Which Judge Will Trump Push Too Far?

Top: Georgia law, bottom, what Trump posted

Read blog story on one page and see Disquis comment section which is on the bottom of the page by clicking here.

You know who Judge Tanya Chutkan is. Judge Scott McAfee (left above) is a name you probably aren't familiar with. He's set to be the judge in the Georgia case. You will soon be hearing a lot about him. 

Here's an article from CNN who explains who he is.

Amanda Marcotte writes in Salon:

"Teflon Don" is a collective fiction — it's time to tell the story of Trump in jail

Trump still believes he's untouchable, and so do his dangerous followers. It's time for consequences that count

She writes that:

...the conventional wisdom is echoed in former federal prosecutor Neama Rahmani's comments to Salon: "Is a judge actually going to jail Donald Trump in the middle of a presidential campaign? Probably not."

To which I say: Why not? Trump is a human being, approximately speaking, with a physical body that would fit quite nicely inside a jail cell. The only reason Trump is perceived as invincible is because he's managed to hex almost everyone into believing that he'll get away with everything, every single time. All we need to do to change that is to stop believing in the collective fiction of Trump's impunity. It's not a law of physics. Donald Trump can go to jail. The only thing that's required is the will to make it happen.

While many of us have been wondering what it will take for Judge Chutkan to decide that Trump has gone far enough for her to incarcerate him for polluting the jury pool or intimidating witnesses. Remember that she instructed Trump not to make “even arguably ambiguous statements” about the case “if they can be reasonably interpreted to intimidate witnesses or to prejudice potential jurors.”

To paraphrase  this old saying, there's a new judge in town.

Whether it will continue to be Judge McAfee or federal judge in Georgia, Trump is already breaking the Georgia law against witness intimidation (see above). 

I don't care which judge orders Trump to be incarcerated pending trial. Who knows, they both may do it thus leaving the question to be answered only whether he goes to jail in Washington, DC or in Georgia.

In some ways I'd like it to be in Washington because this is the city where he once played at being the emperor. There are federal prisons in the area but they are pretty far away (see map) so I assume that he could be held at the DC jail:

This is the jail where Trump and the other Georgia defendants will be booked.

This is the jail in Atlanta:

It appears likely that Trump's being booked at the Rice Street jail will be televised and be must see TV for many of us.

It is likely that Jack Smith's federal case will be tried before the Georgia case.  If he's in jail in Atlanta an arrangement will have to be made to house him in Washington. I am sure Georgia officials will be able to figure out how to do this.

We've all seen Trump boarding Air Force One or his Trump airplane. What I'd like to see is Trump having to boarding one of these to fly from Atlanta to Washington:

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Who are Harrison William Prescott Floyd and Trevian Tutti and why their indictments matter

 

By Hal Brown

This Newsweek article explains who Mr. Floyd is:

Who Is Harrison Floyd? Black Voices for Trump Leader Charged in Georgia, Newsweek

This explains who Trevian Tutti is:

Kanye West’s Former Publicist Among Those Indicted Along With Trump In GA Election Case, Deadline.com

Their particular backgrounds and histories aren't particulary relevant to the point I want to make. They are not all that unlike Peter Boykin, the founder of Gays for Trump or Michael Symontte, aka,Michael the Black Man, or any of the Black Trump supporters you see standing behind him at rallies holding Blacks for Trump signs.

Like it or not we do not live in a color-blind or sexual preference blind world. Members of any group, majority, minority, or something in between shouldn't be held to a litmus test to define their politics just because of their  color or sexuality. What galls me is when they support people and policies which, to put it bluntly, sell out the group to which they are members of, often for personal ambition, enrichment, or both. 

Clarence Thomas and Tim Scott (left, who just said that the criminal justice system had been weaponized against Trump) come to mind as people who might not have achieved what they have if they were white. While it may be poltically incorrect to say they were tokens there is a case to be made that this is what they were. Members of minority groups are a dime a dozen in the Democratic Party hierarchy. They are worth their weight in gold in the Republican Party.

Trump supporters represent a very small portion of the Black and LGBT population, but they have managed to successfully chase the spotlight and bask in the afterglow of Donald Trump. 

How many of them realize, or care, about the fact that Trump is using them and that his policies have marginalized or even disenfranchized them and the members of their Black or LGBT family, friends, aquaintances, and the entire minority community to which they belong is unknown. 

I rather doubt that if asked they'd never admit it. They would probably say that Trump has been the best thing to happen to members of their community ever.

If asked to cite examples of how Trump's policies benefited them were greater than those of Democratic Party presidents they would probably lapse into gibberish.

