MSNBC: ‘True Hail Mary’: Donald Trump’s Legal Team Files Third Challenge to Delay NY Hush Money Trial’

Posted on April 10, 2024 by FredSchneiderUS

MSNBC: 'True Hail Mary'_ Donald Trump's Legal Team Files Third Challenge to Delay NY Hush Money TrialSource:MSNBC talking about Defendant Don.

Source:The New Democrat

“Earlier today, former Trump CFO Allen Weisselberg was sentenced to five months in jail on perjury charges. Also, former President Trump’s legal team filed a third challenge to try and delay his hush money trial. MSNBC’s Lisa Rubin, former federal prosecutor Kristy Greenberg and the Washington Post national editor Philip Rucker discuss.”

From MSNBC

Back in 2017/18, Republican political strategist Rick Wilson (whose one of the last of the Conservative Republicans) wrote a book titled: “Everything That Donald Trump Touches Dies” That’s how I feel about Allen Weisselberg. And no, I don’t feel sorry for the man, because he went into business with Donald Trump 10 years before DJT even ran for President the 1st time and knew enough about the man to know that he was a crook, if not a criminal, but worked for him and lied about him under oath anyway.

If Donald Trump were honest, (and New York City ran out of people and buildings all on the same day) his real immunity claim would be: “You can’t prosecute me because I’m Donald J. Trump. I’m King of America (not just reality TV) and therefor I’m untouchable.” But New York City will never run out of people, or buildings and never Donald J. Trump will never be honest about himself. At least he’ll never admit or take any blame about something that’s bad about him.

And DJT is going to get tried starting next week in Manhattan, New York. Which would be like Communist militants being tried in Wheeling, West Virginia. Not a place where the leader of the MAGA cult wants to be. Especially when you look at all the evidence, documents, and witnesses, people who know this man very well, because they’ve either socialized with him, had affairs with him, worked with him, or worked for this man.

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Late Night With Seth Meyers: Stephanie Ruhle On Donald Trump’s Truth Social Stock & Desperately Trying to Hang Out With Her Sons

Posted on April 9, 2024 by kireschneider

Late Night With Seth Meyers: Stephanie Ruhle on Trump's Truth Social Stock and Desperately Trying to Hang Out with Her SonsSource:Late With Seth Meyers talking to NBC News business reporter Stephanie Ruhle.

Source:The New Democrat

“Stephanie Ruhle talks about going to hip-hop musical festivals with her teenage son, Trump’s social media company, Truth Social, going public and her other son convincing her to participate in a cold plunge.”

From Late With Seth Meyers

“Shares of Trump Media & Technology Group continue to rapidly fall back to Earth.

The Truth Social owner dropped by another 8% on Monday, adding to a brutal week that wiped out a third of the stock’s value.

The selloff has shrunk former President Donald Trump’s stake in the controversial company to about $2.9 billion. That’s down sharply from a peak of $5.2 billion based on the closing high of $66.22 on March 27, the day after it went public.

Trump owns a dominant stake of 78.8 million shares in Trump Media, which launched in 2021. Its plan to go public by merging with a shell company was delayed for years by regulatory and legal scrutiny.

When Trump Media finally went public late last month, experts immediately warned that Wall Street was drastically overvaluing the company based on traditional fundamental metrics like revenue and users.

Last week, Trump Media disclosed losing $58 million last year on very light revenue of just $4.1 million. By comparison, Twitter (now known as X) generated more than 100 times as much revenue – $665 million — in 2013 ahead of its initial public offering in November of that year.

After its first day of trading, Trump Media was valued at as much as $11 billion. That’s almost twice the valuation that Reddit achieved after its IPO in March – even though Reddit generated roughly 200 times as much revenue.

Despite the recent losses, shares of Trump Media and the blank check company it merged with have more than doubled this year.”

From CNN

I posted the CNN link as well because the Seth Meyers interview with Stephanie Ruhl is from last week. Donald J. Trump’s Truth Social stock is now a net loss.

Just to give you some personal observations about Stephanie Ruhl first:

If you are familiar with liberal feminist author Camille Paglia, that’s who Stephanie Ruhl reminds me of. Not so much in what they say and what they believe. But as far as how they talk. It’s not like they sound like they drink nothing but coffee all day. It’s as if they manage to drink coffee in their sleep. Maybe they have a coffee tube stuck in their mouths as they’re trying to sleep. (Assuming they ever sleep at all) Perhaps they don’t drink coffee all day. Maybe they drink nothing but coffee and Jolt Cola (for anyone whose old enough to remember the 1980s) all day. They talk like they have 30 seconds to catch their flight. But they can’t leave until they give a 20 minute speech or something.

