Here’s a word we’re not going to see much of over the next 14 months: pivot. You remember that word from previous presidential election cycles, don’t you? It’s intended to describe what candidates do after they’ve won the primaries and are about to enter the general election period, usually right after their party’s nominating convention. This time, there won’t be anything to pivot from.
Aug 21, 2023·edited Aug 21, 2023Liked by Lucian K. Truscott IV
A post script here.I read something earlier from someone who posted maybe here, maybe another post.Anyway, the person posting said that his/her college age children could not vote for Biden citing his age and his being “ too old” to be POTUS.To this I respond, Biden’s age is nothing compared to the hell on earth that another Trump presidency would reign upon our planet.I agree that Dems need some younger blood in their system but now is not the time for it.Defeat the monster first and then move on with necessary changes .
People seem to be math challenged. Biden is 80. Trump is 77. They are, for all intents and purposes, the same age. Not to mention one supports democracy and the other an authoritarian, fascist state. Sheesh!
this has become my own mantra whenever people start bitching to me about Biden's age, not to mention the fact that TFF has obviously ALWAYS had some profound (and to anyone who can think, disqualifying) cognitive impairment. and this is entirely separate from all the psychiatric baggage he brings to the party; y'know, the stuff that keeps us up at night.
I makes no sense to not vote for Biden if your reason is because he is too old, and if his opponent will be Trump, who is only a few years Biden's junior, and who clearly has a lot of mental challenges, and who is clearly declining. A lot of Biden's critics use his halting, mumbling speech pattern as evidence he is declining. But nope Biden has a stutter, has always had it, and he struggle to sound normal.
whomever that person is he/she has yet to figure out how to have a real conversation with the their "kids." Any parent who cannot convince their child there is zero difference between 80 and 77 in life experience and, yes, future mortality probably is the kind of parent who never convinced the child there was a difference in drinking beer and doing OXY.
Thanks again for an insightful letter this evening .For me, it comes right down to this-the 2024 election is democracy v fascism.Period.There is no middle ground here.I felt this way in 2016 but somehow we survived but we cannot survive again in 2024 if Donald Trump is somehow re-elected.He is evil.He is determined to destroy our country.I am going to fight against his traitorous mission with every fiber in my body.We all must.
It sounds boring, maddening and yet, sort of peaceful. And I seriously doubt that is actually how it will play out. As the trials progress, he will become more vociferous. His violent rhetoric will fuel those nut jobs. We are going to see a disinformation campaign and more violence than we’ve ever witnessed. I’m prepared to hunker down. Because I’m retired, I’m allowed to mail in my vote. I don’t believe for one second he can win the general. I believe his base has shrunk. The “sane” Republicans have begun to speak out. The Covid loss after the vaccines Republicans were 43% higher than Democrats. Still, it feels threatening and lackluster.
No. Because their party has always been more cohesive than Democrats. And cowardly about bucking their party. I’m seeing some change there though. Many more are talking about it. Some are still afraid of their own party and won’t say it out loud, but they won’t vote for Trump either.
Yep! Even I'm starting to have bad dreams about this psychopath. It's like one of those Freddie movies, I guess (which I've never seen but know somewhat about).
Aug 21, 2023·edited Aug 21, 2023Liked by Lucian K. Truscott IV
I'm glad to see that you were feeling well enough to write this excellent post. Thank you.
Donald is lapping up all of this attention, I'm sure, and reveling in it. I think we need to see more about what President Biden has accomplished and also read and hear more about his plans for the future.
Susan, have you seen Biden’s first campaign ad??? It is AWESOME. He’s gonna win, but we must all be vigilant and spreading the “good news” about the accomplishments, which are many and real!
I'm also seeing them on tv, mainly cable but I think also broadcast. There are several different ads highlighting different aspects of public benefit from one or another of the excellent Bill's he got through Congress. Most frequent is the reduction and/or capping a list of prescription meds, not just insulin. Have also seen a couple touting jobs & manufacturing from the Infrastructure bill. And recently I've seen repeats of clips from his public comments as he visits places where actual infrastructure or a factory is being initiated.
Conspicuous by its absence last time around was The Republican National Platform. I'm assuming that this state of affairs will continue, this time around.
Its a big beautiful platform, the greatest ever people are saying, the Democrats will just withdraw and declare Trump the winner by acclimation. It will be coming out two weeks after the convention.
Only a whining liberal who hates America, is a crack addict like Hunter Biden, wants to destroy our children's souls with woke textbooks, and sell them to the Chinese as slaves, all the while working away like a slimy rat, pretending to have a real job while secretly on George Soros's payroll, would ask such an unpatriotic question!
Not only that, you look like a disrespectful hippie biker out of Easy Rider and are probably on drugs all the time, except when you're breaking into good loyal Trump cultists's, I mean, Trump supporter's homes to kidnap the whole family and hold them for ransom!
