Is He Trying to Sabotage Himself?

 

Trump: We will build a missile defense shield.. We’ll put Herschel Walker in charge of that little sucker pic.twitter.com/ZN0yHTGf2M

— Acyn (@Acyn) November 4, 2024

We clearly don't have any need for the equivalent of the Iron Dome here in the continental US, but even if we did, would we want someone just walking around with CTE and a dollar store sheriff badge in charge of it? Because that would be the dumbest thing since putting roadkill-eater and brainworm-haver Bobby Kennedy in charge of anything at all to do with health--given that he has no education on the subject but "his own research" and a ton of basically shit opinions.  He'll ban fluoride, vaccines and abortion--and then, I think we might see some real fuckery. 

Look, I don't know what desperate and weird thoughts animate these kinds of celebrity stunt-casting proposals, but just like his odd McDonald's photo-op and his garbage truck bizarreness, these are things flailing campaigns might do. 

Listening to the Felon

 

Trump: A criminal is a criminal, they generally stay a criminal and we do not have time to figure it out. pic.twitter.com/LJ1NRSVXtA

— Acyn (@Acyn) July 28, 2024

Trump isn't any nicer since he was shot at--he says so himself! His attacks on Vice-President Harris are nasty but unfocused. ("Low IQ"? Really?). And maybe he really did mean he would "fix" things so "his Christians" wouldn't have to vote anymore as in--there wouldn't be any more elections. But in the above clip--he really makes a point, doesn't he?

A sex pest like Trump stays a disgusting misogynist. A white-collar fraud stays a fraud. Trump's 34 convictions, like his 2020 loss and his two impeachments, stay on his record. It's completely true that SCOTUS can partially immunize this mess--but we can look right at him and realize that whatever his deal is--

We do not have time to figure it out. Trump says a lot of things. We shouldn't go tiptoeing through the tulips picking and choosing which crazy things he "really, really" means. (We are way past the "seriously" vs. "literally" question.) He's a conman and a thug, and that should be enough. We had whatever you want to call 1/6--he'd do it again. He lied about the election being stolen--he'd do it again. He took classified docs for whatever reason--he'd violate national security for his own weird reasons again. He screwed up the national response to COVID and crashed the economy--he can't be trusted in an emergency.

TWGB: Bust Out?

 

BREAKING - Trump moved docs from Mar-a-Lago to Bedminster in 2022, according to another Trump employee who confirms what has long been reported - including this video from spring 2022:

pic.twitter.com/eUxW1sESVV

— Tristan Snell (@TristanSnell) March 12, 2024

The savvy among you know perfectly well this blog title isn't about how the classy ladies of Mar-a-Lago are wearing their cleavage this year but is actually a term of art. The above reference in the embedded Tweet to Bedminster reminds of that quintessentially New Jersey show--The Sopranos.

There's a great episode that lets us know what Tony Soprano's business is--Bust Out. Davey Scatino, a gambler, thinks he understands who Tony Soprano is and what his business is. He thinks they are friends. But his business is ruined because he's in debt to Tony. Why? Business, and respect. Tony is a mob boss. His business is getting paid back in full. Friendship doesn't get in the way of that. 

When Trump was betrayed by the American people by their not re-electing him, he took a few things from the White House. (He would have taken things anyway.  He takes. He's funny that way.) For all I or you know or The Mahoff of Jabib knows, he still has documents at Bedminster, where one of his Mar-A-Lago employees has broken omerta and told us he knows some of these boxes of documents went there. A lot of water has run under the bridge since then. It would be great if it could be confirmed there is still something there. (I'm guessing a legal pretext for a warrant needs something more substantial than "COOMMMME OOOONNNNNN!")

I just think maybe it's time to see a case opened up in New Jersey. "Loose" Cannon seems to be okay with giving Trump infinite delays. And I am definitely not. 

Anyway, TrumpWorld has officially taken control of the RNC, and changes are being made--big changes. There will be dozens of staffers let go, and believe me, any replacements will be Trump loyalists. You can already foresee what the fundraising goals will look like. And where the money will go. How assets will be used. How "help" will be steered to the Trumpiest candidates for down ticket offices, if at all, and might even be withheld for candidates that just aren't Trumpy enough. All with the strategic know-how of people named Trump or Yunaska or behind the scenes ass-wipers from the set of Celebrity Apprentice. 

