The Unraveling -- Donald Trump

Dang, I had a good one, too. ? 

Seriously, though, Allyn, excellent analysis. I don't think Twitler gives a d*mn about Stone except for all the dirt he has on him.  T. doesn't think twice about discarding anyone who has outlived their usefulness to him. Manafort, prison. Stone, prison. Let's hope he's next.

@turtle26

This may sound crazy, but whenever I think of Trump, I see him on a chess board ruthlessly moving his pawns across the board.  But while he is the one playing all the pieces on his side of the board, the other side is being controlled by multiple players with their own individual pieces.  Each one comes to the board with their own strengths and weaknesses, and I don't think they are all coordinating with one another, but they share one goal; Attack the great Orange King who is invading their homes.  The Democratic candidates, the media (not including Fake Fox News, of course), the Democratic House and Senate, Never Trump Republicans, private citizens that was targeted by Trump, etc.  

While Trump has the advantage of controlling all of his pieces (McConnell, the Republican House and Senate, Fox News, his mindless, Satanic followers, etc.), he does not have the intelligence or the restraint of looking ahead into the future.  Right now he thinks he can single-handedly wipe out all of his opponents through shear force of will.  All he has to do is use his mindless pawns.  And if they fall, what does it matter?

Now, I don't expect the pawns to suddenly grow a brain (We know that after three and a half years of cruelty, they are already lost).  But because they lack the ability to think independently, they and Trump are gleefully walking into a trap (or multiple traps) by the other side.  Trump believes he has the judiciary on the run, and he is using Barr to wipe the pieces off the board.  But he is completely ignoring the State Judiciary, who is silently waiting until Trump gets into the wrong place before they pounce.  The same hold true for other groups as well.

Eventually, Trump will outplay himself.  And then...checkmate.

@jeanne-mayell

Personally, I don't care if anyone tells attorney jokes on this site.  I hear them all the time, along with women jokes (let's face it, men outnumber women in the legal profession 4 to 1 where I live), along with blonde jokes (yes, I am a natural blonde.)

But seriously, I don't mind so much as long as it is in good fun.  Most people appreciate that attorneys are like everyone else.  Some are good people, and some are not-so-good people.  Most of the time, we are misunderstood, because we work in the legal profession and have been trained to think that way (hence my analysis as to what may be going on behind the scenes for Stone and Trump, as well as Judge Jackson's likely reasoning behind the sentence she imposed.)  

I am actually concerned that there may be a few people who believe that attorneys are inherently evil and are already destined for hell simply for being attorneys.  Yes, they exist, and yes, I have encountered them.  One was a distant family member, too!  :P

@allyn I wish I could give your post 12 thumbs up!

It is very helpful to hear from someone who knows the legal system and does give me some hope. Thank you.

@jessi1978

I can hear my mother's voice saying, 'twas ever thus.

This quote from Dorothy Sayers-"to oppose one class perpetually to another-young against old, manual labor against brain-worker, rich against poor, woman against man, is to split the foundations of the State-and if the cleavage runs too deep, there remains no remedy but force and dictatorship.  If you wish to preserve a free democracy, you must base it, not on classes and categories, for this will land you in a totalitarian state, where no one may act of think except as a member of a category.  You must base it on the individual Tom, Dick and Harry, and the individual Jack and Jill, in fact, upon you and me."

It unfolded right before us.  The rethug's dream.

I'm sure Stone thinks he's being discriminated against for being a rich white guy.

I did not watch last night's rally, but I did catch a few clips online. He was totally deranged last night. I will spare you the summary because if this was anyone other than Twitler we would all be very sad at the public spectacle of a very sick individual.

I do believe that he is quite ill and that his handlers are medicating him as best they can, but the bar of what their interventions are able to achieve is getting lower and lower. If last night was the best he could be....well then the predictions for March certainly seem within reach. 

@allyn, I thought we had a couple of attorneys on this site, and am happy that you weighed in.  Thanks for that really clear analysis.  The unfortunate thing about the judge's 3+ year sentence is that many people won't know that sentence was considered reasonable and expected within the legal community.  So T can claim that he is responsible for getting the judge to reduce it, and many of the general public will believe it.  One more orange ball of confusion.

About lawyers:  We've had to hire a few over the years, and don't know what we would have done without their wise counsel.  My ex- was also an attorney -- not a great hubby, but one of the most ethical lawyers I've met.   I've also known a few who have worked for the DOJ and SEC, and was always impressed by their dedication and ethics.  Over the years I also worked for a couple of corporate law firms.  I worked for some good people, and some stinkers.  That experience was a mixed bag, like any profession.  Some of these firms did offer a robust pro-bono practice and encouraged their attorneys to participate, which was great. 

Funny side note: I was drafting an engagement letter for a new client of one of the firm's partners.  He looked at his billable rate stated in the letter, then wryly commented "I can't believe we're charging that for my services.  I'm not worth that much money."  Now THAT is a great lawyer joke!

@allyn

So a blond lawyer walks into the bar...........

