Media coverage of Republicans stampeding to NYC to attack Trump's trial as illegit is marred by euphemism. This isn't just "currying favor" w Trump or "expressing loyalty" or auditioning to be his VP. It's placing Trump over rule of law
Rs are attacking judge, witnesses, prosecutors & trial as illegitimate. This isn't just helping Trump evade the gag order. The point is also to display in spectacle form that their fealty is to him over the rules that make the system function
@GottaLaff The spectacle, the disruption, is the entertainment, it's the point. Entertainment meant to amuse, anger, rally, foment, distract...so lies are the feature. Trump was a moderately successful actor, even as he was a terrible failure as a businessman. He was successful as an illusionist for tv, which is where he honed is abilities to create a fictional character, and sell it to fans.
My question about his narrative for his criminal case is this: if his made-for-tv storyline is that he is the innocent victim, how does Mr "I only hire the best" (tagline) explain why he, for decades, continually hired, employed, praised, promoted, retained, and $2 Million severanced -- and repeatedly surrounded himself with -- convicted felons and perjurers like Allen Weiselberg and Michael Cohen?
The entertainment storyline we're now supposed to follow is that the ONLY CLUELESS man is spectacular business genius Trump?
These rotten apples (including convicted perjurer and felon Weisselberg whom Trump recently awarded a $2,000,000 severance for valuable services rendered) do not fall far from the rotted tree.
@GottaLaff Of course, but the court/Blanche/Trump Productions storyline in court (repeated by the Stepford Guys in red ties outside) is that Trump is being railroaded by a partisan DA and judge as an Innocent Billionaire, for the made up crime of being a loving husband protecting his wife from an evil porn star he doesn't know and a rogue personal employee whom he reimbursed $130,000 to payoff a porn star he doesn't know, but grossed up the $130,000 NDA to a $360,000 reimbursement plus a $60,000 bonus to total $420,000 and then hid it as legal fees.
There are two lawyers on the jury who have been paid by clients, but never like this, 3x your invoice from a micro-managing regular tightwad client. I've never innocently paid my lawyer 3x their invoice and then added a bonus. Has anyone?
They are so desperate for the position because Presidential-candidate Trump is NOT choosing a Vice-president, soon to be dictator Trump is choosing his successor.
2/ It's a larger pattern: Rs are declaring this higher fealty to Trump over our institutions on many fronts. Now that Trump has in effect declared the 2024 election will not be legitimate unless he wins, many Rs are using similar language
JD Vance and Elise Stefanik are auditioning to be Trump's VP by declaring their eagerness to sabotage the VP's institutional role in presiding over the peaceful transfer of power on Trump's behalf. Many Rs won't condemn his vow to pardon 1/6 criminals.
3/ It's true that some Rs showed great courage in resisting Trump. But they have been hounded out of the party, sent packing into retirement, or subjected to bullying and harassment.
Why? At bottom it's bc they put democracy/rule of law above Trump.
If Trump wins & prosecutes political foes, roots out "vermin," stocks bureaucracy w corrupt loyalists, converts intel agencies into MAGA enforcers, etc, does anyone doubt Rs declaring fealty to him above our institutions will eagerly go along?
Not just fealty to Trump. "Display in spectacle form" their contempt for the system of justice as part of a textbook strategy for taking down a democratic republic and replacing it with a corrupt autocracy. "Only a strongman can fix it." All their actions push in this direction.
@GottaLaff@Fenix I don't think the GOP appreciate how a) hated Trump is, b) how clownish they look to the general public. Though they may be scheming to install a fascist dictator/oligarchy, I question their competence to actually accomplish it ... but I'm an eternal optimist.
@GottaLaff@Tonkey@Fenix What Dems and Biden still fail to realize is that the first chance the GOP gets to expand the court they will and will certainly pack a super majority
@GottaLaff I'm glad you're getting out. My family and I are trapped. I'm just going to make sure my will is current: when religious fundamentalists overthrow governments, people like me are rounded up and killed.
@stylinstainless Same. We're Jewish with gay twins. Back in 2015 I got worried, and by 2016 I was terrified. By 2018 we'd contacted an immigration lawyer in Canada and we move in a week.
