Still another crazy week in Trumpland

Donald Trump posted a $175 million bond to prevent New York authorities from seizing his assets, including properties such as Trump Tower, pending appeal of a civil fraud judgment against him of nearly a half-billion dollars. Trump posting of the bond was necessary to keep New York Attorney General Letitia James from initiating legal steps to take over his properties. The bond arrangement was made with Knight Specialty Insurance Company, according to a court document. About 30 surety companies he consulted with would not accept his real estate as collateral, only liquid assets.

[The CEO of Knight Specialty Insurance Company is also a large investor in Internet bank named Axos. Axos’ CEO and top investors have strong financial ties to the GOP. Axos loan Trump $100 million previously. Not surprising with the 30 companies. Between going bankrupt 4 times and inflating the worth of those properties he owned, it’s no surprise he wasn’t popular with them.]

If he does not win his appeal, Trump will still owe more than $450 million from a civil court judgment after James won the fraud case against him, alleging he deceived lenders and insurance companies by inflating his net worth by up to $2.2 billion annually from 2011 to 2021. Trump’s tab is growing by about $100,000 per day because interest will continue to accrue until the appeal ends.

Trump attacked Judge Juan Merchan for issuing the gag order – and he went after the judge’s daughter for her liberal political work, exploiting the ambiguous language in the order that didn’t explicitly forbid discussion of Merchan’s family. It didn’t take long for Merchan pushed back, expanding the gag order to cover his family – though the judge remains fair game for Trump – and attempting to limit Trump’s vitriol two weeks before the trial is set to begin.

[It should be standard practice that when you have Trump as a defendant, a gag order should be issued to cover the judge, court personnel and their families. The Republicans and their propaganda backers are saying that since the judge’s daughter works as a Democrat “activists”, she will influence her father’s decision. She did post something a while back saying Trump should be in prison. But that could be the same thoughts of most left leaning voters. Does Trump want a right leaning judge with a right leaning family who want no prison time for Trump?]

Then Merchan denied his motion to delay its start until after the US Supreme Court rules on Trump’s presidential immunity claim, calling it untimely and noting Trump’s lawyers had months to file a motion over the issue.

The prosecutor, Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, in Trump’s upcoming hush money trial has asked Judge Merchan to clarify whether a gag order issued for Trump recently bars him from publicly attacking the judge’s adult daughter — and to expand the order if it doesn’t.

Trump’s lawyers said Merchan’s gag order does not apply to comments about the judge’s family members and Trump’s recent posts had not violated the order and repeatedly argued that any limitation on his speech is a clear violation of his First Amendment rights and his rights as a presidential candidate.

[It would basically be open season any judge and his/her family if someone like Trump can constantly lie, harass and abuse the judge and his family. What judge would want to be a judge knowing him/her as well as the family could be threatened?]

A criminal case that was once viewed as the most open-and-shut prosecution against Trump has been mired in delay, unresolved logistical questions and fringe legal arguments that appear to have hijacked US District Judge Aileen Cannon’s attention. Special counsel Jack Smith said Cannon had asked for briefs that were premised on a “fundamentally flawed” understanding of the case that had “no basis in law or fact.”

In a 2022 lawsuit Trump brought attacking the FBI’s documents investigation, Cannon granted an extraordinary Trump request for a third-party review of the FBI’s 2022 search of his Mar-a-Lago resort for the classified documents. A conservative appeals court repeatedly reversed her rulings in the lawsuit, scolding her for giving Trump special treatment no other private citizen would receive, and shut down the review. Cannon’s rulings in the 2022 lawsuit were so outside the bounds that people rightly became suspicious of her motives.

[Cannon was appointed by Trump in 2020 and it shows that she is inexperienced. The probability of having the trial begin before the election is fading. On top of that, if Trump does win the election, he will shut down this and any other open cases against him.]

Observers were shocked when Cannon summoned the parties to Florida to present their theories on the validity of the charges.

[A judge generally doesn’t do that. She is judging 32 of the 91 charges against Trump.]

Judge Cannon will not dismiss the classified documents charges against Trump, who argued that he had the authority to take classified or sensitive documents with him after he left the White House. The short order from Judge Cannon leaves open the possibility that Trump could still use the argument to defend himself at trial.

[Well, at least she did something that is mostly right.]

Fulton County Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee upheld the criminal indictment against Trump in Georgia, rejecting the argument that Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election were protected under the First Amendment. “The defense has not presented, nor is the Court able to find, any authority that the speech and conduct alleged is protected political speech,” Judge McAfee wrote in his order.

[Unsure how Trump could ask for a dismissal when he clearly asked for an exact number of votes to be found that would declare him barely the winner.]

Lawyers for several defendants in the Georgia criminal case against Trump and others have been weighing whether to press for a gag order against Atlanta-area prosecutor Fani Willis, especially if efforts to disqualify her fail. Willis has continued to speak publicly about the case. A gag order against one of Trump’s biggest foes could score political points and help him and his co-defendants in the short term. But it could also backfire by undercutting their efforts to have Willis disqualified from the case, or by inspiring efforts to seek a gag order against Trump and other defendants who have publicly criticized Willis.

In one of Trump’s ever growing number of lies, after a 25 year old woman was killed by a migrant, Trump said “She lit up that room, and I’ve heard that from so many people…. I spoke to some of her family.” Except the family said he never spoke to them.

[Shocked? I’m not.]

“What the hell was Biden thinking when he declared Easter Sunday to be Trans Visibility Day?” Trump said, suggesting that the declaration showed “total disrespect to Christians.”

[Trans Visibility Day has always been May 31st. It just so happens that Easter was early this year. He said nothing about National Crayon Day.]

In the federal election interference case, Judge Tanya Chutkan previously also heard – and rejected – the argument that Trump’s actions should be considered protected political speech.

“Sending eight emails and texts a day that promise an artificial match, threaten to take away your GOP membership, or call you a traitor if you don’t donate doesn’t build a long-term relationship with donors,” said a Republican fundraiser.

[Spam, abuse, and threats all rolled into one.]

Trump said recently if he does not win November’s presidential election it will mean the likely end of American democracy.

[More like if he wins….]

Just a couple weeks after saying there will be a “bloodbath” if he doesn’t win the election in November, Trump repeated his call as well as repeatedly calling illegal immigrants “animals” and claiming they bring in disease and violence. After the first time he mentioned bloodbath, his campaign after claimed the word was intended for the auto industry.

[If you believe that I have a nice piece of land to sell you on Pluto.]

Some Trump cronies are thinking of pushing Nebraska to change their electoral vote. Nebraska and Maine are the only two states where their House representatives are not an all or nothing but by district. MAGA people think that they have a better change of getting the Nebraska state House of Representatives [note that they don’t have a senate] to switch to all or nothing before the elections and before the state House session ends.

The reason for the push to change? If the states won by Biden stays the same except Nevada and New Mexico, Biden would be ahead by 2 House representatives. If Nebraska went all to Trump [instead of one district that would go to Biden], it would be an even 269 representatives for each. In a tie, each state would then have one vote to cast and there are more Trump states than Biden states.

[Another dumb way to break a “tie breaker”. Just as bad as the NHL tiebreaker by having a shoot-out.]

At least six Republicans want to change the name of Washington Dulles International Airport to Donald J. Trump International Airport.

“Donald Trump is facing 91 felony charges,” Democratic Rep. Gerry Connolly, whose district includes part of Dulles, said in a statement. “If Republicans want to name something after him, I’d suggest they find a federal prison.”

[Or maybe Rikers Island? Dulles is considered as one of the worst airports in the world. It is old and antiquated.]

Trump’s DJT stock on NASDAQ lost over $4 billion in worth at one point in its first week of trading. In about ten days the stock was half the price of the highest price [almost $80 on March 26].

Trump has filed a lawsuit against two of the company’s co-founders, both former contestants on “The Apprentice.” Trump Media’s lawsuit accuses them of “mismanagement,” saying they “failed spectacularly at every turn” and “made a series of reckless and wasteful decisions.”

[And why wait so long to release this lawsuit? Unlike the morons who he hires in his cabinet who later on say things he doesn’t like, he can’t sue them. But he can sue the two co-founders.]

