The Donald Trump Score Card

https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2021/07/02/trump-company-indictment-weisselberg/

excerpt:

"If Weisselberg, 73, were to unexpectedly leave the company, whether for reasons related to the case or not, D’Antonio said it could cause a major disruption. He said Weisselberg has effectively run the business with Trump for several decades, managing the details and the finances while Trump built his brand and cut deals.

“I think of Weisselberg and Donald as brothers who were brought into the company at the same time. And one was the outside man and one was the inside man,” D’Antonio said. He said Weisselberg’s inside-man role was especially important because of the company’s complex finances: The Trump Organization is a web of hundreds of interrelated limited liability companies, making it unusually difficult to run for a relatively small company.

“It’s complex — but not huge,” D’Antonio said of the company. “It was Weisselberg’s job to keep everything straight.”

Daniel Goldman, a former assistant U.S. attorney and lead House impeachment lawyer in 2019, said Trump’s political framing of the charges is focused on business partners, lenders and others who impact the former president’s bottom line.

“He is trying to take the attack in belittling these charges so they won’t end their relationship with him,” Goldman said. “He’s basically trying to save his company.”"

 

That's hilarious, being that THE REPUBLICAN PARTY is trying every way imaginable to secure an autocratic, one-party rule here in the U.S.A. Totalitarianism is what T**** wanted for himself when he said he should be able to remain president for life ........ an autocratic dictator for life. (remember T**** said - in glowing terms - that he admired the "strong leadership styles" of Putin and Xi Jinping, both Communist totalitarian dictators) T**** then followed up by saying, "We should have more of that here." (in the U.S.A.)

Stick to our Constitution ........... they say?????????????? That's as FAR from our Constitution as you can get!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

That uneducated lunacy is where the danger lies. They don't know if their ass is punched or bored, so how can we expect them to understand government, civics, and laws???

 

Show school children videos of Trump's insurrection at the Capitol. It's a first-hand lesson in autocracy and violation of the Constitution.

 

Totalitarianism
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Totalitarianism - Wikipedia

excerpt:

"Totalitarian regimes are often characterized by extensive political repression, a complete lack of democracy, widespread personality cultism, absolute control over the economy, massive censorship, mass surveillance, limited freedom of movement (most notably freedom to leave the country) and widespread use of state terrorism. Other aspects of a totalitarian regime include the use of concentration camps, repressive secret police, religious persecution, state religion or state atheism, the common practice of executions, fraudulent elections, possible possession of weapons of mass destruction and a potential for state-sponsored mass murder and genocides. Historian Robert Conquest describes a totalitarian state as one which recognizes no limit on its authority in any sphere of public or private life and it extends that authority to whatever length is feasible.[3]"

 

McBroom seems to be as conservative as a mainstream Republican can be, but yet up is attacked by trump.

 

And this is what conservatives don’t seem to understand. They equate dictatorships with communism. Communism is an economic system.
There have been non communist totalitarian governments.
Augusto Pinochet comes to mind, but since ‘murica supported him, that was ok.

 

Prosecuted by. . . . . . . . Rudy Giuliani.

Ironic side note. At the time Donald Trump referred to Helmsley as “ a disgrace to humanity”.

 

The GOP has been justifying election investigations for 8 months by using unfounded accusations that the election was stolen from Trump.

It is similar to how Rumsfeld was trying to justify the invasion of Iraq after 9/11 by citing 'unknown unknowns' about Saddam (i.e., Saddam might have had WMD but the U.S. hadn't yet discovered it).

The GOP is at the same juncture now with the 2020 election as Rumsfeld was about hte Iraq war. In terms of evidence, both have come up empty.

The GOP is still implementing more voter restrictions in various states in spite of not being able to produce evidence of voter fraud.

McBroom of MI is still calling for voting restrictions after (expectedly) coming up empty himself in a state where Biden won by about 150,000 votes..



The Michigan Republican Who Stood Up to Trump’s Fraud Claims Wants to Restrict the Vote, Because of “Fraud”
Cheyna Roth
July 02, 20213:01 PM

The Michigan Republican Who Stood Up to Trump’s Fraud Claims Wants to Restrict the Vote, Because of “Fraud”

excerpt:

"But the biggest issue with McBroom is that while McBroom’s report touts the truth, McBroom himself is still calling for changes to the state’s election system. And his reason for supporting bills that would require ID for mail-in ballots and in-person voting? Fraud.

