest each year. Then add it the 87 million judgement on his sexual predation, Trump has to cover more than a half billion. He is not allowed to get any loans in New York. Then a possible audit where he might have to pay to the IRS another hundred million. The past weeks give us a picture of a grifter sinking deeper into the doodoo. Soon going to take his first criminal trial of 2024 for money to Stormy. Trump is a loser.
Wonder what the polling a week from now will reveal?
I watched Biden give his condemnation of the probable assassination of Novalny today, followed by answering the questions thrown at him by the press corp. If his cogent answers to those are an indication of a person with dementia, where he answered everyone of them on target, then all Americans have dementia, some far more advanced than Biden.
I read a transcript of Trump's unhinged rally in North Caroline last weekend. OMG. What a stream of words that often disconnect, that often make little sense, sometimes connected, then wandering away. And very few are what would be considered an intelligent discourse on any subject. Even his rant about discussing with a leader of a big country as to what would happen to it if it did not pay its dues to NATO was the sentence structure of a fourth grader. "A farrago of lies, slanders, insanity, undiagnosed mental disorders, ancient Sumerian curses, self-fellation, gasconades, and conspiracy ranting. It’s a good reminder than no matter how insane you think he is, the ritual of his rallies is a religious experience for the people attending them, and the madness is more pendant and pressing than you want to believe [Rick Wilson]."
Thanks, Judith. I kind of figured it must be him, because the rest of them up to now have been republicans, and Sonny Perdue and Crooked Deal are both in their 80s. Also, Barnes is a Democrat, so, double whammy.
keeping cash at home was - maybe still is - an immigrant thing - we always had cash in the house - first cash boxes with locks - graduated to safe - sure, sure - checking account, savings - but people forget - in the 1960s/1970s - credit cards were not ubiquitous. and many women could not get their own unless their husband gave them one - even, if like my mother - she had a job. so yea, cash was king. and my father always slipped me two 20s when i left the house on a date - big money back then - so that i could get home safely just in case - everything she said was right. her testimony really showed not only the race divide, but the class divide in this country - bozo who laughed versus everybody nodding their head saying "yep, i get it" - i was also stunned by the deep divide in reactions - how many men said "well, it was powerful, but not sure she should have done it, very emotional" and every woman on TV and with whom I spoke to day was "rock on, fanni! say it like it is" - her father slipping her the money before a date, telling her always have cash on you - i have never heard that in public yet i know millions of women were nodding their heads, saying to themselves, "i get it, thank you, daddy, for taking care of me."
White, middle class, female here - I *always* have cash. A few hundred bucks. Always. It's not just a black thing. It's also just a chick thing.
Apropos of nothing, once when I was on sea duty in the navy, our ship was on a port visit to another city stateside. One of our sailors ended up in jail after a drunken bar fight with some locals. Fortunately, he, unlike the locals, hadn't resisted arrest, so they were going to let him go. I went down to the jail with my chief to get him out before the ship got underway. When they brought him out, they said okay, that'll be two hundred bucks. The sailor and the chief both got panicked looks on their faces. The lieutenant (me) reached into her pocket and pulled out the required cash. Cash is indeed king.
Anyone who thinks it isn't has led a privileged life indeed. Or is gaslighting for their own nefarious purposes.
Agree with Irene, great story. However, this single white female of "a certain age", multi-generation American of northern European descent, began keeping several hundred dollars in cash in the house during 2020 and will continue to do so even though I pay for almost everything with my credit card.
Isn’t it something—consenting, black prosecutors having to defend from trump allegations—trump—a rapist, a colossal Fraud, a man who openly expresses sexual desire of his DAUGHTER, a serial adulterer who paid hush money to a porn star, a RAPIST—WHAT JUSTICE IS THIS? Appearance of “IMPROPRIETY”?
These things are so extremely difficult for me to read. I cherish my Black friends. I've always had Black friends since I was a child in rural Alabama in the 50s and 60s. I considered one of the best comments I ever received was from my Black friend, who wasn't in the beginning but was forever after, who came to live with my mother and me to help me take care of my mother in her 90s and her senility and her meanness and all that goes with taking care of someone, when she told me she could not detect an ounce of racism in my mother and me. I never felt I was but, heck, we don't know a lot about ourselves in relation to how others see us.
This is so disgusting to treat this gentle man who has had the life experiences I've seen Black people have all my life. It is beyond unfair. I don't want to search the words for it right now because I might just burn up in my own rage. Haven't we done enough to the lives of people who we harmed from the very beginning of their lives with us. Trump and his despicable attorneys and his despicable base. i don't care how ignorant and uneducated they are. There is nothing that gives you the right to this level of stark cruelty.