Now we have two people who very possibly parlayed their race into being in Trump's orbit and who are paying the price for their role in breaking the law in order to overturn the results of the election.  One is Harrison William Prescott Floyd. The following excerpts about him are from the Newsweek article:

(Floyd) is executive director for Black Voices for Trump, a group funded by the former president to increase Black voter turnout in 2020, Floyd was effectively a staff member of the 2020 Trump campaign.

The Atlanta grand jury charged him with violation of the Georgia RICO (Racketeering Influenced and Corrupted Organizations) Act, conspiracy to commit solicitation of false statements and writings, and influencing witnesses, according to the indictment filed by the Fulton County Superior Court.

According to the indictment, Floyd tried to influence the testimony of Ruby Freeman, a Fulton County election worker, before the Georgia grand jury investigating Trump's efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election. Pastor Stephen Lee and publicist Trevian Kutti are also accused of trying to influence Freeman's testimony.

Specifically, the indictment paper accuses Floyd of recruiting Lee to organize a meeting with Freeman and Kutti.

The other Black person charged in the Georgia indictment is a woman named Trevian Kutti who previously worked as a publicist for Kanye West (aka Ye).

This is from the website Deadline:

While not as familiar to cable news junkies as Rudy Giuliani, John Eastman or Mark Meadows, Kutti is well known in other circles as Kanye West’s onetime publicist. She is also, notably, the woman recorded on video trying to convince Ruby Freeman, a frightened Georgia election worker whom Trump had publicly attacked, to implicate herself in election fraud regarding the 2020 presidential election.

Lest I leave out the minority which I actually belong to, of the 37 Jewish members of Congress only two, David Kustoff of Tennessee and Lee Zeldin of New York who are members of the House are Jewish. (Reference) I don't think that their being Jewish had much or anything to do with their being elected. I don't see the Republican Party pursuing Jews to run for office. Perhaps a Black Jewish member of the LGBTQ community would be sought after by the GOP.

Here are individual photos with short profiles of all the people who were indicted in Georgia.

Bonus: MAGA merch for liberals and never-Trump Republicans (on Amazon here)

Comment and my reply (From M.K. Stark from Booksie where I also posted this article)

Hi Hal! 

Please let me start by saying I'm not affiliated with either of the two major political parties. 

My opinion on this differs from yours a but very slightly. While you never said that you believe that only Republicans prop up their supporters that live within these minority communities, it reads as though you are implying that. I think that if you included that everyone in the political realm does something similar (if you believe that), it would come across less like you're pointing a finger at one side with a behavior both sides are guilty of. If you don't believe the Democratic party does this, then you came across exactly as you likely intended! 

As for the writing itself, even though I disagree with some of your opinions or feel that I would love a more nuanced discussion with you, your points are very clear and coherent. You deliver excellent background information and have no distracting grammar, spelling, or phrasing issues that pull my attention away from your content. It's weird that this is a compliment but it's sometimes a lost art these days. 

Thanks for sharing!

My reply:

Thank you for your comment.

I see the Democratic Party encouraging members of minority groups to run for office by being welcoming of diversity. I don't see the Democratic Party as offering an entrée into political office just because of being member of a minority group.

As I write this it occurs to me that I omitted another example of a Republican who may have had his candicacy helped by his being an openly gay man. George Santos's New York 3rd congressional district, one of the wealthiest in New York, was one of 18 districts that voted for Joe Biden in the 2020 presidential election. His being gay might have helped him score the upset against Democrat Robert Zimmerman who was also openly gay. He beat him by 8 points. This was considered an upset in this Democratic-leaning district's non-presidential year election.

From my reading I don't see indications that the local or national Republican Party supported him because he would be their first member of Congress was openly gay but it is possible. Perhaps he got some donations from Republicans who thought his being gay would help him win against another gay man.

There's an article in The Atlantic which I haven't read (I don't subscribe) "How a Perfectly Normal New York Suburb Elected George Santos" from Dec 28, 2022. I'm curious about this but not curious enough to use one of my few free articles to find out the answer.

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.

We were sitting next to a "Let's Go Brandon" Trumper at a small town parade

 

By Hal Brown

My partner and I went to one of our favorite towns, Aurora, Oregon to watch their summer festival parade and have lunch at our favorite pub. It happens to be  next to a small pot store:

Aurora is a town which is on the National Historic Register and is known for it's many antique shops all in old homes which are clustered together in the center of town. It's population is 1,133 in 336 households. Read more here.

Politically the Aurora leans conservative unlike where we live in a decidely liberal Portland suburb so we never bring up politics when we meet people there. (More about politics in Aurora.)

We managed to snag a perfect parking spot on the street along the parade route just before it was closed to traffic. 

