The Friday Wrap about a Circus Sideshow Freak

“I feel sorry for people with margarine. “ ~ Benjamin Franklin

”The inventor of roll-on deodorant better have a good explanation. Roly balls in my armpits? I mean, c’mon!” ~ Mongo

”Sex is like an elevator. If you push the right button the doors open and close and sometimes weird people get on.” ~ Millard Fillmore

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As you’ve likely seen, the January 6 Committee has laid out the Case of the Obvious, tying up the loose ends to provide ample proof of what was obvious by the time President Biden was inaugurated 21 months ago.

Meanwhile it’s becoming clearer that the strange ex-president has been deliberately hiding lots of documents that belong to us, we, the people. And he still is.

The footage showed Walt Nauta, a former military aide who left the White House and then went to work for Mr. Trump at Mar-a-Lago, moving boxes from a storage room that became a focus of the Justice Department’s investigation, according to the people briefed on the matter. The inquiry has centered on whether Mr. Trump improperly kept national security records after he left the White House and obstructed the government’s repeated efforts to get them back.

As part of its investigation, the Justice Department has interviewed Mr. Nauta on several occasions, according to one of the people. Those interviews started before the F.B.I. executed a search warrant at Mar-a-Lago on Aug. 8 and carted off more than 11,000 documents, including about 100 that bore classification markings. Mr. Nauta has answered questions but is not formally cooperating with the investigation of Mr. Trump’s handling of the documents.

His lawyer, Stanley Woodward Jr., declined to comment. Taylor Budowich, a spokesman for Mr. Trump, accused the Biden administration of “colluding with the media through targeted leaks in an overt and illegal act of intimidation and tampering.”

So the strange man wants YOU to believe that news reporters reporting on all this are responsible for something the Justice Department is doing, when the pursuit of the documents originated with our country’s archivists who are tasked by law to retrieve the documents from all presidents. The strange ex-president has previously stated repeatedly that the last few presidents were allowed to take lots more documents home, but that’s a lie and he knows it’s a lie. And the only reason the Justice Department is involved is because the archivists said ‘Hey guys, can you help us get this stuff back? This freak of nature’s obviously been playing keep away and we’re also worried it might be putting the country in danger.’ (Note: not an actual quote, but adding this disclaimer for the satire-impaired.)

Targeted leaks? The leaks are all coming from people Trump hired to work in his White House and/or at Mar-A-Lago. The retrieval process is overt because - again, by law - the FBI had to take evidence that the documents were being withheld to a judge. The judge - also appointed by Trump - looked at the evidence and said ‘here’s your search warrant to go and retrieve this stuff.’

All of it legal with the rights of everyone involved fully protected. What is being ‘tampered’ with? Other than hiding the documents, nothing else that’s occurred is ‘illegal’.

And it’s a newsworthy story so the media shows up like they always do to report on important national news.

The strange ex-President continues to put out these lies knowing full well the majority of the country knows they’re lies. The lies are intended to keep his supporters supporting him because that’s exactly what all autocrats do when they try to take over governments and declare themselves Supreme Leader For Life. When his polling numbers slip a couple of points, he increases his lying. Every wannabe dictator does that too.

This is Elementary Dictatorship Wannabe 101 stuff that the strange ex-president is doing.

“You can fool some of the people all of the time, and all of the people some of the time, but everyone’s not as stupid as some strange men would like them to be.” ~ Abraham Washington Barnum

Also, I call him a strange man because that’s what he is and I refuse to normalize his behaviors. He’s rude and crude. He’s loud and boorish. He views every woman through his libido first and he’s abused them all his life. He thinks most Black people are inferiors and criminals. He hates laws that he’s required to obey. His greed is out of control. Every loophole in the law he can find, he uses and he’s gone beyond, breaking many laws all his life, too. He’ll encourage and order others to break laws too, imperiling them. He considers them his pawns, to use, abuse and forget about when he’s done using them.

