Near the courts and on the road

In a double hitter, the New York Court of Appeals decline to hear Donald Trump’s lawyers appeal on the gag order in his hush money case. The gag order remains in effect after the felon had asked Merchan to terminate the gag order ahead of his sentencing scheduled for July.

Trump repeatedly praised Milwaukee just weeks before it hosts the Republican National Convention, playing cleanup after he reportedly used the word “horrible” in talking about swing-state Wisconsin’s largest city. Trump’s excuse was to blame “radical left lunatics” who “lie, lie, lie.”

“I love Milwaukee,” Trump told the crowd in nearby Racine, Wisconsin. He was reported to have used the word “horrible” in a closed-door meeting with Republicans in the US House. Trying to find excuses, several of his allies who were in the meeting later suggested he was talking about crime and voter fraud.

[If you believe them…. First it was crime and later voter fraud was added. Seems voter fraud is their “go to”. Oh it is snowing in the summer in Montana. Must be voter fraud.)

In more backtracking, Trump claims that he selected Milwaukee for the RNC convention. But the mayor of Milwaukee said Trump was “nowhere to be found.”

[Interesting to note that a man who was interviewed said because of increased violence that his two brothers have died from gun violence in the Milwaukee area. The man never explained when they died. Last 3.5 years? 20 years ago?]

Trump also denied reports that, during the convention, he was planning to stay overnight in Chicago, Milwaukee’s rival 90 miles to the south, where Trump also has a downtown skyscraper along the Chicago River.

“The people coming across the border — all those millions of people — they’re inflicting tremendous harm to our Black population and to our Hispanic population,” Trump said at a rally with Blacks in Detroit. “They’re not human beings. They’re animals,” he said later in referencing members of violent immigrant gangs. He argued that the Black community “is being hurt” by immigrants in the country illegally. “They’re invading your jobs,” he said.

[According to some, there were plenty of the people in the crowd that were not Black or Hispanic but white.]

Trump then criticized Biden’s handling of the economy and inflation. Trump was fundraising “with out-of-touch elitist Hollywood celebrities,” a Trump campaign spokeswoman said.

[Is that better or worse than asking oil barons for $1 billion in donations. One can influence the government more that the other.]

Trump also addressed the Turning Point conference – known to be run by white nationalists.

Trump argues he can pull in more Black voters due to his economic and border security message, and that his felony indictments make him more relatable.

[Does equating being a felon make him more relatable because there are more Blacks in US than any other race?]

Trump has suggested that President Biden should take a cognitive test like he supposedly did. When Trump took the test, at a rally he called his doctor – Ronnie Johnson. It’s Ron Jackson, who is now a congressman.

[There was always a but of suspicion if Trump actually took the test. Mini-Mental Status Exam (MMSE) and Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA) are the two most common tests to take.]

The Black community, Trump said, “needs to stop the crime.”

[Isn’t stopping crime done by the police?]

Trump is still whining on his failed social network that all [?] presidents should get immunity even after their time as president is over.

[I don’t think Richard Nixon would of resigned.]

Trump is back to his far right anti-immigration antics when he said “Virtually 100% of the new jobs under Biden have also gone to illegal aliens.”
[Unsure how he is defining “illegal aliens” but almost sure he means undocumented illegal migrants – although he could be throwing in anyone who isn’t an American.]

The Supreme Court upheld a Trump-era tax on overseas investments, rejecting an argument from a Washington state couple in a case that could have jeopardized existing tax provisions and torpedoed Democratic talk of a wealth tax. At issue in the closely watched tax case was whether the government could levy a tax on investment proceeds that had not yet been received.

The tax involved was enacted by Congress in 2017 as part of a larger package signed by Trump. The one-time mandatory repatriation tax was levied on shareholders on undistributed profits accrued between 1986 and the end of 2017 by certain foreign corporations that are majority owned by Americans. The provision was expected to raise $340 billion over a decade.

Two federal judges from Florida, including a chief district judge had urged Aileen Cannon to step down from Trump classified documents case. Attorneys who have practised in front of Cannon have said that she tends to allow irrelevant legal questions distract from core issues. She has slowed down the case to a crawl. So the case won’t even go to trial until 2025 – assuming Trump doesn’t get the case killed if he wins in November.

[When other judges are complaining about you ability to do you job, you know you have a problem.]

