The headline is good for attracting clicks. It got mine, and I know I'm exacerbating the unwholesome skewing of traffic by linking, but I want to complain that there isn't even an effort to answer the question asked. I guess Psaki brings her presidential press secretary frame of mind to her new job.
The column begins "Don’t freak out" and ends "don’t freak out quite yet."
In between, we're told that Trump can be expected to "weaponize" the indictment for political gain, which just restates the question in the headline. Will the political weaponization of the indictment (if there is one) work?
There's really nothing more on the topic. A sentence about Trump's poll numbers. A mild quote from Mike Pence referring not to the substance of the indictment but to January 6th — "history will hold Donald Trump accountable." A quote from Chris Sununu:"We’re moving on." As for the effect of criminal charges: "We just don’t know yet." Well, yeah, but where's the analysis? Just "don't freak out" and "Rest assured that I will be following this closely." It doesn't seem like you are.
ADDED: What's really going on here? To say pay no attention to this now means don't talk about it while there's still some time to cry out before it happens. Will the Sunday shows this morning be full of Democrats warning that criminal prosecution is a horrible mistake that will backfire on Democrats (and on everyone else who's keen on stopping Trump)? Or will they all have gotten the memo that we read in Psaki's column: Nothing to see here; the prosecution of Trump is not political, but Trump, if indicted, will politicize it, and we'll just have to wait and see how far that takes him.
Posts
177 comments:
WinnaPsaki and Karine Jean-Affirmative Action say nothing for a living. Insight? Won't find it with these two gum flappers.
Vivek Ramaswamy very effectively highlights which side is weaponizing an indictment for political gain.
Jen Psaki is not capable of more analysis than that. Not because she's dumb, because she's never been asked to do more, and has no idea how to go about it. Her ideas and statements are never challenged.
A Trump indictment would be a handy distraction to divert attention from all the banks that are going to fail this week.
"I will be following this closely." It doesn't seem like you are."
This just means that the DNC hasn't written her script yet. This highly suggests that Trump is inside their OODA loop.
She was always fond of circling back, so you may yet witness that thorough analysis, biting commentary she’s known for.
/sarc
Let's start with the $850K to Paula Jones from President Bill. From Washington with Love.
“We just don’t know yet,” is the analysis. I think it will depend on the outcome. An acquittal would be a huge boom for Trump. A conviction that can stand up on appeal would finish him.
I love politics- the differences in ideas, differences in implementation, differences in any ideology.
It’s a love grown cold.
This whole “we gotten’ now!!” TrumpTrumpTrump is driving me to seek quiet and peace.
If all the Left thinks it’s about Trump 24/7- they are so simple minded as to be sheep.
4legs good/2legs baaaaad.
I hope George Orwell has a special place in Heaven- right up there w/the other Prophets.
Will the political weaponization of the indictment (if there is one) work?
-----
This assumes that the weaponization is on the part of Trump. The weaponization is the indictment itself, not Trump's response. And so the question could equally be asked if it will fail- that is, if it won't harm Trump, or in fact even help him by making him more sympathetic to voters.
Again - where is the Biden indictment for illegal influence peddling and international money laundering and tax fraud?
RESURRRECTION or RENOINTMENT
Ah the revolving door of democrat apparatchiks -- to high paid media propagandists.
I don't think it will have much impact. After collusion, Mueller, Mar a Lago, etc. all failed to derail Trump this will be, rightly, seen as just another attempt at political prosecution. Both sides might harden their stances, and gain a talking point or two to use in online forums, but I don't see either gaining significant numbers.
The Left proudly hates Trump, and hatred makes people do stupid, irrational, even evil things. This latest effort might be the stupidest yet, but who is really going to change their vote based on whether or not Daniels got a check 15-20 years ago?
I confess I believe his Democratic opposition would do anything to be able to run against Trump for a third time. Meanwhile, Trump is like the dog luring the cat into the clothes dryer, pleading to whatever God he believes in that this will happen. For each, it is the only available strategy (this week) to get what they want. New strategies come easily to these folks.
Everybody be very careful what you wish for right about now. This next week is going to be one of those weeks, and not just due to this particular spinning plate on a stick. I can feel it. When was the last time Jen Psaki asked a question without having a strategy behind that question?
She rose for a reason.
People are rotting in American 3rd world prisons for merely supporting Trump.
Does Trump realize this?
(all while real criminals are given a pass)
Trump lied to Stormy Daniels about the value of his property.
Epps-FBI ready to rumble?
The left need another Reichstag fire
Congress has a taxpayer funded slush fund to pay out to victims of their own harassment. But that's okay.
The left want to intimidate, harass, and destroy Trump - and then make sure he's the candidate.
No way Trump "wins in a landslide". Sorry. Too many people are sick of the drama.
Trump lied to Stormy Daniels about the value of his property.
Another failure to mark to market.
Shot: defund the police; Chaser: I am begging for more police
Crime is out of control in the US... and Crook liar Biden(D-asshole) is out there lying about his party demanding the Police be defunded.
What an asshole.
If Trump is indicted I think it will help him politically to some extent and for some period of time. Whether it would help him to a great enough extent or for long enough to help him win the Republican nomination for President, (or for him to prevail on a third party ticket) remains to be seen. I doubt Trump can capture enough voter support to ever be president again. Those who want a Trump figure in the White House have a more focused and less reckless choice in Ron DeSantis, (or "Gubna" Ronnie De Santos as I non-affectionately think of him). He is more focused than Trump, more intelligent, more serious, (and more dangerous to freedom of thought, speech, and behavior in this country).
As to Trump's criminality, if Trump were not so hated by the media (and by many among the professional politicians) the ongoing criminal investigations would likely never have happened, and an indictment would not be a probability. (There certainly have been greater criminals in the White House than Trump.)
If a party/people out of power can censor an inconvenient story (Presidential candidate son’s laptop) once having risen to power, it can now arrest that political opponent.
That’s how it works.
Once we go down that path, there’s no coming back without the unspeakable.
It's political.
No Bailouts Poso 🚫💰
@JackPosobiec
·
15h
BREAKING: Last year Hillary Clinton quietly settled a campaign finance violation over reporting the *Steele Dossier* funding as legal services
She paid a fine and was never arrested
So how about an Althouse poll?
Reading yesterday’s comments, I got the distinct impression that the Trump fans (a) would certainly not be dissuaded from voting for Trump, and (b) some of the Trump fans who were sliding towards DeSanctimonious would swing back to Trump in response to an indictment because that’s how they roll.
I can think of plenty of useless Althouse polls, given the proclivities of so many of her commenters. “Is Hunter Biden guilty?”, would be one of those useless questions.
But with the question of, “Would an indictment of Trump in New York make you more likely to vote for Trump in 2024?”; that one seems to be right in the Althouse Blog wheelhouse!
It won’t be a unique news story when it happens. As I mentioned yesterday, we’ve seen the phenomenon before. Trump popularity getting a positive bounce after the search of Mar-a-Lago, the impeachments, etc.
It’s how you roll. But this particular Trump polling phenomenon is rather delicious news to the rest of the country. Seeing Trump popularity rise in connection with at least some solid evidence of a crime. Confirming much of what we in the anti-Trump world always thought of Trump and Trump followers. It makes us feel good, and it hardens our majority’s resolve that he must never regain power.
What if the state court judge dismisses the case at the bond hearing?
It got mine, and I know I'm exacerbating the unwholesome skewing of traffic by linking, but I want to complain that there isn't even an effort to answer the question asked.
As they did in 2016, MSNBC will invoke Trump's name for clicks and views. This time, they think they'll thread the needle of gaining those things they can sell to advertisers and keep Trump out of office. Also Bill Zhang @7:04am.
Yes, it will help Trump politically- even the densest of independent voters can see this prosecution is turning Trump into a political prisoner and martyr. Trump isn't the one weaponizing this issue- the Democrats are.
All over the blogosphere and social media people are telling us what will happen.
He's calling for a riot. There will be a riot.
Don't fall for this. Don't bite on the bait set by the Dems!
If they indict Trump, and if they take him away in handcuffs, it'll propel him to the White House.
If they indict Trump and take him away in handcuffs, it'll stop people from sending him money. The donors will dry up and he'll not be able to mount a campaign.
Indict him and he's done.
Indict him and he's President.
