In Summary

It was nice to see sanity reign for once with one of these TFG trials when last week the court in New York found him guilty via summary judgment. (Meaning based on the initial facts presented, without going through a trial.)

If you think about it, it makes perfect sense. For these types of crimes, it’s black and white. Either he did inflate his real estate valuations for loans and deflate the same properties for taxes, or he didn’t.

Since the case was already this far, you know the prosecution has their ducks in a row or they wouldn’t have brought charges against such a high-profile target. We already know that they have all the documents, from previous subpoenas on his company and offices. You know what they say about shooting at the king.

I’m thinking it was like, “Here’s the paperwork where Trump Tower was valued at two bajillion dollars. There’s the defendant’s signature. Now here on that year’s tax forms, the valuation is half a bajillion. There’s his signature again. Case closed.”

I mean, how does the defense even argue against that? They have the signed documents, there is zero wiggle room. I supposed “diminished capacity” could be an argument, but I doubt the defendant would let that be made public. The defense did offer up some lame arguments and the judge was so offended, that he bounced them out immediately as nonsense and is adding court costs to the defendant’s tab, just for wasting his time.

Of course, TFG and his disciples are sure to rail against being deprived of a trial that was sure to exonerate him and this is further proof that the system is rigged. (Against rich White guys? That IS rich.) He knows that his only chance is to seat a jury that has some MAGAs on it, who will vote to acquit no matter how high the evidence is stacked.

But in this country, the evidence is supposed to lead the way to a conviction and that’s what happened here. To not see the obvious trail of evidence is to deny reality and live in an alternate dimension, which is unfortunately true of the MAGA cult.

The documents case in Florida would also be ripe for summary judgment because they’re just as cut and dried as the fraud case.

Q: Are these docs considered confidential or top secret?

A: Yes.

Q: Are they on a Trump property?

A: Yes.

Q: Was the defendant asked to return them?

A: Yes.

Q: Did he?

A: No.

Guilty. End of story.

Unfortunately, the judge in this matter, the Trump plant Judge Cannon, will do everything in her power to keep this case from coming to a guilty verdict, via delaying, diversions, time-consuming side issues, and the like. She can keep the prosecutors running in circles for a good long time before they can get to anything of consequence. And then as a last resort, she can make rulings that will be sure to get appealed, which also eats up the clock.

***

I’m glad that Congress, such as it is, was able to avoid a shutdown this weekend, but once again, they didn’t really solve anything, they just kicked the problem further down the calendar. Speaker McCarthy is truly between a rock and a hard place. His party is split enough that he needs the wingnut faction to do anything, and they won’t unless they get concessions that have zero chance in the Senate or in the Oval Office. So when he absolutely needs something done, he’s forced to work with the Democrats, which only enrages the wingnuts all the more.

Rep. Gaetz is already calling for a vote to remove McCarthy as speaker. This puts the Speaker in another bind. In order to keep his job, assuming the wingnut brigade is united, he’ll need help from the Democrats to keep his job, and they won’t do it for nothing, I’m sure. And that would completely change the atmosphere in the House, with a Republican Speaker in alliance with the Democratic minority. Strange bedfellows indeed.

I’ve also heard that McCarthy is considering ousting Rep. Gaetz from his seat. That would be rich, indeed.  I guess that’s what it takes for Republicans to crack down on their own people… when they threaten other Republicans. They’re still not doing anything about Rep. Santos, the poster boy for Pinocchio. In fact:

Maybe McCarthy shouldn’t have taken that particular swing, with his own obvious skeletons hanging out of his closet. Not that he should be piping up on Senate business in the first place.

Clean your own House, Mr. Speaker!