Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Let’s delete this post and never speak of this again.

Impressively dumb. Congratulations.

Be a traveling stable for those who can’t find room at the inn.

When your entire life is steeped in white supremacy, equality feels like discrimination.

Wow, I can’t imagine what it was like to comment in morse code.

Just because you believe it, that doesn’t make it true.

My years-long effort to drive family and friends away has really paid off this year.

How any woman could possibly vote for this smug smarmy piece of misogynistic crap is beyond understanding.

Since when do we limit our critiques to things we could do better ourselves?

Many life forms that would benefit from greater intelligence, sadly, do not have it.

Republicans in disarray!

Republicans don’t lie to be believed, they lie to be repeated.

They were going to turn on one another at some point. It was inevitable.

Make the republican party small enough to drown in a bathtub.

Republicans firmly believe having an abortion is a very personal, very private decision between a woman and J.D. Vance.

He imagines himself as The Big Bad, Who Is Universally Feared… instead of The Big Jagoff, Who Is Universally Mocked.

Putin dreamed of ending NATO, and now it’s Finnish-ed.

Hot air and ill-informed banter

It is possible to do the right thing without the promise of a cookie.

This really is a full service blog.

Polls are now a reliable indicator of what corporate Republicans want us to think.

I desperately hope that, yet again, I am wrong.

Republicans: slavery is when you own me. freedom is when I own you.

Never entrust democracy to any process that requires Republicans to act in good faith.

You are here: Home / Open Threads / Tuesday Evening Open Thread: How’s the Day Going?

Tuesday Evening Open Thread: How’s the Day Going?

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… Odds he didn’t pay for the food?

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125Comments

  2. 2.

    JPL

    oh cool

    the judge was clear that trump could not talk to witnesses about the case.   Good luck with that.

  4. 4.

    jonas

    Like AL said, chances he actually paid for anyone’s meal….virtually zero. The owners of the restaurant have learned a valuable lesson: ETTD

  7. 7.

    japa21

    I have to believe that the lack of any significant amount of supporters really hit him where it hurts.

  8. 8.

    bbleh

    Well the OBVIOUS question is HOW did the FBI and the DOJ and the rest of the Deep State keep Trump’s supporters from showing up?!? I mean, has anyone asked the people who were there HOW they managed to get through? Has anyone investigated what the CITY police may have done to OBSTRUCT the rPresident’s supporters from showing up? It’s an OUTRAGE!!

  9. 9.

    JPL

    @Trollhattan: All those witnesses are going to stand together at a gathering with trump tonight and talk about the latest episode of General Hospital.

  10. 10.

    patrick II

    This crap keeps Donald Trump a live . What would he he doing otherwise ? He’s too shallow to appreciate art, too stupid to care about science, too unfeeling to work to care about the unfortunate. Like a shark who needs to keep moving forward to get oxygen, Trump’s oxygen is conflict. Confront, dominate, be the center of attention,1 and when possible bring others down to his level.

  11. 11.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @JPL: Then it will a violation of his terms of release and/or contempt of court.  Fines, further restrictions, home arrest, custody….  All possibilities.

  12. 12.

    JoyceH

    Not a big crowd maybe but it included a guy with a pig head on a stick, so there’s that.

  14. 14.

    Citizen Alan

    A group appeared to lay hands and pray for him as he entered.

    As much as eversor makes me roll my eyes most of the time, it is still shocking to me the extent to which mainstream Christianity and especially evangelical Christianity has utterly debased itself in support this would-be Antichrist. I have never thought that being a Christian was somehow proof of being a good person, but I can honestly say that now, when I find someone is an evangelical, the burden is on them to prove they’re not a bad person.

  15. 15.

    HeleninEire

    My day is going great. Work was easy. It’s not often, but I am way ahead of my deadlines. Yay, me.

    Also? 😆 😆 😆 Donald Trump got indicted. YAY GREAT DAY ALSO.

    I have said this here before.

    If you are a rich white man you can get away with anything.  But there are only 2 rules.

    1. Don’t steal from other rich white men. See Bernie Maddoff. That rich white man stole from other rich white men. WOOPs. He went to jail.

    2. Keep your head down. Leona Helmsley (rich white woman) went to jail because she announced proudly…”taxes are for the little people.”

    Donald decided to not keep his head down.

  17. 17.

    eclare

    “It’s not elegant”?  That is quite a take.  It is staggering that he could be in such deep denial over literally dying in prison.  But he has gotten away with everything for 77 years minus one day, so I guess he has his reasons.

