Was going to post the same
Trump Watch: The Conservative Condition
- Thread starter Tiassa
- Start date
Ron Filipkowski↱ observes—
—and yes, Rudy Giuliani actually said that. He also claims George Soros "controls the private airports".
One of Giuliani's interviewers tries to coax more of the story out of him: "Wait!" she says. "You left out the best part of the story. So, you see the car pulling up, you guys are just boarding on the plane, you had to hurry up, tell that part of the story. You had to hurry up to take off, 'cause they're trying to―...."
So Rudy explains, "Yeah, they're trying to stop us; they try to come out on the jetway, I think our pilot .... It would have been an international incident."
Before he was "America's mayor", Rudy Giuliani was a federal prosecutor. And if time and tide have made him less cautious about how he says things, the underlying corruption is not new.
And here we need to take a moment for however many people who made excuses and gave cover; the one where someone complains that everyone who disagrees with someone is called racist comes to mind. Well, think that in thet in the twenty-one years since he became known as America's mayor, Giuliani has never really been reputable, but just look at what people were adoring.
It's one thing to suggest he's cracked up significantly in recent years, but that is circumstantial. It's one thing if his recklessness emerges under stress, but the underying principles, including the sort of antisemitism that would even allow him to even try such a stupid claim.
This kind of racism didn't just magically occur one day; he's been this way the whole time. At some point, the proverbial middle road fails. And it's one thing if Rudy Giuliani persisted in Republican politics because he was their kind of crossdressing adulterer, but as feminists and our transgender neighbors remind, it's not like we weren't warned. And as people struggle to separate the Republican Party of 2014 from the Republican Party of 2015-present, no, the GOP of 2014 wasn't much better, nor 2012 or 2010. And so on. Rudy Giuliani was very mainstream among American conservatives throughout, and so was that antisemitism.
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Notes:
@RonFilipkowski. "Rudy claims that when he went to take his infamous trip to Ukraine, George Soros drove a car out onto the airport tarmac chasing after his plane to try and block it from taking off." Twitter. 22 March 2023. Twitter.com. 23 March 2023. https://bit.ly/3z4ykRD
Rudy claims that when he went to take his infamous trip to Ukraine, George Soros drove a car out onto the airport tarmac chasing after his plane to try and block it from taking off.
—and yes, Rudy Giuliani actually said that. He also claims George Soros "controls the private airports".
… when we made our trip to Ukraine. Almost got arrested, almost got killed, almost got caught by Soros .... Soros tried to figure out how we were leaving the country, to cut off, we got a private plane, he's going to cut it off. We were originally on a plane the next morning, and we knew they were going to cause trouble at the airport, cause trouble with our visa, cause trouble with this, cause trouble with that. So, we rented a private plane that night, but we didn't realize he controls the private airports. And he found out that we rented a plane, but he couldn't get there on time, and literally, our plane is taking off, it's like, right out of Casablanca, and this car—actually, she saw it .... Yeah, the car pulls up as she's pulling through the pathway for the plane, and she says—I thought she was exaggerating, I think they may have gotten a picture of the car—and she said, uh, "Soros in the car." That's what she said.
One of Giuliani's interviewers tries to coax more of the story out of him: "Wait!" she says. "You left out the best part of the story. So, you see the car pulling up, you guys are just boarding on the plane, you had to hurry up, tell that part of the story. You had to hurry up to take off, 'cause they're trying to―...."
So Rudy explains, "Yeah, they're trying to stop us; they try to come out on the jetway, I think our pilot .... It would have been an international incident."
†
Before he was "America's mayor", Rudy Giuliani was a federal prosecutor. And if time and tide have made him less cautious about how he says things, the underlying corruption is not new.
And here we need to take a moment for however many people who made excuses and gave cover; the one where someone complains that everyone who disagrees with someone is called racist comes to mind. Well, think that in thet in the twenty-one years since he became known as America's mayor, Giuliani has never really been reputable, but just look at what people were adoring.
It's one thing to suggest he's cracked up significantly in recent years, but that is circumstantial. It's one thing if his recklessness emerges under stress, but the underying principles, including the sort of antisemitism that would even allow him to even try such a stupid claim.
This kind of racism didn't just magically occur one day; he's been this way the whole time. At some point, the proverbial middle road fails. And it's one thing if Rudy Giuliani persisted in Republican politics because he was their kind of crossdressing adulterer, but as feminists and our transgender neighbors remind, it's not like we weren't warned. And as people struggle to separate the Republican Party of 2014 from the Republican Party of 2015-present, no, the GOP of 2014 wasn't much better, nor 2012 or 2010. And so on. Rudy Giuliani was very mainstream among American conservatives throughout, and so was that antisemitism.
____________________
Notes:
@RonFilipkowski. "Rudy claims that when he went to take his infamous trip to Ukraine, George Soros drove a car out onto the airport tarmac chasing after his plane to try and block it from taking off." Twitter. 22 March 2023. Twitter.com. 23 March 2023. https://bit.ly/3z4ykRD
Write4U
Valued Senior Member
For those who are not yet familiar with young Donald Trump's mentor, this may be of interest.
