The Orange Turd's secret Truth Social agenda: put the US Government in a federal bankstuptcy court run by a Republican judge

    Ok, younguns, today I introduce the only person I grew up with in Mountain Brook, alias The Tiny Kingdom, who still puts up and cuts up with me. He knew your mommas when they were tots.

        He worked his entire grown up life in a New York Stock Exchange company, and he calls Donald Trump, The Orange Turd (OT).

    Once upon a time I dreamed of him being a general and I was a corporal, and I woke up figuring something I was involved in needed to be gone about the way he would do it, instead of the way I would do it.

    Yesterday, he texted me his very most recent OT sentiments, which perhaps were prompted by some really brave, or really stupid people, depending on how it turns out, agreeing to take OT’s money-loser Truth Social public, and OT will retain 60 percent of the stock and get a $3billion windfall.

    Excerpt from America’s premier business publication. 

Forbes Magazine

Trump’s Truth Social Parent Will Go Public—Here’s What Happened To His Last Publicly Traded Company

Antonio Pequeño IVForbes Staff

I cover breaking news.

Mar 22, 2024,04:42pm EDT

Former President Donald Trump’s social media company will go public after shareholders in Digital World Acquisition Corp approved a merger Friday, marking Trump’s return to the stock market nearly 30 years after Trump’s resort company went public—and experienced years of bankruptcies before it was eventually delisted from the Nasdaq.

KEY FACTS
Trump Media & Technology Group’s merger with Digital World, a special-purpose acquisition company that already trades on the Nasdaq, will allow the Truth Social parent company to go public with Trump as the majority owner, potentially netting the former president a $3 billion windfall based on current share prices.

    The General’s and my text banter, followed by the rest of the Forbes article, which I don’t imagine OT put in his treasure chest, followed by the punch line.

The General

Next time you are in research mode, please see if the OT was correct in flag protocol at that rally in Ohio last weekend. A group of Jan 6 rioters were in attendance and sang out National Anthem. Ot, dressed in his usual blue suit and MAGA ball cap, stood and saluted. From my days in the Boy Scouts and 6 years in the US Military it was my understanding you saluted if in uniform but otherwise removed any head gear and held it over your heart. Now, we know why the very vain OT didn’t want to take off MAGA ball cap and muss his frozen with paste hairdo, but was he in compliance? I wound’t expect him to know anything about the rules of flag protocol, naturally. Just a little something to do this weekend.

The Corporal

Roger, Gen, I’ll dig deeper, but it may be a simpleminded as he  believes, or pretends, he is American’s lawful president. 😎

The General

Only in the role of OT in Chief!! He ony qualifies for half that title, the first half.

The Corporal

He definitely is the Supreme OT. And, I wonder, the more the courts side against him, the more votes he will get.

The General

He and his fans don’t seem to understand that it was the everyday folks sitting on those grand juries that voted on those indictments: they weren’t dictated by some AG, DA or DOJ Speçial Prosecutor.

The Corporal

Nothing you or I think matters to Trump and his mobs.

I felt the best chance was the Gerorgia prosecutor, before she started fucking her lead assistant prosecutor and put them both on trial, when it was OT who was supposed to be on trial. 

I suppose it’s wait and see from here on out. The New York courts sure dont like him. Perhaps because he’s from New York and they know him well.

Looks like the election this year will be over before all but maybe the NY hush money (Stormy Daniels) criminal prosecution is tried, then the appeals if he’s convicted. The Republican-controlled Supreme Court will have final say in federal prosecutions.

Grand juries usually go along with prosecutors. Trial juries have to be unanimous for conviceing in criminal cases.

I’m wondering how the $450 million appeal bond in the New York state court civil fraud case will go tomorrow after Trump announced he has have $5 billion in cash he wants to spend campaigning after he never spent his own money before on campaigns.

The General

And it looks like the run up in the SAC company that is bringing in Truth Social is tanking. Sure hate to see that. 😓😓😓

The Corporal

No comprehende a company losing so much money going public.

The General

Google Truth Social public offering approved late last week. 

Truth Social merger. 6$B windfall for Trump.

The Corporal

I’ve been reading about that.

See no way the folks paying $6 billion get it back.

The Trump train jumped the tracks and maybe all left is to watch new episodes of The Devil’s Apprentice in my newsfeed supplemented by you😎

Forbes Magazine article continued 

Trump Entertainment Resorts owned several Trump properties including the Atlantic City-based Trump Plaza, Trump Marina and Trump Taj Mahal, as well as the Trump Casino in Gary, Indiana, all of which are closed or have been sold to other companies.

