GARBAGE IN, GARBAGE OUT ON A FOOL’S ERRAND

Recent polls released by Bloomberg and Morning Consult indicate that Donald Trump is not immune to public disfavor should he be convicted in any of the remaining criminal trials he faces, with 53% of voters in seven key states stating a refusal to vote for him in that eventuality. And, should a prison sentence be a result, that percentage would rise by two percentage points…WHAT? Only two points…what’s wrong with a 47% spike, people? We know he’s a crook…he’s either purposely or inadvertently confessed to every wrongful action of which he’s been accused! “The preponderance of polling out there shows that there is a chunk of Republican voters who say a felony conviction would be a bridge too far,” says GOP strategist Dan Judy. “Does that mean that Trump still gets 80 to 85 percent of Republican voters, rather than 90 or 95 percent? Probably. But that could easily be the election right there.”

With the Bloomberg poll showing Trump up by six points with registered voters in the battleground states, the question is: would those figures be borne out in the general election? Some aggrieved voters typically look past any misgivings and vote for that candidate who echoes their own views. Case in point being the Access Hollywood tape where Trump disparages women, yet went on to being victorious. The four indictments with a total of 91 criminal charges only served to strengthen his hold onto the MAGAt base, rallying them with each new announcement targeting their Golden Jesus. An Economist/YouGov poll indicates a favorability of 79% within the GOP, but only 40% in the general public. While Trump asserts his innocence of all charges, the trials lie ahead, as does the onslaught of the Biden campaign and his supporters, both within the Democratic Party and its fringes.

At this juncture, it appears the lesser of the charges – the Stormy Daniels bribery case – will see the light of day before the other, more serious cases are brought to the fore, simply because the Supreme Court is wrestling with whether or not a president has immunity from prosecution…which brings up the question of whether Trump would see a boost resulting from any acquittal. Dan Judy tosses in, “As people always say, the most valuable resource you have as a candidate is time. The more time he is spending, and his people are spending, trying to keep him out of court and out of prison, the less he is spending out on the campaign trail trying to fire up his base, or persuade the few persuadable voters in this country.” Judy, known as a Trump cynic, realizes that any prediction regarding the former prez’s fate has often proven to be a fool’s errand. “As with so many things with him over the years, there is no history to fall back on here. There is nowhere to go to say, ‘This is what happened in the past in a similar situation.’ There is no way to know for sure,” he cautions.

Leaks from within Trump’s circle indicate that he believes he will be convicted of attempting to overturn the 2020 presidential election results in his upcoming trial, as Axios reports. He fully expects a DC jury will find him guilty of conspiring to defraud the American people on four charges that carry a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison, a verdict which would send his attempt to retake the White House into complete shambles, even as he plans to attend every proceeding of the trial to prove that a corrupt system is seeking his destruction. In the Georgia elections interference case, Trump is pointing at DA Fani Willis’s relationship with the chief lawyer in the case, Nathan Wade, as evidence of corruption, undermining the charges against him as Wade is being paid hundreds of thousands of dollars in “this scam for her lover.” Willis admits to the relationship and says there are no grounds to dismiss the case or remove her from the prosecution.

Bocha Blue in a Palmer Report post says, “Trump wants to be seen as a Viking god, bold and proud in the spirit of an Achilles, never feeling fear. But that’s wrong. No Achilles’ heel for him. Donald Trump is lying. He’s lying to you, he’s lying to me. He’s lying to himself. Donald Trump is one of the most fearful little humans on the planet. He fears the unknown; he fears the known. He fears anything that will take away his pride, money or ability to win elections. And he is very scared of being found guilty in one of his criminal cases. To that, I say, of course he will be found guilty, but apparently, this is just making its way into Donald Trump’s consciousness, and it’s causing him a great deal of fear.”

It happened at the Colorado Republican primary debate, a long night under the hot lights with nine candidates, appearing before a large, attentive crowd eager to hear their spiels. All evening they had been asked to answer questions individually, but out of the crowd came a question addressed to the lot of them…“How many of you have been arrested? Let’s see a show of hands.” Six hands shot into the air…Lauren Low-Rent Boebert being one of those…six out of nine in the Wild New West! So, how did the crowd react? “Yeahhhhh!!!!,” accompanied by wild applause…their kind of folks, politicians proud of their arrests! Bocha Blue says, “Stupidity lives everywhere, even in the beauty of the sweeping mountains. These people are the party who says they ‘back the blue.’ This is the supposed party of law and order. Take a good look at ’em…you may not be able to for long, as they head for Whig territory. Six in nine! Boebert humiliated herself by not even making it into the top three in the straw poll. We should be grateful, perhaps, that it was not ALL of them with raised hands.” Reminds one of folkie Arlo Guthrie’s recording of ‘Alice’s Restaruant,’ where he tells of reporting for the military draft after being arrested earlier for dumping garbage for the restaurant. One of the sergeants asks him if he had ever been arrested and if he had gone to court, both answers being in the positive, which required him to go sit on The Group W bench, along with others who may not be moral enough to be in the Army. When the ‘meanest guy of all’ asks him, “Kid, whad’ya get?” And upon answering, “I didn’t get nothing. I had to pay $50 and pick up the garbage.” When the Group W bunch found he had been arrested for littering, they all moved away from him until he added, “And creating a nuisance,” bringing them all back to shake his hand while having a great time sitting on their bench.

