Tag Archives: Trump

The Continuing Sheldon Crisis

Law, Philosophy, Politics, ,
Foundation
Hari Sheldon

With the Indictment of Donald J Trump last week and the first of the formal court proceedings (aka reading the charges) we are now entering what is the next phase of our Sheldon Crisis. We are now nearing one of the major crux of this crisis, I hope. In the next year or so we can expect to see one or more things happen, and I am taking this time to list the ones I see right now.

Trump is not convicted.

This can happen in several ways. First and most unlikely is that the Prosecution does an incredibly bad job and/or the Defense does an incredibly good job. As I said, not likely but it has happened in the past.

Next, a still unlikely the defense is able to convince at lest one juror to vote for acquittal . This would end up in a hung jury and most likely lead to a new trial. So the defense needs to get the presiding judge to declare the miss-trial with ’prejudice’.

What I think the defense is trying for is to get the presiding judge to throw out most if not all of the evidence of what Trump is accused of. This is very hard to do and timing will be everything. If at all possible these ruling(s) need to take place so that the prosecution has little or no time to appeal.

Trump is convicted

Now let’s get to the dangerous part. The trial runs its course and Trump is convicted on one or more counts. Now what happens?

Almost assuredly Trump appeals all the way up to the Supreme Court and it has one of several things it can do.

First it could just not hear the case. This could be the best for the Court if the lower court throws out the conviction. But if the conviction is still standing when SCOTUS hears it then the court still has several things it can do. The best for the court would be to put the case on what is sometimes called the ’Merit Docket’ hear all the arguments and then make it’s ruling. Unfortunately this case is the political hot potato of hot potatoes and this court has not shown itself to be willing to take on this kind of case in the ’Merit Docket’ To many people will see just who is a loyal MAGA who isn’t.

SCOTUS could also decide to take the case on what is called the ’Shadow Docket’. This is attractive in that it is done all behind closed doors and without any of the justices putting their name on the ruling. In fact no reasoning needs to be given. SCOTUS could just rule that the case is overturned with prejudice and say nothing else. The one major problem with doing this is that what ever the prestige SCOTUS has with the general public will take a very big hit.

Well my computer is now overheating with running all the Sheldon Equations so I’ll say good by for now.

What Ever Trump Touches….

Politics, , ,
Dead GOP
Dead GQP

It was back in 2016 that I first heard ”What ever Trump touches he destroys”. We are now well in to the second act of our ’Greek’ Tragedy. The first seen was, of course, the long battle for Speakership of the House where Rep. McCarthy publicly sold his soul for his dream of being the Speaker of the House of Representatives. Much ink has flowed over just what it means and what it will mean. I fully expect that there are many future Masters and Doctoral Thesis’ on the subject. For now we just get to live thru the ’live action’.

We are now coming to the end of the second seen of the Act, where we all await the much anticipated indictment(s) of Donald J Trump by Local, State, and Federal law enforcement. There are many questions to be asked in this seen. Like, who will be first? How many charges against how many people. Who will turn on who and who will stay loyal to whom. All I can say is that I expect everyone to be surprised by it all.

The last seen of the act will be taken up by all of the actions taken by both Trump and his supporters. Centerstage will, of course, be Trump himself, along with as many of the House MAGA caucus as can fit. Just be sure that Trump will manage to upstage everyone and everything.

We have seen in this act of the tragedy all of the damage ’caused’ by Trump to the Republican Party was mostly, if not entirely, inflicted not by the ’enemies’ of the GOP but by it’s ’so called friends’. What for now is called the MAGA Republicans. The likes of Rep. Jim Jordan and Rep. Matt Gates, just to name two, have done more to harm the GOP in the eyes of many of it’s fellow Americans than anything done by other political parties.

In the name of defending Donald Trump they have taken actions which many feel goes counter to what the GOP once stood for. How can the Republicans say they stand for ’Law and Order’ while attacking the same people who defended the Capital on 6Jan2021? Or when Georgia changes its laws so that D.A. will be subject to legislature instead of independent? An let us not forget being for the rights of the individual while taking the right to make their own medical decisions away from half of the population.

