Trial, trial and you’re fired!
Just when you thought the news couldn’t get any crazier, last week happened. Former President Trump sat in a New York Courtroom. He lasted for two-and-a-half days before getting bored and leaving. His lawyers, typical of Trump’s lawyers, are losing badly in court. The Trump clown car attorneys requested trial by judge, not by jury. That was their choice. Trump, typical of Trump, is trying his case outside of court, in front of the TV cameras with his greatest hits, such as “Crooked Joe Biden!”; “Vicious witch hunt!”; “Radical Democrat judges!”; “Rigged trial!”; “The weaponization of justice system!”; “Send me all your money!” The usual lies and grifting. There’s a reason Trump is saying these things outside the courtroom. Judges don’t allow fabrications inside the courtroom.
The truly amazing thing is Trump never thought he would be indicted. The Trump criminal family has been committing financial fraud for decades. Law enforcement knew all about their crimes. Until now, we’ve never had a District Attorney with any chutzpah to indict and prosecute (not persecute) Trump. FYI … the new Trump T-shirt with his mug shot says, “I will never surrender!” and yet he did just that, with four separate indictments — he surrendered.
Sam Bankman-Fried (“SBF”), the founder of the now-defunct cryptocurrency trading firm FTX, went on trial in Manhattan on Tuesday. SBF is charged with financial fraud, having $8 billion of customer’s investments disappear. They had problems selecting the jury, as many perspective jurors and their family members have lost money in crypto “magic beans.” Prosecutors allege that SBF defrauded customers and investors of FTX, a cryptocurrency exchange by commingling funds with Alameda Research, a cryptocurrency hedge fund SBF also controlled. In simple terms, you deposit $1,000 with X Bank, who then gives your money to Speculative Fund (an investment bank controlled by X), who promptly speculates (gambles) your money and loses it all. A month later you go back to X to withdraw your funds and are told, “I’m sorry, your money is gone.” You can see why thousands of FTX customers are furious.
Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy (R-CA), dared MAGA to fire him and on Tuesday, their coup worked.
McCarthy was the first and only Speaker of the House ever to be fired mid-term in the history of our country. It took McCarthy 15 rounds of voting to get elected Speaker and one round of voting to “vacate the seat.” Eight MAGA Republicans, led by Matt Gaetz (RFL), Andy Biggs, (R-AZ), Bob Good (R-VA), Elijah Crane, (RAZ), Tim Burchett (R-TN), Ken Buck (R-CO), Nancy Mace (RSC) and Matthew Rosendale, (R-MT) along with 208 Democrats relieved McCarthy of his seat. What was Speaker McCarthy’s crime? He worked with Democrats to avert a government shutdown and negotiated a resolution to fund the government for another 45 days. While I don’t like McCarthy’s politics (he constantly lied and had no spine), he’s now part of the former Republican Speakers of the House who were consumed by the worst of the Republican Party. John Boehner and Paul Ryan both left the Speaker’s job in disgust with the Republican Party as Boehner couldn’t deal with the Tea Party and Ryan hated MAGA.
The downside is, sometimes the devil you know is better than the devil you don’t know. Jim Jordan (I just threw up in my mouth) has already thrown his hat in the ring for the Speaker job. Majorie Taylor Greene has fever dreams of Donald Trump being the next Speaker of the House. The United States Constitution doesn’t specify that the Speaker must be a member of Congress, hence anybody can be the next Speaker of the House. Ironically, the last time Trump had a rally at Congress was the Jan. 6 insurrection. “Hey guys, the man who set loose a crazed mob to kill us all now wants to be Speaker of the House!” Welcome to Republicans 2023.
Trump was known as the chaos president. Tragically, Republicans are now known as the chaos party. MAGA’s only definition is chaos. We all have family, friends, neighbors and work associates who are MAGA. Hopefully, they’re just ultra conservative and nonviolent. Hopefully, they don’t want to throw a hand grenade into democracy. Sadly, many of the Jan. 6 MAGAs that have been sentenced to prison had violent criminal records, mental health and financial issues. Says a lot about MAGA.
The United States is no longer what Ronald Reagan once described as “the shining city upon a hill.”