A Florida venture capitalist and his brother moved toward potential guilty pleas in an insider trading case connected to the merger that took Donald Trump’s social media company public. A third man was also involved in the insider trading. They pleaded innocent from the 2021 case but could change their pleas. Prosecutors are seeking the forfeiture of a bank account, the yacht and three Yamaha Jet Skis that were tendered to the vessel by one of the three men.

Trump has previously called immigrants “animals” and blamed migrants for “coming into our country with contagious diseases.” He warned of “illegal alien criminals crawling through your windows and ransacking your drawers,” where they “loot the jewellery.” When migrants aren’t busy doing that, they’re fixing to “obliterate Medicare and Social Security” and fill schools with “new migrant students who don’t speak a word of English.”

Regarding Trump [and the various conspiracy nuts] regarding that immigrants are causing higher crime, homicide and violent crime, after rising during the pandemic, have dropped for two straight years and are lower than during Trump’s final year in office. There is scant evidence that immigrants — legal or undocumented — commit more than their share of crime, and a lot of evidence that migrants are more law-abiding.

Former Trump adviser Peter Navarro asked the Supreme Court to take another look at his request to avoid prison, filing a long-shot request on Tuesday that the high court rarely grants. This after serving so far 15 days of his four month vacation. He’s in prison for his contempt of Congress conviction.

[He wants out early maybe because he was a bad boy and his TV privileges were reduced. ]

Trump still takes claim for killing Roe vs Wade but all he did was load the supreme court with right wing justices unless he ordered them to kill Roe vs Wade.

Trump also takes at least partial credit from the various states who have reduced or banned abortions.

Former Republican leaning contributor, George Conway, donated over $900,000 to Biden’s campaign and will headline a fundraiser for Biden.

Can Trump pay his big bill?

Donald Trump doesn’t have the cash he needs to stop the state of New York from potentially seizing his assets. He’s asking the court — an institution he’s shown little but contempt for — for a bit of mercy. In a court filing, Trump’s lawyers laid out the stark economic reality facing the leading Republican candidate for president. His team spent “countless hours” negotiating with some 30 entities that could finance the roughly half-a-billion-dollar bond he’s on the hook for. But none would take the deal.

If Trump doesn’t pony up the $500 million or so he needs to set aside, pending his appeal of last month’s order against him for ill-gotten gains on his properties, Judge Arthur Engoron says the judgment may be enforced, and New York Attorney General Letitia James can start seizing Trump’s properties and selling them to pay down what he owes.

The New York attorney general’s office has filed judgments in Westchester County, the first indication that the state is preparing to try to seize Trump’s golf course and private estate north of Manhattan, known as Seven Springs. State lawyers entered the judgments with the clerk’s office in Westchester County on March 6, just one week after Judge Arthur Engoron made official his $464 million decision against Trump, his sons Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump, and the Trump Organization.

The judgment is already entered in New York city where Trump’s properties including Trump Tower, his penthouse at Trump Tower, 40 Wall Street, his hotel abutting Central Park, and numerous apartment buildings are located.

Trump invoked a dual loyalty trope by claiming Jews who vote for Democrats hate Israel. “Any Jewish person that votes for Democrats hates their religion,” Trump said in an interview with Sebastian Gorka, a former Trump administration official, on Gorka’s web show. “They hate everything about Israel, and they should be ashamed of themselves, because Israel will be destroyed,” Trump continued, going on to discuss Iran’s nuclear ambitions. The remarks echoed a trope that American Jews have split loyalties to the U.S. and Israel.

[He is aiming at the Jewish population because 70% of voters in the 2020 elections voted for President Biden. Notice that he hasn’t gone after other minorities like this – although he hasn’t gone after Muslims in a little while.]

[And to add to the craziness….]

“President Trump is right — the Democrat Party has turned into a full-blown anti-Israel, anti-Semitic, pro-terrorist cabal,” Trump campaign press secretary Karoline Leavitt said.

[She really has been drinking the Kool-Aid after losing her election in the House elections in 2022 and before that working as an intern for Fox.]

Trump warned hat if he were to lose the 2024 election, it would be a “bloodbath” for the US auto industry and the country. “We’re going to put a 100% tariff on every single car that comes across the line, and you’re not going to be able to sell those guys if I get elected,” Trump said during a rally in Ohio. “Now, if I don’t get elected, it’s going to be a bloodbath for the whole – that’s gonna be the least of it. It’s going to be a bloodbath for the country. That’ll be the least of it.”

[So Trump is getting desperate? Threatening an industry? Where would he threaten next? Does he think other countries won’t do the same on American made goods?]

On the morning of January 6, 2021, in a last-ditch bid to overturn his election loss, Trump told then-Vice President Mike Pence that his decision to uphold his constitutional duty and certify the results later that day would be “a political career killer,” according to an unnamed witness who overheard part of the call.

Trump came a step closer to reaping a major windfall from his social media firm after investors in a blank-check acquisition company approved a tie-up currently worth about $5.7 billion. The deal values Trump’s majority stake in the company that holds his app Truth Social at about $3.3 billion. The windfall could prove vital as Trump grapples with the financial fallout of a string of legal cases against him.

[However, while Trump will have that stake, it will be quite a while before he actually has it all.]

It is a bit bad when Nikki Haley, who is not a candidate for the Republican party anymore, garnered 108,000 votes [18%] in the Arizona primary. No response from the Trump campaign.

Trump is expected to enlist Paul Manafort, the former campaign manager he pardoned, as a campaign adviser later this year.

[No one will be shocked if he hires others who have been convicted and I’m sure some who never were in politics.]

Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. refused to delay prison time for Peter Navarro, a former senior aide to Trump, as he appeals his conviction for refusing to testify before Congress about his involvement in efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election. Roberts, who oversees emergency requests from the US Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit, said he saw no basis to disagree with an appeals court ruling that Navarro must serve time while his appeal is underway. Navarro was sentenced in January to four months after a jury convicted him on two counts of contempt of Congress.

Trump suffered arguably his worst loss[es] in any criminal matter recently when, in his New York trial for alleged falsification of business records, Judge Juan M. Merchan ruled against him in virtually all of his motions to exclude evidence.

US District Judge Aileen M. Cannon ordered the defense lawyers and the prosecutors in the case to file submissions outlining proposed jury instructions based on two scenarios, each of which badly misstates the law and facts of the case, according to legal experts. She has given the sides two weeks to craft jury instructions around competing interpretations of the Presidential Records Act, often referred to as the PRA. While the law says presidential records belong to the public and are to be turned over to the National Archives and Records Administration at the end of a presidency, Trump’s lawyers have argued the PRA gave Trump the right to keep classified materials as his personal property.

Trump filed yet another lawsuit against the news media, accusing ABC News and George Stephanopoulos of defamation over assertions the anchor made in a combative interview. In an interview on “This Week,” Stephanopoulos pressed Republican Rep. Nancy Mace, a rape survivor, over her continued support of Trump after a jury found he sexually abused writer E. Jean Carroll in 1996, awarding her $88 million for battery and defamation. Stephanopoulos asserted multiple times in the interview with Mace that Trump had “raped” Carroll. “You endorsed Donald Trump for president. Judges and two separate juries have found him liable for rape and for defaming the victim of that rape. How do you square your endorsement of Donald Trump with the testimony that we just saw?” Stephanopoulos asked Mace. The South Carolina Republican defended her support of the former president, arguing that the jury decision was merely in a civil case.

According to February 2024 statistics, Truth Social has so far had 8.9 million sign-ups, of which Trump has 6.7 million followers. X, by comparison, has more than half a billion monthly users, according to Elon Musk.

A pro-Trump lawyer, Stefanie Lambert, who tried to overturn the 2020 election was arrested after a court hearing about her recent leak of internal emails belonging to Dominion Voting Systems. There was an existing arrest warrant for Lambert stemming from her failure to appear at recent court hearings in her separate criminal case in Michigan, where she was charged with conspiring to seize voting machines after the 2020 election.