No, the principles of the Grand Old Party lie in ruins. Cast down by the ”Populist” insurgents of the ’Freedom Caucus’, ’Tea Party’, and MAGA. The true Rino’s are not those who still think of themselves as Conservatives/Republicans, but the followers of Trump. An if you think this current act was bloody bear knuckles, you ain’t seen nothing yet.

The NEW GOP

From Times to Come

Fiction, General, Rants

The Great Big Boss

The other day I came across, on my daily walk, what I took to be ”Time Capsule” that appeared to have been washed down from the mountains. The only problem is that everything seems to be dated from 220 AT. When I first saw it I thought it might be from the early Spanish Mission period of the San Fernando Valley. It was a square box of about 11” and about 5” tall. It seemed to be made out of kilned backed adobe. Upon closer examination I detected the use of a wire meshing made of coper wire. So definitely not from the Spanish Mission period.

The contents of the box turned out to be what appear to be some kind of analog sound recordings (3). Five USB sicks, and two SDD drives. Along with over 40 pages from what appears to be magazines, but not made of paper. Most pages did have pictures and many have what appears to be dates but have no relationship to any known calendar.

3 Ivana 211 AT

11 Baron 193 AT

29 Don 219

This last goes with a picture that show what seems to be some kind of ceremony taking place in the Capital in Washington D.C. It is captioned “The Assumption of power by Barron III, Trump and Autocrat of all the States”. In the picture is one person, presumably Barron III, before a line of men, no women are in the photograph, who are placing there hands between his, while they are kneeling.

Another photo is of a woman inspecting what appears to be a heavily fortified wall with a large number of bones on one side. The photograph is captioned ”Ivana II inspecting the Great Wall of the South”. Most of the pages with out photographs, have drawing and seem to deal with the Great accomplishments of Trump (again this seems to be a title and not a persons name). Other pages deal with the accomplishments of what are called Boss of Bosses, Great Boss, Bosses, and Little Boss. It seems that the Boss of Bosses is appointed by the Trump, but just what their responsibilities are is not clear. The Great Bosses seem to run the States, the Bosses counties and the little Bosses cities and towns.

This last maybe in error as there are several references to State governors, and Mayors of large cities. It is quite possible that the term “Boss” in all it’s forms is just slang. Until further study of the Box and it’s contents can be done any conclusions drawn are pure Speculation. Finally, the idea that the ”Time Capsule” is actually from either the future or an alternate time line is pure fiction.

Your Not Voting and what it means

Rants, ,

With the news of SCOTUS on Roe Vs Wade and the New York gun law along with what the Trump Mob tried to do last year I think it is time to say something about the people who don’t vote.

If you live in a Red state or district, or if it is even Purple and you don’t vote you are actually voting for the Republican candidate. An they like you not voting. They want you to not vote. Their bass is very motivated and will do what ever the Mob Boss tells them to do. Their is only one thing that can be done. Get out and vote. NOW!

If you don’t you are just empowering Capo Trump. An it will be you fault if they get control of the Congress. So remember, not Voting is what the Capo is betting you will do. Prove him Wrong.

A Symptom, not a Cause

General, ,

For quite sometime now I’ve been hearing the people on the Media talking about how Donald Trump has/is destroying the Republican Party, conservative movement, etc. To my way of thanking this is not just wrong, but also bad for the country. Donald Trump and/or Trumpisum is not doing anything to the Conservative Movement, nor to the Republican Party. Donald Trump and Trumpisum is a symptom of what ales them, it is not the cause.

Everything that is happening to the GQP today has its roots back in the late 1960’s. It was then that liberal Republicans started migrating to the Democratic Party and conservative Democrats started migrating to the Republican Party. In the 1968 elections Richard (Tricky Dick) Nixon came up with his famous ‘Southern Strategy’ to woo the former Dixiecrats to vote republican. It is also when the unholy alliance between social conservatives and financial conservatives was truly formalized. Now in the 21st century we are seeing the results of what was started back then.

If you just do a little work you can see the seeds of all the ‘Great’ issues of today in the 70’s, 80’s and 90’s. The thing to remember is Donald Trump is not smart enough, nor Machiavellian enough to have created what we are see. In fact he is just arrogant enough to both claim credit for and to bring it out into the day light for all to see. An just like the high fever lets us know we are truly sick, Donald Trump is letting us know just how much trouble our body politic is in.