Bad news for Trump in the action he filed in the UK over the ‘Steele dossier,’ which contained allegations that he took part in “perverted” sex acts and gave bribes to Russian officials – the High Court judge dismissed the case he brought against Orbis Business Intelligence, founded by MI6 officer, Christopher Steele. Steele was the author of the dossier which contained the allegations that Trump had been “compromised” by FSB, the Russian security service, at which time The Don reportedly participated in “sex parties” in St. Petersburg, and consorted with prostitutes in Moscow. In her judgement, Mrs. Justice Karen Steyn said, “In my view, there are no compelling reasons to allow the claim to proceed to trial in circumstances where, whatever the merits of the allegation that the personal data are inaccurate may be, the claim for compensation and/or damage…is bound to fail. In reality, the claimant is seeking court findings to vindicate his reputation in circumstances where he has not been able to formulate any viable remedy which he would have a real prospect of obtaining, or which would itself be of any utility; and having chosen  to allow so many years to elapse – without any attempt to vindicate his reputation in this jurisdiction – since he was first made aware of the dossier, including the memorandum, on 6 January 2017.”

Orbis produced the dozen memos in the dossier in 2016, but Trump was sworn in as president in 2017 when material was then published by BuzzFeed. During the court hearing, Antony White KC, for the consultancy, said the case had been brought to pursue a “vendetta” against Orbis and the former MI6 officer, saying,“The claimant has a deep and intense animus against Mr. Steele and Orbis, which is reflected in numerous vituperative public statements which he has made since it was made public by BuzzFeed. Mr. Trump has a long history of repeatedly bringing frivolous, meritless and vexatious claims for the purpose of vexing and harassing perceived enemies and others against whom he bears a grudge.” The charges of Trump/Russia collusion in the dossier were accorded some plausibility based on Steele’s reputation, but have been discredited over the years, with Steele himself saying the claims were unverified tips that warranted further investigation, and not for release to the public, but he stands by the work, the sources, and the professionalism applied. Back to you, Donny!

Narcissism or dementia…you decide! Trump posted a question on his Truth Social site, along with a photo of half his face spliced with a photo of Elvis Presley, with the query, “For so many years, people have been saying that Elvis and I look alike. Now that this pic has been going all over the place, what do you think?” Maybe the new Taylor Swift competition brought this on; obviously, she needs to start paying attention! His previous attempts to liken himself to Nelson Mandela, Abraham Lincoln and the Mona Lisa got him nowhere, so why not try Elvis? Or as one responder suggested, “Fat Elvis!” Close enough for you, Donnyboy? Ben Meiselas of Meidas Touch said that Trump’s recent behavior “has people finally seeing just how delusional, cognitively impaired, and utterly weird Trump’s campaign is.” President Biden remarks, “This is the weirdest campaign I’ve ever been engaged in,” and rival Nikki Haley has used the former prez’s prominent public blunders to ramp up her attacks on his cognitive abilities.

Curmudgeon, political writer and painter, Robert Harrington, who lives in England, posts on the Palmer Report that a scene in the 1987 Charles Bukowski movie, ‘Barfly,’ has the male lead hooting with laughter, as the female lead from the next room asks him, “What is it?” His answer, as he listens to a drunken couple’s brawling in the next room, “It’s hatred, the only thing that lasts.” Harrington is not so sure about that, but says it has staying power and motivating power, which drew him into political writing. He calls Eisenhower the last decent Republican president, and only had pity for Nixon, never noticing Ford. He vaguely disliked the Reagan/Bush duo, with George W’s martial rhetoric mildly repellant. But, hate for Trump is real, visceral, with abhorrent loathing as for a worst enemy, with his having transformed the mother country into a place of strife and division. As a Never-Trumper he has a core hatred. He quotes Brian Beutler of Substack’s ‘Off Message’ who says, “Never-Trumpers comprise a majority of the country. It suggests that anti-Trumpism is the most powerful force in American politics, and it husbanded well [it will make] an insurmountable obstacle to his hold on power.” Harrington believes this hate guarantees our win against Trump, a huge motivator to get voters to the polls, resulting in a crushing, unprecedented defeat. He always ends his posts with, “And, as ever, ladies and gentlemen, brothers and sisters, comrades and friends, stay safe.”

Trump continues to claim that the Constitution gives him the right to do as he chooses as president, and even as not-president, it seems. But he probably is confusing Article 2 with Article 8, which says once a man is elected president he is immune from prosecution for anything he did before, during and after the term is up, as long as his name is Trump. Plus, Article 9 says that this former president, if he so chooses, has the ability to return, re-write the Constitution and make himself King of the USA. Dream on, Donnyboy! Those articles don’t exist…yet!

Musician, song-writer and poet, Patti Smith says, “In art and dream you may proceed with abandon. In life may you proceed with balance and stealth.” So, let’s don our combat sneakers and join Robert Harrington to rid our country of this divisive enemy of democracy to restore our balance and safety! And as author Kurt Vonnegut advised, “And how should we behave during this Apocalypse? We should be unusually kind to one another, certainly. But we should stop being so serious. Jokes help a lot. And get a dog, if you don’t already have one.”

TAKING BAD TO THE BONE TO THE BONEPILE

Money, money, money problems seem to be raising ugliness within the GOP ranks of late. It’s reported that the Biden campaign has been out-raising the Trump campaign, and the DNC has raised massive amounts of cash compared to the RNC, much of which is rumored to be going into Trump’s coffers toward his legal woes. As the RNC heads toward the bottom, a vote is to be held to authorize a line of credit, thanks to Citizen Trump, who is tanking this major political party’s funds. Totally apropos, since he has tanked almost everything in his own business history before running the nation aground during his term in office. The Grand Old Party won’t see the light of day again with his involvement, and to paraphrase Hillary Clinton, “Trump has written several books, but they all seem to end with Chapter Eleven!” Last one out the door, please turn out the lights!