A week after going public, Trump Entertainment Resorts used some of the nearly $300 million it raised to resolve many of Trump’s personal debts, according to the Times—after Trump faced mounting debt issues and a turbulent Atlantic City casino market in the preceding five years.

The new company recorded losses ranging between $40 million and $66 million in each of the three years following its IPO, the Times reported, marking a trend that would continue and lead to the company’s 2009 delisting from the Nasdaq amid one of a series of bankruptcies in 2004, 2009 and 2014, according to the Washington Post.

Trump, who owned 40% of the company’s shares at the time of its debut, received more than $44 million in compensation during his time at the company, the Post reported.

Billionaire investor Carl Icahn agreed to buy most of Trump Entertainment Resorts’ bank debt in 2009, took control of the company in 2014 and later helped it become a wholly owned subsidiary of Icahn Enterprises.

FORBES VALUATION 

We estimate Trump’s net worth at $2.6 billion, a figure that resulted in the former president being removed in 2023 from the Forbes 400, which lists the U.S.’s 400 wealthiest billionaires. Only $413 million of Trump’s net worth is made up of cash and liquid assets. Trump’s stake in his social media company is worth an estimated $96 million.

TANGENT  

 

Trump’s current financial troubles now stem from his legal problems, as the businessman has been tasked with paying a $454 million bond by next week in the civil fraud case against him. He also owes writer E. Jean Carroll $88.3 million after he was found civilly liable for sexual abuse and defamation in two separate suits. Trump’s attorneys have told a state appeals court that securing a bond for the full amount is a “practical impossibility” and asked the court to pause the judgment while the case is appealed. However, in a Truth Social post conflicting with his attorneys’, the former president said Friday he personally has $500 million in cash, adding he plans to use “a substantial amount” of the funds for his presidential campaign.

WHAT TO WATCH FOR

Trump’s $3 billion windfall after his media company goes public—based on DWAC’s share price—is unlikely to help him with the deadline to pay the $454 million bond, according to experts, who have noted his inability to liquidate his stake immediately and the possibility that lenders could see it as overvalued. Trump will be prohibited from selling shares in the media company for at least six months, though it’s possible the company board could waive the restrictions if he requests it. If Trump doesn’t pay the bond for his civil fraud judgment or secure a stay on the payment, he may have assets including his Seven Springs estate and the Trump National Golf Club Westchester seized.

KEY BACKGROUND

Years prior to Trump Entertainment Resorts’ IPO, the debt on the former president’s holdings totaled $3.4 billion, according to the Times, which reported Trump’s lenders put him on a $450,000-a-month budget for personal and household expenses. As Trump Entertainment Resorts declined following its IPO, the company continued benefiting Trump’s personal finances. He got a $5 million bonus in 1996, the same year the company stock tanked 70%, the Wall Street Journal reported. Trump’s company faced about $1.8 billion in debt ahead of its 2004 bankruptcy, according to the Washington Post.

    All of his adult life, OT used lawyers and the federal bankruptcy court to welch his debts, and when he needed more help, the Saudis bailed him out three times, and he’s still taking their money. 

     In the face of that, It don’t even make zero sense to me that even one Republican wants OT telling the US Government how to manage its finances- unless it’s to put the US government in a federal bankruptcy court, being run by a Republican judge, which should have been done when the U.S. Government's expenses exceeded its revenues a long, long time ago.

sloanbashinsky@yahoo.com

religious worship in public schools

    Ok, younguns, something about religious freedom in public schools showed up in my email today from Al.com, which used to be The Birmingham News. I typed my thoughts in bold:

Freedom From Religion group complains about Oak Grove’s ‘God, Team, Me’ football motto

Updated: Mar. 20, 2024, 9:46 p.m.|Published: Mar. 20, 2024, 5:47 p.m.

By Greg Garrison | ggarrison@al.com

The Freedom From Religion Foundation has sent a letter of complaint to Oak Grove High School in west Jefferson County, alleging religious coercion on the football team. 

 

The religious motto, “God, Team, Me,” has been posted in the team’s locker room and official team shirts, according to the group’s complaint. 

 

The playoff hoodies in 2023 included a Bible verse, Proverbs 27:17, the group complained.

The article left out the text:

"As iron sharpens iron,
    so one person sharpens another." 

 

The Freedom From Religion group, based in Madison, Wisconsin, sent a letter urging the coach to immediately stop engaging in religious activity or otherwise promoting his personal religious beliefs in his role as a football coach, and for the district to remove the godly motto and make certain that official district apparel no longer includes religious messages or bible verses

“Jefferson County Schools must ensure that this school-sponsored religious coercion ends immediately,” Freedom From Religion Foundation staff attorney Chris Line wrote to Superintendent Walter B. Gonsoulin Jr.