Our body politic is no longer facing a quiet infection slowly destroying our democracy. No, the raging fever has broken out and we now know we are in deep trouble. An just like a high fever we must first take action to rid ourselves of the disease. We must not only take action to get rid of the symptoms, just like we take medicines to bring down a fever, we must also take medicines to rid us of the actual disease. An to do this we need to identify the infecting agents but also what is being infected. This is not easy, nor pleasant.

So just how do we identify the agent of infection in our Body Politic? I say lets get more transparency and more truth. I’d start with making the fundamental source of all funds coming to any political campaign be public. Next only natural people may fund any political campaign. (By the way I’m using natural person in the legal since of the words.) An I don’t mean just cash money, I mean anything of value. The next thing is to change are libel and slander laws to take in the new cyber media. An we also need to bring in the use of algorithms that either internally of unintentionally case harm liable for the harm they cause. By this I mean that the person or persons who knowingly or should have known that the algorithm they are using has, or would have, caused harm are liable for the damage caused.

I know the above is very complex and it will take a lot of work to get right but we have done this before (just look at the history of the telephone, radio, and tv) but we can do it. It will be done. The only question is what shape our nation will be in when it is done.

One Know Trump

General, ,
George C. Scott as the Film-Flam Man
George C. Scott as the Mordecai Jones (The Flim-Flam Man)

Over the past few weeks I’ve been following a fair number of discussions on why the Republican Party has not done an ‘autopsy’ on why they lost in 2020. In most of these discussions the continued faithful loyalty of the GOP rank and file is almost always touch upon. What is often totally ignored is just why the rank and file of the GOP are still loyal to Donald J. Trump. There are, undoubtedly many reasons for this but I would like to just touch on one that seems to being ignored.

What I will be talking about is the known reluctance of a Con-Artist victim to actually admit to the con. This phenomenon is well know to all those in law enforcement who’s job it is to track down and lock up the Con-artist. The reasons for their behavior is legion and I will not attempt to go into it here. What is important is the attitude of the victims that keeps them from admitting, even to themselves, that they have been conned. All that is important here is the phenomenon itself.

This disinclination to admit to being conned by Donald Trump is the starting point to understanding why so many GOP Rank and File are staying loyal to him. At some level they know that if they start looking for some other leader than Trump they will be starting down the road to admitting that they were conned by Trump and they are not yet ready for that. It is just too painful. It is also to shameful. We all know the old saying “You can not Cheat an honest man.” And, fundamentally, a con is offering the mark a way of cheating. In the case we are addressing here we are looking at getting something you have not really a right to.

There is no nice way to say this, it is not just possible. Donald J. Trump has offered the GOP something for nothing. The problem is TANSTAAFL (There ain’t no such thing as a free lunch) and at some level we all know this. The genius of Donald J. Trump is he offered something different to all the segments of the GOP. Each and every faction was offered what they most wanted, without having to pay for it. The White Supremists were told they could, no matter what the law said, do as they wish on all non-whites. He offered some the ability to take from the public coffers all they could manage. This list is both long and well known so I shan’t go on here. I will close with the most fundamental thing Trump gave the GOP rank and file the confirmation that “You are in the right! No matter what anyone else says.” He gave them the freedom from self doubt and questioning. He gave them permission to say “it is self evident that I’m right so I don’t have to explain.”

And there is the rub, eventually it will all come out. Eventually you will have to explain yourself. You will have to admit you were conned and admit you were being dishonest. Some people will not be able to do this, ever. Some will, but it will take time. What we, who recognized Donald J. Trump for what he is, have to do now is wait. Stand our ground. Be understanding of the MAGA but not give one inch in holding them responsible for what both Donald J. Trump did and what they did even though he told them they could. Eventually the lunch is paid for. We just need to be sure that it is paid for by those who eat it and not by us.

Trump did not Win, Hillary Lost.

Politics, ,
What? Me Worry?

With 56 days till Election Day I thought it would be good to share some positive thoughts. That is why I have Alfred E. Newman on this post. It is also why I’m going to talk about the 2016 election and not the 2020 election in this post. I think we need to remind ourselves just where we are coming from.

First off I want to remind everyone out there that Donald Trump did not win in 2016, Hillary Clinton lost. And in looking back on that she lost should not be much of a surprise to anyone. But that is the problem. Most of the scholars and pundits of Political Science (or just plan Politics) are pretty much at a loss on why or how Donald Trump won. The problem is that they are asking the wrong question. What they need to ask is how did Hillary Clinton lose?

