Tag: Donald Trump

I’ve been trying to post less about politics in general and about Trump in particular, who I haven’t posted about for more than two months now. But this story is getting people excited, and I can understand why:

The Colorado Supreme Court on Tuesday ruled that Donald Trump is disqualified by the Constitution from serving as president again because he stoked an insurrection on Jan. 6, 2021.
The 4-3 ruling, which rests on an interpretation of the 14th Amendment, will almost certainly force the issue to the U.S. Supreme Court to resolve whether Trump, the leading candidate for the Republican nomination, is eligible to hold future public office.
The Colorado court ruled that Trump cannot appear on the state’s presidential ballot next year, but the ruling will not take effect immediately to give Trump time to appeal.
“We do not reach these conclusions lightly,” the Colorado majority opinion reads. “We are mindful of the magnitude and weight of the questions now before us. We are likewise mindful of our solemn duty to apply the law, without fear or favor, and without being swayed by public reaction to the decisions that the law mandates we reach.”
The court, which consists entirely of Democratic appointees, is the first in the nation to side with activists and voters who have filed numerous lawsuits around the country claiming that Trump is barred from office under the 14th Amendment’s “insurrection clause.” That clause states that anyone who “engaged in insurrection or rebellion” after taking an oath of office to support the Constitution is forbidden from holding any public office.

I think the interesting detail here is that the entire court is Democratic nominees but three of them still voted against the judgement, which makes it a bit more complicated to argue that OBVIOUSLY it’s a Democrat attack… but one of the dissenters offered the interesting point that they didn’t think the Colorado court actually had the authority to consider the case anyway. And that’s what has me a bit puzzled by the excitement about the story, i.e. what if anything does it actually mean beyond the fact that he apparently can’t be included on the Colorado ballot? This is a state-level rather than federal thing. What if any effect does this actually have at the latter level? I don’t know enough about American law to know if this actually means anything for Chump, and that’s why I’m not as excited about it as some people are.

On the other hand, Republicans are worked up about the situation in the opposite direction:

Vivek Ramaswamy, the GOP presidential candidate, called the court’s action “an actual attack on democracy”.
Ramaswamy pledged to withdraw from the Colorado GOP primary and called on other candidates – Ron DeSantis, Chris Christie and Nikki Haley – to do the same unless Trump is allowed to be on the ballot.
“The framers of the 14th amendment would be appalled to see this narrow provision being weaponized … to prevent a former president from seeking re-election,” Ramaswamy said.

The framers of the 14th amendment would probably also be surprised at best by someone of Indian ancestry being allowed in American politics. But apart from that, I’m not sure how actively refusing to participate in the Colorado primary if they disallow Trump helps the Republicans either; I gather Colorado is basically a blue state anyway but why hand it to the Democrats on a plate like that? Then again, Vivek does not strike me as the most shining intellect in that mob…

So, as noted the other day, when you post a news article link on Twutter it no longer shows the headline, leaving open the possibility of the user coming up with a completely different one in the post. This is not one of those cases. I saw someone post it on Mastodon and was obviously immediately struck by it, and I also didn’t believe the bit where they said it was real… but it was; had to dig down into the timeline a few days to find it, but indeed it turned out not to have been faked. The above is my own screenshot of the thing. Curiously enough, the headline of the actual article is something else:

…and the bit about the “perverted sexual behaviour” only appears in the second-last paragraph, 16th out of 17. I can only assume that whoever manages the FT’s Twitter felt the lede was being buried…

Had to get up earlier than usual today (financial advisor paying his annual visit), but OH being able to start my day by seeing this was worth the lack of sleep from the night before…

A historic moment in which the 45th president of the US became the first former president to have his mugshot taken… don’t know why the federal arraignments didn’t require that from him while Georgia insisted on it, but there it is anyway, even better than seeing Giuliani’s mugshot yesterday. Needless to say the cult are engaging in the predictable wailing and gnashing of teeth, but they’re also exploiting the moment…

…as the Graun pointed out in their coverage this morning, the Drumpf campaign was already selling T-shirts with the new presidential portrait and the caption NEVER SURRENDER!… apparently hoping people will ignore the fact that surrendering is exactly what Trump DID! It’s what he’s done through all these proceedings, he’s been all bluster and bullshit on social media (notably, he took this occasion to finally return to Twitter too; Oolong must be absolutely CREAMING his pants), but when the moment comes he’s just given in and made his appearance without putting up anything approximating to a fight. It’s all so fake and unjust but he keeps waving the white flag. Maybe he’s saving it for the trial, which could potentially start in just two months (though it probably won’t cos Trump will do anything to delay it)? Cos apparently the federal law against televising trials doesn’t hold in Georgia, so this one could potentially be televised…

Trump’s been indicted again, but this time I actually am interested. Fourth time around, he’s been indicted specifically in Georgia for his activities there in trying to overturn the 2020 election, and from what I can gather that’s significant for the following reasons:

1. It’s a state charge, not a federal charge, so he can’t get a presidential pardon;
2. He also can’t get the state governor to pardon him, cos in Georgia that has to be decided by an independent board;
3. The latter can’t give him a pardon pre-emptively, so they have to wait until he’s actually been convicted;
4. If he is convicted, he has to serve five years before they can even think about considering his case.

