Predictions of Trump's legal downfall could be a big nothing burger, but what if it's the opposite?

 Predictions of Trump's legal downfall could be a big nothing burger, but what if it's the opposite? 

What if the Trump indictment proves to be a giant everything burger with all the fixings?

By Hal Brown

Trump not only has nicknames for just about everyone he wants to disparage. He also is referred to in numerous ways by his enemies when they post comments about him on progressive websites. Here's an exhaustive list of both, obviously out of date since it's from 2020.

The man with many names has apparently decided that all-caps is the way to go on his Truth Social posts, leaving no other way to scream his outrage unless the techies working there decide to add formatting so he can add bold or enlarge the font. Click below to enlarge without going to Truth Social:

If these posts are any indication, there's at least one person who doesn't think the legal machinations happening behind the scenes represent a big nothing burger. 

Progressive pundits are handling the prospect that the coming Stormy Daniels case ending up with an indictment gingerly with a lot of equivocation and the most common word you hear and read is "if".

Progressives and anti-Trumpers of any stripe by and large don't want to engage in wishful thinking by getting their hopes up in anticipation lest nothing come of this. After all, Trump has avoided serious consequences for his misdeeds so many times in the past that one runs out of metaphors and similes to describe what he's like in this regard. For example fill in the blank here: he's been as slippery and slimy as a __________.

To the vast majority of us, engaging in an illegal act involving $130,000 and an adult film star, and getting caught would scare the living crap out of us. Still, many pundits tending to writing this off  or minimizes this because ,not only of Trump's history of avoiding having his life seriously disrupted by his lawlessness, but because even though he lies about how much money he has, for a multi-millionaire $130,000 is chump change.

My own view is a bit more nuanced. I am a hard and fast disbeliever in karma, that is, as in Hinduism and Buddhism the belief that the sum of a person's actions in this and previous states of existence is viewed as deciding their fate in future existences. 

If I did believe in karma I would be thinking how fitting it would be to see that the first domino to fall in Trump's delicious destruction would be something involving his behavior with a woman. Of all the women who could start this process I'll be happy if it is the one he once thought was gorgeous and now calls "horseface". 

I wrote Clinton: It depends on the meaning of 'is", while Trump's basic defense re. Stormy depends on the meaning of the word "affair" and see that Crooks and Liars also published the same thing in 'Sleazebag': Trump Reacts To Stormy Daniels Meeting With Prosecutors -Lumpy didn't get much sleep last night.

So, if the former President hadn't seen her in 18 years, what was the $130,000 payment in 2016 for? And he keeps using the word "affair" when it was allegedly a one-time sexual encounter. And the sexual (alleged!) encounter occurred in 2006. This feels like a badly scripted soap opera.

Stormy Daniels humorously noted that what happened could only be considered an affair in Trump's mind (click to see on Twitter or below to enlarge image without going to Twitter):

I will add, just because it bears repeating, is that Stormy called this the worst 90 seconds of her life.

I am always in quest of really good hamburgers. 

While I don't want to get my hopes up too high, there is mounting evidence that realistically one or another case against Trump will be the first rock to fall leading to a legal avalanche that will bury Trump.

I admire Stormy Daniels. She has astutely handled the fame that Donald Trump handed her on a golden platter. She avoided becoming a political pawn and made career moves which proved she was anything but a run-of-the-mill adult film performer.

Full disclosure: Stormy Daniels is one of the 123 people I follow on Twitter:

Perhaps she'll retweet this:

Addendum

Even if Trump is indicted and eventually this all turns out to be a plate of beans without a juicy burger underneath Trump will experience the following:

"Look, Jake (Tapper), he's very anxious about the prospect of being indicted for a couple of reasons," she began. "Yes, two things can be true at once: he is aware that there are reasons to believe this could help him politically, we have heard a lot about this morning already, but he does not want to face getting arrested, which is what happens when you get indicted."

"You get fingerprinted, you get brought in, you have to ask for bail," she elaborated. "None of that is something that he's excited about." on CNN's"State of the Union," the New York Times' Maggie Haberman (story).