It is not all that hard to understand when looked at in the correct way. We need to remember that Clinton was and still is, one of the most divisive people in our body politic. Almost no one doesn’t have an opinion about her. Starting there, let’s take a look at the campaign of 2016 as if it was a long long foot race.

At the start of the race, Hillary gets off to a good start as all of the Republican contenders keep getting in each other’s way. Until, lo and behold, the one contender everyone thought of as a joke ends up the only one still in the race with all of the others falling down in the dust. And now the fun starts as the clown knows how to keep all the attention on him.

So, now almost no one sees and even few comment on all of the interference that was thrown in Hillary’s way. It’s like no one cares that people in the stands are throwing things onto the track that the leaders have to deal with, which slows her down and lets the challenger creep up. Here I’m talking about the slow drip drip from WikiLeaks and the Russians. Then the way some of the officials acted, by letting the challenger get extra boost by acting totally unfairly in the debates. Several times in all the debates Trump acted in such a way that in any other debate setting he would have been called out. But not in the Presidential Debates of 2016. I’m particularly thinking of the time(s) Trump left his podium to walk around the stage. In any other debate the moderator would have interrupted and directed him to return to his place. Think of this as disruptive as a runner cutting across lanes on the track.

Finally we have the most telling blow. The absolutely wrong action of the FBI in the final weeks of the election and the problem with “Hillary’s e-mails”. Think of this as a track official stepping out onto the track, in the runner’s lane just as the runner is going into their final kick, to warn the spectators not to step out on the track. Then the final point, calling the race for the Trump winner runner because he breaks the tape even though Hillary’s foot crossed the finish line first. When looked at it this way, it is no wonder she lost.

In fact I’m going to go out on a limb here and predict in 20 or 30 years the scholars will be all talking with amazement that Hillary Clinton came so close to winning with everything stacked against her. And that brings me to the positive point I want to leave you with. This is 2020, not 2016. We know what happened back then and we, the American Electorate, are on the lookout for all the dirty tricks that were played and who played them.

We are fortunate that WikiLeaks is no more. Even if we have Q-Anon we know it for what it is. And yes, the Russians are playing the same game as before, but again, we know what to look for. Even the attempt to paint Joe Biden with a broad brush of scandals backfired. It got Donald Trump in the history books as only the third president to be impeached and showed up the Republicans in the Senate to be the spineless lickspittles they are.

Not Quite True

Politics, , , , ,
Juggernaut
Juggernaut

One of the great lies being propagated by Donald Trump, MAGA, and the GOP is that he/they are a juggernaut. Totally unstoppable and undefeatable in the coming election. Nothing could be farther from the truth.

If the data we are seeing is anywhere correct the GOP is weaker now that it has been sense 1932. If 2018 wasn’t an indication of the American people disaffection with how the GOP is running things just take a look at how many incumbent Republicans are “retiring”. Not only in the House but in there is even a few Senate. Also look at all the Republican Incumbants in the Senate who are now in an actual re-election contests. Many of them are polling, in their own polls, under a 10% lead over possible challengers. This includes Senator McConnell.

As for MAGA, it has never been much more than a very noisy outlier of conservative politics. Yes, you see wonderful shots of their mass’ at the Trump Rallies, but these shots are all carefully staged. We never hear any figures of where these people come from. Are they local or bussed in? We don’t even know if they are paired to attend or not. We don’t even have an accurate definition of just what a MAGA is, other that they are Pro-Trump, do or die.

As for Pres. Trump himself I can only say two things: He Lies and He Cheats. No one should take anything he does at face value. We must always start from the position that it is not true until independent evidence come to light supporting what he has said. As for his cheating, we have to watch very very carefully everything he and his associates do. Like all people who cheat at Golf, Pres. Trump and the people he associates with they will cheat even when they don’t have to. Just look at what the GOP did in the Iowa caucus. We can expect this kind of antics until after November. Some just pranks to make the Democrats look bad, others not nearly so benign. An not just in battle ground states. Look for it in states like California, or New York, or Mississippi or Oklahoma.

