DeSantis on Trump extradiction, it's all about me, me, me, me...

 By Hal Brown

Caricatures by DonkeyHotey

If the reporting is correct Trump will present himself for arraignment  in New York and not hole up at Mar-a-Lago making himself the most famous fugitive since Julian Assange . Notwithstanding this Ron DeSantis, made a play for publicity minutes after the Trump indictment was announced:

Ignoring the antisemitic dog whistle about George Soros, the key words in his tweet are that Florida will not assist in an extradition request. 

The procedure and process for extradition is spelled out in detail here. It is in the US Constitution:

Extradition Clause of the U.S. Constitution (Article IV Section 2) requires that:

A person charged in any State with Treason, Felony, or other Crime, who shall flee from Justice, and be found in another State, shall on Demand of the executive Authority of the State from which he fled, be delivered up, to be removed to the State having Jurisdiction of the Crime.

This is how Business Insider addresses what DeSantis tweeted: 

There are two ways that someone can be extradited from Florida to another state. These are described below.

Excerpt from Business Insider:

In the more common method — which DeSantis appeared to refer to — New York Gov. Kathy Hochul would send an extradition demand to the Florida governor. The governor's only role is making sure the demand meets all the legal requirements before ordering the extradition, legal experts told Insider. The demand would have to include a copy of the indictment, proving there's a warrant out for Trump's arrest.

If DeSantis wanted to slow the process he could ask his legal affairs office or a prosecutor to review Hochul's extradition demand and write a report before signing off on it. If the extradition demand is legitimate, however, he'll have to sign it within 60 days, legal experts said. He could also delegate and let another member of the Florida executive branch sign off on Hochul's extradition demand.

In the second extradition method, Manhattan prosecutors could bypass the governors entirely and ask a Florida court to order Trump to show up in New York court.

This Newsweek article also explains why DeSantis couldn't block an extradition request.

I can't imagine Donald Trump doing anything that might make it appear to his supporters that he is in any way, shape, or form accepting a favor from Ron "DeSanticomious". As I write this someone on MSNBC just agreed with me saying that there's no way Trump would want to make DeSantis look like the alpha dog. Jonathan Lemire just called it political theater coming from DeSantis. The MSNBC panel is agreeing that this matter has become a clown show.

None of this matters to DeSantis. He is competing with Kevin McCarthy for headlines:

DeSantis is threatening to do something that won't happen. McCarthy is threatening to do something, absurd as it is, which he can actually do. Still, DeSantis with his rhetorical flourishes has the more buzzy tweet.

Of course nobody's tweets can compete with the often all caps "truths" coming from Trump on his Truth Social platform.  

Unless the judge in Manhattan restricts what he can post or say about his indictment, or his lawyers convince him to put one sock over his fingers and another into his mouth, I expect Trump will continue to rant and rave. 

I predict that this posturing about horrors of Trump's indictment by DeSantis will pass since in his black heart I am certain he wants nothing but a shitload of bad for Trump.

Update: 

"Empty posturing": Experts rip DeSantis' "cheap and performative" threat to block Trump extradition

"It shows a real contempt for the rule of law in this country"

By SAMAA KHULLAR

PUBLISHED MARCH 31, 2023 1:21PM (EDT)

Addendum:

Watch Rachel Maddox discussing what DeSantis tweeted:

At the end of her show when she did the handoff to Lawrence O'Donnell she invited Stormy Daniels to appear on her show and wished her the best in making money off of this new development..

More:

It seem as if all the pundits predict that DeSantis is biding his time before announcing that he's going to run against Trump. Heather "Digby" Parton is the first person I've read who questions the inevitability of this:

Count me among those who think it's quite likely that instead of harming his chances of winning the Republican nomination, this indictment and any that follow, will almost guarantee it. As we can see by the reaction from the elected officials, it's not just the MAGA hardcore who feel compelled to rush to defend him. This is an organizing tool and a fundraising vehicle for the whole party and it may just vault him to the nomination without much competition. It's even possible that DeSantis might decide not to run after all. Article

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On an only slightly related subject, yesterday I was wondering what the covers of the New York City tabloids would look like this morning. The New York Daily News has had a number of snarky covers featuring Trump so I was hoping to see one today. However they played it straight. It was the Murdoch NY Post which went with a snarky cover.

Click above to enlarge. Old Trump and Stormy cover upper right.

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You ain't seen nothin' yet 'til you've seen the J6th Prison Choir video

 By Hal Brown

Above, screen grabs from the first two seconds of the J6 Prison Choir video with a somber musical background.