  18. 18.

    jonas

    FTFNYT once again trying to bigfoot DougJ: “Trump pleads not guilty to mishandling classified files.”

    Right. “Mishandling.” Mentioned *no-where* in the indictments. He’s charged with numerous violations of the Espionage Act, lying to federal investigators, and obstruction of justice. This fucking shit is why everyone is like “why did Hillary get away with this and everyone’s coming down on Trump just for how he stored some documents?!1?”

    Fucking MSM.

  19. 19.

    JPL

    • @Alison Rose: This morning Phil Mattingly challenged and corrected.  It’s not just Jake.   CNN has good reporters and maybe unleashed they can show their stuff.  Time will tell.
  20. 20.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @JPL: I must be missing something.  I thought you implying that the order was pointless because of course Trump would talk to witnesses about the case.  I was noting that there could be consequences to that.

  23. 23.

    eclare

    @Alison Rose:

    Perfect analogy!

    Joe mishandled, Pence mishandled.  TIFG intentionally stole files and obstructed justice.  And no one knows for sure everyone that he showed them to or if he sold or gave some away.

  24. 24.

    MomSense

    @Alison Rose:

    Sorry, but Jake Tapper earned a permanent place on my shit list for his fluffing of the Benghazi Bugaloo.  Today he said Trump arrived at Court in his presidential motorcade.

  26. 26.

    sdhays

    @Omnes Omnibus: I took it to mean, “good luck” to Trump complying with the order. After all, if following rules came easily to him (or was a concept he at least begrudgingly accepted)”, we wouldn’t be here.

  27. 27.

    Eolirin

    @Citizen Alan: The problem with eversor’s position has never been that he is wrong about this specfic subset of Christians, but that he’s always extended that out to be about all Christians, including all of the black evangelicals that are strong and necessary allies.

    The problem is white supremacy and fascism, and that’s a major feature of a number of white Evangelical communities. It takes priority over everything else. There’s a lot of ex-evangelical writing on this topic. Some former members of those communities have been screaming about this since before Trump.

  30. 30.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @sdhays: Yes, and I pointed out some of the consequences of a failure to comply.  That is why I did not understand JPL’s response to me.

  33. 33.

    bbleh

    @JPL: @Omnes Omnibus: I don’t get the YMCA thing either.  But I still agree about the “good luck” because the guy just can’t keep his piehole shut.  That said, yes it would be a violation, but it would have to be brought to the court’s attention, which would require someone (or their lawyer) ratting him out, which given the cocoon he lives in (and that apparently he is paying for other people’s lawyers, eg Nauta’s) seems unlikely.

    My guess would be, he’ll keep talking and trying all his mob-boss tricks, and if he’s caught they’ll issue a stern warning and that’ll be that.

  34. 34.

    jonas

    @Omnes Omnibus: ​
      Right — I mean, my understanding is if he does any of that shit, he exposes himself to further charges of obstruction, etc. I’m sure his lawyers have had long, long, tedious sitdowns with him (a la the FBI witness protection agents trying to get Homer Simpson to remember his new name) to emphasize that this is really fucking serious and when the judge says “do not communicate with” he means “do not fucking communicate with”.

  36. 36.

    eversor

    @Citizen Alan:

    Patriarchal cultists commanded by their leader (Christ) follow other patriarchal cultists commanded by their leader (Trump).

    The right isn’t worng about what Christianity is.  The left just ignores all the shit that doesn’t look nice when said among polite people and thus enables the whole fucking mess.

  37. 37.

    Scout211

    Trump is not happy with Tapper. Huh.

    Far too much enthusiasm?! Ha ha ha ha ha.

    Fake Tapper just demanded that his broadcast be closed down from Miami because there was far too much enthusiasm on the streets for “Trump.” The good news is, he was the only one to do so, perhaps a good explanation as to why CNN’s ratings are so low!

  38. 38.

    Eolirin

    @eversor: You really don’t get it. Christianity isn’t a monolith, stop pretending it is

    This is as insufferable as all the post 9-11 attacks on all of Islam as being equivalent to the most extreme positions held by a fraction of practicing Muslims.

  39. 39.

    Brachiator

    @jonas:

    FTFNYT once again trying to bigfoot DougJ: “Trump pleads not guilty to mishandling classified files.”

    Yep.

