MAGIC 8 BALLS, A GINGER MINT CONSPIRACY, AND LOCAL CALLING

Donald Trump, who had planned to show us his Magic 8 Ball’s declaration of his “conclusive and complete exoneration” during a news conference last week, cancelled his appearance upon advice of his legal team. “Rather than releasing the Report on the Rigged & Stolen Georgia 2020 Presidential Election on Monday, my lawyers would prefer putting this, I believe, Irrefutable & Overwhelming evidence of Election Fraud & Irregularities in formal Legal Filings as we fight to dismiss this disgraceful Indictment,” which Stephen Miller, in Trumpspeak 101 fashion, obviously wrote for The Former Guy on Truth Social. Shooting from the hip after the Georgia indictment was announced, Trump ad-libbed that he would use the “major news conference” at his New Jersey golf club to reveal an “almost complete report” for his vindication. His ‘report‘ was not prepared by hotshot investigators or election experts, but by his communication aide, Liz Harrington, whose voice we have heard on the recorded conversation during which Trump brags as he shows top secret military plans for a potential invasion of Iraq. He seems to have forgotten the 60+ court decisions that have cast aside the MAGA attempts to overturn the election around the country…always someone who doesn’t get the word? The rabid MAGA base laps this stuff up, but independent and moderate voters say it’s time to move it along…perhaps by having his tailor take precise measurements to ensure a perfect fit for his orange jumpsuit? It’s certainly imperative by now, as we saw from his Pillsbury Doughboy tux back when he called on Queen Elizabeth.

The federal district judge, Tanya Chutkan, overseeing the Georgia election conspiracy RICO indictment against Trump warned him of the limits to which he can spill publicly any of the evidence as he attempts to recapture the GOP nomination for the presidency. The judge warned that the more “inflammatory” his public statements, there will be a greater urgency to move to trial quickly to combat witness intimidation or sullying the jury pool. Even Georgia’s Republican governor, Brian Kemp, criticized the Former Guy’s attacks on the integrity of the vote, X-tweeting, “The 2020 election in Georgia was not stolen. For three years now, anyone with evidence of fraud has failed to come forward – under oath – and prove anything in a court of law.” But, The Donald will not be silenced, as he attempts not to prove his innocence of the mounting crime charges, but to harp on the stolen election in the now turgid atmosphere of his own making.

Trump actually cancelled his Magic 8 Ball event after Governor Kemp made his comments, and radio host ? suggested the governor’s opposition to Trump’s accusations may have had some influence on the cancellation. “You saw that he cancelled that press conference saying his lawyers didn’t think it was a good idea? I don’t know when he has done anything because his lawyers thought it was a good idea,” she opined. Kemp’s name weighs heavily in the RICO indictment, with DA Willis citing a phone call from Trump to the governor, as well as several tweets attacking him over the election, as “overt” acts “in furtherance of the conspiracy” to overturn the election. Kemp and Trump, at loggerheads since 2020, resulted in Trump throwing his endorsement to Senator David Perdue in the 2022 governorship primary. Trump’s 2021 statement about Democrat candidate Stacey Abrams, “she might be better than having your existing governor, if you want to know the truth,” further inflamed the relationship.

Despite Judge Chutkan’s setting of behavioral boundaries for Trump, he is surely evaluating how far he can push the envelope, weighing whether or not incarceration will boost his standing among the electorate, well beyond the MAGA horde’s support. House arrest would seem to be out of the picture…confinement to a golf resort in Florida is not likely to instill fear in the accused. Detention with no access to the internet agitation ability would likely be the fear factor, which would spur the defense team to ask for a speedier trial. So, lock him up!

Mark Sumner provides an interesting summation, writing on Daily Kos, that the GOP and Representative Gym ‘Shower Monitor’ Jordan in particular, are attempting to break Trump’s crimes down into such small increments that nothing is a crime on its own. He asks: Since when is it a crime to buy a rope, a knife, and a few garbage bags? A guy in Manhattan buys a new burner phone, which later is found to be used to contact female victims, later murdered and abandoned at Gilgo Beach. Another guy rents a Ryder truck in Kansas to drive to Oklahoma City…innocent enough, but Timothy McVeigh then destroyed a building. A neat-freak buys some garbage bags to clean up his residence, later being accused of murdering his wife when an overlooked blood-stained knife was found. Sumner says all three guys would be on the street if the courts used the same standard that Jordan and his colleagues are applying to Trump’s criminal escapades…after all, cyanide is just nitrogen and oxygen, and we gotta breathe. Reducing Trumpian actions to being simple phone calls, tweets and offering legal advice to ensure a legit election process is the gist of their absurdity. After all, since when is it a crime for a doctor to meet with a college athlete, Gym-my-boy?