Pro-Russia and ignoring cases

In this past week, Donald Trump continues to spin things and then ignores the facts that things he has said are already at different courts to be decided or have already been denied.

More than 72 hours after Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny’s death in an Arctic penal colony, Trump mentioned him by name for the first time in a post on his social media site that focused not on Navalny, but his own legal woes. President Joe Biden and other Western leaders have blamed Russian President Vladimir Putin for the 47-year-old’s death, responding with anger and demands for answers. But Trump made no mention of Putin or Navalny’s family in the post that instead cast himself as a victim and continued to paint the US as a nation in decline.

“The sudden death of Alexei Navalny has made me more and more aware of what is happening in our Country. It is a slow, steady progression, with CROOKED, Radical Left Politicians…. WE ARE A NATION IN DECLINE, A FAILING NATION! MAGA2024.” [I removed the usual whining comments from his post.]

Trump’s reference to Navalny’s “sudden death” was notable. Prison officials allegedly told Navalny’s mother when she arrived at the penal colony hat her son had perished from “sudden death syndrome.” The previous time when someone saw him alive, just within 48 hours, he was alive and looked well. At one point Trump compares Navalny’s time persecuted by the Russian regime him being persecuted by the Biden government.

[Navalny death was listed by Russian authorities as natural causes. You just don’t collapse and die from natural causes.]

The Securities and Exchange Commission has approved the merger proposal of Trump’s media start-up with a special purpose acquisition company, a critical step for a long-delayed deal that would make the owner of Trump’s website Truth Social a publicly traded company and unlock $300 million in investor funds. The approval is a victory for Trump, who will hold more than 78 million shares in the post-merger company, a filing shows — a stake that, at current prices, would be worth nearly $4 billion. Trump, who would own between 58 and 69 percent of the company.

[Being worth $4 billion is not the same as selling at that price.]

Trump could be at risk of losing some of his prized properties if he can’t pay his staggering New York civil fraud penalty. With interest, he owes the state nearly $454 million — and the amount is going up $87,502 each day until he pays. New York Attorney General Letitia James said that she will seek to seize some of Trump’s assets if he’s unable to cover the bill from Judge Arthur Engoron’s Feb. 16 ruling. Under state law, he is being charged interest on that amount at an annual rate of 9%. Any appeal requires a 10% bond on the judgment. So to appeal the $355 million ruling, he will need a $70 million bond.

Engoron has denied Trump’s request to delay the judgment for a month. Once the judgment is officially entered, it will start the 30-day clock for Trump to file an appeal. During that period, Trump will need to put up cash or post bond to cover the $355 million and roughly $100 million in interest he was ordered to pay the state.

So with Trump having a big bill to pay, he could use his Super PAC contributions but after spending $50 million in 2023 on legal matters, he has just over $5 million in the piggy bank. He needs money to pay his legal bills but also needs it for his campaign.

So what is he doing? He is selling Trump branded running shoes called “The Never Surrender High-Tops”. They go for $399 each pair. [We will assume it is a pair! You never know!] He is also dishing out perfume and cologne for $99 each. [Did he rip off a perfume or cologne manufacturer? Or maybe just filled up the containers with water and some smelly chemical.] He announced the running shoes at [get this] Sneaker Con in Philadelphia.

Trump urged a Florida judge to dismiss the criminal case charging him with illegally retaining classified documents, claiming in part that presidential immunity protects him from prosecution even as that sweeping argument has so far in failed in federal appeals courts in a separate case. Trump’s lawyers wrote that the classified documents charges turn on his alleged decision to designate the papers as “personal” records under the Presidential Records Act, and argued that he cannot be prosecuted since that was an “official act” made while he was still in the White House.

[Just like with everything else, his lawyers push for something that has already been decided elsewhere. You can’t dis miss a case when the validity in presidential immunity is still in question. And those documents were supposed to be returned to the government in January 2021 but were not and much of it was left unsecured.]

Washington’s federal appeals court in its decision this month was unsparing in its repudiation of Trump’s novel claim that former presidents enjoy absolute immunity for actions that fall within their official job duties. But Trump’s lawyers argued that the appeals court’s decision was wrong, telling US District Judge Aileen Cannon she should not follow the court’s “poorly reasoned decision” in the classified documents case.
[Wow! It was a poorly reasoned decision. OK. So Trump should be off the hook. Not.]

Trump’s lawyers argued that Attorney General Merrick Garland’s appointment of special counsel Smith to investigate Trump was “unlawful” and grounds for dismissing the documents case. They also are attacking the law Trump is accused of violating as “unconstitutionally vague” as applied in his case.

[Might as well just say the case should be dismissed because the floors were not clean or they ran out of cappuccino at a nearby coffee (covfefe!) shop.]

The Supreme Court declined to revisit sanctions levied against two pro-Trump attorneys who filed frivolous lawsuits challenging the outcome of the 2020 election in Michigan. Sidney Powell and Lin Wood filed separate appeals asking the justices to review sanctions imposed by a US district court in 2021. The Supreme Court denied both appeals without offering any comment on the case.

Trump said that he supports women having access to in vitro fertilization in response to the Alabama Supreme Court’s IVF ruling and called on Alabama lawmakers to “act quickly to find an immediate solution” to keep the procedure available in the state.

[I wonder if Trump has enough clout to get Alabama to reverse or modify its position.]

Trump’s campaign has released an ad attacking rival Nikki Haley over her supposed stance on the state’s gasoline tax when she served as governor. But the Trump ad leaves out critical context about Haley’s position on the gas tax, omitting key comments to make her sound like the unequivocal tax-hiker she never was. In her speech, Haley said “Let’s increase the gas tax by 10 cents over the next three years” but the ad failed to include “when coupled with the 30% income tax cut, it still represents one of the largest tax cuts in South Carolina history.”

In a recent survey conducted by a panel of experts specializing in the American presidency, President Biden was ranked the 14th-best president, while his likely 2024 presidential opponent Trump found himself at the very bottom of the list. From 2024 Presidential Greatness Project Expert Survey, President Obama is ranked 7th [was 15th last year]. However, a noticeable partisan split emerged in the rankings for Obama and Biden, with Democrat respondents placing them at an average of sixth and 13th, while Republicans ranked them at 15th and 30th, respectively.

In 2021, MyPillow founder Mike Lindell offered $5 million to anyone who could disprove his claim that he had data showing voter fraud in the 2020 presidential election. Now, he must pay a 64-year-old from Nevada that award, a federal judge ruled. Lindell, a prominent election denier and staunch supporter of Trump, claimed to have data showing Chinese interference in the 2020 race.

Robert Zeidman, a computer forensics expert who voted for Trump twice, did just that, a federal judge in Minnesota determined Wednesday, upholding a previous ruling from a private arbitration panel. Zeidman is owed the $5 million payout plus interest, Judge John Tunheim wrote in his ruling.

Abraham Josephine Riesman, author of the 2023 unauthorized biography of WWE’s Vince McMahon, said a young Trump has been watching McMahon family wrestling since he was a child in the 1950s. Riesman says Trump took his “showmanship” from how the WEE has evolved into not just wrestling. McMahon and his wife are major donors to Trump’s campaign.

[McMahon has faced multiple allegations of sexual misconduct over the years. He remains under federal investigation, and he has not commented publicly on millions of dollars in hush-money payments he reportedly made to several women at WWE. McMahon, who is 78, resigned last month as executive chairman of TKO, pro wrestling’s parent company, after being sued by a former employee who says she was sexually abused and trafficked by McMahon to other men at WWE. I guess fitting. Trump hangs around with Jeffrey Epstein and McMahon.]

18% of Americans believe in the Taylor Swift election conspiracy theory – that is she was secretly involved with the Biden administration to get him re-elected. It jumps to 32% for Republican voters! In comparison 12% think the moon landing was faked and 10% believe the earth is flat.

[Seriously. Why is it that these whack job crazy conspiracy theories seem to comes from the right. It is fitting that some of them are liars (Trump, George Santos, Mike Johnson, Marjorie Taylor Greene, Matt Gaetz, Lauren Boebert, etc.)]

