May 11, 2024

"So we’re left with a two-bit case that has devolved into dirty bits, filled with salacious details...."

"Trump came across as a loser in her account — a narcissist, cheater, sad Hugh Hefner wannabe, trading his satin pajamas for a dress shirt and trousers (and, later, boxers) as soon as Stormy mocked him. The man who was the likely source of the 'Best Sex I Ever Had' tabloid headline, attributed to Marla Maples at the time, no doubt loathes Stormy for having described their batrachian grappling, as Aldous Huxley called sex, as 'textbook generic.' Like a legal dominatrix, Stormy continued to emasculate the former president after her testimony, tweeting: 'Real men respond to testimony by being sworn in and taking the stand in court. Oh … wait. Nevermind.' The compelling part of this case is not whether Trump did something wrong with business papers. The compelling part is how it shows, in a vivid way, that he’s the wrong man for the job."

Writes Maureen Dowd in her new column "Donnie After Dark" (NYT).

1. Dowd seems to approve of using the criminal process not for its proper purpose — to enforce specific written law — but to expose and humiliate one's political enemy. Let's look at him in his underwear and sneer at his sexual fumblings, as described by someone who openly hates him — please, emasculate him! — and let's laugh.

2. It's so exciting — sexually and politically — that she doesn't see the downside. The aggressive desire to humiliate and crush him makes him sympathetic and makes you look like a bully. 

3. I'm imagining the jurors talking about this testimony and trying to connect it to the elements of the crime — assuming they can get their mind around what this crime even is. In my vision, they say: What was that Stormy Daniels testimony even about? Why did we have to know what material his pajamas were made out of? Satin! A shiny fabric. Waved about... to distract us.

4. "Batrachian" — it means "Of or pertaining to the Batrachia, esp. frogs and toads" (OED). It wasn't Daniels's adjective. Dowd got it from and credited Aldous Huxley. I found the relevant passage, in his "Point Counterpoint":
‘But what has love to do with it?’ asked Slipe. ‘In Beatrice’s case.’

‘A great deal,’ Willie Weaver broke in. ‘Everything. These superannuated virgins—always the most passionate.’

‘But she’s never had a love affair in her life.’

‘Hence the violence,’ concluded Willie triumphantly. ‘Beatrice has a n*gger sitting on the safety valve. And my wife assures me that her underclothes are positively Phrynean. That’s most sinister.’

‘Perhaps she likes being well dressed,’ suggested Lucy.

Willie Weaver shook his head. The hypothesis was too simple.

‘That woman’s unconscious as a black hole.’ Willie hesitated a moment. ‘Full of batrachian grapplings in the dark,’ he concluded and modestly coughed to commemorate his achievement.

5.  So "her underclothes are positively Phrynean." Interesting to encounter the discussion of Beatrice's underclothes just as we were talking about Trump's.  But who was Phryne? Wikipedia tells us she was a courtesan in ancient Greece, put on trial, circa 350 BC, for asebeia, "a kind of blasphemy." She was accused of carrying on a komos (a drunken procession), holding thiasoi ("debauched meetings"), and introducing a new god. The case was brought, they say, not because of those asserted violations of law, but out of personal animus, by a former lover, Hyperides. 

Famously, Phryne was said to have been acquitted after the jury saw her bare breasts – Quintilian says that she was saved "non Hyperidis actione... sed conspectus corporis" ("not by Hyperides' pleading, but by the sight of her body"). 

6. Talk about distracting, irrelevant evidence: 

104 comments:

Leland said...

Trump came across as a victim of an extortion scheme by a blackmailer who can't keep her story straight.

Achilles said...

Dowd is just saying the quiet part out loud: She will vote for a known rapists like Joe Biden and Bill Clinton but Trump is bad! Well actually that isn't it.

What every single person in the world is realizing is the part about there being no actual crime here.

Remember the Prosecution claims that because Trump used personal funds and not campaign funds to pay his personal lawyer this is a felony attempt to illegally influence the 2016 election.

I am curious how Clinton paid $850,000 to Paula Jones now that I think about it.

And remember that Bill raped Paula Jones. Bill Clinton is a rapist. If you voted for him and you support this trial you are just a complete piece of shit.

Achilles said...

If the jury still finds Trump guilty given the current circumstances that will turn out worse for rank and file democrats than if he is found not guilty.

The vast majority of the country that sees this as a farce will conclude that you are all pieces of shit, not just the democrat leadership.

Narayanan said...

batrachian = Also called anuran

Phryne also mentioned in The Fountainhead [by Ellswroth Toohey reportin] when Roark bears/bares photographs of Nude Statue of modeled with Dominique for Temple of Human Spirit

Temujin said...

You asked the pertinent question:

What is the crime?

Narayanan said...

‘But what has love to do with it?’ asked Slipe. ‘In Beatrice’s case.’
;;;
‘A great deal,’ Willie Weaver broke in. ‘Everything. These superannuated virgins—always the most passionate.’

‘But she’s never had a love affair in her life.’

‘Hence the violence,’ concluded Willie triumphantly. ‘Beatrice/Maureen has a n*gger sitting on the safety valve. And my wife assures me that her underclothes are positively Phrynean. That’s most sinister.’