My two favorite cable news hosts right now, are Stephanie Ruhle and CNN anchor Erin Burnett. But only because they’re both professional reporters, not political activists. And they both know more about the American economy and business sector, at least combined, then Donald J. Trump knows how to lose money and get other people to pay his bills for them. Neither one of them are on the air with a political agenda and trying to promote these people, as they’re trying to take down these other people.

But it’s not just the professional backgrounds of Erin Burnett and Stephanie Ruhle that remind me of each other. To go back to my point about Camille Paglia: it’s rare that I can see news anchors looking like they can fly out of their anchor chairs, with no wings. They both bring so much energy, you almost need an extra pair of ears to be able to keep up with what they’re saying. And at risk of being called a sexist by militant feminists: they’re both absolutely adorable and beautiful. Both 48 and yet they can still pass as little girls.

As far as Donald Trump’s Truth Social: hard to say anything that’s related to Donald Trump, that’s called Truth Social. It’s like hearing a known loan shark saying: “I have a great deal for you. I’ll pay off your debts, but you’ll be paying me for it for the rest of your life.”

But as far as his stock, the man hasn’t invested any of his own money into this company and yet he believes he’s entitled to 100% of what will soon be a worthless stock. And then hightail that money out the company, (like a group of escaped convicts breaking out of prison) leaving everyone else whose still in the company, to get buried in debt, when the company crashes.

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Michael Smerconish: Representative Alexandria O. Cortez VS AI

Posted on April 9, 2024 by FredSchneiderUS

Michael Smerconish: AOC V_ AI PORNSource:Michael Smerconish talking about U.S. Representative Alexandria O. Cortez’s plan to wipeout artificial porn. And yes, I mean to make fun of this.

Source:The New Democrat

“AOC V. AI PORN”

From Michael Smerconish

“Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez was in a car talking with her staffers about legislation and casually scrolling through her X mentions when she saw the photo. It was the end of February, and after spending most of the week in D.C., she was looking forward to flying down to Orlando to see her mom after a work event. But everything left her mind once she saw the picture: a digitally altered image of someone forcing her to put her mouth on their genitals. Adrenaline coursed through her, and her first thought was “I need to get this off my screen.” She closed out of it, shaken.

“There’s a shock to seeing images of yourself that someone could think are real,” the congresswoman tells me. It’s a few days after she saw the disturbing deepfake, and we’re waiting for our food in a corner booth of a retro-style diner in Queens, New York, near her neighborhood. She’s friendly and animated throughout our conversation, maintaining eye contact and passionately responding to my questions. When she tells me this story, though, she slows down, takes more pauses and plays with the delicate rings on her right hand. “As a survivor of physical sexual assault, it adds a level of dysregulation,” she says. “It resurfaces trauma, while I’m trying to — in the middle of a fucking meeting.”

The violent picture stayed in Ocasio-Cortez’s head all day.

“There are certain images that don’t leave a person, they can’t leave a person,” she says. “It’s not a question of mental strength or fortitude — this is about neuroscience and our biology.” She tells me about scientific reports she’s read about how it’s difficult for our brains to separate visceral images on a phone from reality, even if we know they are fake. “It’s not as imaginary as people want to make it seem. It has real, real effects not just on the people that are victimized by it, but on the people who see it and consume it.”

“And once you’ve seen it, you’ve seen it,” Ocasio-Cortez says. “It parallels the same exact intention of physical rape and sexual assault, [which] is about power, domination, and humiliation. Deepfakes are absolutely a way of digitizing violent humiliation against other people…

From Rolling Stone

As someone whose never been sexually assaulted (but that might only be because I’ve been over 6’0 and 200 pounds for most of my adult life) I doh’t know how Representative Alexandria Cortez’s experience with this has affected her. Plus, I’ve never met the woman, I don’t live in New York, I come John F. Kennedy wing of the Democratic Party, instead of the Henry Wallace/George McGovern wing of the party, which is where she’s from. Other than her left-wing politics, I don’t know her very well at all.