Trump to pay by the nose

Judge Arthur Engoron found Donald Trump liable for issuing false financial statements, falsifying business records, and conspiracy, all part of a lawsuit filed by New York Attorney General Letitia James. The judge has ordered Trump and his companies to pay nearly $355 million in a ruling in the New York civil fraud case. He is also barred from serving as an officer or director of any New York corporation or other legal entity in the state for three years, and he cannot apply for loans from any financial institution registered in New York for three years. Add possibly another $100 million in interest.

Meanwhile, his adult sons, Donald Jr. and Eric, have been ordered to pay $4 million for their personal profits from the fraud and are barred from serving as an officer or director of any New York corporation for two years. A Trump lawyer has already said they’d appeal.

“A crooked New York judge working with the very corrupt attorney general of New York State, who ran on the basis of ‘I will get Trump’ before knowing me — before even knowing anything about me — just ruled that I have to pay a fine of $355 million based on absolutely nothing… No victims. No damages. Great financial statements, with full disclaimer clauses, only success.”

“This is a witch hunt where the judge ruled against me before he even saw the case,” Trump said, noting that Engoron “strongly stated that said Mar-a-Lago was worth $18 million- when it is worth anywhere from 50 to 100 times more than that.” If that place is worth up to $1.8 billion…
Trump also said Engoron has “already been overturned on this case four times — a record” which did not happen.

“I built a great company and now this whacked out clubhouse politician judge bars me for three years” and Engoron “is a political hack working in conjunction with a crooked attorney general in the greatest case of election interference anyone has ever seen in this country.” Everything is the greatest or fantastic.

“I answered the questions very directly and the financial statements speak for themselves — they are fantastic financial statements.” He didn’t answer according to the judge. Who do you believe?

“My main finding is that there is no evidence whatsoever of any accounting fraud,” New York University accounting professor Eli Bartov, testified. Trump’s financial statements, he said, “were not materially misstated.” I wonder how long Bartov will keep his job.

“He is just a clubhouse politician… This country is becoming worse than Russia ever was.”

“They are doing this because I am beating Biden in the polls by so much… They are trying to stop me, but they will not be successful.” He claimed that he was winning Biden by 20 points. Where?

“Great cash. Great buildings…” in New York City and then he claims citizens of New York City will leave the city because of this ruling. I’m not joking.

Trump also repeated about his usual enemies: Department of Justice, President Biden, the greatest hoax ever, … You know them.
For the major US news site, only Fox News [surprised?] didn’t have the story at the top of their web site.

Threats, lies, and Trump

Wow. What a week compared to the last one.

The Supreme Court said that it will decide whether Donald Trump’s name can appear on primary election ballots, scheduling arguments in early February in a case that will have a major impact on this year’s presidential election.

While the states of Maine and Colorado have reason for kicking Trump off the ballot because of the 14th Amendment, Missouri and maybe Florida are looking for ways to kick off President Joe Biden from their ballots but for no reasons that can be considered legal. While Trump’s 14th Amendment issue will be decided by the Supreme Court [see above], Missouri Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft has his reasons.

Ashcroft said that he’s “let an invasion unstopped into our country from the border.” Vice President Kamala Harris, he added, “supported people that were rebelling against the U.S. government during the riots in 2020,” referring to racial justice protests in the wake of George Floyd’s murder. I don’t think those are in the same leagues as what Trump did and nobody is trying to impeach [for now] Biden and it isn’t a crime either – you can’t get arrested.

So now Trump has gone into threats: Trump has long vowed to prosecute Biden if Trump wins November’s election and the two trade places. He upped the stakes dramatically, contending that if criminal charges against him aren’t dropped, any current and future ex-presidents also could be prosecuted. “I feel that as a president, you have to have immunity, very simple,” Trump said after a court hearing where a panel of three federal judges seemed deeply skeptical of his attorneys’ arguments that presidents have immunity from prosecution for official business. “It’s the opening of a Pandora’s box and it’s a very, very sad thing that’s happened with this whole situation.”

Trump said Biden might not be the only one targeted. Former President Barack Obama could end up being prosecuted, he said, citing Obama administration drone strikes in the Middle East that killed a US citizen who was identified as a leader of the terrorist group al-Qaida and that man’s 16-year-old son, also a US citizen. In court, Trump’s attorney suggested that former President George W. Bush could be prosecuted for providing false information that launched the Iraq War.

[Well, good luck on this. Any court will probably throw out any of these charges. Trump just doesn’t get it. What he is primarily charged for is that while he was in his reign, he did things that were illegal and had nothing to do with running the country, but instead benefited himself. No other president has ever asked a governor to find thousands of jobs, for example.]

So in his New York fraud case, Trump wanted to speak at the closing arguments. New York Supreme Court Justice Arthur Engoron said he would allow it as long as he stuck to the case and not make it a campaign speech, go after political opponents, go after him or his court staff, etc. Trump decided to decline. Smart move as he probably would of perjured himself at one point. But he then claims that the judge did not allow him to do his closing argument. In the same rant, he claims that legal experts are already saying that what has happened to him will be in all the legal books in the future. Yes, not for how he was basically crucified by the justice system and the Biden administration together but how he was unbelievable and a narcissist.

Trump’s attorney Christopher Kise wrapped up his remarks just before the morning break, arguing that New York Attorney General Letitia James was “weaponizing a consumer protection statute never before used in this context… You just cannot allow the attorney general to pursue a victimless fraud and impose the corporate death penalty.”

[Next time, don’t defraud the government and banking institutions, among others.]

Kise said in his summation that Trump is “a person who has been the heart of the fabric of the commercial real estate industry” in New York for 50 years and echoed Trump’s claims that the case was politically motivated.

[So Trump has been frauding the city for 50 years.]

New York Attorney General Letitia James is now seeking a $370 million penalty against Trump and his company instead of the $250 million the state sought when it filed a civil fraud lawsuit in 2022, according to a court filing.

Oh, Judge Engoron received a bomb threat to his Long Island home early morning hours, just hours before closing arguments were set to begin in the $370 million civil fraud trial against Trump, his company and others.

Biden detailed the events of January 6, 2021, Trump Insurrection, at a rally describing a “violent mob” that was “whipped up by lies from a defeated former president.” Trump’s actions that day “were among the worst derelictions of duty by any president in American history… Losers are taught to concede when they lose. And he’s a loser,” Biden said to cheers. Biden cast Trump’s actions and the events of January 6 as “an attempt to overturn a free and fair election by force of violence.”

He warned broadly that Trump’s movement – “the same movement” of January 6 – “isn’t just trying to rewrite history on January 6, they were trying to determine to erase history and your future,” he said, pointing to efforts to ban books, deny the right to vote, and “destroying diversity, equality and inclusion all across America. Harboring hate and replacing hope with anger and resentment.”

Why it took Trump so long to do this: A far-right news site, reposting on Truth Social the false claim that Haley is not constitutionally eligible to be president because her parents were not US citizens when she was born in South Carolina. This specious claim flies in the face of the 14th amendment, which says people born in the US are automatically citizens. The amendment says nothing about the parents. Of course Trump will ignore what the amendment says. He is already doing it regarding his immunity legal cases. Trump has previously made claims about birther rights regarding “Lyin’” Ted Cruz, Kamala Harris, Barrack Obama, etc.

“So many mistakes were made. See, there was something I think could have been negotiated, to be honest with you,” Trump said at a campaign event in Newton, Iowa. “I think you could have negotiated that. All the people died. So many people died.” Trump did not say how he would have prevented the conflict, which he also called “so horrible but so fascinating… It was, I don’t know, it was just different,” Trump said of the war. “I just find it – I’m so attracted to seeing it.”’

[Negotiated? After Nikki Haley left out slavery just days earlier, do you think there was any chance of negotiations around 165 years ago? Would Lincoln agree to maybe a percentage of blacks would still be slaves but not the others? Slavery was the biggest reason that there was a civil war then. There has been, however, a growing movement among the right to rewrite history saying slavery was not a major issue for the civil war. Attracted? You are generally attracted to another person for example but not war and bloodshed.]

“Just a few days ago, the defeated former president was asked about the recent shooting in Iowa. …. You know what his response was?,” he said. “‘We have to get over it,’ end of quote,’” said Biden in South Carolina.