‘Perhaps she likes being well dressed,’ suggested Lucy.

iowan2 said...

When asked point blank the talking head utter some version of, When the evidence is presented all this will make sense.

Not only have I not seen evidence, try as I might, I cannot imagine what evidence can make sense of any of this.

Rich etal. can maybe help me.

Dear corrupt left, go F yourselves said...

Ann said - perfectly...

"Dowd seems to approve of using the criminal process not for its proper purpose — to enforce specific written law — but to expose and humiliate one's political enemy. "


That right there is the only motivation for the corrupt left. That, and getting Trump placed behind bars - or assassinated.

Tom T. said...

One definitely gets the impression that Trump turns Dowd on.

Sebastian said...

"Dowd seems to approve of using the criminal process not for its proper purpose — to enforce specific written law — but to expose and humiliate one's political enemy."

Proper purpose! Specific written law! So old-fashioned.

Of course, this is Dem lawfare, and none of it matters, as a matter of "law."

Iman said...

Consider the source. And remember Dowdy had no issues with Bill “a role of quarters” Clinton.

rehajm said...

You assholes have your ham sandwich, we have ours…except, despite the pronouncements of the kangaroos in Uncle Sam’s courts, ours is not guilty of actual high crimes…

Dear corrupt left, go F yourselves said...

I assume each and every Juror is a plant. They were all pre-selected to provide the outcome the left demand.

Iman said...

Speaking of “two bits”…

gilbar said...

assuming they can get their mind around what this crime even is.

what WAS this crime?
was it paying for a Non Disclosure Agreement?
was it having sex with a stripper?
was it talking to a stripper?
was it BEING DONALD TRUMP?

of ALL the 92 trials that Trump is being tried in.. WHO was the victim, in ANY of them?

Mr. D said...

And remember that Bill raped Paula Jones. Bill Clinton is a rapist. If you voted for him and you support this trial you are just a complete piece of shit.

Clinton raped Juanita Broaddrick, not Paula Jones. But your point stands otherwise.

PB said...

I thought only testimony relevant to the charges was allowed to be entered? Maybe it'll be relevant when the crime ring charged is revealed...

Dude1394 said...

Another punch a Nazi moment but the democrat party gets to decide who the Nazis are.

MSOM said...

I always assumed that they had sex and he paid her.

But she testified otherwise. She didn't say he paid her or gave her an expensive "gift". She didn't even say she did it in order to get on his TV show.

Her testimony painted 60-year old Trump as the sort of person that hot 20-somethings like her would choose to sleep with.

I think this elevates his image to a lot of people. And only makes him look worse to people (unicorns?) who somehow thought that he was a good family man who never cheated on his wife.

Chuck said...

"1. Dowd seems to approve of using the criminal process not for its proper purpose — to enforce specific written law — but to expose and humiliate one's political enemy. Let's look at him in his underwear and sneer at his sexual fumblings, as described by someone who openly hates him — please, emasculate him! — and let's laugh."

This is of course a fair point as far as it goes. And yet, there IS a specific legal point to the detail in the testimony. Trump weirdly has denied the sexual encounter* in its entirety. Had Trump stipulated that it had actually happened, and that the details were personally embarassing to him and his family, I expect that Judge Merchan would have strictly limited the testimony. That is, unless the defense (as they did this week) went after the witness in brutally salacious ways to try to impeach and diminish her.

*I have been ridiculed by other commenters for using the phrase "sexual encounter." My reason for doing so is related to the somewhat extensive testimony from Stormy Daniels and Keith Davidson concerning the silly denial statement that Davidson drafted and Stormy signed, in which Davidson hoped that denying any "affair" or "romantic" involvement would be taken as denying sexual contact.

"2. It's so exciting — sexually and politically — that she doesn't see the downside. The aggressive desire to humiliate and crush him makes him sympathetic and makes you look like a bully."

Hmm. Maybe so. But has there ever been a political figure who has done more, personally, to humiliate and crush his own legion of adversaries? Trump fans love that he's a fighter. Trump being a rough and tumble vengeance-seeker is one of his selling points with them. You want a fighter? Yeah, we're gonna give you a fight. Trump may get to look "sympathetic." He may end up also looking "weak."

TaeJohnDo said...

It is hard to believe the post was classed up by full frontal nudity...but you pulled it off! Just like the gal's robe in the picture.

Wince said...

Achilles said...
And remember that Bill raped Paula Jones.

Are you thinking of Juanita Broderick?

wildswan said...

It's cheap trash all the way down. Who believes Stormy is telling the truth about Trump's pajamas or whtever anyhow? No doubt she and Trump spent time together once but she was an expensive courtesan then and she's just a cheap one now. You say she got a lot of money? She's selling out the man who could restore prosperity to a great country - and for that she got a few million for from a coalition of billionaires. Relatively, she's minimum wage at a truck stop. Of course. she's produced a maximum Wapo-type slur-story, she's got an eye for a great headline, she'd make a great Wapo reporter or opinion writer as such things go these days. Stormy as a Wapo reporter would be upping her game but Maureen Dowd as a Stormy believer is losing hers. Once Maureen Dowd was a girl at Immaculata High School dreaming of being a great reporter and opinion page writer for a great paper; now she's wallowing in garbage like a dog rolling in dead fish and reporting on the fun with ecstatic barks.

