Could Trump avoid legal peril and go live in Russia, Russia, Russia as Vlad's roomie?

 

I superimposed Trump's plane over a photo of Moscow Airport Terminal C.

"The failed District Attorney of Fulton County (Atlanta), Fani Willis, insisted on a $200,000 Bond from me. I assume, therefore, that she thought I was a 'flight' risk – I’d fly far away, maybe to Russia, Russia, Russia, share a gold domed suite with Vladimir, never to be seen or heard from again. Would I be able to take my very 'understated' airplane with the gold TRUMP affixed for all to see. Probably not, I’d be much better off flying commercial – I’m sure nobody would recognize me!"

By Hal Brown 

The above Truth Social post is Trump's attempt at showing how unseriously he takes his legal situation and what a great comedy writer he is and is about as close as he ever comes to self-depricating humor and an awareness of his grandiose narcisism.

What Trump doesn't "get" about the bond is that it doesn't prevent him from leaving, or fleeing, the country to live in Russia, Russia, Russia. He can blow off the $200,000 and leave the country to live with Vladimir.

Where he'd actually live would have to be determined as Putin has eight official residences (read article).

 He might live in his suite (pictured below) where the ceilings have their share of gold.

One of the bedrooms in the Black Sea mansion known as Putin's Palace

Putin's $1.4 billion Black Sea compound is non-too-shabby (Link):

Putin apparently spends much of his time in a mansion in Valdai which is 240 miles from Moscow and has no airport so I assume he'd travel to and from the Kremlin by helicopter.

Putin's bedroom in his residence in Valdai on Lake Valdayskoye

Putin does not actually live in the actual Kremlin the way US presidents live in the White House so Trump could end up living at another of his residences. Putin reportedly spends much of his time in the Novo-Ogaryovo estate in Moscow which has been unofficially termed his de facto residence.

If he wants to end up a Putin's most famous houseguest he'll first have to convince the murderous dictator, who might have to convince his girlfriend gymnast Alina Kabaeva, to have him as a permanent roomie. 

Of course the judge could order him not to leave the country, and order his passport (or passports, he has said he has three) seized.  I don't know exactly how he could fly out of the country in his own plane illegally, but if he managed to sneak onto his plane and it took off on the way to Russia I doubt the Air Force would shoot it down even if it had a fleeing felon onboard.

What the bond does do is described here:

The bond agreement, known as a consent bond order, sets strict rules for Trump’s release. The former president is not allowed to communicate with witnesses or co-defendants about the case, except through his lawyers, and he is barred from intimidating witnesses or co-defendants. He is also forbidden from making any “direct or indirect threat of any nature against the community or to any property in the community,” including in “posts on social media or reposts of posts” by others on social media.

“The defendant shall perform no act to intimidate any person known to him … to be a co-defendant or witness in this case or to otherwise obstruct the administration of justice,” the agreement says. (Washington Post)

If he violates the conditions of the bond agreement as by now everyone who has been following this case knows there are actions that Fulton County Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee can take to punish him from levying fines up to putting him in jail.

Most people, probably including Trump himself, don't think Judge McAfee would take such a final step. 

As noted in Raw Story "former Donald Trump lawyer Michael Cohen doesn't think the ex-president will be capable of complying with the bail conditions set in Fulton County, Georgia. Still, he anticipates that Trump will only get a slap on the wrist."

This doesn't mean that there's no way Trump can be certain he won't eventually end up incarcerated. He could end up in a Georgia prison and the only way he can be certain he won't be imprisoned for a federal crime is if a Republican is elected president and decides to drop the cases against him or pardon him.

If he does end up doing time at a Club Fed and Biden is president there's always the chance Biden would pardon him but then he'd have to admit guilt and accept the ultimate favor from the man he despises.

Let's say that Trump makes it to Russia and takes up residence there. As long as Putin is in power I don't see him allowing him to be extradited. If Putin is replaced a new leader might send him back to the United States to face charges.

What the United States might be able to do is freeze as many of his assets as possible. This might make a large dent in the money available to him depending on how much has has in foreign accounts in countries that won't cooperate with the US justice system. 

Trump might have tried to take actual cash or valuables like Melania's jewelry with him to sell since the government now has the documents he stole so he couldn't sell them. He'd somehow have to get ahold of as many suitcases full of $100 bills as he could if he wanted cash.

Although he won't get that much, he could sell a kidney. The most recent report I could find on this says he could get between one and five million rubles ($14,300 - $73,000).