Click above to enlarge these screen grabs from the J6 Prison Choir video

Watch the entire video, with the last frame shown below, here:

Click above to watch video

Republished on MSN the following is from Snopes. 

The J6 Prisoners Choir is a real group, but they did not perform live at the rally. A recording of the group singing the song was played as screens indeed showed footage of the Jan. 6 capitol attack. Video evidence from the event also showed the former president put his hand over his heart during the presentation, and the audience was asked to rise and place their hands over their hearts as well.

The J6 Prisoners Choir consists of approximately 20 men who are currently incarcerated in Washington, D.C., for crimes associated with the Jan. 6 capitol riots. 

The recording played at the rally was called "Justice for All." It cut between the choir singing the Star-Spangled Banner and Trump reciting the Pledge of Allegiance. At the end of the recording, the men chanted, "USA! USA!" There were no original lyrics in the song, and no explicit references to the insurrection in the song itself. 

The elevation of a choir of talentless imprisoned insurrectionists to national prominence is wack-a-tune (pun intended). 

Now to my review of the video, the short version:

Holy freaking shit!

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Insert:

I wrote the above before using the J6 choir was mocked on Morning Joe. Their reaction pretty much mirrored mine without the expletive.

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The video features clips of supposed prisoners - although it isn't clear whether these are real J6 prisoners which I doubt it is - with lots of clips of Trump's greatest hits, insurrection videos clips, and Trump looking like the ruler of the world. Without any sense of irony there's a video clip of the widely mocked flag hugging.

There is no substitute for actually watching the video which I bet many of you have resisted doing until now. Here's one more opportunity to do so. 

Okay, okay, even though it is less than two and a half minutes out of your life my hunch is most of you won't watch it. Therefore here are a few more images. Note that the video also includes his also ridiculed upside down Bible photo op and a clip of his inauguration crowd.

Click above to enlarge.

Here's Trump bragging about this and praising the choir to Sean Hannity.

Related articles:

Trump supporters' obsession with making Ashli Babbitt an innocent 'martyr' explained by author

Babbitt being shot is featured, albeit very briefly but nobody can miss it, in the J6 Prison Choir video (screen grabs below)

You read it here.

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On Fox News former GOP House member was horrified by Trump's Hannity performance

 By Hal Brown

This article (missing my illustration) was in The Hill (read article here): 

Trumpian vengeful word salad: Click image to enlarge.

Above is an article about comments made by a man whose name was familiar to me but I knew nothing about him. 

Click above for Wikipedia profile

It turns out that Chaffetz also made the news for these comments in other media:

Click above to enlarge image

Here's the Salon article.

I thought that it wasn't really worth writing an entire blog about since the media was covering it and I had nothing original to say. 

The real reason thought to write this was that I made the illustration yesterday and tweeted it here:

No other president has been referred to in headlines as often as Trump with words like bizarre and unhinged when describing his words whether in spoken rants or on his Truth Social posts ("truths"). Therapists like me and others note he speaks in word salad.

I wanted to use my illustration again. I hadn't thought of anything else to write about so I figured I use this as my topic for the day, at least unless I later think of something else to use as my primary blog post.

 Here's an excerpt from the article in The Hill:

“I watched that and I thought, ‘Where is Donald Trump?'” Chaffetz said on “Fox and Friends,” adding, “I voted for Donald Trump twice. I have defended him countless times. I thought he was horrific. I think that was the worst interview I’ve seen the president do.”

Chaffetz further criticized Trump for “whining,” “playing the victim card” and complaining that someone he endorsed, like DeSantis, may be running against him in the GOP primary in 2024.

“I thought he was absolutely horrific,” he said. “He’s a former president of the United States. Act like it. He didn’t in that interview.”

This depiction of Chaffetz came to mind:

There's really nothing much more to write. In fact this drawing should say it all, but on the off chance that someone doesn't get it, my reaction is "in what world has this guy been living?" He's horrified by Trump now!

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Related

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I wonder what Chaffetz would say if he heard this interview with Trump (as reported on Raw Story here):

Addendum

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On a somewhat related matter, yesterday I wrote about how Sean Hannty scored a coup over Tucker Carlson by snagging this interview with Trump. Meanwhile over at the nothing-of-a station Newsmax, Greta VanSusteren managed to get, wait for it... Mike Pence... beating out Sean Spicer who is the only really well known of the hosts at the station. Even so, her interview also made the national news.

Click above for link

You read it here.

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