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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.

Biden Boldly Goes Where No President Has Gone Before

February 22, 2023
by Peter Feinman
Kirk never took a ten hour train ride. Beam me up, Scotty.

Joe Biden has boldly gone where no American President has gone before. His journey into a war zone where there are no American troops will be remembered with alongside previous American Presidential combat trips. Who can forget John Kennedy’s proclamation that he was a Berliner at the Berlin Wall or Ronald Reagan’s call to tear down that very wall in Berlin or Donald Trump’s clearing of Lafayette Square for a photo op. These are the defining moments of a presidency producing images that endure throughout history.

As one hears about the intricacies of the trip Biden undertook, one can almost hear the theme from Mission Impossible playing in the background. But now that the journey is complete, one has to ask what did it accomplish, what difference did it make?

This blog will be a bifurcated one because the significance on the global stage does not correlate with that in the domestic arena.

LEADER OF THE FREE WORLD

With this trip, Biden asserted his position as leader of the free world. He is not the leader of the unfree world. However those countries have been put on notice that he is the leader of the free world. In particular, this applies to NATO. That organization has been reinvigorated, unified, and is set to expand. None of these developments are what Putin sought when he launched his special military operation which ended up being war. The Donald Trump era of America alone and thrashing NATO is over … at least until the 2024 presidential election.

As the leader of the free world, Biden has drawn a line in sand in Ukraine. He can no longer allow Ukraine to lose. North Korea/South Korea and North Vietnam/South Vietnam divisions of Ukraine are unacceptable. There are no negotiations possible since only victory is acceptable.

PETER THE GREAT

With this trip, Biden has put Putin on notice that his dreams of Peter the Great will not be fulfilled … at least as long as Biden is President. Biden’s visit serves as a declaration that he will not allow Ukraine to fall on his watch. That means however Putin ratchets up the intensity of the Russian effort, it will be matched by Biden. There is no victory in sight for Putin.

Way back on February 6, I asked Is Putin Winning?: Joe Biden’s Moment of Truth. I wondered what Biden would do. I wrote:

The United States has expended a great deal of military equipment and moral leadership on behalf of Ukraine. Can the United States afford to just walk away from that because we fear Putin?

If we do walk away, it not only means Russia has triumphed over America, it means that China, Iran, and MAGAs have too. Far from being an isolated event, Putin’s war against Ukraine has become a world war. Think of the fuss raised over the Chinese spy balloon. Now imagine what it would be if America fails in Ukraine.

In some ways, Putin’s war against Ukraine has become Biden’s Cuban Missile Crisis.

I was not expecting an answer so quickly. One might think that Putin has received and understands the message. Now he is relegated to waiting for Western unity to crack or his lackey to return to the White House in 2025. Only then if Biden is re-elected may we learn that Putin is willing to live in the real world. Whether or not the Russian/elites military are willing to wait that long is another matter. We need to convince them that Russia is not our enemy, Putin is, and that we have a common enemy in China.

AMERICAN LEADERSHIP: DEMOCRATS

For someone with one foot in the grave – assuming he was not already dead – Biden has had a remarkably active and robust first two+ years that would make a younger President proud. Given his domestic legislation triumphs and his world leadership role against Russia and its authoritarian allies, it is hard to imagine any Democrat challenging him. So far none has. No Democratic office holder has undertaken any actions that would signify a move towards becoming a candidate.

But one needs to keep in mind that the 2024 election is a long way off. Joe Biden easily could step down on the grounds that he has achieved what he sought to achieve and then some; now it is time to turn the ship of state over to someone else. The sticking point including for those who say they don’t want Biden to run again is who that someone else should be? At this point there is no obvious successor despite the longstanding tradition broken by Obama of choosing one’s Vice President to be the successor. On the other hand, there is the example of John Fetterman. At lot can happen in a couple of years. Great athletes tend not to retire at the top of their game; they tend to wait until they have started to decline excluding any career-ending injury.

One should keep in mind that Biden does not get any credit for his achievements. He has every right to be proud of what he has accomplished. Yet somehow that has not translated into any boost in his popularity. People still say with a straight face and in all sincerity that he has not done anything. One wonders what if anything can break through that mindset.

AMERICAN LEADERSHIP: MAGA

“The President of the United States chose Ukraine over America, while forcing the American people to pay for Ukraine’s government and war,” tweeted Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) “I cannot express how much Americans hate Joe Biden.”

“Breathtaking that President Biden can show up in Ukraine to ensure their border is secure, but can’t do the same for America,” January 6 co-conspirator Rep. Scott Perry tweeted.

Rep. Matt Gaetz Gaetz and Greene are co-sponsors of the Ukraine Fatigue Act that aims to undermine support for Kyiv as the Russian invasion of its European neighbor moves into its second year. Greene wrote. “We must impeach this America Last fool before it’s too late.”

