In short, this is less a gamechanger than a replay of less than three months ago when Trump was charged by state prosecutors in New York with 34 felony counts of falsifying business records over a hush money payment to an adult film star. The former president saturated the news cycle, enjoyed a boost in the polls and forced his primary rivals to rally around him. He raised more than $4m in the 24 hours after the indictment became public.
The same rinse, repeat cycle seems likely if and when Trump is hit by even more charges over the January 6 insurrection and election tampering in Georgia. But there is a sense of gathering momentum, as the electoral calendar and legal calendar hurtle towards a great collision.
Could Trump accept the Republican nomination while wearing an ankle bracelet? Could he run against Biden from a prison cell? Could the American presidency become the ultimate get-out-of-jail card? Today’s jokey speculation has a habit of becoming tomorrow’s headline news.
Trump indicted in Mar-a-Lago classified documents investigation – The Washington Post
encore
the grifter still grifting along in the fumbling fumble weeds …
the hill:
“Only witches complain about witch hunts.”
pogo, your comment in the wee small hours last thread deserves a ‘toon and by chance I found one.
Attribution: Witches Witches Everywhere by Dave Whamond, Canada, PoliticalCartoons.com
Indictment grift
think tank in D.C. on strategic & internat’l studies put out this alert early this morning:
US: Protests likely in Miami and Palm Beach, Florida, through mid-June amid indictment of Donald Trump | Crisis24 (garda.com)
https://www.vox.com/politics/2023/6/4/23748503/georgia-trump-investigation-rico
“Georgia’s RICO law has a broad definition of what constitutes racketeering behavior: “knowingly and willfully making a false, fictitious or fraudulent statement or representation in any matter within the jurisdiction of any department or agency of state government” to carry out a crime, as Clark Cunningham, a professor at Georgia State University’s College of Law told the Guardian in January. “If you do that, you’ve committed a racketeering activity. If you attempt to do that, if you solicit someone else to do it or you coerce someone else to do it — it’s all considered racketeering under Georgia law.”
Georgia, Georgia music 🎶…
I say it gets too hot for him this summer and he makes a run for it.
Burn the witch.
https://apnews.com/article/greta-thunberg-climate-graduation-protests-fridays-c60cec5b666550b9240648227649e91f
As the fires in Canada continue to burn, and lands are flooded and bombed in Ukraine, and the oceans have turned into a garbage dump, Greta Thunberg is graduating from school. This is her final Friday strike for climate.
“For her final school strike outside parliament, Thunberg posed with a Swedish-language sign while wearing the cap that high school graduates typically wear in Sweden.”
“We are still moving in the wrong direction, where those in power are allowed to sacrifice,” Thunberg wrote on Twitter. “We’re rapidly approaching potential nonlinear ecological and climatic tipping points beyond our control.”
“Because she won’t be a student anymore, Thunberg noted that her future Friday activities that “technically” won’t be school striking. But in a tweet, she vowed to continue protesting, saying, “The fight has only just begun.”
Front Page for posterity
Bizarre report just now in my DC Police feed:
Incident: Loose bear currently sitting in a tree in the 1300 Block of Franklin Street, NE.
Road Closure:
⛔ 1300 block of Franklin Street NE
⛔ 2700 block of 14th Street NE
MPD is on the scene. Avoid the area until further notice.
The bears seem to be moving to D.C. this year. Time to sing the song “. . . smarter than the average bear!”
I don’t know how many of you lived through the Nixon era, I did. I have explained to many youngsters why he was so bad, and at the same time doing “good” things for the U.S. The important part of Nixon was his post WWII life and in how he ended up in Congress with John Kennedy. With his experiences upto when he lost to JFK. Too many do not learn about the time.
There is one thing Nixon would never do which was sell out the U.S. to adversaries or enemies. SFB happy did that from the very beginning of his time in the White House. People died, and are still dying.