“We hear a lot about how there was only this little bit of fraud and therefore nothing else is needed. But just because you can say we caught this amount of fraud isn’t somehow compelling proof that there wasn’t more that wasn’t caught,” McBroom said on the Senate floor during the chamber votes on June 16, just a week before his Oversight Committee released the report. “That’s really a mischaracterization and a bit of a red herring.”

To say that all the evidence of your monthslong investigation yielded nothing and then to suggest there might still be more fraud that wasn’t caught is like asserting a brick wall is in great condition after careful analysis, and then insisting on shoring it up anyway just in case. It’s actually more nefarious than that, because it uses one of the central reasons the Republicans’ voter fraud concerns are so salient with their base: It’s extremely hard to prove a negative. McBroom took the extraordinary step to spend months carefully investigating this claim. The real issue is that even he isn’t satisfied by his own results."

 

Takes one to know one, I guess...

 

When Rumsfeld was asked by a journalist if he thought there were unknown unknowns about Saddam, WMD, and possible links to terrorists related to 9/11 to justify an invasion of Iraq, Rumsfeld said he wasn't going to comment on his stance.

Rumsfeld was known for taking the cheap way out by telling people to just read what's in the news to find out about the Pentagon's stance and what it was doing.

Similar to Rumsfeld, Bush Jr. would make nebulous remarks, such as saying the that U.S. would stay in Iraq as long as necessary but not a day longer. It would spend as much money as necessary on the war but not a dollar more.


Video of Rumsfeld telling a journalist that he's not going to say which it is:

The Donald Trump Score Card

 

Supreme Court order ends congressional Democrats' attempts to determine if Trump lied in Mueller probe - CNNPolitics

excerpt:

"On Friday, the high court vacated earlier rulings. The Justice Department under President Joe Biden wanted this result, saying the case had become moot. The House didn't oppose the department's move.

But a top lawyer for the House in June noted the case was ending because Trump was no longer President.

"The Trump Administration succeeded in running out the clock and thereby undermined the ability of the House of Representatives to have access to all of the relevant facts as it considered impeachment," House General Counsel Douglas Letter wrote in a filing to the Supreme Court. In the future, "the Committee fully trusts that the Justice Department will return to its prior longstanding position and support disclosure at the appropriate time. Any failure to do so would gravely unsettle the separation of powers enshrined in the Constitution and undermine the public's trust in our system of government.""

 

Ex-Trump lawyer Cohen alleges retaliation, seeks $20 million in damages from U.S. government
Onetime "fixer" says he was sent back to federal prison for criticizing the then-president and writing a book about him.
By Dartunorro Clark and Adam Reiss
July 2, 2021, 10:06 PM UTC

Ex-Trump lawyer Cohen alleges retaliation, seeks $20 million in damages

excerpt:

"Michael Cohen, President Donald Trump's former personal lawyer, on Friday filed a claim seeking $20 million in damages from the federal government, alleging top figures in the Trump administration retaliated against him by sending him back to prison after he was furloughed last year.

The claim states that government officials committed "false arrest, false imprisonment, abuse of process, wrongful confinement, and retaliation" against Cohen for, in large part, making critical statements about the former president and writing a book about his time working for Trump.

"Mr. Cohen was the personal attorney to the President of the United States and if he could be thrown in jail for desiring to write a critical book of the President one’s imagination need not go far before realizing that such unacceptable and constitutionally violative conduct could be directed at any of us," his attorney, Jeffrey Levine, said in a statement. "That is not hyperbole and not acceptable."

Levine also said that Cohen plans to file a lawsuit related to violations of his First Amendment rights, and it will name former Attorney General Bill Barr and the head of the Bureau of Prisons, Michael Carvajal."