    Trump is charged with willful retention of national defense information; conspiracy to obstruct justice; withholding a document or record; corruptly concealing a document or record; concealing a document in a federal investigation; scheme to conceal; and false statements and representations.

    And this is such a weird self-inflicted wound. Trump can’t help himself. He is an infantile man baby screaming “Mine! Mine! Mine!” He cannot believe that he might be punished for this.

  40. 40.

    bbleh

    @Eolirin: or some member of his staff who’s talking quietly to the Feds, or Nauta if he flips, or or or.  But if I had to bet, I’d bet he’d keep playing the same games he’s always played, because (1) he’s been so conditioned by a lifetime of getting away with sh!t that he is fully convinced he can continue to do so and (2) his thinking has slowed down considerably, which means he’s not gonna be changing course now.

  41. 41.

    Mike in NC

    The only thing that would be more wonderful than reading “Trump arrested” over and over would be “Trump executed by firing squad”.

  42. 42.

    Scout211

    The judge said that former President Trump could have no contact with any witnesses in the case — including Walt Nauta — who currently works for him

    They hammered that out in court. They agreed that Trump won’t talk about the case to Nauta and the other Trump employees who are witnesses. They can communicate about anything else.

    But really? Can Trump not talk about it? Doesn’t seem possible.

  43. 43.

    Tony G

    Wow, that is an amazing crowd of Trump supporters at the arraignment.  There must be almost 30 people there.  Trump’s supporters have always been among the most cowardly and lazy people in the country, so I’m not surprised that so few of them bothered to make the trip over there.  But I’m getting the impression that his loyal cult members just might not care anymore.  He’s been doing the same tired schtick for 8 years now, and maybe his cult is getting tired of it.

  44. 44.

    geg6

    @JoyceH:

    Okay, I obviously haven’t been paying much attention to the spectacle today.  I have no idea what that’s all about but it made me LOL.

  46. 46.

    Gin & Tonic

    I just returned from a meeting of a municipal board. I was stuck for a bit when leaving, because there was a sign on the inside of the exit door stating “Please make sure door is locked before last person leaves.” Wouldn’t that be pretty bad for that poor last person?

  48. 48.

    karen marie

    That tweet from Faulders should be yanked.  The Court did not tell Individual-1 he couldn’t have any contact with witnesses, only that he could not discuss the case with witnesses.

    @JPL:   But that’s not true!  It’s Faulder’s  misunderstanding.   There are other incorrect reports giving out the same bad information.

    Individual-1’s lawyer objected to barring the former president from talking to witnesses including his personal aide, who is accused alongside him.

    Individual-1 attorney Todd Blanche said that some of the witnesses work for Individual-1 and he needs to be able to communicate with them. After some back and forth, U.S. Magistrate Judge Jonathan Goodman said Individual-1 cannot talk to them about the case except through his lawyers, but he can talk to them about their jobs.

     

  51. 51.

    Jeffro

    fake “centrist” Bret Stephens isn’t just throwing in the towel on trump, he’s in the ring and telling the ref to stop the fight (and to hurry, too, before Old Man Joe wins one for the ages!)

    It is stunning to read the grand jury’s 37-count indictment, with its depictions of a former president treating the law with the contemptuous disdain of a mafia don — but with none of a don’s concern for covering his tracks

    what about more mainstream conservatives who know the 2020 election wasn’t stolen, that Jan. 6 was a disgrace for the ages, that Trump is a one-time-lucky serial loser whose bottomless narcissism keeps costing Republicans winnable Senate and gubernatorial races, that his entire presidency was a drunken joyride with a reckless driver careening around hairpin turns at high speed, that his renomination as the G.O.P. candidate would give President Biden his best shot at re-election and that another Trump presidency would be an orgy of petty political retribution and reckless policymaking that would make his first term seem, by comparison, responsible and tame?

    They are, with few exceptions, supine.

    Their excuses for Trump have run the gamut. There were legally inaccurate claims about the Presidential Records Act, which does not give Trump whatever time he wants to return documents to the archivist of the United States. There was the idea that Trump held on to the documents because he was a hoarder or that he had little idea what was in them or that any secrets they contained were not serious. The counts of the indictment powerfully indicate otherwise.

    There’s also the whataboutism regarding Clinton’s emails and the documents found in Biden’s offices and garage. But the people who argue that Comey’s recommendation was a travesty of justice cannot now argue that Trump should be let off on far more serious charges. As for Biden, his case has its own special counsel: Let him come to his conclusions based on the facts.