“In the American political system, it’s part of a curious rewards system whereby you get to spend your own money to reward yourself for work you did on your own dime as a volunteer for the last four years. You get to buy yourself some funny hats, reserve an over-priced hotel room, fly on a crowded airplane to a city you wouldn’t otherwise visit, and attend a series of breakfasts and lunches and parties, and oh, yeah, sit in a big convention center and listen to speeches for three nights so you can be present for the big balloon drop as President Biden is renominated.”
This is so true! I’m so sick of Traitor Tot and his lies and delusions, and I’m also sick of his crazed cult followers. I wish they would all fall through a giant hole in the earth and be swallowed up, to be disappeared into the netherworld forever more!
I hope you and Tracy are beginning to recover. Thank you for this article.
I believe that support for Biden, despite all of the remarkable work he’s done restoring this country, is at a perilous low. And it was a real mistake making Kamala Harris VP. She’s disliked for a lot of very misguided but also valid reasons, so she becomes another liability and cause to worry for people. It’s really anyone’s guess what will happen with Trump. The media just thrives on stimulating the lizard brain with a lot of hysteria about him running for president from prison, what’s gonna happen when he becomes president again, blah blah. I think we should be worried about what’s gonna happen between now and election time. If the media had any integrity, which is a ridiculous concept at this stage, they would start reporting accurately about him they would not allow him to inflame his base. If he’s allowed to bully his way into corrupting the Georgia hearings, there really will be no hope left and I hate to say that. That’s what everybody’s watching. The absurd suggestion to move it to after the election. Why don’t you just forget about it all together? Everyone I know is just fatigued. I feel like if I see one more article with his smirking, horrible face I’ll run down the street screaming. I’m basically hoping for the unexpected. Nothing is gonna go the way it appears right now. And I’m hoping for the unexpected that’s going to just blow this clown car up.
AJ, I respectfully disagree with you about Kamala. She is respected by progressive whites, many people in the Black community and us women. That’s a lot of supporters. Because our (MSM) press is so weak, you are exactly right about “lizard brain” coverage, etc. I will never never lose my hope for a better outcome. Get everyone you know and everyone you don’t know to VOTE BLUE in 2024. Thank you.
Those aren't "hearings" in Georgia, they are set to be his criminal trial, with nineteen co-defendants, up against a highly skilled and motivated prosecutor.
"There’s no other way to say it: the 98-page indictment handed down by a Fulton county grand jury on Monday represents the most aggressive effort to hold Donald Trump and allies accountable for their efforts to overturn the 2020 election.
Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp speaks during Georgia Chamber Congressional Luncheon at The Classic Center, Tuesday, Aug. 8, 2023, in Athens, Ga. (Hyosub Shin/Atlanta Journal-Constitution via AP)
Governor Brian Kemp tells Trump Georgia’s 2020 election ‘was not stolen’
Read more
The document is staggering in its breadth and the ambition of its charges. The 41 counts of crimes in it, including 13 against Trump, detail the lies the former president and his co-defendants told the public about fraud to try and keep him in power. It doesn’t back away from charging Trump’s attorneys and inner circle with crimes for coordinating a plan to create slates of fake electors and to stop Congress from counting votes. Some of the state’s 16 fake electors themselves also face charges. And it also casts a wide net, not letting those who breached voting equipment and intimidated poll workers off the hook.
Instead, the indictment tells perhaps the most comprehensive story to date of one of the most brazen efforts to subvert American democracy.
Legally, the Georgia case may represent the biggest legal peril for Trump. If he wins the presidential election next year, Trump cannot pardon himself, something he could theoretically do if he is convicted on similar charges pending in federal court. In Georgia, a defendant must serve five years in prison before a pardon is even considered by the state board of pardon and paroles. Unlike many other states, the governor of Georgia does not have the ability to unilaterally pardon people.
The focus of the indictment – Trump’s efforts to stay in power – is the same as the federal charges Jack Smith, the justice department special counsel, filed earlier this month. But the two cases are significantly different. Smith’s case focuses squarely on Trump and his specific efforts to overturn the election, leaving other co-conspirators unnamed and uncharged (for now). The Fulton county case, brought by Fani Willis, the district attorney, uses precise detail to place Trump at the center of a large criminal enterprise that includes nearly 50 people (19 of them are named, 30 are not).
Of course, there is more of a risk to bringing a sprawling criminal indictment. The case is likely to be tied up in extensive procedural battles before even moving forward to a trial. Willis said Monday she intends to try all 19 defendants together, setting up a potential blockbuster, but complicated trial. Willis has not shied away from such challenges in the past, relying on the same Georgia racketeering statute at the heart of the Trump case to successfully get convictions against Atlanta teachers and is currently using them in a Rico case against the rapper Young Thug and the YSL gang.
“Jack Smith seems to be on a mission to get this done and to focus on Donald Trump,” said Anthony Michael Kreis, a law professor at Georgia State University. The Georgia case, he said, was “very different”.