Patrick Henry was right! said...

And yet, you are still on their side and will vote for more of this crap. So close, and yet so far away.

PigHelmet said...

I learned the term “batrachian” from reading HP Lovecraft’s “The Shadow Over Innsmouth.”

Wince said...

MoDo said...
The compelling part of this case is not whether Trump did something wrong with business papers. The compelling part is how it shows, in a vivid way, that he’s the wrong man for the job.

Not sure of the "job" she's talking about, but the last four years have shown Biden is the "wrong man for the job" of president. I don't think this trial can alter that growing perception.

The compelling part of this case is revealing how weaponized the justice system has become, in service of a doddering tyrant, at least in New York.

doctrev said...

"Real men respond to testimony by being sworn in and taking the stand in court."

Sure, it's tempting to put "This is what Liberals Actually Believe" over this testimony South-Park style. But the problem is that they don't believe this. America is ruled by smug cretins whose increasingly prideful deceits will be followed by nemesis on a global scale.

RideSpaceMountain said...

So much of everything wrong in our politics centers on narrative control. Especially when it comes to events as salacious as these. Narrative control is inherently feminine. It’s what women do in addition to social pressure because in a real competition between women and men that’s all they have. That's it. It's what women do to other women as well. They clique up and spread shit and tear each other down and it works just as well on men especially in the low T universe we currently inhabit.

But the cracks are starting to form as they always do, and there will be hell to pay if the cackling hens and their hen-pecked husbands who run the show keep it up. They will double down one more time too many and the gynarchy will implode, and when it does it will be epic and spectacular.

Have you ever seen what it looks like when the queen bee and her mean girl squad get cornered and caught with their britches down? Of course you have. You saw it on Novemeber 9th, 2016 when the Empress of Chappaqua showed up looking like she'd aged 20 years overnight. Imagine that on a global scale. Beckies be warned.

Readering said...

Achilles, periodic reminder that Trump was accused of marital rape by his first wife in sworn testimony. A book was published on the accusations against him of sexual assault.

Skeptical Voter said...

I've always thought of Maureen Dowd as the lonely cougar at the end of the Oak Room bar. Years ago she might occasionally get lucky and have someone take her home. These days getting lucky means somebody bought her a drink.

So yeah MoDo gets sexually excited when reading testimony by an aging hooker recounting times when she was actually alone in a room with a man. Even when that time was 17 freaking years ago. 2007 is a long way from 2024.

Yancey Ward said...

"Had Trump stipulated that it had actually happened, and that the details were personally embarassing to him and his family, I expect that Judge Merchan would have strictly limited the testimony. That is, unless the defense (as they did this week) went after the witness in brutally salacious ways to try to impeach and diminish her."

Chuck the Cunt with another howler of a claim. Since Daniels' testimony in no way addresses the criminal charges, why would anyone other than a complete moron believe any stipulation by Trump would have prevented Merchan from allowing Daniels' testimony exactly as it occurred? I have asked Chuck the Cunt to outline the criminal act here, and he has refused time and again. Trump is charged with personally mislabeling the payments made to Daniels.

Since Trump's defense has, in fact, stipulated that she was paid to keep her from telling a salacious story in public, why was her testimony allowed, Chuck the Cunt? The only issue is whether or not the payment was illegally characterized in the business records- an argument that, to date, the prosecution hasn't even tried to prove and has, in fact, proved that Trump isn't the one who labeled the payments as legal expenses- the accounting department and its software is the party responsible for that label- this is from the prosecutions' own witnesses.

I eagerly await to read your defense of this criminal trial's basis in law, Chuck the Cunt. If you will just do that, I will stop calling you a cunt, otherwise the label sticks and is accurate.

BUMBLE BEE said...

Also speaks volumes about Hofstra law school's fish wrapper of a diploma.
How much does it cost to pass the bar in NYC?
Is it as little as her journalism degree?

n.n said...

Evolution with a divergent fitness function.

Marcus Bressler said...

Is Dowd still with us? I thought she died from alcoholism, specifically boxed wine consumption, and was found dead, her virginity intact, with her numerous cats feed on her corpse.

Breezy said...

Like Stormy, MoDo makes her living off of Trump. There are myriad other topics to opine about, but salaciousness sells best, so that’s what she brings to the marketplace of ideas. Salaciousness with a large dollop of bitchiness, I might add. Maybe a touch of vengeance, as well.

Hasn’t she made enough money already?

Leland said...

Chuck makes the case for reasonable doubt: “ Trump weirdly has denied the sexual encounter* in its entirety. Had Trump stipulated that it had actually happened, and that the details were personally embarassing to him and his family, I expect that Judge Merchan would have strictly limited the testimony.”

If Merchan agreed with Chuck, then it is another example of this judge’s corruption.