    Which leaves the argument that our democracy will be gravely damaged if the administration of an incumbent president sets the precedent of criminally prosecuting a political opponent. That’s essentially what Trump threatened to do against Clinton. That’s exactly what he sought to do against Biden by trying to dig up dirt on Hunter Biden’s business dealings in Ukraine — the subject of Trump’s first impeachment. I don’t recall many conservatives taking a bold stand then against that attempt at using the formidable powers of the presidency to criminalize an opponent.

    As for larger considerations of justice, of both a legal and a cosmic kind, the English language is well stocked with phrases for occasions like this.
    Turnabout is fair play.
    Hoist with his own petard.
    What’s sauce for the goose ….
    Lock him up.

  52. 52.

    Scout211

    @JPL: I posted this downstairs. Here is a repost,

    Scout211
    JUNE 13, 2023 AT 6:09 PM

    CNN  has some court details about the judge asking for a list of witnesses and prohibiting Trump to communicate with those witnesses.

    That prohibition was not initially recommended in the bond proposal special counsel Jack Smith’s team was seeking. Magistrate Judge Jonathan Goodman raised the concern himself.

    Goodman, noting that this was a typical restriction in cases filed in the Southern District of Florida, where the indictment against Trump was brought, suggested that prosecutors put together a list of witnesses and victims in the case, and that Trump avoid communicating with them as the case moves forward.

    The judge also said that for Trump’s co-defendant, Walt Nauta, the limitation would only be on communications about the case, with Goodman noting that Nauta works closely with Trump and is with him nearly every day.

    . . .
    Todd Blanche, Trump’s attorney, resisted the idea of barring all contact with the case’s witnesses, in a back-and-forth with the judge that played out over several rounds.

    “Many of the people, including the men and women to protect him, may be witnesses in this case,” Blanche said. He said the restriction “isn’t appropriate” and “doesn’t work.”

    “The folks that are part of the government’s case are folks that” work with Trump every day, Blanche added. He also noted that one “key” witness was still a lawyer for Trump, and the condition that Trump can’t talk to his lawyer “doesn’t work.”

    Prosecutor David Harbach suggested that the Justice Department team would draft a list that would be “narrow in scope” – not “exhaustive” of all the witnesses prosecutors may call at trial – that would address the judge’s concerns about witness contact, while accommodating Trump’s situation.

    The judge floated an idea that the government could make a two-category list: one of witnesses with whom Trump was to have no contact, and another where he would be restricted from discussing the details of the case.
    . . .
    After giving the government another turn to weigh in – and Harbach assuring the court that their list would not include every single witness – the judge landed on a bond package where Trump would have “no communications about the facts of the case,” other than through counsel, with the witnesses on the list generated by the prosecutors.

    If the Trump team found the list “inappropriate,” “excessive,” “unwieldly,” or otherwise problematic, they could file a motion with the court, Goodman said.

    The hearing was dragged out a bit due to hiccups around both Trump’s and Nauta’s signing of their bond packages.

  54. 54.

    bbleh

    @Dorothy A. Winsor: “Uhh, hello DC Metro, yeah Secret Service detail for HAIRBALL here.  I’m afraid we’ve got a pretty clear case of adultery, so you’d better send a unit, here’s the address …”

    I.e. no I don’t think so.

  55. 55.

    Shalimar

    @Trollhattan: The talking at the other person is the witness tampering part.  It doesn’t matter if he listens to them or cares what they say.

  56. 56.

    Captain C

    @jonas: TFG to the owners on leaving:  “You can write it off as a campaign donation!”

    (Narrator:  You cannot, in fact, do this.)

  57. 57.

    ...now I try to be amused

    @patrick II:

    This crap keeps Donald Trump a live . What would he he doing otherwise ? He’s too shallow to appreciate art, too stupid to care about science, too unfeeling to work to care about the unfortunate. Like a shark who needs to keep moving forward to get oxygen, Trump’s oxygen is conflict. Confront, dominate, be the center of attention,1 and when possible bring others down to his level.

    Good observation. I want Trump to lose the conflict, in a very public and humiliating fashion. No outs, no excuses, no face saving. No more oxygen for TFG. I want Jack Smith and the other prosecutors to make a chump of Trump, the thing he has always despised and is afraid of becoming.

    It’s grimly satisfying that unlike the civil trial which Trump skipped, he will have to sit there and listen to every last piece of evidence against him.

  59. 59.