“All of these actors are being held to account,” he said. “What might lack in efficiency and expediency in Georgia is made up for in the fact that I think Fani Willis is really trying to tell a narrative here about what these individuals did in her view to undermine and destroy American democracy.”
That story, according to the indictment, began the morning after election day in 2020. Speaking at the White House, Trump lied about the election results. As votes were still being counted, Trump claimed there was “a fraud” on the American public and said “frankly, we did win this election”, he said. The speech is “Act 1” in the indictment – the start of the conspiracy to keep Trump in power.
The indictment goes on to do something extraordinary – it translates lies that Rudy Giuliani and Sidney Powell told about the election into criminal acts. When Giuliani and Powell falsely claimed fraud at a press conference at the Republican National Committee headquarters, they were furthering a criminal conspiracy. When Giuliani appeared at a Georgia legislative hearing and lied about fraudulent ballots being cast, he made false statements, a crime in Georgia, the indictment says.
Fulton County district attorney Fani Willis at a press conference on Tuesday night.
Fulton county district attorney Fani Willis at a press conference on Monday night. Photograph: Elijah Nouvelage/Reuters
In one of its most significant sections, the indictment also brings criminal charges against two people who sought to intimidate and harass Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss, two Fulton county election workers who were at the center of false claims of fraud amplified by Giuliani. Both women faced vicious harassment after the 2020 election that upended their lives. The indictment details how Trevian Kutti, a former publicist for Kanye West and R Kelly, worked with two other men, Harrison Floyd and Stephen Lee, to try and pressure Freeman into confessing to voter fraud. Kutti showed up at Freeman’s doorstep, eventually met with her, and told her to confess to voter fraud or else people would come for her within 48 hours and she would go to jail.
Willis’s decision to translate the episode into criminal charges is significant. It underscores the breadth with which Willis is framing the conspiracy – no episode is too tangential, or harebrained, to escape her scrutiny. It also amounts to the first time that anyone has faced criminal charges related to the harassment of Freeman and Moss, two Black women who have come to symbolize the human toll of Trump’s lies about the election.
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Willis also doesn’t shy away from charging the cadre of lawyers who sought to provide legal cover for Trump with fringe ideas. Ken Chesebro, a little-known lawyer who authored a key memorandum laying out a strategy for fake electors, was charged with multiple crimes, including conspiracy to commit forgery, conspiracy to impersonate a public officer and conspiracy to commit false statements and writings. Jeffrey Clark, a justice department official who tried to pressure superiors to send a letter claiming fraud in Georgia, was charged with multiple crimes. As is John Eastman, the lawyer who tried to provide a legal pretext for Congress to overturn the election.
For the first time, a high-level White House aide, Mark Meadows, also faces criminal charges. The indictment cites multiple meetings Meadows had with state lawmakers across the country to get them to try and overturn the election results. It also cites a December meeting Meadows and Trump held with John McEntee, another White House aide, in which he and Trump requested McEntee prepare a memo outlining how to delay the counting and certification of electoral college votes. The document outlines Meadows presence on the telephone call in which Trump infamously pressured Georgia secretary of state Brad Raffensperger to “find 11,780 votes” to overturn the election. In doing so, Trump and Meadows committed a felony by soliciting Raffensperger to violate his oath as a public officer.
Lastly, Willis makes it clear the story of Trump’s subversion includes efforts by his allies to breach voting equipment. Similar to charges filed in Michigan earlier this month, this marks a significant attempt to hold Trump accountable for efforts to sow doubt about the actual machinery of elections. As Trump claimed fraud, an election official in Coffee county helped his allies gain unauthorized access to voting equipment. The information extracted was passed on to other election deniers who were trying to prove the outlandish idea that the equipment was rigged.
While Willis’s indictment is complex and contains 161 overt acts, she boils down the heart of it before even listing the charges.
“Defendant Donald John Trump lost the United States presidential election held on 3 November 2020. One of the states he lost was Georgia. Trump and the other defendants charged in this indictment refused to accept that Trump lost, and they knowingly and willfully joined conspiracy to unlawfully change the outcome of the election in favor of Trump,” she says.
While she goes on to list all of the complex crimes Trump and allies committed, many of the paragraphs in the indictment end the same way, reminding the public that each action was “an overt act in furtherance of the conspiracy”.
AJ I totally agree with you about Kamala, she was unelectable on a national stage when Biden picked her, she was the weakest of all of the candidates in the primaries, what she had going for her was that she was black and she helped bring along the black vote. She is still unelectable on the national stage, I would vote for her, but if it was ranked choice she would be near the bottom. I get Biden’s loyalty to her, he’s a stand up guy, but I would really like to see him with a different running mate in the next election especially because of his age. In the best case scenario she would step aside and allow him to pick another running mate that the nation would trust as his backup, and be totally supportive of the ticket, if we don’t see that, it speaks volumes about her character.