Trump claimed that the stock market is up because he is leading in the polls.

[And if he were trailing in the polls then the stock market would be crashing. Trump has been leading most polls (against Biden) for the last little while. To say that it is because he’s leading is hogwash.]

Trump feels sorry for the “J6 hostages”. Who are they? It is what he calls the January 6 Trump Insurrectionists who have been arrested and sentenced in courts. A former leader of the right-wing extremist group Proud Boys was sentenced to 22 years in prison for his role in the Trump Insurrection.

Trump opened his first rally of his 2024 presidential campaign with a popular recording of the J6 Prison Choir — riot defendants singing “The Star-Spangled Banner” recorded over a phone line from jail, interspersed with Trump reciting the Pledge of Allegiance.

“They suffered enough” said Trump. How did they suffer? If you want to have suffered prisoners, stay in a Russian prison in Siberia.

[If Trump gets in, and hopefully not, he will probably order each state to name schools and/or streets after each of the “hostages” if they are released – assuming Trump pardons them if he wins the election.]

Trump has now invented a new “front” in his claims against Biden. “When there’s a [economic] crash, I hope it’s going to be during this next 12 months because I don’t want to be Herbert Hoover. The one president – I just don’t want to be Herbert Hoover,” Trump said. The stock market crashed during Hoover’s first year in office in 1929.

[Is Trump wishing for a crash? Maybe he will ask some of his buddies to help in it. Of course, there is no indication that the economy is tanking. It isn’t. It is just another lie that will be added to his other lies. Expect him to say in future rallies that the country is already in a recession. It isn’t. Either he doesn’t know the definition of a recession or he does but doesn’t care.]

The House Democrats on the Committee on Oversight and Accountability released a bombshell report on the extent of Trump’s financial haul is astounding. “President Trump’s businesses received, at a minimum, $7.8 million in foreign payments from at least 20 countries during his presidency. These included payments from foreign governments and foreign government-owned or -controlled entities to properties owned by Donald Trump.”

Countries such as China, Saudi Arabia, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Malaysia, Albania and Kosovo “spent — often lavishly — on apartments and hotel stays at Trump’s properties personally enriching Trump [in his reign] while he made foreign policy decisions connected to their policy agendas with far-reaching ramifications for the United States.” [All very upstanding countries.]

[This doesn’t include the millions of dollars pocketed by his daughter and son-in-law, Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner, while they were in the White House.]

Republican Kevin McCarthy, who went on to become House speaker, had called January 6 the “saddest day” he ever had in Congress. But McCarthy retired last month he endorsed Trump for president and said he would consider joining his cabinet.

Trump has proposed imposing unprecedented new tariffs on trillions of dollars worth of imports and deporting undocumented workers on a vast scale to decrease inflation that has already come down quite a bit. Experts are already saying that these moves would actually increase prices as if a tariff is increased on items with little to no US made equivalent, prices will go up. With less [undocumented] workers, who exactly will pick crops in US fields? Most of your typical unemployment Americans are looking for a job that pays more than a burger flipper. The lack of workers will increase prices and will also result in crops thrown out. The increase in prices will then be passed onto the consumers.

[Are they all undocumented? Some are but many aren’t.]

Melania Trump’s mother died recently. So what did Donald do? Busy with his campaigning. What a nice son-in-law. [Sarcastic.] Some of his lame followers on social media were complaining that his closing arguments in the New York fraud case should have been delayed? If he was campaigning the days between her passing and the court case, why delay the court case?

In a video on Trump’s social platform, in 1946 the narrator said “God created Trump.” So he is higher than Bishops, Archbishops and maybe even the Pope?

Former Vice President Mike Pence denounced the debunked conspiracy theory that the FBI instigated the January 6, 2021, Trump Insurrection. Pence said “We’ve been assured again and again that it was not the case…. I just must tell you, having been there that day, to see people literally breaking windows, ransacking the Capitol, it just infuriated me. I remember thinking ‘not this, not here, not at the United States Capitol”.

Trump criticized late Sen. John McCain for standing in the way of Republicans’ efforts to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act, known colloquially as Obamacare. Trump is behind the times as most Americans want the ACA. Trump also mocks McCain’s war injury while on campaign.

[Remember this: Republicans asked if they wanted to get rid of Obamacare and most said yes. When asked about ACA, those who said yest about Obamacare said no to ACA.]

Finally a real quite week

The US Supreme Court said it will review the Colorado Supreme Court’s unprecedented decision removing former Donald Trump from that state’s ballot. The court scheduled oral arguments for February 8. Trump remains on the ballot as the lower-court ruling disqualifying him has been put on hold pending Supreme Court action.

A group of House Democrats is demanding Justice Clarence Thomas recuse himself from a case stemming from the Colorado ruling disqualifying Trump from holding office, citing past efforts by Thomas’ wife to reverse the 2020 election results. In a letter sent by eight Democrats on Thursday to Thomas, the lawmakers argue his wife, Virginia “Ginni” Thomas’ role in the January 6, 2021, “Stop the Steal” rally that she attended make it “unthinkable” the conservative justice could be impartial in deciding whether the event constituted an insurrection.

Special counsel Jack Smith pushed back against Trump’s assertions that the prosecutor should be held in contempt for submitting filings while the federal election interference case is paused, calling accusations that he was intentionally violating a court order “false” and “baseless.” “The Court has held that there is a substantial public interest in the fair and prompt resolution of this case,” prosecutors wrote.

The New York attorney general, Letitia James, is seeking more than $370 million from Trump and his co-defendants and to bar Trump from doing business in the state, according to a post-trial brief filed in Trump’s civil fraud trial.

The Democrats “have weaponized the system.” Trump said at a rally in Iowa, this coming from the man who already wants to use the Department of Justice, FBI and others to go after his enemies once he is elected. He also says Democrats “are signing up” migrants to vote and these same migrants hate the US. If they hate the US, why would you want to migrate to that country? He also claims that Democratic donors are helping out Nikki Haley.

[And how come he hasn’t given Haley a nickname yet?]

Trump has only escalated his apocalyptic descriptions of America and its ostensible future under another President Biden term. “Our border has been erased. Criminals are running wild in our Democrat-run cities. And thanks to crooked Joe’s breathtaking weakness, the world is going up in flames… The whole world is up in flames.” He also told his audience that “the communists, Marxists and fascists are going hard after Catholics” and that Democrats “want people to take your children and do things with your children that are not even speakable.” Biden and “the far-left lunatics,” he said, are “willing to violate the US Constitution at levels never seen before,” adding that “we’re very close” to World War III.

[Everything in the paragraph above were just threats with no actual proof. In comparison, when Biden was talking about Trump and what Biden has said has is what Trump would say he would do or comment about – such as the dictatorship, accused migrants of “poisoning the blood” of the nation, calling enemies vermin and using the Department of Justice and other parts of the federal government to go after Trump’s opponents.]

[When Trump took over in 2016, many people who worked the various federal government departments left their jobs as they wouldn’t work for Trump. Expect a sequel to this if Trump wins in November. However, many celebrities claimed that they would move out of the US when Trump won in November of 2015, but very few did.]

Rumors floating that Nikki Haley [assuming she doesn’t get the nomination] could be pushed as Trump’s running mate in the next election by the GOP party. But Stephen Bannon and Donald Trump Jr. have stated that having Haley would be bad for the party.

“Why did American Disaster Liz Cheney … ILLEGALLY DELETE & DESTROY most of the evidence, and related items, from the January 6th Committee of Political Thugs and Misfits….” Trump and his allies have simply invented the claim that he requested 10,000 troops before the Jan. 6 Trump Insurrection attack on the Capitol, twisting an offhand comment into a supposed order to the Pentagon.

He “floated the idea of having 10,000 National Guardsmen deployed to protect him and his supporters from any supposed threats by left-wing counter protesters,” the report from the January 6 committee said. To mobilize 10,000-20,000 Guardsmen, he would have had to contact the Governors of other States and they would have had to then give orders, or he would have had to federalize the Guardsmen from those States.