*Nothing weird as Daniels has yet to describe any encounter consistently. Even Bill Maher had to admit Daniels told him a different story than she gave in testimony. “But she’s under oath” isn’t a reasonable argument. She has already stated a willingness to go to jail than pay Trump his winnings in the defamation case. She must be willing to chance perjury and jail for retribution.

So the short story is Chuck is an unreliable idiot.

Jimmy said...

“It was always the women, and above all the young ones, who were the most bigoted adherents of the Party, the swallowers of slogans, the amateur spies and nosers−out of unorthodoxy.”

—George Orwell, 1984

gadfly said...

Honest. None of the charges against Trump are based on Stormy Daniels' testimony. This is a document case based on Trump's illegal activities and the documents have been presented to the jury. Attacking Stormy and Michael Cohen, who served jail time because of Trump's misdeeds, won't help. If they are lying, Trump needs to testify in his own defense which he will not do because he will get caught up in more lies. Trump, you see, has already admitted that he paid $130,000 to Daniels after Giuliani told the world he did.

Jersey Fled said...

So apparently Chuck believes that the actual crime that we have all so diligently search for is denying the sexual encounter happened. As far as I know, that is not a crime under NewYork law. If it is, I’m staying out of New York until further notice.

Show of hands. Who believes that Stormy proved beyond a reasonable doubt that it even happened.

John henry said...

Yancy,

Nobody else will so I feel compelled to defend Chuck against your vile slurs.

Chuck is NOT cunt

You should be forced to write that 100 times on the blackboard then wash your mouth with soap.

Chuck is a Dick. He is the officially designated dick of the Althouse blog. He has been banned on several occasions for Dickish behavior.

But like herpes, he keeps coming back.

For one, I miss this herpes riddled Dick whenever he is placed on hiatus. I am a fan of bat shit crazy melded seamlessly with rock bottom stupidity.

John Henry

Eva Marie said...

Wouldn’t it have been fun to have humiliated JFK, RFK, and TFK in court with all their sexual partners?
This trial is the deep state’s way of putting all politicians on notice (and maybe the rest of us too). Any excuse can be found to drag in your real and fictional exploits into court.

narciso said...

De verdad lo merece he really deserves it being all the ridicule the detroit cavalier now i wouldnt use expletives although i am quite cognizant of same

As greg kelley points out there were many celebrities at that event many who took picture with the slattern

Gulistan said...

Socrates is kicking himself for not thinking of that trial strategy.

Ann Althouse said...

These people who are saying you're a coward if you don't testify are saying that for Trump but would never say that for all criminal defendants.

They're using that "coward" accusation in some absurd belief that Trump is such a narcissist that he might be tricked into doing what is obviously against his interest.

It's the old What are you — chicken? game.

Jupiter said...

"Dowd seems to approve of using the criminal process not for its proper purpose — to enforce specific written law — but to expose and humiliate one's political enemy."

Hmmmm, yeah, she does, doesn't she. Good thing she can't vote.

Iman said...

Daniels was on Maher’s show in 2018 and there’s a 2 minute clip on YouTube - for those who don’t watch the show - of last night’s where Maher speaks of his interview of her then (which he shows a bit of) which he points out is the opposite of what she testified to this past week.

The prosecution knows that this 2018 clip exists, along with other evidence, and yet they still do what they’ve done. Respect for the institution, Prof. Althouse? Wow.

Aggie said...

No matter what you think about the testimony this past week- and it looks like the commenter here see it as a railroading - no matter how truthful, now it goes into the hands of the jury. And they've been selected on the basis of their perceived disposition, to be hostile toward Tru.p. my guess is, 70 % probability of a guilty verdict. They need it now, very badly, to justify their Reign of Error.

Achilles said...

Readering said...

Achilles, periodic reminder that Trump was accused of marital rape by his first wife in sworn testimony. A book was published on the accusations against him of sexual assault.

And everyone, including the first wife, knows that it didn't happen you lying piece of shit.

"I have recently read some comments attributed to me from nearly 30 years ago at a time of very high tension during my divorce from Donald," she said in the statement today. "The story is totally without merit. Donald and I are the best of friends and together have raised 3 children that we love and are very proud of."

Ivana Trump had already walked back the rape allegation in 1993 as the book was about to be published.


You can justify your lies and your garbage all you want.

You voted for known rapists and you hold an obvious undeniable double standard.

You have absolutely no principles whatsoever.

You are completely willing to sacrifice the institutions that our free society is founded on for political power.

You people are transparent to everyone.

William said...

Aldous Huxley belonged to that generation of English schoolboys who were expected to be able to sight translate passages from Greek and Roman writers. I guess in their later lives as writers they felt they had to make use of all this useless information they had accumulated. Fairly harmless but a bit confusing. I've never heard the words Batrachian or Phrynean used in conversation. Kind of jarring the way he threw in the n-word.....The point of Eton and Harrow was for upper class kids to develop their own accents and their own frame of reference. If I were the kind of guy who went around deconstructing things, I would say that the use of the n-word revealed the brutish subtext of all those classical references.

Eric the Fruit Bat said...

I just learned from the internet that oral sex from Stormy Daniels is little more than a frantic, twisty tug job with her mouth at one end, so I don't see what all the fuss is about.

Achilles said...