Thank you, there is the Progressive dream and then there’s the reality of America right now. The GOP cannot regain the presidency in 2024 or we may as well all just leave. That is the goal above all Progressive desires right now, with dreams of a fair and just world. She is unelectable and she’s also being used perhaps unfairly as the excuse for why people don’t want to support Biden. His age is a reality if he drops dead tomorrow she’d be president and many people don’t wanna see that happen. I would not vote for her. I very clearly remember her behavior on the stage during the debates and I was appalled. I was shocked that Biden chose her as VP It was a very political decision that was one dimensional. I think the real shame is that Biden has absolutely done the very best job. He was the correct transitional president to fix a lot of the mass but moving forward? I really wish there was a younger, stronger and more charismatic candidate.
In ordinary times, yes, there would be the hoopla surrounding the nomination of the Presidential/VP slate for the two political parties, but these are definitely not ordinary times. One party has become a personality cult following a disgraced and disgraceful conman down a wormhole….To what end remains to be seen, but it could be the death spiral of the GOP, or ??? I hate living in “interesting times”…
Oh, don't we all...all of those who treasure peace, stability, prosperity, unity and and a nation committed to the betterment of all it's citizens and the Earth as a whole.
Excellent summary of a truly sad and scary situation.
Is tomorrow still the day when the bigliest and bestest most perfect report ever written is due to be unleashed?! I'm sure it will contain a rehashing of all the old favorites as already alluded to in your article.
One thought - I had heard there was an investigation into whether Orange Foolious could be charged with fraud for collecting donations to investigate the "steal" but instead using the money to pay off his low life legal council. Could this so called report be his "Stop - Do Not Indict" card for this potential crime?
Also, he never had a "report" of a "intensive investigation" in the first place. Just endless tedious relitigations of prior rants and impeachments...blah, blah, blah. Why his worshipping MAGAts don't get well and truly sick of him and his endless bullpooky is something I'll never figure out.
Lucian, yesterday (Sat) marked my one week anniversary of subscription. I know I'm late to the gathering. I have but one word to leave you with and by extension the commenters and that word after the comma is this, eureka
I am not planning for the R. Convention to be all about Trump, because I predicted (here, I think) that he would be dead by Sept. 1st. (You can hold me to it. If it actually happens, to be truthful, no one will be more surprised than I.) my guess as to the cause will be a stress-induced stroke, helped along by KFC; or suicide, if he thinks he’ll be sentenced to do time.
Re conventions ... I go back to 1956, because I was there and it was a lot of fun. I was 16. (If you’re expecting a serious recollection of historical value, this ain’t it, so skip ahead.) Anyway, months before the Convention (in Chicago) mother asked if I wanted to be a page. Well, of course not! That would be *work*. But when I decided I did want to go, it was arranged that my date would be Peter Ribicoff, whose father was a political friend of my mother’s, Abe Ribicoff, then Governor of CT. That worked out well because I didn’t have credentials.
Abe basically got me in, using clout, through the Governor’s entrance as his child. His actual child, Peter, had a ticket, but Abe told us one or the other had to be in a delegate’s seat at all times. When it was my turn to roam around I found my mother. She asked if I wanted to meet Harry Truman, who, as a former president, had a box. So we got in a line. A looong line. Fate is funny. I had just read Margaret’s memoir, so when the line advanced and it was my turn, I said the only thing that made sense: “I loved Margaret’s book.” Well, he eased me onto his lap so we could talk about her book. Which we did for about ten minutes. My mother, later, asked what in hell was I doing in his lap, what were we talking about, and did I know line to see him was snaking around several aisles?
I did not know, at 16, that she was the apple of his eye, so mentioning her book was totally without guile.
I find things political so dire these days that I tend to offset the dreck with a better memory.
A post script here.I read something earlier from someone who posted maybe here, maybe another post.Anyway, the person posting said that his/her college age children could not vote for Biden citing his age and his being “ too old” to be POTUS.To this I respond, Biden’s age is nothing compared to the hell on earth that another Trump presidency would reign upon our planet.I agree that Dems need some younger blood in their system but now is not the time for it.Defeat the monster first and then move on with necessary changes .
People seem to be math challenged. Biden is 80. Trump is 77. They are, for all intents and purposes, the same age. Not to mention one supports democracy and the other an authoritarian, fascist state. Sheesh!
this has become my own mantra whenever people start bitching to me about Biden's age, not to mention the fact that TFF has obviously ALWAYS had some profound (and to anyone who can think, disqualifying) cognitive impairment. and this is entirely separate from all the psychiatric baggage he brings to the party; y'know, the stuff that keeps us up at night.
These kids need to reframe the issue. It’s not so much voting for Biden as voting for democracy.
