The $175 million bond Trump posted a few days ago in the civil fraud case is still being scrutinized. Newsweek has been reporting that the bond will be rejected, but this is only Newsweek, and I’m not seeing the bigger guns of news reporting touch this yet. Newsweek may well be jumping the gun. Newsweek’s source is a former federal prosecutor.
Still, Rachel Maddow began her show last night with one of her signature nerdy dives into the company that gave Trump the bond, Knight Specialty Insurance. This company does indeed seem very skeezy. What’s in this video is only part of it.
See also Timothy Noah, Trump Has Hocked Himself to the Repo Man and Ben Metzner, The Shady Company Backing Trump’s Bond Somehow Just Got Even Shadier, both at The New Republic.
Speaking of shady, I did catch a few minutes of Trump’s abortion announcement last night. He looked like this.
I couldn’t hear what he was saying. I was fixated on his face, or more accurately, whatever cheap greasepaint he puts on his face without bothering to cover his ears and temples. I swear in this video he’s an inch away from being in blackface. He must be putting that mess on himself and never figured out the blending thing. Or else whoever is applying his makup really, really hates him.
In the now-stalled J6 case, yesterday Jack Smith filed a brief asking the Supreme Court to reject Trump’s claim of absolute immunity. See Philip Bump, The special counsel’s most essential argument against Trump’s immunity claim, in WaPo for details. See also ‘Profoundly ahistorical’: 4-star generals side with Jack Smith, tell Supreme Court Trump’s immunity claims are ‘assault’ on democracy at Law & Crime.
In other news, the Arizona Supreme Court today ruled that a 160-year-old abortion ban (from before statehood!) is still on the books and can be enforced. This law effectively bans all abortions in Arizona. One complication here is that Arizona currently has a Democratic governor and attorney general, and they are saying they aren’t going to enforce this law. Expect lawsuits.
My first thought was that he applies his own makeup nowadays, something he's been doing ever since the "Chinese Virus" (his words) made him reluctant to let people touch his face. But then I look at his hair, and surely that hairdo is too complicated to maintain without professional intervention.
No stage director in theatre would allow an actor to go on the stage looking the way tRUMP does.
Unless it was a farce.
Hmm…
Maybe this grand experiment we call representative democracy ends not with a bang or with a whimper, but as a tragic farce.
Ha. Reminds me of many years ago, pre-Mahablog, when I was in the chorus of a small regional opera company. The stage director saw me before a performance and promptly whipped out a pencil and drew eyebrows on me. Other than not having noticeable eyebrows I guess I looked okay. I certainly looked better than THAT.
I think it was Joyce Vance who pointed out that Trump is making these announcements via canned video, instead of live or at a press conference. He can rehearse and be edited to appear coherent.
"Sun-downing" comes from the mental health community. It means someone who's relatively coherent during the day but starts to lose it as the day ends. Trump's most wackadoodle moments come during rallies, which are held at night. Ditto for presidential debates. I'm looking forward to him going out of his mind, and on a short leash yet, at his trial.
If any of you Mahabloggers need a pick me up, tomorrow Weisselberg goes to court on his second perjury charge. I'm not sure if he's going for sentencing or just entering his guilty plea. But whatever tomorrow's court appearence is for its already been determined he's got another stint at Rikers ahead of him. I think by now he's a hardened criminal and he can do his upcoming tour at Rikers standing on his head. The hardest part for him now will be having to give up his Prince Albert while he does his time on Rikers.
Yeah, I just saw he got sentence to five months.
"Prince Albert"?!?
From whence comes this aside? Or do I really want to know.
In a can? If he has Prince Albert in a can, he should let him out! Lock up Weisselberg, free Prince Albert!!! I'll make some phone calls to get this rolling!
I think Moonbat is onto something about the canned announcement rather than an interactive press conference. For one thing, they can shoot it five times if they need to. And they can keep Trump on message. What Trump delivered is a whole lot different than the grand bargain he promised. Teasers leading up to the announcement leaned toward the 15-week federal ban. IMO, someone convinced Trump he'd further enrage the 70% who liked Roe AND Trump would piss off Evangelicals. So he's trying a wink-wing to Evangelicals that it is what it is while he tells moderate low-info voters that the status quo is the edict of the USSC and not his fault.