Wince said...

Achilles said...
And remember that Bill raped Paula Jones.

Are you thinking of Juanita Broderick?


Both were raped or abused.

He paid Jones $850000 in hush money though.

The Clintons just sent thugs out to shut Broderick up and intimidate her.

William said...

Maureen Dowd has a streak of Irish Catholic prudery. As I remember it, she was quite critical of Bill Clinton. I also remember that the press, including Dowd I think, was quite critical of Ken Rove for the way he inquired into the salacious details of the Clinton/Lewinsky affair. It apparently cost Rove his seat on the Supreme Court.....Trump in Dowd's opinion is ontologically wrong. His sins are not those of a man who has fallen from grace like Clinton. Trump is himself original sin. He is the reptilian brain unmediated and without any possible forgiveness. Dowd and Stormy share the same opinion of Trump. I think in other contexts she might be critical of Stormy. She certainly was of Monica.....I don't know what happened with Trump and Stormy. I do know that she was paid a pile of money to keep mum about it. She reneged on that deal. Trump has a right to be sore at her.

Achilles said...

Mr. D said...

And remember that Bill raped Paula Jones. Bill Clinton is a rapist. If you voted for him and you support this trial you are just a complete piece of shit.

Clinton raped Juanita Broaddrick, not Paula Jones. But your point stands otherwise.

Paula Jones accused Clinton of Sexual Harassment and Sexual Assault. He was clearly a pattern sexual predator. You can argue whether or not it was "rape rape."

Bill Clinton clearly raped Juanita Broderick.

You can discuss semantics of these accusations. Bill Clinton paid Paula Jones $850,000 hush money.

The people who both voted for Bill Clinton and support this trial are enemies of a free society and completely incompatible with the concept of equal justice. They must be defeated and driven out.

Tina Trent said...

Clinton told a naive and young intern he would leave Hillary for her. He forced her, Story of O style, to service him sexually while he held phone meetings with world leaders. That was degrading. He did worse, too. I remember my Board of Directors at the time joking about how they would have sex with him so long as he kept abortion available -- yes, that is widely true. I was the only person in the room closer to Lewinski's age. I was disgusted. They tittered.

Then again, one of them bragged about shagging Ted Kennedy. She described his bedroom in detail to prove it. I was in a literal witches coven.

Hillary went on tv to slut-shame Lewinski. Trump's wife maintained dignified silence.

Obama screwed his white, longtime girlfriend, whom he had asked to marry more than once, after he started dating Michelle. He then told the white girlfriend he needed a black wife to make it in Chicago politics and dumped her. He used Michelle as a racial prop. He continued occasionally communicating with the white ex. All that was terribly racist and cruel to both women.

Trump romped with a whore named Stormy. Never sleep with women named after weather patterns. Setting aside Michelle Obama, who must have been shattered to read of Obama's youthful and calculated choice of her, and Trump's his wife, an innocent and injured party, Trump seems like the least vile of all of these characters.

Firmly setting aside politics, who has been a good husband in the modern White House? Ford, Truman, Eisenhower, Reagan, and Bush II?

Achilles said...

Tom T. said...

One definitely gets the impression that Trump turns Dowd on.

I think the caricature of Trump they have built up turns her on.

I think the actual Trump is far too much of a gentleman.

She likes predatory rapists like Clinton and Biden.

The only women suing Trump are the ones he almost certainly didn't have sex with.

Dr Weevil said...

It looks to me like Huxley was parading his etymological knowledge for the less-than-one-percent of his readers who would get the joke. 'Phrynean' and 'batrachian' are etymological synonyms, or near-synonyms. As 'batrachos' is the ancient Greek word for 'frog', 'phryne' is ancient Greek for 'toad'. The famous 4th-century B.C. courtesan Phryne adopted the name as a kind of joke, like calling a huge man 'Tiny' or a fat man 'Slim'.

Speaking of toadies, the National Press Club used to have a painting of Phryne by a famous South American painter on their wall, but took it down in 2005 after complaints that it was sexist. What was particularly hilarious is that the Washington Post published a story about how supposedly offensive it was with a picture of the painting right there on the page. I think they may even have published a letter to the editor I sent them pointing out that a painting that can be shown in a newspaper, or in color on its web-site, where any child may see it can hardly be too dirty to hang on the wall of a private club for adults where only members would see it. I think I may have added something about prostitutes and the press being a natural pair, and suggested that was the real reason it had to go.

I just did a Google image search of Phryne + "National Press Club" and got one picture: if you're looking for it, it's mostly orange and yellow with her right knee tastefully covering the naughty bits, though her breasts are clearly visible. A Duck Duck Go image search brought up far more pictures, hundreds of them, but none was the right one: has the National Press Club suppressed the best part of the story?

I was wondering what they did with the painting until I noticed that the one picture on Google was from the Sloans & Kenyon Auctioners and Appraisers, offering it for sale later in 2005. I wonder who bought it.

hombre said...

Lefties are consistent. I'll give them that. Somewhere there must be a person of the left whose concern for the country is expressed in (even a mild) condemnation of the corruption of law enforcement and tbe legal process to get Trump. This includes the ignorant clamoring for him to testify.

