Blog Comments (3,000+)

Presidential Immunity

I wonder at your rationale that you think Trump was lucky to be able to sexually assault women.

RE: What is the real Purpose?

I fully agree with your viewpoint.

RE: What is the real Purpose?

Perhaps it's all about a perceived existential threat.

Whether that's collectively, i.e. Ukraine, Israel, Palestine, the US democracy, the Russian empire; or individually, i.e. leaders holding on to power, people making their mark in history to attain a certain immortality, or people maintaining their primary needs to survive.

We strive to physically survive, but also emotionally. We often mistake status, wealth and our roles as an integral part of our existence. We hold on to our identity in terms of nationality, race, religion, political opinions, talents, work lives, family roles as if each thin is everything we are.

Even posting on here has an element of existential threat as if an alternative opinion is a menace to our being.

There will be many real purposes on many real or imagined, justifiable or unethical, sensible or idiotic levels. It's pretty impossible to untangle, or distill down to one specific reason.

Presidential Immunity

He can try, but that doesn't mean he'll succeed. It's not like his track record of Supreme Court appeals indicates a bias in his favour.

I do think Trump is being treated favorably by the courts in as much as any other US citizen would have had their pre-trial release revoked by now under similar circumstances.

I, however, have an alternative perspective to the fear theory: I think the leeway he's been given and the depth of legal analysis involved at every stage is about leaving him with no grounds to sucessfuly appeal any future convictions. These prosecutorial lawyers and judges haven't been hit with the stupid stick and apart from Judge Aileen Cannon, they deserve credit for their competency.

I do think there may have been an intimidation and fear element to Judge Sarah Wallace's bizzarely incongruent rulings regarding Section 3 of the 14th Amendment in Colorado, but that it was likely a personal issue. It wouldn't be surprising and it's even understandable given the threats that have been issued towards other officials by Trump supporters following Trump's media rhetoric.

I also think intellience and security in the event of a violent uprising will be better prepared in the wake of J6. For one thing, the convictions and lengthy sentences issued to the J6 rioters will likely intimidate the less organised, along-for-the-ride Trump supporters. The numbers weren't great enough to pull off a coup on J6 despite the lack of security and I'd hazard a guess a lot of those people didn't fully understand what they were getting themselves into. They do now.

That was perhaps demonstrated by the Trump supporters being out-numbered by the press when Trump was arrested and indicted. They might be happy to go out for a jolly and attend the relative safety of Trump rallies, but an uprising, or violent protest with potential life-ruining consequences is a whole other ball game.

Nothing in Trump's frivolous defense suggests that he has a leg to stand on thus far. The legal system is clearly going through the motions, literally and figuratively, but an observer's frustration and impatience shouldn't be mistaken for error in, or intimidation of the justice system.

RE: What is the real Purpose?

you,people still donèt understand about special operation.
Russia fights not with Ukranian people. Zelenskiy just a proxy of Uncle Sam and his buddies (NATO) 52 contries. Ukranian comic (USA) will have to capitulate to stop killing his own people.
And tommorow he is going to beg USA Senate for another 60 milliard dollars.
Havy drugs are not cheap nowdays.

RE: You get what you pay for...

Assuming that he can get other lawyers prepared to work for him.

They would have to be prepared to be campaign spokespeople rather than lawyers as well as risk not being paid. It's unlikely to be a particularly good career move as infamy is not the same as perceived competence.

Claiming incompetent counsel might be his only option for post conviction appeal, so perhaps pre-trial is not the time to play his ace-ish card.

It could also backfire, just as trying to get a 2026 DC trial date versus Jack Smith's proposed January 4th 2024 date did. Precedent works in less than mysterious ways.

But, you could be right. Perhaps he'll fire his already stretched-thin team now and then claim he wasn't given enough time to prepare on post-conviction appeal, if that's possible. I think that would still come under poor representation, though, and he'd have to prove legal error, rather than disatisfaction.

RE: What is the real Purpose?

Isn't it sad. Many lives are lost due to war. What do they get from these wars? Money? Power? SAY NO TO WAR.

Presidential Immunity

Are you suggesting that if Trump is convicted and sentenced to a prison term that he might be allowed out on bail (and become the next president) whilst appealing the conviction?

Post conviction bail, unlike pre-trial bail is not a constitutional right. Although most states allow it, it's rarely granted when long sentences are involved and there is a flight risk.