One thing we know for sure- none of us know what's to happen yet. But with the DoJ and local law enforcement entities so politicized and so out of control these days, whatever claims about election rigging there used to be, are now raised to their highest levels ever. And that plays fully into the hands of foreign entities sending out their tweets and social media posts to create new waves of faux ideas. Even before we get fully into the next election cycle.
Weeze a mess.
If only Republicans knew how to do PAYBACKS.
….which, as we know, can be a mf’er.
- Krumhorn
They know what the true polls are showing. Trump has unified a large enough block of people from such diverse backgrounds they can’t justify the fraud it would take to beat him. They got caught mailing in 20 million ballots and a majority of the population knows the election was corrupt. Trump is particularly strong with some groups winning majorities of Hispanic men and a huge block of black men.
The problem arises when the majority of the country believes that the government is corrupt and it crosses the threshold of cowardice. The working class people Trump is strong with are a lot less cowardly that your typical Political aficionado.
We know the cowards won’t fight. We know that most of the population is cowardly.
But at some point there will be enough people like Trump and Musk and Adams and Wolf fighting back that the cowards will back them because it is popular to do so.
Nobody wants to be remembered as a Nazi/Maoist supporter in 5 years. Many will actually fight them. Others will hide and say they supported Trump all along. But there is clearly a critical mass in the electorate and we are done with the Maoist shitheads.
As long as they play smoke and mirrors for what the indictment is actually for, then maybe it works against him (or the media make it that way). Won’t a reporter actually report what the indictment really is? Won’t the readers ask what crime has been committed (of course knot, because they ‘know’ he’s a criminal).
The important question is not wether it will help Trump or not. Framing the issue in Trump’s favor (or disfavour) is an attempt to ignore the elephant in the room. The important question is whether a president in power can arrest his political rivals.
On Fox just now, Mark Levin broke down the substance of all the possible criminal cases against Trump. It was an Althousian performance. Substance! Law! Facts!
On the NY case, the state statute of limitations have run. But the DA is bootstrapping federal law into his indictment. The states, however, don’t prosecute federal crimes. Moreover, the federal campaign contributions theory didn’t work against John Edwards.
Asking if arresting Trump can help him politically is like asking if attempting to assassinate Putin could help Putin rally the world to Russias side in its war against Ukraine.
Yeah Lem, but there’s a war over there. There’s no war over here.
Trump is exhausting. It's ALL CAPS all the time with him. On the other hand, the Dems keep managing to make him the underdog. Everyone loves an underdog story.
It's kind of funny how the Establishment doesn't realize they're helping him politically.
I remember Althouse temporarily lifting the comment moderations do to the extraordinary circumstances of that one post.
I respectfully suggest the imminent arrest of former president Donald Trump qualifies as an extraordinary circumstance… to our democracy.
Democracy Dies with Trump’s Arrest.
Today's news is like tuning into a 24-hour magic 8 ball.
"Answer cloudy, ask again" eats up a lot of airtime.
The other thing people are missing is we are on the brink of a full on 1929 bank run.
People are quietly pulling their money out of the banks and buying gold. Bitcoin has almost doubled in price this week.
Because of the fractional reserve system it only takes about 3% of depositors pulling out to cause it real problems. And the underlying issues with the economy are going to get worse because the policies that caused it have not changed.
Gas is likely to hit 5$ a gallon on the seasonal summer changes.
Don’t be the last person with dollars or money in a bank account in a bank not full of Democrats.
Hunter Biden's Hooker asked: "Again - where is the Biden indictment for illegal influence peddling and international money laundering and tax fraud?"
Why do you think George Soros' first task was to capture all of the prosecutors?
In the United States, it is the prosecutors who decide whether or not the case goes forward. They have enormous and unchecked power. So if you own them, you can do whatever you want. There is no crime so great they will prosecute you.
If caught, rest easy in knowing they're not going to jail you.
This is how the Mafia operates.
And there's only one way to rid ourselves of the Mafia: The Chicago Way. The Malone way.
I can't wait for the hypocrisy when the Republicans pursue an indictment against Biden.
Needless to say, the prosecution of Trump is already political, politicized, a weapon, and weaponized, but there are no limits to the whoppers the MSNBC audience will swallow. Predictions at this point are more or less coin-flips. It does look like there's a ceiling on how many people will vote for Trump and it's likely low enough to keep him out of the White House.
If anyone is commenting on the last sentence of the added portion of this post as if it's my opinion rather than a guess at the "memo" and then insulting me for being an idiot...
Please read carefully and don't make the moderation process more onerous than it already is. If you think it's funny that you are burdening me or you just feel good about insulting me... I know some of you do. This blog is a project I do for its intrinsic value for me, and it currently has a comments section because, on balance, I find it rewarding. If you value the comments section, please do what you can to make the discussion good. Read and understand the post, especially if you are considering writing something sarcastic or insulting.
Notice the instructions above the composition window: "Comments should respond to material raised in the post. I encourage brevity and substance and discourage personal attacks and repetition."
MANHATTAN, NY — Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg has announced a brilliant new plan to get Trump elected President in 2024.
"I will stop at absolutely nothing to put Trump back in the White House where he belongs," said Mr. Bragg. "I'm about to charge up his base like you've never seen!"
Mr. Bragg had carefully waited until the moment he could give Trump the biggest political boost to push forward with an indictment. "Check and mate, libs," laughed Mr. Bragg as he pulled on a MAGA hat. "I've already put in my request to be Trump's Transportation Secretary, I hear it's super easy. 2024, here we come!"
After lawyers of every political allegiance agreed there was no criminal case against Trump over hush money paid during his 2016 campaign, Mr. Bragg knew taking the hopeless case was his big chance. "The optics of Democrats indicting, even handcuffing Trump on charges that have no chance of sticking - what more could the Trump campaign ask for?" said MSNBC's Rachel Maddow. "Mr. Bragg might be the most brilliant Republican strategist this century. He's playing chess while the rest of us are out here playing checkers."
At publishing time, Governor Ron DeSantis was wondering what sort of crime he needed to be indicted for to keep pace with Trump.
Babylon Bee
I will be watching CNN and MSNBC, and reading the NYT, to see if the statute of limitations bar is mentioned by anyone.
What is that solid evidence, Chuck?
Trump is exhausting. It's ALL CAPS all the time with him. On the other hand, the Dems keep managing to make him the underdog. Everyone loves an underdog story.
It's kind of funny how the Establishment doesn't realize they're helping him politically.
They can't see it because Trump is a focus for their true hatred: his voters. Hillary was the embodiment of the laptop class: credentialed, but with no real accomplishments, her entire life devoted to social climbing, no real personality, disdain for everyone else. The rejection of her was a rejection of her supporters, who focused their anger on Trump.
I'm looking forward to (not really) the Texas District Attorney who will issue state fraud indictments against Pelosi, Schumer and the whole Russia fraud hoax.
"I remember Althouse temporarily lifting the comment moderations do to the extraordinary circumstances of that one post."
What does that refer to?
I can't lift comments moderation for any reason. I am forced to defend myself from some people you are not seeing. Do not imagine any circumstances that could occur at this point that could end moderation. It's not going to happen.
Disagreeing with someone's public positions us not a personal attack. Arguing by analogy is something that lawyers are (or used to be) supposed to be able to do. We are watching the slow motion death of America as a liberal republic and you seem fine with that. We know it's your blog and if you don't want us, then close the comments, and do so with my thanks for years of enjoyable interaction. Peace.
Isn't this just another layer of nuisance and harassment for Trump to deal with, in hopes his supporters will either flee from him, or riot for him? Democrat provocation with memo attached, seeks to avoid the third reaction, his support increases, quietly.
"The important question is not wether it will help Trump or not. Framing the issue in Trump’s favor (or disfavour) is an attempt to ignore the elephant in the room. The important question is whether a president in power can arrest his political rivals."
Bingo.
That Psaki raises the issue in terms of potential political effect, rather than as a potential outrage and threat to the foundations of what this country is supposed to be about, is the real problem. Any politician on either side who doesn't respond like McCarthy (what got into him,BTW?) is a coward and a fraud.
Hunter Biden's tax payer funded Hooker said...
The left want to intimidate, harass, and destroy Trump - and then make sure he's the candidate.
No way Trump "wins in a landslide". Sorry. Too many people are sick of the drama.
Yup. Better slink away to your GOPe approved candidate.
Desantis will only get 60 million votes in the general at most. Less if he is pegged as benefiting from this persecution.
But at least there wont be any "drama." One thing the GOPe hates is making the swamp mad.