The majority in this country doesn’t do all those abnormal things. Some may do a few. And everyone has lied before, but most do that out of diplomacy. Most don’t feel compelled to do it daily, but this strange man has lied about his height, weight, his use of drugs and alcohol, his financial net worth, his academic record, members of his own family and much, much more. Signs of any compassion or empathy are so rare that it’s likely he’s a sociopath.

So he’s unusual, abnormal, strange and is highly likely to remain so. I refuse to normalize the things he does that make him so very strange.

Besides dishonesty and lawbreaking, what else has he done well? Stage management.

His business record is atrocious and often ludicrous. But once he discovered how to manipulate perceptions on a TV screen, that and only that profession is what he’s mastered. He first learned how to do that observing pro wrestling fans which remains the fakest of sports. It’s also not hard to learn that ‘sex sells’ so his promotion of beauty pageants was a natural for him. That also had the added benefit of letting him invade the privacy of women - some minors - dressing and undressing to satisfy his creeper urge.

Reality TV was where all that training led to his actual mastery. Even though most reality shows are nearly as fake as pro wrestling. Many such shows pit contestants against each other so those who are best at skullduggery (undermining or tricking others) goes home the winner.

Many people really enjoyed The Apprentice where he would regularly insult and bully the contestants. Prior to that, some enjoyed his appearances on the Howard Stern Show where he’d flaunt his predatory creeper sexual instincts.

All of that TV experience convinced him the entire world is his stage and - as we’ve seen with leaked videos - he micromanages everything. A phrase, a word, clothing, hair, a smile, a frown. Most of the public doesn’t get to see how he acts off-screen and are startled to hear that he throws dishes when angry, is careless with paperwork and is often distracted with irrelevant stuff, doesn’t listen well in meetings, and displays all the symptoms of attention deficit disorder.

He’s easily given to ‘believe’ or at least to pass forward any conspiracy theories if they support his opinions and biases. He’s partial to other TV celebrities who promote lots of things on-air as he assumes they’re good influencers too. Unless they oppose his politics, in which case they become part of his Deep State & Hollywood Conspiracy Group, as if that’s a real thing.

Since the advent of TV post WWII there have been many politicians who’ve mouthed a brief critique of a reporter. Many have railed about Hollywood values, indicating they promote corrupt things or are dominated by equally corrupt Jewish people. In the old days, the studio system did have many wealthy Jewish men at the helm, but these kind of anti-semitic claims have no real basis in reality currently. Most of Hollywood is involved to entertain, to excel in a supporting craft and to make money. Some may have an agenda, like putting out a pro-America movie in wartime, or an actor portraying someone behaving in ways that counter established stereotypes and biases. A strong woman, a gay man speaking without a soft lisp, an Indian/Native American with a sense of humor, a nurturing father are some examples.

But very few rail about entertainers, from actors to comedians, as much as Trump does. Joe McCarthy whose career was built by claiming every writer, actor, musician, or political opponent was a Commie, is the only one that’s ever railed about them as much as Trump has, in an elected federal government position.

Typically and historically, the leadership decrying immorality and advocating censorship of the immoral have come from professional ministers utilizing autocratic and dictatorial techniques to increase their influence and fill their own wallets (See: telemangleists). Some politicians have jumped into the fray on a specific issue or two - for similar reasons - but Trump has escalated that to a feverish pitch.

”Everyone is dumber than me, less humorous than me, is a criminal deserving imprisonment or death, is weaker, dishonest, unAmerican, and hates white men. Except for those totally loyal to me. And I also hate those ingrates, household pets.” ~ Donald J.(unkie) Trump

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The January 6 Committee has issued a subpoena to hear Trump’s answers about the insurrection effort. His lawyers will advise him to ignore or refuse to appear.
In the pending trial about his illegal methods of obtaining financing, the NY Attorney General has been stymied thus far, as both Trump and his son, Eric, have evaded receipt of the court summons. Which is just another delay. He will avoid the receipt of the Congressional subpoena, too.