“God team me” and "Iron sharpens iron, as one person sharpens another” look to me like religious boasting, similar to “One nation, under God” in the Pledge of Allegiance. Under God was added to the pledge when I was in elementary school, to promote America a godly country versus communist Soviet Union and Red China.

Coach Chris Musso referred requests for comment to Gonsoulin.

“We have received the letter from the Freedom from Religion Foundation, and we are reviewing it,” said a statement from Superintendent Gonsoulin. “However, the Jefferson County Board of Education is on record as fully supporting the right of its students and all members of the education community to pray and engage in voluntary religious expression in school settings.”

Students have the First Amendment right to be free from religious indoctrination in their public schools, the Freedom From Religion group argues. 

 

“The district must see to it that players are not being required to pray to play or otherwise expected to wear clothing with religious slogans or walk past religious signage,” Annie Laurie Gaylor, co-president of Freedom From Religion, said. “Religious coercion in sports programs unfortunately is all-too-frequent — and these violations against freedom of conscience need to be curbed.”

 

Amendment I, United States Constitution

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

Amendment 14, Section 1 

No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.  

 

“The district must see to it that players are not being required to pray to play or otherwise expected to wear clothing with religious slogans or walk past religious signage,” Annie Laurie Gaylor, co-president of Freedom From Religion, said. “Religious coercion in sports programs unfortunately is all-too-frequent — and these violations against freedom of conscience need to be curbed. 

The group earlier this year credited itself for having a biblical verse painted on the side of a dugout removed by the Mobile County School System.

In 2023, the group criticized Auburn University for an event which featured head football coach Hugh Freeze and other prominent Auburn figures baptizing students.

This former Birmingham, Alabama practicing attorney, who grew up in a church-going family, then moved on to not knowing when he ever is not in church, doesn’t see how an outfit in Wisconsin has any standing to challenge anything that happens anywhere in Alabama, which does not directly affect Wisconsin, unless that outfit has been hired by the parents of a child in an Alabama school, who object to their child been subjected to religious proselytizing in the school. 

Even if The Freedom From Religion Group was headquartered in Alabama, I don’t see any way the State of Alabama, though its public schools, could forbid voluntary religious expression by students- if that’s as far as this goes.

However, if public school boards, superintendents, principals, teachers and/or coaches encourage or proselytize a religion on public school property, they become priests and create a church on school property, which is not part of their job description and crosses a line Amendment 1 does not allow.

While the Oak Grove school officials and its football coach and team bask in Amendment 1, they might wish to give serious consideration to what the most famous Jew in world history said about public worship:

Matthew 6:1–34

Beware of practicing your righteousness before other people in order to be seen by them, for then you will have no reward from your Father who is in heaven. 2 Thus, when you give to the needy, sound no trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may be praised by others. Truly, I say to you, they have  received their reward. 3 But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, 4 so that your giving may be in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you. 5 And when you pray, you must not be like the hypocrites. For they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners, that they may be seen by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. 6 But when you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you. 7 And when you pray, do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do, for they think that they will be heard for their many words. 8 Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him. 9 Pray then like this: 

“Our Father in heaven, 

hallowed be your name.

10 Your kingdom come, 

your will be done,

on earth as it is in heaven.

11  Give us this day our daily bread,

12  and forgive us our debts, 

as we also have forgiven our debtors.

13  And lead us not into temptation, 

but deliver us from evil. 

13  And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. 

14 For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you, 15 but if you do not forgive others their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.

    

    When I attended Crestline Heights Elementary School in Mountain Brook, Alabama, during weekly convocations led by school officials, the students, including the Jewish students, were required to recite the Lord’s Prayer out loud. Sometime we all sang it.

    I read once upon a time that the chief author of the Declaration of Independence, Thomas Jefferson, and one of its signers, James Madison, the chief author of the Bill of Rights and thus of the First Amendment, led the charge to stop another signer of the Declaration, Patrick Henry, the Governor of Virginia, from getting the Virginia legislature to make Christianity the Virginia state religion. 

    I read another time that Thomas Jefferson so admired Jesus in the Gospels that he cut many pages out of the New Testament about what Jesus said and did and pasted them into a book that became known as The Jefferson Bible.

    The Declaration of Independence contains four references to Deity, from which it draws its authority, and none of those references resemble Christian lingo.

When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights

We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions

And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence.

