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Senate to Bar Insurrectionists under 14th Amendment Section 3

March 28, 2024
by Peter Feinman

Beware the law of unintended consequences. One only has think of the developments since the Supreme Court nullified Roe v. Wade (The Law of Unintended Consequences: From Abortion to Voter Suppression, December 5, 2021). It is highly unlikely that the Supreme Court anticipated all the political ramifications which have occurred since its decision yet alone the medical conundrums it has raised as doctors wrestle with what is permissible. Certainly the wellbeing of the mother did not factor into the judicial calculations at all.

Now here we are with another momentous decision. The decision that Donald Trump would not be removed from the ballot probably came as a surprise to no one.

Obviously it was a disappointment to the roughly 30 historians who filed amici curiae on behalf of Colorado. Those briefs were reviewed in three previous blogs.

Historians Tackle the 14th Amendment Section 3 and Fail: How Come?

Historians Tackle 14th Amendment Section and Fail (2): Akhil Rees Amar and Vikram David Amar

Historians Tackle 14th Amendment Section 3 and Fail (3 of 3): Jill Lepore, David Blight, Drew Gilpin Faust, and John Fabian Witt

In my previous blogs, I came to the consistent opinion applied to all three briefs. These historians were ignoring the fact that while the Second Civil War was over and had been won by the Union, the Third Civil War continues to be fought. At this point in time, the outcome remains uncertain. Skirmishes are being fought all over the place from the MAGA defeat of a Real Republican in the Ohio Senate primary, to the possible defection of a Real Republican Senator in Alaska, to the resignations of Real Republicans from the House … to say nothing of the ongoing legal battles against voter suppression and going forward.

The Supreme Court Judges are aware of the swirling chaos from the Third Civil War even if it chooses not to use that term. The closest it came in the decision about the application of the 14th Amendment Section 3 now was rendered by Justice Amy Coney Barrett. She revealed the Court’s actual motives in her separate concurrence:

In my judgment, this is not the time to amplify disagreement with stridency. The Court has settled a politically charged issue in the volatile season of a Presidential election. Particularly in this circumstance, writings on the Court should turn the national temperature down, not up.

Put simply, the Court allowed Trump to stay on the ballot in order to avoid an outcome that would raise the “national temperature.”

However the contortions to avoid wading into the current Civil War too deeply, the Court provided opportunities for Congress and/or the states should they desire to pursue them.

MICHAEL LUTTIG AND LAURENCE H. TRIBE

Some of the most prominent legal minds, not professional historians, have succumbed to the same shortfalls in judgment that the historians did. In op-ed posted to The Atlantic “A Requiem for Section 3 of the Fourteenth Amendment” (March 14, 2024), they made their displeasure clear right at the start:

The Supreme Court of the United States did a grave disservice to both the Constitution and nation in Trump v. Anderson.

In a stunning disfigurement of the Fourteenth Amendment, the Court impressed upon it an ahistorical misinterpretation that defies both its plan text and its original meaning.   

Hard to mistake where they stand on the issue.

They mention other ways in which a person can be disqualified from being a candidate without any congressional or legal action such as “age, residence, natural-born citizenship.” But people have little choice about when they are born, where they are born, and to whom they are born. They have quite a lot of choice over whether to instigate, participate in, or condone an insurrection. There is something different about Amendment 14 Section 3.

After some more acrimonious words about the ruling of the Supreme Court, they concluded with the strong pronouncement that:

Our highest court dramatically and dangerously betrayed its obligation to enforce what once was the Constitution’s safety net for American democracy, The Supreme Court has now rendered that safety net a dead letter, effectively rescinding it as if it had never been enacted.   

Not so fast. Let’s look at what the Supreme Court has allowed without necessarily meaning to.

STATES’ RIGHTS

The Court ruled that state courts, like Colorado, did not have the right to apply Amendment 14 Section 3 to the Office of the President, a federal position. That leaves open the question of applying it on the state level.

States may disqualify persons from holding or attempting to hold state office. But states have no power under the Constitution to enforce Section 3 with respect to federal offices, especially the presidency.

After all, despite all the attention the historians gave to Jefferson Davis, based on numbers it was all the people in the Confederate Army who were the numerous people against whom the amendment was applied … and who most often sought a pardoned under the stipulations build into the law.

In theory, therefore, states could ban people from state offices under the Amendment. This means election deniers at the state level running for state positions like Governor, Secretary of States, or legislator could be restrained from running under state law… and current office holders could be removed. I am not suggesting that Colorado or any other state would ban MAGA’s from holding state office or running for state office. I am suggesting that the Supreme Court without meaning to has provided a legal justification for so doing. While I do not foresee any state availing themselves of this power, henceforth there remains the possibility that a state could remove all insurrectionist supporters from office and/or remove them from the ballot.

CONGRESSIONAL RIGHTS

The office of the Presidency is not the only potential office under dispute. Presumably based on the Supreme Court Ruling, the House and the Senate also have the right to apply the 14th Amendment Section 3 within their own chambers. Just as each state could only decide for itself and both chambers need to decide for the presidency, each chamber could decide for itself as to the applicability within its own chamber.

This means the House and the Senate each have the right to decide if someone is in violation of the 14th Amendment Section 3. The Senate could effective immediately and for the 2024 elections establish rules of disqualification. An individual did not need to physically participate in the January 6, 2021, actions but merely to have helped plan them or to have supported not holding people responsible, calling them “hostages,” or to campaign as an election denier. Again, I do not anticipate either House taking this route. I simply state that the Court has given the two chambers the legal means to remove MAGAs from office should either one or both desire to do so.

The true test will come after the presidential election. Right now based on the polls, MAGAs have every right to expected a MAGA victory in the Electoral College, a MAGA victory in the presidential popular vote, a MAGA controlled Senate (unless too many Real Republicans go independent) and a MAGA loss in the House. For months to come, they will be told that if the MAGA candidate is not returned to the White House, then it will be because the election has been rigged. I repeat, FOR MONTHS MAGAS WILL BE TOLD THAT UNLESS THEY WIN, THE ELECTION HAS BEEN RIGGED. So if the MAGA presidential candidate prevails, then all is quiet on the Capitol steps. However if the MAGAs lose, then the Fourteenth Amendment Section 3 will be back in business.

Only time will tell.

The Three Party House: Are We Europe?

October 17, 2023
by Peter Feinman
Should the Republican Party split into MAGAs and Real Republicans? (CNN)

Decades ago, President Lyndon Baines Johnson famously declared there goes the South following the passage of the Civil Rights and the Voting Rights Act of 1965. He correctly anticipated that Confederates would abandon the Democratic Party. That process began in the 1968 presidential elections with the 46 electoral votes in five states won by George Wallace. Those votes were not enough to swing the election. However his 13.5% of the vote totaling nearly 10 million votes were more than enough to cover the roughly 500,000 and .7% vote spread between Nixon and Humphrey.

A process had begun whereby Confederates would become an increasing significant bloc within the former party of Lincoln. As we see in the gerrymandering, the voter suppression, the removal of elected state legislators, and the seizure of powers from Democratic governors and cities, the Confederates are still fighting the last civil war. Trump did not cause this development to occur but he has excellently exploited to his own advantage.

Johnson did not anticipate what would happen once the Confederates became Republicans. Just because there was no room for Confederates in the Democratic Party did not automatically mean they would be welcomed in the party of Lincoln. After all, that party included people like Nelson Rockefeller then and had a lock on elected officials in New England. It took time but people died, people switched parties, and people lost. The MAGA Party is a pale shadow of what the Republican Party once had been in the northeast.

The Tea Party added a new wrinkle to the political demographics. The call for states’ rights echoed the Confederate mantra of the last civil war being about that issue and not slavery. Years ago, even before I started writing blogs, I expected the saying of “a house divided cannot stand” to apply to the Republican Party. I anticipated that in the 2012 presidential election, the Republican Party would split into its constituent elements.

