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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.