I wrote 3 blog posts about it if you want to read about the Why, How, and more. Let me know.
@GottaLaff@Fenix
Though I am always very concerned about the Conservative Party getting full control under a nutso PM. Still, that is a hypothetical. But it is not a slow process. It is something that can happen in one election.
I was in Canada when Parliament was dissolved and, later, not only did the Progressive Conservatives lose control, but they retained only two seats. Kim Campbell lost hers. Things can change that rapidly.
My fear is that the democrats are bringing a knife to a gunfight. Garland has to go. Biden needs to take authoritative action, like yesterday. You can't humiliate MAGA because being ignorant, cruel, and authoritarian is the whole point of the thing. Apologies to the well-intentioned Christians out there, but this is exactly how the dark ages began...
@lednaBM@Fenix@GottaLaff Biden hasn't even removed LeJoy from the Postal Service destruction yet. I highly doubt he's up to any dramatic change. He's still playing from his '90's centrist playbook.
The sad reality is that despite obvious differences and being objectively better, most mainstream Democrats in office (Biden, Pelosi, etc.) have more in common with MAGA Fascists than they do the people who VOTE Democrat.
@Lightfighter Um, Biden isn't the one authorized to do that. The Board has to. Yesterday on @ThomHartmann show, Ro Khanna said he'd speak to Schumer and try to push him to get things rolling. He's as frustrated as we are. @Fenix
@Lightfighter@ThomHartmann@GottaLaff That’s my understanding as well. But, correct me if I’m wrong, there are some things he can do to exert influence. No?
@Lightfighter We don't know that he has or hasn't done things behind the scenes, but blaming him for this seems misguided. It's not up to him. "The U.S. Postal Service Board of Governors has sole authority to hire and fire the postmaster general, the highest position in the organization. Though pressure mounts from Democrats and watchdogs to remove DeJoy from his seat at the top of the agency, Biden lacks the power to do so." https://www.federaltimes.com/federal-oversight/2022/08/24/can-biden-fire-us-postmaster-general-louis-dejoy/@ThomHartmann@Fenix
@GottaLaff the NYT had an article on how Israel had lost or had their democratic system broken (I read the synopsis on insta) and I commented “when is the NYT going to take the threat to democracy here seriously?” I’m so sick and tired of how they frame the Rs actions and the threat they pose.
@GottaLaff oh yeah, not to attack any single journalist at all!! The institution makes different decisions- and they’ve decided not to take the threat to democracy seriously with the editorial decisions they make.
@GottaLaff Comparison of DJT to Hitler, is becoming more accurate on a daily basis, except his final solution will not be limited to Jews, the Romani, LGBTQ, and communists. He’s told us his plans We need to plant a “bomb” to end them. @Danetteb@lednaBM
@GottaLaff. Thank you for posting this must-read article by #GregSargent. I always thought his pieces for the #WashingtonPost were standouts. His incisive coverage has, by and large, been replaced by journalistic gruel.
@GottaLaff i hear you, but I have a slightly different (more cynical?) take on this: the folks who are now publicly defying Trump (by and large… exceptions obviously exist), were out the door anyway because they were old, or facing an election they didn’t think they could win.
They’re doing it because it’s safe and they’re juat trying to save their own reputation, rather than try to save the country by actively defying him from a position of power.
@GottaLaff I still don't think any of this is due to Trump's leadership, not even a little. He was and remains a bumbling incompetent stooge but there's no mistaking his cult of personality. That alone is why, he enables their worst impulses and even if he died tomorrow they'd still be doing things under his name, a dictator for life even beyond death.
@GottaLaff These sycophants are them very same type of morally bankrupt individuals that supported, pushed, and enabled Hitler to start WWII and murder millions in the Holocaust! Hoping they all end up in the same bunker or dangling from a scaffold like Hilter's groupies.
@GottaLaff Saw this coming, they're going to raise hell if he wins or loses at the polls. The election doesn't matter, probably never did to them given you can invalidate any loss by saying "nuh uh" and prepare to stage a coup.