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[feelingbluepolitics]

On the subject of what is foreseeable.

trump has been attacking wives and families for a long time. Just two examples: 2018, Jill McCabe, wife of Andrew McCabe, the former FBI deputy director trump fired days before his pension would have vested; 2023, Judge Merchan's wife and daughter. This article includes other examples:

It's part of trump's long-term persona that he doesn't have to follow any rules -- not the Constitution of the United States of America, and not the old school mafia prescript that families -- the women and children -- should not be harmed.

Currently, trump is again gagged from attacking Judge Engoran's law clerk. So now he's been attacking Engoran's wife. Of course, the attacks are malicious lies. That's a given. Judges with integrity are very careful to avoid any appearance of impropriety in using their position and power to their own benefit in any way. (Obviously, some judges, like Roberts, Gorsuch, Thomas, Alito, do not meet this standard.)

trump can assess correctly that none of the judges involved in his "legal challenges" (a favorite media euphemism, which likely enourages trump), will explicitly prohibit him from attacking themselves or their families.

Plenty of people opine that it is stupid for trump to antagonize the judges.

Plenty of people note that trump is well aware of his power as a stochastic terrorist, with "credible threats" swamping those he spotlights, or rather, targets:

And plenty of people recite that trump's favorite legal defense strategy is, "Delay, delay, delay." (One big delay would do.)

More decent people -- not just trump's base -- should be considering that trump would be very pleased if one of his followers physically attacks Judge Engoran's wife, or makes an actual attempt.

No matter how much integrity a judge has, no one could see any judge as impartial whose family member was literally attacked as a consequence of trump's manipulations.

trump would like a mistrial declared. It seems evident that he is, in his stochastic terrorist way, trying for one. It's even more disgusting that trump's base would declare this a win.

[feelingbluepolitics]

After a Manhattan grand jury indicted Donald Trump late Thursday afternoon on reportedly 34 felony charges, Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg took one more step to preserve the rule of law: Friday morning, via his General Counsel, he sent the top three Republican House Chairmen attempting to interfere in his office’s investigation and prosecution of Donald Trump a stern warning.

The letter, addressed to House Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan, Oversight Chairman James Comer, and Administration Chairman Bryan Steil spans six-pages. Its letterhead does not say District Attorney’s Office, but “District Attorney,” and has Bragg’s name in the upper corner, although it is signed by Bragg’s General Counsel, Leslie B. Dubeck. Politico has published the full letter.

It clearly states Bragg is drawing a red line: “What neither Mr. Trump nor Congress may do is interfere with the ordinary course of proceedings in New York State.”

The letter also accuses the trio of “an improper and dangerous usurpation” and “attempted interference with an ongoing state criminal investigation.” And it warns them against “unlawful political interference.”

[feelingbluepolitics]

For those watching the New York grand jury dealing with the hush money payments to Stormy Daniels, the revelations that more hush money payments are being explored in the case isn't new information.

During the 2016 campaign, Trump allegedly got his close friend David Pecker at the National Enquirer to run a scheme to buy Playboy model Karen McDougal's story and hire her to write fitness articles. Neither that story nor any fitness articles were ever published, and the payment was supposedly a "catch and kill" agreement to bury the matter.

Former FBI general counsel and NYU law professor Andrew Weissmann claims Pecker was being brought in to the grand jury to reveal the second piece of the Daniels story.

NBC's Vaughn Hillyard explained that the Southern District of New York had already laid out the details in the Pecker case. In fact, they laid out the argument not only in the 2018 sentencing memo for Michael Cohen, but also in describing what Pecker and his company already admitted to.

"There is a litany of statements that are important," said Hillyard. "One of those here: 'In or about Aug. 2015, David Pecker, the chairman is CEO of AMI, met with Michael Cohen, an attorney for a presidential candidate and at least one other member of the campaign that is Donald Trump's campaign. At the meeting, Pecker offered to help deal with negative stories about that presidential candidate's relationships with women, assisting the campaign in identifying such stories so they could be purchased and their publication avoided.'"

The Manhattan DA has brought in two former Trump campaign staffers, Kellyanne Conway and Hope Hicks.

[feelingbluepolitics]

[feelingbluepolitics]

Lock him up.

[feelingbluepolitics]

The Senate is expected to vote this week on legislation to codify same-sex marriage and, more importantly, the bill has enough GOP support to pass, HuffPost has learned.

“We have the votes,” a source close to negotiations confirmed Monday.

A bipartisan group of senators has been trying for months to pass a marriage equality bill to protect same-sex and interracial relationships. The House passed its own legislation in July, but that proposal stalled in the Senate, where some Republicans raised concerns that it would stifle religious liberty.

Things got more complicated when, around the same time, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) and Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) announced a surprise deal on a massive tax and climate change bill. Republicans were so mad that Democrats were ready to pass that deal without them that some signaled they would pull their support for a forthcoming same-sex marriage bill.