    Alison Rose

    @eversor: I sincerely hope you get a raging incurable case of crabs. You spend so much time venting your spleen about others that you apparently have never noticed you’re just as repugnant as the worst of them.

    Fuck the absolute fuck off.

  60. 60.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Gin & Tonic:

    That’s like the old riddle “If you’re in a race and you overtake the person in second place, what is your new position?” Amazing how many people get it wrong.

    :-)

  61. 61.

    Odie Hugh Manatee

    @patrick II:

    I’d like to springboard off of this and say that I have no idea why the average conservative man loves TFG. I’ve seen the manly depictions of him with rippling muscles, a 6 pack of 40’s, riding a Harley with his bitch in the Bitch Seat and on and on and on. The problem is that TFG doesn’t have one manly hobby. He isn’t in to cars and I doubt that he has any idea on how to drive one and navigate through traffic.

    He doesn’t do any of the things that conservative men view as manly. He doesn’t have a truck or trailer, nor could he securely load one if he did. He can’t back a trailer or even a truck by itself, for that matter. He doesn’t go out partying or hanging with his buds and not just because he doesn’t have any. If TFG was a liberal, the average conservative man would have a bottomless barrel of what they view as “libtard” behavior to ridicule. Hell, he even has a chandelier in his bathroom! When an elderly guest at a party fell, injured themself and started bleeding, instead of being a man and jumping into action to assist, he turned away and complained about the mess on the marble floor. He’s a rich pansy who blanches at the sight of blood.

    Yet conservative men think this most unmanly of men is a man. Pathetic.

  64. 64.

    Citizen Alan

    @Eolirin: Well, yeah! I mean, would evangelical Christianity even exist if it weren’t for antibellum Plantation owners who wanted preachers that would reassure them God was OK with chattel slavery?

  66. 66.

    Viva BrisVegas

    @Odie Hugh Manatee:

    He doesn’t go out partying or hanging with his buds and not just because he doesn’t have any.

    He used to snort coke off naked supermodels in Studio 54.

    He hasn’t done that for several years.

  68. 68.

    Shalimar

    @Baud: A little 2 minute hearing doesn’t seem worth standing outside for hours in whatever hellhole jurisdiction arrests you.  Can we skip the arraignment and protest at your trial?

  70. 70.

    HeleninEire

    I’m gonna make a comment here that many of you will disagree with but here I go.

    I don’t like Jen Psaki. I liked her as Biden’s spokesperson. But I don’t like her now. On her MSNBC show I feel like she is acting the news as opposed to reporting the news.

    Also WTF is with always wearing white?

  72. 72.

    Odie Hugh Manatee

    @eclare:

    LOL! Him have to shut his mouth for five seconds? To quote another conservative politician, “Nah gonna do it.”

     

    @Viva BrisVegas:

    Those weren’t friends then, either. Coke whores are there for the nose candy and the party that goes along with it. Coke whores know that those with the money buy the coke so they can that pretend they really do have friends.

    TFG quit blow and started demanding that those around him instead blow him. Seems to be working!

  73. 73.

    JaySinWA

    @Tony G: The crowd shot is from early in the day. FOX showed a wide aerial view at 3 ET that showed maybe 100-200 people, mostly T supporters. Even the early views were about 3 times larger than those at the NY arraignment IIRC.

    More than I had hoped to see. Still a far cry from the 50K they were supposedly prepping for.

  74. 74.

    Alison Rose

    @HeleninEire: I mostly agree. She’s not the worst (because Katy Tur exists) but the thing that made people like her as the spokesperson — her little digs and clapbacks — don’t have much place behind a news desk, and with that stripped away, she doesn’t bring much else, IMO. I don’t think she’s awful, she’s just not all that engaging. Perhaps with more time, she’ll get more natural at it.

  77. 77.

    bbleh

    @JaySinWA: Lol you could scare up a couple hundred in ANY city with a couple days’ notice.  Once again, the Mighty Keyboard Warriors were just bloviating, and once again the damn media fell for it.

    Trump’s and the MAGAts’ whole thing is performance, because that gets the cameras, and it’s quite evident by now that the people directing the cameras know it perfectly well and cooperate tacitly.  And that ain’t gonna change.

    @…now I try to be amused: Concur!  And that is precisely what will wound him the worst, and why this whole spectacle has been a material blow to him.  He was ordered to appear, and he sat there and listened is as he was told what to do, and it was broadcast to the world. 

    Live by the sword, die by the sword.

  78. 78.