The nonchalance over funds seems to have the GOP approaching the nation’s budgetary impasse with the same stubborn laxity, with House Speaker Johnson relinquishing control of the House Clown Car to the Talibangelicals. They cancelled votes on two party-line funding bills, a transportation bill was pulled due to resistance to cuts to he Amtrak budget, and a financials services bill was wrenched thanks to the MAGAts attempts to pack it with anti-abortion legislation. “I don’t think the Lord Jesus himself could manage this group,” groused Texas Representative Troy Nehls. “We’re ungovernable.” The Republicans spent days in finally selecting Speaker Johnson, but it brings them no closer to a cohesive majority, and the DNC is having a field day gleaning ammo for the upcoming campaign ads. This looks like a job for fund-raiser extraordinaire/high-wire artist George Santos…or, Kevin McCarthy, who at least proved his worth in that capacity before being run out of town.

GOPers need not look to our former prez, Donald Trump, for any assistance at refilling the coffers with his online grifting expected to edge into constant begging for his base to buoy up this poor, Constitiution-battered billionaire(?)/millionaire(?)/average joe(?) victim of Biden’s DOJ. It should take only a century or two to save his butt at the rate the meter is adding with each court appearance. Trump’s bragging during his deposition in the bank fraud trial came back to haunt him in the E. Jean Carroll defamation suit, as Carroll’s attorney made good use of the information he blurted at that time to inflate his net worth, his words used to convince the 9-member jury that he could afford to be penalized heavily to put a stop to his slandering of Carroll. Trump, in comparing his brand’s worth to that of Coca-Cola, said with puffed chest and Mussolini chin jut, “In my case, I know it’s billions and billions and billions of dollars, with the brand name alone valued at $2.9B or even $3B. I wrote a book recently and it sold through the roof! It’s all brand value. We have a lot of cash, we have great assets.”  At one point he gloated about the secondary market for his ‘collectible’ digital trading cards, “some selling for $82K apiece.” He also claimed that the Mar-a-Lago estate could be worth as much as $1.5B, but Palm Beach property appraisers give it a range of $1.8- to $28-million. It likely will be worth more upon change of the name to Carroll-a-Lago. Circulating on the internet currently is a Photo-shopped image of Trump Tower with new shiny gold letters reading E. Jean Carroll Tower…let’s run that one by Mr. T!

Journalist David Cay Johnston, author of the 2016 biography entitled ‘The Making of Donald Trump,’ feels that Trump’s mouth could never back off attacking E. Jean in hopes of a gigantic jury award in order to complain to his base that, “It’s a New York jury”, code for un-Christian and non-White, which his base will eat right up but will not serve to reach the supporters he really needs. Last year’s sexual abuse and defaming verdict against Trump resulted in a $5M award, which Johnston says he never expects to pay, but he also doesn’t believe he will ever see the inside of prison cell. The Don’s Truth Social network had postings critical of Carroll all during the second trial, and along with his Bad Boy immaturity during his presence in court, he was assured of a massive penalty by the observant jurors. Now, he’s faced with another quandary…$83.3M worth. Beyond criticizing the outcome of the trial, Truth Social has gone silent about E. Jean, likely because his caretakers have wrested his cell phone away from him. Bill Palmer on his The Palmer Report, asks, “Did his handlers take his account away from him? Is he passed out face down in a bowl of Cheeto dust? If Trump decides to keep attacking Carroll, it’s just going to cost him even more money…she can circle back for additional damages and sanctions if Trump can’t stop himself.”

Palmer accuses the media of trying to decipher whatever new move Trump makes, analyzing what, and why, it’s being done, when it has no coherency…only sheer stupidity. Then, as they peer into the dark hole which this stable genius has dug himself into, they ooh! and aah! that Trump finally has us right where he wants us. Flaunting his invincibility throughout the Carroll trial proved to be his downfall with the nine jurors, and perhaps it will stifle complaints that ‘Trump gets away with everything.’ Had he been gagged and tied to his chair, perhaps the new award simply would have been another $5M forfeiture. No doubt, Trump’s keepers told him to cease running his mouth following his first loss, but he’s either too far gone cognitively to understand how much harm he was doing to himself by continuing to attack, or he’s too far gone psychologically to care how much harm he was inviting to himself. In either case, he continues hiring the worst attorneys while insisting on defense schemes that are guaranteed to fail, all the while attacking judges, their staffs, and the court system in its entirety.

Posting a bond of $5M to file an appeal on the first trial occurred with minimum whining, but how does he post $83.3M to appeal the second verdict? It’s debatable whether or not he has that much cash on hand, and his PAC is stretched from paying his legal fees, at least the bills that even get paid. Absent an appeal, he must pay Carroll, a lengthy process involving having assets taken from him – a procedure that he is unable to prevent. Carroll was only interested in vindication, not money, and she has proven her patience in the years-long process to see justice. Trump stands to lose another $370M resulting from the New York civil fraud trial…ka-ching, ka-ching, ka-ching! Trump’s assets have wings! And, before we forget, a New York state judge recently ordered Trump to pay nearly $400K in legal fees to The New York Times and three Times reporters after dismissal of a suit he brought in 2021, an “insidious plot” to obtain his tax records he charged. Revelations that he wasn’t the self-made billionaire he claimed to be, that most of his wealth was derived from his parents or from tax-dodging, even as his businesses bled money. State Supreme Court Justice Robert Reed ruled that Trump’s claims “fail as a matter of constitutional law.” Hey, don’t that judge know the Orangeman don’t need no stinkin’ constitution?