Judge Aileen Cannon, a Trump appointee, initially assigned to oversee his case. She’s the one Appeals court slapped down twice for bogus rulings favoring Trump.
https://abcnews.go.com/US/judge-aileen-cannon-trump-appointee-initially-assigned-oversee/story?id=99956910&cid=social_twitter_abcn&s=01
Hah! the only all caps part of his post-indictment grift is CONTRIBUTE. We know what’s top on his list of important matters. Some billionaire is he.
Cannon, again? Are you freaking kidding me? Why not ask Clarence to sit as a temp judge in the S.D.FL. This will definitely last beyond a year. the Chief Judge in her district needs to reassign the case.
If we can not hold a former President to account for breaking the law then we are a “banana republic”. Modern strong democracies hold to the rule of law. As the Guardian link pointed out, in the last 15 years, France, South Korea, and Italy have held their former leaders to account. This is what a real Democracy does.
It is time for Democrats to get their act together. The Republican party has proved today that they are willing to tear this country down. We need somebody to loudly support the rule of law. We need it now.
Jack
The link below is to a news letter by Timothy Snyder a historian and professor at Yale university. I subscribe to his newsletter for his expertise on Ukraine and Eastern Europe and the fact I get a Yale college course on the subject for free.
This morning he wrote this very thoughtful essay on the Republican’s reaction to the Trump indictment. Titled: Dear Republicans. If you need some good talking points his essay gives you several.
Jack
https://www.cnn.com/2023/06/09/politics/trump-tape-didnt-declassify-secret-information/index.html
Exclusive: Donald Trump admits on tape he didn’t declassify ‘secret information’
Yeah, I still say he’s a flight risk.
lock him up now
Donald Trump just totally amazes me, just when you tell yourself,”there is no way you could be more stupid than that”, he says, “oh yeah, here, hold my beer” lol.
You are breaking the law, you have been informed you are breaking the law, You then conspire with fellow idiots to continue to break the law. then you say “lets take notes.”.
It is, Earnest Does DC, the movie.
Trump can’t just live in Florida, he has to be the ultimate Florida Man.
And the Republican party is his drunken buddies shouting encouragement.
“Go! Go! Go! You can do it!”
We are so screwed
Jack
I’m home… so now it’s time to resume… today’s meme…
Captured: Large black bear on the loose in Northeast DC after climbing tree has been tranquilized – WTOP News
Papers unsealed, sfb kept all sorts of documents which if sold could make a good two or more billion dollars. I wonder if he thought about selling them a couple of times to double his money or more?
You have to wonder if the former guy is going to stroke out before trial?
A plant the whole time!
Way to elect a Russian asset to our highest office, GOP dummies 🫡
i knew the “he took souvenirs because he’s a narcissist” justification was bullshit! He took the most sensitive and dangerous intel because our enemies asked him to
Belmont is on for tomorrow
So let’s see who gets the blanket of carnations.
I can’t imagine politically surviving these charges:
Trump stole classified nuclear secrets
– Trump shared classified military secrets with multiple people, including someone from his fundraising PAC
i support cutting him a plea deal for full cooperation in breaking the espionage network of which he’s the linchpin
The CCP must have been like, “oh no, we lost our most valuable intelligence gathering asset, what do we use now?”
”Fuck. Balloons, i guess?” 🤷♂️
…head of the Ministry of Espionage in Service to the Glorification of the State calls over to the Ministry of Meteorology in Service to the Glorification of the State:
”Hey, you guys over there at the Ministry of Meteorology didn’t launch that spy balloon, yet, did you?”
”Literally just launched it, Minister of Espionage”
”Damnit! We still have an asset in play in their ‘House of Representatives’! The incredibly stupid one from Georgia.”
”You mean ‘Georgia’ like the country?!”
”’Georgia’ is also the name of one of their states. Anyway, she’s really dumb, just got reelected, and the best part is she doesn’t even know she works for us!”
Ok, i’m done.
Lock him up, cut him a deal, swift kick in the ass, and last but not least
Slava Ukraine
This Liz line from hearing stuck with me, especially now.
To his Republican supporters: “There will come a day when Donald Trump is gone, but your dishonor will remain”
This is a week that brings me back to the 1970’s, I am not sure which week though. Nixon waving with both arms like he was flagging down a train is up there. Dean saying there are tapes. The Supremes (back when they were) saying give up the tapes to Nixon. The tapes being played to prove Nixon was a crook. So many more.