    Scout211

    @Alison Rose: why does this fucking numbskull put his own name in quotes

    I wondered about that. It’s typically in quotes and all caps. It must mean something to him. But it looks like he is referring to an inanimate object. So that checks out. 🤣

  79. 79.

    bbleh

    @Odie Hugh Manatee: I think the answer is, because he does what he wants and he doesn’t let anyone tell him he can’t.  He flouts laws, he assaults women, he refuses to pay bills … he is Master of his domain, he is Alpha-man.  (Or that’s his image.)  And that resonates very deeply with a lot of men, especially men who feel insecure about themselves in some way.

  80. 80.

    Jackie

    @Tony G: His loyal cult have learned TIFG isn’t loyal to THEM. There’s too few left willing to go to jail for him, because no matter what TIFG says… He. Does. Not. Have. Their. Back.  And they see this.

  81. 81.

    karen marie

    @Jeffro: the precedent of criminally prosecuting a political opponent

     

    “It is difficult to get [Bret Stephens] to understand something when his salary depends on his not understanding it.” – Upton Sinclair

  84. 84.

    NotMax

    Why the stop at the eatery?

    So he can bill costs of the trip to Miami to the campaign rather than carry them out of pocket.

    SATSQ.

  86. 86.

    UncleEbeneezer

    @Odie Hugh Manatee:

    “He doesn’t do any of the things that conservative men view as manly.”

    He’s a belligerent asshole.  At the end of the day, that’s the thing that is most “manly” and important, to them.  He is their fantasy of being able to be a complete sexist, racist, homophobic asshole without suffering any consequences.  It’s their wet dream of a manly life.

  87. 87.

    Tony G

    @Scout211: Trump just never learned the rules and conventions of the English language.  HIs general ignorance is astounding.  He probably cheated his way through his entire “education”.

  88. 88.

    RevRick

    The church I attend, St. John’s UCC, Allentown is looking into ways it can become a Creation Justice church and is considering a goal of going carbon free by 2030. Our first steps are establishing a leadership group Green team and conducting an energy audit. It will include bringing creation care into our worship, drafting a covenant, five ways to walk the talk, five ways to expand our circle of awareness, and five ways to connect to a broader movement.

  90. 90.

    zhena gogolia

    @NickM: As someone in the tweets pointed out, look at his face when he’s in the restaurant. He is not a happy man. He’s scared shitless.

  91. 91.

    Tony G

    @Odie Hugh Manatee: Yup.  The Trump cult members are the same guys who kissed the ass of Rush Limbaugh — another fake “manly man” — for decades.  Now they’re worshipping Tucker Carlson, for Christ sake, a wealthy former trust fund kid.  There have been a couple of generations of men now who worship grifters who are as phony about their “manliness” as they are about everything else.  A very sick culture.

  92. 92.

    zhena gogolia

    @HeleninEire: I agree with you to the point that I saw about 30 seconds of her on some show and I hated her. And I adored her as press secretary.

  93. 93.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @Dorothy A. Winsor: Generally their obligation to protect supersedes their law enforcement role.  I believe that they are supposed to step in in the case of a violent felony, but, short of that, no.

  96. 96.

    Scout211

    Link

    Interesting.

    Nauta traveled with Trump from Bedminster, New Jersey, to Miami and had dinner with Trump on Monday. He left the courthouse with Trump and was seen inside Versailles with the former president.

    Nauta’s role in the case as Trump’s co-defendant will be of interest as the case moves forward. His attorney is being paid for by Trump’s Save America political action committee.

  97. 97.

    karen marie

    @…now I try to be amused:   Trump can in fact waive his presence at a criminal trial.  I’ve never seen it happen but it can be done.
    Federal Rule 43:

    (c) Waiving Continued Presence.

    (1) In General. A defendant who was initially present at trial, or who had pleaded guilty or nolo contendere, waives the right to be present under the following circumstances:

    (A) when the defendant is voluntarily absent after the trial has begun, regardless of whether the court informed the defendant of an obligation to remain during trial;

    (B) in a noncapital case, when the defendant is voluntarily absent during sentencing; or

    (C) when the court warns the defendant that it will remove the defendant from the courtroom for disruptive behavior, but the defendant persists in conduct that justifies removal from the courtroom.

    (2) Waiver’s Effect. If the defendant waives the right to be present, the trial may proceed to completion, including the verdict’s return and sentencing, during the defendant’s absence.