Exactly Margo
I makes no sense to not vote for Biden if your reason is because he is too old, and if his opponent will be Trump, who is only a few years Biden's junior, and who clearly has a lot of mental challenges, and who is clearly declining. A lot of Biden's critics use his halting, mumbling speech pattern as evidence he is declining. But nope Biden has a stutter, has always had it, and he struggle to sound normal.
I believe Joe Biden has worked to minimize that speech impediment most of his long life.
THE PERFECT IS THE ENEMY OF THE GOOD!
And, besides, Biden has a heart, while Trump has none,
uhh, yeah...there's THAT.
whomever that person is he/she has yet to figure out how to have a real conversation with the their "kids." Any parent who cannot convince their child there is zero difference between 80 and 77 in life experience and, yes, future mortality probably is the kind of parent who never convinced the child there was a difference in drinking beer and doing OXY.
Thanks again for an insightful letter this evening .For me, it comes right down to this-the 2024 election is democracy v fascism.Period.There is no middle ground here.I felt this way in 2016 but somehow we survived but we cannot survive again in 2024 if Donald Trump is somehow re-elected.He is evil.He is determined to destroy our country.I am going to fight against his traitorous mission with every fiber in my body.We all must.
It sounds boring, maddening and yet, sort of peaceful. And I seriously doubt that is actually how it will play out. As the trials progress, he will become more vociferous. His violent rhetoric will fuel those nut jobs. We are going to see a disinformation campaign and more violence than we’ve ever witnessed. I’m prepared to hunker down. Because I’m retired, I’m allowed to mail in my vote. I don’t believe for one second he can win the general. I believe his base has shrunk. The “sane” Republicans have begun to speak out. The Covid loss after the vaccines Republicans were 43% higher than Democrats. Still, it feels threatening and lackluster.
Please God that such a thing as a “sane Republican” exists.
While I don’t agree with their policies Liz Chaney, Adam Kinzinger and Kemp seem to have chosen country and Constitution over party.
I agree Carla. But were Liz Cheney or Adam Kinzinger able to use their powers to bring about sanity in their party?
No. Because their party has always been more cohesive than Democrats. And cowardly about bucking their party. I’m seeing some change there though. Many more are talking about it. Some are still afraid of their own party and won’t say it out loud, but they won’t vote for Trump either.
Thank you. Now I can go to sleep without fear of a nightmare involving the Defendant!
Jesus why can't we just be done with it! It's giving us all endless PTSD.
I could not agree more. The fatigue is just relentless. Enough!
Yep! Even I'm starting to have bad dreams about this psychopath. It's like one of those Freddie movies, I guess (which I've never seen but know somewhat about).
Exactly!
I'm glad to see that you were feeling well enough to write this excellent post. Thank you.
Donald is lapping up all of this attention, I'm sure, and reveling in it. I think we need to see more about what President Biden has accomplished and also read and hear more about his plans for the future.
Susan, have you seen Biden’s first campaign ad??? It is AWESOME. He’s gonna win, but we must all be vigilant and spreading the “good news” about the accomplishments, which are many and real!
Yes, I just saw a few of Biden's campaign ads that were posted somewhere on Substack! You are right about how we need to spread the "good news".
I'm also seeing them on tv, mainly cable but I think also broadcast. There are several different ads highlighting different aspects of public benefit from one or another of the excellent Bill's he got through Congress. Most frequent is the reduction and/or capping a list of prescription meds, not just insulin. Have also seen a couple touting jobs & manufacturing from the Infrastructure bill. And recently I've seen repeats of clips from his public comments as he visits places where actual infrastructure or a factory is being initiated.
MSM has failed President Biden and the populace.
Conspicuous by its absence last time around was The Republican National Platform. I'm assuming that this state of affairs will continue, this time around.
Its a big beautiful platform, the greatest ever people are saying, the Democrats will just withdraw and declare Trump the winner by acclimation. It will be coming out two weeks after the convention.
😆
Yes, this time they may not even bother with the “Whatever he says” policy-free platform they shamefully admitted to last time.
Only a whining liberal who hates America, is a crack addict like Hunter Biden, wants to destroy our children's souls with woke textbooks, and sell them to the Chinese as slaves, all the while working away like a slimy rat, pretending to have a real job while secretly on George Soros's payroll, would ask such an unpatriotic question!
Not only that, you look like a disrespectful hippie biker out of Easy Rider and are probably on drugs all the time, except when you're breaking into good loyal Trump cultists's, I mean, Trump supporter's homes to kidnap the whole family and hold them for ransom!
Attorney Turnbull...you rang?
https://prod-static.gop.com/media/Resolution_Platform.pdf
How lovely!
K, Stunningly stupid....o m g.
Every single plank in the platform I've read so far regurgitates the most extreme versions
of laissez faire capitalism, a la Ayn Rand or Reagan's Morning in America bilge.