The easy way for Trump to make it to Russia, Russia, Russia is to board his plane on a flight meant to go to Atlanta or between Bedminster and Mar-a-Lago for example and have it fly to one of his Russkie pal's pads instead.

For those who suggest that there's no pilot who would agree to fly Trump out of the country illegally consider that he wanted his personal pilot John Duncan  (bleow) to be made the head of the FAA. If he wouldn't do it I think he could find another pilot sufficiently loyal to do this for the right price.

One last thought: there is something the judge, any ot the jduges in his cases, can do that that might bother Trump short of throwing him in the hoosecow. They could confiscate his plane.

Of course he could ask Harlan Crow to have him flown out of the coutnry on his  Bombardier Global 5000 jet (below). 

Crow himself might like living in a mansion on the Black Sea, and while I am in a flight of fancy, perhaps Clarence and Ginni Thomas might also move there.

Will RICO "Ratso" Trump have a midnight ride to Mar-a-Lago?

 

Joe Buck played by John Voight, Hoffman as Rico "Ratso" Rizo

By Hal Brown

By now everyone should now that RICO stands for Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations.

Cinema fans probably remember the character played by Dustin  Hofman in 1969's best picture Oscar winning Midnight Cowboy as Ratso Rizzo. I was going to write that Trump's new name should be Ratso RICO Trump, but then when I checked Wikipedia I saw that his real name was Rico Rizzo and Ratso was his nickname.

Of course in the book and movie Ratso was a complex character and a torutured soul. Trump is only complex from a psychiatric perspective but you can't say he's a tortured soul because he has no soul by any defintion of the word.

Perhaps ironically Joe Buck was played by John Voight who has been a vocal supporter of Donad Trump (link).

Hoffman is a staunch liberal who has offered his financial support to a long list of Democratic presidential hopefuls, from Joe Biden's run in 2020 all the way back to former Nebraska Senator Bob Kerrey's 1992 bid (Reference)

Those who read the book or saw the movie remember the powerful and tragic ending.  The pair are on a bus enroute to make a new life in Florida. Ratso tells Joe he doesn't want to be called Ratso anymore. He askes to be called Rico. Rico's heatlh had been deteriorating and he dies on the bus never making it to Florida.

This is the last nine minutes of the movie:

I don't need to spell what the midnight ride to Mar-a-Lago would symbolize for RICO "Ratso" Trump. Unlike Rico, he isn't literally terminally ill. However his days as the self-crowned king of the world may be numbered.

bviously if he is convicted of RICO crimes it is is very relevant to his future.

Let's not forget Lady Justice holds the scales in one hand and a sharp sword in the other

 

By Hal Brown

Former Rep. David Jolly (R-FL) said "Lady Justice is showing us she has an understanding of karma and a sense of humor" (Reference) but she's never shown as smiling. She does hold a sworn and at times she can be seen as a purveyor of karma.

As shown in my illustration above, Trump has two overlapping mouths. This represents the conundrum of trying to understand Trump. He says things that are demonstrable lies, but we never know whether he believes what he says.

Here's what I think David Jolly is describing in interview with Nicole Wallace dwhen he said the following from the article in Raw Story.

"You could not write the projection that Donald Trump was engaged in, then Secretary Clinton, to now be facing his own loss of liberty about what exactly he accused her of. I think Donald Trump knows that and understands that. I think Donald Trump knows that his wisest strategy is not to win this case in the southern district of Florida but to win the presidency. And that is why you're seeing this two-tiered strategy. Attorneys are left with a client who continues to lie to himself and misrepresent. But it's a political strategy that he sees as working."

There are contradictions here. 

Psychological projection is an unconscious process. While Trump is accusing Hillary Clinton of doing what he did (and of course he's comparing an arsonist to an overripe apple considering that what Hillary did with the email server is nothing like what he did). This is projection in the colloquial sense, i.e. to accuse someone of doing something wrong to deflect from the fact you did something wrong, often worse, that what they did.

We just don't know what Trump believes. 

Therefore, when Jolly goes on saying that Trump knows that his wisest strategy is not to win the Florida case but to win the presidency again, it is just speculation to say what he knows. From what I hear Trump saying about the documents case it seems that he very much cares about winning that case.

I don't see the two tiered strategy Jolly describes.

Then Jolly goes on to say that Trump continues to lie to himself, which of course entails misrepresentation. But if this is due to his lying to himself, then it isn't deliberate misrepresentation even though it is a misrepresentation of the truth.