     Religions mean well, but they tend to get twisted and tangled and even lost, as history has proven time and time again.

        The Gospels say Jesus did not baptize in water, but in fire and spirit he lived and baptized others.

    I imagine if Jesus in the Gospels were to show up in Alabama today and talk and behave as he did in the Gospels, he would be crucified by Alabama Christians.

    I closing, younguns, I leave you with something that fell out of me in the spring of 1994 as fast as I could write it down:

“Sacred Prism” 

Earth, 

The sacred prism 

through which souls are refracted 

into their elemental parts, 

Purified in Holy Fire, 

Then one-forged 

and sent on their way 

to not even God knows where, 

Simply because they are all 

Unique Emanations of God, 

Evolving . . .

sloanbashinsky@yahoo.com

The Donald J. Trump Pearl Harbor lookout justice system

    I swan if this once upon a time law clerk for a United States District Judge who presided over every federal criminal prosecution in north Alabama doesn’t wonder if the Donald J. Trump Justice System should not be renamed “Many Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest”.

    Before Trump ran for president in 2016, he had a long history of using lawyers to intimidate his adversaries and to allow him to welch debts via litigation and filing bankruptcy.

    Trump and his father were civilly prosecuted and convicted in New York for racial and ethnic rental discrimination in their apartment buildings. 

    Trump University was forced to make restitution to students who did not get what they were promised.

    Trump paid two escorts, one named Stormy Daniels, to be quiet about having sex with him- Daniels, shortly after Trump’s wife Melania had their son. Trump used his lawyers to cast the payoffs as business expenses After losing the 2020 election, Trump was indicted and is being prosecuted in the New York state court for criminal fraud.

    I can grab women by the pussy Trump was sued by E. Jean Carroll for rape and sexual assault and defamation in a New York state civil court. Carroll lost the rape charge and won the sexual abuse and defamation charge and was awarded $5,000,000 by a jury. Trump said Carroll was a liar, and Daniels sued I can grab women by the pussy again for defamation and was awarded $83,300,000 by a jury.

    Trump’s companies were sued by the State of New York in a New York state court for inflating their business assets to obtain large low interest loans to invest in lucrative deals which made Trump’s companies a great deal of money. The trial judge fined Trump’s companies $354.9 million for his illegal profits, plus interest of around $100 million and climbing. The judge and his law clerk received many death threats.

    There were many news reports of Trump not paying his lawyers, one of whom, Michael Cohen, was criminally prosecuted and convicted in federal court and put in prison for aiding and abetting Trump in the Stormy Daniels case. Cohen flipped and started testifying against Trump.

    Trump was criminally prosecuted in federal court by Special Prosecutor Jack Smith for mishandling, refusing to turn over, and obstructing the recovery of classified documents that came into his possession while he was president. Smith received death threats.

   Trump was indicted under Georgia's RICO Act by Special Prosecutor Fani Willis for his trying to subvert the 2020 Georgia presidential election vote count. Willis and her team received death threats.

    Willis indicted Trump’s lawyer, former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, who had pioneered New York state court RICO prosecutions, for aiding and abetting Trump trying to subvert the 2020 Georgia presidential election vote. Giuliani said Trump did not pay him.

    Trump claimed it all was made up, witch hunts, despite the one common denominator, himself.

    The Colorado Supreme Court ruled Trump had engaged in insurrection against the United States Constitution and thus was barred by Amendment 14, Section 3, from being on the Colorado ballot.

Section 3.

No person shall be a Senator or Representative in Congress, or elector of President and Vice President, or hold any office, civil or military, under the United States, or under any state, who, having previously taken an oath, as a member of Congress, or as an officer of the United States, or as a member of any state legislature, or as an executive or judicial officer of any state, to support the Constitution of the United States, shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof. But Congress may by a vote of two-thirds of each House, remove such disability. 

    The Colorado Supreme Court received death threats, as did the Secretary of State of Maine after ruling Amendment 14, Section 3 barred Trump from being on the Maine ballot.

    A unanimous U.S. Supreme Court ruled Colorado, in particular, and states in general, cannot enforce Amendment 14, Section 3, and 4 of the 5 Republican justices ruled only Congress can enforce 14/3 by legislation. 

Amendment XIV in its entirety:

Section 1.

All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the state wherein they reside. No state shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any state deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.

Section 2.

Representatives shall be apportioned among the several states according to their respective numbers, counting the whole number of persons in each state, excluding Indians not taxed. But when the right to vote at any election for the choice of electors for President and Vice President of the United States, Representatives in Congress, the executive and judicial officers of a state, or the members of the legislature thereof, is denied to any of the male inhabitants of such state, being twenty-one years of age, and citizens of the United States, or in any way abridged, except for participation in rebellion, or other crime, the basis of representation therein shall be reduced in the proportion which the number of such male citizens shall bear to the whole number of male citizens twenty-one years of age in such state.