In the House, that would mean Democrats held a plurality but not a majority. The Republicans would be second and the Freedom Party third. The passage of any legislation would require the cooperation of two of the three parties, most likely the Democrats and the Republicans. I did not anticipate that the Tea Party renamed the Freedom Caucus and now MAGAs would take over the Republican Party instead.

We now stand on the brink of the triumph of the Freedom Caucus in the House. One of its members may be elected Speaker of the House by the time you read this blog [in Round Two]. The situation is a fluid one. One thing we do know is that Real Republicans have no backbone. The same people who did not stand up to Donald Trump will not stand up to Jim Jordan, the leading Congressional insurrectionist who has yet to testify and be indicted. None of the 20 who opposed him in Round One did so because of his refusal to accept the results of the 2020 presidential election save perhaps one who drew a line in the sand and said the buck stops here.

THE MARKERS

Regardless of the results in Round Two or whether an interim speaker for 30 days is agreed to with bipartisan support, the Republicans will still be in the majority if the House. There are some key voting markers in the next few weeks which will show whether or not Real Republicans have the intestinal fortitude to put their vote where their mouth is and vote with the Democrats. These votes are:

Aid to Israel
Aid to Ukraine
Budget.

In addition such issues as impeaching the President, Hunter Biden, and the supposed stolen election may affect the behavior of the House. In each instance there will be an opportunity to learn if the takeover of the Republican Party in the House by MAGA is complete or not. The actual vote by the Republicans will be more important than any protestations about never supporting the Freedom Caucus and its agenda for America.

Will the Real Republicans work with Democrats to provide national leadership or will they succumb to the brow-beating by the MAGAs to become one of them? Look what happened to Nancy Mace compared to Liz Cheney. Cassidy Hutchinson is out. Mitt Romney is retired. The stable of Real Republicans out of power continues to grow. We will know in less than 45 days about the House.

The signs of division already are playing out at the state level. It’s fairly easy to tell in any statewide election or even Congressional election, which candidate is MAGA and which is Real Republican. In many states the political infrastructure has been taken over by MAGAs making more difficult for Real Republicans to run at the federal, state, or Congressional level. If the recent experience of the Senate is any guide, Real Republicans may choose to retire. Such actions will only create more opportunities for MAGAs to take control.

CREATING A THIRD PARTY

Lately, there has been a lot of discussion about a third party candidate for the office of President in 2024. Polls have been taken on the impact on the national level of Robert Kennedy, Jr. Both parties have expressed concern over which party will lose the most from his candidacy.

Here is where our winner-take-all policy kicks in. Right now, a candidate only needs a plurality of the vote to be declared the winner and take all the electoral votes. Suppose a majority was required. Remember Georgia in 2020 at the Senate level. Suppose that policy applied at the presidential level in all 50 states. Such a policy would make it impossible for a Jill Stein or Ralph Nader or Robert Kennedy to play a spoiler role. Obviously it is too late to implement such a policy for the 2024 elections. Plus it would have to be done at the state level. Still, it shows that we are not inevitably trapped with the present system.

Unfortunately for 2024 we are. But if there are Real Republicans with spines and enough of them, they could work with Democrats so the country would not be trapped by the Confederate/Freedom Caucus agenda. I realize that is asking a lot of Real Republicans. They have always bowed down before Donald Trump. They voted on January 6 to void the election results. They declined to impeach him. They declined to support to House Select Committee. While there are some exceptions, some of them were gone after January 20, 2021. Maybe if enough of them in the new Congress live in Congressional districts Joe Biden won or intend to retire so they cannot be primaried or who are loyal to the Constitution first, they can make a difference in the House this term.

Real Republicans Should Nominate a Third Party Ticket: Romney and Cheney

October 10, 2023
by Peter Feinman
Welcome to the zoo (https://www.vgyoga.com)

Third party talk is in the air. Due to the dissatisfaction with the two likely candidates for President by the Democratic and Republican parties, there is a not-so-quiet whispering campaign that perhaps the time is right for a third party presidential ticket for people who prefer an alternative to the obvious frontrunners. In fact, it is not even a whisper.

The source for the angst varies. For Democrats the biggest cause for concern is the age of the President. The problem is not with the policies per se of the current administration, although there is disagreement there. The problem instead is that a person moving along in the ninth decade of his life is starting to resemble the Foxhub depiction of him. The death of Diane Feinstein and freezing of Mitch O’Connell only serve to reinforce the view that it is time for a younger candidate.

On the Republican side, the situation is different. Here the candidate only is in the eighth decade of his life. Soon he will be in the ninth too and already there are some signs that he is slowing down. Since the immature child with the emotional maturity of a three-year old always has been an incoherent moron, the dumbest person in the room, it is difficult to discern whether his recent outpourings on social media are a sign of mental deterioration or whether it is simply the stress of being under indictments which is taking its toll on him.

So question here is how many people simply have had enough. People are exhausted by never knowing what loony tune comment he will make next. People are tired of the constant increase in law suits. Who wants to keep track of the number of trials yet alone the charges with more to come. He has been exposed as pond-scum slime and fraud in his business career even before he became President. People are catching on to if the self-made man had simply taken the $413 million given him by his father and just invested it in the S&P 500, then he would be far wealthier than he is today. But then no buildings would have his name on it. ENOUGH!

THIRD PARTIES

Third parties come in different flavors. Sometimes they may be gadfly parties. These are nuisance parties that turn out in close elections to make the difference. Ralph Nader in 2000 and Jill Stein in 2016 come to mind. Though they had no chance of winning a state yet alone the nation, they attracted just enough votes in battleground states to detract from the Democratic candidate and enable the Republican to win.

Politicians still debate whether Ross Perot took more votes from the reelection of George Bush to throw the election to Bill Clinton or not. Think of how different things might have been without Perot and the reelection of Bush:

Colin Powell as the nominee to succeed Bush in 1996
No Monica Lewinksy
No Florida battleground in 2000
No invasion of Iraq
No Obama to question the invasion of Iraq…
The list of hypotheticals goes on and on. In hindsight, then, the third-party candidacy of Ross Perot may have been the most significant third party in American history.

The Robert Kennedy candidacy falls into this category. Both parties are frightened of the votes he may draw from their respective candidate. The Kennedy name still resonates with many Democrats. His anti-vaccine conspiracy positions attract MAGA who may have grown weary of the Trump baggage. The quick condemnation of him by the Republican National Committee and Trump reveal there is another populist candidate around who could harm the MAGA one. The issue, of course, is not how well Kennedy would fare nationally, but how he would do at the state level.

George Wallace in 1968 also deserves scrutiny. His election marked the turning point when LBJ’s prediction started coming true. Confederates switched their votes from the Democratic Party to the Republican Party. We can see that battle continues to unfold in the gerrymandering such as in Alabama or in the Republican takeovers today in many Democratic cities.

In this regard, the 1948 third party candidacy of Strom Thurmond was a party before its time. Truman still won regardless of what the Chicago Tribune claimed.

The last of big third party candidates in the past century was that of Teddy Roosevelt in 1912. This future Mount-Rushmore president did fairly well as a second-party candidate but not well enough to defeat Woodrow Wilson.

CLOWN SHOW

The 2024 election is unprecedented, a term frequently heard. Besides the shortcomings of the ticket at the top, there is the ticket at the bottom.

The MAGA Party has been a clown show ever since the Republican Party took control of the House earlier this year. It should be noted that “clown show” is a term Republicans themselves use about their own party.