ROFL
“In the American political system, it’s part of a curious rewards system whereby you get to spend your own money to reward yourself for work you did on your own dime as a volunteer for the last four years. You get to buy yourself some funny hats, reserve an over-priced hotel room, fly on a crowded airplane to a city you wouldn’t otherwise visit, and attend a series of breakfasts and lunches and parties, and oh, yeah, sit in a big convention center and listen to speeches for three nights so you can be present for the big balloon drop as President Biden is renominated.”
Lucian, that is a GREAT summation of it.
Isn’t it? Perfection. He forgot to mention the expensive, uncomfortable costumes... nevertheless I had some memories going on.
And the COVID breeding ground!
Ditto, with even fewer self-rewards for State Primaries and Conventions.
This is so true! I’m so sick of Traitor Tot and his lies and delusions, and I’m also sick of his crazed cult followers. I wish they would all fall through a giant hole in the earth and be swallowed up, to be disappeared into the netherworld forever more!
I hope you and Tracy are beginning to recover. Thank you for this article.
I believe that support for Biden, despite all of the remarkable work he’s done restoring this country, is at a perilous low. And it was a real mistake making Kamala Harris VP. She’s disliked for a lot of very misguided but also valid reasons, so she becomes another liability and cause to worry for people. It’s really anyone’s guess what will happen with Trump. The media just thrives on stimulating the lizard brain with a lot of hysteria about him running for president from prison, what’s gonna happen when he becomes president again, blah blah. I think we should be worried about what’s gonna happen between now and election time. If the media had any integrity, which is a ridiculous concept at this stage, they would start reporting accurately about him they would not allow him to inflame his base. If he’s allowed to bully his way into corrupting the Georgia hearings, there really will be no hope left and I hate to say that. That’s what everybody’s watching. The absurd suggestion to move it to after the election. Why don’t you just forget about it all together? Everyone I know is just fatigued. I feel like if I see one more article with his smirking, horrible face I’ll run down the street screaming. I’m basically hoping for the unexpected. Nothing is gonna go the way it appears right now. And I’m hoping for the unexpected that’s going to just blow this clown car up.
AJ, I respectfully disagree with you about Kamala. She is respected by progressive whites, many people in the Black community and us women. That’s a lot of supporters. Because our (MSM) press is so weak, you are exactly right about “lizard brain” coverage, etc. I will never never lose my hope for a better outcome. Get everyone you know and everyone you don’t know to VOTE BLUE in 2024. Thank you.
I agree, Elisabeth! So very tired of Kamala being raked over the coals. She has been a very formidable partner to Biden and has been very busy.
Those aren't "hearings" in Georgia, they are set to be his criminal trial, with nineteen co-defendants, up against a highly skilled and motivated prosecutor.
www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/aug/15/georgia-indictment-trump-elec
"There’s no other way to say it: the 98-page indictment handed down by a Fulton county grand jury on Monday represents the most aggressive effort to hold Donald Trump and allies accountable for their efforts to overturn the 2020 election.
Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp speaks during Georgia Chamber Congressional Luncheon at The Classic Center, Tuesday, Aug. 8, 2023, in Athens, Ga. (Hyosub Shin/Atlanta Journal-Constitution via AP)
Governor Brian Kemp tells Trump Georgia’s 2020 election ‘was not stolen’
Read more
The document is staggering in its breadth and the ambition of its charges. The 41 counts of crimes in it, including 13 against Trump, detail the lies the former president and his co-defendants told the public about fraud to try and keep him in power. It doesn’t back away from charging Trump’s attorneys and inner circle with crimes for coordinating a plan to create slates of fake electors and to stop Congress from counting votes. Some of the state’s 16 fake electors themselves also face charges. And it also casts a wide net, not letting those who breached voting equipment and intimidated poll workers off the hook.
Instead, the indictment tells perhaps the most comprehensive story to date of one of the most brazen efforts to subvert American democracy.
Legally, the Georgia case may represent the biggest legal peril for Trump. If he wins the presidential election next year, Trump cannot pardon himself, something he could theoretically do if he is convicted on similar charges pending in federal court. In Georgia, a defendant must serve five years in prison before a pardon is even considered by the state board of pardon and paroles. Unlike many other states, the governor of Georgia does not have the ability to unilaterally pardon people.
The focus of the indictment – Trump’s efforts to stay in power – is the same as the federal charges Jack Smith, the justice department special counsel, filed earlier this month. But the two cases are significantly different. Smith’s case focuses squarely on Trump and his specific efforts to overturn the election, leaving other co-conspirators unnamed and uncharged (for now). The Fulton county case, brought by Fani Willis, the district attorney, uses precise detail to place Trump at the center of a large criminal enterprise that includes nearly 50 people (19 of them are named, 30 are not).
Of course, there is more of a risk to bringing a sprawling criminal indictment. The case is likely to be tied up in extensive procedural battles before even moving forward to a trial. Willis said Monday she intends to try all 19 defendants together, setting up a potential blockbuster, but complicated trial. Willis has not shied away from such challenges in the past, relying on the same Georgia racketeering statute at the heart of the Trump case to successfully get convictions against Atlanta teachers and is currently using them in a Rico case against the rapper Young Thug and the YSL gang.