Across the street from our car was a shady spot at the end of a driveway where a man and woman were already sitting. We had folding chairs in the car and asked if we could sit with them. They said we could and they moved their own chairs so we'd have more room.

The plastic hat was handed out by fire fighters in the parade.
I wore it just for the photo.

It turned out that this was the end of the driveway to their house. 

I sat next to the man and we chatted throughout the parade. 

He told me that he lived around the country but 10 years ago settled in Aurora. I learned that he was a Vietnam War veteran and grew up on a farm, and had a number of blue colar type jobs through his life. He asked what we did and I told him I'd been a therapist and my partner was a nurse. He said that one of his daughters was also a therapist. It occurred to me afterwards that I could have lied and told him we'd worked in jobs that didn't label us as being most probably liberal. I eventually did tell him I'd been a reserve police officer for 20 years since this usually gives me some conservative creds.

We engaged in friendly chit-chat throughout the parade. 

Sitting next to the man having already revealed I'd been a therapist I decided I'd throw into the conversation something that wouldn't lead him to think I was a flaming liberal. I told him that I'd watched many other local parades since I'd helped direct traffic at them when I was a reserve police officer before moving to Oregon.

I was much younger then. Mason, Michigan parade.

During the entire conversation I didn't know for sure what the man's political view was until we were leaving and I saw his "Let's Go Brandon" cap (top of page). If you don't know what this means click here. I consider this hat and flags and banners saying this to be far more objectionable than any of the MAGA hats and pro-Trump flags because people expressing this sentiment are saying f**k Joe Biden. 

Trump enabled the Jan. 6th attack on the Capital. He's been the poster boy for gutter politics hurling vulgar insults like a schoolyard bully. No wonder people feel comfortable with this slogan.

I couldn't find the exact cap among the many for sale on Amazon. This is the closest one which I found.

On the same Amazon search I found this:

It's a good thing wasn't wearing it. A more ambiguous message is on this cap if "let's go" is shorthand for the f-word rather than meant to cheer him on.

I could have worn one of these:

Update: Just found this...

This parade really did celebrate traditional small town values and old fashion pre-fascist patriotism from the days when displaying an American flag didn't suggest you might believe in the MAGA America First agenda. Click images below to enlarge them.

There's some new MAGA merch more to my liking:

You can find these items on Amazon.

Trump Should Beware the Kings or Queens of the Courtroom

 Above sign is available for $25 on eBay

By Hal Brown

About the title: So far only two judges have been assigned to preside over Trump trials, Tanya Chutkan and Aileen Cannon, but it is possible he will have a male judge in Atlanta and in his New York cases. Correction: Alvin. Bragg's case is due to be heard by  New York Supreme Court Justice Juan Merchan , "At a hearing in June, an irascible U.S. District Judge Alvin K. Hellerstein rebuffed Trump’s plans, with the judge becoming increasingly exasperated the more he detailed the weird business arrangement between Trump and [former Trump attorney Michael] Cohen." (read article)

To state the obvious, Trump is used to being the king of whichever domain he holds court over. Whether he was actually the king of Manhattan real estate remians to be seen. You can make the case that he was at least one of the kings of reality TV. Once he began his run for president his cult gelled quickly so it numbered in the millions. 

The power he exerted over them has remained so high it would be envied by Jim Jones whose cult only numbered about 900 and David Koresh had about a 100 willing to fight to the death for him at Waco.

The average courtroom measures around 2,000 square feet with smaller rooms for the judge's chamber and jury deliberation rooms, but while you can say that this is the judge's domain the power exerted from the bench is represented by the fact that this is always the highest point in the room. It is elevated two or three steps above the floor of the courtroom.

There are practical reasons for the judge to sit higher but the main one is symbolic:

The elevation of the judge’s bench is also a symbol of authority. Important decisions take place in courtrooms and the judge must oversee and manage the proceedings to ensure the fair and effective administration of justice. Sitting in an elevated position, wearing a black robe, and being backed by flags or official seals promotes the judge as the central authoritative figure in the courtroom. Reference.

You've seen enough trials on TV dramas to know that the judge in a case has substantial power which can influence the outcome of a trial and the fate of the defendant. For example they can rule on what evidence can be presented and whether objections from lawyers on both sides are accepted, the can hold partcipants in contempt, and in some courts can decide on sentences.

  You can read much more about how courts function on the ABA website here.

Trump only had judgelike power when he was actually president. Of course it hasn't completely sunk in that he isn't president. Having a cult in thrall to you doesn't give you the power to keep you out of legal jeopardy or even prison. 

A real judge does have that power.

Blog Bonus:

Bonus Number Two:

The picture of imprisoned Trump (lower left) is used in lots of articles. Here's my version. I may use itand the one above for a blog in the future.