Let’s consider some of the highlights of the MAGA performance so far this year:

1. the 15 round battle to elect at Speaker to start things off
2. the elevation of Hunter Biden to the second-coming of Seth Rich as some kind of mastermind criminal dynasty figure
3. the impeachment of Joe Biden, a much ado about nothing, there is no there, Seinfeld feeble attempt to manufacture something out of nothing effort
4. the almost shutdown of the government over nothing
5. the evacuation of the Speaker position, when eight, count them, eight, MAGAs held the Republican Party hostage against the wishes of 96% of the Representatives
6. the vacant Speaker of the House during the latest battle between Israel and Hamas ensuring that nothing can be done that requires Congressional approval: there is more to the world than Ukraine.
7. Hundreds of military positions remain open even as the United States is involved in Ukraine, Israel/Gaza, and China.
8. Ambassador positions remain open precisely the Middle East where war rages.

Who knows how much longer the clown show will last?

REAL REPUBLICANS

Now consider the plight of real Republicans. At the top of the ticket is a twice-impeached, four-times-indicted, facing bankruptcy for his fraud immature child with the emotional maturity of a three year ranting and raving incoherently on social media who is even scarier when he is understood.

Running with him are candidates pledged to undo the 2020 election, convict the Bidens, trash the Constitution, and otherwise wreak havoc.

This is why a third-party ticket of real Republicans could prove impactful. Take New Hampshire for example. The lasted poll had Joe Biden up by 52% to 40%, a sizeable amount in a sometimes battleground state. Now add a third party Real Republican ticket of Romney-Cheney. What would the impact be? Would they take away votes from Biden while leaving Trump untouched? Unlikely. Suppose the popular Real Republican Governor supported the Real Republic ticket? If anything, the MAGA vote is likely to decrease the Republican vote total now that Real Republicans do not have to hold their noses and close their eyes before voting.

Or how about Georgia? Georgia is a slightly Republican state but not a MAGA state. Republican candidates win statewide elections. MAGA candidates do not. In 2020, over 30,000 Republicans voted but left the top of the ticket blank, more than enough to give Trump the state. The same scenario could repeat itself in 2024. But suppose there was a third party ticket of Real Republicans that people who would never vote Democratic could vote for? Take Georgia off the list of battleground states.

In battleground states where the Democrats did very well in 2022, Arizona, Michigan, and Pennsylvania, a third party of Real Republicans is likely to strengthen the Democrats statewide at the expense of the MAGA candidates. The same is probably true of Wisconsin.

PREDICTIONS

A third party ticket of Real Republicans does not even need to be in all 50 states to seriously impact the MAGA Party and defeat Trump. To give Republicans the opportunity to vote for Real Republicans like Romney and Cheney would directly impact the total Republican Party vote in each state. The MAGA vote may be sufficient to win a gerrymandered Congressional district but it is not necessarily enough to win a competitive state. By offering Republicans a non-Democratic Real Republican alternative, the impact would be far greater than having a nuisance third party. It could rid the country of the wicked witch of the west wing once and for all.

Donald Trump: The Law and Order Movie

August 15, 2023
by Peter Feinman
Will MAGAs move on when they face the truth?

Everyone is familiar with Law and Order. It is difficult to channel surf without coming across at least one Law and Order episode. Its two note theme is iconic. Its distinctive format divides a show into a police and courtroom sections. In Donald Trump: The Law and Order movie, we have now entered the courtroom portion of the show. It easily could run for years. It will still be going when we prepare to celebrate the 250th birthday of the country.

What have we learned so far?

MONEY  

Lately there has been a lot of discussion about the money problems for the defendant in financing his defense in the multiple cases. Financial analyses show that the money coming in is insufficient to meet the expenses of the money going out to the lawyers. One presumes the lawyers know to get paid in advance and are paid on a timely basis. That is easy because the money is not the defendant’s. So the problem is not the shortage of money but that the ability of the defendant to scam MAGAs sufficient to match the ever increasing legal costs.

This condition raises a number of issues.

1. Now that all the courthouses have been identified, the legal expenses will increase substantially especially for the discovery process.
2. Will the defendant pay the legal bills of his co-defendants?
3. Will the defendant pay the travel expenses of his co-defendants?
4. How will his co-defendants react to the prospect of having to pay their own way just so the defendant can get away with his criminal activities?

The answer to these questions are not known at present. But, to venture a guess, some indicted co-defendants or people who will soon be indicted may disagree with the policy of DELAY, DELAY, DELAY. They do not have the money to support dragging the case out for as long as possible

CONTROLLING AN IMMATURE CHILD

As stated many times, the defendant is an immature child with the emotional maturity of a three-year old. Based on his brain scans he should be tried as a juvenile and not as an adult.

However, he is being tried as an adult. That means there now are figures of authority telling him where to go, when to be there, and what he can and cannot see. We are dealing with a situation where multiple chiefs of staff and counsel in the past have been unable to control him. Of course, they all worked for him. Still there is no reason think the defendant will act any differently based on the guidelines of the DC and Fulton County judges and possibly even the Trump judge.

The consequences of defying their instructions are likely to lead to charges of contempt. No ne knows when he will cross the line but it I virtually inevitable that he will. This means long before he faces the issue of prison time, he will be confronted with jail time. It probably will not take many days in jail to get the message across. A short time in jail may even have the effect of putting the fear of prison in him more than he has already. It is a place where he could be spending the rest of his earthly life based on the sentencing guidelines for the crimes he has committed. That fear and only that fear may be sufficient to get him to behave. However, once out on the campaign trial, it is hard to see how he can resist going one step too far.

DEMENTIA SENTENCE

The sentencing of people in their 80s is rare. There are people in their 80s in prison, but they had been sentenced at much earlier age. By coincidence, there was a huge article this Sunday in The New York Times on “Inside a Dementia Unit in a Federal Prison.” The article recounts how people in prison may not even know why they are in prison or even who they are. They, certainly may have lost the ability to groom and take care of themselves. Prisons in effect have become old age nursing homes.

Putting side the general social question of what should be done with older prisoners, let’s focus on the defendant and co-conspirator #1. These two men in the late 70s now. By the time the prison door clangs shut on them they will be in their 80s. I do not know the ages of the other defendants but age may apply to them as well.

Consider what prison would mean. Imagine what prison life will be like for some so fastidious about his appearance. His hair color will become normal. His hair style may be more unkempt. His bald spot may become more obvious. His attire will be standard issue and not custom order. He will be the center of attention only to the Secret Service agents assigned to watch over and ensure he will not commit suicide.

Plus the change will be abrupt. One moment he will be living the life of luxury in one of his own homes. Then PUFF, in an instant, he will give all that up for federal prison life. The change will be swift and traumatic. A short stint in jail may sober him up to the stark reality of the rest of his life in prison but you never know. On the other hand, it is easy to imagine even babbling “the election was stolen” and the most corrupt in American history.

Keep in mind that 2022 became an election about whether the election of 2020 was stolen. Sometime next year, we will start hearing about how the election of 2024 is rigged despite all the efforts at voter suppression. So it is only natural to expect him to keep reciting these mantras for the rest of his life.

A TALE OF TWO JUDGES

The concurrence of two federal-level cases involving the same defendant will allow for a case study on judicial behavior. One judge appears to be a no-nonsense judge dedicated to moving the case along. The other seems to be a Trump judge.

In each case there will be motions and counter motions with the defendant seeking to DELAY, DELAY, DELAY the case until after the presidential election in 2024. The reason he does not want a speedy trial that concludes prior to the convention presumably is because he knows he is guilty. Otherwise he would want to enter the Republican arena as the victorious warrior who vanquished the vaunted deranged witch hunter. Obviously that possibility has never crossed his mind.

Instead the judges will perpetually be in his crosshairs as he files motion after motion to delay the trial. The judges already know this is his modus operandi so it will be interesting to see how they respond. Will they take the bait? Apparently one judge gets legal advice from watching Foxhub.

THE BUS

Who will be thrown under the bus?

For the Georgia co-defendants, they may be quite willing to throw the defendant under the bus. These people led comparatively normal lives and would like to return to them. Some of their colleagues already have by cooperating. There is life after Trump in Georgia as multiple state officials have shown. The Georgia defendants have nothing to gain by being loyal to the defendant who is not loyal to them.