Judge Arthur Engoron, in the New York civil fraud case against Trump, has new information to consider in his decision about financial penalties to be levied, regarding a $50M mystery debt related to the Trump Organization’s Chicago tower and an intercompany loan. Former federal judge Barbara Jones, the court-appointed monitor in the Trump fraud case, provided information that indicates the former president lied knowingly and repeatedly on his federal financial disclosures about a major loan that never existed, evading a possible $48M in income. Her information in a letter to Engoron says the filings contain inconsistencies and errors, but the company has been cooperative in the investigation. “When I inquired about this loan, I was informed that there are no loan agreements that memorialize the loan, but that it was a loan that was believed to be between Donald J. Trump , individually, and Chicago Unit Acquisition for $48M,” Jones wrote in reference to the name of Trump’s LLC holding the debt. She added, “In recent discussions with the Trump Organization, it indicated that it has determined that this loan never existed and would be removed from any upcoming forms submitted to the Office of Government Ethics, and would be removed from subsequent versions of the firm’s financial statements.”

Alan Garten, chief legal counsel for the Trump Organization, told The Daily Beast that her claim is inaccurate and the loan did in fact exist, which will be addressed in court. Garten insists that not only does the loan exist, but that it is money owed to Trump after a loan to the LLC. However, in an October filing, it was stated that Trump owes the LLC upwards of $50M, in the form of a ‘springing loan,’ a loan with unfavorable terms to the borrower. In 2016, Trump confirmed this arrangement to The New York Times, having bought back the loan form a “group of banks several years ago,” and that he had preferred to keep the debt on the books, while paying interest to himself from a practically worthless LLC. In the interview, Trump said, “We don’t assess any value to it because we don’t care. I have the mortgage. That is all there is…very simple…I am the bank.” It seems that a ‘practically worthless’ LLC with a $50M credit on its books would be worth at least that much! Jordan Libowitz, communications director for Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in D.C. remarked, “Assuming the court filing is correct, Trump would appear to have intentionally and repeatedly broken the law. Personal financial disclosures attest under penalty of law that information submitted is true…Trump had to know that the Chicago business never loaned him the money.” The Trumpmeister will surely be blaming the accountants and attorneys and others for any blunders. Watch out, Eric, Junior and Ivanka!

In a January 26 bankruptcy filing, former Trump attorney, Rudy Giuliani, listed a claim against his former boss over unpaid legal fees, stating the amount as “undetermined.” The initial December ’23 bankruptcy filing came after a federal judge ordered him to “immediately” pay more than $148M to defamed election workers, Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss. In a series of unsuccessful lawsuits, Giuliani attempted to contest, and overturn, the 2020 election results in favor of Trump. The New York Times reported in August 2023 that, “Mr. Trump has never explicitly told Mr. Giuliani why he is effectively stiffing him, but the former president has pointed out that he lost the cases related to the election.” Also reported is that the Trumpster told his aides that he didn’t wish to see Giuliani get “a dime” unless he succeeded, and noted that $340K had previously been paid by the Save America PAC to assist with some of Rudy’s debt. Giuliani’s new filing also lists an “undetermined” amount owed him under “Joseph Biden Defamation Action,” a suit filed in October when Biden used the term “Russian pawn” in reference to the former NYC mayor…supposedly costing him “millions and millions of dollars” in lost clientele. In the category ‘tax refunds owed to you’ is listed “Overpayment of taxes from The Mask Singer” in 2022 amounting to over $10K, when he appeared on the TV show, The Masked Singer while singing ‘Bad to the Bone.’ The Donald probably smirked dramatically over that telecast.

While Giuliani managed to raise over $700K from just 13 donors , per an FEC filing, to help with legal fees after the court ruling, he was left with about $180K cash on hand after settling a half-million dollars of his legal fees. Rudy has always insinuated that he has “insurance” against Trump when the need arises, so does he have the courage to actually pull that trigger, now that he is in such dire straits? He once referenced that he and Trump would go down together, spurring Trump to host a too-little-too-late fundraiser, but with this new bankruptcy filing, he is hoping those who have claims against him will now go after Trump. This is an unlikely scenario, since The Don is begging for Divine Intervention to bail him out. This can only become more complex! Poor Rudy laments that he failed to save for retirement, failing to apply for any benefits and foregoing the pension, and “giving back to the city I love…although I would like to take it now. I don’t know how to go about it.” Hire a competent attorney, Rudy!

On his show recently, Seth Meyers showed a snapshot of a stunned-looking Giuliani, comparing it to “the state of American politics right now.” But, “If we really wanted to accurately represent America in 2024, we’d replace the stars on the flag with Rudy’s eyes.” Adding, “Good luck sleeping tonight!”

But, take heart from cartoonist, Charles M. Schulz: “Don’t worry about the world coming to an end today. It is already tomorrow in Australia.”