I have yet to see it particularly on left dominated websites like Yahoo News. What a bunch of assholes!

narciso said...

again one cannot see this episode apart from the madam scandal in 2007, that entrapped david vitters and others, who were kept on the downlow,

Achilles said...

gadfly said...

Honest. None of the charges against Trump are based on Stormy Daniels' testimony. This is a document case based on Trump's illegal activities and the documents have been presented to the jury. Attacking Stormy and Michael Cohen, who served jail time because of Trump's misdeeds, won't help. If they are lying, Trump needs to testify in his own defense which he will not do because he will get caught up in more lies. Trump, you see, has already admitted that he paid $130,000 to Daniels after Giuliani told the world he did.


gadfly is so stupid he thinks they are charging Trump with paying $130,000 to Daniels.

Narr said...

MoDo and her spear-carriers here--Chuck the Cuck and Gadfool prominent among them--have issued an Official Double-Dog Dare to Trump.

I wonder what will happen next.

gilbar said...

here's a Fun Question:
How long would it have taken YOU, to find reports about Gennifer Flowers on the Internet?
I had to search for
Bill Clinton Arkansas adultery scandal

Which took me a WHILE
wikipedia's post for Bill Clinton had NO MENTION
wikipedia's post for Bill Clinton sex scandal had no mention

it's like the world has forgotten about the Presidential Candidate having a 12 year affair with a "cabaret singer" (that is: a prostitute that did titty films)
Either the world has forgotten, or it's been swept under the rug.

to be fair.. ONCE i remembered her name, i DID find a wikipage
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gennifer_Flowers
that says:
Flowers came forward to say that she had had a 12-year extramarital relationship with Clinton, and that he had assisted her in securing a job as an administrative assistant with the Arkansas Appeal Tribunal.

Now.. Tell Me AGAIN.. What was Trump charged with?

robother said...

Not least of President Trump's contributions to the chance of recovering American greatness is his art of getting the bein pensant elite to unmask themselves. "Equal justice" or "rule of law" means nothing more to them than a 19th Century lynch mob, or a 20th Century Stalinist show trial judge.

traditionalguy said...

Note well that Phryne has not a single tattoo on her precious body. Umm excuse me.

Yancey Ward said...

Another bunch of lies from Gadfly:

"Honest. None of the charges against Trump are based on Stormy Daniels' testimony. This is a document case based on Trump's illegal activities and the documents have been presented to the jury. Attacking Stormy and Michael Cohen, who served jail time because of Trump's misdeeds, won't help. If they are lying, Trump needs to testify in his own defense which he will not do because he will get caught up in more lies. Trump, you see, has already admitted that he paid $130,000 to Daniels after Giuliani told the world he did."

What documents, Gadfly? Be specific and describe precisely why these documents you claim have been submitted prove Trump did something illegal? Paying Daniels isn't illegal, so the checks don't prove any illegality. The prosecution's own witnesses testified that the labeling of the checks as legal fees wasn't done by Trump, wasn't ordered by Trump, and wasn't even suggested by Trump- they were labeled by the accounting department as legal fees because the checks were written to Michael Cohen- something Trump had been doing long before he even decided to run for President.

Yancey Ward said...

John Henry, Chuck is also a dick, but he still a cunt.

Chuck said...

Althouse I cannot think of anyone among the ant-Trump legal punditry who thinks that there is the slightest possibility that Trump will ever testify in any of his criminal trials. And of course it is good, sound legal advice that he NOT testify.

The taunting of Trump isn’t about trying to goad him into testifying. His attorneys would never stand for it.

We’re taunting Trump because he’s constantly strutting around claiming that he might testify. And we’re also ridiculing him because the first and foremost reason that he must not be allowed to testify is because he is such a terrible witness, without any good evidence to supply to a jury.

mindnumbrobot said...

I know I'm in the minority, but I find this all so boring (the "trial", not our gracious hostess posts and comments). We already know the end of the movie, so I'll be happy when the guilty verdict is read and the credits roll.

Big Mike said...

I get British and Australian mysteries on my TV — Midsomer Murders, David Suchet as Hercule Poirot, etc. one of my favorites was Miss Fisher — Miss Phryne Fisher. As played by Essie Davis, she is not merely a wealthy sleuth, she is light-hearted and a bit free with her favors. I finally get the reference!

Crazy World said...

I recommend Maureen go check out Trumps rally at the Jersey shore today, it’s HUUUUGE!

Iman said...

Chuck’s anti-Trump Gerbil Class…

Big Mike said...

And remember that Bill [Clinton] raped Paula Jones.

@Achilles, no he didn’t. He exposed himself and requested — or demanded — fellatio. He may have expected that his status as governor and hers as a state employee would have coerced compliance, but she says she ran from the room and I see no reason to doubt her.

Of course there were women he raped using violence or the threat of violence — Juanita Broaddrick for instance — and apparently many other sexual encounters where consent was coerced, e.g., Kathleen Willey.

narciso said...

the sequel set in the swinging australia of the 60s, with a kind of austin powers mien, to it,
is quite good,


is there any proof he was actually at the Hotel, as suggested, this seems like a danchenko story spun back some years ago, she made some claims in 2011, which are at odds with some of her statements now,

robother said...

