Gonna make my time here w/ the last gasp of my blue check mark count. A rant.
I see that the new standard among my Republican friends is that we cannot indict anyone running for president, anyone who is president, or anyone who used to be president. Cool, cool.
Why stop there though. Let's make this fair. Let's repeal all campaign finance laws. Let people buy off whoever they want whenever they want on whatever terms. Make this fair.
Also, get rid of all business and banking fraud regulations. Fair is fair. If Donald Trump gets to hide illegal payments to deceive voters before the most important election our country conducts, everyone else should be able to do so as well.
Oh! And, I totally understand why people are clutching their mf-ing pearls that this is the first indictment. Wah-wah. You want it to be easier. I totally understand. Stormy Daniels makes you feel icky. So, better to let Trump off. You pansy whiners.
But that's where this goes. Election criminality is cool as long as it's tawdry and white collar. You can't get angry about fraudulent business expenses! Even if they were used to lie to an entire country about the character of the most powerful person in the world.
You want some other indictment to go first. Because somehow you have convinced yourself that THAT INDICTMENT WILL BE DIFFERENT and Trump's voters will accept it. It's delusional but it's your belief. Guess what: it doesn't get easier.
And if you can't understand how this is just ONE PART of Trump's overall ELECTION CRIMINALITY that runs thru hush money payments to Russian contacts to Ukraine shakedowns, to January 6 you are not paying attention and I can't help you.
With that I'm gonna go finally eat a sandwich now. I feel like that's good use of my final mark. Thx.
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We discussed what I predicted would be a growing trend of GOP officials, including VP hopefuls, appearing courtside on @allinwithchris Thursday. Let me recap some thoughts.
First of all, Trump is under order a gag order. If he directs anyone to make statements that his prohibited from making that is a direct violation of the gag order and the judge must be monitoring these surrogate statements. (As if there wasn't enough going on.)
Second, previous surrogates have not opted to defend Trump on the merits. They following the Trump playbook of attacking family members of the court, which Trump's former lawyer Ty Cobb described as a “strategic” act of intimidation, “designed around his traditional approach to delegitimizing the proceedings.” That's a real threat afoot here, which I wrote about when the trial began ifyoucankeepit.org/p/the-real-thr…
There is a real threat to democracy behind Trump's hush money trial drama. It's how Trump deliberately puts people who uphold the rule of law in danger. From me, a thread and a piece. ifyoucankeepit.org/p/the-real-thr…
Trump could present a sober defense of his case, on the merits. Instead he chooses to attack the judiciary and the process. This is the autocratic impulse he displays anytime he faces any sort of legal accountability.
Ahead of all his trials, relentlessly threatened judges, their family members and prosecutors involved in the case. Ty Cobb told Politico it's a “strategic” act of intimidation, “designed around his traditional approach to delegitimizing the proceedings.”
This is quite an analysis. Donald Trump won't be a full dictator on Day 1. Calm down! It would only take between four and 10 years to completely lose America. So...it's fine? Let me go on record with a HARD DISAGREE. politico.com/news/magazine/…
Also, ahem, here is the Authoritarian Playbook for 2025. In shows, in detail, the specific ways Trump has pledged to dismantle democracy and the plans and powers that will be used to enact them. Summary here where you can download full report authoritarianplaybook2025.org
In the Politico piece the author specifically points out that authoritarians need to take over the media, the courts, and override will from state and local authorities. The Authoritarian Playbook specifically examines how Trump targets those institutions.
Important! As Trump gets closer to officially becoming the GOP presidential nominee this week, he and his buddies at Heritage will also be rolling out the red carpet for Viktor Orban. Why? He's their authoritarian role model. Stick w me for a min on this. ifyoucankeepit.org/p/the-maga-mod…
Like Trump, Orban was ousted by voters and then spent time out of office making plans to win the next election, get control of the levers of power, and abolish checks in the system so he would never lose again.
Which is what happened. Orban's now held power for 14 years.
Orban deployed strategies right out of the Authoritarian Playbook (see our linked publications) that Trump and his MAGA allies would like to deploy in 2025.
Forget the empty both sides argument he’s making. What Trump is saying OPENLY is that if he is elected in ‘24 he will take direct authority over the Dept of Justice to target any of his perceived adversaries for incarceration.
If he goes to the White House, Trump and his backers will eliminate, ignore, and challenge any legal norms that exist now to prevent such obvious meddling by a president into fed investigations
Trump accuses General Milley and NBC News of “treason,” to name just two on his very long list of “traitors.”Once he installs loyalist political appointees in high places and purges career staff at DOJ, it doesn’t take much imagination to see how the prosecutions will roll out.
The problem is a media establishment and a Republican Party that is dedicated to normalizing a radical and dangerous political figure.
Applause and ratings are not more important than our democracy.
Donald Trump did not deserve this forum. He was not entitled to a major media network rolling out the red carpet for a prime-time event stacked with influential primary voters inclined to support him.
That is what went wrong here.
Besides, the primary is seven months away.
Just when you think Trump couldn't get worse, the topic turns to Ukraine.