Donald Trump: Classic or Dud?

hmmm very strange to put this in an official campaign video

https://i.imgur.com/wbDNYe9.jpeg

As Trump once said during a presidential debate, "I don't know much about QANON, but I hear they like me."

Apparently he doesn't know much about neo-Nazis either, except that they are "fine people".

Getting ripped off to own the libs.

lol, putting the headcase Costello on the stand has been such a classic Trump-knowing-better-than-his-lawyers disaster move

You're not wrong, and it's what has baffled me most about Trump's rise to the presidency and his continuing hold on his base. It's really a study in mass psychosis.

https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqk-ssa7xNXTyJhzi_G7WQxMp3K5RnAbgj8ytxMAC78CvuZKIGhdnyu7CYpcCWElnedwwpfNw5T7S95cqanldIG1ETPSrzqgABnhTitwYRQBc5G9pDR6jXIryc_zkUJphCeh2Cvj87Rv1x/w1200-h630-p-k-no-nu/The+Mass+Psychology+of+Fascism.jpg

the art of the heel

tired: silence in court.
wired: CLEAR THE COURT!!

that hard-hitting science from the Orgone Institute

the art of the heel

― close encounters of the third knid (darraghmac)

*applause*

I think that's a wrap folks, it's been announced on twitter that the extremely relevant Superstar Amber Rose has endorsed DJT! rip Biden

Fame (chasers) recognize fame (chasers)

She was married to Johnny Depp or something?

damn i just googled her and 1) she appears to have had her forehead tattoo removed? and 2) the only thing i know about her is that she was on an episode of Intervention trying to save a childhood friend (and her children) from a florid opiate addiction. It was really intense. This endorsement makes no sense.

Anyway, Trump not testifying, etc. etc. Closing arguments next Tuesday.

well yeah he can't testify he has a gag order put on him by a very conflicted judge

So corrupt!

Amusing note from Mitchell Epner:

I suspect that MAGA-sphere articles that hyped Costello as a “killer” witness to debunk Cohen led FPOTUS to insist that he be called as a witness.

Not calling any witnesses precludes prosecution from commenting on defense failure to present a case. But, presenting 1 witness means DA can argue it.

Further to which, as he noted earlier:

I am reading the liveblogs of the testimony of Robert Costello, who will be the lone substantive witness called by Trump's defense.

I cannot imagine how the testimony could have gone worse for the defense.

Defense knew Costello wrote emails that would undermine his testimony, but did it anyway.

b-b-b-but his emails!

This piece is a fun read:

https://statuskuo.substack.com/p/how-to-blow-your-defense

Not least for including this of Merchan and Costello:

https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1456,c_limit,f_webp,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fc15c0aa9-ae7c-4d03-8b9c-c2d68bcf5624_660x371.webp

Jonathan Turley:

Quite frankly, Costello is a killshot witness. You only call him if you want to killshot at trial, that you feel that you need to make sure this doesn't result in a conviction, even though I think it's going very well for the defense. And it went very well today for the defense.

lol Turley is such a clown

that hard-hitting science from the Orgone Institute

Great book. Goes increasingly off the rails as it progresses though - a bit like Wilhelm himself.

Isn't Turlet a "constitutional scholar" and not a trial lawyer?

he's a killshot pundit

They think that all politicians are crooks and cheats. If you say Trump is a swindler they'll say "They're ALL crooked! At least he's honest about it!"

Like sorry, I don’t trust ANY politician, down to city council members in minor backwaters. You have to have a certain amount of toxic narcissism in order to want to do that kind of work, which partly explains why most decent people don’t want to get into politics

otmfm

I get that, but tbh I spend a LOT of time talking to local/state politicians and watching them in action, and there are really quite a few who try to do their jobs diligently and are not in it for whatever minor power or celebrity you get from being a local official. (There are also quite a few who very much are into the minor power and celebrity, getting invited to lunches and ribbon-cutting and all that shit, no doubt.)

There are people who even when I disagree with them philosophically or pragmatically are doing the legitimate work of considering complex issues and trying to come up with good solutions. So I try to not be cynical about them as a class, because we actually need decent reasonable people in those positions.