I am sure Ron will be just as shocked as Mitt was when the democrats turn on him and his money dries up in the general.
You keep pretending that 2012 and 2016-20 never happened.
"The important question is not wether it will help Trump or not. Framing the issue in Trump’s favor (or disfavour) is an attempt to ignore the elephant in the room. The important question is whether a president in power can arrest his political rivals."
Bingo.
That Psaki raises the issue in terms of potential political effect, rather than as a potential outrage and threat to the foundations of what this country is supposed to be about, is the real problem. Any politician on either side who doesn't respond like McCarthy (what got into him,BTW?) is a coward and a fraud.
"Any politician on either side who doesn't respond like McCarthy (what got into him,BTW?) is a coward and a fraud.
3/19/23, 9:04 AM"
******THIS*****^^^^^^
I guess that this could help Trump in the fight for the nomination.
It does nothing to help him in the general election. There is no way he can be elected
Independents turned against Trump in 2018 and continued to do so in 2020 and 2022. A main reason why they turned away from him is his personality and the endless drama that swirls around him. Unfortunately these are traits that endear him to the cultists.
The potential indictment has brought out the worst in both the anti-Trump and pro-Trump cultists.
Over at MSLSD they talked about everything regarding Trump except the merits of a potential case.
The Trump Colin Cowboy Brigade seems very exercised that Ron DeSantis hasn’t weighed in on an indictment that hasn’t happened yet
Nero fiddles.
And Yes,I understand that Psaki is not a politician (per se).
Any political commentator who doesn't condemn such a potential indictment is truly a coward, a fraud, a shill or all three.
It is notable that the position is not "This will never happen, Trump is trolling for publicity", or even "this will never happen, Trump is trying to start an insurrection."
It is "Maybe this isn't a good tactic." "Lets debate about that."
Mr. Forward said...
At publishing time, Governor Ron DeSantis was wondering what sort of crime he needed to be indicted for to keep pace with Trump.
That is really quite simple.
He just needs to convince the Republicans and Democrats in DC that he is as much of an existential threat to their corruption as Trump is.
He also needs to build support with enough voters from a broad enough spectrum that reaches outside the standard GOPe ranks. He would need to separate the Republican party from the money men like Ken Griffin to bring in the working class/minority voters the uniparty has been shitting on for decades.
Taking hundreds of millions of dollars from the money men like Ken Griffin and skipping CPAC to huddle with big money donors tells everyone in DC that Desantis isn't really an existential threat. He is acting like Mitt 2.0.
Sure he will stop the purple hair trans bullshit.
But that is just stay voltage crap. Desantis has yet to signal he will go after anything truly important.
If, or when, Bragg announces the indictment he must be able to complete the following in two or three sentences that can be easily understood by all Americans:
“Donald Trump’s payoff to Stormy Daniels is a felony because . . . . . “
It will. E a disaster if he can’t. Reports that he his twisting the law into a pretzel to elevate an misdemeanor to felony do not leave me hopeful.
Kate said...
Trump is exhausting. It's ALL CAPS all the time with him. On the other hand, the Dems keep managing to make him the underdog. Everyone loves an underdog story.
It's kind of funny how the Establishment doesn't realize they're helping him politically.
They do know.
But they are desperate.
We are on the brink of a 1929 economic collapse. They see the actual support they have.
They are hoping to pick up the pieces on the other side.
Well, they didn't hire her for sober, reasoned, dispassionate, insightful, Krauthamemer-like commentary. They hired her for what doing what she did her entire public career.
I can't wait to see if KFP gets a similar deal. (JK.)
ADDED: What's really going on here? To say pay no attention to this now means don't talk about it while there's still some time to cry out before it happens. Will the Sunday shows this morning be full of Democrats warning that criminal prosecution is a horrible mistake that will backfire on Democrats (and on everyone else who's keen on stopping Trump)? Or will they all have gotten the memo that we read in Psaki's column: Nothing to see here; the prosecution of Trump is not political, but Trump, if indicted, will politicize it, and we'll just have to wait and see how far that takes him.
The preference cascade is over. Nobody supports the Biden Regime. Nobody supports the censorship or the struggle sessions or the crime or the inflation or the wars or men winning all of the women's competitions.
Any democrat voter that actually has principles is aghast at Biden bombing the Nord Stream pipeline and that he is trying to start WW3 to remain in power.
There are 30% or so of the population that will make excuses for the Maoist bullshit in schools and on the streets like Ann does. But as soon as people think that the Maoist shitheads are going to lose they will turn on them immediately. Even Ann will be embarrassed to have defended that garbage just like she is embarrassed for supporting the lock downs.
The Regime has been caught lying, being truly evil, and incompetent repeatedly since they stole the election from Trump. The number of fuckups and disasters during the Biden administration is truly epic. And everyone has Trump's competence to compare this to.
You are getting all touchy and whiny because you have never been forced to face your failures and mistakes before and you don't deal with it well. Nobody really ever does.
People who had to deal with your struggle sessions while they were in college have a bit more experience looking at ourselves in the mirror.
And that’s probably the best most evenhanded analysis any of Althouse’s go-to sources will have about the crazy Manhattan DA. So weird how the media cries about fascism and authoritarianism about to happen on the Right but just fall all over themselves to praise it on the Left. Remember it was the people chanting “Lock her up” at Trump rallies back in ’16 even though the DNC-Media and lefties here (BIRM) blame Trump. Yet no reaction to every executive branch controlled at state and Fed levels by leftists going after Trump and Trump voters.
Careful what you wish for. None of the populist sentiment that paved the way for him in ‘16 has dissipated by virtue of your fascist assaults. None.
A conviction that can stand up on appeal would finish him.
I disagree, but I am curious as to what crime the state of NY will convict him of.
Isn't it remarkable to have all this talk about indicting and convicting Trump but almost no discussion anywhere about what he is actually being accused of. Of course, there is no discussion of how his offenses compare to those of Bill and Hillary as well as the Biden Crime Family.
Like others, I am tired of the Trump drama, but it appears that the Dems want the soap opera to continue.
If "the word" has gone out to Psaki and other MSM, I would imagine that the insider calculation is that indicting Trump on a bullshit 8 year old misdemeanor will politically help him to win the Republican nomination. And Biden's only perceived strength in Democrat inner circles is beating Trump. So Psaki is signalling to the rest of MSM that is is part of the plan, but let's not analyze it too openly or Republican voters will be tipped off.
Am I being Machiavellian enough? Or too much?
“Stop. Hack. Turn. And double- back.”
—- Lick Nowe, “No Heart in the Pretty (Little Hitler)”, Stiff Records
I don't think an indictment helps Trump significantly more than it helps DeSantis or any Republican. In fact, it could boost DeSantis more than Trump by reminding people how important it is for a Republican to win in 2024. It could make it harder for people to vote for Trump who just want to make a statement about revenge or whatever, even if that vote results in Biden's reelection. (Perhaps I should say, "re-"election.)
An indictment also creates an opportunity for DeSantis and the other GOP candidates to appeal to Trump supporters by railing against the obvious injustice of this corrupt criminal prosecution.
I blame Bari Weiss, Matt Taibbi and Michael Shellenberger, the Fearsome Threesome of the Twitter Files who were bringing the regime into disrepute. From the left comes the strange cry - "Help us, Donald Trump, you are our only hope."
Which is the point. Trump now becomes the focus. Focus of all the talk about politicized justice. And then it'll all bleed and spread out into crime in NYC and lack of prosecution. Into rising crime in NYC. Then nationwide. Good and now we'll get reform, we think. But leftys never reform in response to the failure of their policies. They'll mobilize the machine and they now have the great mobilizer on hand. Trump is back in town. EEEEEK Trump EEEEIIIIIKKKKKOOOO! UUGHGHGH! NOOOOOOOooooo.... More rationally, Trump who in the Narrative opposes/opposed the Ukraine war (Not exactly - and who bought all the Army weapons Ukraine is using?); Trump who, in the Narrative, supports Putin - Putin who was indicted (good) for kidnapping children about the same time as Trump. The two indicted at the same time? Yes, very suddenly, and at the same time. So very strange. Such a convenient conjunction of stories in the media space. So Narrativey.
@iman
"She was always fond of circling back"
Jen circles back in the morning
Jen circles back at night
She circles back in the afternoon
It makes her feel alright
She circles back in times of peace
And twice in times of war
She circles back before she circles back
Then she circles back some more
In a country where the elitist left has taken the entire concept of Good v. Evil and elevate to worshipful levels, the Evil, the continued persecution of Trump, this time to a criminal indictment, can only further provoke the indignation of the unwashed masses who see this for what it is. The ever-lying Psaki senses this.