This is what Chris Cristie said here:

"But the vision of a former president of the United States being processed, fingerprinted, mug shot," he added. "You know, what else do you expect Trump to say, as I said to [George Stephanopoulos] last week, than to say it helps his campaign? But being indicted, I don't think it ever helps anybody.

For a change, Marjorie Taylor Greene is a voice of restraint on her Twitter page (here):

Clicking above will enlarge image but not go to Twitter.

About the blog:

I am posting these essays on both Booksie and Medium. It is gratifying and motivating to know people read what I write. When I was banned from Daily Kos and switched only to posting my opinion writing on my online readership dropped significantly. Now it averages around 1500 a week at this address, but by posting the same story on two new platforms there are additional readers.

Please scroll down to the comments link and let readers know what you think. Sharing on social media, also through the links below, is appreciated. New to the blog, note that the archives are on the very bottom of the screen.

Trump has ants is his pants and so does this guy named Steve Cheung

Trump has ants is his pants and so does this guy named Steve Cheung

By Hal Brown

This is a logo, title-card, or title-screen owned by Treehouse TV for Ants in Your Pants. Fair use.

It would have been easy to put ants in the background of the image used in the HUFFPOST top of the webpage article:

Click above to read article

The word "antsy" is derived from the saying having ants in one's pants:

Imagining this literally happening to you evokes decidedly unpleasant feelings. Even tiny sugar ants, itchy ick, but imaging carpenter or red ants, ugh!

Rather than put a background of ants in my illustration (just for my fun and hopefully readers enjoyment) I changed the ad that appeared in the article:

Click above to enlarge image

Trump did nothing wrong? Hmmmm... 

I suppose just like his claiming he didn't have an affair with Stormy Daniels (as I wrote here, he didn't, he had a one-night-stand, the worst 90 seconds of Ms. Daniels' life) it depends on the meaning of the word "wrong" (below is how the dictionary defines it):

Click above to enlarge image

This is from the HUFFPOST article:

“President Donald J. Trump is completely innocent, he did nothing wrong, and even the biggest, most Radical Left Democrats are making that clear,” Steven Cheung, a spokesperson for his campaign, said in a statement. “From Russia, Russia, Russia, to the Mueller Hoax, to Impeachment Hoaxes 1 and 2, and even the Unlawful Mar-a-Lago Raid, Democrats have investigated and attacked President Trump since before he was elected — and they’ve failed every time.”

Steven Cheung

Steven Cheung, who is quoted above, is basically mouthing the words from his boss. Wikipedia tells us that he used to be a communications executive for the Ultimate Fighting Championship and attended, but not necessarily graduated from, California State University in Sacramento. In a Politico interview he said:

“My career began in the California governor’s office as a communications and speechwriting intern while in college. It was one of the most rewarding jobs I’ve ever had, because I learned the importance about what not to do just as much as what I should do. That experience has helped guide me throughout a variety of jobs in my career from working on political campaigns across the country to sports organizations like the UFC.”

Since Mr. Cheung was a speechwriting intern for Gov.

Arnold Schwarzenegger it is fair to assume he knows the meaning of the word "wrong" even if Donald Trump doesn't.

He must also know what side of the bread his butter has to go on. For example, he worked for the Ultimate Fighting Championship which it by some accounts is a scripted pseudo-sports competition, for example It's all fake, right? A professional wrestler explains everything. Whether these matches are scripted or not, you know anyone promoting them has to make sure fans believe the outcomes aren't pre-determined.

There are so many prevarication promoting people today working for right-wing politicians and media who must have in their job description that they have to be adept at saying the opposite of the truth. They could be working for Big Brother.

What the hell... I made the illustration anyway:

.Also published on Medium and on Booksie, because why not?

Please scroll down to the comments link and let readers know what you think. Sharing on social media, also through the links below, is appreciated. New to the blog, note that the archives are on the very bottom of the screen.

How will Trump react to being indicted?

 By Hal Brown, MSW

If you're reading this you are a news junky and probably have read some of the news and opinion articles shown above. You've seen what is being reported as Trump's likely indictment in New York City by DA Alvin Bragg.