MSNBC’s Ari Melber, on his The Beat show, has shown a November 5, 2020 video of Trump ally, Roger Stone, dictating a memo to an associate as part of the fake electorate scheme. The video segment is part of a documentary shot by Danish documentarian, Chirstoffer Guildbrandsen, who had followed Stone and his contingent during the 2020 election campaign. But American legal scholar, Laurance Tribe has revealed that such a scheme was in the works as early as February 2019, as shown in the sexual harassment suit against Rudy Giuliani by assistant Noelle Dunphy. She was told by Giuliani that a plan had been prepared in the event that Trump lost his reelection bid, in which he would claim “voter fraud’ and that he had actually won…nineteen months before the election! Indicted in the Georgia case as part of this plan was attorney Kenneth J. Chesebro, a mentee of Tribe, who expressed his disappointment in his student, saying, “He was not making good-faith legal arguments for his client. He was inventing legal fiction that paid no attention to the law and creating a pretext for a conspiracy to steal an election.”

Georgia state law requires that names and addresses of grand jurors be released to boost transparency of the legal process, but already MAGA goons are threatening revenge on them for daring to indict their beloved Golden Calf as seen on a ‘fringe website.’ Trump’s base of violence-minded insurrectionists have posted juror photos, spurring discussions about whether “people need to be outside these people’s houses” or whether it would mean walking into a deep state and media trap. Initially, there was no indication that authorities were taking any actions to protect jurors…maybe that has changed by now. But, we’ll still have these red-hatted militias being the enforcers of their justice, with their sidearms, and showing as much respect for law and order as does Trump. The Former Guy will go after each juror as surely as he and Giuliani went after poll workers, Shaye Moss and Ruby Freeman, who rigged the Georgia election with a ginger mint.

The saber-rattling following the indictment(s) is now only a part of the shifting political scene, where the radicalized partisans believe violence is necessary to achieve their ends. “The idea that violence is legitimate for political purposes has moved into the mainstream,” says University of Chicago political science professor Robert Pape. “It’s still a minority…But if you’ve got 10 or 15 percent of a community that believes violence is acceptable for some political causes, that just encourages more violence for those causes.” The January 6 coup attempt should serve as a reminder that this country does not have an immunity any more than other nations, and threats against our government and its leaders are heightened in these perilous times. Representative Mary Gay Scanlon, Democrat of Pennsylvania, attributes much of this trend to Trump, who was the tough-guy candidate at his rallies in 2016. “Violence and intimidation on the right started following the election cycle in 2016. And so we would see justifications for violence among regular people rising at the election period – 2016, 2018 at Trump’s impeachment – obviously at the different events leading up to certification over January 6. There’s a sense that this violence is increasingly targeted at politics.” Donald J. Trump didn’t change the GOP – he just took off the wraps for a more accurate view.

As Trump prepares to defend himself in the courtrooms of New York, Washington, Georgia and Florida against his alleged crimes, obtaining evidence in Melania’s emails is a target of New York DA Alvin Bragg. A source tells Radar Online that her emails following her husband’s alleged Stormy Daniels escapade might be quite revealing as she shows her anger and possible plans to file for divorce. “She’s likely written emails to counsel asking for guidance on her rights if her husband is convicted on all these charges, and if she should use whatever she knows to squeeze him in divorce court,” says a source close to the Trumps. Previously denied requests to view Melania’s emails, Bragg is still in the hunt. An insider alleges, “Those emails could make Melania relive the entire betrayal again in the public eye. It would also reveal what she knew about the affair along with many other humiliating aspects of her husband’s business and personal life. The emails hang the president out to dry.” In spite of all this, sources say the couple are “on good terms.” 

According to former Trump lawyer, Michael Cohen, all the pressure on Trump is likely to make the Former Guy turn against his closest allies. “He’s going to flip on all of them…he never sees himself as the problem, it’s always somebody else, including his wife,” Cohen maintains. “He’s going to turn on his accountant and point the finger; he’s going to say, ‘Don Jr. handled that, Ivanka handled that; Melania, don’t take me. Take Melania,” Cohen predicted. “That’s the kind of guy he is.” We have to admit that Cohen has seen it all, and judging by the recent account that Rudy Giuliani sought some financial relief from Trump to help with legal expenses, only to be turned away, he is likely correct.

A fiendish character approached Trump in New York City, offering to sell him an inexpensive cell phone, claiming it was Satan’s personal hotline, open for calling the Devil at any time. Trump smirked, but bought the phone anyway, and made a call. A five minute conversation convinced Trump to run for President, with a promise of a guaranteed win. Checking later, Trump found the call had cost him $5000, refusing to use the phone ever again. But he ran for President and won! Having no idea what to do in the job, he swallowed his pride and made another call to Satan. The Evil One was happy to be able to assist Trump in all the destructive policies he would later enact in his tenure. Waiting a few minutes, Trump decided to call about the charges. The bill was $5. He asked, “Why the big discount?” “It’s now a local call, sir.”