Some of the documentation related Jeffrey Epstein case which had Trump as one of his clients – as well as Price Andrew and President Bill Clinton – is starting to ruffle the feathers of the right wing. Former Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani, Donald Trump Jr. and political allies such as Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene all posted about the release on social media, warning of a cover-up of alleged Epstein conspirators. Maybe they think most of the people on the list of clients are right wing perverts. I guess Taylor Greene may not have been clients but I wouldn’t be surprised about Giuliani, and like father like son for Donald Trump Jr. Why else would you warn of conspiracies or cover-ups?

As it was a quite week in Trumpland, here are some statistics that could shock you at least a bit – or not:

When The Washington Post and University of Maryland asked in December 2021 whether Biden was legitimately elected, 69 percent of Americans said he was. Now, that’s down to 62 percent. Slightly fewer Republicans today [31 percent] say Biden’s election was legitimate compared with 2021 [39 percent]. More than one-third of Americans, or 36 percent, do not accept Biden’s victory as legitimate.

Older Americans are slightly more likely than younger ones to say Biden was legitimately elected, as are voters with college degrees. About 3 in 10 people who get most of their information from Fox News think Biden won legitimately in 2020.

57 percent or Americans, say the Justice Department is “holding Trump accountable under the law like anyone else” by prosecuting him. A fifth of Republicans agree; the vast majority [77 percent] believe Trump is being targeted for political reasons, as he has repeatedly claimed without evidence.

Most Americans, 55 percent, believe the storming of the US Capitol on Jan. 6 was “an attack on democracy that should never be forgotten,” with majorities of Democrats and independents holding this view. But most Republicans and Trump voters reject this view.

More than 7 in 10 Republicans say that too much is being made of the attack and that it is “time to move on.” Fewer than 2 in 10 (18 percent) of Republicans say Jan. 6 protesters were “mostly violent,” dipping from 26 percent in 2021. Currently, 77 percent of Democrats and 54 percent of independents say the protesters were mostly violent, little changed from 2021.

Just over a quarter of Americans are confident that Trump will accept the results of the election if he loses the next presidential race, while 65 percent think President Biden will. A 71 percent majority of Americans are not confident Trump will accept losing in 2024, which is more than twice the share who say this of Biden. Nearly half of Republicans doubt Trump will accept the election if he loses, rising to 73 percent among independents and 93 percent of Democrats.

The Post-UMD poll finds that 55 percent of Republicans think legal punishments for the people who broke into the Capitol have been “fair” or “not harsh enough,” though that is down from 64 percent in 2021. Seven in 10 independents and about 9 in 10 Democrats say punishments have been fair or insufficient.

Two years ago, 60 percent of Americans overall said Trump bears “a great deal” or “a good amount” of responsibility for the attack; now, 53 percent do. Again, Republicans are driving that change — 14 percent assign him a great or good amount of culpability, about half as many as did in 2021 [27 percent].

A 56 percent majority of Americans say Trump is probably guilty of a criminal conspiracy to overturn the 2020 election results through false claims of voter fraud, including 40 percent who believe he is “definitely guilty.” Republicans are less united than Democrats. Nearly 9 in 10 Democrats believe Trump is guilty, while nearly 7 in 10 Republicans think he is innocent. Among independents, nearly twice as many think Trump is guilty as think he is innocent.

Even though most Americans believe Trump is guilty, the poll finds that fewer than half, 46 percent, say his actions related to Jan. 6 Trump Insurrection should disqualify him from the presidency. An additional 17 percent say Trump’s actions cast doubt on his fitness to serve, while 33 percent say they are not relevant.

Humor time:

After his speech in Iowa on Friday, Trump could be nominated for an Emmy prime time comedy special award for next year. A laugh a minute.

Trump booted from Colorado ballot, other states could follow

The Colorado Supreme Court removed Donald Trump from the state’s 2024 ballot, ruling that he isn’t an eligible presidential candidate because of the 14^th Amendment’s “insurrectionist ban.” The ruling was 4-3 and will be placed on hold pending appeal until January 4^th.

In November, a Colorado judge issued a ruling that concluded that Trump “engaged in an insurrection” on that day — but the decision fell just short of removing Trump from the state’s 2024 ballot based on the 14^th Amendment’s insurrectionist ban. The Colorado decision is expected to be appealed to the US Supreme Court, regardless of the ruling.

[The ruling says the primary ballot. It’s like saying you are guilty of killing someone. So you can’t run in the primary but no problem for the actual November election.]

Surprisingly or not, Republican candidates Ron DeSantis, Nikki Haley and Vivek Ramaswamy are all siding with Trump even though they could have an easier time winning the nomination if Trump was out. Haley did give the excuse that she wanted to win fair and square. The other two didn’t give much of a reason. Chris Christie and Asa Hutchinson, both longtime anti-Trumpers were in favor of the decision.

Some Republican’s are bashing the court because they are “unelected”. Not true. The governor appoints them but they still have to win state-wide elections. You would figure the Republicans would want judges with no affiliation [i.e. unbiased].

[In a Democrat leaning state, the Republicans would probably bash the court because of there are more Democrat judges than Republicans. Have they heard of the US Supreme Court?]

Trump’s lawyers asked the Supreme Court to reject special counsel Jack Smith’s request to bypass a federal appeals court and take up the case deciding if Trump, as a president, is immune from charges related to election subversion efforts after his 2020 loss to Joe Biden. The move echoed what Trump’s legal strategy has been in all of his criminal cases to date – to delay the proceedings, ideally beyond the 2024 election.

[While he was president at the time, he was the outgoing president as he had lost the election.]

There is a recording of a call by Trump made to two Michigan county officials in 2020, urging them not to certify the election results from Detroit. The call was previously known and condemned at the time by election experts and Michigan Democrats, who said it was a stunning attempt by a sitting president to pressure local officials to interfere with an election. RNC chairwoman Ronna McDaniel, who was also on the call told the officials, regarding the certification: “Do not sign it. … We will get you attorneys.”

Trump asked, “How can anybody sign” the election certification “when you have more votes than people,” referring to his false claim that large numbers of dead people voted in Michigan. 878,102 people voted for Trump in Wayne County [which includes Detroit], which had a population of over 1.7 million, according to the US Census Bureau.

Laughably, Trump campaign spokesperson/lackey Steven Cheung said in a statement that “all of President Trump’s actions were taken in furtherance of his duty as President of the United States to faithfully take care of the laws and ensure election integrity.”

[Could this lead to another indictment?]

Trump quoted Russian President Vladimir Putin to attack President Joe Biden as a “threat to democracy” and doubled down on language condemned for its ties to White supremacist rhetoric, saying at a campaign event in New Hampshire that immigrants are “poisoning the blood of our country.” Trump said “Even Vladimir Putin … says that Biden’s — and this is a quote – ‘politically motivated persecution of his political rival is very good for Russia because it shows the rottenness of the American political system, which cannot pretend to teach others about democracy.’” Trump also praised two other authoritarian foreign leaders, calling Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban “highly respected” and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un “very nice.”

When asked about it, Republican nominee, Ron DeSantis, said he didn’t hear about it. Sure Ronnie.

[With Trump, the US is heading more and more to the far right.]

Trump is asking a federal appeals court to reconsider its decision earlier this month largely upholding the gag order issued against him in his federal election subversion case. Trump, in a filing to the US DC Circuit Court of Appeals, asked the three-judge panel that handled the issue to either rehear it or for the issue to be considered en banc, meaning the case would be heard by the full court. Trump’s attorneys also asked the court to temporarily freeze the gag order while it considers their request for the case to be reheard.

Trump said at a rally pushing back on recent criticism that his rhetoric has echoed Adolf Hitler, telling a crowd in Iowa that he’s never read “Mein Kampf.” This was regarding his comments about immigrants “poisoning the blood of our country” sounding a bit like the Nazis.

[This coming from a man that has lied constantly.]

In an 1990 Vanity Fair report, Ivana Trump told her lawyer her ex-husband Donald use to keep Hitler speeches beside bed. Yikes.

