Chickens Are Coming to Roost for Trump
Remember, he's only a symptom
The former President of the United States was not indicted on Tuesday. It’s entirely possible we’ll get through the whole week without hearing any news about the New York District Attorney’s case. If we do hear something, it will come from Trump himself, since the indictment won’t be unsealed until he presents himself in court.
Elsewhere, the chickens are coming home to roost quicker and in more places than I expected. Let us count the ways…
Judge Lewis Kaplan has ruled that key witnesses will be allowed to testify and misogynistic remarks Trump made about women in 2005 can be played for a jury hearing a civil suit alleging rape.
The Justice Department’s investigation into Trump’s post-presidency handling of classified documents slipped into high gear on Tuesday as a judge ruled that he knowingly and deliberately misled his own attorneys about his retention of classified materials. U.S. Judge Beryl Howel said this circumstance allowed a highly unusual ruling that attorney-client privilege was moot.
Via ABC News:
In her sealed filing, Howell ordered that Evan Corcoran, an attorney for Trump, should comply with a grand jury subpoena for testimony on six separate lines of inquiry over which he had previously asserted attorney-client privilege.
Sources added that Howell also ordered Corcoran to hand over a number of records tied to what Howell described as Trump's alleged "criminal scheme," echoing prosecutors. Those records include handwritten notes, invoices, and transcriptions of personal audio recordings.
Trump's lawyers and the Justice Department were ordered overnight to present arguments on whether or not his lawyer would be compelled to testify. “Overnight” in legal proceedings of this sort is astonishing, leading some analysts to believe critical evidence is at the heart of this matter.
On the internet, there was open speculation that Trump lawyer Evan Corcoran recorded and transcribed conversations, possibly between himself and Donald Trump. Corcoran has been ordered to hand over transcriptions.
In Atlanta, a prosecutor is nearing a decision in her high-profile investigation of Trump's alleged efforts to subvert the 2020 election results in Georgia, even as right wingers in the legislature are seeking to pass a law allowing for removal of prosecutors by a yet-to-be-created oversight committee..
Coming back to New York, State Attorney General Letitia James’ civil lawsuit accusing Trump and his family of financial fraud appears to be headed for a court date before the year is out.
Meanwhile, the media is abuzz with stories about the strength (or lack thereof) of the case against the former president. At the center of this investigation is whether a $130,000 payoff to adult movie actress Stormy Daniels constituted a campaign contribution.
"There's no proof that Trump slept with Stormy. There's no baby." --Jesse Watters, Fox News
A big part of Trump’s response to the New York grand jury coming to the completion of its investigation has been his call-outs to supporters to “PROTEST, PROTEST, PROTEST.
A crew of Proud Boys, thought to be in New York City to show support for their hero, dissipated after taking a side trip to protest a drag show and getting physically abused by the crowd.
Thus far, aside from posturing by elected toadies in the GOP, the response has been muted. Demonstrations of support for the former president at Trump Towers in NYC and Mar-a-Lago have involved single-digit turnouts.
The New York Times has coverage about Trump’s feelings as life-changing events approach. The short answer is that he doesn’t have any feelings beyond self-love.
Behind closed doors at Mar-a-Lago, the former president has told friends and associates that he welcomes the idea of being paraded by the authorities before a throng of reporters and news cameras. He has even mused openly about whether he should smile for the assembled media, and he has pondered how the public would react and is said to have described the potential spectacle as a fun experience.
Underneath all the lying and criming is the sobering reality that Trump is a symptom of a larger ailment affecting the U.S. A conservative viewpoint of our culture as a nation has evolved into a notion of authoritarian rule as the solution for dealing with life’s problems.
Strip away all the rhetoric about this or that manifestation of “wokeness” to ask about real-life solutions and you’ll end up with intentions or actions to inflict pain on those held responsible for often-imaginary notions.
This is why Florida’s Ron DeSantis and Trump are essentially the same, except that the Governor has proven to be a more effective administrator. Seemingly small victories for the right are metastasizing into full-blown crusades.
Oversight of libraries content has morphed into eliminating them as publicly-funded institutions.
Eliminating content about the civil rights struggle from textbooks, means racism doesn’t get mentioned in accounts of Rosa Parks actions.
Faux concerns about trans individuals “grooming” children translate into rules barring insurance companies and/or Medicaid from covering trans healthcare.
Despite the Supreme Court’s ruling making access to abortion an issue for individual states, reactionaries are pushing for rulings effectively banning this sort of health care in all states.
The GOP’s anti-wokeness campaigns have impacted the arts, with GLAAD reporting a decrease in LGBTQ+ representation on the silver screen during the 2022-2023 period.
President Biden’s first veto was aimed at a GOP-led bill (supported by a few dirty energy Dems) overturning rules regarding responsible investment. For these righties, short-term profit margins are more important than the effects of climate change, natural disasters, and warming temperatures causing an eventual decline in asset values with a cascading effect on the global financial system.
I would be remiss not to point out the impact of ultra-rich donors who make such things happen. For them, it’s not about the individual causes (they don’t need no stinkin’ libraries), it's about destroying and preventing a societal framework that binds our fortunes together.
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Love the chicken roosting on the steering wheel!