Further action on both isn’t likely till after the Mid-term elections. If Trump’s acolytes, remora and copycats riding his shoelifts achieve some small measure of success, I’m expecting him to announce his candidacy for 2024 within the same week.

But next week, Trump will be deposed along with the woman who claimed he raped her.

Donald Trump will have to answer questions under oath next week in a defamation lawsuit lodged by a writer who says he raped her in the mid-1990s, a judge ruled on Wednesday.

US district judge Lewis Kaplan rejected a request by Trump’s lawyers that the planned testimony be delayed. The deposition is now scheduled for 19 October.

The decision came in a lawsuit brought by E Jean Carroll, a longtime advice columnist for Elle magazine, who says Trump raped her in an upscale Manhattan department store’s dressing room. Trump has denied it. Carroll is scheduled to be deposed on Friday.

And:

Trump’s legal team has tried various legal tactics to delay the lawsuit and prevent him from being questioned by Carroll’s attorneys, but Judge Kaplan wrote that it was time to move forward, especially given the “advanced age” of Carroll, 78, and Trump, 76, and perhaps other witnesses.

“The defendant should not be permitted to run the clock out on plaintiff’s attempt to gain a remedy for what allegedly was a serious wrong,” he wrote.

Carroll’s lawsuit claims that Trump damaged her reputation in 2019 when he denied raping her. Trump’s legal team has been trying to squash the suit by arguing that the Republican was just doing his job as president when he denied the allegations, including when he dismissed his accuser as “not my type”.

Also:

Kaplan, the judge, said Trump has repeatedly tried to delay the collection of evidence in the lawsuit.

“Given his conduct so far in this case, Mr Trump’s position regarding the burdens of discovery is inexcusable,” he wrote. “As this court previously has observed, Mr Trump has litigated this case since it began in 2019 with the effect and probably the purpose of delaying it.”

The judge noted that the collection of evidence for the lawsuit to go to trial was virtually concluded, except for the depositions of Trump and Carroll.

“Mr Trump has conducted extensive discovery of the plaintiff, yet produced virtually none himself,” Kaplan said. “Completing these depositions – which already have been delayed for years – would impose no undue burden on Mr Trump, let alone any irreparable injury.”

The judge also said the deposition could be useful when Carroll’s lawyer next month files a new lawsuit under New York’s revival law, the Adult Survivors Act, allowing her to sue for damages for the alleged rape without the statute of limitations blocking it.

Whether the rape occurred is central to the defamation claims, as well as the anticipated new lawsuit, the judge said.

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Also, the Supreme Court, aware that its conservative majority rulings on abortion, the EPA and others had slaughtered its public approval ratings, along with Clarence’s refusal to recuse himself in matters where his election-denying wife was involved, made an effort to save face.

It rejected Trump’s appeal that tried to block the DOJ review of the documents they recovered from (some of?) his hiding places. The review can resume.

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FINALE

Understandably, most of us are damn sick and tired of this strange Trump guy. There’s no long vaudeville hook to pull him off-stage. As a narcissist, he’ll never leave on his own.

Much of what I cover about him, many of my readers already have read or heard from other news sources and I want to broaden my topics well beyond him.

But with so many midterm races relying on his endorsements and the Pavlov hyenas responding to his bells, I can’t fully escape quite yet. But I do intend to avoid the echo chamber effect of quoting his slang-phrasing like happens on twitter as left and right ride a trending topic.

It’s time for a phrase of my own.

Trump will always be most remembered by me for his rejection of all rules, regs and laws. But he’s also the whiniest candidate and officeholder in American history much akin to a toddler crying ‘Mommy, they’re picking on me! No fair!’ on an hourly tape loop.

His followers, both the elected and his voters, are given to more whining too.

But they’ll never become the majority, which is a great relief. So when my topic is Trump and his candidates in my election coverage for the next 25 days, the title will include “The Whinority Report”. That way, if you want to skip it, you’ll know it at the outset.

It’s the least I can do to alleviate your outrage and/or nausea.