So far the Republicans have the upperhand over the MAGAs in Congress. How long that will last remains unknown. MAGA’s think differently. They have no interest in the President of the United States being the leader of the Free World. They prefer Putin to Biden. So while the call for premature withdrawal has no traction now, the situation could change.

For the moment at least, Biden has created a historically defining moment with his visit to Ukraine and speech in Poland. In the future Railroad One may become a tourist trip. If the Democrats are smart they will contrast Trump’s submissiveness to Putin at Helsinki with Biden’s defiance at Kyiv. They will contrast Trump’s “perfect phone call” to undermine Ukraine in his first impeachment with Biden’s “One year later, Kyiv stands. And Ukraine stands. The Americans stand with you, and the world stands with you.” One year ago today, Trump praised Putin for his genius, the savvy leader who had a strong army for peace. Putin expected to be in Kyiv shortly afterwards. Instead the war has not only been Zelenskyy’s moment of glory, it has become Biden’s too. Will the American people realize that?

MAGA’s Have “A Beautiful Mind:” There Is No Cure

February 20, 2023
by Peter Feinman
MAGAs have problems connecting the dots

“A Beautiful Mind” is a movie about Nobel-Prize winner John Nash. He had delusions and was placed in a mental hospital by his wife. The movie plays somewhat loose with the facts as should be expected. Nash’s schizophrenia didn’t truly develop until the 1960s, after he had graduated from Princeton and married Alicia Nash. Apparently the visual delusions were made up for the film in order to capture the spirit of his real psychosis. The real Nash heard voices that mocked and argued with him constantly.

At times, Nash thought the voices were coming from aliens or angels. At the height of his madness, Nash believed that aliens were sending him encrypted messages through the New York Times and that any man wearing a red necktie was a member of a secret international communist organization. He feared that the government was working with extraterrestrials to destroy his reputation.

While there is not an exact one-to-one correspondence between Nash and MAGAs (or QAnons, there are lessons to be learned. Specifically there are three mental necessities that seem to lacking or in short supply in the thinking of MAGAs. They complicate the chances of the MAGAs ever abandoning their alternate reality for the real world no matter what “evidence” is presented. These are:

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.

Actually they are very good with the last one – they simply shut it out.

CONNECTING THE DOTS

In the movie, Nash is superb as connecting the dots. The image shown here is from a scene where Nash is not operating in a state-of-art spy center as he hallucinates. Instead he is in a dilapidated run-down shack or barn. He is diligently clipping newspaper articles and photographs and connecting them with string. Periodically he “mails” proofs of the conspiracies he has uncovered to his recruiter. These real mailings are intercepted by his friends who save them until a climactic moment in the movie.

Previously I have written about the limitations of the mental necessities of our immature child loser President. He can only connect two dots. For him that is the ultimate achievement. That’s the way he was born. No surgery, no drug treatment, no analysis can remedy that shortcoming. For anything beyond two dots, he has to outsource that level of thinking.

Sean Hannity was a key person in that process. He has a superb ability to connect the dots even when there was no connection. Think of Seth Rich. It’s not easy to construct an alternate reality but, Hannity did it. Night after he proclaimed that he had unraveled the mystery and connected the dots of the Fake News Russia hoax. He did so until the lawsuit of the Rich family shut him up.

Even so, the technique survived. A critical component of the true MAGA mind is the belief that someone has connected the dots and made sense of the world. They gravitate towards the QAnons, the Steve Bannons, and, of course, Foxhub itself. They know that they can rely on these dot-connectors to present to them an explanation for what is going on. Disconnecting them from those dots is not going to be easy (see below).

THINK THINGS THROUGH

We have had numerous examples on the failure of MAGAs to think things through.

Think of the MAGA denunciations of gas prices over $5/gallon as if they never would come down. Think it through.

Think of the urgent need to shoot down all the Chinese balloons over the United States even if they turned out to be high school science projects. This “shoot first” policy is a perfect test case of the dangers of having a fully armed population where everyone can take the law into their own hands by shooting first and asking questions later. Think it through.

Think of the not-yet-indicted loser president exclaiming after the redacted portion of the Fulton County special grand jury report was released:

Thank you to the Special Grand Jury in the Great State of Georgia for your Patriotism & Courage. Total exoneration. The USA is very proud of you!!!

He must think Bill Barr is still the Attorney General and he had just squashed the Mueller Report. And with his “perfect phone call” we witness a replay of his first impeachment.

Here we have a redacted report that eliminates the names of the targets who will be indicted and he is claiming total exoneration! What will he say when the full report is released. Think it through.

In addition, he demonstrates no awareness, interest, or concern for the people who have been identified as targets, who now may be accused of perjury besides the election issues, and who may be indicted… and then transform into Michael Cohen! Think it through.