But I guess I have a few points about this:

If this had happened to Representative Lauren Boebert, (Republican, Colorado) or Representative Marjorie T. Greene (Republican, Georgia) or Representative Elise Stefanik (Republican, New York) or any other female member of the MAGA movement, would anyone outside of the MAGA movement actually care a lick (or whatever word you prefer) about this? I seriously doubt it. I know I wouldn’t.

Seriously, think about this: if this had happened to the MAGA women in the House that I just mentioned, think about how pop culture and the late shows (which are overwhelmingly Democratic) would handle that. They would make fun of them over and over try to make them look like pornographic hypocrites:

“Online porn is an evil that must be wiped out and punished by God. Except when we do it. Because when we do it, Jesus wants us too.”

Just as someone whose a Liberal, I’ve never been a fan of unenforceable laws, even if the intentions are good. If someone takes pictures of someone else without their knowledge and uses them to make them look like a pornstar or something online, we have civil courts for that.

There are a lot of challenges and a lot of things that Americans have to put up with living in this free society. Liberal democracy is never free. It always comes with a lot of risks, as well as opportunities and rewards. Which means Americans have a lot of freedom to be complete idiots with their own lives, short of hurting of hurting innocent people with what they’re doing.

If someone thinks risking their paycheck at a casino or a horse track, is a good investment to pay off their mortgage, it’s their money.

And if people need online porn to get off, because they can’t get that any other way, so be it. Just as long as they’re not violating other people’s freedom and privacy with what they’re doing.

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The Bulwark: ‘Donald Trump’s Rich Donors Need a Reality Check! Trump Talks Abortion!’

Posted on April 8, 2024 by kireschneider

The Bulwark_ Donald Trump's Rich Donors Need a Reality Check! Trump Talks Abortion!Source:The Bulwark‘s Tim Miller & Bill Kristol talking about Donald J. Trump’s donors.

Source:The New Democrat

“Trump’s billionaire donors had it so bad under Obama, Clinton, and RINO presidents that they just have to go with the authoritarian. Plus, the return of s**thole countries, women’s hoops and culture war killjoys, a follow-up on white rural rage, and Trump’s latest abortion position.”

From The Bulwark

Just to go on the record: I have no problem with people making as much money as they humanly possible can, in our American capitalist, liberal democratic system. Just as long as they’re paying their taxes that pays for the government services that they rely on that allowed for them to be wealthy in the first place and for other Americans to do do well in this country.

As far as Donald Trump’s donors: I think donors is the key word here. I have my own theory about this. Unless we start seeing Donald Trump’s presidential campaign start spending some of the money that they’re raised recently, on I don’t know, something other than his own personal cost of living expenses and not just his legal expenses, but the bills that he racks up to finance his own personal lifestyle, his presidential campaign is still going to be broke and so will the Republican National Committee.

As far as I’m concern, all the money that the DJT Campaign has raised recently, is about his legal expenses. He’s literally going on trial next week in Manhattan where he’ll be tried for 20 different felonies, (if not more there) where he’ll probably be overwhelmingly convicted. Apparently his bond in New York State has bounced and he might’ve violated New York State law there and could see his bond revoked in a couple weeks. And then his personal property could be put on the chopping block again.

As far as why these wealthy donors are donating to the DJT Campaign: to be a billionaire, you almost have to be a narcissist. And if you are a billionaire narcissist, who cares about nothing else, you’re thinking Donald Trump is better for your personal balance sheet, than Joe Biden.

And if Dictator Don becomes too authoritarian for you personally, or the economy crashes on him and the rest of the country, you can always afford to leave the country. So what they’re doing now, is simply trying to keep Donald Trump above water, so he can stay out of jail and avoid bankruptcy. Because privately they know that DJT is a bankrupt criminal. But they believe he’s better for their personal balance sheets, than Joe Biden.

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CNN: ‘GOP Strategist Says Donald Trump Has Made a Critical Mistake in The Campaign’

Posted on April 8, 2024 by FredSchneiderUS

CNN: GOP Strategist Says Donald Trump Has Made a Critical Mistake in The CampaignSource:CNN– left to right: Defendant Don & Republican political strategist Karl Rove.

Source:The New Democrat

“Republican strategist Karl Rove, who was the architect of George W. Bush’s successful presidential run, says that Donald Trump has made a mistake calling imprisoned January 6th rioters hostages and said President Joe Biden should “go hard” at Trump on the issue.”