But with the midterm elections over and Democrats in position to hold the Senate for another two years, it looks like some Republicans are coming back to the table.

Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.), the lead Democrat on the forthcoming bill, tweeted Monday that the Senate is “going to get this done.”

[feelingbluepolitics]

trump is stuck with making a big announcement on Tuesday, refusing to wait to announce his candidacy until after the Georgia run off. But he's enraged about the criticism and blame leveled at him by Republicons over the midterm election results.

Wouldn't it be interesting if his big announcement is the formation of a new conservative political party, because Republicons are "losers"? Then he could announce his candidacy on behalf of the "trump Party", and in that moment, he erases any threat of a primary election he could lose, and simultaneously delivers an instant coup de grâce to the political career of Ron DeSantis, while every conservative in the nation undergoes existential abruption.

Money will pour in, and trump will again be in the news every day with every word he utters. The Republicon Party will offgas its most dangerous base volatiles and collapse, yet still the nation will remain in acute danger.

There's nothing to stop trump, and nothing to stop congressional collaborators from switching parties while in office. He can still create chaos even as many of his key election deniers failed to get elected to office.

[feelingbluepolitics]

Judge Aileen Cannon ruled Thursday that former President Trump no longer has to submit a sworn statement about the accuracy of the FBI's inventory on items seized from Mar-a-Lago, as the deadline to do so from the special master loomed.

Why it matters: Cannon sided with Trump's legal team, which objected to special master Raymond Dearie's request he back up his claims, at least until he has had a chance to review the records. Trump has claimed, without evidence, that the FBI planted evidence at the property during the August search.

Driving the news: In the same filing, Cannon, a Trump appointee who sits on the Federal District Court for the Southern District of Florida, also pushed back the deadline for the completion of the special master's review of the documents from Nov. 30 to Dec. 16.

She ruled that Trump does not have to make claims about which types of executive privilege he wants to assert over which documents on a rolling basis, as Dearie had required.

Instead, he can wait and file "one comprehensive annotated copy" after the midterm elections, indicating whether each document should be covered by attorney-client privilege, attorney work product privilege, executive privilege or is personal record.

How we got here: On Wednesday, Trump's lawyers wrote to Dearie objecting to his request to address whether they disputed the accuracy of the FBI's list of documents.

Trump's lawyers claimed that the demand in Dearie's case management plan "exceeds the grant of authority" given to Dearie.

[feelingbluepolitics]

[feelingbluepolitics]

Highest recommendation.

This is another reason why permanently pro-corporate-profit/anti-labor Republicons in Congress and the Supreme Court harm this nation, where they see no reason ever to address grossly lop-sided, unshared, untaxed, engorged corporate profit levels.

[feelingbluepolitics]

Understand this.

If the Democrats do not control the House and the Senate with expanded majorities after the November midterm elections, then the Dobbs/trump Supreme Court will effectively rule the land.

There is no "balance" of power unless Democrats hold the Presidency, the House, and a functional majority in the Senate...and even then, only nimble legislative powers can begin to shield Americans from six black-robed rulers racing to overrule institutions and rights faster than Democrats can enact them again into what used to be this country's laws.

Furthermore, between this court taking away constitutional rights, and too many Americans giving Republicons huge power with the governorships and state legislatures of too many states, we could lose not just our rights, and not just our democracy, but constitutional government altogether.

If Republicons can succeed in triggering an Article Five constitutional convention, that's the end of the United States Constitution as we know it. The trump Party will write a new one, or chose to do without one at all, and no one could stop them.

When election deniers want to "decertify" the 2020 election, and sane people say there is no mechanism to make that possible, that's not quite true. In the event of an Article 5 constitutional convention, America could become officially a trump hereditary monarchy; there are no boundaries.

The judicial branch and the legislative branch both could be jettisoned, since trump doesn't like them, while every citizen selected could be required to attend church twice a day. It would be whatever DeSantis and Abbott want, although practically speaking, only if they can make it sound worth trump's approval.

Think none of this can happen? Republicons control at least 30 states. They only need 4 more to call for an Article 5 convention. By some counts, they already have the necessary power.

[feelingbluepolitics]

Hugely significant development.

[feelingbluepolitics]

Just saying

[feelingbluepolitics]

Trump-allied lawyers pursued voting machine data in multiple states, records reveal

https://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/2022/08/15/sidney-powell-coffee-county-sullivan-strickler/

[feelingbluepolitics]

Rep. Swalwell: MAGA Republicans Are Trying To Erase Violent Reality Of Jan. 6

MSNBC’s Zerlina Maxwell speaks to Congressman Eric Swalwell about a piece of performance art at a conservative conference where a January 6 rioter dressed up as a political prisoner and what’s behind Trump supporters attempts to make themselves out to be the victims of the January 6th Capitol attack.

[feelingbluepolitics]