I did not get to watch any of Fanni’s testimony as it happened, but several women I know did, and posted their reactions on Facebook. One of them, an Attorney and a woman of some color felt as though Fanni had done herself no favors by being too aggressive on the stand. The others agreed. Fanni is blowing it! I finally got to see some of this testimony, and I’ve got to say, excuse me? I was happy to hear her throw it right back in their faces. Would you rather see her crumple from the onslaught of such blatant irrelevant ugliness? What the hell has happened to this country?
And in other news: There’s Clarence Thomas the very reverse of this situation.
Roman and his attorneys (I use the term loosely) are the most despicable people. Racism, bigoted and misogynistic. How disgusting. Why is the judge letting these assholes ask clearly irrelevant questions???
Personally, I don't understand this case. Willis and Wade are both on the same side of the case against Trump and the other defendants. Who cares who paid what on a vacation to Belize? Surely there must be a better use of our judicial system.
Now that makes sense! As I watched some of the proceedings I kept scratching my head, figuratively speaking.
What the hell is going on? What a waste of taxpayers money!
It's a desperation ploy to try and stop the George RICO case, grabbing at any and all possible levers to kill the process.
There is none. There is none. This is Trump and how he tries to not be seen as what he clearly is.
Well said.
Exactly. They’re on the same side, for Chrissake. If Wade were on the non-prosecutorial side it would be a pretty serious conflict of interest. But he’s not. Another hollow sham case. A classic Republican farce.
Yes, Trump is desperate to avoid a trial as are all the others and he will spend whatever it takes to discredit Willis. But it is pathetic how the lawyers are doing their best to humiliate her and her father and Wade but based on Lucian's observations, the father took it all in stride and gave good answers. The credit card humiliation reminds me of a music video by Trevor Jackson "Danger" where he and seven friends go into a very high class expensive restaurant and it is immediately assumed they would be unable to pay, even by the black maitre d' I am familiar with this as I was one of two snooty white men with our rather young dates who look aghast when the group enter the restaurant But this explains it better from Billboard: "Jackson’s self-directed flick finds him and a group of friends pulling up to a five-star restaurant in their most dapper attire following a round of golf. The maître d’, who is played by Jackson’s Grown-ish co-star Deon Cole, tries every trick in the book to deter them from coming inside.
Cole begrudgingly leads the crew to their table following a conference with the owner, as elder white couples stare at Jackson and his friends like they had just seen a ghost. A raucous party scene quickly ensues, which finds the Superfly star playing off the perception of what some expected from the young group of Black individuals. This is my twist on what it’s like to be Black in America, or any minority for that matter,” Jackson explains to Billboard. “Accused, judged, and penalized all due to your appearance. So I decided to have a little fun and the idea of our reality vs their idea of us.”
“Warning” serves as the lead single to Jackson’s forthcoming Rough Drafts Pt. 2 album. Watch the video below.
Billboard https://youtu.be/OWv4efPYGd4
Doesn't this really say/explain it all? CRT, BLM, The Great Replacement....all because of Racism? Well done. Thanks for bringing this to our attention as well....and for being part of it.
LOVE it, Robert! So clever!
Thanks Gail. Yes, the message from that video was a good one. I was glad to be a small part of it.
Typical , Sleezy ass shit 💩! The family stuff is not necessary! The rest of it is all a bullshit stall ! The whole shit shows another con job !
Distract, distract, distract attention away from the real criminal.
Should the Judge rule against DA Willis, its another stake through the heart of the myth called equal justice.
The nerve of Trumps lawyers expressing disapproval of two consenting adults in a private relationship in an effort to protect a child rapist, showboater who brags constantly about his conquests is beyond chutzpah.
My reaction exactly to almost everything that comes out of a Republican mouth. "Jared Kushner did this, but you have the nerve to accuse Hunter Biden of that?" "Donald Trump is borderline incoherent whenever he opens his mouth, but you accuse President Biden of being senile?" "Aileen Cannon is obstructing justice 24/7 but you have a problem with Fani Willis paying her own way on vacation?" Beyond chutzpah is right. *Way* beyond chutzpah.
id add:
but you have a problem with Fani Willis paying her own way on vacation?"
yet think nothing of a SC justice taking free very expensive trips from a billionaire who could benefit from the courts decisions ??
Yes!!!
And the cowardly snake raising money from his rabid fans to pay his $355 million court judgment. Whatever happened to “I’m so rich”? Poor little rich boy!
yeah.
tho i truly enjoy seeing MAGAt idiots throwing money to trump from their possibly meager pockets.
means they have less to give to legitimate candidates.
Then the Dems win!
I'd add, even if she didn't pay, it's no one's business but hers. Dammit anyway.