Isaiah had it right (Is. 5:20), "Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter."
I don't see how it helps him politically or how he weaponizes it successfully. Donald Trump had sex with a porn star, then decided to run for President and concluded --for reasons that have never been clear to me-- that he needed to pay this woman money for her silence. Trump, as per his usual, relied on bad advice and untrustworthy people (Michael Cohen) to take care of this for him. It was handled sloppily enough to allow a prosecutor to "criminalize" it.
Trump should have been more careful about where he put his body parts and his money and his trust. From these threads a morality tale might be woven but I don't think it makes Trump a victim or sympathetic at all or helps him politically. As in: Vote for Trump, the guy who screws around on his wife with a porn star and then is too stupid to cover it up successfully. so his political enemies use it against him. Not a winning message IMO.
It reminds me of what Richard Nixon said: "I gave them a sword and they stuck it in and they twisted it with relish. I guess if I’d been in their position, I’d have done the same thing.”
In a country where the elitist left has taken the entire concept of Good v. Evil and elevate to worshipful levels, the Evil, the continued persecution of Trump, this time to a criminal indictment, can only further provoke the indignation of the unwashed masses who see this for what it is. The ever-lying Psaki senses this.
Isaiah had it right (Is. 5:20), "Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter."
What's really going on here?
I think the indictment was always a possibility, but more of a PLAN B, C, or D.
The news that 3 and/or Bidens got payouts meant that "other" news was needed to distract the public from that story - especially given Biden's flat denial that it every happened.
As others have stated, other politicians have done the same or something very similar but haven't been sanctioned or simply gotten the equivalent of a slap on the wrist is true. So the important part is the ANNOUNCEMENT - which may not ever come to anything but allows the media to remind the public of the indictment for decades regardless.
And people will be distracted from the negative Biden stories.
An alternative theory is either to get Trump out of the race or to ensure that he is the Republican presidential nominee (Doesn't matter which) with the expectation he will lose in the final. Which brings me to MY question:
Did those responsible screw up the timing on this plan? His getting arrested will improve his option in the short term but will Trump fatigue among voters (even Republican voters) result in him losing the primaries which are a year away?
As to how this is being presented:
A To say pay no attention to this now means don't talk about it while there's still some time to cry out before it happens. Will the Sunday shows this morning be full of Democrats warning that criminal prosecution is a horrible mistake that will backfire on Democrats (and on everyone else who's keen on stopping Trump)?
B Or will they all have gotten the memo that we read in Psaki's column: Nothing to see here; the prosecution of Trump is not political, but Trump, if indicted, will politicize it, and we'll just have to wait and see how far that takes him.
I think the Sunday shows will go with option B. They will say that it is because it is the ethically correct thing to say in their view. They know what a joke campaign oversight is, but they will say they are doing it because of the law. They have already politicized it. People have as much fatigue from the "hate Trump group" as they do from
the "Trump group" so I don't think it will take either group very far.
Speaking of someone could react in unexpected circumstances ... it would be a great opportunity for Trump to play King/Queen Maker in the 2024 election. (I don't think it is in his personality, but it is a thought.) Let yourself be the target for a period of time and then throw you support to Republican candidate who could win the general when it is too late for the opposition to effectively switch gears.
One note on messaging: I find it amusing that so many people celebrating this possible indictment are including "cheating on his wife" as part of the condemnation. When Bill Clinton was the subject, I remember the line being "what happens between consenting adults is not our business".
I don't see how it helps him politically or how he weaponizes it successfully. Donald Trump had sex with a porn star, then decided to run for President and concluded --for reasons that have never been clear to me-- that he needed to pay this woman money for her silence. Trump, as per his usual, relied on bad advice and untrustworthy people (Michael Cohen) to take care of this for him. It was handled sloppily enough to allow a prosecutor to "criminalize" it.
Trump should have been more careful about where he put his body parts and his money and his trust. From these threads a morality tale might be woven but I don't think it makes Trump a victim or sympathetic at all or helps him politically. As in: Vote for Trump, the guy who screws around on his wife with a porn star and then is too stupid to cover it up successfully. so his political enemies use it against him. Not a winning message IMO.
It reminds me of what Richard Nixon said: "I gave them a sword and they stuck it in and they twisted it with relish. I guess if I’d been in their position, I’d have done the same thing.”
The more Trump is attacked politically in this way the more I am apt to work toward supporting him. I want such tactics to be seen as deleterious to political success.
Nothing to see here; the prosecution of Trump is not political …
Of course it’s not. Historically it’s been the standard ever since John Adams ordered the arrest of political opponent Thomas Jefferson. Oh! Didn’t happen? Oh, dear.
Actually, in passing the Alien and Sedition Acts Adams did try to shut down his political opposition. It led to the end of the Federalist Party.
Trump will only politicize further that which is obviously political. The SOL is two years in NY for this misdemeanor while thugs ran rampant and violent crime goes unpunished. Babylon Bee got it right again: Manhattan DA devises new strategy to re-elect Trump.
Things that exhaust me. Trump does. But the Democrat Hatred for Trump is even more exhausting for me. It just tells me Democrats are unserious.
The Dispatch people made a good point a few weeks ago about a potential indictment of Trump: Don't issue an indictment based on some novel legal theory. If you are going to indict him, it had better be on solid legal ground.
@wendybar wrote:
BREAKING: Last year Hillary Clinton quietly settled a campaign finance violation over reporting the *Steele Dossier* funding as legal services
She paid a fine and was never arrested
Quietly? A simple Google search has stories from the AP, Politico, The Hill, AP, CBS, NY Times, CNN, ABC, WaPo, NBC, and many more. Hardly breaking news.
Most FEC violations that don't involve wide-spread fraud are settled with fines. In this case, they reported the expense, just the label attached to it was incorrect. The use that the Steele Dossier was put to was irrelevant to the legal issue here. Plus the DNC has to pay the bulk of the fine agreed to.
Making it All Trump All the Time suits both Trump's ego and the DS's need for distraction from the regime crimes past, present, and future.
I still think that Trump will be removed from the scene before long, dead or alive, and that the D's will jettison Biden eventually.
I hope so anyway. It's going to be hard enough, the next decade, without resentful and/or corrupt dotards in charge.
Trump pounces!
An indictment would help Trump politically by solidifying and adding to his base.
The Democrats never miss an opportunity to take the lower road. When the 'official process' starts to resemble symbolic pageantry, then you know they have reached the bottom of their toybox: They have nothing else to offer up. Do you remember the solemn, quasi-religious procession from the House to the Senate with the acolytes bearing the Holy Letters of Impeachment, the slow, measured steps, cameras rolling and clicking away? All that was missing was the incense, and somebody throwing out rose petals. They had nothing else to offer except a hope to distract people enough so that they wouldn't have to suffer ridicule.
This is the very same thing. They think a picture of Trump being fingerprinted is going seal his doom. If I were Trump, I would use the mugshots as my campaign poster. People are fed up to the back teeth with this sh*t, using publicly-funded institutions of government for partisan joy-riding.
Left Bank said...A conviction that can stand up on appeal would finish him.
A conviction on misdemeanor falsifying of business records?
Or do you mean a conviction on related felony? That would depend on the related felony, right?
If the felony was that he improperly donated his own money to himself by coming to a non-disclosure agreement with Stormy Daniels, then I don't think it will "finish him". The whole thing is too contrived. Most people don't want law enforcement operating that way.
If they intend to indict him for some other crime that hasn't been revealed yet, well who knows?
Lem said,"The important question is whether a president in power can arrest his political rivals. "
Exactly. The media like to make this about Trump, but this is bigger than Trump. It's about what kind of country we have.
"What's really going on here?"
It is an 'Oh look a squirrel' moment. THey waited till lots of facts are to come out about Biden's crimes as 'Big Daddy' and Hunter his son... gonna try to stop it with Trump stuff in the MSM.
See 'Big Daddy' really did sell out the USA for millions... they all know it but don't want senile 'Big Daddy' gone as he is doing so much to f*ckup this country (as they want him to do.)
Lots of luck you folks that wanted Joe president (and those that didn't vote at all.. cause you own him... 'Big Daddy' is YOUR president.