Finally, think of the MAGA House committees chomping at the bit to launch a series of investigations.

Think of the House committee investigating the politicization of the Department of Justice. Now it turns out the DOJ was politicized but it was by Donald Trump.

Think of the House committee investigating corruption due to foreign money. Now it turns out that Saudi Arabia is the key to the corruption and Trump and his son-in-law are the ones who need to be investigated.

One presumes that House Democrats will hold MAGA feet to the fire on these items.

One hopes that the appropriate Senate committees will launch their own investigations into the real politicization and corruption which had occurred.

THE REAL WORLD

MAGAs have had to cope with disappointments in the real world before.

1. Seth Rich did not turn out to be the key to the Russia hoax.
2. The August 14, 2021, date for the restoration of the rightful President to the White House as predicted by Pillow Head and Séance Sydney has come and gone.
3. The Inspector General report that was going to expose the Russia hoax turned out to be a nothingburger that confirmed the investigation was legitimate.

MAGA thinking has not changed.

1. The House Select Committee report with the testimony from all those Republicans did not move the needle.
2. COVID is still a hoax and the vaccines should be investigated and/or banned presumably for polio, measles, and other diseases.
3. The election still was stolen.

In January, a recount was held in Lycoming, PA. MAGAs pressured the hand re-recount of 60,000 votes. The results were a net change for the incumbent who had won the county with 69.97% of the vote. He gained 8 votes bring the total to 69.98%. It had no effect. Instead he reaction was “We’re not done” (NYT 1/16/23). The County Director of Elections Forrest Lehmann despaired that an encounter with facts would not change their minds.  Since the recount, the department has received “a series of crazy requests. They are insane,” Lehmann said sounding a lot like a Foxhub broadcaster.

Speaking of Foxhub, the emails and texts of the Foxhub personalities on what they wee actually saying when the camera was not on have just been released. Or at least some of them have. Do you think MAGAs will finally see the light and say “Gosh. I have been wrong this whole time. Joe Biden really won the election.”

Cope by denial. At one point the idea of having the three night Foxhub performers jointly say that Joe Biden really won might have made a difference. It’s too late now.

Recently, a reporter interviewed some people at a MAGA event. The two people claimed that Donald Trump was still the President in 2023. The interviewer was somewhat surprised by that answer but continued in true reporter stance maintaining his cool. The two people insisted Donald Trump was the President. In response to a question about the military, they paused because they had not thought things through. Then they rationalized that there had to be two militaries, a good military which reported to Trump and a bad military which reported to Biden. This question was asked prior to Biden’s trip to Ukraine.

Questions not asked (or asked and not shown) were:

1. If Donald Trump is the President now, then why does he claim the election was stolen?
2. If Donald Trump is the President now, then how can he run for a third term under the constitution?

We have just had proof that that stolen election will be on the ballot in 2024. In Michigan, the Democrats swept all the statewide elections in 2022 and even flipped the state legislature. This means Michigan will be a battleground state in 2024 strictly based on the actual vote. So how did the Republicans respond to this defeat in the real world? Two election-deniers battled each other for the leadership position in the Republican Party. The vote-counting was delayed due to the use of paper ballots and hand-counting! What have they learned from 2022? Nothing except to urge the Party of Republicans.

In an interview with Sean Hannity, the now announced candidate Nikki Haley said:

We have lost the seven out of eight popular votes for president. It is time that we get a Republican in there that can lead and that can win a general election.

At that point Hannity should have taken her to task. Republicans lost five of six elections from 1992 to 2008 but MAGAs won the popular vote in 2016 and 2020.

One may anticipate that 2020 will be on the ballot again, that candidates will be asked if the election was stolen, and if Biden is the legitimate president. They will be put on the spot in the primaries and the winner will be put on the spot in the general election. I have not seen polls yet for 2024 comparing a candidate who thinks the election was stolen with one who does not. Republican candidates will be obligated to claim the election was stolen. Eventually someone will ask Nikki Haley about her “oversight.”  The minds of MAGA will not be changed not even by the disclosed Foxhub emails. But they will become more a more a laughingstock to Team Normal as they stick with the insane craziness and the candidates who support it.

Reduce Federal Spending in MAGA Congressional Districts

February 1, 2023
by Peter Feinman

 

Democrats bring a plastic spoon to a gun fight and wonder why they lose.

Tea Party/Freedom Caucus/MAGAs want to reduce Federal government spending. Getting them to specify exactly where is a challenge.

Democrats bring a plastic spoon to a gun fight and wonder why they lose.

The Biden challenge to them to “show me the budget” is a step in the right direction. Right now all they have are jargon, buzz words, and talking points that test well in MAGA focus groups and on Foxhub. They should be constantly pressed to identify specifically where the reductions would occur. Find the “waste; find the “fraud;” find the “fat” to cut.