So, the great Juggernaut of the Trump/Republican party is really just a big illusion created by the Great Con-artist, ‘The Snake Oil Salesman’. An every time you hear that Trump is unbeatable say “Oh Yeah? Prove it.”

Hypocrisy in the Internet Age

Politics, , , ,

Before I start let me open with the acknowledgement that I can be hypocritical. As a devout and practicing Christian I know I can and do sin. I just attempt to acknowledge it and work to be better in the future. That said lets get started on the great age of Hypocrisy Signaled by the election of Pres. Obama.

I bet you thought I was going to say Pres. Trump, didn’t you? “Sherman, to the Way Back Machine!” Hypocrisy is one of the oldest human failings in history. The problem is we now live in the age of video recordings and the Internet. This means, quite simply, that all of our leaders need to remember that what we said 21 years ago can, and will, come back to haunt them. This is of particular importance to some of the leading members of the U.S. Senate.

Just over 21 years ago several leading members of the Republicans in the Senate were members of the House of Representatives working to impeach Pres. Clinton. In this effort they took to the airwaves to stand on ‘High Principals’ to that end. Unfortunately they are now taking the exact opposite positions in the Impeachment of Pre. Trump. An not only does the opposition have the videos, they are playing them on all the TV outlets they can get to show them. What is worse this is not the first time this has happened in the Impeachment Hearings.

I maybe one of the few ‘lay’ people to watch the house hearing where the Constitutional Law experts testified. But I did watch and I did hear Prof. Turley testimony. He was well spoken, clear and concise in why Pres. Trump should not be Impeached. He stuck to all of the Pres. Talking Points in his defense. The problem is it can be shown he was functioning as a paid hack.

21 years ago Pros. Turley took the nearly exact opposite position in the Impeachment of Pres. Clinton. Now while it is perfectly acceptable for a scholar to argue in favor of a cause he personally does not support it does bring into question the veracity of his arguments when it is shown that the same person has taken all sides on an issue. It is particularly bad when the person in question is put forward as a principled, and unbiased scholar just putting forward a principled position. From now on Prof. Turley’ s scholarly Veracity will be questioned. He will have to work hard an long to regain it.

I have no doubt that there are plenty of people on the Democratic side of the House and Senate who are all to often hypocritical but that is not the point here. The point here is that bald faced lying of the Trump Administration has already thrown a lot of tar on the Republican Party. The House Impeachment hearings has thrown even more. An if the GOP Senate runs the Trial of Donald J Trump like they are promising it is going to be eye deep in tar and other lest lovely detritus. The party may never recover.

Republicans, the party of Golf Cheats?

Philosophy, Politics, , ,
Donald Trump Golfing

I am about to make a lot of conservatives upset but I remind you all that you do not need to be a member of the MAGA GOP. The choice is yours to go or stay.

With the clear statement by Sen. McConnell that he will ensure a quick trial and acquittal of President Trump in January of next year I feel it is safe to draw some conclusions about the Republican Party in the coming years. First it is the party of Golf Cheats. By that I mean they welcome with open arms people who will do what ever is necessary to win no mater what they are doing. That being seen to win is that is important, even when everyone knows and is aware they cheated to win.

Next we can say it is the party of people who see the sole purpose of power is the arbitrary use of power (see 1984 Clip). These are also people who have, in the past complained most vociferously about the left having ‘relativistic morality’ but see nothing wrong with apply one standard to themselves and another standard to everyone else. They can do this because in reality the only moral standard they have is ‘Did I win?’ Given this standard it is easy to see why the Senate GOP will move so quickly and in unison to do what ever Donald Trump needs to stay in power.

We have been seeing this coming for the past 40+ years with the movement of southern conservatives from the Democrat Party to the Republican Party and the movement of liberal Republicans to the Democrat Party. With the introduction of RINO to the GOP lexicon and then their removal from the party. We have seen it in the rise of open voter suppression where ever the GOP has gained complete control of the State House. An we have seen it in the total acceptance by the GOP of gerrymandering of congressional districts.

So if you accept the ideal of “Wining isn’t everything, it is the only thing.” If you see believe in the arbitrary use of power for the sole benefit of the Wielder of the power. If you know you are always the victim and it is always ‘those people’ who are responsible for you sad state. Then the Republican Party is for you. Just be sure to latch yourself to the most powerful Patron you can because you have just become minion.