The closest thing I have heard about how Trump will react to being indicted, whether in New York or Georgia or both, is that he will use this to his advantage. This is the glove that does fit when it come to applying what we know about his personality to this situation.

A frequently used phrase is that he will play the victim card. I doubt he will bemoan his plight as shown in my second illustration, at least not in public. Trump may actually feel overwhelmed at times but he won't show this where a camera can catch him. 

Most likely he will rant and rave at an escalating level reaching a crescendo of incoherent rage so far unseen. The man lives by the polls and when he see his support for the GOP nomination dropping this will be a trigger. Then the more the chance that he may actually go to prison percolates into his awareness he will begin to slide down the slippery slope of mental decompensation. 

Trump has what mental health experts calls rigid psychological defense mechanisms. These are unconscious built-in ways all people protect themselves from experiencing anxiety. Depending on the level of stress and threat of major life setbacks this anxiety can be devastating.

Those with flexible defense mechanisms are considered more psychologically healthy. They can adapt and adjust to life stress without breaking down. Those with rigid defense mechanisms are more likely to have them shatter and be vulnerable to having severe psychiatric reactions from debilitating depression all the way to psychotic episodes.

If this happens to Trump, as good a performer as he is, he won't be able to fake it successfully. He's a good actor but he's not that good.

Trump may never do the perp walk to Rikers or another jail, but his downfall may very well be a psychological breakdown. This could result in his either being secretly spirited off to an inpatient psychiatric hospital, or more likely being treated at Mar-a-Lago which mysteriously will be closed to guests for renovations.

Click above to enlarge

Addendum:

Click above to enlarge

Donald J. Trump

@realDonaldTrump. 16s

I did absolutely nothing wrong, I never had an affair with Stormy Daniels, nor would I have wanted to have an affair with Stormy Daniels.

This is a political Witch-Hunt, trying to take down the leading candidate, by far, in the Republican Party while at the same time also leading all Democrats in the polls, including Joe Biden and Kamala Harris. Congress and numerous Democrat District Attorneys, Attorneys General, and the...

Donald J. Trump

@realDonaldTrump. 53s

...Department of Injustice itself, which has unprecedentedly placed top DOJ prosecutors into the Manhattan District Attorney's office in order to "get Trump", have found that I did nothing wrong. Now, they fall back on the old, and rebuked case which has been rejected by every prosecutor's office that has looked at this Stormy "Horseface" Daniels matter, where I relied on counsel in order to resolve this Extortion of me, which took place a long time ago. Since then, I have won lawsuits...

Comments:

Someone on Mastodon wrote:

Maybe you can riff on his CPAC self-description as a “warrior.” This from the guy who dodged the draft with his spurious Bone Spurs diagnosis. Hence my suggestion of a new hashtag: #BoneSpursWarrior

So I added to one of Trump's NFT trading cards:

Click above to enlarge. The image on the upper left is from this blog.

 Ben Kalom said...

 

In his usual bloviating style.
He will never see the inside of a correctional facility.

He has opened the door for the real dangerous people - -the individuals who did perform, who did participate, who did accomplish, who have held their personal desires and fantasies in check, who are truly dictatorial, who will amass a weaponized force, who can institute martial law, who are not going to defend the U.S. Constitution because it stands in the way of their grand schemes.

If you give Mr. DeSantis a first look, merely peruse his wikipedia page, not stop to think about the underlying architecture of who he is, his roots, his upbringing, his participations, his accomplishments, his credentials, his current success at pedagogic and unilateral dogmatic management of his Florida statehouse, his unilateral way of wiping out history and "nationalizing" the areas of Florida where Disney Theme Parks reside, his singular method of revealing a militarized precision for assault

If all you do is stop at his superficial characteristics, you would think he's a good candidate for making things great.

Personally, I see nothing more than another Lorenzo Di Medici - a power-hungry, careful, tactical strategist who can get done what Donnie could never do...

Let's start looking at DeSantis as a more dangerous, more "Il Duce" type, with even more of the Etruscan peninsular genetics flowing through his very Italian veins.