But if an elected or appointed official is vacationing on someone else's dime, especially when that person is not a family member, especially when the official is doing public business with that person, that is at least potentially problematic. As Ln Em noted above, a SCOTUS justice accepting expensive trips (and other gifts, like a house for his mother) from a billionaire is *very* problematic. Willis was absolutely right to pay her own way, and to make a point of it once her detractors raised the issue.
I guess. It still seems like it's no one's business though.
For most of us it wouldn't be. But Fani Willis is a public official in a very high-profile case, and there's no level the Trump people won't stoop to retaliate against anyone who stands in their way. Willis stands in their way, plus she's a Black woman, so she's an obvious target. Personally I think she should have been more careful, e.g., not have hired Nathan Wade as special prosecutor -- but that's not to say she didn't have the right to do so.
it's not chutzpah - it's privelege. white, weatly, male privelege. he may be a total asshole, but he still has privelge - the assumptions of "fairness" - even if he is blatantly abusive - are still granted to him.
Well said!
I posted this on Shadowcloud's substack before I saw your post. It bears repeating:
I watched the interrogation of Willis and Wade and was embarrassed to be a white female who has lived in TN for 35 years. The 'attorneys' were rude, arrogant, prying, repetitive, condescending and out-of their-depth. Their hubris was on prominent display while their competence was not. It was an effectual display of racism which is still alive and well in this country.
"Alive and well" is an understatement. I'm afraid that many, many white people wouldn't recognize the racism in play here, and too many men wouldn't get how sexist it was. And if you tried to call their attention to it, they would laugh and call you "woke."
On the money! I felt the same way!
agree. it was horrifying to watch.
I watched some of Fani’s father’s testimony earlier today but had to turn it off.It was over-the-top unnecessary roughness and had no bearing to this case.The mean-spiritedness was just too much for me to continue to leave the tv on.
If this country doesn't start getting sick to death over this kind of cruelty, we're all doomed. I cannot understand for the life of me a total lack of compassion and empathy. I hate these people.
There's still plenty of us out here! Don't lose hope!
I felt the same way. Watching was painful.
I wrote about this yesterday. It showed a pathetic lack of cultural awareness, not only of POC, but also of women. As a retired professional woman, I knew exactly how she felt. If viewed through a gender lens and a racial lens, it is perfectly clear why white attorneys and especially white male attorneys would never...could never understand how a proud, independent professional woman would feel when accused of doing something so totally against her values and beliefs as to accept handouts from a date. It's abhorrent and downright insulting.
totally agree. totally outrageous.
I too watched the whole thing on TV. And the good old boy former Georgia governor put another hole in the silliness of the defense attempting to get Fani. She had asked him if he would be the prosecutor in the Trump trial. He said no cause he did not want to live the rest of his life with bodyguards. Ya know the MAGA people would come for him. The last weeks have been a picture of the grifter sinking deeper into the doo doo. The slam by the appellate court destroying his position of total presidential immunity. The New York 355 plus million and 100 million in interest, 450 million total, that he has to either bond up or put up cash in escrow, plus another nine percent interest each year. Then add it the 87 million judgement on his sexual predation, Trump has to cover more than a half billion. He is not allowed to get any loans in New York. Then a possible audit where he might have to pay to the IRS another hundred million. The past weeks give us a picture of a grifter sinking deeper into the doodoo. Soon going to take his first criminal trial of 2024 for money to Stormy. Trump is a loser.
Wonder what the polling a week from now will reveal?
I watched Biden give his condemnation of the probable assassination of Novalny today, followed by answering the questions thrown at him by the press corp. If his cogent answers to those are an indication of a person with dementia, where he answered everyone of them on target, then all Americans have dementia, some far more advanced than Biden.
I read a transcript of Trump's unhinged rally in North Caroline last weekend. OMG. What a stream of words that often disconnect, that often make little sense, sometimes connected, then wandering away. And very few are what would be considered an intelligent discourse on any subject. Even his rant about discussing with a leader of a big country as to what would happen to it if it did not pay its dues to NATO was the sentence structure of a fourth grader. "A farrago of lies, slanders, insanity, undiagnosed mental disorders, ancient Sumerian curses, self-fellation, gasconades, and conspiracy ranting. It’s a good reminder than no matter how insane you think he is, the ritual of his rallies is a religious experience for the people attending them, and the madness is more pendant and pressing than you want to believe [Rick Wilson]."
Which former Georgia governor would that be?
Former Georgia Gov. Roy Barnes. In office 1999-2003.
Thanks, Judith. I kind of figured it must be him, because the rest of them up to now have been republicans, and Sonny Perdue and Crooked Deal are both in their 80s. Also, Barnes is a Democrat, so, double whammy.