The Final Lesson Donald Trump Never Learned From Roy Cohn
The unrepentant political hitman who taught a younger Trump how to flout the rules didn’t get away with it forever.
https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2019/09/19/roy-cohn-donald-trump-documentary-228144/
The Final Lesson Donald Trump Never Learned From Roy Cohn
The unrepentant political hitman who taught a younger Trump how to flout the rules didn’t get away with it forever.
more ......
https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2019/09/19/roy-cohn-donald-trump-documentary-228144/
On the Indictment of Donald Trump in New York
Upon receiving the news, I ducked out to the store to pick up some beer.
At this time, I can reasonably attest that the world has not ended.
Justice rises. The world continues on its course.
The Black Raven pilsner is excellent.
Upon receiving the news, I ducked out to the store to pick up some beer.
At this time, I can reasonably attest that the world has not ended.
Justice rises. The world continues on its course.
The Black Raven pilsner is excellent.
Seattle
Valued Senior Member
Finally!On the Indictment of Donald Trump in New York
Upon receiving the news, I ducked out to the store to pick up some beer.
At this time, I can reasonably attest that the world has not ended.
Justice rises. The world continues on its course.
The Black Raven pilsner is excellent.
Drink your beer and then post your next installment of the conservative condition. I eagerly await it.
Florida Man on Florida Man
Per Gov. Ron DeSantis↱:
We can wonder how he will feel, on the campaign trail, when asked what a President DeSantis would expect when a state demands extradition of the parents of a transgender child in Washington state, or a woman who had an abortion in California.
I wonder if this eventually leads to state cops trying to seize NASA.
Per Gov. Ron DeSantis↱:
Florida will not assist in an extradition request given the questionable circumstances at issue with this Soros-backed Manhattan prosecutor and his political agenda.
We can wonder how he will feel, on the campaign trail, when asked what a President DeSantis would expect when a state demands extradition of the parents of a transgender child in Washington state, or a woman who had an abortion in California.
I wonder if this eventually leads to state cops trying to seize NASA.
Write4U
Valued Senior Member
Is this the best we can do? Are these the best "constitutional" representatives of the US voting public? For shame.
Janus58
Valued Senior Member
What I find interesting is the timing of the indictment. It had been announced that the Grand Jury was going to adjourn for a month, leading most to believe we'd have to wait at least that much longer for a decision.
Trump had also just made a post which simultaneously buttered up the Grand Jury and demanded they drop he whole thing.
Of course, this is just speculation on my part, but it almost seems like the sequence went down like this:
1. Grand Jury decides to adjourn for a month.
2. Trump makes his post
3. Grand Jury goes "Oh, wait, that reminds us; We have this one last thing we need to do before leaving for vacation"
The other take away is that since they plan on coming back, there must be other charges they are looking at besides those they issued the indictment for.
Trump had also just made a post which simultaneously buttered up the Grand Jury and demanded they drop he whole thing.
Of course, this is just speculation on my part, but it almost seems like the sequence went down like this:
1. Grand Jury decides to adjourn for a month.
2. Trump makes his post
3. Grand Jury goes "Oh, wait, that reminds us; We have this one last thing we need to do before leaving for vacation"
The other take away is that since they plan on coming back, there must be other charges they are looking at besides those they issued the indictment for.
I think the justification for the unusual timing was for the safety of the grand jurors. It is reasonable to assume that some Trump supporters intend violence towards the jurors or the DA, so not aligning the announcement with the end of jury service (and/or making it hard to predict the date of the indictment) would keep the jurors safer.
DeSantis stated that "Florida will not assist in an extradition request."
Article IV, section 2 of the US Constitution states that “A person charged in any state with treason, felony, or other crime, who shall flee from justice, and be found in another state, shall on demand of executive authority of the state from which he fled, be delivered up, to be removed to the state having jurisdiction of the crime.”
So a better question will be "if elected president, do you plan to violate the Constitution in that role as well?"
An indictment does not a conviction make.
This could be a hard sell to a jury. Most people have an innate sense of fairness. When the defense points out that the extortionist has been given immunity for her crime but her victim is being put on trial that can be a bitter pill.
But then again I thought that a sense of fairness would stop DJT from being elected.
This could be a hard sell to a jury. Most people have an innate sense of fairness. When the defense points out that the extortionist has been given immunity for her crime but her victim is being put on trial that can be a bitter pill.
But then again I thought that a sense of fairness would stop DJT from being elected.
Agreed. And it's worth mentioning that the trial of John Edwards for almost exactly the same crime ended in a mistrial - although it also ended his political career.
It's also worth mentioning that Trump's own adviser and FOX News personality Kimberly Guilfoyle had this to say about Edwards: "It's not misdemeanors - he's looking at time behind bars. Major trouble. These are serious allegations. He used this money to hide his mistress. I think there's a very strong case against him."