From CNN

“Republican strategist Karl Rove urged Democrats to “go hard” at former President Trump’s rhetoric surrounding the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol, calling the former president’s pledge to free imprisoned rioters a “critical mistake.”

“If they were smart, they’d take the Jan. 6 and go hard at it. And they would say, ‘He wants to pardon these people who attacked our Capitol,’” Rove said told MSNBC’s Ari Melber.

“One of the critical mistakes made in this campaign is that Donald Trump has now said, ‘I’m going to pardon those people because they’re hostages,’” Rove said in the interview, which aired Wednesday. “No, they’re not. They’re thugs.”

Trump said last month that his first act if elected to the White House would be to free the imprisoned Jan. 6 rioters, whom he called “hostages.” The former president has expressed sympathy for those charged in connection with the insurrection on numerous occasions and spoke last year at a fundraiser organized for Jan 6. defendants.

“Why Trump has done this is beyond me,” Rove said, criticizing Trump for appearing in videos with those who assaulted police during the riots.”

From The Hill

“Giuliani isn’t the only prominent Republican to have suggested divine intervention could have played a role in Friday’s earthquake. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene made this claim in a post on X.

She said: “God is sending America strong signs to tell us to repent. Earthquakes and eclipses and many more things to come. I pray that our country listens.”

On Monday a solar eclipse will block out the sun across 13 states, thrusting millions into darkness during the early afternoon. Speaking at a press conference on Friday afternoon, U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) seismologist Paul Earle insisted this is unconnected to Friday’s earthquake. He said: “This is unrelated to the solar eclipse. Earthquakes of this size have no correlation with celestial bodies.”

From Newsweek

First of all, I just want to go on the record here by saying if I’m the only one in the world, or at least in America, whose not blogging or writing in general about the solar eclipse today, I’ll be very happy with that. Just to give you an idea of how uninterested I’m in it. Actually, no one from this blog will be writing about the solar eclipse today. That I can promise you.

I thought Maria Cardona had the best line in the CNN video here when Jessica Dean asked her about the Biden Campaign’s fundraising numbers:

“Jessica, the Biden Campaign has raised a crazy, insane amount of money. And they’re going to put that to work to prevent a crazy, insane man, from entering The White House again…

If you think about it, that’s the number one job of not just the Democratic Party today, including President Biden, but everyone who still believes in American liberal democracy, the rule of law, and our checks and balances. If you do, you have to legally prevent Donald J. Trump from ever getting near the presidency again.

It’s that simple. You don’t have to become a Democrat, you don’t have to like Joe Biden. But to keep the American republic together and our great liberal democracy together, you have to prevent someone who doesn’t believe in those things, who believes he should always be unaccountable and never have any real opposition, from ever becoming President of the United States again. And if you don’t like the job the President and perhaps a new Democratic Congress is doing 2 years from now, vote the Congress out and replace it with a Republican Congress.

As far as MAGA Mayor Rudy Giuliani and MAGA Mouth Marjorie T. Greene: I guess it was amateur night at the laugh house and they wanted to get their 2 cents (which is all their statements are worth) in. Or, they’re telling the world that they need help and are begging people to commit them to the nuthouse.

Alice Stewart on Rudy Giuliani: “Rudy Giuliani has gone from America’s Mayor to an asinine mayor.”

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Michael Popok: ‘Wow! Donald Trump Bond Company ADMITS it BROKE LAW?!’

Posted on April 5, 2024 by kireschneider

Meidas Touch: Wow! Donald Trump Bond Company ADMITS it BROKE LAW_!Source:Meidas Touch– left to right: California insurance billionaire Don Hankey & Defendant Don.

Source:The New Democrat

“The bonding company owner that posted Trump’s $175 million bond in New York against the $465 million civil fraud judgment JUST ADMITTED THAT his company is violating ANTI MONEY LAUNDERING and “Know Your Customer” laws because he DOES NOT KNOW THE SOURCE OF TRUMP’s cash collateral. Michael Popok examines the new bond just filed by a company controlled by a Trump donor, and why the UNAUDITED and stale financial statements filed by them in the case raise new questions about their SOLVENCY that Judge Engoron will hold a hearing about later this month.”

From the Meidas Touch

“New York Attorney General Letitia James requested Thursday that former President Trump’s attorneys or the company issuing his $175 million bond “file a motion to justify the surety” within 10 days.