Finally, how can all that we observe coming from Trump be a political strategy that he sees as working if he is lying to himself? If he is lying to himself to this degree then he is delusional. If he is delusional he is not mentally capable of devising a rational strategy.

If there is such a thing as karma it works in mysterious and erratic way. If Lady Justice is about to wield the sword of karma and strike Trump down, or  to put it another way, give him his just deserts, I don't think she'll be chuckling to herself finding it the least but amusing. 

If you don't see the Disquis comment section below click here.

My other blogs today:

HUFFPOST title editorializes in title, but gets it wrong, The Rolling Stones got it right.

Sorry, Jennifer Rubin, Bill Barr can't play a vital role in helping Republicans accept that Trump is unfit for office

He's an innocent man. Just ask him. Can a regular guy who loves KFC be a criminal?

 

By Hal Brown

He says he got more votes than any sitting president by far in 2022. He also says he's an innocent man. He's innocent, he tells us, he's innocent. Soooo innocent!

Everything he was accused of doing wrong was a hoax, a hoax, all a big hoax... a big scam so the Democrats can win an election. 

Oh, and he's always putting America first. America, mind you, not himself.

I'm not making it up. You can hear him say these things here.

Come on unbelievers. Trump is just a regular guy. Sure he lives in a house with a big chandelier in the bathroom where he happens to store stolen secret documents...

... but then again he loves his KFC and Diet Cokes so he must be a regular guy just like you.

Click here if you don't see the Disquis comment section.

Was it an accidental moment of truth that Fox News online pictured Trump as most corrupt

 

By Hal Brown

My friend watched Fox News last night while we were watching MSNBC. I don't know why she subjects herself to this blood pressure raising torture. She said they were spinning the story as Biden prosecuting Trump to try to steal the election and that they had Steven Miller on (article and video).

While I never tune into Fox News, for the hell of it I thought I'd look at the Fox News website and above at the top of the blog is what I saw.

It struck me as a weird that Trump was pictured with the words "most corrupt" in caps and quotes under his photo. Could Fox News be editorializing that they had a sudden eureka moment of truth, justice, and the American way and were telling us that Trump was the most corrupt?

The clarification wasn't on the front page. It was in the first paragraph of the story that image was linked to:

EXCLUSIVE: Trump says indictment is 'election interference at the highest level'

 It, as shown above in my illustration, is:

Former President Trump said his federal indictment is "election interference at the highest level," telling Fox News Digital that the Biden administration is "the most corrupt" in history.

For a second I took the illustration literally at face value, i.e., the face that is pictured is of the most corrupt president in American history. Then I thought that it being on the main page of the Fox News website would be unprecedented. I had to check this out.

I discovered that what Fox News was trying to convey would be more accurately illustrated with a picture of Trump ranting that the Biden administration is the most corrupt in history.

They also could have found an unflattering photo of Biden to convey their meaning and used a photo like this:

This is what Trump and his MAGA mouthpieces want everyone to believe.

The article goes on at considerable length to attempt to paint President Biden as a bribery accepting criminal without evidence because supposedly Hunter Biden accepted $5 million from Burisma to get then Vice President Biden to make sure Ukrainian prosecutor Viktor Slotkin, who was investigating the company, was fired.

According to the article:

The confidential source said the Burisma executive told him he "paid" the Bidens in such a manner "through so many different bank accounts" that investigators would not be able to "unravel this for at least 10 years."

The document then makes reference to "the Big Guy," which, has been said to be a reference to Joe Biden. 

It is believable that the troubled Hunter Biden was a grifter and took the money, but only someone willing to believe without evidence that Joe Biden was totally lacking in ethics, basically a illegitimately elected president, and a money-hungry criminal who would readily accept a bribe.

Of course, there are millions of Americans convinced that Joe Biden is an illegitimately elected president, a card carrying communist, and the Devil dressed in drag dragooning toddlers into changing their genders. 

About the blog:

Here's a mystery. For unknown reasons all week the blog has had the largest percentage of readers logging on from Singapore. All I can think of is that this had something to do with this:

World's spy chiefs connect in secret conclave at Shangri-La Dialogue security meeting in Singapore

There are expats from all over the world living in Singapore. Perhaps thorough word of mouth some of them have been following the blog. I'd appreciate anyone logging on from their comment and let me know who they are and how they discovered the blog, and what they think of it.

If you don't see the Disquis comment section below it is here.

Michael Cohen and others claim to know what's in Trump's headspace. They don't..

