A condemning and succinct read. My neighborhood here, in Brooklyn, which was once teeming with, how to put this delicately, “fellas” not unlike these guys, yet were actual “tough guys.” Say, “Murder Inc.” guys. Trump’s chumps are none THOSE sort of people. These were fearsome, dapper and oh-so-felonious creatures’; actual killers. Trumpie’s uh, ‘people’ were gutless craven cowards, whom let others do their dirty works. Trump had said he “could shoot someone on 5th Avenue and not loose any votes..” that is a lie. donald trump was mocked. Scorned. Belittled in my neighborhood fellow’s milieu. How he didn’t get “WACKED” yet, for stiffing his plumbers, sheet rock installers—even his piano players, architects et al, to me is very mysterious. I am not regaling these folks, I just know what I had heard on street corners, in bars, in the pork stores etc. during the 1970’s in Park Slope, Brooklyn. Of course, now, you have a different sort of criminal. An influential and educated one. A baby stroller Mom at home while Father is making HIS millions in board rooms, investment banking, financial ‘services’, over developers, and of course lawyers. These sort of people disgust me, much as trump disgusts me. They’re rude. They’re entitled and privileged. Went to the ‘finest’ Educational Institutions—“look down their noses at the serfs” they deem we old timers are to be. There is a difference. Just as grotesque, unlikable, snobby “push you off the slim , grey slated streets so they can jog their way up to Prospect Park during the DAY—condescending as Trump’s people are. In essence—no heart. And definitely no soul. The characters from my day were colorful, tolerant and didn’t have Black nannies pushing their young. They were natives (sans the Indigenous, of course) whom moved aside on the street for their elders, wouldn’t like their wives or girlfriends dress in those revealing and tight costumes so much ‘in vogue’ now. It’s a very different, kind of vibe. They call the cops if you sit on THEIR stoops or look at THEM in a disapproving manner. Or ask them not to have their multitudinous fancy dogs piss on your own yard gate or front tree. A conundrum, indeed..
Laura, no heart and no soul indeed. I come from and live in Texas——a long way from Brooklyn. Believe it or not, I am a for real “evangelical Christian” in a sea of “my people” who are all in on Trump. This has shaken me to my core, and I truly believe they all made, and continue to make, a deal with the devil. When even after Trump was shown clearly (Access Hollywood)to be who has always been from day one(hence me being a never Trumper from the beginning), they still said, good Trump, bad Hillary. ????? Christians should have been humiliated and shamed, but the opposite has happened. I blame American “Christians” almost as much as McConnell and all the other pathetic R’s, for where we are today.
We Christians have helped sow the wind, and boy are we reaping the whirlwind in spades. As a 71 year old, I am still in shock about where we are as a country. I am heartsick for my children and grandchildren and what the future holds…..
Consider no gods, no tooth fairy, no myths and endless infinite. And that Donald Trump is a 77 year old habitatual criminal and all those that support him are complicit felons.
I concur with your sentiment!! The oddest thing about my neighborhood now, is if you have a tattoo of a cross (I do) on your arm, you’re looked at as some sort of ‘evil entity’! “How dare you donn that “thing” on your arm? It’s the trouble we’re in now..blah, blah, woof woof!” It couldn’t be further from the truth as I am Prochoice, ProMilitary (My Puerto Rican husband served in ‘Nam; 1968-1970) ProDemocracy and egalitarianism, and a reluctant Catholic, (I still attend Mass, I just enjoy the sacredness of it all. The priest’s vestments are so darned colorful to behold, ethereal, actually!) These individuals have cut the soul out of a once vibrant, diverse community. Now, only pink, wrinkly writhing screamers (whom are never, ever silenced, Lord—NO; in strollers and fancy baby carriages attached to dogs! Not one dog. No! Two or three of these poop and pee machines! I’ve never seen anything like it! Dogs in a now awfully crowded city is not tenable.. No more pork stores, instead plant meat, organic this that and the other, tiered dresses: No, Miss, you’s ain’t no damn hippie—“hipster,” uh—YEAH! I call ‘em “bourgeois bohemians!” They’re morons AND oxymorons, all in the same instance! Creepily ignorant people whom know nothing of such things! Why? ‘Cause they haven’t lived it! Yet desperately try and mimic it..sad). But I hope you folks down in Texas find some relief from the heat! I’m roasted here…(just add some ‘veggies’—No! Too damned expensive!!!) But I do thank
you for writing to me! It is such a pleasure and a true privilege to have this conversation with you!