The big picture: The presumptive GOP presidential nominee posted the $175 million bond earlier this week after a New York appeals court reduced the amount needed to appeal his $454 million judgment.

The state’s Supreme Court on Wednesday had sent the bond paperwork back to Trump’s legal team for correction without providing any details on deficiencies.
Zoom in: James is asking either Trump’s legal team or Knight Specialty Insurance Company, which is not registered with the Empire State’s Department of Financial Services, to prove that it is financially able to perform under the bond, court records show.

Billionaire Don Hankey, California-based chairman of the company that offers high-interest loans to car buyers with low credit scores, underwrote the bond.
Trump’s legal team had faced difficulties in finding a company willing to secure such a large bond.
The other side: A spokesperson for the Trump Organization said this was “pure harassment,” per a statement to Axios.

“The bond is fully collateralized and backed by 100% cash,” the spokesperson added.
Go deeper: What to know about Don Hankey, billionaire who backed Trump’s N.Y. bond.”

From Axios

As wrote yesterday about this yesterday:

“So to put this in plain English, or perhaps in dirty English: New York Attorney General Letitia James is challenging Donald J. Trump’s bond here. And if NYAG wins that, this bond will get rejected by the New York County courts and he’ll perhaps get another extension to post another bond, or perhaps they would rule that he’s already had plenty of time to post a legitimate bond and give Defendant Trump a choice: post the cash himself, or start selling some of his assets. ”

From The New Democrat

As my colleague Fred Schneider wrote about this today:

“I think MSNBC anchor Stephanie Ruhle (who I’m quickly becoming a big fan of for her knowledge about business and economics, as well as her very quick wit, and other personal reasons that I won’t get into here) had the best commentary about this story so far. Last night she said talking about Mr. Trump’s bond here:

“It’s not just a regular bank that’s backing him (referring to Donald Trump) here. This guy (referring to Don Hankey) is in the business that he’s always been in. I mean subprime auto lending, this is like the former President of the United States going to a payday lender. Like the riskiest low-end lender.”

From MSNBC

“Right, I mean, Donald J. Trump still calls himself a billionaire. But of course anyone whose currently not drunk, high, insane, born without a brain, who just flew in to Planet Earth from Planet Zorton (or some other far out made up planet) who also happens to be familiar with Donald J. Trump, knows he’s not a billionaire.

You don’t go to the rich man’s equivalent of a payday lender, (to use Stephanie Ruhle’s words) to come up with 175 million, to post a bond on a legal judgement against you, if you are a billionaire. It would be like a guy who has 100 bucks on him, who ask his buddy for 10 bucks, so he can get some lunch at some fast food joint.

When it comes to high class in America, especially in Manhattan, New York, where Donald J. Trump has always wanted to be a member of that very exclusive club of billionaires, (as much as he claims to be a populist) he’s like the Goddard Bolt (played by Mel Brooks) character from the movie Life Stinks (1991) where he plays a rich man one day and he’s completely broke and homeless the next day. Mr. Trump is now relying on real-life billionaires and rich people, to pay his own damn bills for him.”

From The New Democrat

To once again sort of date myself: as a young man, 18-19 in actuality back in the mid-1990s, (no, Millennials. Dinosaurs didn’t roam in the Earth at any point in the 20th Century) when I was following the O.J. Simpson case, just as an observer, (I wasn’t a witness, cop, lawyer, or anything) the entire news media, including the network news divisions, covered that entire story, almost gavel to gavel. Freakin PBS, ABC News Nightline, had pieces about that story, really everyday. Even though it was the biggest tabloid story, perhaps of the 20th Century.

When O.J. Simpson was acquitted of the 2 murders that he obviously committed in September, 1995, the whole news world almost came to a stop. It was like: “What do we talk about and cover now?” Because they had been on vacation from the rest of the world for the past 15 months or so.

That is how I feel about Donald J. Trump. Yes, he’s good for this blog and my writing. But what the hell do I do if he loses in November (and I hope to hell that I loses everyday) and not just goes to trial in Washington, Atlanta, and Miami, after he’s already tried and convicted in New York? He’ll be out of the news completely, perhaps by the summer of 2025, if he doesn’t win the election this November. I say all of this half-jokingly, but I think you get the point.