Have they fitted Trump yet for his crown of thorns?
https://imgflip.com/memetemplate/444464587/Trump-Jesus-Crown-of-Thorns-JPP
Trump is like Jesus.
Joan of Arc and Martin Luther King Jr. and countless other people throughout history have sacrificed their lives for what they believed. Trump is not in their class. Trump is not a martyr, he's a selfish a**hole that caught a wave he barely understood.
If Trump "weaponizes" the indictment, he'll be late to the party. The Dems and GOP Establishment are already there.
Who gains? No one. Certainly not beleaguered taxpayers who will fund this nonsense. Well, maybe there IS one winner. Alvin Bragg will add another "First African American to..." feather to his cap. Serious 'cred' if he ever seeks higher office (elected or appointed).
This what they have to get Trump with? Come on, man! Trump is a Boy Scout. He's a friggin' Boy Scout.
Now he's one of very few Scouts who has earned the coveted 'I Nailed a Porn Star' merit badge, but he's a Boy Scout nonetheless.
Orange man bad.... details to follow.
Trump is like Jesus, but different.
A lot of this speculation depends on how smart you think Democrats are. If they are cleverly boosting Trump by indicting him and think this will make him a losing candidate, you must believe that Democrats like Alvin Bragg are smart. Then, you look at what they are doing to the country.
Blogger Spiros said...
Joan of Arc and Martin Luther King Jr. and countless other people throughout history have sacrificed their lives for what they believed. Trump is not in their class. Trump is not a martyr, he's a selfish a**hole that caught a wave he barely understood.
There you have a Democrat showing how smart he is. How well he understands what happened in 2016 and 2020.
The indictment won't matter. I remember when it seemed like hyperbole to refer to the Democrat party as a criminal conspiracy. Not any more.
Abuse of the legal process by Democrats has become routine since the arrival of Donald Trump on the political scene as has turning a blind eye to the corruption in their own midst. Couple these with the monumental ignorance of younger Democrats and indifference to the Constitution of their elders and it seems unlikely that they will be offended by the railroading of Trump, nor will the GOPe who are cut from the same cloth.
Trumpsters will call upon the mythical "50%" to be outraged only to find that the election in Arizona, the ascension of John Fetterman and the criminal in the White House, not Trump, are the bellwethers of the future. Amorality and complacency are the order of the day.
The most inept, crooked president of my lifetime will be re-elected or replaced by some other Democrat mediocrity through a rigged election.
Donald Trump had sex with a porn star, then decided to run for President and concluded --for reasons that have never been clear to me-- that he needed to pay this woman money for her silence.
He’s married to a Slovenian woman and you want to know why he wanted to pay bush money? Ti si bedak!
Sally327
Amen. Trump's ego, bad decisions, dick-stepping moves and poor choice of fixers (Cohen) - are what make him so toxic to many people. His legions of fans (shrinking, I might add) refuse to deal with Trump's defects. They think his every mistake is a unquestionable genius chess move. Then, they trash a good guy who kept his dick in his pants all while they pee and moan about Bill Clinton.
Insanity.
@Patrick Henry was right!
You wrote: "Disagreeing with someone's public positions us not a personal attack."
I *never* said it was, and your acting as though I did is irksome. People disagree with me all the time, and that wasn't what I was referring to. How could it be any more obvious that I moderate through comments that disagree with me? I was speaking of "insults." Why would you think I meant disagreement. I quoted my comments policy: " Comments should respond to material raised in the post. I encourage brevity and substance and discourage personal attacks and repetition." That shows what I want is substance. Substance can be disagreement with my positions. Why would you think anything else?
I am asking for support in the work I need to do with comment moderation, and it's disheartening to get so little. As I've said, I do the blog and have the comments for the intrinsic reward to me. The benefit to readers is a side effect. I can't do what I'm doing except for the energy it gives me. That's all this thing is, and I need to make it what works for me. The low appreciation I get from the people who write in the comments makes me think I will be needing to take a break from comments soon. If you care about the comments, you need to help me make them rewarding for me again. And this has NOTHING to do with agreeing with my positions.
MadisonMan said...
Things that exhaust me. Trump does. But the Democrat Hatred for Trump is even more exhausting for me. It just tells me Democrats are unserious.
I beg your pardon, sir. You failed to mention "Republican Hatred for Trump." I give you credit for proper-noun capitalization and all, but geeze!
This won't end until right-leaning prosecutors in red states start prosecuting democrat politicians.
Indiscriminately and for no reason.
If republicans don't go on offense they will lose.
It's not about Trump.
It's about democrats and leftists breaking every norm of American law, from the FBI and the DOJ all the way down to the state level...
DeSantis needs to speak out and attack this injustice and weaponization of the courts and law against Republican politicians and Trump supporters. And state he finds the arrest of Trump an outrage and will not extridicte him to NY OR GA.
This will prove he is a MAGA supporter and not another GOPe 2012 Mitt Romney type issuing insincere conservative "Rhetoric".
The ball is in his court.
You know what? People keep bandying about the notion that Trump has 60 million die-hard voters. If that is the case (and I suspect it is), and many of those voters are blue collar and traditionally voted Democrat, he might just have a shot at a third party win. It's a long shot, but wouldn't that be lovely? To repudiate both ruling parties? Ah, hope springs eternal.
A certain number of people on the intertubes just show up to troll and cause trouble. Others just can't help enabling them. These people need to ruthlessly eliminated, like weeds in a garden.
Others just cant read. Or they're too stupid to follow plain instructions. So there's that.
'(There certainly have been greater criminals in the White House than Trump.)'
There's one in there now.
Biden's only excuse and legal strategy would be to plead dementia...that he actually had no idea his family was trading on his name to get rich.
I would consider that quite plausible were I on a jury...
"will they all have gotten the memo that we read in Psaki's column: Nothing to see here; the prosecution of Trump is not political"
Progs always get the memo right quick. Their instant coordination is part of the way they rule.
The prosecution is not political because it is obviously necessary, the right thing to do, and something only deplorables could deplore.
The PERSECUTION of Trump is completely political. And it shows exactly how corrupt our government has become. Very corrupt and not worthy of support.
I can't stand the word "weaponize". It sounds scary, but really means "use in a way I don't like".
>(and more dangerous to freedom of thought, speech, and behavior in this country).
Ignoring the actual throttling of freedom of thought, speech, and behavior in this country over the last 3 years, I see.
Chuck said something about this, I know, but I didn't read it, since I avoid reading child porn. Has Chuck ever been right about something, by the way? Just curious.
Lots of luck you folks that wanted Joe president (and those that didn't vote at all.. cause you own him... 'Big Daddy' is YOUR president.
3/19/23, 10:20 AM
THIS. YOU own what is happening to America today.
To all saying that donald trump had sex with stormy Daniel's
Is there any evidence? She says it happened but do we have anything more?
Has he not denied he had sex with that woman?
I don't view the payoff as evidence one way or t'other
John Henry
And my only concern with your final sentence relates to the semicolon. I suppose it's legit, but I still object.
One thing I like about Althouse is that she is absolutely, positively female in body and mind.
Was stormy Daniel's a porn "star" or just a porn actress?
And on a similar note, why do we call cross-dressing performers drag "queens"?
When everyone is a star or a queen, nobody is.
John Henry
Where does this lead? One possibility:
If blue states are going to make themselves the tools of federal political persecutions, then perhaps red states will declare themselves sanctuary states for political persecutees like Trump, January 6th protestors and other political dissidents.
The Democratic primary for Manhattan DA will take place just a little over two years from now. Bragg has been soundly criticized both by Governor Hochul and Mayor Adams, the top Democrats in New York State, for fecklessness in his handling of crime. Even in ultra-liberal Manhattan, Bragg's stewardship of the DA's office is regarded by many Democrats as close to a disaster, both in terms of office management and failure to deal effectively with rampant criminality. A strong challenger might easily topple Bragg, who only won his 2021 primary by 3.6 points (a 9,000 vote margin out of about 250,000 votes cast) and who knows that he's vulnerable to a 2025 challenge by a liberal Democrat who's even marginally stronger on the crime issue. Indicting Trump gives Bragg a strong talking point for 2025.
One has to conclude that the only person who stands to benefit even more than Trump from this indictment is Bragg himself. The fact that Bragg's predecessor, Cyrus Vance Jr., declined to pursue this prosecution and that Bragg himself just a year ago appeared to have quashed it, makes it pretty obvious that this indictment is politically motivated. That it may turn out to have wide-ranging national political impacts beyond the 2025 DA race is almost certainly a secondary matter, at best, for Bragg.