As bad as Donnie was, Meatball Ron is far worse. Far, far, worse. Exceptionally dangerous.

Peace, brother from another mother...

Ida Haley commented:

I think he will continue his victim hood. He is now pronouncing himself the one who will take retribution against those who are bedeviling the faithful.

He apparently posted hunter Biden d**k pics on his own truth social. He will ramp up the assault on the Biden s to distract from his and his spawn's own criminality.

His fifth column is alive and well and very active under the radar. Bannon, Flynn, stone, manafort, the Russian and Arab government's are all working to protect him from prosecution and TO GET HIM BACK IN THE WHITE HOUSE.

Qanon runs deep. We are still being surprised at the depth of involvement by Fox news, we haven't even opened the can of worms at the FBI and secret service. They just arrested a retired FBI agent from NY for conspiring with the Russians. He was in charge of the FBI in NY covering Russia and he's the one who announced trump had no Russian help. We have secret service people who have destroyed evidence about jan6.

Not to get hysterical, but we don't know how deeply compromised our government is. We have insurrectionists sitting in Congress who now control the house and possibly the Senate. I'm not hearing anything about Mitch McConnell; if he has to be replaced, who would that be?

We still have a supreme court that is Vatican 2.0. how far are they willing to go to undermine the democracy because that is certainly their plan.

We are facing possibly the biggest threat to our democracy in modern times, yet the MSM PLAYS IT LIKE BOTH SIDES DO IT. It's business as usual, it's not. We had a huge fasc*st movement in the 30's that funded Hitler's rise to power and plotted to overthrow FDR.

Please comment below

Will Manhattan DA's case against Trump have deadly tentacles

 Will Manhattan DA's case against Trump have deadly tentacles

By Hal Brown

I read this article in RAWSTORY and the phrase shown above leaped off the page and sent me to DuckDuckGo Images to find man-of-war jellyfish.

The article begins:

Manhattan district attorney Alvin Bragg may finally have changed his mind about indicting former president Donald Trump.

The recent conviction of the Trump Organization and its chief financial officer Allen Weisselberg gave a glimpse of evidence that could tie the ex-president directly to the tax fraud scheme, such as a memo he signed approving chief operating officer Matthew Calamari’s illegal request to reduce his taxed salary to cover the cost of his untaxed corporate apartment, reported The Daily Beast.

Here's the portion about the tentacles:

“This case has tentacles,” said Duncan Levin, a former prosecutor who now represents Jennifer Weisselberg and has been communicating with investigators.

The district attorney's office declined to comment on what Bragg meant about another chapter, but former prosecutors from that office say their experience leads them to believe prosecutors will go after Trump.

“For people who want a certain outcome — to go after Trump — it gives hope," said Catherine A. Christian, a former assistant district attorney who investigated financial fraud. "They’re going to be thorough. I’m doubtful he would have said ‘next chapter’ if they weren’t looking."

To tell the unvarnished truth I don't have anything particularly original to say about this. I just wanted an excuse to make a couple of illustrations. I leave it to readers to indulge in fantasies about the Teflon don Don falling into a jellyfish swarm.

I think he might a need a full immersion wetsuit rather than a coating of Teflon to protect him from the jellyfish swarming around him not only in New York (cue music video) but also in Georgia (cue video two).

Update:

Irrelevant to today's story, items to share:

Funniest puniest of the week:

More seriously, everyone should share this image.

This hopefully will be the final straw to break for Santos and humiliate McCarthy. It would be truly great if McCarthy has to take steps to remove him from the House, and at least to immediately kick him off his committee assignments. There are a number of Republicans who shoot their dogs because they can't hunt anymore, but far more are dog lovers. I just wish more articles shared this photo:

More people should see the video in this article. It is of a former Santos roommate describing how he used the Jewish sounding name Zebrosky on his GoFundMe pages because Jews give more money. 

"He would say, 'oh well, that Jew will give more if you're a Jew," Morey-Parker quoted his former roommate.

I wouldn't say that you can make a firm judgement of how smart someone is by how they look, but then again.... (article)

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