The Depravity of it all!

I imagine there will be a mad scramble going on in Mar-a-Lago this weekend as Trump tries to come up with half a billion dollars to post bond on his fraud appeal in New York.  Turns out the faux billionaire doesn't have that kind of cash on hand and is now banking on his Truth Social Network to bail him out.  There's been all kinds of chatter that if he takes TSN public, he stands to net billions but this is just another one of Trump's many chimeras.  It is very doubtful his social network company will be valued in the billions when it has only generated $5 million in revenue over the last three years, but in a digital world built on chimeras, who knows?  I'm not sure Judge Engoron is going to buy it though.

Playing with the idea of being a billionaire has been Trump's calling card for decades but he owns very few if any of his properties outright and would have to pay off the mortgages first before collecting any cash of his own.  This could potentially bankrupt the man who would be king, leaving many to ponder what he would do with an enormous economy if he ever got his hands on it again.  It's too frightening to consider given his ever-growing volatility.  Just recently, he threatened a "bloodbath" if he wasn't elected.

The polls still have the Orange Hairpiece ahead in many battleground states even if he is now "tied" nationally with Biden.  Of course one has to wonder about these polls.  The  Yahoo/YouGov poll tried to claim that Biden only has a 65% retention rate among Democrats as opposed to Trump's 80% among Republicans.  This despite Biden winning 90% of the vote in five key states last week.  Trump scored less than 80 percent.  Both are now running unopposed, yet Nikki Haley is still commanding 20% of the Republican vote, much of it anti-Trump with nearly 50% of her supporters in Ohio saying they would vote for Biden in November!  It seems that the gobbledygook of numbers that Yahoo provided is essentially meaningless.  

So, why are the mainstream news outlets still playing this presidential election as a horse race despite no real data to indicate that Trump has this widespread support?  I guess Trump still draws in a big television audience if nothing else, and they have ad space to sell.  Biden is not so much a draw as he isn't spouting ridiculous lies and threats at every speaking engagement.  Plus, we have this great sideshow of whether Trump will be convicted before election day.

The Supreme Court has yet to decide on whether he has immunity against federal charges, but Fani Willis is free to continue her racketeering case against Trump in Georgia after the state court ruled there was no merit to the charges that she had a conflict of interests.  Of course the ruling came with a bunch of heavy handed statements from Judge Wapner, I mean McAfee, as he tried to cast Willis in a bad light.  Georgia Republicans continue to try to dig up dirt on Willis in an effort to further incriminate her, but like the pathetic spectacle in the US House they have yet to find any evidence that she benefited financially from her relationship with a fellow state prosecutor. 

Delay, delay, delay.  Republicans are now devoting themselves full time to pushing all these trials past November with the hope that Trump will win and be able to pardon himself if he assumes office next January.  Border security, aid to Israel and Ukraine, any kind of long term budget resolution have all been pushed aside as they line themselves behind the most corrupt man ever to run for high office.  

You would have to think this is making an impact on the voter.  We know that there are a certain percentage of Republicans so deluded they would vote for a pile of shit over any Democrat, but not all Republicans live in Magaland.  Certainly not independent voters who tend to lean right in general elections.  The more Trump gets dragged through the courts the more disconcerting it gets, yet for some odd reason polls don't reflect this consternation.  Mainstream pundits continue to dwell on Biden's age and occasional verbal slip up when his opponent is a 24/7 gaffe track.  Not even Mike Pence could bring himself to endorse his former boss, despite never actually speaking out against him.  

The endorsements Trump has received from high ranking Republicans have been tepid to say the least.  Their biggest worry is that Trump has turned the RNC into a legal defense fund and that there will be no money for key Congressional races in November.  Republicans are desperately trying to hold onto the House and now worry that they might not be able to flip the Senate, which they were so certain of doing last year.  Yet, Trump has installed new leaders in the national committee who only answer to his bidding.  Why Republicans put up with this is the big question, but no one seems able to answer it.

Of course I have my theories.  One is that Russia got a lot of dirt on the Republicans when they broke into the RNC server back in 2016 and have been blackmailing party leaders ever since.  If we needed any "proof," how 'bout 7 Republican Senators going to Moscow on July 4, 2018.  Of all days to visit Vlad in the Kremlin!

Since then it has been a constant stream of odd connections between the Kremlin and Congressional Republicans, the craziest of which was Lev Parnas acting as a middleman in digging up dirt on Biden in 2020.  Parnas has since said he parlayed misinformation directly from the Kremlin to Giuliani, who in turn gave it to the talking heads at Fox to disseminate over the airwaves with the hope this would influence Congressional Republicans to launch a full throated investigation into the Bidens' illicit ties to Ukraine.  

Everything was fine until Russia invaded Ukraine, then Republicans had to step back a little and pretend they had no connections to the Kremlin.  Now that the war has dragged on for two years, you see the same Republicans crawling back to Putin and actively doing his bidding in Congress by pushing for "loans" instead of aid to Ukraine, knowing full well it is a much more complicated process and would take months if not years to put in place, if ever.  Lindsey Graham of all people.  John McCain would roll over in his grave.

It seems the Republicans love a strong man, no matter how pretentious he may be.  Recently they entertained Bibi Netanyahu, who has worn out his welcome at the White House with his prolonged siege of Gaza.  The only problem is that the Republicans can't give Israel any military aid as it is tied up in the package stalled in the House thanks to Trump's surrogate Mike Johnson.  Of course Bibi can wait.  He has enough firepower to keep Hamas engaged well through November.  It seems the main purpose of these zoom meetings was to coordinate efforts in making Biden look like a stooge.

More disconcerting was JarJar Kushner saying that Israel shouldn't accept any form of peace plan until it seizes the entire Gaza coastline, as this is valuable real estate.  I'm sure he is just echoing sentiments among Israel's top brass, who would dearly love to open up beachfront "settlements."  Let's just push all those Palestinians into the desert.

Anyone who speaks out against the audacity of this military offensive is immediately tarred and feathered.  Such was the case with Jonathon Glazer, who recently won an Oscar for a film depicting the depths of depravity in Nazi Germany.  He compared what is going on in Israel today with Nazi Germany in his acceptance speech and was sternly rebuked by over 400 Jewish "creatives." 

Not to be outdone, Trump issued this rebuke against Jews who vote for Democrats, claiming that they hated Israel.  It is hard to respond to these highly charged comments because it takes too long to unpack them, as was the case with Bill Kristol and David Frum on a CNN segment with Jake Tapper.  They come in at 3:10 minute mark of this video.

It just leaves one breathless.  How can anyone still find any appeal in this guy other than the most depraved persons in this country?  Yet, to see the endless stream of polling, Trump continues to lead Biden in key states and has a very good chance of winning the electoral college in November, if not the popular vote.

While "Democracy in Peril" seems a bit strong, it does give one pause that so many Americans are willing to even consider Trump as President, much less vote for him, given is atrocious track record.  It does remind one of 1930s Germany when so many Germans seemed fine with Hitler and turned a blind eye when he invaded Poland in 1939.  No one has been able to verify whether Trump actually said he was fine with Hitler, but his speeches oddly echo that of the Fuhrer.  

If he were to come to power again, it would definitely rock our fragile democracy, especially since he would have no qualms allying himself with Putin and other "strong men" around the world like he did last time, but I just can't bring myself to believe that the majority of Americans would actually vote for him for President.  I don't want to think that our country has become that depraved.