Listen here you few fuckheads. Stop attacking Ann personally. It serves no purpose. This is her blog. She can stop the comments. She can also stop blogging.
Don’t fuck up a good thing. Stop being so fucking stupid.
I am the voice of sweet reason.
Damn it RideSpaceMountain! Reading your lyrics, I struggled to remember what song it sprung from… now you’ve reminded me of the song that - unfortunately- is difficult to remove from one’s head:
“I Smoke Two Joints”
Aggie:
"The Democrats never miss an opportunity to take the lower road. When the 'official process' starts to resemble symbolic pageantry, then you know they have reached the bottom of their toybox: They have nothing else to offer up. Do you remember the solemn, quasi-religious procession from the House to the Senate with the acolytes bearing the Holy Letters of Impeachment, the slow, measured steps, cameras rolling and clicking away? All that was missing was the incense, and somebody throwing out rose petals. They had nothing else to offer except a hope to distract people enough so that they wouldn't have to suffer ridicule."
100% correct.
Also--remember the "Kinte Cloth" idiocy? When Nancy couldn't get back up after kneeling?
In a functioning republic these people would be the absolute laughingstock of public discourse. But our press corps treats them as serious "public servants."
First witness
Monica Lewinsky
second witness
Ghilaine Maxwell
Spiros:
"Joan of Arc and Martin Luther King Jr. and countless other people throughout history have sacrificed their lives for what they believed. Trump is not in their class. Trump is not a martyr, he's a selfish a**hole that caught a wave he barely understood."
So it's all good, then. As long as the target isn't an actual saint, go for it!
Ann - I know you are not fishing for compliments, I've read your blog long enough that I like to think I know you that well. Your blog is where I start my day every single day. Because even before I check to see what's "going on in the world"; I like to see what piqued your interest and to get your take on it. I don't always agree, and our tastes are not 100% aligned. But that keeps it interesting. I also find immense value in what your commenters have to say because they are by-and-large the most intelligent commenters on the web. You have attracted a group that is more thoughtful and thought provoking than any other site I have found. I thoroughly appreciate that you moderate out the vitriol and stupidity that infects most other sites. I dread the day you give it up. But I need to use your Amazon portal more to show my appreciation!!
It's a shame that many adults can't figure out how to disagree with someone without insulting them. I certainly don't agree with everything you write, and I appreciate that you will post disagreeable opinions. More people should acknowledge and appreciate that.
Anyone who's been here for a long time has seen the type of comments that you delete. And those who are thoughtful agree with you.
Blogger John henry said...
To all saying that donald trump had sex with stormy Daniel's
Is there any evidence? She says it happened but do we have anything more?
Of course not. Look who her lawyer was. Trump is a germophobe and the possibility of him having intimate contact with a person like that is ridiculous. He is not Jack Kennedy who was constantly infected with STDs.
Not to suck up to the Professor (with whom I very seldom agree, but I give her all credit for letting me say so), the last two paragraphs of her post say that she understands that: a) this is a political prosecution; b) prosecution of political opponents is a very bad thing for this country; and c) she thinks the Dems and their acolytes in the press will do the political thing instead of the right thing. (The suggestion that Dem politicos might go on the Sunday shows to discuss how bad it would be to engage in a political prosecution I take as either hilarious satire, extreme cynicism, or unfathomable naivete--I truly am not sure).
While I very much hesitate to draw any conclusion as to what message the Professor is trying to convey in any post, I am nonetheless going to go out on a limb and say that she didn't put this one up because she thinks that Psaki is in the right here.
alanc709 said...
Chuck said something about this, I know, but I didn't read it, since I avoid reading child porn. Has Chuck ever been right about something, by the way? Just curious.
alanc709! My old buddy! How are you doing today? I was hoping to run into you. Because I am someone with (like everybody) a few bad qualities. But by far my worst quality is that I am one of those guys who, after offering a contrarian opinion to a group that ridicules me for it, and then I can show them that I was right all along, I am that kind of guy who tells you, "I told you so," and I usually do it in the most direct and confrontational way possible.
So here we go. Here's alanc709, just a few days ago, with my reply to alanc709:
Chuck said...
"...San Francisco will be the capitol of the Republic of Kalifornia before there is ever a Trump indictment. You're a buffoon. Why don't you and Chuck go off and make some transchildren."
Bookmarked, alanc709.
Thank you for playing.
3/13/23, 9:00 PM
LINK.
"Is there any evidence?"
You want evidence? "Orange man bad" is all the evidence the left needs.
I would have long since lost patience with the comments here. Some few are very good, but so many are crap. I can only imagine what gets filtered out.
"Desantis has yet to signal he will go after anything truly important."
He did stand up against the covid tyranny, and that wasn't nothing.
But I would like to hear him speak against the two-tiered justice system we currently have in this country. And what can be done to assure we have an honest election. If we can't have the latter then what difference does it make who runs?
Bob Boyd said...
Trump is like Jesus, but different.
Notice the difference.
The one time I jokingly tagged “Elon Musk is like Jesus” was recently when he developed a technology that helped the blind to see.
In the many times I’ve ascribed the tag to Trump, however, it wasn’t Trump’s actions that make him like Jesus, it was Trump’s treatment by his enemies that made him like Jesus.
That’s the perception of persecution the Psakis of the world know and fear politically, and why like some here will want to make this about a Stormy affair.
But you do know who else used to pal around with a whore?
Those of you absolutely convinced that Trump had sex with Stormy Daniels:
You may be correct; Trump is not and has never been a paragon of virtue in the area of matrimonial fidelity. However, the $130,000 payoff took place after Trump got the nomination and just before the election. The person who orchestrated the claim which generated the payoff was none other than Michael Avenatti, famous convicted extortionist. The payoff was $130,000, not $1.3 million. The basis for the purported indictment is that the reason for the payoff was political, not personal. Which, given the amount, the people, and the circumstances, would seem to be entirely correct.
will Trump be sharing celll with Epstein Ghost??
".....Hooker" said, "Amen".
I'll see your Amen and raise you ten.
Trump won the 'hearts and minds' and set out to keep his promises.
But, for some reason, he picked (or retained) too many absolutely horrible 'generals' to go to war with and then held none of them accountable.
The only 'Home Runs' that spring to mind are Grenell, Huckabee and McEnany.
How often are the victims of blackmail or extortion arrested?
alanc709 said...
Has Chuck ever been right about something, by the way? Just curious.
I'm Pretty Sure, that he was right; when he said that he was mentally ill (on 'the spectrum' or such)..
Of course; later on Chuck denied Ever saying it
Mr Wibble said...
They can't see it because Trump is a focus for their true hatred: his voters.
This is the crux of the matter.
Trump expanded the Republican base to the point that democrats had to blatantly cheat to win. If they try it again in 2024 the system will break down.
They can beat a Romney clone without cheating.
But Trump motivates millions of new voters to vote. It is the working class voters that they are trying to demoralize and beat down. Their policies are directly pointed at destroyed the wealth, health and prosperity of these voters.
And they have a lot of allies in this hatred in both parties. These working class voters are supposed to shut up and be quiet and let their betters run their corrupt bullshit.
It wont fly.
alanc709: "Chuck said something about this, I know, but I didn't read it, since I avoid reading child porn. Has Chuck ever been right about something, by the way? Just curious."
No, he hasn't, but LLR-democratical Violent Homosexual Rape Fantasist Chuck's purpose is simply to advance the radical left/democratical agenda each and every day. And he certainly does that.
rcocean: "DeSantis needs to speak out and attack this injustice and weaponization of the courts and law against Republican politicians and Trump supporters. And state he finds the arrest of Trump an outrage and will not extridicte him to NY OR GA.
This will prove he is a MAGA supporter and not another GOPe 2012 Mitt Romney type issuing insincere conservative "Rhetoric".
The ball is in his court."
Yep. And since its the easiest no-brainer "gimme" ever, if he chooses not to do it he can write off 45 to 50% of the republican primary electorate right now.
John henry said...
To all saying that donald trump had sex with stormy Daniel's
Is there any evidence? She says it happened but do we have anything more?
Has he not denied he had sex with that woman?
I don't view the payoff as evidence one way or t'other
John Henry
There is just as much evidence that Joe Biden raped Tara Reade and that Bill Clinton raped multiple women. But the media attacks Trump because he threatens the rice bowl and this upsets the cowards.