Of course, the real political dirty work of the case is revealed in Dowd's glorying in the tawdriness of the porn star's testimony: the whole trial is a free political hit ad on Trump. And in the judge's gag order, which is intended to deny Trump as political candidate the freedom to dispute the lies and slander of Cohen and Daniels (which they are spreading both in court and on the internet). No gag orders for them, obviously.

Big Mike said...

1. Dowd seems to approve of using the criminal process not for its proper purpose — to enforce specific written law — but to expose and humiliate one's political enemy. Let's look at him in his underwear and sneer at his sexual fumblings, as described by someone who openly hates him — please, emasculate him! — and let's laugh.

The real laugh is that he seems to be winning in the court of public opinion, which is more important than Judge Merchan’s efforts to railroad him.

Dr Weevil said...
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Amadeus 48 said...

Are we sure that Stormy (or Dowd, for that matter) isn't living in a Family Fare store sign somewhere? Both of these--ahem--ladies seem headed that way.

How would they access the roof? My bet is that they change themselves into bats and fly up there.

Achilles said...

Big Mike said...

And remember that Bill [Clinton] raped Paula Jones.

@Achilles, no he didn’t. He exposed himself and requested — or demanded — fellatio. He may have expected that his status as governor and hers as a state employee would have coerced compliance, but she says she ran from the room and I see no reason to doubt her.

Fine. Clinton attempted to rape Paula Jones and she found a way to escape.

He is still a serial rapist.

And anyone who voted for him knew that when they voted for him.

n.n said...

That woman’s unconscious as a black hole.’

"Black hole" has garnered a novel etymology with semantic progress: diversity, equity, and inclusion. h/t NAACP

Michael K said...

Dowd badly needs what "grandma" said in "Parenthood."

A Man !

Achilles said...

Chuck said...

We’re taunting Trump because he’s constantly strutting around claiming that he might testify. And we’re also ridiculing him because the first and foremost reason that he must not be allowed to testify is because he is such a terrible witness, without any good evidence to supply to a jury.

You are taunting Trump because he is a better person than you are. He has accomplished more than any 10 of you Lincoln Project child molesters ever will in their life. He clearly has more people that like and admire him.

This is the pattern of Trump Derangement Syndrome. There are millions of people that have status from professions like Lawyer, Teacher, Journalist, HR manager etc. who have status through their education and credentials and have lived a life not actually doing anything to help anyone.

The more people get to know Trump, and the more people get to see Trump's enemies, Trump's support grows every time.

Trump is the most popular president in history by millions of votes. He got more than 75 million votes in 2020 and that was his second election. After 4 years he got millions MORE voters.

That is 10 million more than second place Barrack Obama got in 2008. And Barrack Obama got FEWER votes, 62 million, his second time in 2012. The more they saw of Obama the less they liked him.

This is why I am happy Chuck comes here to humiliate himself and show everyone what a piece of shit he is. Every time Chuck posts on this blog Trump gets more voters.

John henry said...

Yancy,

I agree. Let's embrace the healing power of "and" and be friends again.

John Henry

damikesc said...

"This is of course a fair point as far as it goes. And yet, there IS a specific legal point to the detail in the testimony. Trump weirdly has denied the sexual encounter* in its entirety."

She said they did not have sex. Repeatedly. There is considerable evidence that she committed perjury in her testimony. Which seems par for the course for the folks addicted to trying to "get" Trump.

"That is, unless the defense (as they did this week) went after the witness in brutally salacious ways to try to impeach and diminish her."

Except nothing they said about her was false. Literally nothing.

"*I have been ridiculed by other commenters for using the phrase "sexual encounter." My reason for doing so is related to the somewhat extensive testimony from Stormy Daniels and Keith Davidson concerning the silly denial statement that Davidson drafted and Stormy signed, in which Davidson hoped that denying any "affair" or "romantic" involvement would be taken as denying sexual contact."

So, was she lying THEN or is she lying NOW?

You do not see how that is a problem?

"Hmm. Maybe so. But has there ever been a political figure who has done more, personally, to humiliate and crush his own legion of adversaries?"


Well, Biden is using the Feds to attack his political rivals. So there is one right there. Along with his "Reichstag speech" in Philadelphia.

"He may end up also looking "weak.""

His opposition, I will remind you, is Biden. Nobody looks weak next to him.

JK Brown said...

I don't get this where they think Trump is so sensitive. He does throwback if someone comes at him, but he's all about the attention. Stormy's testimony is owning the news cycle and everyone is thinking about Donald Trump and the "conflicted" judge

Here's Whitney Cummings commenting on how Trump took a roasting

https://youtu.be/4uJ-OCj84IQ?t=35

And here is one of her cuts with Trump's comeback
https://youtu.be/2HeqjcZbbqw

ccscientist said...

In my mind, cheating with bimbos is way down the list of sins compared to taking money from foreign governments while one is VP or president.

The prosecution can't point to a law called "election interference" so they just throw that around as if it were real.

JK Brown said...