Section 3.

No person shall be a Senator or Representative in Congress, or elector of President and Vice President, or hold any office, civil or military, under the United States, or under any state, who, having previously taken an oath, as a member of Congress, or as an officer of the United States, or as a member of any state legislature, or as an executive or judicial officer of any state, to support the Constitution of the United States, shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof. But Congress may by a vote of two-thirds of each House, remove such disability.

Section 4.

The validity of the public debt of the United States, authorized by law, including debts incurred for payment of pensions and bounties for services in suppressing insurrection or rebellion, shall not be questioned. But neither the United States nor any state shall assume or pay any debt or obligation incurred in aid of insurrection or rebellion against the United States, or any claim for the loss or emancipation of any slave; but all such debts, obligations and claims shall be held illegal and void.

Section 5.

The Congress shall have power to enforce, by appropriate legislation, the provisions of this article.

   Section 5 applies to ALL of Amendment 14. 

    In all of that context, consider this from an old geezer living in Trump’s state of residence and another reader and the old geezer and my old geezer discussion.

My Two Senses

“IF YOU GO AFTER ME, I’M COMING AFTER YOU!” 

Trump’s World of Mobster Law Is His “Secret Sauce”

OL’ FLAWRIDUH CRACKER

MAR 17, 2024

Perhaps the greatest feelings of schadenfreude that Trump and his minions experience comes from the successful perpetration of crimes.

We can all see this happening; Trump’s successes all center on using his massive wealth (and political contributions) to field an army of lawyers. They in turn enable him to engage in intimidation and retaliation against civil, criminal, state or Federal prosecution.

Attack, Intimidate and Reward

Each time Trump escapes justice his bond of “mass-psychosis*” becomes stronger with the minions of his base. To a large degree this bond is fueled by mutual feelings of schadenfreude as Trump repeatedly proves he can legally “shoot someone in Times Square.” In terms of what he has actually gotten away with, Trump’s metaphorical shooting should be more accurately stated as a mass shooting in Times Square like the one in Las Vegas.

Not only does Trump swat away legal actions, he launches new exploits to pursue his expansion of gangster capitalism, fascism, theocracy and ultimately the return of neo-Feudalism in a stateless cloud metaverse.

We mere internet peasants can barely keep up with the barrage of gangster moves by Trump. WAPO just released a story on March 16, 2024 ,  Trump granted clemency to Medicare fraudsters before vowing to cut entitlement program abuse before vowing to cut entitlement program abuse By Amy B Wang and Azi Paybarah. We are not talking about fixing traffic tickets. These criminals “collectively filed nearly $1.6 billion in fraudulent claims through Medicare or Medicaid.”  (WAPO, 2024)

Running Out the Clock: Delay, Delay and  Delay.

The erudite, and prolific pundit David Feldman has consistently pointed out that Trump must run for and hold office as President by delaying trials, This will ensure he can get to the election and ideally win. Then supported by a Supreme Court that seems to feel Trump can kill anyone, they will also find a way to determine he can pardon himself, thus ending all the prosecutions (save Georgia) and escape imprisonment. 

Feldman is correct, and as a bonus it also sets up Trump as dictator forever. It also allows him to fulfill his vengeance agenda. In short he becomes another Putin.

That we “snowflakes” stand by impotently watching Trump foiling charges and trial proceedings with seeming ease must be a delight to the base.

*Yes, this is a thing. Courageous psychiatrists like Bandi X. Lee’s work sheds light on the intersection of politics, psychology, and societal control, highlighting the profound impact of authoritarianism on individual and collective mental health.

Coming soon: The Fani Willis and the Wade knee capping

Patris

He’s nuts. Apologies to nuts. 

Ol’ Flawriduh Cracker

You are concise and hilarious 

 

Sloan Bashinsky

I think Trump is criminally insane, and infectious, like Ebola, for certain types of people. Maybe something will step in and disable Trump in a way that cannot be blamed on the Democrats. Anyone who doesn’t think Trump means a blood bath literally, if he loses in November, is still in diapers. 