Trump and Donald Trump Jr. have come to the defense of a one time social media influencer, Douglass Mackey, who has been convicted of election interference and has a well-known history of pushing deeply racist, antisemitic, anti-Muslim and homophobic content online. Trump accused President Biden of seeking to jail Mackey for “sharing a joking meme about Hillary Clinton several years ago. Nobody ever heard of anything like that.” Nope.

Mackey’s Twitter account at the time featured a slew of hateful content and he was ranked as 107th in a list of “election influencers” in the runup to the 2016 election, according to an analysis conducted by the MIT Media Lab. Mackey was charged seven days after Biden took office and convicted earlier this year. He was sentenced to seven months in prison but is currently out pending an appeal of his case.

In his New York fraud case, Judge Arthur Engoron issued a written ruling denying Trump’s request for a verdict in his favor in a lawsuit brought by New York Attorney General Letitia James. Engoron wrote that the “most glaring” flaw of Trump’s argument was to assume that the testimony provided by Eli Bartov, an accounting professor at New York University, and other expert witnesses would be accepted by the court as “true and accurate…. Bartov is a tenured professor, but the only thing his testimony proves is that for a million or so dollars, some experts will say whatever you want them to say,” Engoron wrote. Bartov was paid $900,000 for his testimony.

Bartov said there was “no evidence whatsoever of any accounting fraud.” But Engoron, in his ruling, noted that he had already ruled that there were “numerous obvious errors” in Trump’s financial statements. “By doggedly attempting to justify every misstatement, Professor Bartov lost all credibility,” the judge wrote. Trump took to his defense, calling Engoron’s comments about Bartov a “great insult to a man of impeccable character and qualifications” as he excoriated the judge’s decision.

A federal appeals court has rejected former Trump White House chief of staff Mark Meadows’ attempt to move his Georgia election interference criminal case to federal court. The opinion of the three-judge panel of the 11th US Circuit Court of Appeals, delivered by a conservative jurist who appointed to the court by former President George W. Bush.

Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss, the two Georgia election workers who won a nearly $150 million verdict against Trump’s former lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, for defamation, have sued him again, asking a federal judge to permanently prohibit him from lying about them. Giuliani has since declared bankruptcy.

Bullying in chief

Donald Trump sent a Thanksgiving post at 2 AM on Thursday saying “Happy Thanksgiving to ALL, including the Racist & Incompetent Attorney General of New York State, Letitia ‘Peekaboo’ James, who has let Murder & Violence Crime FLOURISH, & Businesses FLEE; the Radical Left Trump Hating Judge, a ‘Psycho,’ Arthur Engoron, who Criminally Defrauded the State of New York, & ME, by purposely Valuing my Assets at a ‘tiny’ Fraction of what they are really worth in order to convict me of Fraud before even a Trial, or seeing any PROOF, & used his Politically Biased & Corrupt Campaign Finance Violator, Chief Clerk Alison Greenfield, to sit by his side on the ‘Bench’ & tell him what to do.”

[Let’s see what happens next as at one point there was a gag order where Trump couldn’t say anything about his case in front of Engoron. If he actually listened to his lawyers, he would know how his fraud case works.]

Trump said that Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds, who broke with the general practice of Iowa governors not to support a candidate before the caucuses as she is supporting Ron DeSantis. “I was really good to her and then she said she was going to remain neutral. And I said, ‘That’s OK,’ but I didn’t really want her particularly…. I don’t think it’s made any difference.”

[Uh huh. And if he got the governor’s endorsement, he would be raving about her.]

Bob Vander Plaats, an influential Iowa evangelical leader, endorsed Ron DeSantis for president, boosting the Florida governor as he goes all in on the lead off caucus state. Unlike the 2016 and 2020 elections, Trump is losing support from the evangelical.

A federal appeals panel appears inclined to restore the limited gag order in Trump’s federal election subversion case, but may loosen some restrictions so he can more directly criticize special counsel Jack Smith. A three-judge panel of the DC US Circuit Court of Appeals heard oral arguments in the closely watched case, which stems from Trump’s attempts to overturn the 2020 election and obstruct the lawful transfer of power. He pleaded not guilty. None of the three judges, are all Democratic appointees, embraced Trump’s claims that the gag order should be wiped away for good because it is a “categorically unprecedented” violation of his free speech rights.

Trump marked President Joe Biden ‘s 81st birthday by releasing a letter from his physician that reports Trump is in “excellent” physical and mental health. The letter contained no details to support its claims — measures like weight, blood pressure and cholesterol levels, or the results of any test. Dr. Bruce A. Aronwald, a New Jersey physician who says he has been Trump’s doctor since 2021 and most recently examined him in September, reported that Trump’s “physical exams were well within the normal range and his cognitive exams were exceptional.” The doctor concluded the 77-year old is “currently in excellent health” and “will continue to enjoy a healthy active lifestyle for years to come.”

[We are sure the doctor was told what to report from Trump or his cronies. The doctor shouldn’t make comments like how Trump will be in the future. He knows that Trump is not in perfect health. Overweight among other things. If Trump died within the next little while, it wouldn’t look good on the doctor. Knowing the Trump family, the doctor would probably get sued.]

House Speaker Mike Johnson said he plans to publicly release 40,000 hours of footage from the Jan. 6, 2021, The Trump Insurrection, making good on a promise he made to far-right members of his party when he was campaigning for the job.

[Have fun going though all that footage to find something juicy. If one person looked at it for 10 hours a day, it would take 11 years.]

Trump losing allies

Donald Trump’s former chief of staff, Mark Meadows, was granted immunity by special counsel Jack Smith and has met with federal prosecutors multiple times in their investigation into the efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election. Meadows told investigators he did not believe the election was stolen and that Trump was being “dishonest” in claiming victory shortly after polls closed in 2020. While the exact terms of Meadows’ deal with prosecutors are not clear, similar deals traditionally allow a person with knowledge about an ongoing investigation immunity from prosecution if they cooperate fully with investigators, including by giving testimony under oath.

[This also means that Meadow’s book is filled with lies – as we all knew. Will the book be pulled? Thrown into the $5 book bins? Will buyers burn their books or ask for some type of refund?]

In a slew of court filings, attorneys for Trump filed several motions asking the judge overseeing the election subversion case in Washington, DC, to dismiss the charges against the former president on grounds that, among other things, they violate his First Amendment rights and are the product of a “selective and vindictive prosecution.” “Countless millions believe, as President Trump consistently has and currently does, that fraud and irregularities pervaded the 2020 Presidential Election,” his attorneys wrote. “As the indictment itself alleges, President Trump gave voice to these concerns and demanded that politicians in a position to restore integrity to our elections not just talk about the problem, but investigate and resolve it.” [Good luck there.]

In the $250 million lawsuit by New York Attorney General Letitia James, Trump’s former attorney and “fixer” Michael Cohen testified Tuesday he and former Trump Org. CFO Allen Weisselberg would manipulate the statements of financial conditions, the documents at the center of the civil fraud trial, based on what Trump wanted his net worth to reflect. Cohen testified that Trump would tell him and Weisselberg what he wanted his total net worth to be.

“He has a horrible record,” Trump said outside the courtroom as he exited for a lunch break. “It’s not going to end up very good for him. We’re not worried at all about his testimony.”

[This goes back to previous comments that Trump has said. If the individual did such a lousy job, why was the individual part of his team for so long and not fired immediately?]

Ivanka Trump must take the witness stand in the civil fraud case against her father, her brothers and their family business, Judge Arthur Engoron rule. The ruling came weeks into the trial of New York Attorney General Letitia James’ lawsuit against Trump, sons Don Jr. and Eric, the Trump Organization and some executives. Ivanka Trump’s lawyer had told the judge that state lawyers “just don’t have jurisdiction over her.”

The Republican National Committee was caught off guard when Trump’s campaign announced that it would hold a counter programming event the same night as the third RNC debate, just down the road from the Miami arena where other Republican candidates would be facing off. The decision to host what appears to be a competing event in the same area has rubbed some Republicans the wrong way.

Allies close to Trump attempted to justify the decision, pointing to Trump’s public frustration that the RNC is continuing to hold debates despite the wide margin he has over the rest of the field. Earlier this month, Trump’s top campaign advisers called on the RNC to “immediately cancel the upcoming debate in Miami and end all future debates in order to refocus its manpower and money” on defeating Democrats in 2024.