Yep, you have so much experience spotting phonies, I bet you would have a blast at a republican gathering. And not just Repubs. You’ve got the eye and the wit to call them out. Keep it up.
I think it was Fred Allen who said, "Hollywood is where people from Iowa mistake each other for movie stars." Somehow that translates to the Brooklyn you describe...
So glad there is a sane Christian in Texas. I have known some, mostly dead now, seemingly replaced by the “prosperity gospel” crowd or the cult nuts. I personally signed on to Unitarianism since they have the last word on nothing, and accept all. Thank you for your view from the pew…
Much of Texas is still that way, but when Rove foisted W on the state in 1994, things changed. The lying and dirty tricks became de rigueur and now they are outright criminal. It’s been a long slide but surely the bottom is near, unless our SC has a say…
As an Italian Catholic from New Jersey watching two Italian Catholics from New Jersey destroy our democracy, I feel your pain.
How do they reconcile Trump with this:
I am the Lord thy God, which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. Thou shalt have no other gods before me. Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the Lord thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me; And shewing mercy unto thousands of them that love me, and keep my commandments.
The prosperity gospel cretins have shown the “faithful” how to squeeze green out of the holy book. Just the pick and choose crowd doing what they do best. Seems that Hitler was good at that too…
There's a book pitch here, Laura, for a book that I would read! Compare and contrast REAL American crime lords, who still had respect for others, with the fluffy, entitled with no reason to be, silver-spoon born criminals surrounding Trump and his ilk. My theory is the Russian mafia was protecting him in the 80s and that's why he didn't become part of the concrete foundation of a skyscraper in New York. Pity.
Agreed. He’s the proverbial wimp! All loud mouthed, meaningless crapola! He does, however use his towering height, big body to overcome women. I believe he raped Ms. Clifford. I thank you so much for the “book compliment!” That so sweet of you! I take care of my elderly Italian/Irish parents, 90 and 88 respectively. They still live in the brownstone my grandparents had and my great grandparents before them. Hey! I just may take you up on your kind, and inquisitive suggestion! Thanks ever so much, Steve! You’s a real nice fellow! Laura
Wow, a world I have only seen in movies. Spot on. The evil wears Prada. Somehow Ivanka and Jared came to mind. Authentic versus Stepford. The “characters from your day” sound much more human than the avatars of today. You certainly have a way with words…
Thanks for this, Laura. Brooklyn caught the Hipster Mind Virus sometime in the early 90s. It started in Williamsburg and radiated outward. Park Slope is lovely and so so different that what it used to be even 20 years ago. Are there even affordable parts of the city anymore? The rents drive out too many interesting people, and what's left is a gleaming metropolis of bankers and financiers. Not that there's anything wrong with bankers and financiers, but it it boring if that's all you got.
As for Trump, well, even Sammy Gravano said, and I quote, he's "hard to fuck with" because of his connections. And that was in the 80s.
Also, just one teeny, tiny uh, ‘peanut’ about those bankers and financiers—they’re really, really difficult to live next to and, dare I say—WITH! I need to build a vomitorium out in the backyard, or..something.
Quite the column Greg as always. I like your run- down of Trump’s felonious friends. The only one I see differently now, because he paid the price, is Michael Cohen. I respect him now and hope he says safe.
He's a step up from the others for sure, but I'm not all the way there. His motivation to turn on Trump, after a career of being his Renfield, was to save his own skin. And it's not like he's out there building houses for the poor or something. He's doing the same stuff he did before, but for the good guys. And yet he IS out there doing that. And yet he's making money doing it. I'm very conflicted in my feelings about him.
He said he only hired the best people. I went from relegating that to his up-is-down compulsive lying, to understanding that, from the standpoint of his deeply criminal mind, and what he hired them for, they really were the best qualified.
