What's Happening, Briefly

[Catseye3]

NBC: NYPD officers of every rank were ordered to wear their uniforms and prepare for deployment starting Tuesday . . .

Yet . . . early protests appeared largely muted.

Aside from a modest protest scheduled for Tuesday at Trump Tower going to the Manhattan district attorney’s office — and a separate small caravan . . . going from Long Island to Lower Manhattan – security officials said they were not aware of any developments that might change the dynamic in the city through at least Wednesday.

Officers erected barricades outside Trump Tower and Manhattan Criminal Court Monday. Those are likely two of what law enforcement officials say are multiple high-profile locations that the NYPD will cover this week as necessary.
^ ^ ^
And, contrary to what George and I predicted, Trump is apparently in Florida today, not Manhattan.
^ ^ ^

NPR: No reputable news outlet has been able to verify specifically that Trump would be arrested Tuesday — despite Trump's unsupported claims of supposed leaks from the district attorney's office.

But Trump's message had the desired effect, triggering the GOP's inside and outside game and boxing in rival candidates and potential ones.

Don't expect public opinion to change very much even if he is arrested. It hasn't moved much, if at all, in the wake of the myriad other scandals Trump has been involved in.

[Mik]

@Catseye3 said in What's Happening, Briefly:

Don't expect public opinion to change very much even if he is arrested. It hasn't moved much, if at all, in the wake of the myriad other scandals Trump has been involved in.

That's because the majority of them turned out to be at best nothingburgers, and at worst shameful witchhunts brought about through deceit.

[Jolly]

And this case is so shaky it makes the SF earthquake look as steady as a rock.

Trump's attorney testified yesterday. Seems like the DA had shown the jury 8 emails they thought were pertinent to the case. Trump's attorney showed them 300.

I haven't heard a single legal scholar say this will stick. I have heard several say that this is truly bad for the country. You want to prosecute Trump? Fine, but you have to find something much better than this.

This increasingly political prosecution looks like an old saying...

To my friends, everything; to my enemies, the law.

[George K]

@Jolly said in What's Happening, Briefly:

the DA had shown the jury 8 emails

Remember, Bragg campaigned on the statement that he's going to indict Trump. Once elected, he backed off that pledge when he learned was told that there's no there there.

[Mik]

Is there anyone anywhere who gives a golly gosh darn about whether Trump paid off Daniels? It was likely a commercial relationship to begin with.

[Aqua Letifer]

@Mik said in What's Happening, Briefly:

Is there anyone anywhere who gives a golly gosh darn about whether Trump paid off Daniels? It was likely a commercial relationship to begin with.

I care about it in a "not exactly presidential" kind of a way, but not in a "zomgHandmaidsTaleHitler!!!111" kind of a way.

[George K]

@Mik said in What's Happening, Briefly:

Is there anyone anywhere who gives a golly gosh darn about whether Trump paid off Daniels? It was likely a commercial relationship to begin with.

Millions of people care. That's what this is about, rallying your base.

"Hush money!!!" you know. Perhaps NDA is a better description. Now, as to how funds were paid, that's what Bragg's hanging his prosecutorial hat on. And, as @Jolly said, no serious legal commentator thinks there's a case there, and even if there were, it's way past the statute of limitations.

[Mik]

Well, now, the 'not exactly presidential train' left the station around 2015.

[George K]

@Mik said in What's Happening, Briefly:

Well, now, the 'not exactly presidential train' left the station around 2015.

I'd say "Give that man a cigar," but, no....you're off by 20 years.

[Aqua Letifer]

@George-K said in What's Happening, Briefly:

@Mik said in What's Happening, Briefly:

Well, now, the 'not exactly presidential train' left the station around 2015.

I'd say "Give that man a cigar," but, no....you're off by 20 years.

That's not how it works. Carjacking isn't now magically okay just because it happened yesterday somewhere in Chicago.

[Catseye3]

Call me crazy, but it seems yesterday was entirely a fabrication of the news media. Nothing actually happened, but you'd never know it if you didn't look out the window.

[Jolly]

Gotta feed the 24-hour newscycle beast.