 

Rudy Giuliani sent Trump business rival Leona Helmsley to prison for tax fraud
Peter Weber
July 2, 2021

https://theweek.com/donald-trump/10...-rival-leona-helmsley-to-prison-for-tax-fraud

excerpt:

"Helmsley, who died in 2007, was a greed-is-good tabloid-staple real estate magnate who served 19 months in prison after being convicted of tax fraud in 1989. She and her husband, Harry Helmsley, renovated their Greenwich, Connecticut, mansion with millions siphoned from their hotel and real estate empire, which included the Empire State Building, among other properties.

The prosecutor who sent Helmsley to jail was Rudy Giuliani, then the crusading U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York. When Helmsley appealed her conviction, her lawyer was Alan Dershowitz. And Donald Trump himself kicked Helmsley when she was down, leaking a letter to the New York Post in 1988 amid an easement dispute over an Atlantic City property Trump bought from Penthouse magazine.

Howard Kurtz, now a Fox News media critic, contemporaneously described Trump's "deliciously vitriolic letter" to Helmsley in The Washington Post, saying it revealed Trump's "previously hidden capacity for venom." In the letter, Trump called Helmsley "a disgrace to the industry and a disgrace to humanity in general," and told her that without her husband, she "would not be able to randomly fire and abuse people in order to make yourself happy."

What Helmsley was convicted of and Trump's company indicted for is "the kind of crime that super-rich people think they can get away with — and that they can get caught for, particularly if they are brazen about it," Rachel Maddow said on MSNBC Thursday night. And "comically high-profile people" aren't exempt."

 

He had no problem with her being crooked, but getting caught? That's a disgrace!

 

Full text of "Book: Donald Trump"

Full text of "Book: Donald Trump"

 

Leona Helmsley - Wikipedia

excerpt:

"Despite the Helmsleys' net worth totalling over $1 billion, they were known for disputing payments to contractors and vendors. In 1983, the Helmsleys bought Dunnellen Hall, a 21-room mansion in Greenwich, Connecticut, to use as a weekend retreat. The property cost $11 million but the Helmsleys wanted to make it even more luxurious. The work included a $1 million dance floor, a silver clock and a mahogany card table.[16] The remodeling bills came to $8 million, which the Helmsleys were loathe to pay. A group of contractors sued the Helmsleys for non-payment and the Helmsleys eventually paid off most of the debt owed to the contractors."

 

Leona Helmsley - Wikipedia

excerpt:

"Another one of the key witnesses was a former housekeeper at the Helmsley home, Elizabeth Baum, who recounted Leona telling her,"We don't pay taxes. Only the little people pay taxes."[22] Leona denied saying this. By then, however, the trial was already highlighting her abusive and micromanaging behavior towards family members, employees, contractors and even senior executives. Former employees testified at trial "about how they feared her, with one recalling how she casually fired him while she was being fitted for a dress."[23] Most legal observers felt that Helmsley's hostile personality, arrogance, and "naked greed" alienated the jurors.[24]"

 

Trump Is Said to Have Called Arizona Official After Election Loss

excerpt:

"President Donald J. Trump twice sought to talk on the phone with the Republican leader of Arizona’s most populous county last winter as the Trump campaign and its allies tried unsuccessfully to reverse Joseph R. Biden Jr.’s narrow victory in the state’s presidential contest, according to the Republican official and records obtained by The Arizona Republic, a Phoenix newspaper.

But the leader, Clint Hickman, then the chairman of the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors, said in an interview on Friday that he let the calls — made in late December and early January — go to voice mail and did not return them. “I told people, ‘Please don’t have the president call me,’” he said.

At the time, Mr. Hickman was being pressed by the state Republican Party chairwoman and Mr. Trump’s lawyer Rudolph W. Giuliani to investigate claims of fraud in the county’s election, which Mr. Biden had won by about 45,000 votes.

Liz Harrington, a spokeswoman for Mr. Trump, said in a statement that “it’s no surprise Maricopa County election officials had no desire to look into significant irregularities during the election,” though there is no evidence of widespread problems with Arizona’s election. She did not directly address the calls reportedly made by Mr. Trump. Two former campaign aides said they knew nothing about the outreach to the Maricopa County official.

The Arizona Republic obtained the records of the phone calls from Mr. Trump and Mr. Giuliani after a Freedom of Information Act request."