If one looks at convicted criminals in the Repub and Dem parties for the past century, the differences would astound. If course that doesn’t count the rich repubs who tried a coup in 1933 and were never charged. Prescott Bush was part of that crowd so the beat goes on…
Speaking of Trump's crimes, Jon Stewart had Ken Buck on "The Daily Show" this past Monday, and it is well worth the watch. Buck resigned from Congress, he says, because he couldn't do the lies of the Republican Party anymore. Even so, Buck started out in the interview saying that it set a bad precedent to be putting Trump on trial for his CRIMES. Jon Stewart, of course, had a different take. VERY good discussion: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VdL1qEHpsSg&pp=ygUUam9uIHN0ZXdhcnQga2VuIGJ1Y2s%3D
"The Daily Show" starts out with the announcer saying that it is, "America's only source for news," and that's becoming truer and truer every day. The opening segment of this same show takes the media to task for all of their failings and is also worth the watch: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qmxzQJt80XI
Sorry to be shilling for "The Daily Show," but this week's Jon Stewart episode was especially good! Have a great weekend everyone!
Back in the day, it really was the best source for news. I remember after Dick Cheney shot that dude on the hunting trip, Stewart came out and said, "The vice president shot another man in the face," and he just said that over and over, for half an hour. Genius. I miss Stephen Colbert, arch conservative, I must say.
I never appreciated Stephen Colbert's character on "The Colbert Report," as I was taking things FAR too seriously then. Now, if you don't laugh at stuff, you'll explode!
The very sad reality is that too many Americans do not believe the crimes these felons committed matter. There is, like 45's hush money/ election interference conviction a belief that everybody does things like this. All plumbers and electricians, no less every service provider at one time or another got paid in cash and didn't declare it as income. They believe all businessmen slipped into business expense a non business receipt. To them it's sad 45 got caught, never once contemplating that there is a lifelong pattern of deceit and crime. This especially so as media paints Bragg as a magician who turned a meaningless misdemeanor into a felony. As 45 said, declaring bankruptcy is a legal right, why shouldn't he be given credit for using what the law allows. Those that slave to avoid bankruptcy are the real sucker's. The moment one stops to consider the plausibility of such thinking, the trap is set.
For me the sad part is less about 45 and his mafia, more that we the people cannot grasp that what is forgiven as a one off everyone does is a pattern of criminality that must disqualify 45 from office. How Republicans can go on TV and say a felony conviction means that the Justice system is the problem, not the dipshit who got caught, tried and convicted boggles the mind. The concept of false equivalence has a grip on America, opening the door for 45 to become 47. Until enough Americans grasp the reality that one candidate is a very deeply flawed person, November 5 remains a very scary day.
I think that in general, the MAGA lack the cognitive ability to see the big picture beyond their own self interest. Trump's bankruptcies, his lying about his income, his stiffing of vendors...all of that hurts other people, and ultimately is bad for society. The ultimate Trump ethos is, "Fuck you, pay me." That's morally bankrupt. Society cannot function if everyone thinks that way.
Before all is said and done, you may need an addendum or a sequel to your book! Looks like the gang of convicted felons is growing. I'm waiting for Mike Johnson to get his summons.
Hmm. The NRA... Interesting point. I read today about another Silicon Valley AI guru leaping aboard the Trump train with 24-karat fundraisers. I guess Big Tech can't abide Biden anti-trusting them. But these people are responsible for programming AI and developing quantum computers. Black-turtled MAGAs piloting posh EVs to Trump rallies? Is it genuine greed and knowing evil or can SuperNerds be that naive? What role do they envision for their brainchild AI in a MAGA dictatorship? Is black the new orange? Talk about disappointing human potential...
When the nerds went MAGA, my heart practically stopped. They control (the rich ones) so much and will in the future, that it tips the scales in ways that we can’t even comprehend.
This is purely anecdotal, but the AI crew tends to be, in my experience, smart people who don't understand what true creativity and artistic ability are, don't value it properly, and believe their dipshit machine can one day trump [pun intended] Shakespeare and Michelangelo and etc. It is irksome.