One might say the same for 79 year-old Giuliani. What is he waiting for?

For others, they may be waiting for the 2024 presidential election. Hope springs eternal. If Putin can hang on until then so can they. Only when all hope of a pardon is gone will they begin to think about abandoning their Lord and Savior, the Chosen One, Blessed be his name. And if he is not paying their legal bills, they may even choose to abandon ship even earlier.

FATIGUE 

Right now the MAGAs can say it is all the cases are political and dismiss them from their minds. But there may be a breaking point.

As they watch co-defendant after co-defendant flip to the dark side, how long before MAGA’s see the light?

As they watch one Republican witness after another for the prosecution, how long before MAGA’s see the light?

For even the most devoted of Law and Order fans, there are limits as to how many one can watch. Binging has its limits. At some point relitigating 2020 as the basis for a political platform may not be enough especially if it is not working. At the end the movie Truman, when people who had watched that show for years, saw the truth being revealed, they changed the channel and moved on. It will take a while, but eventually Donald Trump: The Law and Order movie will no longer be enough for people who want to move beyond 2020.Then and only then will they denounce Trump. Otherwise we may have to wait for the election in 2028.

Trump versus Lincoln: The Battle Is Engaged

August 3, 2023
by Peter Feinman
The Mount Rushmore President and the Mount Rushmore Wannabee (https://ctmirror.org)

Finally. Finally. Finally. After years of talk about the civil war in the United States, it has now officially arrived. The events about to unfold in the trials of Trump and the 2024 election will determine what kind of America will exist when we celebrate the 250th birthday of the country on July 4, 2026.

Right now there is no way to know which side will prevail in the war. The details of what it means to “win” in this remain also will be a point of contention. Given how often pundits use the term “unprecedented” for the actions of or related to Donald Trump, one may reasonably anticipate the same term will apply to the outcome of the war. But make no mistake about it, we are engaged in a conflict to determine if the United States can long endure of if we have reached our expiration date.

WHERE’S THE MILITARY?

Where is the military in this war? When I first started writing about political action thrillers on January 3, 2021, I had the military in mind. Generally, such thrillers involved the military in some way. Coups or attempted coups automatically bring to mind the military. Think of the current events in Niger or Sudan as examples.

The attempted coup here did consider bringing in the military. One way was the long-known proposal to seize the voting machines in areas (meaning Democratic cities in battleground ground states). That initiative never went anywhere in practice. But the very fact that it could be reasonably considered by the Commander in Chief demonstrates how seriously this unconstitutional action was taken.

The second way is more recently exposed. This would be the application of the Insurrection Act whereby the President of the United States would be authorized to deploy military forces against Americans, specifically Americans who would rioted against the seizure of power by the Loser Incumbent. Again it never happened. And again, people very very close to the Commander in Chief were casually recommending it as a course of action to be taken.

One notices that both recommendations were coming from civilians. Contrary to the traditional political action thriller, the real military was nowhere to be seen in such deliberations. The loyalty of the military was to the Constitution and not to a coup plotter. Presumably the same would be true in 2024 should a similar circumstance would arise which is unlikely given the current President.

WHERE’S THE WAR ROOM?

One of the fixtures of the attempted insurrection was the infamous war room. How many times have you seen the clip of Bannon admonishing us to strap in because the next day is going to be like nothing anyone expected. We need to keep in mind that the original plan was for the President of the United States to crash the Capitol meeting with his possibly armed followers. It was only because the Secret Service declined to draw him there that the intrusion did not occur. Remember the President grabbing the steering wheel and agent in the attempt to make this drive.

The war room planning for this event included among others Steve Bannon, Roger Stone, Mark Meadows by phone, and possibly some Congressmen. So far, no of them appear to have been included in the indictment.

My recommendation, which counts for nothing has been that the indictments be divided into parts:

Interference with the state legislators
The fake electors
January 6.

The indictment so far covers the first two but not the third. We know that the unnamed co-defendants will be indicted at some future date. It is still possible that the sedition indictment is an ace up the sleeve waiting for the dust to settle on the existing indictments before being revealed.

THE LAWYER COUP

The attempted coup was perpetuated by lawyers of all people. It was not to occur due to tanks rolling the streets but to supposedly legal actions through the courts and legislatures. At this point we know that all the legal machinations failed. Instead the lawyers who participated in such court proceedings look like legal fools.

Some lawyers decided to take it to next level. In these instances they sought to influence the legislatures in battleground states with direct appearances that crossed the line on what is legal. They sought to weaponize the Department of Justice in clearly illegal ways to intimidate the battleground state legislatures to do what needed to be done to reverse the vote in their states. These efforts failed and these people are now co-defendants. That means they will be charged in the future once the main case against the Boss is underway.

The lawyer coup as opposed to a military coup does show it a strange way that we are a nation of law. Think back to the Brooks Brother brigade in the 2000 presidential election. Now we have lawyers who are the prime actors in the coup whereas once upon a time priests may have been the ones involved in the battle for power at the capitol.

The presence of lawyers at the center of the attempted coup (plus one political consultant) attests the place of lawyers in American culture. Think of the Devil and Daniel Webster where an individual is more than a match against Satan versus the more traditional match between priest and Satan in the The Exorcist. Clarence Darrow in history and fiction in Inherit the Wind looms large in American culture as does Atticus Finch from To Kill a Mocking Bird. Of course these are all lawyers for the defense like Perry Mason and Ben Matlock, not lawyers who sought to perpetrate a crime. Even the Dream Team lawyers who helped O.J. get away with murder did not actually participate in the murder itself.

In this case the lawyers were the prime movers in the assault on America. They had to be restrained by Team Normal in some very contentious meetings. Still the presence of these lawyers at the pinnacle of extra-judicial power telling the moron child what he wanted to hear shows how perilously close we came to there being a successful coup.

WHERE’S LINCOLN?

When the indictments were first announced, I saw and heard Chris Hayes, MSNBC, passionately speak out on behalf of Lincoln. He recited parts of the Gettysburg Address, one of the most sacred texts in American history. He reminded us today that Lincoln knew of the fragility of the American experiment, of how the current generation in his time was being tested to determine if it could long endure just as we are now being tested. In so doing, Hayes raised the stakes (or rather recognized that they had been raised) to the level of an existential threat to the continued existence of the United States.

While Hayes was right in what he said, what he omitted also is important. Hayes was acting if all Americans recognized and accepted the validity of the message Lincoln delivered at Gettysburg. Even in his own time, Lincoln did not represent the views of all Americans. Even in his own time, Lincoln did not represent the view of all northerners. To this very day Lincoln is not a hero in the Confederacy. The Lincoln Memorial is a union memorial where Union people hold great events. Mount Rushmore Lincoln is in the north, Stonewall Jackson is in the Confederacy.

What Hayes omitted was something else Lincoln said about a house divided not being able to stand. We are that house divided. True the multiple trials may cumulatively undermine the passion to put one’s life on the line for Trump, but it does not change the fact that we are a divided country.

WHO LOST GEORGIA?

All the fuss over the votes the Loser implored the Georgia state officials to find obscures the truth of the voting in the state. Republican candidates did win sufficient votes in the down-ballot elections. What happen was over 30,000 people voted for Republican candidates except for the one at the top. These people may be prepared to do the same again in 2024 provided the down-ballot candidates are not also stolen election denying MAGAs. The same polls that show the size of the MAGA base in the Republican Party also show the number of Never Trumpers and pursuables in the Party.

Here are some questions to ask Republicans who are open to moving on.

If Trump is such a fighter, how come he never takes the stand to defend himself?
If the Department of Justice has been weaponized, how come all the people testifying against him are Republicans?
Who would testify on his behalf? Jim Jordan? Scott Perry? Roger Stone? Steve Bannon?