There are too many amoral people like Ann and Inga who will vote for a rapist or his enabler if it gets them free abortions. There are too many cowards in the GOPe that will support anyone the swamp doesn't have to cheat to beat.
They don't mind corrupt evil shitheads in charge if they are allowed a little comfort and get to do a little persecution themselves every now and then.
John henry said...
To all saying that donald trump had sex with stormy Daniel's
Is there any evidence? She says it happened but do we have anything more?
Has he not denied he had sex with that woman?
=====
in Billy Jeff Clinton view BJ ≠ sex
will Trump call for expert witness?
LLR-democratical Violent Homosexual Rape Fantasist Chuck: "I beg your pardon, sir. You failed to mention "Republican Hatred for Trump."'
All the "republicans" you keep mentioning became loud, passionate democraticals years ago and have been pushing far left policies ever since.
And National Review is not far behind them which is understandable given Google has bought off Lowry and crew.
To ask the question is to admit that more Americans than the elite care to think about hate the elite and most, if not everything, they stand for.
The idea that the "powers that be" would be going after literally any other former president cuz he paid of the object of any affair is completely, absolutely, pathetically and utterly comical. These people are clowns and should be laughed out of any room in which gathers decent people.
Ann Althouse said...
@Patrick Henry was right!
...
That's all this thing is, and I need to make it what works for me. The low appreciation I get from the people who write in the comments makes me think I will be needing to take a break from comments soon. If you care about the comments, you need to help me make them rewarding for me again. And this has NOTHING to do with agreeing with my positions.
Disagreement is fine. We have been faced with disagreement all our lives. Anyone who went to University who was to the right of Lenin faced constant disagreement and verbal attack if they had the temerity to voice their opinions in front of the general population for the last 3 decades.
Most of us have disagreed with most of your positions politely and less politely for a long time.
But supporting Maoist bullshit is not fine. And being dishonest about it is not fine. Trying to justify it by changing facts and ignoring things is not fine.
The violence that is inherent in the DEI and Trans movement is not acceptable in any way shape or form and people who pretend that these insane verbal harangues are not a precursor to the violence and intimidation and loss of jobs and censorship that are occurring are tacitly supporting it.
The corruption and authoritarianism is out in the open.
There is no justification for kneeling in front of this injustice. If you want to run away from this that is on you.
Running will not fill the emptiness.
Thank you for your thoughtful and kind response. It is appreciated and helpful. You have built a unique and enjoyable public policy space that adds true value to our nation's discourse. I dread the coming day that you say, "enough." May it not come soon!!!
Sally327 said...
I don't see how it helps him politically or how he weaponizes it successfully. Donald Trump had sex with a porn star, then decided to run for President and concluded --for reasons that have never been clear to me-- that he needed to pay this woman money for her silence. Trump, as per his usual, relied on bad advice and untrustworthy people (Michael Cohen) to take care of this for him. It was handled sloppily enough to allow a prosecutor to "criminalize" it.
Raping women didn't hurt Joe Biden or Bill Clinton.
The thing you are really upset about is the fight and the struggle against the corruption and injustice.
You would rather just kneel.
Patrick Henry was right! said...
Disagreeing with someone's public positions us not a personal attack. Arguing by analogy is something that lawyers are (or used to be) supposed to be able to do. We are watching the slow motion death of America as a liberal republic and you seem fine with that. We know it's your blog and if you don't want us, then close the comments, and do so with my thanks for years of enjoyable interaction. Peace.
Pretty much.
Cya all in discord.
Joe Smith: "This won't end until right-leaning prosecutors in red states start prosecuting democrat politicians.
Indiscriminately and for no reason.
If republicans don't go on offense they will lose.
It's not about Trump."
Careful. This obviously true observation is anathema to the GOPe -adjacent types like flip-side Inga (HBTPFH) and AMDG.
But we all know that at least half of the elected republicans are natural democraticals so going "on offense" against the democraticals will NEVER be in the cards for the GOPe.
Quite the opposite in fact, as you can see in this very thread. Don't you know that if Trump would just disappear rainbows would magically appear and clouds would part and the Sunshine Of Permanent GOPe Success would envelop us all!
You see, Trump is the problem. The only problem. The only problem for past decades (no, it doesnt make sense but these cats are on a roll). All future problems as well. Trump is the reason for all failures at every level across the board and dont think for a minute the McConnellites are going to let go of that Official Excuse for ALL the gleeful and profitable backstabbing of the republican base to come.
And every HBTPFH-type will fall right in line with whatever comes out of RNC Central.
wendybar wrote:
“Lots of luck you folks that wanted Joe president.”
“I’m on the Biden 2024 train . . . but not Joe! No no no. Hunter Biden.
Hunter 2024
I don’t know if you guys know this.
But Hunter Biden is an Eastern European oil executive.
He’s also a Chinese financier.
He’s a North African land development manager.
He’s a world class painter.
And he has done all of this while high on cocaine banging hookers.”
(This was posted as a video on Citizen Free Press)
The current situation is totally FuBar!
Bob Boyd said...
"Now [Trump]'s one of very few Boy Scouts who has earned the coveted 'I Nailed a Porn Star' merit badge, but he's a Boy Scout nonetheless.
I must have been doing Scouting wrong. I spent most of my time trying to figure out how to earn the Nuclear Science and Welding badges.
Jen Psaki's opinion on anything is meaningless. She's a well established liar and only an effective one with people who are in on the lies, which happens to be most of the media. The Biden administration's level of incompetence is incredible and she was only a good press secretary compared to her successor, who may be the worst press secretary in world history and I'm including Baghdad Bob.
If Trump is arrested, it is obviously politically motivated. For anyone else, they wouldn't haven't even bothered investigating it. If forced to act upon it, they would have charged a misdemeanor and negotiated a fine.
Does this help Trump? I would think that anything that makes the current administration look both corrupt and incompetent couldn't hurt.
“The Dispatch people made a good point a few weeks ago about a potential indictment of Trump: Don't issue an indictment based on some novel legal theory. If you are going to indict him, it had better be on solid legal ground”
They don’t have anything. They are making it up, in order to get Trump, once and for all. I think that a bunch of Dems have it in their heads that they can keep him from being on the ballot in a bunch of states by convicting him of a felony. They just can’t help themselves - they have the power to hopefully hurt him, and, by gawd, it’s their duty to do so. And for the Manhattan DA, it may just be a ticket go higher office.
This isn’t their first attempt at this. There were repeated attacks on him, and two trumped up impeachments while he was in office. It came down to that Pelosi had enough control over her caucus to ram them through. Maybe more egregious was the MAL raid to supposedly find documents marked as classified (that he very likely had ordered declassified). The whole circus was run by the Counterintelligence Division (CD) of the FBI, who had been after him since 6 months before he took office. The Archives had been ordered to cooperate with the FBI, which meant that whenever FBI CD wanted something, they asked Archives, which in turn asked the FBI to get it for them. With the MAL raid, they were LawFaring statutes as fast as they could to try to criminalize retention of declassified documents (incriminating the FBI CD). Then, someone realized that Biden, as senile and venal as he was, no doubt left office with documents marked classified, that no doubt still were, because he had been VP, without plenary declassification authority. And, of course, he had, and hadn’t even pretended to secure them, storing some of them with his Corvette. And Pence had a couple. And Obama had a bunch of them…
I don’t think that they are thinking through the long term consequences of political arrests and prosecutions. Either those involved are incapable of long term thinking, or they believe that they are far enough along on their attempt to seize and retain power undemocratically, that it doesn’t matter. They may be right. At least Yancey (who correctly called the election last year) seems to believe that they may be right. They are doing this, along with the J6 prosecutions, for the in terrorem effect.
But they aren’t looking the right way. The one they should be fearing is DeSantis, not Trump. He is a smart lawyer, with bureaucratic experience. And he has shown himself fully capable of using his executive power to destroy his political opponents in FL. And every time he does it, his popularity increases. He could, for example, on his first day in office, fire every prosecutor, DOJ, FBI, etc employee involved in RussiaGate, the J6 prosecutions, illegal surveillance, etc, for cause, for violating department regulations as well as their oath of office (for violating the civil rights of their targets), then let them try to get their jobs and pensions back. This is the sort of thing that he could think of, and Trump couldn’t. Or, Trump could appoint him AG, preparing him for 2028.
"[Trump] might just have a shot at a third party win."