 By Hal Brown

We know how Trump wants people to see him. The digital trading cards are in contrast to the photo he choose to be on "The Art of the Deal" cover. 

We might conclude that something in his mind changed between 1987 when the book was published and when he put out his digital cards. Then again, we also might say that the "I'm Superman" narcissistic grandiosity has been an underlying, perhaps driving part, of Trump's personality all of his adult life. It's probably more accurate to say that the choice of the photo on his book cover was a considered marketing decision approved by Trump but that experts at Random House, the publisher, persuaded him to use this one.

All someone like me, who practiced as a psychotherapist for 40 years, or anybody else can do is make educated guesses about what motivates Trump and what he is feeling. For example, many people say he has been frequently motivated by money. On the surface this makes sense. However, nobody, not even Trump himself, knows what money unconsciously represents to him. Even a psychoanalyst would be making an educated guess.

We see what he does but when we delve into the feelings and psychodynamics underlying his behaviors we are in an unknowable realm.

For example, this was the top story on HUFFPOST this morning:

Excerpt:

“Diaper Donald will be filling up that diaper, because this is not something that Donald is capable of either understanding or contending with,” Cohen, who worked closely with Trump as his personal attorney for more than a decade, told Ari Melber on Monday on MSNBC’s “The Beat.”

“He believes he could control every situation. This is not a situation that he has any control over, and that’s making him sick to his stomach,” he added. “I think right now he’s beyond petrified.”

There's nothing in the above (taking the diaper remark as a metaphor of course) that Cohen absolutely 100% for certain knows. Even saying that Trump believes he could control every situation, which sounds accurate on the face of it, ought to include modifiers like usually or ought to.

I wrote the following as a comment to the article:

All people like Cohen can do is speculate on what Trump is actually feeling, on the emotions he is experiencing. All anyone knows for certain is what is observable. Let's not forget that he is posting all cap messages on Truth Social in the wee hours of the night. This could be performative but it is a fact that the time stamp say it is, for example, 3AM. Trump has been an actor for decades. Even trying to analyze his facial expressions, even if he tears up, even if his sing-song voice quivers this is an exercise in drawing a conclusion about what is in what Cohen calls his headspace. Add to this imprecision is the possibility his feelings may vacillate. He may experience fleeting anxiety but then may push these feelings down (into the unconscious) and replaces them with anger. Like anyone he has psychological defense mechanisms, the most primitive of these is denial and another is projection. More about this here: https://www.halbrown.org/2023/04/nobody-knows-for-certain-how-trump.html

I admit that part of why I did this was to promote my blog. However this speculation in the media continues to be rampant so I thought a reprise of what I wrote in the blog from April 2, was warranted.

This is what Omarosa Manigault Newman told Joy Reid (video here):

Donald Trump is approaching his arraignment in a Manhattan courtroom. "Yes, he is going to try to pivot and distract and make you all think that he's not upset or nervous, but Donald Trump is terrified,” Omarosa Manigault Newman tells Joy Reid. “I can just certainly tell by his telltale signs... he doesn't look well."

You can look at Trump's posture, for example, and make an educated guess as to how he feels. For example these are from The Washington Post:

This is from The NY Times:

Click to enlarge

These are the photos the two New York City tabloids used:

You can also make your own conclusions based on what Trump isn't doing in these photos. For example, below he is waving but not smiling at cameras he knows are taking pictures of him. 

On Fox News with  Sean Hannity Trump said (about the documents at Mar-a-Lago) "I would have the right to take stuff, I have the right to do stuff." Talking heads, for example on Morning Joe, are pointing out that this was basically him admitting to having done something being investigated by Jack Smith. 

We can conclude that admitting something that will be likely be used against him should the documents case go to court shows poor judgement. We can with a high degree of confidence say that in his "headspace" or gut when he said these words he wasn't experiencing anxiety. What we don't know is that whether or not just below the surface of awareness anxiety was roiling around in what is sometimes referred to as the preconscious mind (see below). 

Here's the public domain iceberg graphic
of the mind I used in my other blog story.

Al Sharpton, also on Morning Joe, said Trump is humiliated. Again this is a speculation about what Trump feels. He said people underestimate the effect this has on Trump psychologically. It would be correct to say that if Trump was like the vast majority of people this and all these conclusions would be accurate. 

Here's someone else assuming they know what Trump is feeling (From Raw Story)

"The View" co-host Alyssa Farah Griffin worked for Donald Trump in the White House, and she's not buying reports that he's calmly relishing his legal predicament...