EXCEPT FOR: the fucking Republican state Legislature, they are the absolute WORST, craven and corrupt and cruel. Even the "sane" ones go along with all kinds of unconscionable shit.

the diligent ones are just as bad sorry. oh it looks like i've reached my daily politics post quota, have a good one.

lol.

Well, they're not, what can I say. That's just a silly thing to say. Having good people in those positions can make a huge difference in what gets done or doesn't, what gets prioritized, etc. That is, as long as we're going to have representative government. If we're going to get rid of representative government, fine, but in whatever comes after, it will still matter whether you have decent thoughtful people in any kind of decision-making process.

Like sorry, I don’t trust ANY politician, down to city council members in minor backwaters. You have to have a certain amount of toxic narcissism in order to want to do that kind of work, which partly explains why most decent people don’t want to get into politics

― butt dumb tight my boners got boners (the table is the table)

I don't mind a little toxic narcissism if it gets the job done -- like salt. Somebody has to do it. "Trust" is another matter.

I realized a while ago that my political disagreements with table and others on this board often came down to the fact that I believe that most Democratic politicians (and even some Republicans!) are trying to improve people's lives and work for the common good, even if their ability to do so is often constrained by structural weaknesses in the political system.

"Most," who knows, it's kind of hard to quantify. But in my direct lived experience, there are many at least. I know a bunch of them, they're just normal people, some affluent but many not, mostly with community service work of some kind in their backgrounds.

table has said elsewhere that he votes in local races. Okay! Tipsy's referring to local politicians.

xp Yeah, probably not worth nitpicking exact numbers. But I can't believe that they are all worthless scum.

Re local politicians, everyone starts somewhere. I suppose getting elected to higher office starts to corrupt people, but not entirely.

fwiw I help with the most local of local races: tax collector, Miami Springs council person, school board. The money is shit, the glory non-existent.

Yeah, at the local level around here, they make like $25k a year for a job that can definitely be full-time if you do it well, and 75 percent of their work is fairly mind-numbing parsing of details around things like parking and zoning. I respect the ones who take it seriously, which is not all of them but is some of them. And few of them have many options to "move up" even if they want to, there aren't that many spots to move up into.

I think there's a lot of decent people in politics who really do want to make things better and try to do things the right away, hell I even know some right-leaning folks in local governments who I think do a good job, maybe because their jobs are 99% administrative stuff and have nothing to do with idiotic culture wars

to get this back on topic it really does look like the defense had nothing, seems impossible to argue Trump didn't know about the payments and as that above Substack notes Trump was obsessed with polls so arguing it was done to protect his "family" is silly as well, also seems like the prosecution was much more well put together and professional than the defense, which I think juries do pay attention to. so now it's all kinda dependent on everything somehow getting reclassified as a misdemeanor, or a rogue juror causing a mistrial, though idk how likely either one of those are. if he gets convicted of 34 felonies what happens next? surely it can't just be a slap on the wrist. I mean Cohen was sentenced to 3 years just for taking part in this.

if he gets convicted of 34 felonies what happens next?

yeah maybe PBKR can explain this to me, aren't they just going to appeal and keep kicking it down the road?

idk if they can appeal past the election, and having a sentence handed down in September or October would be a total disaster. also don't most people have to sit in jail waiting for their appeals? obviously the rules are always gonna be different for Trump but idk if anyone's ever been found guilty of 34 felonies and just walked

lots of people have gone to jail for work they did for trump. alan weisselberg is in rikers now.

Depends on the felonies, on nonviolent charges where they don't think there's a flight risk, you can often get out on bond while the appeal's pending. Probably depends on state law, and I don't know New York's — but I'm guessing the state that's home to Wall Street and all its white-collar defendants allows bail pending appeal.

he's going to bail jump, then show up at the Presidential debate

you do have to go to jail until a judge sets bail though, right?

Not necessarily. For one thing, he might not be going to jail at all, there's no certitude that he's actually looking at time behind bars with or without an appeal.

Out on bail, fresh outta jail, Mar a Lago dreamin'

Couldnt the judge just call him a flight risk and put him in jail bc DT has been a dick thru the entire proceedings? It’s still state charges not federal.