  98. 98.

    zhena gogolia

    Okay, I take back everything negative I ever said about Katie Porter. This is brilliant:

    serious Fox News reporter Hillary Vaughn to Katie Porter: "[Biden] had to take off work for a root canal. Do you think he has the stamina for a second term?"Porter: "Have you ever had a root canal?" pic.twitter.com/8L0R3xoOjm— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) June 13, 2023

  100. 100.

    Redshift

    @Odie Hugh Manatee: There’s a thing in anthropology (not an anthropologist myself, so apologies if I’m misrepresenting it) about the chief or ruler being divine and therefore not bound by the rules and taboos that the common people are bound to follow (or in this case, at least claim they do.) Think the pharaohs marrying siblings (to maintain the power and not dilute it), which would be taboo as incest for anyone else.

    I think that impulse is there in authoritarianism as well. Hitler bore no resemblance to the Aryan ideal, just to cite one example. And so TFG is worshiped as The Leader while having none of the characteristics the followers say are required of a man.

  102. 102.

    karen marie

    @Jeffro:   Wut?  No, no, no – that’s the problem – he’s totally NOT getting it.  He thinks Biden is personally persecuting Trump.

  103. 103.

    Jackie

    @karen marie: She’s BRAND NEW at this. No one is born being a polished commentator. Sheesh.

    I guess none of you were around when Rachel Maddow made the awkward transition from radio to TV.

  104. 104.

    Alison Rose

    @Jackie: No, I recall the rough early days for most of them, which is why I said maybe she just needs time to get more natural. But to me, this is why someone should start as a commentator and maybe a fill-in host before being given their own show.

  105. 105.

    Ohio Mom

    @HeleninEire: I’ve only seen snippets of Jen Psaki in her new role and I was repulsed. I forgot the topic of the conversation she was having with whomever it was but I remember that it was a question she wouldn’t have entertained at any length in her previous job, and that the other talking head was also in the category of, last-year-wouldn’t-have-taken-very-seriously.

    I could only wonder whether or not she is distressed to have found out she sold her soul. I want to think that the show took a turn she hadn’t foreseen and she’s just playing along until she figures something else out for her career.

  106. 106.

    Odie Hugh Manatee

    @bbleh:

    Yeah but what’s funny is that car-enthusiast conservatives who ‘roll their own’ laugh at guys who have money, cars and no talent to work on them (“His toolbox is his bank account”). They already beat their wives, flout the laws and grope women as it’s a way of life for many of them.

    In any other life and without the money, he’s the guy that they would beat the shit out of if they were drunk and at a party with him.

  107. 107.

    Odie Hugh Manatee

    @Tony G:

    Yup, and these same ‘men’ lament the pussification of our nation (s they call it) while being the biggest crybaby pussies in the country.

    @Redshift:

    Very good point, thanks! That actually makes sense.

  108. 108.

    Ohio Mom

    @RevRick: Good for you! You have to maintain the building no matter what, might as well as well try to shrink its energy footprint along the way.

    One of my nits at the synagogue Ohio Son was bar mitzvahed at was the lack of a recycling bin for cans (the office may have recycled paper).

  109. 109.

    Sister Golden Bear

    @Scout211:

    They agreed that Trump won’t talk about the case to Nauta and the other Trump employees who are witnesses. They can communicate about anything else.

    The real question is which how many employees will be wearing a wire when Trump inevitably hits them up with one of his “wouldn’t it be better if you didn’t testify” quote-unquote questions.

  110. 110.

    Jackie

    @Alison Rose: That maybe true; I think NBC/MSNBC recognized how popular and charismatic she was as Biden’s press secretary and out offered CNN or other networks.

    I think she’s doing better and will continue to improve once she finds her groove. I keep hoping she’ll have Peter Doocy on one of these days – for old times sake. But, I think he’s too chickenshit to accept an invite lol! She’s already tackled a few repugs on her show, and I applaud that.

  114. 114.

    Frankensteinbeck

    @Odie Hugh Manatee:

    In any other life and without the money, he’s the guy that they would beat the shit out of

    Yes, but in this life, he’s the asshole who assholes in general chose to prove that asshole white men are inherently superior.  So Trump must be a perfect specimen of manliness. When you see these paintings of Trump with muscles and all, remember that’s not Trump.  They’re seeing themselves.

    And again, it helps he does the things they see as manly in themselves, like rant hatefully, make chickenshit threats, and sexually assault women.  He validates them.

  115. 115.

    JaySinWA

    @bbleh: Lol you could scare up a couple hundred in ANY city with a couple days’ notice.