If the civil war is to end peacefully in 2024, it is essential that these Republicans make their voice heard. Back in 1861, people had plenty of time to prepare for what they would if Lincoln became president. Similarly, in 2025, the same would be true if Biden won again.

When the Confederate states seceded upon Lincoln’s inauguration, not every adult in the state had the right to vote. Any state, even Alabama, which rejects a Biden victory if he should win, will discovered a strong Union minority that does accept the result and wants to remain part of the United States. All the bluster “not my President” and secede may come to naught not simply because of the number of Democrats who do not want to secede, but because of the Republicans in the Confederacy for whom secession is a line too far to cross.

Swamp Builder, Slave Catcher, Felon: A Day in the Life of Donald Trump

July 20, 2023
by Peter Feinman
Slave Patrol (Wikimedia, public domain)

Is your head spinning? Mine is. Hard to keep up with all that is going on. News items that would generate attention fall by the wayside as newer news pops up. Sometimes even while waiting for a magical hour when a decision is going to be made about one thing, one finds one’s self overwhelmed by real BREAKING NEWS.

In this blog, I will attempt to sort out some of the issues which would be standalone items in other circumstances but instead are hurry up and get out of the way. There is another item rushing down the tracks.

SLAVE CATCHERS

Once upon a time not so long ago there were people in the United States, mainly Confederate based, called slave catchers. Their job was to hunt down runaway slaves and to return them to their rightful owners as the law was so defined then. And if by “accident” they captured a free African as in Twelve Years a Slave, who cared. What was important was the money to be made by taking people from the North and “returning” them to the South.

Even give the existence of slavery, there was a catch. The person captured in the North was being captured in a state where slavery had been banned. These actions raised all sorts of legal questions about the legitimacy of taking someone from a free state and transporting them to a slave state.

Yet that is exactly what Confederate states and others are attempting to do in the present. Only this time the issue is not the entire body, just portions of it. The Confederates today are asserting the same authority and control over the body of women that they once had over Africans. This time the control is through abortion. First, the Confederates ban it in their own states. Then the Confederates ban it for people from their state who travel to another state for the procedure. The Confederate states want your medical records. No matter where you go and what is legal there, you are still subject to the laws of your home state. These abortion catchers claim legal jurisdiction over you even if you are in another state jurisdiction.

Once again we are witnessing the divorce of the country at work. The United States is becoming two countries legally and politically even if there is no formal succession. This process of division is only likely to accelerate. Under ordinary circumstances, one would think the 21st century version of slave catchers where Confederate men seek full control of the bodies of women in Confederate states would warrant more attention. But it is just another news item in the torrential outpouring of events from Hurricane Trump.

SWAMP BUILDER

In 2016, Swamp Builder pledged to appoint the finest people and judges who would reverse Roe v. Wade. Mission accomplished. Trump succeeded in appointing more incompetent and/or crooked people to cabinet positions than any other President. If they were not being prosecuted, it was only because his trusted Attorney General had no interest in doing so.

When it came to judges, the Federalist Society and Mitch McConnell had list of people ready to be appointed, no questions asked. Swamp Builder got the Supreme Court he wanted and the judges he wanted. The reversal of Roe v. Wade fulfilled a national promise. Now he is hoping that one of his federal judges will rescue him from some of the crimes he committed.

In the meantime, he is preparing for the Executive branch he will inherit in 2025. Now he and his supporters know how the federal government operate. They know who can prevent the immature child with the emotional maturity of a three-year-old from playing President where he can do whatever he wants and make money doing it. This time around if the opportunity presents itself, a cadre of MAGAs are ready to do to the Executive branch what they did to the Supreme Court the first time around.

These MAGAs are much more organized and knowledgeable than the person they serve. They can identify all the independent arms of the government which should reined in and placed under the direct control of the President. Shades of being king. Shades of following what other authoritarian leaders around the world have done. The consolidation of power in one person will eviscerate the system of checks and balances which has maintained our freedom from government control.

The people who are most vociferous in exclaiming the need and right for individuals to maintain an arsenal under the Second Amendment are the ones most eager for Joe Biden to have vast new powers should he win again. Obviously, MAGAs are anticipating that with voter suppression that will never happen. The ability of state legislatures to decide who wins in state has been curtailed. But somehow it never occurs to MAGA that the imperial authoritarian President they are creating would one day have the power to turn against them. Under ordinary circumstances, one would think the 21st century version of seeking authoritarian rule by Donald Trump would warrant more attention. But it is just another news item in the torrential outpouring of events from Hurricane Trump.

FELON TRUMP

Where do you begin to tell the story of the most impeached President and indicted former President in the history of the United States? And this does not even include the civil and criminal cases against him and his organization. Is there any day on the calendar when he won’t be involved in a legal matter in some way? And there is more to come.

The accepted wisdom as pronounced by the elitists is that these accumulated cases will have no impact on the loyal support of the Congressional weenies, Congressional morons, and MAGA base. So far that judgment appears correct. He is a lock on being the nominee in 2024. The one supposed challenger has self-destructed even before any primary votes have been held. At this point in time there is no one who is even a remote threat to his renomination. That is an achievement in its own right.

However, time does not stand still. Even people who only get there news from Foxhub, will at some point realize that their Lord and Savior, the Holy One, Blessed Be his Name, has an extraordinary number of legal cases in which he is involved. They are so many it is hard to find time to schedule all his court appearances. As his freedom of speech to insult people is curtailed by judicial order, his professional political wrestling rallies may even become more incoherent, dumb, and self-centered. He is not fighting for MAGAs, he is fighting for himself.

The proof will be when the trials actually begin. He will not even defend himself in a court of law, only on social media, Foxhub, and professional political wrestling rallies. No one will take the stand on his behalf either. The witnesses testifying against him will all be Republicans or his employees with nary a weaponized Department of Justice agent in sight. The constant drumbeat of how he was not only a loser for himself but for others who took up the mantra that the election was stolen will cause some people out of self-preservation not courage to say enough is enough. How stupid a human being do you have to be run in 2024 on a platform of the 2020 election was stolen given the failure in 2022?

So besides an election campaign based on:

Hunter Biden and the corrupt Biden family
Crooked Hillary
Genius Putin

add to it:

the control of the bodies of women no matter where they go
consolidating power in the hands of the most impeached, indicted, convicted candidate in the history of American Presidential politics the 2020 election was stolen.

Does that seem like a winning hand?

Defund MAGA Congressional Districts

July 12, 2023
by Peter Feinman
The Battle of Lightweights for the future of the Republican Party (Image CNN)

Democrats bring a plastic spoon to a gun fight and wonder why they lose. Republicans in general and MAGAs specifically are always in the attack mode. They are constantly advancing on all fronts legally and politically while Democrats are always in a defensive and reactive crouch clinging to the hope that some court will bail them out.

True, not all MAGA attacks prevail. They do not always win. But nothing deters them from trying again.

In this blog, I wish to address examples of how to bring a political gun to a political gun fight such that MAGAs will begin to think twice (or perhaps for the first time) before deploying some outrageous assault on the American public.

SUNSET LAWS

Sunset laws represent an effort by Senator Rick Scott (FL) to put a damper on federal spending. His hope was that once a cutoff date was established for federal legislation, the renewal process would fail for at least some legislation especially social legislation with a Republican majority. The result would be a reduction in government spending as well as a alleviating of the burden of federal rule on the American people. His Sunset Law proposition never saw the legislative light of day even within the Republic Party. Nonetheless it provided an opportunity for Democrats that they did not take.

Response: Agree to sunset law legislation only as it applies to the divorce states as designated by defrocked Marjorie Taylor Greene. These states then would become an example for the remaining states. The point is not whether such a proposal would come to pass or not but to respond to the Republican initiative on its own terms and put those states on the defensive.