They Know it Isn't a Choice

Nikki Haley suspended her campaign following Super Tuesday, where she won Vermont and continued to demonstrate that the Trump campaign does have a 10-30% problem with Trump-averse Republicans. In her speech, in which she didn't exactly endorse Trump, she nevertheless said she hoped that Trump "earned" her voters. 

Anyone want to figure out what that means? If part of Haley's case was that Trump was the wrong man for the moment, or that his previous term in office displayed his unfitness, or that a racist, sexist, multiply-indicted adjudicated rapist was a threat to this country and a shameful person to have as her party's leader, it would be clear that he did not have the ability to earn their vote. But her case was merely a numerical one: maybe voters would prefer Haley because she was normal. She never fully addressed his freakishness.

As it was, as a member of Trump's administration she was a poor standard-bearer for that claim having already done spade-work to "normalize" him, and as a Republican who campaigned for Herschel Walker by suggesting that Sen. Warnock be deported, or who said she wanted to be Rev. John Hagee when she grew up, or who botched a simple question about the Civil War out of a sense of shameless pandering, she only magnified the degree to which, these days, to be a GOP candidate is, in some respects, to be a freak. 

The Superlative Mr. Trump

 

Mike Johnson wants us all to know he spent part of his extended Presidents' Day vacation having made a pilgrimage to Mar-A-Lago to get his performance review and take this very optimistic picture with a shoe salesman. Johnson posts that he and Trump will "grow the majority and save America!" 

I always wonder what they are saving America from. Or maybe it's--what are they saving America FOR? Dessert? 

Anyway, that's a nice thing to say about the future of the House, despite the House being a complete clusterfuck with GOP members retiring left and right. And it's a nice thing to say about Mr. Trump, who is, as the title above states--superlative. He's the worst president ever, as determined by a group of scholars. 

Some people were aghast at this report. You just wouldn't think that a one-term, twice-impeached, four-times indicted man who is purely self-involved could somehow be the worst--if you were out of your goddamn mind. This is a man who finally had something to say about the murder of Navalny and predictably made it all about himself, while demonstrating contempt for our legal system in a way I can only call "un-American." 

I like presidents who actually like America--don't you?

South Carolina Sweet Tea Leaves

 

I spend way too much time on Twitter, but I know Twitter is not real life. Dean Phillips just finished 3rd in South Carolina. Despite polling that only had Joe Biden at 69%, he won SC with about 96%. (Maybe they were looking at the results upside-down?)

I see people online trying to say there was really low turnout. President Biden is the incumbent. Nobody expects him to lose. It isn't a sign of ,as far as I can tell, anything, and the spin people are putting on the low turnout takes me back to, um, former President Trump's numbers in Iowa. I also want to point out that SC isn't a state Biden would expect to win in the general (although, no kidding, I'd love to pretend Democrats were competitive everywhere) 

Here's the thing that is interesting to me--South Carolina has open primaries, but you can't vote in both and they are held on separate dates. So what I'm wondering is, what's going to be the turnout for the Republican SC primary, held after the Nevada contest (which looks like a dog's breakfast, and why would any political machine do that to themselves?)  

TWGB: Who is the Fairest One of All?

 

Donald Trump is very jealous that Taylor Swift is prettier than him and has a football player boyfriend and is the Time Magazine Person of the Year. And she did it all herself.  So he wants to send his flying monkeys to let her know he IS SO more popular than her. He was president once you know, and probably still has papers in his possession that prove it! He's still BIG. It's just the Deep State and the Lying Media's fault he looks SMALL. 

He'll show them! He's ready for his close-up, Mr. DeMille! 

Just, maybe not so close. And with a bit of a filter, And with so much makeup it looks like he's applying shoe polish to his face. 

Deciding he needs to go after a female pop star just after a hefty defamation decision against him sounds like just the sort of beef he would get into. Being appalling to women is one of his hobbies, after all. And consider that it's women who are or would be giving and have given him the most trouble. The nasty Hillary Clinton, who first pegged him as a national security threat and his followers as a basket of deplorables. Nancy Pelosi of the two impeachments. Letitia James. Fani Willis. Nikki Haley. Stormy Daniels, E. Jean Carroll, Roberta Kaplan, Tanya Chutkan... 