Sounds like the engineers I knew at NASA back in the 70’s and the ones I knew as parents when I worked at a school district in the 80’s. As counselors, we had workshops on dealing with parents who were engineers. They tended to be diagrammatic in Many cases and communication somewhat problematic. Not all but it was a lesson to me.
I did 4 years of a psych PhD before United Airlines terminated our pensions, and I decided I couldn't afford two more years for the internship and dissertation. My mentor-of-sorts was existential novelisr, textbook author, and Stanford prof emeritus of psychiatry Irvin Yalom. My dual focus was white collar crime and philosophy of AI. Folks aren't wrong that AI COULD "trump" Shakespeare et al. It just seems highly unlikely given the way that power could (did?) corrupt AI's human creators. Philosophically speaking, the test of when they've fully succeeded in creating AI is supposedly whether AI has achieved free will, but if its creators are backing Trump, what will be the nature of AI's accompanying ethics? With a vast amount of knowledge, thinking power, and free will, AI certainly COULD surpass Shakespeare, but it could, instead, freely choose a path devastatingly darker than even those of Hitler, Atilla the Hun, and Trump rolled into one, the deciding factor seeminly being the next step up (or down) from that old chestnut GIGO -- "garbage in; garbage out": evil in; evil out. But will they succeed in achieving AI free will? Given progress on quantum computing, where a single switch can be on and off at the same time, and other forces beyond most people's current ability to envision, I wouldn't bet on no, so it terrifies me to see any of AI's powerful supportung Trump.
Thank you for the reminders of the crew of creeps from the past who are destined to be front and center if the mob boss cheats his way back in. Another objective truth. If he “wins” in November, it will be a result of unprecedented cheating by a party that has embraced cult tactics like never before. As you say, “prime treason season,” has started (June thru August), so the cretins are primed for a treason bonanza, followed by some off the wall, fantastic “reveal” in Sept or Oct that will make the cult orgasmic and the rest of us apoplectic. We had better be ready. Ye hear that Democrats. BTW, it could come from another quarter, such as RFKJ. Dems had better learn to play hardball, pronto. The crap emails I get are not much better than the crap emails I get from repubs. Thankfully, there are way fewer from them since I don’t hesitate to tell them to go to hell.
TGIF🎉🎉🎉⚖️
Imagine that you are a corrections officer, and you have to do the body search for Bannon on intake.
I shudder just thinking about it.
Great as always Greg!
Were I in that situation, I would be donning several pairs just in case there’s a tear in one, which does happen.
Eeeeeew!!!
Is why there are hazmat suits.
A condemning and succinct read. My neighborhood here, in Brooklyn, which was once teeming with, how to put this delicately, “fellas” not unlike these guys, yet were actual “tough guys.” Say, “Murder Inc.” guys. Trump’s chumps are none THOSE sort of people. These were fearsome, dapper and oh-so-felonious creatures’; actual killers. Trumpie’s uh, ‘people’ were gutless craven cowards, whom let others do their dirty works. Trump had said he “could shoot someone on 5th Avenue and not loose any votes..” that is a lie. donald trump was mocked. Scorned. Belittled in my neighborhood fellow’s milieu. How he didn’t get “WACKED” yet, for stiffing his plumbers, sheet rock installers—even his piano players, architects et al, to me is very mysterious. I am not regaling these folks, I just know what I had heard on street corners, in bars, in the pork stores etc. during the 1970’s in Park Slope, Brooklyn. Of course, now, you have a different sort of criminal. An influential and educated one. A baby stroller Mom at home while Father is making HIS millions in board rooms, investment banking, financial ‘services’, over developers, and of course lawyers. These sort of people disgust me, much as trump disgusts me. They’re rude. They’re entitled and privileged. Went to the ‘finest’ Educational Institutions—“look down their noses at the serfs” they deem we old timers are to be. There is a difference. Just as grotesque, unlikable, snobby “push you off the slim , grey slated streets so they can jog their way up to Prospect Park during the DAY—condescending as Trump’s people are. In essence—no heart. And definitely no soul. The characters from my day were colorful, tolerant and didn’t have Black nannies pushing their young. They were natives (sans the Indigenous, of course) whom moved aside on the street for their elders, wouldn’t like their wives or girlfriends dress in those revealing and tight costumes so much ‘in vogue’ now. It’s a very different, kind of vibe. They call the cops if you sit on THEIR stoops or look at THEM in a disapproving manner. Or ask them not to have their multitudinous fancy dogs piss on your own yard gate or front tree. A conundrum, indeed..