If I was still practicing law and Trump tried to hire me, I would tell him, no thanks, God is watching and I don’t want that karma. If another lawyer asked me what to do after being asked by Trump to be his lawyer, I would tell that lawyer the same thing, but if he, or she, isn’t worried about God or karma, then get paid a large retainer, up front, say $5 million, before doing anything, and for Trump to expect to pay another $5 million, if it drags out, and if Trump reneges, the lawyer can quit, and that is in writing, signed by Trump before a Notary Public, which makes it self-proving in a court of law, where, if the lawyer doesn’t get paid by Trump, the judge will let the lawyer resign from the case:-).

What I don’t see any legal pundits and journalists saying is state and federal criminal prosecutors might have a really tough time striking a jury that does not have a Trump ringer on it, who will hang the jury and the prosecutor then has to decide whether to retry Trump, or leave him be. 

Even if Trump is criminally convicted, how that might play out in federal appellate courts and the US Supreme Court might be iffy. For all we know, the US Supreme Court will side with Trump because they don’t want to be hunted down and killed by MAGAs. 

All along I felt the best chance to put Trump in prison was the Georgia RICO prosecution, but the special prosecutor Fani Willis screwed that up royally by dating her lead hired prosecutor and taking nice trips with him. Willis should have resigned as soon as she knew she had been found out, but her ego seems about the same size as Trump’s. The state court judge, who let Willis remain on the case, made it worse. 

I hope the national news media will tout these two videos religiously:

Oh my God, Trump just shit his pants

https://www.instagram.com/reel/CFf2cCWF1Ih/?hl=en

Mister Trump and his diaper problems

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FnK164efOB0

Ol’ Flawriduh Cracker

Once again we are in mutual agreement.

Trump is the Uber Meister of gangsta threat and intimidation.

If his minions go nuts and start assassinating those he has “suggested” might get hurt, then he goes into plausible deniability mode. He loves this technique as we have seen from “standby Proud Boys” to “Fight Like Hell” on 1/6.

I’ll be doing a hopefully short post on the Willis-Wade debacle that you might appreciate soon.

I agree that the odds of any of these cases landing Trump in jail is at best tenuous for the reasons you cite. I don’t know that the SCOTUS is fearful of a Trump hitman as much as they just want to find a way to thank him and join in the new “thousand year rule” of Fascist America. There are lots of great exotic places vacations and loot to be had by enabling, not defeating a Trump agenda. 

 

Sloan Bashinsky

I agree, the SCOTUS Christians are truly grateful Trump turned the Supreme Court over to them. Their ruling that only Congress can enforce Amendment 14 was pulled straight out of their hind ends, when you consider many 14th Amendment cases SCOTUS decided without any enabling legislation from Congress, such as, hmmm, Brown v. Board of Education :-), which ended racial segregation in public schools.  

 

After ruling Amendment 14, Section 3 barred Trump from being on the Colorado ballot, the Colorado Supreme Court was inundated with death threats. Same happened after the Maine Secretary of State ruled 14/3 barred Trump being on the Maine ballot. The 3 SCOTUS Democrats ruled states cannot enforce 14/3, even though SCOTUS has repeatedly held Amendment 14 applies to the states. So, what’s the common denominator? Death threats.

Fani Willis turned out to be a huge, sad joke. She had one thing to do. Put Trump in prison. She had a great case. She had great support staff. All by herself, she turned the case into a ridiculous circus, in which she starred. She gave Trump lots of things to argue on appeal, if he is convicted. She gave the jury lots of reasons to try her, instead of Trump. The Georgia Attorney General should have removed Willis from the case. She put herself on trial, and she should be on trial, because she darn well knew she was not supposed to be fucking her lead prosecutor and taking trips with him. She’s nuts. Trump’s nuts. Birds of a feather. Just different backgrounds getting to the nut house.

    Yesterday, a black pastor friend agreed with me that God gave that case to Fani Willis and she threw God and the criminal justice system under a bus. 

    In my Apple newsfeed this morning, March 21, 2024, was an article reporting the judge in the Georgia RICO prosecution gave Trump permission to file an immediate appeal of his ruling to allow Willis to remain in the case. The appeal will take several months, or more, and will delay the trial, if there is a trial, until after the November presidential election.

    There is a criminal justice system that applies to all people in America, and there is a criminal justice system that applies only to Donald Trump.

sloanbashinsky@yahoo.com

more journalists need to cover how the people of Gaza feel about Hamas, Israel, President Biden and America

    I keep seeing news reports of Donald Trump saying, if he was president, the war in Gaza would not have happened, and I keep wondering if he is (a) lying, (b) insane, (c) both?  

    I keep seeing news reports of President  Biden (a) leaning on Israel to stop slaughtering and displacing the people of Gaza, (b) sending food and relief aid to the people of Gaza, and (c) sending bombs and cannon shells and money to Israel. 