HAARPING AWAY TO WEATHER THE STORM

Over the past several days we have seen dramatic changes in the GOP presidential sweepstakes, with Christie, Scott, Ramaswamy, and DeSantis joining the Bootlickers VP Queue, leaving Nikki Haley to fight it out with Donald Trump. Three of the dropouts have not hesitated to jump onto the Trump bandwagon, with Tim Scott predicting that Trump will unite us as a nation. Where has he been for the last seven or eight years? In the ongoing Pundit Parade, Jonathan V. Last on The Bulwark says, “The future is Trump,” though he contrasts the ex-president with Biden, saying our current president despite having neither a cult of personality, nor media domination, nor engendering strong feelings in a party that does not fear him. The economy is in good shape and as long as this streak continues, the voters will begin to appreciate it fully. With Biden’s long list of popular legislative accomplishments, and his willingness to cooperate with Republicans to pass laws that create jobs, to invest in infrastructure, and reform laws, a rationale is created for his re-election. Trump has no actual policies for his whining candidacy beyond personal retribution, stopping immigration, and drill, drill, drilling for oil, an action on which Biden exceeds all presidents including Trump himself. Trump’s 91 criminal counts, a boon for his primary campaign, will burden his general election campaign, benefitting Biden. No word from DeSantis (now identified as Ron DeSuperfantastic now in Trump circles) on the disposition of his white go-go boots, which he should relinquish in exchange for a participation trophy.

Bill Scher in Washington Monthly says, “Forget New Hampshire. After Trump’s Iowa landslide, it’s over.” He feels that while the Hawkeye State rarely predicts a GOP nominee, Trump is different. The New Hampshire conservative vote is usually diluted by independent voters, which in the last three competitive NH primaries ranged from 37 to 47 percent; primary elections in those states through Super Tuesday have exit polls indicating independents are less than ? of the vote totals. New Hampshire was a springboard for Trump in 2016’s primary because he won 35% of the vote, with 49% of the remainder of votes cast going to five center-right challengers, due to the failure of the party establishment to back one candidate, and due to disunity within the grassroots conservatives. Hard-right candidate, Ted Cruz, who won Iowa garnered only 12%, but moving to more conservative state primaries brought coalescence around Trump. Scher gave Nikki Haley a chance of a reasonable showing in a three- or four-person race, but with the dropouts not in contention, it’s basically a two-person duel with heavy ramifications in future primaries. With NH behind us now, how did Haley’s candidacy fare in this test?

Sarah Longwell writes in The Bulwark that “It’s time for former Trump officials to come out against him if we want to stop a Trump restoration and his promised MAGA dictatorship. It’s going to require building a coalition of people who understand the stakes. And there are no better messengers better equipped to convey the peril of a Trump presidency than those who lived it firsthand, on the inside.” Then, she backtracks, asking, “But wait, haven’t they done that already? Mark Milley posed for a front-page spread in The Atlantic. John Kelly gave a statement to CNN. Others have back-channeled their grave misgivings, off the record to Puck and Politico. Hard truth: That’s not enough. I talk to Republican primary voters every week in focus groups, and you know what they don’t read? The Atlantic, Puck and Politico. Fundamentally, the reason they seem unbothered by Trump’s autocratic tendencies is that a lot of them don’t know about them.” Right, Sarah! The bulk of them DON’T READ…just like their messianic idol/idiot!

Charlie Sykes, also in The Bulwark, says, “Trump is dominant, but vulnerable. Biden has a problem with voters who are in denial. Iowa could help him with that. Via The Messenger: ‘Biden’s internal polling shows the vast majority of the campaign’s targeted voters don’t believe Trump will be the GOP nominee, a major issue for a campaign desperate to make 2024 a binary choice.’ Even Biden’s internal polling, according to top campaign officials, has highlighted this trend, with recent surveys finding around 75% of the campaign’s undecided voters do not believe Trump will be Biden’s opponent in November. Trump’s dominating win in Iowa last week could change that dynamic with undecideds.” The above pundit roundup quotes are garnered from Greg Dworkins’s Daily Kos post.

Mother Jones posted a memorable headline following Trump’s Iowa caucus triumph: “FLORIDA MAN FACING 91 CRIMINAL COUNTS WINS IOWA CAUCUSES. Donald Trump just accomplished something he wasn’t able to do in 2016 – he won the Iowa caucuses.” Not long after precinct sites opened Monday night, the networks called the first-in-the-nation GOP race for the former president, who appeared to be cruising to a dominant victory over rivals Ron DeSantis and Nikki Haley. None of his four indictments, criminal counts, civil suits and a Supreme Court battle over whether he can even appear on the ballot in some states turned off Iowa Republicans. Instead, they rewarded him for it. Niece Mary Trump notes that Monday didn’t bring all good news for Uncle Donald in her Substack newsletter, The Good In Us…the former president’s attorney, Joe Tacopina withdrew his law firm from representation in the two New York cases, leaving Trump with Alina Habba to stumble along for him. Tacopina told ABC News that he had withdrawn “on all matters,” offering no immediate reason(s). Mary says, “On what everyone knew was supposed to be a day of victory for Donald in Iowa, this loss will still be burning in his mind. It’s not unusual for Donald to go through lawyers at an alarming rate, but Tacopina’s high profile status shows just how dysfunctional Donald’s ‘defense’ really is.”

Tacopina withdrew ahead of a Tuesday jury selection in a second defamation trial related to E. Jean Carroll’s allegations that Trump raped her in the 1990s, for which Trump was found guilty. Trump was dissuaded from testifying in the first trial but wished to speak in the second, which may have played a role in the attorney’s departure, according to Mary Trump, especially in light her uncle’s penchant for self-destruction behavior. In a statement to Reuters re Tacoima’s firm’s departure, a spokesperson for Trump said, “He has the most experienced, qualified, disciplined, and overall strongest legal team ever assembled.” In the history of the world, doubtless, and into the future for time immemorial, gosh darn it!