TWGB: The Detroit Deceit

 

Once again, Trump is in the news because we have tapes--a story in The Detroit News from Craig Mauger uncovers that a phone call between Wayne County election canvassers, Donald Trump and Ronna McDaniel reveals a little offering for their service in not certifying the election for Biden, which is a kind of back-handed bribe: we'll get you attorneys!

I mean, I love this for the obvious reason: they knew it was shady, they knew that the canvassers knew it was shady. Sure, it's probably illegal! But we will get you lawyers. You'll be fucked if you do this but we'll make sure it's with lube!

Is that just me? 

So of course, I go back through the TWGB archives, and huh. When one of the recipients of this phone call got asked about it back when, she just said Trump was concerned about her wellbeing. Well, yeah. Hence the lawyers. The other canvasser isn't available at the moment for further comment. He doesn't need lawyers at this time.  It's also pretty interesting to me that this call was followed up by an invite to the White House for certain Michigan officials. (I wonder if a similar call to PA officials occurred...wait, I don't!) I think this reinforces the Georgia RICO case by establishing a pattern of leaning on election officials. 

I can talk about the violence of 1/6 and the way Trump encouraged it then and still encourages violence, but the subversion of others' sense of duty and fidelity to their oaths of office is the key to the damage that Trump offers. Through coaxing and threatening, he undermines the idea that government isn't about duty or a higher purpose, it just become gross transactionalism. 

I like to think this opens up Trump for a new set of indictments in Michigan. And some for Ronna McDaniel too. (The Michigan GOP has its own terrible troubles right now.) 

TWGB: Gag Me With a Silver Spoon!

 

Trump got hit with a gag order...again.

Today, a judge barred the ex-president from denigrating court employees, prosecutors, or witnesses in the criminal case stemming from his efforts to overturn the 2020 election. https://t.co/dPoSKujmIv https://t.co/dPoSKujmIv

— Mother Jones (@MotherJones) October 17, 2023

The thing to keep in mind from the above article:

 Much of the hearing was taken up by back-and-forths over which types of statements should be off-limits. Throughout, Lauro insisted that nothing Trump has said would constitute a threat to anyone. But the threat of violence has hung over this case and others. In August, a Texas woman was arrested for calling Chutkan’s office and leaving a voicemail allegedly saying that she would kill anyone who “went after Trump.”

“You are in our sights, we want to kill you,” the woman allegedly said. “Trump doesn’t get elected in 2024, we are coming to kill you, so tread lightly, b**** … You will be targeted personally, publicly, your family, all of it.”

Some of Trump's little fan club are sad people who are all talk and just leave voice messages, but some of them, after being steeped in Trump's uniquely brazen rhetoric are capable of carrying out their violent threats. It was that way even before he lost his election. 

Menendez Needs to Resign

 

Now, I rarely slam the hell out of Democrats, but here's one hell of an exception: Sen. Bob Menendez of NJ is busted and he needs to resign. To repeat: he is busted, used up, out of credit, persona non grata and a whole pile of bullshit. This man took the little bit of rope he got from a hung jury in his last federal case and made a noose for himself. No sympathy, no nothing. 

The man had close to a half million in cash in his home, some of it sewn into his clothes, and $100K in gold bars.  To me, that spells "BUSTED". What does that tell me? His money isn't in the bank collecting interest because if he took it to the bank, he'd get unwanted interest. And it's also a "to the mattresses" situation. It's around in the eventuality of his needing a reason to not stick around. 

I hear what Majority Leader Schumer is saying when he talks up Menendez' service and his day in court: with respect to his service, he's getting a grace period to figure out what he wants to do before the hammer comes down, so he can go out like it's his own choice. That's respectful, I get it. But if the man doesn't know it's not a "forever" pass, he's a whole idiot. Because the NJ Governor is ready to replace this fool, and he has a rich mine of good people to choose from.  And the Senate doesn't need him so much they will let him fuck around forever:

And that's what his statement is. He really wants to go with: It's because I'm a Latino, huh? 