“Jack Smith seems to be on a mission to get this done and to focus on Donald Trump,” said Anthony Michael Kreis, a law professor at Georgia State University. The Georgia case, he said, was “very different”.
“All of these actors are being held to account,” he said. “What might lack in efficiency and expediency in Georgia is made up for in the fact that I think Fani Willis is really trying to tell a narrative here about what these individuals did in her view to undermine and destroy American democracy.”
That story, according to the indictment, began the morning after election day in 2020. Speaking at the White House, Trump lied about the election results. As votes were still being counted, Trump claimed there was “a fraud” on the American public and said “frankly, we did win this election”, he said. The speech is “Act 1” in the indictment – the start of the conspiracy to keep Trump in power.
The indictment goes on to do something extraordinary – it translates lies that Rudy Giuliani and Sidney Powell told about the election into criminal acts. When Giuliani and Powell falsely claimed fraud at a press conference at the Republican National Committee headquarters, they were furthering a criminal conspiracy. When Giuliani appeared at a Georgia legislative hearing and lied about fraudulent ballots being cast, he made false statements, a crime in Georgia, the indictment says.
Fulton County district attorney Fani Willis at a press conference on Tuesday night.
Fulton county district attorney Fani Willis at a press conference on Monday night. Photograph: Elijah Nouvelage/Reuters
In one of its most significant sections, the indictment also brings criminal charges against two people who sought to intimidate and harass Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss, two Fulton county election workers who were at the center of false claims of fraud amplified by Giuliani. Both women faced vicious harassment after the 2020 election that upended their lives. The indictment details how Trevian Kutti, a former publicist for Kanye West and R Kelly, worked with two other men, Harrison Floyd and Stephen Lee, to try and pressure Freeman into confessing to voter fraud. Kutti showed up at Freeman’s doorstep, eventually met with her, and told her to confess to voter fraud or else people would come for her within 48 hours and she would go to jail.
Willis’s decision to translate the episode into criminal charges is significant. It underscores the breadth with which Willis is framing the conspiracy – no episode is too tangential, or harebrained, to escape her scrutiny. It also amounts to the first time that anyone has faced criminal charges related to the harassment of Freeman and Moss, two Black women who have come to symbolize the human toll of Trump’s lies about the election.
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Willis also doesn’t shy away from charging the cadre of lawyers who sought to provide legal cover for Trump with fringe ideas. Ken Chesebro, a little-known lawyer who authored a key memorandum laying out a strategy for fake electors, was charged with multiple crimes, including conspiracy to commit forgery, conspiracy to impersonate a public officer and conspiracy to commit false statements and writings. Jeffrey Clark, a justice department official who tried to pressure superiors to send a letter claiming fraud in Georgia, was charged with multiple crimes. As is John Eastman, the lawyer who tried to provide a legal pretext for Congress to overturn the election.
For the first time, a high-level White House aide, Mark Meadows, also faces criminal charges. The indictment cites multiple meetings Meadows had with state lawmakers across the country to get them to try and overturn the election results. It also cites a December meeting Meadows and Trump held with John McEntee, another White House aide, in which he and Trump requested McEntee prepare a memo outlining how to delay the counting and certification of electoral college votes. The document outlines Meadows presence on the telephone call in which Trump infamously pressured Georgia secretary of state Brad Raffensperger to “find 11,780 votes” to overturn the election. In doing so, Trump and Meadows committed a felony by soliciting Raffensperger to violate his oath as a public officer.
Lastly, Willis makes it clear the story of Trump’s subversion includes efforts by his allies to breach voting equipment. Similar to charges filed in Michigan earlier this month, this marks a significant attempt to hold Trump accountable for efforts to sow doubt about the actual machinery of elections. As Trump claimed fraud, an election official in Coffee county helped his allies gain unauthorized access to voting equipment. The information extracted was passed on to other election deniers who were trying to prove the outlandish idea that the equipment was rigged.
While Willis’s indictment is complex and contains 161 overt acts, she boils down the heart of it before even listing the charges.
“Defendant Donald John Trump lost the United States presidential election held on 3 November 2020. One of the states he lost was Georgia. Trump and the other defendants charged in this indictment refused to accept that Trump lost, and they knowingly and willfully joined conspiracy to unlawfully change the outcome of the election in favor of Trump,” she says.
While she goes on to list all of the complex crimes Trump and allies committed, many of the paragraphs in the indictment end the same way, reminding the public that each action was “an overt act in furtherance of the conspiracy”.