According to The Palmer Report, “Trump was represented in 2017 by the best, most powerful lawyers money could buy – before he was inaugurated, such as the Kassowitz Firm. Now he’s got this numbskull – Alina Habba. She has no idea what she’s doing, not a clue about how to get something into evidence, while being belittled by the trial judge and E. Jean Carroll’s lawyers. She’s completely destroying herself with her lack of knowledge about the rules in a Federal Court of all places!” Not up to the job, but, boy, is she a knockout…just ask her! However, this is the best representation the grifting money can buy, unless Trump can poor-me a bit more pitifully on Truth Social to get those rubes to increase their contributions. So, he goes from the Kassowitz Firm to threatening the Supreme Court to rule in his favor, since Kassowitz probably expected him to pay their bill, leaving Habba to work for nothing while basking in the glow of an orangey fake-tanned jerk with a bad combover. Joe Tacopina disclosed to Al Sharpton that he quit because he had to “consult his compass” which also involved personal reasons, and while he was vague in his explanation, it was clear he was tired of being a part of the Trump Dumpster Fire. The defense’s tactic to enrage the judge into making a mistake doesn’t seem to be working. No attorney will be able to save Trump from the finality of his fate, so Habba is as good as any in her blundering since Trump has no idea what is going on anyway…good karma for both of them.

“Person. Woman. Man. Camera. TV.” Oh, the profundity! Bocha Blue on The Palmer Report says we should change those words to: “Traitor. Insurrection. Indictment. Trial. Prison.” Trump in his mental decline keeps bringing up the legendary quote regarding his quack exam by then-White House Doctor Ronny Jackson, who everyone knows is himself a complete basket-case. Trump, in his senility has revealed that Nikki Haley was once the Speaker of the House who refused to provide troops to control the J6 Insurrection…wow, who knew? Or how about his claim that George Conway is a city in New Hampshire? How did George accomplish this feat? And did Kellyanne know about this? And who can forget that the former prez remembers that Barack Obama is the current president who will be facing him in the general election in November? Plus, “Melania’s son, Barron, is tall.” Anything else, Donny?…Eric?…Don, Jr.?…Ivanka? OK, we won’t go there! He evidently is under the impression that he isn’t running campaign ads, but someone on the staff didn’t get the word, evidently, as we’ve all noticed a bunch of them. MSNBC host Johnathan Lemire says his decline is deeply alarming. “I think it’s going to be harder and harder for the campaign to manage this guy, and in just my opinion, he looks like he’s in a serious state of decline. And seriously, so confused.” Bill Palmer sees this as a now familiar pattern of The Don’s, “trying to say something that’s idiotic to begin with, and then getting so confused that he ends up saying something even more incoherently idiotic. This man is not well. How long before he’s so far gone, he ends up in an assisted living facility?”

The Iowa caucuses were affected by below-zero temperatures and with the thermometer predicted to see a high of -4 degrees, accompanied by 20mph winds, voters who were determined to turn out did so in diminished numbers which did not affect the overall resulting percentages. Enter Laura Loomer (formerly of Project Veritas, and best known for her rabid anti-Muslim positions, who also happens to be a lunatic heavily supported by Trump and the right), posting her conspiracy theory that the adverse weather was caused by HAARP to discourage caucusers from venturing out. HAARP is research project sponsored by the University of Alaska which studies the ionosphere, their location being advantageous for studying the Northern Lights, and according to Loomer, for brewing up horrible weather conditions to visit upon hapless voters. Conspiracy theorists have also blamed the organization for earthquakes, mind control, power outages, TWA flight 800, Chronic Fatigue Syndrome and anything else their red-hat-covered-brains can bring from the rat hole.

Luckily for Trump, the weather provided him with a whole new campaign slogan going forward. He told supporters on the Sunday preceding the caucus date that even if they were “sick as a dog,” it was worth braving the chilly conditions to vote. Even if they then passed away, “It’s worth it,” he said. So, there you have it: “Vote and Die,” on the prospective t-shirts and bumper stickers. This is a perfect summation of Trump’s attitude toward his base…“Do this thing for me, and if you should die, that’s okay…I’m worth it.” Ah, Mother Nature! What would Trump be without it?

Colin Nissan had a recent humorous essay in The New Yorker magazine, entitled ‘Nature, Wow!’ where he says that, “People are curious about nature. That’s why there are so many Google searches about it, such as ‘Which snakes are venomous?’ And ‘Quick remedies for throat closing.’ Or ‘Can I write my will on a leaf?’…And ‘Places to move where there are less snakes.’ There’s something for everyone in nature, even deserts, for people who love the beach but hate enjoying themselves…Researchers have spent years trying to unlock the mysteries of nature, like why the plural of deer is also deer, and why sunsets are free but paying a taxidermist for one ferret cost me almost a grand. Twelve hundred with the sailor outfit. Nature is famous for its calm and tranquility. A good example is the beautiful silence right after a school of piranhas goes to town on a carp. The big takeaway here is that we need to do everything we can to live in harmony with nature or we can kiss those watermelons goodbye. That means listening when nature is trying to tell us something, and also cutting ourselves some slack if we can’t decipher nature’s cryptic messages amid all the intense weather and natural disasters.” So, there you have it…Laura Loomer and Donald Trump unravelled the cryptic messages for their purposes, but as for the voters in Iowa and New Hampshire, not so much! For the rest of us, we don’t need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows…the answers are in plain sight!