Despite Trump fatigue, I could go for this just to see the Uniparty squirm. It is likely I am not alone!
This I agree with:
"As to Trump's criminality, if Trump were not so hated by the media (and by many among the professional politicians) the ongoing criminal investigations would likely never have happened, and an indictment would not be a probability. (There certainly have been greater criminals in the White House than Trump.)" [Robert Cook]
In other words:
"Show me the man and I'll find you the crime." [Lavrentyi Beria]
Does Trump need help, politically? After garnering some initial excitement, DeSantis seems to have subsided. Haley and Pence? Puleease....Please..... No one else.
Do not imagine any circumstances that could occur at this point that could end moderation. It's not going to happen
"At this point"... I take that to mean there is a chance, that at some point in time there could be a circumstance.
I get it. Trump is not it.
""At this point"... I take that to mean there is a chance, that at some point in time there could be a circumstance."
I meant from this point going forward. Sorry to be confusing. I wish it were different but people are not going to change.
“So here we go. Here's alanc709, just a few days ago, with my reply to alanc709:
Chuck said...
"...San Francisco will be the capitol of the Republic of Kalifornia before there is ever a Trump indictment. You're a buffoon. Why don't you and Chuck go off and make some transchildren."
Bookmarked, alanc709.
Thank you for playing.”
Thanks for posting this! I was thinking about what the doofus said about Trump never being indicted and wondering if you were going to throw it in his face, good work Chuck.
Chuck said:
"I beg your pardon, sir. You failed to mention "Republican Hatred for Trump." I give you credit for proper-noun capitalization and all, but geeze!"
Au contraire! Republican hatred of Trump exists only in the minds of the GOPe wing of the Uniparty and among the delusional minds of the Never Trumpers, you know, like Bill Kristol, Charley Sykes and world famous Michigan GOPe "election lawyer", Chuck.
There. FIFY.
John henry: "To all saying that donald trump had sex with stormy Daniel's
Is there any evidence? She says it happened but do we have anything more?
Has he not denied he had sex with that woman?
I don't view the payoff as evidence one way or t'other"
All correct of course.
But, as is ALWAYS the case, the GOPe-ers adopt and internalize the assumptions and language of the democraticals.
But only every single time.
Well I used to wonder how Althouse put up with certain commenters. There's a group which has been coming to the forefront the last few months whose "comments" consist of saying: "Well, as a suburban woman you Althouse naturally think that because you like destroying the Republic now that you're finished with tearing the balls off men and destroying the schools with participation trophies.. All of it's your fault." Kind of teen-ager talk but these are men so old they remember when there were teen-agers. And that is their only response to any topic Althouse blogs on and everything she says about her topics. I disliked the trend but I didn't argue with them because it would be personal attacks since this group of savant idiots have no position except "It's all your fault." I used to put in statements about the great sunrise pictures - though this is, in away, banned. and about the gardening. But enough of mute support.
You guys: Grow the fuck up. Take on the Big Guy. Defend the Republic. Instead of whining about how "it's all, boohoo, over, so that's why I can whimper out my little girl comments on Althouse about how I've lost my little pony republic doll and why can't Mumsie Althouse find it for me if she cares, snivel, but she doesn't, she's just reading The New Yorker again instead of running about, trying to fix my sorrow, gulp."
All any of us can do is get our feet under us time and again; and do the best we can with what we have. Will you please stop your whinging and moaning? which only your self-importance keeps you from seeing is childish cowardice in a very grave, dangerous time.
I see all the talk about DeSantis needing to do something to try and block this to show that he is on the Trump base side. Trump won't let DeSantis block anything. That will make Trump look weak. Trump is not going to hide out in Mar-a-Lago.
DeSantis can't say that he would block any indictment because then Trump would say that he was going to NYC to answer the charges making DeSantis look weak.
Indicting Trump will be the stupidest thing the Democrats ever did. After their second stupidest thing, which was not working with him in the first damn place back in 2016.
It's an amazing thing to observe, TBH.
Look, let's be brutally honest here: Trump has got to be the cleanest guy, ever, if this is all they could come up with on him. As opposed to the actual sleazy crap the Biden Krime Krewe gets up to, shaking down foreign countries left and right.
Mueller had what, three years of investigations? They couldn't find a damn thing on him they could take action on. Either they're dumb as bricks, Trump is smart as hell, or there isn't anything. I'm leaning on "There ain't anything there".
This whole thing is a clownshow. If they indict him, they'll never win a case unless they do so in such an egregiously biased court that nobody will ever accept it as just, and all they're going to do is cement massive hatred in the general public for going after him.
Ya want a nifty historical example of this crap? Look up the Gracchi brothers from Republican Roman history. Only thing is, Trump isn't quite like either one of them; they make a martyr out of him, and the only thing that lets them survive is if the following day someone drops an asteroid on DC. Or, alien space bats show up and claim Trump as one of their own...
Trump is he only Republican Biden can beat.
Hmmmmm....
Never mind?
Apparently our President Emeritus may NOT be arrested Tuesday.
There is now a mystery witness (Lanny Davis?) who will testify Monday and exonerate PEDJT.
Or so TGP is reporting.
John Henry
hombre said...
"[Trump] might just have a shot at a third party win."
Despite Trump fatigue, I could go for this just to see the Uniparty squirm. It is likely I am not alone!
========
so how many states can change to ranked choice by/before/mail-in-deadline for November 2024
To those who claim to have "Trump Fatigue" is it really trump fatigue or is it anti-trump fatigue?
There is really very little pro-Trump stuff to get fatigued about. It is pretty much all anti-Trump stuff, most of it bullshit, that we get beaten over the head with daily.
Seldom even about substance. Even the official Althouse Dick has spent 5-6 years avoiding anything of substance. Just yammers on and on about style issues.
John Henry
“Never say never again” (1983) was not just a movie filmed on the French Riviera.
Yes it could help him politically. That is the point! Make no mistake, the entire Democrat establishment wants Trump to be the nominee and they know the state going after him makes him more popular among a base that might be looking around for alternatives. What you thought the Mara Largo raid (that has not gone anywhere since) was an earnest investigation that was coincidentally timed in mid-term primary season?
" The low appreciation I get from the people who write in the comments makes me think I will be needing to take a break from comments soon. If you care about the comments, you need to help me make them rewarding for me again. And this has NOTHING to do with agreeing with my positions."
That's not true. I can't speak for the rest of these motherfuckers, but I appreciate the shit out of you. I appreciate the shit out of this platform.
In between, we're told that Trump can be expected to "weaponize" the indictment for political gain, which just restates the question in the headline. Will the political weaponization of the indictment (if there is one) work?
Since everyone with a functioning brain will be quite aware that any such indictment will be political trash, of course he will be able to weaponize it
Left Bank of the Charles said...
“We just don’t know yet,” is the analysis. I think it will depend on the outcome. An acquittal would be a huge boom for Trump. A conviction that can stand up on appeal would finish him.
A "conviction" for what? Paying off a porn actress he had sex with? "Lying"?
I watched Joe Biden claim on national television that the Hunter Biden laptop was Russian disinformation.
We now have Hunter Biden suing people for releasing his personal information from his laptop. if lying is a crime, then let us know when ever single Democrat politician in America is in jail.
Until then?
You are completely fucking insane if you actually believe that any of the "crimes" Trump's been accused of are going to matter to any sane individual
I think that a bunch of Dems have it in their heads that they can keep him from being on the ballot in a bunch of states by convicting him of a felony.
What happened the last time the Democrats kept a Republican off of the ballot?
SEx with a porn star in 2006. This is the big crime. Sex. and hush money.
The Nazi Inga-Chuck left are giddy at the prospect of the gulag.
"Trump took to his “Truth Social” site over the weekend and said he expects to be arrested Tuesday on an indictment stemming from Bragg’s ongoing probe into alleged hush money paid to porn star Stormy Daniels in the lead up to the 2016 election. Daniels claims she had an affair with Trump in 2006, which he has denied. "
The corrupt immoral degenerate Maddow-left do not care about Biden's real crimes.
Didn't Stormy Daniels lose the defamation suit against Trump?
Inga said...
Thanks for posting this! I was thinking about what the doofus said about Trump never being indicted and wondering if you were going to throw it in his face, good work Chuck.
Never is a long time (though I suppose you'all could dig up his corpse for the show trial) but so far the people who have been saying Trump will never been indicted have been right a lot more times than you have been.
"official Althouse Dick"? Who dat?
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