How about that answer is what makes him seem extra guilty? 

TWGB: Surrender, But Don't Give Yourself Away

 

I really felt underwhelmed by the speculation about what Trump's mugshot would look like and the "tale of the tape" regarding his height and weight. I mean, is it not enough that he's now standing at four indictments and 91 charges? No other president measures up to that, I can tell you!

But what anyone could also tell you is that he would use the mugshot to fundraise off of his situation. And of course he is, ironically using the slogan "Never surrender" when he Just. Surrendered. Himself. To. The Jailhouse. For. Processing.  His "Kubrick stare" into the Fulton County camera is supposed to show defiance. 

Eh. To me it looks like he's using "MySpace angles" to plausibly make his face look like he could theoretically stand 6'3" and 215 lbs. This is not me making a ding against his vanity (his bulletproof vanity!) but the credulity that we'd get an honest reckoning. This wasn't his physician's weigh in (Ronny Jackson only dared to tell us he was 239 lbs.) or the hype before a heavyweight bout. This is Trump's charitable best guess that he must have at least lost that much weight in sweat since his Manhattan indictment. 

TWGB: The Bride at Every Wedding

 

The highlighting of the above screenshot is courtesy this Tweet from Ben Collins, wondering what exactly Trump is doing here. But I'm the idiot who does TrumpWorld Grab-bags, so I know. He's too clever for us, is Trump. He can't scarper. He won't go scuttling away in the dead of night--why no! he's too famous for that! He won't go abseiling down the wall of the tower he will, Rapunzel-like, be held in. Not even if you gave him enough cable.

He's thinking about it though. Does he think Daddy Vladdy has an extraction team ready to escort him to a well-appointed dacha? Because it isn't 55 years ago, and Russia can't even invade neighbors or land spacecraft on the moon like they used to. They tie up loose ends a very different way now. (He's 90. I mean nothing by this. Of course, I don't. Also...) 

What Trump is saying is "poor, poor, pitiful me" because he is far too rich and famous to disappear and that's just an incredible burden. He's too recognizable--what is he to do, shave his head? Wear sweats? Quel dommage, mais no. Even so, he's known from Jibib to Atlantis.  

Maybe Kushner has an in with the Saudis. I understand they can make people disappear. 

Am I being unnecessarily dark? Sigh. I am cutting up the revelations of the soul-baring of a narcissist who wants you to identify with his plight. Usually, it's only in banana republics a former leader needs to fear coming to justice for a planned coup. Usually, it's only in banana republics a leader plans one. He is, as Francis Albert (who didn't care for him, BTW) sang, doing it his way. And oh! the melodrama! 

TWGB: The Fourth Indictment is Here and It's Beautiful

 

I feel like the other indictments against former president Trump are all really special in their way, of course. I mean, it's not really just four is it? There's Manhattan, and the Florida documents one, and the DC 1/6 one, but can't we sort of count the superseding indictment to the Florida one as a sort of other....

Nah. No need to. The Georgia indictment is the unlucky number four for Trump, the one he bragged he needed to clinch the 2024 election. It's not just charges against Trump, but includes 18 others and mentions other unindicted co-conspirators, and displays the lengths that the Trump 2020 campaign were willing to go to in order to try to steal the election. 

And it is beautiful. The truth:

Defendant Donald John Trump lost the United States presidential election held on November 3, 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. That conspiracy contained common plan and purpose to commit two or more acts of racketeering activity in Fulton County, Georgia, elsewhere in the State of Georgia, and in other states.

He lost, and he and his associates tried to overturn the election in Georgia and in other states. In my state, as a matter of fact. And I'm still mad about it. They engaged in lying about the election results--particularly members of the elite strike farce, Giuliani, Ellis, and the Kraken. They lied about election workers Shaye Moss and Ruby Freeman and caused them to be harassed. With horrible results for these innocent election workers. 