SPENDING CUTS

At this point there are multiple spending bills which need to be passed separately to avoid a government shutdown. There are a number of Congressional representatives in the “Just say no, Always” camp. I do not know the exact number but there seem to be dozens if not over 40 members of Congress who always vote “No.” The issue then becomes the ability of this disciplined group to hold the Speaker hostage in a closely divided Congress. If the net result is a government shutdown do much the better from their perspective. This leaves the Speaker of the House desperate to find Democrats to help him pass the legislation.

Response: Call for the reduction in spending in the spending bills the Freedom Caucus always opposes but only for their Congressional districts. Without knowing the exact figures, this would mean cutback in spending of over 10% in the spending bills the Freedom Caucus routinely opposes. I leave it to others more knowledgeable than I am to calculate the exact amounts.

Such a reduction in spending creates a win-win situation. It’s not as precise as a scalpel but still it minimizes the collateral damage by focusing on the precise people who through their elected officials have signified their desire for reducing government spending. What would be the basis for objecting to the elimination of government spending that they are opposed to in the first place? In any event, it would provide Democrats with a great talking points and sound bites for the budget negotiations.

COLONIZATION    

Republicans have engaged in colonization efforts to strip Democrats of power. These efforts include:

1. removal of power from Governors by the state legislatures when the former is a Democrat and the latter has a Republican super majority
2. removal of state legislators from their position
3. gerrymandering electoral districts at both the state and federal level so the winners are disproportionately Republican
4. removal of judicial/police authority in Democratic majority cities and transferring power to Republican-controlled legislatures.

The big one here would be the removal of the Fulton County District Attorney and shutting down the indictment of the criminal loser who is their Lord and Savior, the Holy One, Blessed Be his Name.

Response: The best way to circumvent the power of the Republican colonization efforts is for the affected area(s) to declare its (their) independence. West Virginia originated when people declared their independence from the Commonwealth of Virginia over slavery during the last civil war. Imagine a national press conference of all the colonized areas in the Confederate states vowing to declare their independence in time for the 2024 elections. Wouldn’t that be a sight to behold?

TAKING CREDIT FOR BILLS YOU OPPOSED

Bringing home the bacon is a time honored tradition for elected officials. Generally it is assumed that the elected official actually acted to help bring home the bacon. For MAGAS, they are under no such restriction. They are quite capable of broadcasting their bringing home the bacon even under legislation which they opposed.

Response: Create a list of “bacon,” especially for infrastructure projects in the districts where MAGA representatives opposed the legislation. Then publicly ask each of those representatives if they want the federal government to provide such funding even though it is “socialism.”

MENTAL NECESSITIES

Suppose a candidate spoke incoherently. Suppose the messages of the same person also showed signs of stupidity. Now add ignorance and then some more ignorance. How many clips of that candidate as a stupid, ignorant, moron would you see on Foxhub? Actually quite a few. Such utterances seem to play well with the MAGA audience.

Commentators on other networks may poke holes in those comments but that is somewhat like preaching to the choir.

Response: How about a series of commercials on Foxhub asking if this person has the mental necessities to be president? Or a related question if the smartest person in the room is actually the dumbest person in the room? Or if the person who vowed to hire nothing but the best people, then why did he always choose crooks, liars, and traitors or people he would later denounce?

WITCH HUNT

How do MAGAs feel about a President who weaponized the Department of Justice? How do MAGAs feel about a President who weaponized the IRS? How come the witnesses against the LOSER in the multitude of trials against him are all or almost all Republicans? How come in all the trials the defendant never takes the stand in his own defense?

These are questions the MAGA audience should be forced to answer. These are questions the MAGA audience should know that whenever they are watching their favorite cable show or listening to their favorite radio show, they never know when these questions will be presented to them. Podcasts are a little more difficult to reach but other social media platforms may be more accessible. Think of what Russia did in 2016 and do the same in 2024 only against Trump instead of on his behalf. Just complaining about how a foreign government interfered in our election is not enough.

I offer these examples as just some of the ways Democrats could get into the arena with Bone Spur Boy rather than simply bringing a plastic spoon to a political gun fight and expecting to win.

August 13, 2021 to August 14, 2023: Mike Lindell to Jack Smith

June 22, 2023
by Peter Feinman
Pillowhead's Cyber Symposium just before Trump's return to office

AUGUST 13, 2021

It seems like only yesterday when Pillowhead was championing August 13, 2021, as the day when the real President of the United States would return to the White House and resume his position as the rightful POTUS. He never got around to explaining exactly how this restoration would occur. Séance Sidney was of little use here either. But somehow it was going to happen.

These modern day Millerites were doomed to unrequited dreams just as happened back in 1843/1844 when the world did not come to an end as predicted. If at first you don’t succeed, then try, try, again. Eventually, those who prayed/thought their savior would be restored to power, faced the hard reality that no such moment of truth would occur on August 13, 2021 or even afterwards during Joe Biden’s term. In fact, nothing would occur except Pillowhead making a spectacle of himself at his own symposium. His evidence instead showed that there was no there there.

On April 19, 2023. Mike Lindell was ordered to pay $5 million to a software expert who proved that Pillowhead’s data was bogus. A real computer forensic expert had shown the data Pillowhead presented was gibberish and nonsense. Naturally, in the true Trumpian tradition, Pillowhead refused to pay the winner of the “Prove Mike Wrong” contest. The case is now being litigated. Of course, what is $5 million compared to the $1.3 billion lawsuit filed by Dominion. The true mystery is how Pillowhead came to believe that he had real data that would blow the stolen election case wide open and return Trump to the White House. Is it possible for someone’s product to be smarter than its marketer?

AUGUST 14, 2023

Now flash forward two years and one day to August 14, 2023. In a surprise move, the so-called Trump Judge set an early date for the commencement of the Mar-a-Largogate trial. Given the standard tactic of “delay, delay, delay,” one would have expected a date off into the future. A date less than eight weeks away was truly a speedy trial date. Of course, August 14, 2023, is merely a target date. It is not the date when the trial actually will begin. Still, the setting of this early date, suggests that the Judge will not be the path to acquittal or at least post-election trial that many people once feared. It is still too early to tell, but as of now, the prospects are full speed ahead.

The obstacles to a speedy trial are well known. There is the need for the defendant to decide on his legal team. There is a need to obtain various security clearances once all the players are identified. There are various legal claims and challenges the defense may offer, many of which already have been discussed endlessly on cable TV and elsewhere. Undoubtedly, such actions will push the trial date back considerably. Once the trial does get underway, it should be the slam dunk many commentators have been predicting. So far there are no witnesses for the defense. The defendant acts like a witness for the prosecution every time he opens his mouth. In this action, he is joined by many other people from his home who will be testifying against him. At this point, the best thing the defendant has going for him is a MAGA juror.

DISCOVERY

To highlight the speed at which the trial is unfolding, Jack Smith presented the Trump defense team with much of the testimony and evidence from the grand jury which will be used in the actual trial. This information includes the names of the people who will testify against the defendant, videos including the defendant’s own performances on cable TV, and other videos. As one might expect, the defendant’s own words will form a powerful part of the testimony against him without him even taking the stand. This evidence, with more to come, delivers the message that it is really is a slam dunk case with the outcome of prison time for his convictions on multiple counts.

Here is where the human element becomes a factor. So far the analysis has tended to view the defendant as person immune to the reality in which he is now living. He is treated as if he is THE DONALD who can triumph over anything the corrupt Department of Justice in the real world throws against him.

As a result, we have been hearing more about Eugene Debs running for President from jail then what it would mean on a human level for THE DONALD to be declared a loser in the court and sentenced to prison time even if house arrest.

Similarly, we have been hearing about his base of support which cannot be moved under any circumstances.

