Clear, glaring sunshine tempered by a strong, chilly wind this late-afternoon Tuesday here in California’s Central Valley — another continuance in the cycle of like days since our influx of rain-filled weather ended a couple of weeks ago. However, monotony can be nice if it carries a certain niceness.
Nice was the sense today in New York as the T-Rump appeared in court to plead ‘not guilty’ for 34 unsealed charges of fraud involving a couple of women and a doorman. There’s a shitload of sources on the InterWebs about the charges/indictment. As I wrote, tedium can be nice, but sometimes weird as shit.
Nutshell of the charges’ main features (the Guardian):
In a 13-page statement of facts, the district attorney’s office accused Trump of having “orchestrated a scheme” with the intent “to influence the 2016 presidential election by identifying and purchasing negative information about him to suppress its publication and benefit the defendant’s electoral prospects”.
The charges, according to the felony indictment unsealed on Tuesday, stem from payments made to adult film star Stormy Daniels, who said she had a sexual encounter with Trump in 2006, as well as hush money deals made with Playboy model, Karen McDougal, who wanted to sell her story of an affair with Trump ahead of the 2016 election, and a former Trump Tower door man, who claimed Trump had fathered a child out of wedlock.
And a classic asshat Mango Mussolini:
He looks like he just banished Jar Jar Binks from Gungan City https://t.co/mXU4eaW1eL
— Acyn (@Acyn) April 4, 2023
Although I didn’t see the TV’s version of today’s events, it appeared like there was happiness on seeing the asshole T-Rump finally in a court of law, there seemed a nasty, pathetic glare to the whole show.
Dan Balz at The Washington Post late this afternoon noted the ‘surreal‘ quality to the buffoon’s legal spectacle:
Tuesday was a day of spectacle, a word so often associated with the name Donald Trump. Television cameras followed every move by the former president and his motorcade through the streets of Manhattan. Pro- and anti-Trump forces gathered near the courthouse. Nonstop commentary on cable television detailed every step along the way. And yet it had a sad, almost pathetic quality to it.
Sad and pathetic not just for Trump, but for the country. Trump is the protagonist in this drama, the lead actor, but the impact has been broad and deep. This is a different country than it was before Trump began running for president eight years ago — angrier, more divided and less tolerant of one another.
History is an overused word in these situations. It was overused on Tuesday during the hours of media coverage. No matter that no former president had ever been charged in a criminal case. No matter that no former president had ever been processed and arraigned like any other criminal defendant, though none of the others had been accompanied by Secret Service for their own personal protection.
This was history, yes, but of the most sordid kind. The case itself seems unworthy of all the attention. It centered on hush money paid to an adult-film actress and falsification of business records, 34 felony counts in all.
[…]
When the former president departed Trump Tower, and before he entered his SUV for the drive to the courthouse, he offered a clenched fist and raised arm to the bank of cameras trained on him. But there was no broad smile or thumbs-up that he has offered so many other times. By the time he arrived for his arraignment, he looked very much like the defendant that he now is — perhaps humiliated but plainly defiant and no doubt angry.
It was apparent that this was something new and unsettling for Trump, who was thrust into a forum where he lacked the kind of control he usually enjoys. The discomfort was clear in the steely look on his face as he passed briefly before the cameras, flanked front and back by law enforcement, as he walked toward the courtroom where the indictment was read out and where he entered his plea of not guilty. It was clear in the first still photo from the courtroom, his head tilted toward the camera but with a sober, almost vulnerable look on his face. It was clear as he avoided reporters on his way out.
Hopefully, the path leads to a jail cell and orange jumpsuits.
And in coming into court earlier, T-Rump truly appeared shitfaced
Trump doesn't speak or respond to reporters as he walks in the courtroom for his arraignment pic.twitter.com/xatCqAh5oK
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) April 4, 2023
Inside the courtroom, Trump’s history followed him — a snip from The New Yorker:
“I didn’t realize that we were going to give opening statements today,” one of Trump’s lawyers complained. An arraignment, a criminal defendant’s first appearance before a judge, is typically a brief proceeding. In Manhattan, they are usually held in a dedicated courtroom on the first floor of the courthouse, where drug cases, assaults, and even murders are processed in as little as ten minutes, even when defendants are being consigned to pretrial detention. Trump faced no such threat. He walked into the courtroom uncuffed, knowing he’d walk out of it that way. A full floor of the courtroom had been closed off as a security precaution. Left unsaid was whether this was for Trump’s security, or everyone else’s. As Trump’s lawyers scoffed at the allegations made against him (“a great injustice”) and complained at the unfairness of his treatment (“the President has free-speech rights”), Merchan tried to smooth things out and keep things going in ways that sometimes risked inanity.
“Please refrain from making statements that are likely to incite violence or civil unrest,” he instructed Trump, after prosecutors complained about the former President’s “irresponsible” recent social-media posts, including one in which he warned that “potential death and destruction” would occur if he were indicted, and another in which he posted an image of himself holding a baseball bat beside Bragg’s head. “Don’t engage in words or conduct which could jeopardize the rule of law.”
Yeah right — that’s been the T-Rump way for more than 50 years. He’s supposed to have some kind of announcement after he returns to Mar-a-Lago this evening, but what the shit. It will be nothing more than an incoherent, cruel, dangerous, and nasty rant he’s been building on since early this morning. As reported, T-Rump from Flordia carried out the bullshit, calling the New York arraignment ‘“an insult to our country.”‘
You’re the insult, asshole!
And to close us out, wondrous Rany Rainbow from this past weekend — for your edification:
Felon to be, or not, once again here we are…
And I hate to use this T-Rump pix again so soon (used it last Thursday), but it fits sure-as-shit:
Image out front is my favorite of the T-Rump mugs, though, ‘favorite‘ does not mean in any form or fashion, as in, ‘my favorite movie,’ or ‘my favorite song.’ It’s more of an anti-appreciation/like.
And aptly titled, ‘Basic Shapes,‘ by caricaturist/illustrator Chong Jit Leong (and found here), it’s an image that displays the elemental form of a purloined sociopath — a bloated profile of flatulent bile and arrogant ignorance.