Laura, you paint such a picture. I feel like I am there.
My goodness..Thank you! I messed up the editing because I wrote it early in the morning! Oh well, damn it. Again—thank you so much!
Never worry about editing/typos/etc on the comment board. : )
Laura, no heart and no soul indeed. I come from and live in Texas——a long way from Brooklyn. Believe it or not, I am a for real “evangelical Christian” in a sea of “my people” who are all in on Trump. This has shaken me to my core, and I truly believe they all made, and continue to make, a deal with the devil. When even after Trump was shown clearly (Access Hollywood)to be who has always been from day one(hence me being a never Trumper from the beginning), they still said, good Trump, bad Hillary. ????? Christians should have been humiliated and shamed, but the opposite has happened. I blame American “Christians” almost as much as McConnell and all the other pathetic R’s, for where we are today.
We Christians have helped sow the wind, and boy are we reaping the whirlwind in spades. As a 71 year old, I am still in shock about where we are as a country. I am heartsick for my children and grandchildren and what the future holds…..
Consider no gods, no tooth fairy, no myths and endless infinite. And that Donald Trump is a 77 year old habitatual criminal and all those that support him are complicit felons.
I do not dispute your last sentence in the least, he is a criminal, and all who support him are complicit. Not so sure about “endless infinite.”
I'm not sure it's humanly possible to be SURE.
Ok once there was NOTHING. Then there was The BIG BANG. And now there is everything?
Maybe there was always something and always will be.
Pardon my Semantics. But I have trouble envisioning
"IN THE BEGINNING "
Cal, you win. I was not trying to convert you I promise…………
Rick A, "Not trying to conver me."
My Mom had me Baptized 4 times. The last a Calvinist water sprinkle. Easier than the Baptist bath.
That same year at 14 I boarded a Greyhound bus and left town for 2 years.
But
No contest.
Just thoughts.
Hang in there I suspect there's another Big Bang enroute.
Thank you, Rick, for reporting from the front lines. I wish you all the best in standing up for your real faith.
Katharine, it has been very disorienting and depressing to put it mildly……..
I concur with your sentiment!! The oddest thing about my neighborhood now, is if you have a tattoo of a cross (I do) on your arm, you’re looked at as some sort of ‘evil entity’! “How dare you donn that “thing” on your arm? It’s the trouble we’re in now..blah, blah, woof woof!” It couldn’t be further from the truth as I am Prochoice, ProMilitary (My Puerto Rican husband served in ‘Nam; 1968-1970) ProDemocracy and egalitarianism, and a reluctant Catholic, (I still attend Mass, I just enjoy the sacredness of it all. The priest’s vestments are so darned colorful to behold, ethereal, actually!) These individuals have cut the soul out of a once vibrant, diverse community. Now, only pink, wrinkly writhing screamers (whom are never, ever silenced, Lord—NO; in strollers and fancy baby carriages attached to dogs! Not one dog. No! Two or three of these poop and pee machines! I’ve never seen anything like it! Dogs in a now awfully crowded city is not tenable.. No more pork stores, instead plant meat, organic this that and the other, tiered dresses: No, Miss, you’s ain’t no damn hippie—“hipster,” uh—YEAH! I call ‘em “bourgeois bohemians!” They’re morons AND oxymorons, all in the same instance! Creepily ignorant people whom know nothing of such things! Why? ‘Cause they haven’t lived it! Yet desperately try and mimic it..sad). But I hope you folks down in Texas find some relief from the heat! I’m roasted here…(just add some ‘veggies’—No! Too damned expensive!!!) But I do thank
you for writing to me! It is such a pleasure and a true privilege to have this conversation with you!
Laura
Yep, you have so much experience spotting phonies, I bet you would have a blast at a republican gathering. And not just Repubs. You’ve got the eye and the wit to call them out. Keep it up.
