Author: clearandpresentdanger
Truth in pictures for today
Trump, Marjorie Taylor Green, and their band of Howler Monkeys are fascists and are a real threat to the country
MTG is a Christian nationalist fascist, who is incandescently ignorant and intellectually addled. This makes her highly susceptible to being manipulated — which she has been — by a hostile foreign power. This loathsomeness, combined with the cynicism, nihilism, and sheer nuttery of the MAGA high command, presents a clear, present and compelling danger to the nation.
What these people are is obvious and clear. Their re-appearance at the end of the long life spans of the survivors, liberators, collaborators, and perpetrators of the 20th century’s greatest war, crimes and atrocities is no accident. It may be a providential tragedy or comedy, but it is no coincidence. Millions would have once, and not so long ago, immediately recognized the threat to liberty bearing its fangs. Those people would have understood and trembled because they knew it had been ignored once before when it was gathering.
There was a singular lesson instilled in the societies of all free people everywhere after the catastrophe. It was simple: “Never again.” The misapplication of the principle led America down many tragic roads, including the Vietnam War, but it prevented the re-emergence of humanity’s deadliest virus, while simultaneously creating the conditions necessary for the collapse of Soviet totalitarianism and the domination of Russia over Eastern Europe.
Donald Trump is an American fascist. MAGA is a fascist cause. The GOP is controlled by the fascist faction called MAGA — lock, stock and barrel.
Trump now must face people who do not worship him
The jury selection phase of Donald Trump’s historic criminal trial is moving toward a conclusion, after many ups and downs. Because criminal defendants are required to be present in the courtroom, the famously thin-skinned Trump has been subjected to a wide variety of people’s opinions of him—forcing him outside the bubble of bootlickers that normally insulates him from reality.
Daily Beast reporter Jose Pagliery noted on social media site X that during juror questioning Thursday, Trump was “forced to sit down & hear several say they don’t like his character. Slumped back in his chair, arms folded, big frown, furrowed brow. Angry as people trash him.”
It’s impossible to know how much this is bothering Trump, but the fragility of his ego is legendary.
This is the same petulant former president of the United States who angrily attacked late-night talk show host Jimmy Kimmel Wednesday morning for making fun of his various legal and financial issues.
This is the same Donald Trump who attacked 16-year-old environmental activist Greta Thunberg in 2019 when she was named Time magazine’s “Person of The Year,” saying she was “angry.” It seems he was one part ornery that a young woman (who had been critical of his environmental policies) received any public adulation, and a second part furious that he had not received the magazine’s annual award.
That same year, Trump’s White House tried to get Twitter to remove a tweet by celebrity Chrissy Teigen because she had insulted him on the social media site, calling him “a pussy ass bitch.”
If there is any doubt that Trump’s paper-thin self-esteem needs a planet-sized amount of insulation, New York Times reporter Maggie Haberman reports that former OAN host Natalie Harp, whose fawning coverage of Trump earned her a job with his campaign, now provides Trump with moment-to-moment sycophancy:
Among the Trump aides in the courtroom is Natalie Harp, his ever-present favorite who uses a wireless printer to provide him with an ongoing stream of good news from the internet. She was initially sitting two rows behind the defense table, as she usually does. A security official in court just made her head to the back to sit in the same row as Trump’s other aides.
As of the writing of this story, 12 jurors have reportedly been selected for Trump’s felony criminal trial related to the hush money payments he made to adult film actress Stormy Daniels. Six alternates are still needed, which is bad news for Trump’s eggshell ego.
And another piece of human shit is flushed
WASHINGTON (AP) — A far-right extremist group leader was sentenced on Friday to more than five years in prison for repeatedly assaulting police officers with makeshift weapons during a mob’s attack on the U.S. Capitol over three years ago.
Scott Miller, who helped lead a Proud Boys chapter for Maryland and Washington, D.C., coordinated with other group members before they invaded the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, according to federal prosecutors. Miller, 33, attacked police seven different times with weapons, including a bottle, a stick and poles.
Notes found on Miller’s cellphone indicate that his white supremacist ideology and antisemitic views influenced his decision to storm the Capitol, a prosecutor wrote in a court filing. He expressed his intent to “fight” in order to protect “White America,” the filing says.
U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan, who is overseeing former President Donald Trump’s election interference case in Washington, said an attack like the Jan. 6 insurrection “can happen again” in the U.S.