And when the prosecution reminds that the defendant conspired to quash other avenues for revelation, calling a woman an extortionist just isn't worth much. The scope of the indictment remains unknown, but is known to accuse crimes, i.e., plural, and some scuttlebutt suggests thirty counts↱. It seems a tall number, but it also means prosecutors think they have their underlying crime, and everything else is the detail, i.e., two foundation checks, at least, to Cohen, mean potentially multiple charges for each. The payoff to McDougal went through Pecker, who helped kill publication of the stories
Widespread expectation is that the underlying charge will be falsification of business records (NY Penal Code § 175.10), a Class A misdemeanor escalated to Class E felony per intent to aid and conceal another crime, i.e., illegal campaign donation.
Compared to the case history↱ of 175.10, we can expect prosecutors think they have Trump on a basic falsification; the tricky part will be convincing the jury of an illegal campaign donation. That is, a crime already logged because one of the participants has been convicted, and even Trump's personal lawyer acknowledged, some time ago, that Donald Trump knew. Which Trump then acknowledged, having previously explicitly denied.
This one sounds like it's a prosecutor's case to blow. They would appear to have him, such that the exculpatory evidence would have to be convincing, in which case he shouldn't have been indicted. Given how impatient people are with law enforcement in New York, already, failure to achive conviction could bring existential repercussions to the Big Apple if its law enforcers are shown to be as incompetent or corrupt as Donald Trump needs them to be.
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Notes:
Dienst, Jonathan, Alex Seitz-Wald and Laura Jarrett. "Trump faces about 30 counts in New York grand jury indictment". NBC News. 31 March 2023. NBCNews.com. 31 March 2023. http://bit.ly/3Kowxgu
Watt, Siven, Norman L. Eisen, and Ryan Goodman. "Survey of Past New York Felony Prosecutions for Falsifying Business Records". Just Security. 21 March 2023. JustSecurity.org. 31 March 2023. http://bit.ly/3lT6PHR
#flashback | #update
When we think of all the lines we get to write↗ because this is just how they are—
• "a 2016 election-interference scheme for which infamous troll Douglass Mackey (a.k.a., Ricky Vaughn, @RickyVaughn_99, @RapinBill) is now under arrest"
—I mean, y'know, jus' sayin'.
And the detail↗ is just stupid.
Anyway, the Eastern District of New York, yesterday, let us know:
The verdict is in: Douglass Mackey has been found guilty.
That is to say, another Trump supporter caught at election tampering.
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Notes:
@EDNYnews. "The verdict is in: Douglass Mackey has been found guilty." Twitter. 31 March 2023. Twitter.com. 1 April 2023. https://bit.ly/3zGTyW9
Seattle
Valued Senior Member
Yo, yo, dog, you feel me, know what I'm sayin', just keepin' it 100.
"The court was not previously familiar with the term 'shitlib,' but assumes given the context that it is a perjorative word for those who identify as liberal rather than conservative."
In the United States District Court Eastern District of New York, Douglass Mackey has been convicted of conspiring to injure the rights of some voters; the infamous "Ricky Vaughn" (a.k.a. "Rapin' Bill"), in January, sought to have the complaint dismissed.
The scheme, as allged, was simple enough. [Mackey] and a group of other Twitter users allegedly workshopped hashtags and images to dissuade "normies" and "shitlibs" from voting for a candidate for president and, later, to trick that candiddate's supporters into believing they could cast their ballots by sending a text message or posting on Facebook or Twitter.
That, of course, gives rise to footnote five; it's not that the Court does not have a sense of humor, but the joke writes itself.
Still, though, this is why you hear about a "meme" trial. The flip-side is that Republican operatives have been caught repeatedly, over the years, trying to suppress Democratic turnout by disinforming Democratic voters about voting processes and rights. Just because it's digital doesn't mean it is so utterly unknown.
Footnote twenty-three, for instance, is pretty straightforward:
The court notes that the Complaint lays out alleged facts wich seriously undermine the claim that Defendant Mackey was engaging in satire. Defendant Mackey's private conversations with co-conspirators reference the need to suppress Democratic turnout in the upcoming election and brainstorm ways they can contruibute to that goal … discuss using the official color scheme and logo of the Clinton campaign to ensure the images were believable … and expound on how they plan to react in a manner that "make[s] it more believable" to the target audience.
His Honor has his reasons for saying so.
Meanwhile, as Caroline Orr Bueno suggests, "one of the reasons this is such a BFD is that the far-right has often relied on plausible deniability and claims of 'it was just a joke' to evade accountability, and Douglass Mackey's/Ricky Vaughn's conviction just blew a huge hole in that defense."
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Notes:
@RVAwonk. "I'll say more about this, but one of the reasons this is such a BFD is that the far-right has often relied on plausible deniability and claims of “it was just a joke” to evade accountability, and Douglass Mackey's/Ricky Vaughn's conviction just blew a huge hole in that defense."
Garaufis, Nicholas J. "Memorandum & Order". United States v. Douglass Mackey. United States District Court Eastern District of New York. 23 January 2023. CourtListener.com. 1 April 2023. https://bit.ly/3K5RcVu
Seattle
Valued Senior Member
That and the one in Georgia "looking for votes".
Yes! The available evidence on that one makes it a far easier case to prosecute, I would think it.
Seattle
Valued Senior Member
I'm hoping that indictment comes soon and maybe even get to trial before this one. I don't see how that one could result in anything but a guilty verdict. We've all heard the phone call.