And nbc et al: Trump on top of his game!
You're on a roll Runfast!
keeping cash at home was - maybe still is - an immigrant thing - we always had cash in the house - first cash boxes with locks - graduated to safe - sure, sure - checking account, savings - but people forget - in the 1960s/1970s - credit cards were not ubiquitous. and many women could not get their own unless their husband gave them one - even, if like my mother - she had a job. so yea, cash was king. and my father always slipped me two 20s when i left the house on a date - big money back then - so that i could get home safely just in case - everything she said was right. her testimony really showed not only the race divide, but the class divide in this country - bozo who laughed versus everybody nodding their head saying "yep, i get it" - i was also stunned by the deep divide in reactions - how many men said "well, it was powerful, but not sure she should have done it, very emotional" and every woman on TV and with whom I spoke to day was "rock on, fanni! say it like it is" - her father slipping her the money before a date, telling her always have cash on you - i have never heard that in public yet i know millions of women were nodding their heads, saying to themselves, "i get it, thank you, daddy, for taking care of me."
White, middle class, female here - I *always* have cash. A few hundred bucks. Always. It's not just a black thing. It's also just a chick thing.
Apropos of nothing, once when I was on sea duty in the navy, our ship was on a port visit to another city stateside. One of our sailors ended up in jail after a drunken bar fight with some locals. Fortunately, he, unlike the locals, hadn't resisted arrest, so they were going to let him go. I went down to the jail with my chief to get him out before the ship got underway. When they brought him out, they said okay, that'll be two hundred bucks. The sailor and the chief both got panicked looks on their faces. The lieutenant (me) reached into her pocket and pulled out the required cash. Cash is indeed king.
Anyone who thinks it isn't has led a privileged life indeed. Or is gaslighting for their own nefarious purposes.
Agree with Irene, great story. However, this single white female of "a certain age", multi-generation American of northern European descent, began keeping several hundred dollars in cash in the house during 2020 and will continue to do so even though I pay for almost everything with my credit card.
Same
great story!
I am a first generation American and always take some cash along. My family calls it mad money.
I'm a white kid from the suburbs and I keep plenty of cash at home.
"...racism wasn’t the subtext, it was the text. " WORD
That was Lucian's crystal clear summary in 8 words. Jumped off the page.
You got that right! I kept shaking my head as I watched. What a freaking waste of time!
Isn’t it something—consenting, black prosecutors having to defend from trump allegations—trump—a rapist, a colossal Fraud, a man who openly expresses sexual desire of his DAUGHTER, a serial adulterer who paid hush money to a porn star, a RAPIST—WHAT JUSTICE IS THIS? Appearance of “IMPROPRIETY”?
This is FASCISM and bigotry.
This is absolutely racist, sexist, and t completely uncalled for.
These things are so extremely difficult for me to read. I cherish my Black friends. I've always had Black friends since I was a child in rural Alabama in the 50s and 60s. I considered one of the best comments I ever received was from my Black friend, who wasn't in the beginning but was forever after, who came to live with my mother and me to help me take care of my mother in her 90s and her senility and her meanness and all that goes with taking care of someone, when she told me she could not detect an ounce of racism in my mother and me. I never felt I was but, heck, we don't know a lot about ourselves in relation to how others see us.
This is so disgusting to treat this gentle man who has had the life experiences I've seen Black people have all my life. It is beyond unfair. I don't want to search the words for it right now because I might just burn up in my own rage. Haven't we done enough to the lives of people who we harmed from the very beginning of their lives with us. Trump and his despicable attorneys and his despicable base. i don't care how ignorant and uneducated they are. There is nothing that gives you the right to this level of stark cruelty.
I did not get to watch any of Fanni’s testimony as it happened, but several women I know did, and posted their reactions on Facebook. One of them, an Attorney and a woman of some color felt as though Fanni had done herself no favors by being too aggressive on the stand. The others agreed. Fanni is blowing it! I finally got to see some of this testimony, and I’ve got to say, excuse me? I was happy to hear her throw it right back in their faces. Would you rather see her crumple from the onslaught of such blatant irrelevant ugliness? What the hell has happened to this country?
And in other news: There’s Clarence Thomas the very reverse of this situation.
Racism…one of the other religious “isms” practiced in America.
In a similar situation except instead of a woman it is a man, would his mother be called in to testify?
It’s about smearing and projecting the evil deeds that Trumpers do onto people they feel threatened by.
Roman and his attorneys (I use the term loosely) are the most despicable people. Racism, bigoted and misogynistic. How disgusting. Why is the judge letting these assholes ask clearly irrelevant questions???
Some of the attorneys who questioned her are representing other defendants in the RICO case.