    I keep wondering how the beleaguered people in Gaza feel about (a) Israel, (b) America, (c) Hamas?

    In my Apple newsfeed this Sunday morning, a Christian Science Monitor article addressed (a), (b) and (c). 

    I wondered how long the Gaza people who spoke out against Hamas might expect to live? 

    I wondered how long the people still living in Gaza might expect to live? 

    I wondered how the people running Hamas and Israel live with themselves, and how President Biden and Americans who support Israel’s war in Gaza live with themselves?

‘Hamas gambled with our lives’: Gazans are now daring to speak out

By Taylor Luck Special correspondent

Fatima AbdulKarim Special contributor

and another special contributor
March 14, 2024

AMMAN, JORDAN; RAMALLAH, WEST BANK; AND GAZA
Across the Gaza Strip – from markets to evacuee camps to social media channels – Palestinian frustration and anger with Hamas is on the rise.
Complaints began with Hamas’ apparent disregard for Gaza civilians who faced the brunt of Israel’s punishing military response to the Oct. 7 attack while Hamas fighters remained in tunnels.
Now, with starvation, profiteering, and internal chaos on the rise, the militant group that has ruled the strip for 17 years is nowhere to be found.

WHY WE WROTE THIS
A story focused on
COURAGE
For the first time since the war began in Gaza, resentment against Hamas is boiling to the surface in public expressions of anger and in social media, as residents increasingly are losing their reluctance to speak out.

“We did not choose to be in a war that takes us from our homes, [takes] the lives of loved ones, and puts our lives in a death game that we knew nothing about,” says Bisan Nateel, a youth organizer for a local Gaza nongovernmental organization.
“Hamas didn’t warn us or give any instructions to protect or help people. I don’t know what they were thinking or what they expected people to do, but this is unacceptable for everyone in Gaza,” says Walid, an aid worker in central Gaza who declined to use his full name. “I feel that Hamas gambled with our lives at stake, and lost.”
Rafaat Naim, a Gaza businessman and former member of the Palestine Chamber of Commerce, says prior to the war, support for Hamas among Gaza residents was already limited. “Hamas’ popularity in the Gaza Strip was waning, due to its governance failures [and] misallocation of funds,” he says. “The devastating impact of the conflict further entrenched this sentiment.”
The anger that has been simmering since the early days of the war, meanwhile, has only in recent weeks come to the surface. These are not organized calls or political protests against Hamas, but conversational complaints growing louder by the day. Tiny protests have been scattered.

Kosay Al Nemer/Reuters
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“People now are very angry with Hamas, but at the same time they are afraid to express the anger inside them by protesting or holding sit-ins,” notes Wael Mohammad, a civil engineer and longtime Hamas critic in Gaza. He says 16 years of the Islamic Hamas’ intimidation tactics, as well as its use of religious faith to push its ideology, made “the population in Gaza docile.”
Now with the lack of Hamas police officers on the streets, and a reduced threat of being dragged off by its security services, people in Gaza, facing starvation, are more emboldened to criticize the movement in public. Some even curse it.
This outspokenness, however, does not mean Gazans’ support, in principle, for armed resistance against the Israeli occupation has lessened. Nor has their view changed that the conflict is an Israeli war against the Palestinian people.
There remains a belief among most residents that, with a 17-year siege of Gaza, they have been punished for two decades by Israel, the international community, and the Palestinian Authority for Hamas’ presence, and that the movement has never had the chance to act as a normal government.
Yet growing disillusion with Hamas’ rule is impacting the group’s future prospects each day the war goes on, as residents see it as unresponsive, irresponsible, and lacking basic care for Gaza’s people.

Evading responsibility

All those interviewed stressed that Hamas left the Gaza public “in the dark” about its plans even after Israel’s counterattack began. Added to the lack of communication was a seeming lack of concern for civilians as Hamas forces retreated to their tunnels.
“Hamas followed the same old war plan and left the people to the mercy of Israelis,” says Walid, the aid worker.
“We gave in to Hamas for a long time, and we thought Hamas as a party would be prepared for the war after Oct. 7 as they claimed. But they were only ready to protect themselves,” says Rana Alsayed, a mother and feminist activist from Gaza City who was displaced four times by Israel’s offensives.
“This war is beyond Hamas’ capabilities,” says Ahmed, a Gaza photojournalist who blames intense targeting by Israel’s military for the movement’s inability to govern or protect its citizens. “It cannot help itself, let alone the people.”