-snip-
BY MICHAEL KUNZELMAN
Updated 4:48 PM EDT, April 19, 2024
Meanwhile — more worthless human detritus is about to be flushed.
This image from police body-worn camera video, contained and annotated in the Justice Department’s government’s sentencing memorandum supporting the sentencing of Scott Miller, shows Miller at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, in Washington. U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan sentenced Miller, of Millersville, Md.,
WASHINGTON — Three California men who were associated with the “Three Percenter” militia group and convicted in connection with the Jan. 6 Capitol attack were taken into custody Friday after a judge ordered them to serve sentences ranging from 21 to 33 months in federal prison, far below what the government had requested.
Erik Scott Warner, Felipe Antonio Martinez, Derek Kinnison and Ronald Mele were all found guilty of felony obstruction of an official proceeding and other charges after a trial last year. One of their co-defendants, former California police chief Alan Hostetter, was sentenced to more than 11 years in federal prison in December. The trials featured testimony from co-defendant Russell Taylor, who pleaded guilty as part of a plea deal with the government.
The felony charge they were convicted of — obstruction of an official proceeding — is currently before the Supreme Court, where some of the justices seemed skeptical of the way the government had used the charge. A decision in that case is expected in the coming months. If the Supreme Court guts the charge, two of the defendants could end up only serving 12 months in prison on their misdemeanor convictions.
The men communicated over a “The California Patriots — DC Brigade” Telegram chat and brought weapons on their trip to Washington to participate in Jan. 6, according to evidence shown at trial. They kept a shotgun in their car, and Kinnison and Mele claimed they stored five handguns in their hotel room “despite understanding that it was illegal,” the government said. “We’re packing light just a scatter gun and a pistol a piece,” Martinez joked, according to prosecutors.
Does anyone else find it odd that NONE of Trump’s family is at his trial?
I find it odd that his own family is not at his trial. Not one sibling, not any family, not any friends — if he has friends – – where are they?
I know if my wife or other family member were on trial, I would try to be there at least one day. If Melania couldn’t do this thing because of the infidelity details, she is not even out there campaigning. I find that odd as well. When he is outside the courthouse, why doesn’t someone ask him where is his support — other than his lawyers?
Ivanka? Don Jr.? Eric? Lara? Melania? Siblings? Hannity? Not there ! I wonder if the jury will wonder the same thing.
I am pretty sure he doesn’t want them there for what can come out in testimony but that wouldn’t stop me if someone I cared about was being tried for 39 felonies — however many there are. Lindsay isn’t there either.
Seriously, we know our Dem presidents and their wives and kids would be there front and center or campaigning. if this sort of thing was happening. Can you imagine Michelle or Jill or Hillary sitting at home ? I can’t.
He is likely the most hated or unloved person in America, and he brought it all on him self.
Melania is probably gathering up every dime she can before any more disappears. Think about it– Jared and Ivanka didn’t even post his bond.
Listen up, you MAGAts — this is for you
No, Biden’s rallies weren’t bigger.
No, you didn’t see any Biden flags on houses or Biden bumper stickers on cars.
No, you don’t know a single person on your street or at your church who supports Biden.
But guess what? We are here, we are everywhere, and we will win.
Biden’s rallies were small because people who live in reality don’t want to expose themselves to you and the thugs like you. We don’t fly Biden flags because we don’t want our houses burned down. We don’t put Biden bumper stickers on our cars because we don’t want to be targets for road rage.
We don’t trust you. We decided to simply end all contact with people who cannot be reasoned with. This is for our own safety.
In private groups – where you are not invited – we laugh at you because of your descent into madness.
We all have stories about how we’ve cut ties with you, our family and former friends, because we don’t want your hatred poisoning our lives. We can’t stand to listen to you vomiting the lies of your cult, day after day.
You used to be different. We liked you. But now that we know what was inside your heart all along, we’ve decided you don’t deserve to know about our lives. We’ll skip family reunions, even after we get the vaccine. We’ll make up some excuse just to be polite. But in reality, we just don’t feel like sitting around eating potato salad and making small talk with people who are stupid, who display their stupidity with ever word, and who are proud of being stupid.
To all the brothers and aunts and cousins and dads and neighbors out there who just can’t wrap their heads around what this means, know that this is not going away anytime soon, if ever. We won’t be reaching out, and we won’t be mending fences. It’s not up to us to apologize for your being assholes.