..."I know him well enough to know he is not loving this. He is spiraling. As someone, who despite his terrible actions, does think about legacy and how he is perceived. Now, his life, whether it's his obituary, is going to say he was indicted, the first American president to be."

Trump isn't psychologically like most people. See my Daily Kos essay from 2020 

Add a section to the DSM-5. It doesn't come close to having a category for Trump.

The closest anyone might come to understanding what is in Trump's unconscious mind is if he honestly told them about his dreams. This is what Freud called the royal road to the unconscious in The Interpretation of Dreams.

Nobody but Trump, and Melania if she sleeps with him, knows if he is awakening at night screaming from having nightmares.

Updates: Trump leaving Trump Tower on way to courthouse:

He waved when he was entering the courthouse but his face remained as it was in other photos taken earlier.

Play on words HUFFPOST article on top of page:

Get it? A rain man...

'He looks sad': CNN panel sees reality 'sinking in' on Trump's face

Is he sad or maybe just tired? After all he is posting on Truth Social in the middle of the night. The panelists said he had to feel lonely too. They would feel lonely in a similar situation. Most people would. At the risk of repeating myself, Trump is not most people.

So many in the media are making assumptions abut Trump's emotions  based on what they and everyone they know would feel. He could be feelings this way, but he may not.

Andrea Mitchel on MSNBC just got got it right. She asked if Donald Trump is different and does he process things differently. She asked whether these things penetrate.

Trump just leaving and heading to courtroom where the indictment will be read and he will plead:

The MSNBC commentators observing the pictures below are saying that this is what Trump didn't want televised. They were taken prior to the cameras being removed from the courtroom. They are saying that he looks like someone reacting to being is a situation he doesn't want to be in. 

This is the most expressive screenshot.

Trump should have interpreter to tell us that what he says isn't what he means

 By Hal Brown

When someone posts on social medias in all caps it is considered to be the same thing as shouting. Trump's call to his followers to protest if he's arrested made the news and not, for him, in a good way. This was interpreted as his instructing his followers to engage in violent protests. 

Anyone with any common sense wanting to help Trump weather the coming storm of legal entanglements knows that violent protests on his behalf will turn at least some sentiment among his less zealous supporters against him.

Considering what occurred after his January 6th speech there's no way he couldn't have known the power he has to incite violence with his words.

Not long after the media pointed this out the walk-back from others in the GOP and ardent Trump supporters began. Pence told Jonathan Karl that the American people know they should protest in a peaceful and lawful manner. 

McCarthy echoed this. So did Alex Jones:

Ali Alexander, who as an organizer of the “Stop the Steal” movement staged rallies to promote Trump’s baseless claims that Democrats stole the 2020 election from him, warned Trump supporters that they would be "jailed or worse” if they protested in New York City.

“You have no liberty or rights there,” he tweeted.

One of Alexander’s allies in the “Stop the Steal” campaign was conspiracy theorist Alex Jones, who amplified the election fraud claims on his Infowars show. Alexander posted that he had spoken to Jones and said that neither of them would be protesting this time around. Reference

None of these interpretations of what a call to protest means comes from Trump, the one person who could have influenced the very people who could assure that protests, if any, were peaceful. 

Here's one reply posted to Trump's Truth Social post (clicking below will enlarge but not go to Trump Social):

.

The simple fact, as shown in the post above, is that there are people who may want to express their support of him in a violent manner. These are a group of people who don't look at Jan. 6th as a total failure. Rather they look at it as a success even though it was a failed coup that they think but for the traitor Mike Pence almost succeeded. 

Trump never apologizes, never reverses a position that may disadvantage him, never admits he was wrong about anything. It's been pointed out the he could have urged supporters to peacefully protest in his posts, but really, can you see him even considering that? There no way he'd go back and post "ops, I really meant to use the word peacefully".

On MSNBC Ali Vitali said they are trying to put Trump's comments through a filter that doesn't actually exist. She made my point. I see the filter as really being an interpretation device. What comes out of Trump's screaming mouth (shown in DonkeyHotey's often reposted caricature) for his own sake should be filtered. 

Trump's worst enemy is his unfiltered brain. That brain is our friend. It's also a friend to Ron DeSantis who would be a more difficult candidate to defeat if he wins the GOP primary.

Update:

On the other hand you have stories like this:

Right-wing broadcaster calls for Barack Obama and others to be executed if Trump is arrested

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