Apparently his only recourse otherwise is the Georgia Supreme Court, and he’s already in their bad books for demanding they fire the DA leading the case against him. So this time round he could actually be quite fucked… assuming, of course, that he is found guilty and that he doesn’t pop his clogs before it all ends. I still feel like he might escape justice through natural causes just because the trial could be so long…

Apparently there’s moves afoot to have Dampnut’s trial televised. Which is something his own lawyer has actually argued for, interestingly enough:

Even before Trump’s third indictment dropped, his own lawyer, John Lauro, was calling for cameras in the courtroom. “I would hope that the Department of Justice would join in that effort so that we can take the curtain away and all Americans can see what’s happening,” Lauro said during an appearance on Fox News, days before the DOJ handed down federal charges in the elections case.

Now, televising trials is against US law, which says you can’t take photos in a courtroom or broadcast from one. The person who I spotted commenting about this on Mastodon today was implying that was why Lauro suggested televising the trial knowing that it couldn’t be, so that it could then be spun by the Republicans as a sham that the Democrats were trying to cover up. However, the latter have evidently decided to call that bluff, cos there are a couple of ways the law could potentially be overruled and a number of Democrat representatives are trying one, i.e. something called the Judicial Conference, to get his lordship back on TV:

Problem is, the cult won’t accept it; I foresee now that they’ll spin it all as some sort of deepfake or AI thing and they won’t believe for a second any of the evidence that the Democrats will put forth because THEY ALREADY DON’T. And if Trump loses — which is how I expect the whole thing will end — then they’re going to accept it even less…

I have kind of mixed feelings, part of which is the media overkill I’ve no doubt will result from it… there’ll already be an absurd amount of commentary on the trial anyway and there’s going to be a long time when every fucking day no one talks about anything else, but actual courtroom footage could make the whole affair truly insufferable. Cos Orange Cunt will play up to the cameras, he will make a performance out of it. It will be a put-on-a-show trial, if you’ll forgive the expression. And he’s unbearable enough as it is, how awful will he be then…

But, as someone says in the NPR article I linked above, that may actually be what the Democrats want, maybe they’re hoping Trump will make such a cunt of himself on TV that his presidential aspirations will be wiped out as a result… not 100% convinced by this cos the cultists will vote for him anyway if he’s still able to run, and if he’s not that kind of leaves… DeSantis? I don’t know if they want that or not… Otherwise, maybe it wouldn’t be a bad thing? I don’t know.

Yeah, Dampnut’s been indicted again, this time for the BIG Thing… you know, the whole overthrowing of democracy thing on January 6th 2021… and I’m still not excited by it somehow. Maybe I will be if he actually ends up in jail… and I say “if” rather than “when” cos for some reason I’m not convinced it’ll actually happen somehow.

Daily Kos asks a big question:

How long before we consider that Donald Tr*mp is a massive flight risk? Not just a flight risk, but a flight risk who has the absolute means to leave. He has private jets at the ready. He has billions (or millions) of dollars to aid in his flee from justice and establish lifelong comfort elsewhere. He has connections around the world with dictators and autocrats in unsavory places without enforceable extradition — autocrats that would LOVE to help their favorite president for a propaganda win alone. A former president who has seen all of the nation’s most grave national security secrets. A man who clearly doesn’t care about the information within them.

Well, at the risk of sounding like I’m boasting, I actually considered the flight risk thing almost as soon as the latest indictment came out, i.e. a few days before this was posted, but that’s beside the point. I haven’t had much to say about said latest indictment, i.e. the one about all the stolen documents, the best part of which has been this mass of boxes stored in this fuck ugly bathroom:

I mean, my bathroom is long overdue a major remodel, but at least it’s never looked like… that. But I haven’t felt much like talking about it for some reason and I don’t really know why… maybe it’s because the fact he got indicted over the Stormy Daniels payment felt like more of a big deal, in that he actually finally got sprung for something when it often felt like he wouldn’t; the boxes of classified documents is a far larger deal with potential international ramifications, but the indictment itself feels like a comparatively minor detail to me somehow. Like, now we know to expect him to be indicted for his bullshit, it’s not a surprise any more…

Anyway, not everyone in the comments is convinced Trump’s a flight risk, and I suppose they have something; it’s not that he has nowhere to go—Putin or the house of Saud would welcome him—more that he simply doesn’t accept the potential trouble he’s actually facing (and, as someone said in the comments, fleeing the country would be the end of his grift). In any case, I have a feeling this trial is going to take so long to actually put together Lord Dampnut may not live to see it anyway. And we don’t know what damage he may have already done and who’s already been given copies of all that paperwork (cos copies will have been made, I have no doubt), that horse may have already bolted. Trial might be too little, too late…