GALLOPING MEDIOCRITY IN THE NO-SPIN ZONE

His head spinning out of control, former Fox News host Bill (The O’Reilly Factor/No Spin Zone) O’Reilly is not having it that his books are being removed from Florida’s Escambia County libraries, being included in a list of 1,000 titles pending investigation under the state’s new book ban laws. Bill-O was quoted saying, “Preposterous! We are investigating and are seeking comment from @GovRonDeSantis. This will not stand.” Conservatives in the Sunshine State have been carrying out their campaign to remove any printed matter containing ideas, philosophies, and language with which they disagree, particularly those teaching critical race theory, or containing LGBTQ+ topics and those by LGBTQ+ authors. As a previous stalwart in favor of this legislation, O’Reilly claims, “When DeSantis signed the book law, I supported the theme because there was abuse going on in Florida. There were far-left progressive people trying to impose an agenda on children, there’s no doubt about it.” Of course, he now thinks the wording in the laws is “far too nebulous” and that Governor Ron should declare it “insane” that his books have been removed.

Further, “There are materials that are inappropriate and those materials have to be specifically included in the law with language that is very specific. You can’t be throwing John Grisham under the bus, it’s absurd,” he notes. Seeking retribution, he wants to find out who in the school district removed the books and “put their pictures up on television and on my website.” Perhaps we should have more respect for those reviewers at being more discriminating than they are given credit for since O’Reilly’s book entitled ‘Killing Lincoln,’ was initially banned from sale at Washington’s Ford Theatre bookstore when it was released. He and his coauthor, Martin Dugard, were accused of including factual errors, and a lack of documentation, according to Rae Emerson, deputy superintendent of Ford’s Theatre National Historic Site, a unit of the National Park Service. Emerson’s review recommended that the book not be sold at Ford Theatre’s NPS store. So, while the NPS chose not to carry the Lincoln title, Ford’s Theatre Society sells it in their gift shop, allowing visitors to judge the merits of the book themselves.

‘Spinner’ O’Reilly was not the only victim of the Escambia County School District. Also targeted were dictionaries and encyclopedias sitting on their shelves, which drew widespread discussions and criticisms of the extremes to which they took the new book banning laws. HB 1069, which governs the new rules, targets books that depict or describe sexual conduct, launching Florida into the forefront of national bans, with 1,972 instances in 37 school districts in the ’22-’23 school year as documented by PEN America. Penguin Random House, along with PEN America and other organizations have filed a federal lawsuit against Escambia’s school board, arguing that their actions infringe on free speech rights and equal protection under the law. We can’t have kids with tender sensitivities reading about the likes of Beyoncé, Oprah or Thurgood Marshall, and if they wanted to know what MLK Day was all about, they might ask somebody…in a whisper! And, Anne Frank? Don’t ask! In essence, the government can remove any content of ‘disapproved speech’ which raises the question of the purpose of educational resources in restricting access to diverse literature. A federal court will hear the school board’s motion to dismiss the lawsuit, crucial in determining the validity of both sides’ arguments re the First and Fourteenth Amendments. The outcome will likely have implications not only for Florida, but educational content across the US. Taken straight from the banned dictionary: Ignorant – lacking knowledge or awareness, in general, uneducated or unsophisticated. So, there ya go, Bill-O…just find that group and you can post photos and info to your heart’s content!

GOP presidential candidate Chris Christie showed some awareness in abandoning his bid for that spot, leaving the field for the MAGAs and the wannabe-MAGAs to fight it out. Bridgegate and all his failings aside, national affairs correspondent John Nichols wrote, “He was the last high-profile GOP contender who was fighting for whatever remains of the soul of the Republican Party.” Christie’s announcement was a concession/confessional as he stepped aside, admitting that ego was his downfall in becoming involved with Trump’s Spray-Tanic political quagmire that he now battles against. Some of his words were admirable in the melancholy atmosphere of the gathered supporters who came understanding what they would hear regarding his nowhere-role in today’s GOP. He vowed to keep up the pressure against Trump’s candidacy, telling his crowd and all voters that the former guy is unfit and should never be near the oval office again. Bocha Blue, in his essay in The Palmer Report, drops a few lines from ‘Vincent‘ by singer/songwriter Don McLean: “Now I think I know, What you tried to say to me. How you suffered for your sanity, And how you tried to set them free. They would not listen, they’re not listening still. Perhaps they never will.”