I think it was Fred Allen who said, "Hollywood is where people from Iowa mistake each other for movie stars." Somehow that translates to the Brooklyn you describe...
So glad there is a sane Christian in Texas. I have known some, mostly dead now, seemingly replaced by the “prosperity gospel” crowd or the cult nuts. I personally signed on to Unitarianism since they have the last word on nothing, and accept all. Thank you for your view from the pew…
There are so many cool, smart, plugged-in people in Texas. That's one of the reasons its capture by Abbott and Co. is so infuriating.
Much of Texas is still that way, but when Rove foisted W on the state in 1994, things changed. The lying and dirty tricks became de rigueur and now they are outright criminal. It’s been a long slide but surely the bottom is near, unless our SC has a say…
As an Italian Catholic from New Jersey watching two Italian Catholics from New Jersey destroy our democracy, I feel your pain.
How do they reconcile Trump with this:
I am the Lord thy God, which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. Thou shalt have no other gods before me. Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the Lord thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me; And shewing mercy unto thousands of them that love me, and keep my commandments.
The prosperity gospel cretins have shown the “faithful” how to squeeze green out of the holy book. Just the pick and choose crowd doing what they do best. Seems that Hitler was good at that too…
Agreed. The Bible is great literature. Jesus’s gospels, the parables are profound.. Why do those whom supposedly revere Christ—do all the opposite..
There's a book pitch here, Laura, for a book that I would read! Compare and contrast REAL American crime lords, who still had respect for others, with the fluffy, entitled with no reason to be, silver-spoon born criminals surrounding Trump and his ilk. My theory is the Russian mafia was protecting him in the 80s and that's why he didn't become part of the concrete foundation of a skyscraper in New York. Pity.
Agreed. He’s the proverbial wimp! All loud mouthed, meaningless crapola! He does, however use his towering height, big body to overcome women. I believe he raped Ms. Clifford. I thank you so much for the “book compliment!” That so sweet of you! I take care of my elderly Italian/Irish parents, 90 and 88 respectively. They still live in the brownstone my grandparents had and my great grandparents before them. Hey! I just may take you up on your kind, and inquisitive suggestion! Thanks ever so much, Steve! You’s a real nice fellow! Laura
Wow, a world I have only seen in movies. Spot on. The evil wears Prada. Somehow Ivanka and Jared came to mind. Authentic versus Stepford. The “characters from your day” sound much more human than the avatars of today. You certainly have a way with words…
Thanks for this, Laura. Brooklyn caught the Hipster Mind Virus sometime in the early 90s. It started in Williamsburg and radiated outward. Park Slope is lovely and so so different that what it used to be even 20 years ago. Are there even affordable parts of the city anymore? The rents drive out too many interesting people, and what's left is a gleaming metropolis of bankers and financiers. Not that there's anything wrong with bankers and financiers, but it it boring if that's all you got.
As for Trump, well, even Sammy Gravano said, and I quote, he's "hard to fuck with" because of his connections. And that was in the 80s.
Good lord, and now he’s the “connection” that is “hard to fuck with.”
Yeah. He’s perpetually resurrected! Over and over and over..
Also, just one teeny, tiny uh, ‘peanut’ about those bankers and financiers—they’re really, really difficult to live next to and, dare I say—WITH! I need to build a vomitorium out in the backyard, or..something.
Oh, Greg! Silly me!! I forgot to thank you for your great read. Also, thank you for people LIKE you!
Thank you!
PPS. Written earlier in the morn. Didn’t edit fully..oh well. You get my drift though, eh?
Good drift. Billserle.com
Thank you, Bill! So much!!
Quite the column Greg as always. I like your run- down of Trump’s felonious friends. The only one I see differently now, because he paid the price, is Michael Cohen. I respect him now and hope he says safe.
Michael came out looking better than chump by a million times…
He's a step up from the others for sure, but I'm not all the way there. His motivation to turn on Trump, after a career of being his Renfield, was to save his own skin. And it's not like he's out there building houses for the poor or something. He's doing the same stuff he did before, but for the good guys. And yet he IS out there doing that. And yet he's making money doing it. I'm very conflicted in my feelings about him.