TWGB: Some Indictments for Those Incitements

 

The waiting for Trump's indictment over the attempted overturn of the 2020 presidential election is over, and I encourage everyone (even Ron DeSantis if he still hasn't!) to go ahead and read the indictment. It's not long, and it is pretty thorough in laying out the case that despite no evidence of voter fraud, Trump spread that lie and attempted to overturn the election by means of litigation alleging fraud, encouraging state legislatures and slates of alternate electors to act on the alleged fraud, to halt the lawful proceedings of Congress on 1/6 and to encourage Trump's faithful to wreak havoc on the day. 

Trump lost. There was no proof of voter fraud that would have changed the result of the election. And no, Trump's belief is completely irrelevant, because whether he chose to believe he won or not, he was informed on various occasions that his theories of fraud ("conspiracy shit beamed down from the mothership") were bogus, as outlined in pages 6 through 8.

If Trump persisted in his belief, he was delusional, and we should not excuse people on the basis of being delusional--nor should we continue to entertain whether they are fit to lead a country if they are. 

It's also irrelevant whether he understood the law well enough to know exactly what he was violating--ignorance of the law has been determined to be no excuse long before this. 

The World According to Trump

 

Trump says he thinks it would be a lovely idea if Congress were to withhold any future aid to Ukraine in exchange for dirt on the Bidens. Wonder where the hell he got that idea from? If that sounds an awful like the grounds for his first impeachment--why yes! It does sound like he wants the machinery of the US government to be used to his benefit in 2024, just like he wanted it used to his benefit in 2020. (And also, Russia? If you're listening?)

Now, of course, he's not completely stupid. My no! He knows he can't be impeached for this quid pro quo when he isn't even in office anymore. Yet. Who else has had two whole impeachments? He's like, the expert on it.

Although some of his other pronouncements, like claiming that his second impeachment inoculates him from federal charges for 1/6 under double jeopardy, are a bit specious.

(That's not a new whine from this old sack, either. Also, failing to be removed from office in his case is a failure of his GOP friends--a jury might feel quite differently).

Anyway, and regardless, he's not getting indicted because of himself. He's getting indicted FOR HIS LOYAL SUBJECTS  THE HARDWORKING PATRIOTIC PEOPLE OF THIS COUNTRY.

That's why his donors are expected to pay his legal fees. And he's absolutely going to kick on some money for his 2024 campaign. Eventually. This is why the GOP loves and supports him so.  He is not either a rotting albatross around their necks. 

Trump Doesn't Get Out Much

 

Trump thinks you need an I.D. to buy groceries pic.twitter.com/4pzPQPeyT4

— nikki mccann ramírez (@NikkiMcR) March 13, 2023

I snarkily suggested on Twitter that this was because he's that senior citizen buying groceries with a check but you know he has people who buy his groceries--he hasn't gone into a store to buy stuff any more than he has done any number of regular person things in his life.

But I've noticed his recent video offerings are kind of dark. Like, the visual is candlelight, not regular room brightness. And Trump seems to not be using the same makeup he usually does. He looks darker.

It's like he ran out of his usual bronzer and went with wood stain from Home Depot. It really shows his natural grain. Is there a problem here? Is there some reason he can't daywalk? Why is he slinking about in lowlight? 

I'm not saying he's a vampire who made an unholy bargain to continue on this mortal plane while being himself immortal, I'm just asking questions like any normal person would. Because this brown butter basted ass looks like special directions for the parlor before his nibs homegoing more than anything you would normally see in life. 

I hope that doesn't forebode anything bad for his health. He should enjoy what is in front of him with rude good health, if anything, 

Especially if anything. 

Indictment Excitement?

 

Doesn't it just seem like there's been an awful lot of chatter about indictments, lately? I mean, the Manhattan DA invited Trump to testify in the Stormy Daniels hush money payoff investigation, federal prosecutors want to question Trump over obstruction of justice, and indictments have definitely been teased from the Fulton Co. grand jury. 

I should be used to disappointment by now, but there's a little part of me, the part that still names stuffed animals and roots for Santa Claus, that rather likes the sound of the "ides of March" talk. I know Trump has said he will still run even if indicted, but there's indicted and then there is INDICTED. I think it might excite his base, but hurt him with any big donors, and maybe his dumb party would finally....

Come to grips with him as a sunk-cost cause? Hah! 

Ok. I can only do so much fantasizing on a Friday morning. But it was interesting to mull over while drinking my coffee.