[Jolly]

I've heard two or three legal talking heads say the same thing...

The NYC DA campaigned on "Get Trump". It was featured in multiple speeches and in ads. The talking heads said this is ethically reprehensible for an officer of the court to publicly admit bias this forcefully in a campaign and then personally follow through on a prosecution. Especially since the DA is treading on very thin ice, with state vs. Federal law.

Their further opinion? In most states, this would trigger a review by the state bar association. Penalties would range from censure to disbarment.

[Catseye3]

@Jolly
Addressing your post #11: I understand that, but this round was way over the top. No restraint whatsoever, and little if any regard for the reality of the moment. It was beyond irresponsible, even by their usual scurvy standards.

Ebola Effect in spades.

There is no way to avoid the truth that, to paraphrase NPR, unreputable news media own a large share of the discontent in this country.

They should be ashamed.

[Catseye3]

@Jolly said in What's Happening, Briefly:

The talking heads said this is ethically reprehensible for an officer of the court to publicly admit bias this forcefully in a campaign and then personally follow through on a prosecution.

I didn't know about this. If true, 'reprehensible' is the least of it. It is egregiously damaging to the ethics of the system of law.

Also stupid.

[Horace]

There was a great deal of destruction of institutions and norms through the application of TDS. It was mostly based on a fear of Trump destroying institutions and norms. That's how that works. If people are afraid of something being done, they will do that same thing to combat it. An idea of what one's opponent is willing to do, informs one's own behavior limits. Too bad those beliefs about one's opponents are often neurotic, irrational tribal ideas. "Trumpism" isn't the new normal. TDS is the new normal.

[Jolly]

@Horace said in What's Happening, Briefly:

There was a great deal of destruction of institutions and norms through the application of TDS. It was mostly based on a fear of Trump destroying institutions and norms. That's how that works. If people are afraid of something being done, they will do that same thing to combat it. An idea of what one's opponent is willing to do, informs one's own behavior limits. Too bad those beliefs about one's opponents are often neurotic, irrational tribal ideas. "Trumpism" isn't the new normal. TDS is the new normal.

That's incomprehensible, except you're right.

[Catseye3]

It might be useful to pass along something I've been reminding myself about lately. We can brangle all we want about who is responsible for the ills of the country; the truth is it's the unsung who keep the ship afloat. IMO, the higher ranks of strategic military, career Department of State, especially including the Foreign Service, and career Cabinet personnel of departments like Interior and Health & Human Services. It is these people who are the true experts, who know through experience what works and what to do in the life-saving day-to-day -- even as the elected class come and go, the ones that make the noise and get the press, most of them easily forgotten. And those same elected rely heavily on what is called the fourth branch, the bureaucracy, for what they need to know to do their jobs.

(And their jobs and how they're done somehow never make it into the press, do they? Because who cares? No scandal there. Nothing to rant about on the barstools.)

Whether Trump is the good guy or the menace, the Social Security checks still go out on time, the parks and forests are tended and the fires fought, the infrastructure gets maintained (sort of), the veterans affairs still get seen to, matters of diplomacy are followed, law is enforced, archives are maintained -- and hundreds of other tasks critical to matters of state.

So as much of an uproar is achieved by the press, the workaday stuff still gets done -- not perfectly, but so far so good, more or less.

[Jolly]

It might be useful to pass along something I've been reminding myself about lately. We can brangle all we want about who is responsible for the ills of the country; the truth is it's the unsung who keep the ship afloat. IMO, the higher ranks of strategic military, career Department of State, especially including the Foreign Service, and career Cabinet personnel of departments like Interior and Health, Education and Welfare. It is these people who are the true experts, who know through experience what works and what to do -- even as the elected class come and go, the ones that make the noise and get the press, most of them easily forgotten. And those same elected rely heavily on what is called the fourth branch, the bureaucracy, for what they need to know to do their jobs.

In other words, The Swamp.

[Catseye3]

@Jolly said in What's Happening, Briefly:

In other words, The Swamp.

No. It can be swampish, but unless you mean the term affectionately, it is essential. Try envisioning the country enduring for one day -- one day! -- without it. Not very pretty.