    I don’t think he managed that in NYC. But yes the turnout is not what he had hoped for. There were several prominent Trumpets warning that it was a TRAP so that may have kept the numbers down.

  116. 116.

    columbusqueen

    @eversor: You know what? Fuck off with tarring all Christians with the same brush. It’s tiresome & stupid & inaccurate. Come back when you have something actually useful to say.

  118. 118.

    RevRick

    @Ohio Mom: That whiff of fresh Canadian air that blanketed the region recently jolted us into action. We have to do our part.

  120. 120.

    Uncle Cosmo

    @Gin & Tonic: @Tom Levenson: Brings to mind the East German bon mot of 1989, when it seemed the entire population of die sogennante DDR was beating feet for the West:

    Will the last one to leave please turn out the lights?

  121. 121.

    lowtechcyclist

    @Mike in NC:

    The only thing that would be more wonderful than reading “Trump arrested” over and over would be “Trump executed by firing squad”.

    Nope. I want him to spend year after boring year in prison.

    It can even be a semi-nice confinement, like a furnished one-bedroom apartment.  But located on the grounds of a Federal prison, with the same rules of contact with the outside world that are applied to all the other prisoners.  No Internet, no cell phone, limited land line phone calls, same restrictions on visits by outsiders as everyone else.

    Year after boring year of that, for the rest of his life.  That’s what I want for Trump.

  123. 123.

    AWOL

    @eversor: They’re pikers. European Christians were able to eliminate 20,000,000 Christian and non-Christian civilians in only twelve years from 1933–1945. Really, the racist, ignorant, grifting, freeloading, and hateful US Evangelical scum really need to get their Genocide 101 classes going again. Just an occasional lynching or book burning or child torture is fairly third-rate, if you ask me.

  124. 124.

    Uncle Cosmo

    @UncleEbeneezer: …[T]he thing that is most “manly” and important, to them…is their fantasy of being able to be a complete sexist, racist, homophobic asshole without suffering any consequences. It’s their wet dream of a manly life.

    Huh. Which fits in neatly with their celebration of the post-WW2 era as the lost “Gooder Place.” Where a cis-het white guy (always a CHWG) with minuscule formal edumacation could readily get and easily hold down a jerb that paid well enough to buy a house and a finned battlecruiser of a new car, snag a wife (whose jerb was to cook, clean, and ride herd on the swarm of rugrats she regularly popped out), go on vacation every year**[1], even send the spawn to college…

    It really was a sort of earthly paradise for the CHWGs – one I lived through as a child, where my very intelligent father (after suffering through the Depression as a young man and the Pacific theatre as a less-young man) counted himself blessed to spend >30 years running a machine that turned two wires into one fused pair of wires and send two sons to college who never had to scrub their callused hands with Lava™ soap at night. Nemmahnd that what the frogfressers call les trente glorieuses[2] were a direct result of the US economy reaching VJ Day as the only developed economy that hadn’t been blasted flat  – where instead of the Great Depression returing with a roar, the great capitalists discovered to their shocked surprise that they could pay high marginal tax rats and good wages in exchange for labor peace and prosperity, and that the American workers were only too happy to return their salaries to the owners by “buying the products they made.”[3] It was a nearly hermetically closed system, until in the foulness of time the other nations had dug themselves out of the rubble[4], began competing for the US workers’ bucks, and pried open the markets (and the 1973-74 oil embargo did the rest when US automakers kept pushing those tailfinned monstrosities while inveighing agains VWs and Datsuns instead of trying to compete with them).

    Tl;dr version: The “Gooder Place” is a fantasy paradise that ain’t never coming back because the conditions for its reappearance will never be repeated.

    [1] In our neckadawoodz, mostly downy-ayshun-hun – Balmerese for “down the ocean, hon,” i.e., on the beach at Ocean City or maybe Rehoboth

    [2] “The thirty glorious [years],” i.e., 1945-74

    [3] Between the wars, Henry Ford paid his employees twice the going rate, allegedly because he wanted them to be able to afford to buy the cars they made. Which they did. Other industrialists scoffed at the notion – until the sudden end of the Second World War left them bereft of ideas.

    [4] In no small part due to the Marshall Plan and other US initiatives to rebuild unAmerican economies so they could afford to buy our stuff and not turn Commie – IOW not entirely altruistic but as close as international relations ever come to (in Churchill’s words)  “the most unsordid act in history”

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