Here's a longer story by Whitney on roasting Trump and how Trump is a real entertainer

https://youtu.be/ukr7aTfl868?t=4049

damikesc said...

"Trump, you see, has already admitted that he paid $130,000 to Daniels after Giuliani told the world he did."

Gadfly, it seems more that Trump was being blackmailed than anything else.

And, not dissimilar to Bragg, you cannot seem to name what the illegal act he committed WAS. NDAs certainly are not.

damikesc said...

"We’re taunting Trump because he’s constantly strutting around claiming that he might testify. And we’re also ridiculing him because the first and foremost reason that he must not be allowed to testify is because he is such a terrible witness, without any good evidence to supply to a jury."

You cannot supply evidence to prove a crime never happened. Certainly not the way the legal system has ever been considered in this country.

Dr Weevil said...
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Dr Weevil said...
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Dr Weevil said...
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mezzrow said...

Would it be possible to construct a post that has breasts, frogs, and law as tags without including Trump?

Existential questions for 21st century living. It gives us something to do until the apocalypse arrives.

Old and slow said...

That Whitney Cummings youtube stuff was interesting to watch. Thanks for that. I'd have never sat through more than a couple of seconds without a recommendation. She was so spun up on drugs it was horrifying to look at. She is right that Trump is a TV guy, and he gets that medium.

Old and slow said...

That Whitney Cummings youtube stuff was interesting to watch. Thanks for that. I'd have never sat through more than a couple of seconds without a recommendation. She was so spun up on drugs it was horrifying to look at. She is right that Trump is a TV guy, and he gets that medium.

Readering said...

Achilles, now respond to all the many other accusations published against Trump.

Just because ivana recanted does not mean she wasn't telling the truth under oath. Sorry you hurt that so many credit the testimony still.

walter said...

Meanwhile, the dude who's family refers to as Pedo Pete and who's daughter diaries perverse showering episodes with stutters and sniffs his way through not one, but perhaps two terms if assholes like Chuck! help enable it,

Achilles said...

Readering said...

Achilles, now respond to all the many other accusations published against Trump.

Just because ivana recanted does not mean she wasn't telling the truth under oath. Sorry you hurt that so many credit the testimony still.


This is a pathetic attempt to hide from the truth. I don't need to respond to the crazy nutter that claims Trump raped her in a dressing room or the stupid gold digger that said Trump raped her in first class with a dozen other passengers around. People like you cling to obvious lies because you are a hollow shell.

You post lies. You support rapists. You ran with the J6 blood libels. You ran with Russian collusion. You supported the COVID hoaxers. You are just a pathetic shill. All the regime supporters are pathetic shills. You support censorship. You support open boarders. You support war.

You have no good principles. You and anyone still supporting this regime and these trials are just evil people. The fact you voted for a known rapist just puts the cherry on top.

We are going to treat you like you have treated us for the last several decades.

Nobody is going to feel bad for you.

Leora said...

I was wondering what sort of name Phryne was when reading the Phryne Fisher mysteries.

Big Mike said...

Just because ivana recanted does not mean she wasn't telling the truth under oath.

[shrug]. Technically true. Women in divorce proceedings make stuff up all the time. Men do, too, though the anecdotal information of which I am aware suggests that women are worse both in frequency and, especially, nastiness.

@Readering, the blunder you are committing is two-fold. First, you’ve pushed so much TDS in your time that it is not merely easy but obligatory to discount your written opinions. Second, you keep acting as though it’s a race between Trump and some utter paragon of wisdom and virtue. Joe Biden is so thoroughly corrupt and so disgustingly incompetent that, by contrast, Donald Trump looks like a marvel of talent and probity.

Rusty said...

Now Daniels is claiming to be a medium?
What started out as a dog and pony show has devolved into a sideshow of freaks.

Yancey Ward said...

"Achilles, now respond to all the many other accusations published against Trump."

Why would he? You don't even believe Ivana Trump when she literally tells you she made it up to get a better divorce settlement. What possible evidence would you even accept, Readering?

Readering said...

How have you been treated, Achilles? Turned down for reservations in restaurants? Your jokes ignored?

smitty1e said...

How much longer until Dowd completes the orbit, and accuses Trump of 17-dimensional chess, orchestrating a quartet of farcical trials to paint himself a metaphorical martyr?

Achilles said...

Readering said...

How have you been treated, Achilles? Turned down for reservations in restaurants? Your jokes ignored?

I have been censored.

I live in a country where the Regime is shipping in illegals to replace me.

I fought in 2 wars where I had friends die and we were betrayed in every way by the leadership in DC.

My company threatened to fire me and all of my coworkers if we did not take a vaccine that is now killing people.

Our food prices have exploded. Our cost of living in general has exploded so that corrupt shitheads can send our money to foreign countries and launder it back to themselves.

You want to make light of the evil you are a part of. You support everything that the Biden regime is doing.

You are a fascist piece of shit that votes for rapists and makes up lies about political opponents to pretend your enemies are as shitty as you are.

You will now be treated like you have treated us for decades.

Readering said...

Achilles: take your blood pressure medicine. Retiring soon, and appreciate your tax dollars contrubuting to social security and medicare.