Fatima Shbair/AP
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For some Palestinians in Gaza, the war has cemented the idea of Hamas as a militant faction looking out only for itself rather than for the people it has governed since first being elected by a plurality in 2006. It has ruled unopposed since 2007, when it drove out its rival Fatah and seized the strip.
“They see their role is to fight Israelis and not to care for the people. But since Hamas took control of the Gaza Strip, they implicitly agreed to care for its people,” says Walid, who, like many, sees Hamas as “evading that responsibility.”
“At least provide enough food for the people to not die of hunger. Build shelters and safe places for the people to go to. Establish a form of civic protection and law enforcement to keep people in check,” the aid worker says.
“The Oct. 7 operation was nothing but a continuation of the series of political and military gambles that the movement has made since its inception, an operation that brought nothing but destruction, killing, displacement, and deportation of the residents of the Gaza Strip,” says Mr. Mohammad, the civil engineer.
He likens the movement to “a group of mercenaries and militias that do not rise to the level of a Palestinian movement” and don’t “care about Palestinian blood.”
He, and others, point to statements by Hamas’ leadership abroad at the onset of the war that it was the responsibility of the United Nations and the international community, not Hamas, to protect Gaza civilians.

Anger over aid, profiteering

With a breakdown of law and order, organized crime is increasing and aid is looted and sold on the secondary market before many can get it. And there is a growing belief that not only does Hamas bear responsibility for the looting and profiteering through its absence, but it also may be complicit or participating in it.
“We have to buy food that was sent to Gaza as aid. We hear lots of rumors that this aid was stolen under the eyes of Hamas, sometimes in complicity with people from the government,” says Walid.

As hunger grips Gaza, law and order crumbles

Mohammed, an accountant and former government employee now in Rafah, says the links between Hamas and aid theft across Gaza are “clear.”
“We cannot provide definitive proof, but who has the guns? Who has the monopoly on force in Gaza? It’s Hamas. The work of organized criminal groups wouldn’t happen without their consent,” Mohammed says via WhatsApp messaging. “They are profiting politically and economically from our death and misery.”
Dissent is also growing in the local business community. Members say they have long chafed under Hamas’ restrictions, appropriation of incoming materials, corruption, and wars.
They have lost businesses, farms, and homes in this war – but also have found no entity to facilitate a return of trade or even the distribution of basic aid to stave off a famine.
Despite the rising anger, fear persists amid occasional reports of mosque imams or civil society organizers being dragged off and “disappeared” by Hamas for voicing public criticism. Protesters gathering in northern Gaza were shot at by armed men.
“At the grassroots level, Hamas persists in its oppression even amid these dire circumstances,” notes Mr. Naim, the businessman.

Ibraheem Abu Mustafa/Reuters
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Alternatives emerging?
In the void left behind by Hamas, some Gazans are attempting to organize at the grassroots to provide services and a sense of order.
In Rafah, so-called Protection Committees – groups of local young men, dressed in matching black clothes and masks, armed with batons – are providing basic security to markets and public areas.
Mr. Naim is one of several local Gaza business owners and community leaders who are attempting to form a council to facilitate the entry and distribution of aid and goods.
They have set their sights on advocating for the border to open to resume a robust flow of aid and commerce into the besieged strip.
“The people demand resolute, clear, and strategic decisions to pave the way for stability,” says Mr. Naim.
Yet attempts by the people to organize and circumvent Hamas face steep obstacles – and danger.
This week, unverified reports emerged that Hamas executed a mukhtar, or local community leader, in northern Gaza, allegedly for coordinating with the Israeli military for a separate initiative to facilitate aid.
The incident appeared to confirm what Palestinians in Gaza already knew or believed: Any Israeli involvement would delegitimize and kill any alternative group providing services in Gaza.
“The occupation’s civil administration has engaged with some community leaders and members of the private sector,” notes Mr. Naim. “This initiative is both unacceptable and risky for all involved on the Palestinian side.”
While the majority of Palestinians in Gaza interviewed say they no longer want Hamas’ rule, a significant portion still support its existence as an armed movement. A lack of alternatives leaves Gazans unsure of their future.
“I still support Hamas as a liberation movement, but I am not satisfied with its uncalculated actions,” notes Ahmed, the photojournalist.
With the losses piling up for families in Gaza facing missile strikes, famine, and profiteering, more Gazans say the idea of trusting Hamas as rulers governing the strip again is unthinkable.
“I lost my mother, my husband lost half his family, and we lost our house. My children have known nothing but wars and escalations,” says Ms. Alsayed, the Gaza feminist.

“How can my children ever believe in Hamas, who are neither providing us with a bite to eat nor allowing anyone else to do so?”

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