As far as this latest bond attempt: Don Hankey’s insurance company is going to have to come up with the money and literally prove that they have it and write that check, or Donald Trump will be financially screwed by perhaps as early as May. Unless he has 175 million dollars of cash, of his own, that he’s keeping secret right now.

Maybe DJT is storing that 175 million in that Los Angeles financial storage facility that was robbed last Sunday. And he was the only one who didn’t lose his money there. (Ha, ha) But that’s my prediction. Either the Hankey company provides the cash and turns it over to New York State, or Donald Trump will be forced to do that himself.

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Harry Litman: ‘Donald Trump’s MASSIVE Bond Could FALL APART’

Posted on April 5, 2024 by FredSchneiderUS

Harry Litman: Donald Trump's MASSIVE Bond Could FALL APARTSource:Harry Litman– left to right: California insurance billionaire Don Hankey, Defendant Don & New York Attorney General Letitia James.

Source:The New Democrat

“New York Attorney General Letiticia James is questioning the legitimacy of Trump’s $175 million bond, sponsored by billionaire subprime loan mogul Don Hankey. Accoridng to James, Hankey’s California-based company Knight Insurance Group might not have the legal right to cover bond obligations in New York State. Judge Arthur F. Engoron has tentatively set a hearing for 4/22 to discuss.”

From Harry Litman

“New York attorney general Letitia James is asking to contact Donald Trump’s court-appointed monitor to get more information about his $175 million bond posting.

James asked Manhattan Judge Arthur Engoron on Thursday to confirm that her office can contact Barbara Jones, whom the New York Supreme Court Justice appointed to oversee the finances of Trump’s parent company, The Trump Organization.

James filed a proposed order to Engoron in which James’ office would be allowed to communicate with Jones’ office without Trump’s lawyers being present.

The New York Superior Court rejected Trump’s $175 million bond this week due to the paperwork from the insurance company issuing the bond not providing sufficient information about its financial status.”

From Newsweek

“Attorneys for former president Donald Trump have resubmitted his $175 million bond for his civil fraud judgment in New York Thursday, following a rejection by the court.

Trump’s initial bond, posted on Tuesday, was rejected and returned for correction, as reflected by the New York County Supreme Court’s website, due to a missing financial statement and other documentation. These missing documents have been added in a new filing.

The financial statement comes from Knight Specialty Insurance Company, the underwriter for the bond. It is signed by Don Hankey, the billionaire chairman and CEO of Hankey Group, and Amit Shah, president of Knight Specialty Insurance. The statement assures that the company can cover the $175 million bond.

The bond averts the immediate risk of Trump’s properties and assets being seized by New York Attorney General Letitia James. Trump has been ordered to pay a $464 million judgment by New York Supreme Court Judge Arthur Engoron after being found guilty of business fraud.

The presumptive Republican nominee for president has appealed the judgment, arguing that the penalty is excessive. However, he is required to post bond while the appeal is mulled by the appellate court. He was originally ordered to pay the judgment in full. If he was unable to, James warned that she would take legal action to seize his properties and assets.

The New York Court of Appeals later granted him additional time to come up with the funds for the bond, and lowered the amount he was required to post to $175 million.

The former president posted a $91.6 million bond in another civil case last month. That bond was related to the defamation judgment against him in the case brought forward by writer E. Jean Carroll.”

From UPI

As my colleague Kire Schneider pointed out yesterday:

“So to put this in plain English, or perhaps in dirty English: New York Attorney General Letitia James is challenging Donald J. Trump’s bond here. And if NYAG wins that, this bond will get rejected by the New York County courts and he’ll perhaps get another extension to post another bond, or perhaps they would rule that he’s already had plenty of time to post a legitimate bond and give Defendant Trump a choice: post the cash himself, or start selling some of his assets.”

From The New Democrat

I don’t like posting multiple links on a blog post that contradict each other. But this is a fast moving story. Sort of like an escaped inmate on the run for his life, escaping in a sports car. But Harry Litman seems to be a little bit behind on this story.

Donald Trump post his bond thanks to California (not New York, which a story right there) insurance billionaire Don Hankey earlier this week. But then New York Attorney General Letitia James challenged that legitimacy of that and wants to know whether or not Mr. Hankey is actually good on the bond. Does he or his company have the 175 million or not. She won that motion in New York Superior Court yesterday. But then that court sends the bond back to Mr. Trump and apparently he got it corrected.