To return to Moonbat's comment, there are signs that Trump is being handled in the decision NOT to do the grand bargain that everyone will love. That had DJT all over it and he was talked out of it. Also, Trump loves to wing it with the press but this was canned. SO are Trump's people prevailing in keeping Trump on a leash and a script? (It won't happen next week when the trial starts.)
Melania showed up for something last week. The media that I read said she looked like a hostage. She's in a position to hurt him badly and she might if he gives her a good reason to. She won't be at the trial but will she follow the testimony and details. I hear that Trump will claim in his defense that the incident(s) never happened but he paid off the women to avoid upsetting Melania. Supposedly, that's the same BS he handed his wife. If she pretended to accept it at the time but if she decides, based on specific testimony, that Trump did it and he treated her like a fool…. it may affect her attendance on the campaign trail. If Trump gets irritated and either orders her or strikes her, which isn't unlikely, she might take him down.
Holy-rollin' in heavy makeup, he's the new Tammy Faye Bakker.
"Or else whoever is applying his makup really, really hates him"
I can't imagine anyone really likes him. Everyone around him has something to gain, wealth, influence, stature that comes from being bff's with a former president. I mean he is one of the most vile people I've ever come across. Perhaps the only people who like him are his voters and they don't really know him. They have bought into the d-list narrative of him as a wildly successful businessman who really knows how to own the libs. Fareed Zakaria said it best: "the man is a bullshit artist". I look at that video and see a man in the late stages of serious cognitive decline, me thinks the legal woes have caught up up to him emotionally. Poor thing!
It appears the credit rating impaired Trump has met the reincarnation of Shylock. I wonder what Trump flesh by the pound is going for these days? The king of default vs. the titan of knee busting. A plot like this just begs for iambic pentameter and rhyming couplets.
Kinda-sorta OT: Via CNN
New YorkCNN —
For the third time in three days, a New York appellate judge has denied an attempt by former President Donald Trump to delay his hush money trial.
I don't think they are through but what excuse they might cook up next is beyond me. DJT is desperate to stop the NY criminal trial. Much of Trump's complaints stem from the tactics of the judge to endure an orderly trial, including a previously set deadline for motions that might have to be resolved. The idea is for both sides to bring them up BEFORE the trial starts. Trump doesn't want the trial – if it does begin, he wants to inject chaos. Trump's been shut down cold by Merchan. The most recent action at the appellate level has been swiftly rejected.
The trial appears to be on track for jury selection to start on Monday April 15. On April 22, there's going to be a hearing on April 22 in NY re the bond before Judge Engoron. If Trump was playing games, he'll try to play a shell game by not having the information the judge has demanded. Engoron was Trump's target for months of harassment – payback is a karmic MF.On the 28th, the USSC will hear arguments on Trump immunity claims. My opinion is that the questions asked (and who asks them) will show whether there is any sympathy for Trump's claim. I suspect not. The question is how long the USSC will delay a decision. But we will have fireworks this month.
Also, Trump said today he would NOT sign a federal ban on abortion. There's little chance such a document would clear the Senate but Trump is trying to counter the threat to his run for POTUS that his previous "achievement" has turned out to be. In a few things, I trust Trump. The trial that starts on Monday has Trump near panic. Engoron will pull the plug on the bond if it's deficient – he's had time to study the fine print. IMO, Engoron will not hand down a bad decision but if Team Trump does not have everything that Engoron asks for, I think he'll give James a green light to proceed on foreclosures.
If you read recent Trump TS tweets, he's coming unglued. If he gets hit with more losses, financial and criminal, he's going to look even less in control, less presidential, more like a cornered rat. Both sides are playing to low-info undecided voters. It would be perfect if Trump has a very public meltdown.
For the record some comments from the eclipse: These are from a WP article on a science project to replicate findings about Einstein's warped or curved space.
The comments are from two separate commentors.
(Edited)
As the eclipse passes through Texas, many Texans will be plunged into total darkness…So for them, nothing will have changed.
Daniel Israel
3 days ago
But surely, they will feel the Lord's wrath and know with a certainty… that it was directed at their enemies, not at them, because it is inconceivable that they could be wrong.
The Lady Panc Ashash
3 days ago
There have now been two full eclipses in the US during Trump's time on the stage. I have no doubt that at least some evangelical pastors are pointing to these events as being a sign from God.
Daniel Israel
3 days ago
Oh, they are.
What is so striking is that these messages always come down to, "You are right, and your political opponents are doing evil." I'm waiting for one of these folks to suggest that God has sent a sign that they themselves need to do some introspection.