But, this week is one hek of a week. We know that sfb is really bad. Looking at the bathroom storage brings up a question, what is behind the curtain? A bathtub? Or, maybe a bathtub full of boxes?
So much going on such as today Boris Johnson over in the England country resigns immediately and runs out the doors. He apparently is bad. A member of the Congress calls for war in a twit. Geatz comes into the House Ethics Committee view for travelling around with a seventeen year old girl, which so far has not been an issue, and drugs, which might be an issue. Still wondering about George Santos (if that is his real name)? He is supposed to release the names of his benefactors for bail today. And, much more.
We are just getting into Friday News Dump hours. What a week!!!
Dumped – Dumbass Indictment unsealed. WaPo
Dumbass, you’ve been a very bad boy.
I do not believe in coincidences. Many others do not believe in coincidences, especially in certain professions. Time has passed, enough to count a week or so since this happened. Every year the world of spies has a conference to make sure no one is doing something that might accidentally cause WWIII. This is usually quite under the radar, except this year. For some reason the meeting was in Singapore this year and a presser was held. All that aside, last week my cellular phone gave me the incoming phone call noises. I look and see Singapore. I do not answer. I know no one in that country. There are no coincidences. There is no reason for anyone to call me from Singapore.
https://www.businessinsider.com/waltine-nauta-trump-aide-co-defendant-federal-charges-2023-6
Meet Waltine Nauta, Trump’s ‘Diet Coke valet’ who’s now his co-defendant on federal charges
“If the President does it…”
This is from the last indictment. They need to settle the writers’ strike soon.
https://www.cnn.com/2023/06/09/politics/republican-donors-seek-trump-alternative/index.html
The rats are looking to jump to a new ship…if they can find one.
“So Kilberg – who has spent decades raising money for GOP presidential contenders – has thrown her support behind former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, a longtime friend who entered the 2024 race this week. Although she said she would grudgingly vote for DeSantis should he win nomination, Kilberg believes Christie has a “clear lane” to distinguish himself as “somebody who is willing to take Donald Trump on directly and forcefully.”
“Kilberg said dozens of other fundraisers and donors had reached out to her in recent weeks, eager to help Christie’s long-shot campaign. And five more called in the wake of Thursday’s federal indictment of Trump, she added – a sign of donor appetite for an alternative.”
“Too big a Republican field is just handing Donald Trump the nomination on a silver platter,” said Chicago executive William Kunkler, an avowed Never Trumper and a longtime GOP donor.
“Some deep-pocketed groups, including one aligned with billionaire industrialist Charles Koch, also have pledged to elevate a Trump rival, although it’s not clear at this stage whether all the outside organizations that oppose Trump will coalesce around a single candidate.”
“The Club for Growth, an anti-tax group that is one of the biggest independent spenders in GOP politics, hasn’t yet endorsed a 2024 candidate yet. But it has made no secret of its disdain for Trump…”
“Robert Bigelow, a hotel magnate and wealthy space entrepreneur, contributed $10 million of the $30 million initially raised by Never Back Down, a super PAC supporting DeSantis’ presidential ambitions, a source familiar with the donation told CNN. He had previously donated $10 million to DeSantis’ state political committee, which is expected to help fund Never Back Down.”
“Scott, the South Carolina senator, is polling in the single digits, well behind Trump and DeSantis. But he has had the backing of billionaire Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison, who donated $30 million to a pro-Scott super PAC in the 2022 cycle.”
“The pro-Trump super PAC – MAGA Inc. – has spent even more, topping $18.7 million.”
Office for sale!
Their dishonor grows…as does our disgust.
Boxes of classified documents in the ballroom and a restroom? GIVE ME A FUCKING BREAK!!! Lock him up.
That’s a lot of “souvenirs” that he magically de-classified with his SFB.
NEW THREAD
Attribution: Lying Liar by Pat Bagley, The Salt Lake Tribune, UT