I’m only 86. Wish I could look back from year 2034 to see trump’s (and America’s)
Recent/current history. Billserle.com
I can dream
Finally, bannon will be in lock up during prime election season. Should be getting out Nov. 1 IF he serves all four(should be 40 years imo)months.
He will be out just in time for his NY fraud trial. Now there's a happy thought.
On the show last night, Tony said that he HAS to serve the full time; there's no legal mechanism not to. Womp womp.
He said he only hired the best people. I went from relegating that to his up-is-down compulsive lying, to understanding that, from the standpoint of his deeply criminal mind, and what he hired them for, they really were the best qualified.
Well put, Earl. "Best" can mean many things...
Greg,
The Facts Mam.
Just the Facts. Thanks for this reminder of the Facts.
If one looks at convicted criminals in the Repub and Dem parties for the past century, the differences would astound. If course that doesn’t count the rich repubs who tried a coup in 1933 and were never charged. Prescott Bush was part of that crowd so the beat goes on…
Where's Pancho Villas Head?
You remind me that many years ago, my husband and I went to Mexico and met his widow. We didn’t ask that question. Lordy
Thanks, Cal!
I'm going to celebration of life today for Carmen Blanco who was 9 when they murdered Villa. She recalled knowing about it where she lived in Arizona.
Speaking of Trump's crimes, Jon Stewart had Ken Buck on "The Daily Show" this past Monday, and it is well worth the watch. Buck resigned from Congress, he says, because he couldn't do the lies of the Republican Party anymore. Even so, Buck started out in the interview saying that it set a bad precedent to be putting Trump on trial for his CRIMES. Jon Stewart, of course, had a different take. VERY good discussion: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VdL1qEHpsSg&pp=ygUUam9uIHN0ZXdhcnQga2VuIGJ1Y2s%3D
"The Daily Show" starts out with the announcer saying that it is, "America's only source for news," and that's becoming truer and truer every day. The opening segment of this same show takes the media to task for all of their failings and is also worth the watch: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qmxzQJt80XI
Sorry to be shilling for "The Daily Show," but this week's Jon Stewart episode was especially good! Have a great weekend everyone!
I saw that, good show. Better news than elsewhere
Back in the day, it really was the best source for news. I remember after Dick Cheney shot that dude on the hunting trip, Stewart came out and said, "The vice president shot another man in the face," and he just said that over and over, for half an hour. Genius. I miss Stephen Colbert, arch conservative, I must say.
I never appreciated Stephen Colbert's character on "The Colbert Report," as I was taking things FAR too seriously then. Now, if you don't laugh at stuff, you'll explode!
The very sad reality is that too many Americans do not believe the crimes these felons committed matter. There is, like 45's hush money/ election interference conviction a belief that everybody does things like this. All plumbers and electricians, no less every service provider at one time or another got paid in cash and didn't declare it as income. They believe all businessmen slipped into business expense a non business receipt. To them it's sad 45 got caught, never once contemplating that there is a lifelong pattern of deceit and crime. This especially so as media paints Bragg as a magician who turned a meaningless misdemeanor into a felony. As 45 said, declaring bankruptcy is a legal right, why shouldn't he be given credit for using what the law allows. Those that slave to avoid bankruptcy are the real sucker's. The moment one stops to consider the plausibility of such thinking, the trap is set.
For me the sad part is less about 45 and his mafia, more that we the people cannot grasp that what is forgiven as a one off everyone does is a pattern of criminality that must disqualify 45 from office. How Republicans can go on TV and say a felony conviction means that the Justice system is the problem, not the dipshit who got caught, tried and convicted boggles the mind. The concept of false equivalence has a grip on America, opening the door for 45 to become 47. Until enough Americans grasp the reality that one candidate is a very deeply flawed person, November 5 remains a very scary day.
Good point, Old Man.
I think that in general, the MAGA lack the cognitive ability to see the big picture beyond their own self interest. Trump's bankruptcies, his lying about his income, his stiffing of vendors...all of that hurts other people, and ultimately is bad for society. The ultimate Trump ethos is, "Fuck you, pay me." That's morally bankrupt. Society cannot function if everyone thinks that way.