The human factor is being overlooked. Some commentators have expressed their faith in the jury system. Once people take an oath and sit in the courtroom, the gravity of the situation takes over. And if a juror fashions himself to be Henry Fonda in Twelve Angry Men, the situation is quite different here. The defendant already has admitted his guilt as will be shown to the jurors. All the witnesses against him will be his own people. No one will take stand on his behalf. As most recently exhibited in his interview on Fox with Bret Baier and in his deposition in the successful civil case against him, he should never be allowed to speak under oath. His natural venue is the professional political wrestling arena. There he can feed off the energy of the MAGA crowd while he spews his nonsense. He will not have that opportunity in the Mar-a-Largogate trial. Instead he will be a tired shrunken old man cringing at what is unfolding before him.

For a person who demands loyalty, the first batch of evidence must have been a shock. Forget about the abstract notions of move and countermove with motions to delay the trial. What the defendant now sees is that he cannot trust anyone. This is far beyond the Michael Cohen case. At this point we do not know how many of his own people will be arrayed against him. We can only imagine shock he already has experienced. While he is not capable of reading the prosecution evidence in the discovery, his lawyers can and have. They already knew their client was guilty. Now the magnitude of the evidence against their client has been dumped on them. Surely they know if this case goes to trial, they will lose. Surely they knew the penalty for losing will be prison time. Surely they have communicated this to their client.

The issue now is not whether the defendant will spill the names of the people who will testify against him. He might just as well read the employment roster from Mar-a-Lago. What this mountain of evidence means is that the 78 year-old defendant can see prison time for the rest of his life looming before him. Something transformative is happening. He is transforming from the alternate reality in which he and his MAGA followers have been living to the real world. As he hears about people who did his bidding on January 6 being sentenced for 12 years, the stark reality of leaving the alternate reality for the real world sinks in. Forget about the actual dates for the start of the trial, the discovery process is the ghost of Christmas future where his world will be a horrible one for him. This time when his lawyers suggest a plea deal, THE DONALD may be much more willing to accept one if it keeps him out of prison. Jack Smith has poured a bucket of water on the wicked witch of the White House leaving the defendant a timid, incoherent, babbling mess desperate for a way out. And there is still Georgia and other federal cases to come.

The impact of THE DONALD accepting a plea deal will be momentous. It will change the dynamic in the House. It will change the dynamic in the Presidential election. It will change the dynamic among the MAGA. Their Lord and Savior, Blessed Be His Name, only he can save them and deliver divine retribution will shrink in size to being an old defeated loser. And if he does not enter in a plea agreement then the alternate path will be prison which will derail him even more. Now THE DONALD has discovered the truth in real world and it scares and frightens him.

Indictment Water Torture: Drip (1), Drip (2), Drip (3), Drip (4) …

April 2, 2023
by Peter Feinman
The constant drip of indictments (Individual image from WABC)

Donald Trump has now entered a new phase of his life. From this point in life until the day he dies, his life will revolve around criminal charges. Whereas for decades he has succeeded in avoiding having criminal charges filed against him, in this new phase, everything will be about his criminality – his indictments, his trials, his penalties including possible imprisonment.

All the while as this first indictment of the Wicked Witch of the West Wing unfolds, he will watch a parade of his nearest and dearest Flying Monkeys being forced to testify against him. And he has to live with the possibility that one or more of them could go “Michael Cohen.” After all, what does Steve Bannon have to gain by falling on his sword for him and going to prison for him?

A key area not being fully discussed is the logistics of the indictments. I am not referring to what may or may not happen on Tuesday when he supposedly peacefully surrender. Instead I am referring to what happens when the next indictment occurs which should be imminent. That one will be “massive” and include a host of characters in a possible RICO charge.

All the fuss about the weakness of the New York indictment and whether it should have been first or not misses the point. For now it occupies center stage. The trial won’t even begin for months. But in a few short days that indictment will share the stage with the next indictment. Stop focusing on the minutia of what will happen Tuesday and start thinking about what will happen after the next indictment and the ones to come.

THE DEFENDANT 

Obviously one person cannot be in two places at the same time. The challenge the judges will have is in the scheduling of the two cases. They will have to coordinate their decisions. Will the two cases be tried sequentially? If so, which one comes first?

To some extent the scheduling may depend on what appeals are filed. By now all judges are wise to the ways of delay practiced by the defendant and his expensive lawyers who demand to be paid. At this point, regardless of what indictment came first, that does not mean which case will be tried first.

Where will the defendant stay at night for the Fulton County indictment? To the best of my knowledge he does not have a home there. Will he say at the home of a MAGA supporter who subsequently will turn the room into a tourist site? Will he stay in jail (which is free!)? How about Motel 6? Whatever the answer is, the point is the defendant will have to make lodging decisions about where he will stay during the trial of each indictment. Those decisions will be dependent on the decisions of others, that is, the judges. Other people will now have control of his schedule.

JURORS  

There are limits as to how much the judges can disrupt the lives of the jurors during these trials. They are, after all, regular Americans with lives to lead. If the judges seek to alternate the conducting of the trials if they are not sequential, then how would that work? If there are too many gaps leading to too long a trial, then that would not be fair to either the defendant or the jurors. The scheduling of the two trials given multiple indictments is not a topic that I have heard discussed so far.

In addition, jurors will be aware of the jurors from the other cases. They will see how these jurors are treated in the media and by MAGAs. Even if they are precluded from discussing their own case, they will be talking about the other cases.

DEFENDANTS

The probable additional defendants in the Fulton County case adds another complicating wrinkle to the scheduling efforts.

Suppose the Fulton County case defendants includes elected officials. All the attention so far has been on what the New York indictment means for the presidential campaign of one individual. But what if you are a sitting Senator or Georgia State representative, then what? How will your appearances in Court as a defendant during the trial coincide with when your legislative chamber is in session? The effort to reconcile these competing scheduling requirement may well tax the judicial offices. Where is the AI program to weigh all these variables?

GAG ORDER

Time and time again, people advise the best advice for a client like Donald Trump is to keep your mouth shut. Time and time again such advice falls on deaf ears. His recent threatening of death and destruction and inciting MAGAs to take the law into their own hands are examples of this. It only leads to additional charges. Racism and anti-Semitism already have been unleashed. There will be more to come.

Can he take the advice of counsel this time? Presumably, whatever the schedule is for the two trials, he will have weekends off to campaign. Is it possible for him to appear at professional political wrestling rally and not talk about the trials? Exactly what else will he want to talk about for 1-2 hours? Even if he is given a script, past experience shows that he will not stick to it. How will he respond to shouts from the audience about the indictments?  And what about his use of social media?

At first he may try self-constraint. For an immature child with the emotional maturity of a three-year old, there is a very short window in which he can behave. Are his handlers going to take away his devices? Are his campaign appearances going to cease because his lawyers, and not the judges, seek to muzzle him? The discussion about the impact of the indictments on his presidential campaign miss the point since it focuses on the reactions of the MAGAs. The true challenge to him will be to curtail speech that would get him in legal trouble. Such self-censorship cannot last for long hence the gag orders. Now we would have a presidential candidate forbidden to communicate until such communications are screened by the judge. In legal terms the logistics of two cases may drive him bonkers.

FEDERAL INDICTMENTS  

The pending federal indictments only complicate the matters more. Besides the scheduling, inconveniencing of the jurors, and gag order on a presidential candidate, there are political considerations.

The federal indictments can be divided into four cases:

1. Mar-a-Lagogate – the easy one. It could follow soon after the Fulton County case. This one is fairly straightforward and caries some serious penalties. By this time, Americans will have become used to seeing him arraigned. Maybe some elected MAGA officials will have grown tired of defending him by this point. Maybe they will have seen that contrary to everything Lindsay Graham has said there will not have been any violent uprisings to take the country back from George Soros operatives.