In the case of less serious crimes and shorter sentences, it's usualy only granted if the lower court has made an error that is likely to result in reversal in the defendant’s favor, or the error is so constitutionally egregious that the defendant deserves a new trial.

Given the level of interlocutory appeals in Trump's cases to evaulate constitutional law, it's perhaps unlikely there will be any grounds to appeal that which has already been comprehensively reviewed through the appellate system.

An error likely to reverse any conviction is perhaps also unlikely given the calibre of prosecutorial team and their lawyering.

The only way I can see Trump getting post conviction bail is if the justice system, or individual players therein are too afraid to imprison him for their own benefit, but if that were the case, why would he have been indicted and held to account in the first place?

Presidential Immunity

A fairly good predictor of future behaviour is past behaviour. Another is statement of intention.

The first drone strike that Trump authorised after his inauguration killed 22 civilians including 10 children under the age of 12. He described it as a 'win'.

In the midde of his presidency Trump pubicly introduced the idea that he might serve three terms in office, or much longer.

Trump made 30,573 false, or misleading claims whilst in office. That's an average of 21 public lies and manipulations every day.

Trump has stated that "the termination of all rules, regulations, and articles, even those found in the Constitution" is allowable because he wasn't made president as he demanded.

Trump has been found liable for s*xual assault.

Trump has said he can grab women by the pu**y and they just let him.

Trump has stated his intention to seek retribution against his critics through the DoJ. Right wing loyalists are looking to expand his powers should he become president again, as well as curbing the DoJ, FBI and ther federal agencies.

Trump has been found guilty of persistent financial fraud.

Trump has promised to pardon participants in the J6 attack on the Capitol who have been convicted. He has recorded a song with the 'J6 choir' consistin of some 20 of the incarcerated men.

Trump attempted to ban all Musim people from entering the US.

(that's just a handful of instsances off the top of my head.)

Intuition

Thanks for the well wishes Celtic. I usually stay at home when I'm sick, I thought it was still the cold I've has since end of October, I know lots of people who're still struggling with the cold even months after.

The medical system in Sweden is very bad, when it comes to seeing a specialist doctor or having certain special medical tests/examinations done. You always have to wait atleast 3 months, sometimes longer. If I hadn't gone to the hospital yesterday, I'd have to wait another 3 or more months to get that test done. As it was very important, waiting another 3 months was out of the question, that's why I went. Usually they don't do such tests on the weekends. The technician said they have a long waiting list, that's why they've started opening on weekends.

I got my first jab for covid this year 23/11, so I didn't think, it was covid, and I said, I put a mask on when I entered the waiting room at the hospital even though I was alone there (a gut feeling told me to do so, and again, I'm glad I did, as the technician who attended to me is pregnant), and kept it on until I got off the bus near my home. I didn't know I had covid, until I made the test at home, with the kit I'd just bought at the pharmacy.

Intuition

Thank you Fantaziya. After making a terrible job mistake some years ago, by neglecting to listen to that feeling, I now listen and follow it, and it's always been right so far.

Intuition

Ozzie: tthanks for the well wishes. The point of the blog was not saving anyone, I'm not God or a doctor. It's about listening to the voice within us..... sometimes what it's saying to us don't make sense at that moment, but it does at sometime, somewhere later along the line, even if it's days, weeks, months or years later.

RE: Intuition

I call it gut feeling. And it works for me always. Even when in the beggining of relationship with my( now ex) I was making decision about (should I stay or should I go), My gut feeling was screaming RUN. I wanted to give it a try. Fool I was. And as usually gut feeling send me correct vibes.
Get better.

RE: Why me Lord

I had a close shave donkeys years ago, could have gone either way. Since then I'm not so much puzzled as to why I lived as much as no longer afraid of dying. It was harder to turn back than it would have been to drift over the edge.

(There really was a white light, but apparently that's a common hallucination as the body shuts down )

Presidential Immunity

As I said above, I agree with your sentiments regarding how we treat others internationally, but this blog is about the current internal legal machinations in the US, specifically holding Trump and other Republican politicians to account for alleged breaches of constitutional and related laws.

Trump and others stand accused of trying to overturn the democratic system and replace it with an autocratic one. Trump has made many public overtures of his intent to continue on that path to dismantle the democratic republic, including removing the institutions that can hold his megalomania in check.

Do you think that there should be laws/rules in place and that they should be applied to stop dictatorial aspirations, or corruption?

Do you think if Trump becomes president again that he's going to be fair and kind to US citizens, or citizens of other countries for that matter?