The words of Brian Deese, Director of the National Economic Council and Shalanda Young, director White House Budget Office ring true: call on McCarthy to release the MAGA budget so it can be compared to a real world budget.  Show me the money!

Democrats bring a plastic spoon to a gun fight and wonder why they lose.

It is possible to calculate how much each state sends to Washington compared to what it receives in return. In general, the Union states subsidize the Confederate states and urban states subsidize rural ones. The same analysis should be brought down to a congressional district level. Incumbents, even MAGA, love to brag about bringing home the bacon even if they opposed the legislation.

Democrats bring a plastic spoon to a gun fight and wonder why they lose.         

Once the numbers are known for how much MAGAs want to reduce the budget and how much the federal spending is in their individual district, then challenge the MAGAs to show what spending they want to cut in their own districts. Their decisions may vary from district to district but that’s fine. The people who shout the loudest about cutting spending and getting the Federal Government off the backs on the voters, will have the opportunity to how exactly where they would reduce spending in their own district.

Democrats bring a plastic spoon to a gun fight and wonder why they lose.

Assuming the MAGAs refrain from specifying what they would cut in their own district, then hold town halls in the MAGA districts so the people who shout the loudest about cutting spending would show the country just how it is done. A related possibilities is to have the networks both mainstream and right wing conduct televised town halls so the nation could watch how the sausage is unmade. The example of Americans reducing spending in their own Congressional districts would be inspirational to other districts. See! It can be done! Look at how the districts of Marjorie Taylor Greene, Matt Gaetz, and the other MAGA representatives showed how the budget could be balanced.

THE CONCORD COALITION

The Concord Coalition may be instructive in this exercise. According to its website:

The Concord Coalition is a nationwide, non-partisan, grassroots organization advocating generationally responsible fiscal policy. The Concord Coalition was founded in 1992 by the late former Senator Paul Tsongas (D-Mass.), former Senator Warren Rudman (R-N.H.), and former U.S. Secretary of Commerce Peter Peterson.

The Concord Coalition is dedicated to educating the public about the causes and consequences of large-and-growing federal budget deficits and national debt, the long-term challenges facing the economy and how to build a sound fiscal future for all generations. The Concord Coalition’s national field staff and volunteer Fiscal Lookouts cover the country, hosting lectures, facilitating interactive exercises, conducting classes, giving media interviews and briefing elected officials and their staffs.

The mission of this organization dovetails nicely with what the MAGAs claim they are trying to achieve. The Concord Coalition goes beyond the efforts of the MAGAs. The Coalition not only talks the talk, it walks the walk.

Budget Exercises

One of the most important sets of tools The Concord Coalition uses to highlight the importance of fiscal responsibility and the choices involved in being fiscally responsible is our interactive budget exercises. These exercises allow citizens at the grassroots level, whether as part of town hall meetings with their members of Congress or as students in the classroom, to learn in a group setting that takes advantage of the interactions with people of different generations or different ideological or political backgrounds.

We also have an experienced network of field staff around the country who lead these exercises in person and help volunteers and teachers learn how to facilitate the exercises themselves.

So it already is prepared to conduct workshops and town hall meetings on how to reduce spending and balance the budget. It has a proven tool or game that can be applied in each MAGA congressional district. The MAGA participants would be able to demonstrate to the country exactly how the reduced spending sausage is made.

Principles and Priorities

Principles & Priorities is an interactive exercise in which participants learn how difficult it is to balance the federal budget. Constituents working in groups of five to ten, review current tax and spending policies, suggest priorities for the future, and apply their personal principles throughout the exercise. 

What you’ll learn

The most popular exercise from this collection is “Principles and Priorities” which is designed to help groups learn about the competing pressures facing members of Congress in budgeting over the next 10 years. The participants gain exposure to current policy options that Congress often debates, while getting a sense of the political and time pressures that arise legislative sessions. Our “Debt Busters” exercise is a condensed version of “Principles and Priorities” designed for use in limited time sessions. And, we offer our “Penny Game” which can be used for elementary and high school students who want to learn the basics about where we get and spend our tax dollars.

What is Principles & Priorities?

Budget exercise

1-2 hour immersive course
Appropriate for business, community and college groups
Exercise for multiple groups of 4-10 people
Suitable for as few as 8 or as many as 200 people

Imagine if such workshops were held in the MAGA congressional districts throughout the land. The ratings would easily trump those of the January 6 House Select Committee exposing the insurrection attempt led by Donald Trump.

Every day between now and the June apocalypse, Joe Biden and the Democrats should be calling on the MAGAs to show the American people the money. That won’t happen because:

Democrats bring a plastic spoon to a gun fight and wonder why they lose.

Perhaps they can learn from the example of Hunter Biden.