The real political disruption will occur in the next three indictments

2. Obstruction at the state legislatures

3. Alternate electors

4. January 6.

These indictments involve Republican Congressmen referred to in the Georgia phone call. Forget about Mark Meadows and all the other Flying Monkeys for a moment. Focus on the complicit Republican Congressmen. Republicans have a very narrow majority at present. Lindsay Graham’s absence from the Senate because he is on trial does not change the dynamics of the Senate. Five MAGA Representatives on trial does change the dynamics of the House. It changes who will have the majority on the floor of the House for any vote even before 2024. It changes who are running the retribution committees. It changes who may run in 2024.

 

To wrap up, the New York criminal indictment, separate from the civil indictment with an October trial set, is just the beginning of the rest of the life of Donald Trump. It will have immediate effects simply in scheduling and conducting the trials. It will have medium term political effects when he is gagged by either his lawyers or the judge and in maintaining a working Republican majority in the House. And it will have long term effects as people decide to get off the Trump bus and instead throw him under it. Drip. Drip. Drip. Drip.

 

Is Conning MAGAs a Crime?

March 2, 2023
by Peter Feinman
They are not the Three Stooges because they know better.

Recent events, like the release of Foxhub emails, raises a question about whether conning MAGAs is a crime? What about if the con is not limited to MAGAs but affects the general public. Let’s examine some case studies to see when if ever there is a legal remedy.

CASE STUDY #1: SEND ME YOUR MONEY

In this example, the loser of the 2020 Presidential election asked his supporters to send him their money. Approximately 2 million people sent around $250 million. That’s a lot of people. That’s a lot of money. Now we know that regardless of what he did with the money once he received it, he already knew that he had lost the election and the Joe Biden was the legitimately elected President.

I consider this to be one of the greatest scams in American history. The con was precisely targeted on MAGAs themselves. No ordinary people were hurt in the perpetration of this con. Imagine if he scammed $250 million every month from MAGAs.

To the best of my knowledge, MAGAs have not cried foul. MAGAs have not sued for false pretenses. MAGAs have not sued for having been deceived. Quite the contrary, MAGAs seem perfectly content with having been swindled. In fact, as far as we know these Foxhub viewers still to this very day o not even know that they were conned. There is no Dominion situation here.

Legally, that is another matter. In this case there is a double fraud. There is the dishonesty is requesting money due to the stolen election when the loser was the one seeking to steal the election. So here we have an ironic case of justice: if the DOJ wins a case against the loser for conning the MAGAs, the people who were swindled will not even cheer that victory. They have no objections to having been conned.

On the second part, what did he do with the fraudulently obtained funds? Did he send Ridiculous Rudy, Séance Sydney, and Pillowhead back out into the legal arena to fight the corrupt fight to steal the election? Did he pay the bills for the lawyers facing disbarment? At least these would be examples of the fraudulently money being used for the ostensible purpose of the con. On the other hand, if he kept the money for himself, then he may be facing additional legal jeopardy.

CASE #2: FOXHUB SUED FOR $1 TRILLION OVER ANTI-COVID VACCINATION MESSAGE

That was the title of my blog way back on July 14, 2021.

DID AN UNVACCINATED LOVE ONE OF YOURS DIE FROM COVID?

WERE YOU OR AN UNVACCINATED LOVE ONE HOSPITALIZED FOR COVID?

ARE YOU PLAYING RUSSIAN ROULETTE WITH THE LIFE ON A CHILD?

DO YOU WATCH FOXHUB?

THEN YOU COULD BE ENTITLED TO FINANCIAL COMPENSATION

If you listen to Tucker, Laura, and Foxhub and have remained unvaccinated, then you could be entitled to financial compensation possible totaling millions of dollars.

If at any time during this calendar year you heard the talk show hosts on Foxhub warn you about getting a COVID vaccine, you listened to their advice, and became ill from COVID or a loved-one did or both, then you qualify for the Foxhub Financial Relief Settlement Fund. Operators are standing by at 1-800-555-Trump-u to take down your information and to file your complaint.

Due to the high number of people who have been victimized by Foxhub, you may not be able to get through. Please keep trying. It is important that Foxhub be held accountable to for the harm it has caused Americans by instructing them not to be vaccinated and to let nature takes it course and cleanse the herd Act now before all the funds are gone and the network declares bankruptcy….

It learned with Seth Rich that it could not just make up conspiracies willy nilly without their being consequences. Evidently the lesson did not sink in. Now it is time to make Foxhub pay the price.

In this case, Disinfectant Donny cannot be sued for his ineptitude and incompetence contributing to the deaths of hundreds of thousands of Americans. But can Foxhub be sued for its role in spreading the COVID Big Lie the way it is being sued for its role in spreading the Election Big Lie? So far to the best of my knowledge, no has sued Foxhub on this basis. No group of lawyers have moved in for the kill seeking the kinds of emails and evidence for the COVID Big Lie that Dominion has discovered in its lawsuit for the Election Big Lie.

Strangely enough, it is easier for a corporation to sue for damages than an individual. Someone or someones would have to make the effort to gather the people who died as a result of Foxhub to create a class action suit. That would be very expensive undertaking with no guarantee of success. And just as the 2 million people who were conned and have not taken any action, MAGAs cannot be expected to sue their Lord and Savior, the Chosen One, Blessed Be his Name, they cannot be expected to sue the voice of his divine will, the hosts at Foxhub.

The ones who could sue are those who bore the brunt of the false information being disseminated by Foxhub and other rightwing media outlets. I am referring to the hospitals, doctors, and nurses who had to deal with the intensification of the pandemic because of the false information. Presumably, and I am not a lawyer, they have the standing to file such a suit. Think of the people who have burnt out from their work. Why was it so much worse here than in other countries? It may not be as straightforward as Dominion but that is why lawyers reap the big bucks in settlements.

CASE STUDY #3: MAGA’s Have “A Beautiful Mind:” There Is No Cure

This recent blog is from scarcely two weeks ago. That blog questioned the mental necessities of MAGAs in three specific area:

1. the ability to connect the dots
2. the ability to think things through
3. the ability to cope when confronted with the real world.

Since that time there has been a veritable explosion of evidence released witnessing that Foxhub knew full well the claim of the stolen election was a lie … yet they broadcast the purveyors of that Election Big Lie just as they had the COVID Big Lie. This time they are being sued. Forget the $1.6 billion. If a jury gets to decide the punitive damages then the sky is the limit for what the cost could be to Foxhub. If the jury decides that the punishment should be sufficient so that it would never do that again, we could be looking at serious money. Not from the former President who would pay $0 here but for the media company that sought to make money by exploiting the alternate reality in which its viewers live.

The consequences of this evidence goes beyond the Dominion trial itself.

Think of all the MAGA candidates who ran and will run on the basis that the election was stolen. How will they react when confronted with the evidence:

Tucker Carslon knew the election was not stolen. Do you?
Sean Hannity knew the election was not stolen. Do you?
Laura Ingraham knew the election was not stolen. Do you?
Fox knew the election was not stolen. Do you?

Imagine the MAGA candidate in a debate having to answer these questions. Imagine the MAGA candidate responding to the local press having to answer these questions. For Democrats, the Foxhub revelations (more to come?) have provided a treasure trove of attack points on which to pummel a MAGA candidate. Will “Oh Yeah! Oh Yeah! Oh Yeah! What about Hunter Biden” be a sufficient response?

And what about the vaunted election security slogan bandied about by MAGAS? If there was no stolen election, then there was no election fraud at the local, county, and state level. All the laws passed in the name of election security due to the stolen election now have been exposed as dishonest due to the Foxhub emails. All those laws and recounts were bogus. All the Republicans who were censored by the MAGAs are owed an apology BECAUSE THERE WAS NO STOLEN ELECTION! JUST ASK TUCKER, SEAN, AND LAURA. READ THEIR EMAILS.

Here again, the disclosure of the Foxhub emails have provided the Democrats and real Republicans with which to bludgeon the MAGAs.

So while it is not a crime to con MAGAs, Team Normal has to live with consequences of cons that exploit MAGA’s preference for an alternate reality.