Christie also offered a few unsolicited words, picked up on an open microphone, about Nikki Haley who has seen her poll numbers pick up in recent days. He said, “She’s going to get smoked, and you and I both know it. She’s not up to this.” At this writing, Iowa caucuses are hours away, so in retrospect was she up to it? How did she fare against DeSantis? And how badly, in a cloud of dust, did The Donald leave her, stranded and smoking? A NBC News/Des Moines Register/Mediacom poll had shown that 43% of Iowa’s Haley supporters would cross to the Democrats and Biden’s candidacy in the general election rather than give their vote to Trump, with 23% supporting Trump if he is the GOP candidate. Independent Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. could see 19% of Haley’s supporters swing into his column. “Haley is consolidating the anti-Trump vote. She does well with people who define themselves as anti-Trump,” said pollster J. Ann Selzer, who has spent three decades conducting surveys in Iowa. Still afraid to attack Trump too directly, in the final GOP debate with rival DeSantis, Haley was asked, “Does Donald Trump have the character to be President?” A momentary deer-in-the-headlights look brought her answer, “Well, I think the next President needs to have moral clarity,” and after a pause, “His way is not my way.” Still running for numero dos, Nikki? During the debate, if DeSantis mentioned Nikki’s record, she would tell viewers, “Go to DeSantisLies.com,” ignoring an equally valid site, TrumpLlies.com! A Mike Luckovich political cartoon has contestant Nikki Haley on TV’s ‘Wheel of Fortune,’ with the posted question, “What was the US Civil War fought over?” The board shows _ _ A _ E R Y, so Nikki takes a stab at guessing the missing letters with “D R A P E R Y.” A perfectly good MAGA answer…after all, Scarlett O’Hara in the Civil War epic, ‘Gone With the Wind,’ makes perfectly good use of drapes, and who can forget the Carol Burnett Show’s sketch of that particular movie scene, curtain rod and all?

Johnny One-note Trump never participated in any of the candidate debates leading up to the Iowa caucuses, his reasoning being the polls showing him to be the runaway choice of the MAGAGOP, and it’s just as well since everyone knew what was going to come out of his mouth, with nothing pertaining to the topic at hand. His so-called debating style actually has a name with historical roots: the Gish Gallop. It is defined as a well-established method of outmaneuvering rhetorical opponents with an overwhelming onslaught of dubious arguments, also known as ‘spreading‘ in the debate community. The style’s name is attributed to Duane Gish, a biochemist and creationist who in the 1980s and 1990s used it to his advantage in evolution dialogues. The Gish Gallop leverages two basic human reasoning tendencies, on the concept that it’s easier and faster to make false claims than it is for an opponent to disprove even one. If the opposition fails to disprove every one of the questionable claims, triumph goes toward the ‘spreader.’ In setting up organized, formal debates, the Gallop (not to be confused with the Gallup) has met disapproval with rules limiting the points made by a presenter within a certain time frame; however, in today’s political atmosphere, televised debates, radio show panels, and talking-head presentations make Gish’s showbiz style right at home – an entertainment network’s dream come true.

Coping with a Gallop opponent can be done, but it’s time-consuming, and the open-mindedness and ability to recognize what is happening is paramount. By reframing the argument, a skillful debater can simply ignore the list presented and focus on a single coherent counter-argument not easily debunked, making the presenter look like a flake. Trump has perfected the Gallop, probably unconsciously, with his spewing of rapid-fire lies, insults and accusations, burying most opponents who are likely unprepared and limited in time to respond to his overwhelming blast. We have seen weak-willed interviewers who fail to interject, correct or take a pause to respond to his gibberish, being totally unprepared to counter his tricky onslaught with facts, documentation or relevant information. Eugenie Scott, a biologist and retired anthropology professor, founded the National Center for Science Education in 1981 to ensure that evolution, not creationism, is taught in our schools, says, ” Debate is a sport. It is not a way of informing the audience or the public of the accuracy of an opinion. It is played by rules that are different from those of logic and empirical evidence.” She also describes debates as “drive-by shootings when it comes to critical thinking.” And, speaking of drive-bys, we must remember that Hillary Clinton was deemed the winner in all the Trump/Clinton debates in 2016 and we see how that ended. Raise your hand if you believe RFK, Jr.‘s claim that the COVID-19 virus may have been “targeted” to spare Ashkenazi Jews and the Chinese! New York Times columnist, Farhad Manjoo, writes, “You can come with all the facts in the world, but when you’re dealing with a conspiracist, there’s no real way to ‘win’ an argument. For people whose views aren’t anchored to facts, ‘winning’ is simply getting attention. And when you publicly argue with someone like Kennedy, you’ve already lost.”

Speaking of losing, our former prez has been convicted of fraudulently and massively inflating the worth of his properties, enabling him to borrow excessive amounts of cash on properties worth billions of dollars less. Then he backtracks to the original evaluations when it comes time to tax time, with no taxes being paid as a consequence of the claimed write-offs. He faces a fine of $250M and possibly seeing his businesses shut down in New York. Those properties with his name on them are owned by the banks, so the $80M and properties he garnered from his late father are dust in the wind since he has overextended himself. Speculation is that his cash-poor situation as he faces several penalties from his numerous court disasters will take down his empire…those unsuspecting MAGAs who send him their hard-earned monies from his beggarly entreaties on Truth Social can barely pay his legal fees. Plus, he is about to lose what was once a real ego-booster…his 2007 Hollywood Walk of Fame star! Hugo Soto-Martinez who represents the district where the star is located is looking into having the star removed. He says, “Donald Trump is a racist, fascist, and a threat to our democracy. We’re looking into where the authority lies, what the legal issues may be, and what a process for it might look like.” This will be a first, and most believe the ultimate authority for removal of this embarrassing honor is the City Council. Removal would also save a fortune for the city, which has had to pay for many cleanups, as the star has been defaced, smashed and otherwise damaged to the tune of $20,000 or so. Bocha Blue writes on The Palmer Report that complete removal is best…Hollywood stars are for the talented, and Trump’s only talent is starting insurrections and name-calling. As Joseph Heller says in his novel, ‘Catch 22,’ 

“Some men are born mediocre,
some men achieve mediocrity,
and some men have mediocrity thrust upon them.” 

Which box does Trump fit into?