I think MSNBC anchor Stephanie Ruhle (who I’m quickly becoming a big fan of for her knowledge about business and economics, as well as her very quick wit, and other personal reasons that I won’t get into here) has the best commentary about this story so far. Last night she said talking about Mr. Trump’s bond here:

“It’s not just a regular bank that’s backing him (referring to Donald Trump) here. This guy (referring to Don Hankey) is in the business that he’s always been in. I mean subprime auto lending, this is like the former President of the United States going to a payday lender. Like the riskiest low-end lender.”

From MSNBC

Right, I mean, Donald J. Trump still calls himself a billionaire. But of course anyone whose currently not drunk, high, insane, born without a brain, who just flew in to Planet Earth from Planet Zorton (or some other far out made up planet) who also happens to be familiar with Donald J. Trump, knows he’s not a billionaire.

You don’t go to the rich man’s equivalent of a payday lender, (to use Stephanie Ruhle’s words) to come up with 175 million, to post a bond on a legal judgement against you, if you are a billionaire. It would be like a guy who has 100 bucks on him, who ask his buddy for 10 bucks, so he can get some lunch at some fast food joint.

When it comes to high class in America, especially in Manhattan, New York, where Donald J. Trump has always wanted to be a member of that very exclusive club of billionaires, (as much as he claims to be a populist) he’s like the Goddard Bolt (played by Mel Brooks) character from the movie Life Stinks (1991) where he plays a rich man one day and he’s completely broke and homeless the next day. Mr. Trump is now relying on real-life billionaires and rich people, to pay his own damn bills for him.

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MSNBC: ‘New York AG Questions Financial Strength of Company That Posted Donald Trump’s Bond’

Posted on April 4, 2024 by kireschneider

MSNBC: New York AG Questions Financial Strength of Company That Posted Donald Trump's BondSource:MSNBC talking about Defendant Donald J. Trump’s New York State bond.

Source:The New Democrat

“New York Attorney General Letitia James has filed a notice that is seeking information to ensure that the company that posted former President Trump’s bond in the civil fraud case is financially stable. MSNBC’s Lisa Rubin has details on the filing and what it means for Knight Specialty Insurance.”

From MSNBC

So to put this in plain English, or perhaps in dirty English: New York Attorney General Letitia James is challenging Donald J. Trump’s bond here. And if NYAG wins that, this bond will get rejected by the New York County courts and he’ll perhaps get another extension to post another bond, or perhaps they would rule that he’s already had plenty of time to post a legitimate bond and give Defendant Trump a choice: post the cash himself, or start selling some of his assets.

Posted in NBC News, The New Democrat | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Amanpour & Company: ‘Charlie Sykes: GOP, Toxic Narcissists & a Fundamentally Broken Congress’

Posted on April 4, 2024 by FredSchneiderUS

The Bulwark: Charlie Sykes: GOP, Toxic Narcissists and a Fundamentally Broken Congress _ Amanpour and CompanySource:Amanpour & Company talking to Republican political analyst Charlie Sykes.

Source:The New Democrat

“Congress is broken. So say staffers and an unprecedented number of elected representatives quitting mid-term. A recent survey by the nonprofit Congressional Management Foundation found that a large majority of senior staffers believe the legislative body is no longer functioning. Conservative political commentator Charlie Sykes joins Michel Martin to discuss “The Great Resignation.”

From Amanpour & Company

As my colleague Kire Schneider wrote about this yesterday:

“Now why is the MAGA House of Representatives (which is not the entire Congress) a cluster flop? (To clean this up)

I’ll give you a hypothetical: imagine having Communists running private banks and other private, for-profit corporations and a few months later these banks and other businesses go bankrupt.

Imagine putting sharks in-charged of a giant goldfish tank and a few days later all the goldfish are gone.

Imagine an airline hiring nothing but blind people, alcoholics and other drug addicts to fly their planes. And within days, all of their planes have crashed, with passengers aboard on every flight.

My point is,MAGA is not a governing coalition. They’re a political cult of political suicide pilots and bombers. They’re not in Washington to govern. They’re there to defeat as many establishment Republicans (meaning the real Republicans) as they can and to kiss Donald Trump’s feet (to keep it clean) as much as possible and to see that he gets back in The White House.”

