Blowhard Bannon's belligerent bluster begs bighouse stay

 By Hal Brown

Bannon get the Blues

Just announced: Bannon will get four months in prison and minor $6500 fine but can stay out of prison while he appeals and this could take a year.

It is being reported that his appeal will rely on his claiming he relied on an a "advice of counsel" defense. 

First his lawyer spoke and said they had a "bulletproof" appeal.

Then Bannon took to the microphone and made a diatribe. He lambasted the Democrats and Nancy Pelosi. He said the Biden regime will end after the election and Merrick Garland will be the first attorney general to be brought up on charges and impeached.

My impression of Bannon's affect and demeanor belied what his words were saying. He seemed far more subdued than usual. He claimed he'd win an appeal but he isn't delusional. He knows that the chances of winning the appeal are slim despite what his lawyer said and down the road there is a very good chance he will spend time in jail. 

Where would be held if he was indicted? 

"Since contempt of Congress is a federal misdemeanor being prosecuted in DC, White suggested that Bannon would be held in the DC Jail for lockup. The jail holds inmates who either have been sentenced for a misdemeanor, or are awaiting trial. However, depending on space and other factors, the Bureau of Prisons could decide to send him to another minimum security lockup outside of the District." Reference.

It's obvious that the accommodations are a far cry from what he's used to. Four months isn't four years. It isn't even a year. He might even get time off for good behavior. Still, any time spent living in a cell and having to comply with orders from prison guards will be a new experience for Bannon.

This is where Bannon lived in Washington:

(From https://nypost.com/2022/07/08/armed-police-swarm-steve-bannons-dc-home-in-swatting-incident/)

It isn't a mansion but obviously non-too-shabby compared to the DC slammer.

Remember this Steve Bannon form November 16, 2021?

This is an explanation of why this conviction and sentence matters from CNN:

It was a victory for the House Jan. 6 select committee as it continues to seek the cooperation of reluctant witnesses in its historic investigation. It was also a victory for the Justice Department, which is under intense scrutiny for its approach to matters related to the Jan. 6 attack.

Bannon is one of two uncooperative Jan. 6 committee witnesses to be charged so far by the Justice Department for contempt of Congress. Trump White House adviser Peter Navarro was indicted by a grand jury last month for not complying with a committee subpoena and has pleaded not guilty.

Backing up:

Lot's on news when I started watching TV this morning about how much jail time Steve Bannon will serve this morning. Below is Bannon expressing his usual defiance before entering court this morning:

I was looking forward to seeing his being led out the the courthouse in cuffs to the Department of Corrections paddy wagon. Unfortunately because this is a misdemeanor he won't be taken into custody immediately. Rather he'd be given a date when and where he has to surrender to the authorities.

Bannon lost this Hail Mary Mother of Me pass (below):

Then there's this from the Above The Law website:

The subtitle says it all: Good luck, buddy.

In preparation for Steve Bannon’s sentencing hearing Friday, he and the government both submitted sentencing recommendations today. Unsurprisingly, they have very different thoughts on what should happen to the rightwing podcaster after a jury found him guilty of two counts of contempt of Congress for defying a subpoena for documents and testimony from the January 6 Select Committee.

Prosecutors suggest six months in the hoosegow plus a $200,000 fine, emphasizing that Bannon has “consistently acted in bad faith and with the purpose of frustrating the Committee’s work.”

Here's more from this article:

Perhaps cognizant that promising to go “medieval” on his opponents and describing Judge Carl J. Nichols as conducting “the Moscow show trial of the 1930s” does not necessarily bespeak chastened regret, Bannon’s brief exhorts the court to look beyond the law and dream big.

The ear of a sentencing judge listens for the note of contrition. Someone was convicted. Did they learn their lesson? This case requires something more. It involves larger themes that are important to every American. Should a person be jailed when the caselaw which sets forth the elements of the crime is outdated? Should a person be jailed for the doing the exact same thing that was done by the highest law enforcement officers in this country, yet they received no punishment?

Bannon seems to be both threatening the judge and daring him to do something about it. It doesn't seem to be an indication that he is thinking rationally. The judge ultimately will decide his sentence. 

I am hoping he gets the full six months that the prosecution is asking for. 

We should know soon. Currently this is what is on MSNBC with report that the outcome will be announced any.moment.

Trump supposedly had a bad day yesterday, but did he feel it?

By Hal Brown

 Note the archives are on the right >

 

According to Lisa Rubin writing on The Maddow Blog Trump's day went for bad to worst yesterday. 

Trump is a man who doesn't experience what you and I would call normal human reactions or emotions. About as normal, or fairly common, a reaction that he experiences may be fury when he doesn't get his way. That sometimes appears to be out of control and might be better referred to colloquially as blind rage if it isn't a performance to incite his crowds. With Trump you can never be sure about such things.

I doubt he moped around Mar-a-Lago last night lamenting how bad his day went. I doubt he stormed around throwing pottery against the wall. 

It wouldn't surprise me if he laughed about how he lied his ass off in his E. Jean Carroll deposition and figured that the news about the Eastman emails was pee-pee in the wind. He knows that few members of his Tucker Carlson watching cult would even be aware of this.

Trump's reaction to news like this and like this.

Click above to enlarge image

If you read articles like "George Conway warns of Trump 'meltdown to end all meltdowns'" you might think, or at least hope, that Trump is near the brink of descending into irreversible Mad Hatter madness.

Public domain image adapted by Hal Brown

You might very well be wrong. Trump isn't normal. There's a timeworn cliche in psychology that is used to explain the difference between neurosis and psychosis:

Neurotics build castles in the air, psychotics live in them.

One of the primary differences between what used to be called neurosis (and now has other names like anxiety disorder or depressive disorder) and psychosis is that those suffering from a neurosis can discern reality from unreality. To varying degrees those suffering from psychosis have impaired reality testing.

Of course Trump actually owns his version of a castle, but that isn't the point. 

Trump has rigid and primitive ways of dealing with things that happen to him that would devastate most people. In psychology the ways people cope with stress are called defense mechanisms and everyone uses them. 

Some, like humor, are considered by experts to be healthy. Somewhere in the middle is projection. This is unconsciously taking unwanted emotions or traits you don’t like about yourself and attributing them to someone else. Trump frequently uses this but it may be conscious or partially conscious.  

The most unhealthy defense is denial. This is where everything that doesn't fit into one's belief system is denied.

This is where I trying to decide whether or not to resort to what has become a cheap cliche.

It may very well be that Trump doesn't have a worry in the world, at least a worry he actually takes seriously.

Let's hope that at some point in the near future reality will bite him, and bite him (to use a word he likes) bigly.

You can use your imagination to visualize what part of his anatomy you want reality to sink its teeth into.

Previous four editions:

• The vicious "art" of political photoshopping
• Investigation: The mystery of how Trump got Judge ...
• Is Trump crazy or crazy like a fox? It may be up t...
• Trump Junior praises conspiracy theorists for patt...

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