Before all is said and done, you may need an addendum or a sequel to your book! Looks like the gang of convicted felons is growing. I'm waiting for Mike Johnson to get his summons.
Me too! Crucifixion would be apt! The fella’s down right sinister looking, as I spied a photograph of ‘im looking really quite fuckin’ goddamn evil…
His summons to court or to heaven? ; )
Either would suffice! Lol!
When you return, I'd like to hear a recap of you and LB's events with Allison Gill.
Have a good time, and happy graduation with your son?
Will do! Thank you!
Hmm. The NRA... Interesting point. I read today about another Silicon Valley AI guru leaping aboard the Trump train with 24-karat fundraisers. I guess Big Tech can't abide Biden anti-trusting them. But these people are responsible for programming AI and developing quantum computers. Black-turtled MAGAs piloting posh EVs to Trump rallies? Is it genuine greed and knowing evil or can SuperNerds be that naive? What role do they envision for their brainchild AI in a MAGA dictatorship? Is black the new orange? Talk about disappointing human potential...
When the nerds went MAGA, my heart practically stopped. They control (the rich ones) so much and will in the future, that it tips the scales in ways that we can’t even comprehend.
With MAGA they share the incel thing.
Had to laugh. The incompetent want to lead. But they are skilled in bullschittery
This is purely anecdotal, but the AI crew tends to be, in my experience, smart people who don't understand what true creativity and artistic ability are, don't value it properly, and believe their dipshit machine can one day trump [pun intended] Shakespeare and Michelangelo and etc. It is irksome.
Sounds like the engineers I knew at NASA back in the 70’s and the ones I knew as parents when I worked at a school district in the 80’s. As counselors, we had workshops on dealing with parents who were engineers. They tended to be diagrammatic in Many cases and communication somewhat problematic. Not all but it was a lesson to me.
I did 4 years of a psych PhD before United Airlines terminated our pensions, and I decided I couldn't afford two more years for the internship and dissertation. My mentor-of-sorts was existential novelisr, textbook author, and Stanford prof emeritus of psychiatry Irvin Yalom. My dual focus was white collar crime and philosophy of AI. Folks aren't wrong that AI COULD "trump" Shakespeare et al. It just seems highly unlikely given the way that power could (did?) corrupt AI's human creators. Philosophically speaking, the test of when they've fully succeeded in creating AI is supposedly whether AI has achieved free will, but if its creators are backing Trump, what will be the nature of AI's accompanying ethics? With a vast amount of knowledge, thinking power, and free will, AI certainly COULD surpass Shakespeare, but it could, instead, freely choose a path devastatingly darker than even those of Hitler, Atilla the Hun, and Trump rolled into one, the deciding factor seeminly being the next step up (or down) from that old chestnut GIGO -- "garbage in; garbage out": evil in; evil out. But will they succeed in achieving AI free will? Given progress on quantum computing, where a single switch can be on and off at the same time, and other forces beyond most people's current ability to envision, I wouldn't bet on no, so it terrifies me to see any of AI's powerful supportung Trump.
Thank you for the reminders of the crew of creeps from the past who are destined to be front and center if the mob boss cheats his way back in. Another objective truth. If he “wins” in November, it will be a result of unprecedented cheating by a party that has embraced cult tactics like never before. As you say, “prime treason season,” has started (June thru August), so the cretins are primed for a treason bonanza, followed by some off the wall, fantastic “reveal” in Sept or Oct that will make the cult orgasmic and the rest of us apoplectic. We had better be ready. Ye hear that Democrats. BTW, it could come from another quarter, such as RFKJ. Dems had better learn to play hardball, pronto. The crap emails I get are not much better than the crap emails I get from repubs. Thankfully, there are way fewer from them since I don’t hesitate to tell them to go to hell.
Thanks, Jeri. The Biden fundraising emails and texts could not be more annoying and desperate. Who is writing them? Does this shit actually work?
Just quote the cretins. Their blather could peel the bark off the trees. And a few quotes from Project 2025 could wake up a zombie