From The New Democrat

I can’t emphasize this enough: it’s not the 118th Congress that is a cluster flop. (To paraphrase Tim Miller from The Bulwark) Its the 118th House of Representatives that’s a cluster flop. (Or whatever pejorative term that you prefer)

The Senate (which is the functioning half of Congress. Hopefully that’s not a newsflash for anyone.) is a functioning institution right now:

They are confirming executive nominees and Federal judges,

Doing their oversight

Keeping the government open

They already passed an aide package for our allies like Ukraine, Israel, the refugees in Gaza, Taiwan, etc.

They’re doing the things that Congress is supposed to do.

It’s the MAGA controlled House, that look like aliens from another planet, trying to figure out how to start a car, answer a phone, tie their shoes, blow their noses, struggling to do the basic things in life, that every competent person takes for granted, because they’re so natural for them.

And I’m not saying all of this because the Senate is controlled by Democrats and the House is controlled by Republicans. Correction: the House is controlled by political militant movement group of suicide pilots and bombers, also known as MAGA. But there’s evidence that Speaker Mike Johnson is willing to act like normal Republican and Speaker on issues like Ukraine and the border. But I think he would need help from House Democrats to be able to do that and keep his job.

But I’m saying all of this because over in the Senate, Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, who spent the previous 4-6 years as arch-rivals in the Senate, seem to have a constructive working relationship now.

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The Bulwark: Tim Miller & Representative Jared Moskowitz: ‘GOP Has Made Congress a Total Cluster F!’

Posted on April 3, 2024 by kireschneider

The Bulwark: GOP Has Made Congress a Total Cluster F! (w_ & Jared Moskowitz & Marc Caputo) _ Bulwark PodcastSource:The Bulwark talking about the MAGA House of Representatives.

Source:The New Democrat

“The 118th Congress has made history: by removing a speaker, expelling a member, and holding sham impeachment hearings. Without Dem votes, the government would have shut down multiple times. Plus, the home insurance crisis, abortion politics, and the Democrats’ uphill climb in Florida. Rep. Moskowitz and Marc Caputo join Tim Miller.”

From The Bulwark

Just to correct the record, a little bit: The 118th Congress is not a failure. Just the Republican, really MAGA controlled House of Representatives that is a failure. While the Senate (which is actually the upper chamber of Congress) has been confirming Federal judges and executive nominees, even passed appropriations bills with Senate Republican support, led by Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, avoided government shutdowns and defaults, etc.

I don’t mean to sound overly technical and prickish, (actually, I’m lying about that) but I learned back in elementary school back in the 1980s, (to sort of date myself) that the United States of America has a bicameral Congress, with a House of Representatives and a Senate. This is not freakin Britain, where the House of Commons is considered the entire U.K. Parliament. We have a bicameral Congress and an executive branch that’s separate from the legislature.

So when I hear a sitting U.S. Representative like Jared Moskowitz, or any other Democrat, especially left-wing Democrats, who talk about the House of Representatives, as if it’s the entire Congress and the Senate is a separate institution, I get a little annoyed as someone who writes about Congress because it’s part of my job.

Now why is the MAGA House of Representatives (which is not the entire Congress) a cluster flop? (To clean this up)

I’ll give you a hypothetical: imagine having Communists running private banks and other private, for-profit corporations and a few months later these banks and other businesses go bankrupt.

Imagine putting sharks in-charged of a giant goldfish tank and a few days later all the goldfish are gone.

Imagine an airline hiring nothing but blind people, alcoholics and other drug addicts to fly their planes. And within days, all of their planes have crashed, with passengers aboard on every flight.

My point is,MAGA is not a governing coalition. They’re a political cult of political suicide pilots and bombers. They’re not in Washington to govern. They’re there to defeat as many establishment Republicans (meaning the real Republicans) as they can and to kiss Donald Trump’s feet (to keep it clean) as much as possible and to see that he gets back in The White House.

And I’m not saying what’s going on in the Senate under Democratic control, should earn Senate Democrats and Republicans rewards for good government:

I mean you don’t reward cab drivers for arriving at the right place to pick up or drop off their passengers.

To use a sports analogy: you don’t give the kicker extra credit for converting the extra point.

You know what I mean? The Senate is simply doing their jobs right now to keep their institution running, to say at least the upper chamber of Congress is earning their money, and keep the government moving. But compared with the MAGA House, they look like the Harlem Globetrotters vs the Washington Generals. (To use another sports analogy) They look liker a team of geniuses, a team of road scholars, verses an all star team of asylum patients.

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