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AJ I totally agree with you about Kamala, she was unelectable on a national stage when Biden picked her, she was the weakest of all of the candidates in the primaries, what she had going for her was that she was black and she helped bring along the black vote. She is still unelectable on the national stage, I would vote for her, but if it was ranked choice she would be near the bottom. I get Biden’s loyalty to her, he’s a stand up guy, but I would really like to see him with a different running mate in the next election especially because of his age. In the best case scenario she would step aside and allow him to pick another running mate that the nation would trust as his backup, and be totally supportive of the ticket, if we don’t see that, it speaks volumes about her character.
Thank you, there is the Progressive dream and then there’s the reality of America right now. The GOP cannot regain the presidency in 2024 or we may as well all just leave. That is the goal above all Progressive desires right now, with dreams of a fair and just world. She is unelectable and she’s also being used perhaps unfairly as the excuse for why people don’t want to support Biden. His age is a reality if he drops dead tomorrow she’d be president and many people don’t wanna see that happen. I would not vote for her. I very clearly remember her behavior on the stage during the debates and I was appalled. I was shocked that Biden chose her as VP It was a very political decision that was one dimensional. I think the real shame is that Biden has absolutely done the very best job. He was the correct transitional president to fix a lot of the mass but moving forward? I really wish there was a younger, stronger and more charismatic candidate.
In ordinary times, yes, there would be the hoopla surrounding the nomination of the Presidential/VP slate for the two political parties, but these are definitely not ordinary times. One party has become a personality cult following a disgraced and disgraceful conman down a wormhole….To what end remains to be seen, but it could be the death spiral of the GOP, or ??? I hate living in “interesting times”…
Oh, don't we all...all of those who treasure peace, stability, prosperity, unity and and a nation committed to the betterment of all it's citizens and the Earth as a whole.
Yeah, "interesting times" sure do stink.
It's a long way from the "pivot" I described in The NY Times in 2012: https://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/05/opinion/sunday/the-pivot-the-move-of-the-moment.html
A good sense of humor is essential in this political environment. Thank you Lucien. Your next loan is free. That's a joke too. Hahaha
He'll probably laugh off the way you spell his first name, too, hah et hah encore!
Excellent summary of a truly sad and scary situation.
Is tomorrow still the day when the bigliest and bestest most perfect report ever written is due to be unleashed?! I'm sure it will contain a rehashing of all the old favorites as already alluded to in your article.
One thought - I had heard there was an investigation into whether Orange Foolious could be charged with fraud for collecting donations to investigate the "steal" but instead using the money to pay off his low life legal council. Could this so called report be his "Stop - Do Not Indict" card for this potential crime?
I think Def. T-Rump canceled his Monday revelation.
I hadn't heard that (thank you!) but why am I not surprised.....
Indeed he did, Judith and Greg. Orange Foolious cancelled. Someone here called him “Traitor Tot”. I have been laughing my heart out!
Yes, his lawyers managed to corral the temper tantrum king for once.
Also, he never had a "report" of a "intensive investigation" in the first place. Just endless tedious relitigations of prior rants and impeachments...blah, blah, blah. Why his worshipping MAGAts don't get well and truly sick of him and his endless bullpooky is something I'll never figure out.
Lucian, yesterday (Sat) marked my one week anniversary of subscription. I know I'm late to the gathering. I have but one word to leave you with and by extension the commenters and that word after the comma is this, eureka
All true. I have no other words. "Hope for the best" doesn't do it.
True. Hope for the best~prepare for the worse.
I am not planning for the R. Convention to be all about Trump, because I predicted (here, I think) that he would be dead by Sept. 1st. (You can hold me to it. If it actually happens, to be truthful, no one will be more surprised than I.) my guess as to the cause will be a stress-induced stroke, helped along by KFC; or suicide, if he thinks he’ll be sentenced to do time.
Re conventions ... I go back to 1956, because I was there and it was a lot of fun. I was 16. (If you’re expecting a serious recollection of historical value, this ain’t it, so skip ahead.) Anyway, months before the Convention (in Chicago) mother asked if I wanted to be a page. Well, of course not! That would be *work*. But when I decided I did want to go, it was arranged that my date would be Peter Ribicoff, whose father was a political friend of my mother’s, Abe Ribicoff, then Governor of CT. That worked out well because I didn’t have credentials.
Abe basically got me in, using clout, through the Governor’s entrance as his child. His actual child, Peter, had a ticket, but Abe told us one or the other had to be in a delegate’s seat at all times. When it was my turn to roam around I found my mother. She asked if I wanted to meet Harry Truman, who, as a former president, had a box. So we got in a line. A looong line. Fate is funny. I had just read Margaret’s memoir, so when the line advanced and it was my turn, I said the only thing that made sense: “I loved Margaret’s book.” Well, he eased me onto his lap so we could talk about her book. Which we did for about ten minutes. My mother, later, asked what in hell was I doing in his lap, what were we talking about, and did I know line to see him was snaking around several aisles?
I did not know, at 16, that she was the apple of his eye, so mentioning her book was totally without guile.
I find things political so dire these days that I tend to offset the dreck with a better memory.