Meanwhile, a Trump lawyer are arguing that Jack Smith – who has brought charges against Trump in Florida and Washington, DC – was unlawfully appointed as special counsel. At the center of Trump’s argument is the claim that the Attorney General Merrick Garland does not have legal authority to appoint someone as special counsel who hasn’t confirmed by the Senate. The Justice Department says the attorney general has ample authority to appoint “inferior officers,” which would include special counsels. Trump’s lawyer to defend his claim that Smith’s position amounted to a “shadow government.”

When former Trump adviser Steve Bannon goes to prison, he won’t be serving time at what’s known as a “Club Fed,” the most comfortable type of facility in the federal system, as he had wanted. Instead of a minimal-security prison camp, where many nonviolent offenders serve their time, Bannon – now a right-wing podcaster with a following of loyal Trump supporters – is set to report next month to the low-security federal prison in Danbury, Connecticut.

[So no “supermax” in Colorado?]

Bannon vowed investigations and prosecutions of those who have probed the former president and his political allies, declaring at a conservative gathering that Inauguration Day in 2025 will be “accountability day.” “You are going to be investigated, prosecuted and incarcerated,” he said. “This has nothing to do with retribution. It has nothing to do with revenge. Because retribution and revenge might be another order of magnitude. This has to do with justice.”

He also added “Are you prepared to leave it all on the battlefield in 2024? … It’s very simple: victory or death!”

When a poll came out this week having President Biden overall leaning and easily leading in 4 of the 6 major categories [losing from men voters and rural voters], Fox News’ prime-time anchors didn’t even mention a word about it. Maybe unlike the rest of the anchors, these are all Trump loyalists.

Trump is now claiming that foreign students who graduate from an American college or university should automatically receive a green card. Trump made the comments on a podcast whose hosts included prominent tech venture capitalists David Sacks and Chamath Palihapitiya, who recently hosted a fundraiser for Trump in San Francisco. Trump campaign had to backtrack as a campaign spokeswoman said that graduates would be screened “to exclude all communists, radical Islamists, Hamas supporters, America haters and public charges.”

[So much for automatically. Trump is doing this so his tech giants buddies can get the best of the graduates coming out of American universities. From a man who has campaigned for almost 10 years to block immigrants from coming into the US illegally, this is his way to sneak around his policy as these would be for jobs that require a good education.]

[When looking at the top 6 Trump donors, all of them are quite wealthy (one at a net worth of $47 billion) and in technology or resources while top 6 Biden donors have few in technology.]

Ramin Setoodeh, co-editor-in-chief of Variety, has an audio tape in an interview he did with Trump where Trump did say that he lost the 2020 election and then backtrack.

Republican Ohio Sen. J.D. Vance, a leading candidate to be Trump’s vice president. But like the majority of potential candidates he has a two-faced history with Trump:

• Vance said Trump committed “serial sexual assault.”
• Vance once privately wondered whether Trump was ‘America’s Hitler’ in February 2016.
• In mid-2016, Vance later wrote in The Atlantic that Trump was “cultural heroin.”
• He described himself as a “Never Trump” Republican.
• In 2017, he tweeted “Maybe the Central Park 5 could take out a full-page ad to condemn the coddling of thug real estate barons who commit serial sexual assault.”
• In a since-removed set of tweets, he harshly criticized Trump’s response to the deadly 2017 White nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia – something Vance now defends Trump over.
• In February 2016, Vance liked a tweet featuring a photo of Trump, two women and O.J. Simpson with the caption, “Here is an old picture of one of USA’s most hated, villainous, douchey celebs. Also in picture: OJ Simpson.”
• In 2016, Vance liked a series of tweets calling then-candidate Trump a “monster” and a “nemesis of the GOP.”
• Vance said he even contemplated voting for Hillary Clinton [and even be part of her administration], but ultimately said he would vote for independent candidate Evan McMullin for president in 2016.
• In a previously unreported blog post Vance wrote in April 2010 under his previous legal name, J.D. Hamel, he wrote in support of legal immigration, advocating to “massively increase” the number of migrants allowed into the country.

Stephen K. Bannon has lost another bid to delay his July 1 deadline to report to prison, leaving the former Trump aide little chance of avoiding incarceration for refusing to testify about efforts to overturn the 2020 election results. With the ruling, both the judge who oversaw Bannon’s trial for contempt of Congress and the judges who heard the appeal of his conviction have denied his requests to remain free while petitioning the Supreme Court to overturn the verdict.

Various Republicans including Vance and Sen. Lindsey Graham have suggested returning to compulsory military service to boost the numbers in the US military. Trump hasn’t said no or yes.

[I’m sure Barron Trump would be excluded from the service. Probably a bone spurs issue like his father.]