[Trump and his huge ego things he won the nomination – so why bother having a debate. So much for democracy. Very authoritarian.]

Former Trump campaign lawyer Jenna Ellis pleaded guilty in the Georgia election subversion case and will cooperate with Fulton County prosecutors – the third guilty plea in the past week. At an unscheduled hearing in Atlanta, Ellis pleaded guilty to one count of aiding and abetting false statements, a felony stemming from the election lies that Ellis and other Trump lawyers peddled to Georgia lawmakers in December 2020. She was sentenced to five years of probation and ordered to pay $5,000 in restitution. Ellis has agreed to testify on behalf of the prosecution at future trials.

Ellis delivered a tearful statement to the judge pleading guilty, disavowing her participation in Trump’s unprecedented attempts to overturn the 2020 election. “If I knew then what I knew now, I would have declined to represent Donald Trump in these post-election challenges,” she said before the judge.

[More like she wanted to be famous or have plenty of money because she knew this would keep her busy. Expect Trump to after her – maybe saying she was never his lawyer! See below.]

The plea from Ellis implicated former Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani in a state crime – lying to Georgia legislators by peddling false voter-fraud theories. This comes one week after Kenneth Chesebro implicated Giuliani in the fake electors scheme that tried to subvert the Electoral College process. Giuliani denies wrongdoing. Ellis admitted that she “intentionally aided and abetted” Giuliani and another Trump lawyer, Ray Smith, in “in knowingly, wilfully, and unlawfully making … false statements to members of the Georgia Senate.”

Trump claimed Sidney Powell was “never” his attorney after she pleaded guilty in the Georgia election subversion case. Despite Trump’s claims, Powell was briefly an official member of Trump’s legal team in 2020, and Trump stayed in contact with her on election-related matters even after she was ousted from his campaign. “MS. POWELL WAS NOT MY ATTORNEY, AND NEVER WAS. In fact, she would have been conflicted.” She went on to file frivolous lawsuits across the country, in hopes of overturning the election results.

Trump’s attempt to distance himself from Powell comes after she agreed to cooperate with Fulton County prosecutors and testify against her co-defendants in the case, potentially including Trump. Trump publicly announced on November 15, 2020, that he “added” Powell to his “truly great team” of lawyers working on the election.

Trump was abruptly called to the witness stand and then fined $10,000 after the judge in his civil fraud trial said Trump had violated a gag order. It was the second time in less than a week that Trump was penalized for his out-of-court comments. Before imposing the latest fine, Judge Arthur Engoron summoned Trump from the defense table to testify about his comment to reporters hours earlier about “a person who’s very partisan sitting alongside” the judge.

Mar-a-Lago member and Australian billionaire Anthony Pratt said then-President Trump told him about his private calls with the leaders of Ukraine and Iraq. Reports revealed previously unknown recordings of Pratt candidly recalling his conversations with Trump – and build on existing allegations that Trump overshared sensitive government material.

At a speech in New Hampshire, Trump said:

• Trump declaring that there were no terrorist attacks in the US during his presidency: Justice Department alleged that a mass murder in New York City in 2017, which killed eight people and injured others, was a terrorist attack carried out in support of ISIS. As well, Justice Department also alleged that a 2019 attack by an extremist member of Saudi Arabia’s military, which killed three US service members and injured others at a military base in Florida.
• Trump claimed that Nikki Haley had proposed the US to take in a large number of refugees from Gaza: Haley never said anywhere in her comments on CNN that she wanted the US to take in refugees from Gaza.
  [Of course there were others but these are the major lies.]

Still Trump has legal problems

“That is not fraud. That is real estate,” is what Donald Trump lawyer Alina Habba said regarding Trump’s fraud case in New York. However, it is not legal to list a lower than evaluated price for the purpose of evading taxes.

[It’s not like you can tell the taxman that you made $20,000 less than what your year end tax slip says.]

Among the allegations were that Trump claimed his Trump Tower apartment in Manhattan — a three-story penthouse replete with gold-plated fixtures — was nearly three times its actual size and worth an astounding US$327 million. No apartment in New York City has ever sold for close to that amount. Trump valued Mar-a-Lago as high as US$739 million — more than 10 times a more reasonable estimate of its worth.

New York appeals court Associate Justice, Peter Moulton, rejected Trump’s attempt to stop the ongoing $250 million civil fraud trial, but temporarily halted the process of breaking up Trump’s businesses.

Jeff McConney, also a co-defendant of Donald Trump, Eric Trump and Donald Trump Jr., testified as the first week of the civil fraud trial came to an end. The former controller of the Trump Organization says that Eric Trump directed him to make certain decisions that led to the inflated valuations of several Trump properties.

Trump said he will testify at his civil trial, while speaking just outside the court room during a break in proceedings. “Yes, I will. At the appropriate time I will be” testifying, he responded when asked. Trump is expected to testify later in the trial, and he is on the witness list for both the state and his own legal team.

Trump, in a press conference called New York Attorney General Letitia James, a racist attorney general because “she would get Trump before knew anything about me” and said she was after him even after she lost the governor’s race as if she is fixated on sending him to prison. The banks “can’t believe they are involved”. All this coordinated between the Attorney general of New York, the prosecutors and the Department of Justice. “They try to damage me…. This never happened before where a President of the United States leaves office and gets indicted and the reason why I got indicted was that I ran.” Yes everyone is out to get him. He claimed Biden has been sitting around taking a sunshine.

In the mean time, he played golf how many times during his term?

James is seeking to bar Trump from doing business in the state.

The Supreme Court said that it will not take up a long shot challenge to Trump’s eligibility to run for president because of his alleged role in the January 6, 2021, attack on the US Capitol [a.k.a. Trump Insurrection]. The case was brought by John Anthony Castro, a little-known candidate for the Republican presidential nomination, who sued Trump earlier this year in an effort to disqualify him from running for president and holding the office “given his alleged provision of aid or comfort to the convicted criminals and insurrectionist that violently attacked our United States Capitol on January 6, 2021.” The case was denied without any comment or recorded vote. Too bad.

Judge Arthur Engoron rebuked Trump after Trump attacked his clerk in a social media post and forbade the parties from making any future comments about his staff. “This morning one of the defendants posted on (a) social media account a disparaging untrue and personally identifying post about a member of my staff. Although I have since ordered the post deleted and apparently it was, it was also emailed out to millions of other recipients,” the judge said in court.

Trump posted attacked Engoron’s clerk, claiming she was a “girlfriend” to Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, a New York Democrat, and showing a picture of the two of them together. “How disgraceful!” Trump wrote. “This case should be dismissed immediately…. The person that works with him. She’s screaming into his ear almost every time we ask a question. A disgrace. It’s a disgrace.”

Lawyers for Trump have asked a judge to postpone his classified documents trial until after next year’s presidential election, saying they have not received all the records they need to review to prepare his defence. The trial on charges of illegally hoarding classified documents, among four criminal cases Trump is facing, is currently scheduled for May 20, 2024, in Florida. Trump’s lawyers urged US District Judge Aileen Cannon to push back the trial until at least mid-November 2024. The presidential election is set for Nov. 5, 2024.

Trump endorsed [far] right wing Ohio Rep. Jim Jordan’s bid for speaker of the House but also after he expressed openness to temporarily serving in the role himself. Even if he could, I don’t think Trump could get all the GOP to agree.

Where have we heard this before: Trump allegedly discussed potentially sensitive information about US nuclear submarines with a member of his Mar-a-Lago resort with Australian billionaire Anthony Pratt in 2021. Pratt then mentioned the information to at least 40 0thers including three former Australian Prime Ministers, some current Australian politicians, his staff and others. The allegations were not included in special counsel Jack Smith’s indictment of Trump over his handling of classified documents. But the incident was reported to and investigated by Smith’s team.

[I can see Trump saying that as President (he was a former President at the time, not the same) he is allowed to disclose whatever he wants to whomever he wants. Just like claiming he can declassify any document (with his mind).]