You poured the gasoline, you lit the match. You burned this to the ground. So if we seem different from now on, we are. We’ve seen what you really are and it’s ugly, ugly, ugly. I hope Trump was worth it.
Let’s face some facts about Trump
Yesterday was only Day 1 of a long, long stretch of hell for Trump.
There’s a lot of chatter about reporters’ descriptions of Trump falling asleep while sitting in his courtroom seat. This happened to our 77 year old criminal defendant for one of two reasons (or both): (1) he slept very poorly, if he slept at all, the night before — or (2) he was abruptly weaned off whatever he’s taking for “energy”, be it Adderall or harder stuff.
Why might he have slept poorly again this past night? Six reasons, off the top of my head:
- He’s looking down the barrel of just this trial and realizing IT IS REAL. His life until now has been a reckless spree of wealth, entitlement, arrogance and personal freedom. Now, despite his wealth and his status as a past US President, the long arm of the law is forcing him to sit there in that courtroom, all day, four days a week, for at least six weeks and probably longer. The law owns him now — and this has got to be a profound sense of shock to someone like Trump.
- He got his first close-up look at the jury selection process, and understood more viscerally that jurors are being chosen if they express a belief that everyone is equal under the law — and being rejected if they express a belief that Trump is exalted, special, superior in how the justice system should treat him. This is a core belief he has been carrying — and he just saw face to face that in the eyes of the justice system, it’s not true. Adding insult to injury, the judge denied Trump the freedom to skip a court day next week to go down to DC and try to argue his belief that he should be granted immunity from all prosecution. That’s right — request denied.
- Not only does Trump have to sit there all day on Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday of the next several weeks — there will be a cadre of reporters reporting to the world what Trump looks like, how he behaves, what his mood or energy level seems like. He got his first taste of this aspect of his new hell yesterday, when he discovered that it had been reported worldwide that he fell asleep during some moments of the morning’s routing proceedings. And he was furious. And he knows this kind of “fishbowl on the world stage” dynamic is firmly in place for him for the next several weeks, and there is nothing he can do about it.
- While Trump was having a horrible Day 1 in the courtroom, he was also surely aware afterward that his Truth Social stock situation collapsed hard yesterday (Monday). Down another 17% or so, in just one day. With more collapse very likely to come.
- Trump desperately needs to win the Presidency in order to try to avoid sentencing and imprisonment. This is only the first of several potential trials and possible convictions. He is also likely to face lengthy trials re: Jan 6 insurrection-mob incitement/attempt to forcefully overturn a US election; Georgia state election interference (a RICO case); and the theft and mishandling of the highest-level US government classified documents. So in his mind, he desperately needs to win this election. But to win, he needs to campaign. Can’t do that right now, can he. Meanwhile… President Biden can campaign. And President Biden will be doing so.
- Unlike Obama before him and Biden after him, in a time of extreme stress and need, Trump does not have a beloved spouse and partner whom he can turn to for support. After all, this trial is about him falsifying business records to interfere with an election, but the reason that happened is that he screwed a porn star and sex worker while his wife Melania was about to give birth to her first and only child with him. And this became worldwide knowledge, very humiliating for Melania. Never a warm one to begin with, from the moment “Stormy Daniels” became a commonly known phrase, Melania really turned up the arctic chill toward the man she only married for money and everybody knows it. So every night after night after night, Trump is alone.
As many of us are pointing out repeatedly — Donald Trump’s age sort of flies under the radar beneath all the talk about Joe Biden’s age. But let’s reconsider it now. Donald Trump turns 78, two months from now, in June. Age 78. That is not the best age to be trying to claw his way back to the US Presidency after being defeated the last time by the same man he’s now running against — while simultaneously facing a lengthy, profoundly unpleasant trial as a criminal defendant while the whole world watches and reporters report it out to the world if he glowers, glares, shouts, yells, or nods off to sleep for a minute.
Truth in photos
tRump is learning the realities of real life
Donald Trump is learning a hard lesson: Criminal defendants don’t get to set their own schedules.
Three times on Monday the former president asked Justice Juan Merchan to cut him loose from his hush money trial to attend to other matters — some personal, some political and some legal. Three times the judge responded with, essentially, “Eh, we’ll see.”
It’s a jarring new reality for Trump, who has been accustomed to setting the agenda for most of his adult life — and, in the years since his presidency, has bounced between his sunny Florida resort and political rallies brimming with adoring fans. But this spring, he’ll have to spend most weekdays in a drab 15th floor county courtroom in a city with very little MAGA.