All joking aside, I've met a few lawyers who are pure evil, but I've also ket a lot of them who do jobs no one else can, or will, do. Guilty or not, everyone is expected to have a fair trial and most laypersons have no clue what the law actually is. Lawyers(yes the ones who represent guilty clients too) actually are the ones doing the daily grind of upholding constitutional rights of the average citizen.

It's easy to fault a lawyer for defending the guilty, and most people could never do it, but it is those cases that mean the most to criminal defense rights. If we refuse a defense to the guilty, then we refuse a defense to the innocent at the same time. Lawyers are doing the dirty work to make sure that the innocent are properly defended and that never changes.

Just my 2 cents. 

@allyn

Once again I love hearing your explanation from a legal standpoint and just plain like your posts anyway ? It just so happens my brother is an assistant attorney General for the State of NY. He has been there for 30+ years and is one of the most ethical people I've ever known. He is also a democrat and we have great conversations with him about our similar politics. (for both my brother and I to be the way we are is kinda funny in itself since my dad was a little mini Trump in many ways, but our mom was an Angel, anyway I digress...)

We always have fun telling jokes about anything really, even lawyer jokes. I have other extended family who are lawyers too. We need good lawyers like yourself! 

I heard another YT psychic say she saw the cheating going on and in the trajectory it's in right now he would win through 4 times the amount of cheating and interference from Russia he had before. That they are playing the same playbook they used in 2016. She did say this could change and someone can stop them, but she didn't see anyone doing it YET.  I would love if folks here see anything in a psychic way about that point. Perhaps we can all look at that one day. We definitely need to do a light bath over those who can expose that.

I've literally had the conversation with several people over the last couple of days about how the lawyers have suddenly become the good guys. I guess a small silver lining to chaos of the last few years.  We'll know things are going back to normal when the lawyers jokes make a comeback!  

Agree that the NY AG (Letitia James) will drop a bomb on trump at some point.  And that the Roger Stone judge, Amy Berman Jackson, handled the sentencing masterfully.  Women rising!

Hi @triciact what is a YT psychic?

thanks

@frank--YT means youtube.  Youtube is the wild west and I ask people to stick to the posts of people here in this forum,  not the Youtube folks who we have no way of evaluating.  

If there was any question of whether Trump was a Russian asset or a useful idiot, he has just proven himself an asset. He is going to twitter defending Sanders, who was recently told that Russia is trying to help win the nomination). Putins benefit from Sanders running against Trump is obvious to me, so I highly doubt Bernie is in bed with him. Thia leaves the question of why is Trump all of a sudden strongly defending Sanders? Bernie is polling well against Trump and if it is just ease of win, he wouldve defended other candidates early on as well.  

@mas1581

He thinks Bernie is the most beatable of the Democratic candidates. This is who has wants to run against. There's a ton of opposition research on Bernie, videos of him praising the USSR and Fidel Castro. The GOP is planning to pummel him once/if he's nominated.  Whether that will work when the sitting president is on tape using the word p---y  and routinely curses at his rallies remains to be seen. 

Most GOP and ex-GOP never-trumpers, some of whom started the Lincoln Project (Google it if you haven't heard about it) think nominating Bernie will serve to elect re-trump. Again whether this is true in the topsy-turvy world we live in remains to be seen. I kind of agree, but then again I'm pretty hopeless lately so take my vibes with a big grain of salt.

@mas1581

I wonder if they (GOP/Russia) are thinking that they can play the "socialism" card against Sanders to win by enticing back the moderates within the party who dislike Trump. Someone in my neighborhood has not one but TWO signs in their yard that say "Defeat Socialism/Trump 2020." Even though Sanders isn't a socialist in the way they make him out to be, older folks especially might be easily convinced. And who knows about the accuracy of those polls? Hard to say what the thinking is, although the main motivation of the Russians tends to be to sow division, and many within the established democratic party don't like Sanders (and obstructed his chances of winning the 2016 primary).

@lynnventura I agree. My 15-year-old said the same thing yesterday - "he thinks he has the best chance against Bernie." Although orange one himself continues to unravel before us, they have the capacity to spread so much misinformation about Bernie (based on his policies) that I believe it would force many to not vote at all if they didn't like the choice (between orange one and him).

@Allyn I hope you are right - I want this chess match to end!!! 

As an aside, I just went to early vote myself this morning - and I must say that in spite of the hopelessness that I do feel OFTEN right now, the workers at the polling place were very nice, organized, and I didn't have to wait too long.  

@turtle26 What dirt do they have on Bernie?  Here is what I got when I googled, Is there any dirt on Bernie Sanders? https://www.quora.com/Has-anyone-ever-found-dirt-on-Bernie-Sanders

Watch the video of him as Mayor of a Vermont Town in 1987 talking to disadvantaged kids going to a summer camp.  

There is fake news about him, but even one guy posted that even though he doesn't like Bernie, the guy is squeaky clean. 

@jeanne-mayell thanks for checking in! I edited to restate that I do believe they have the capacity to spread so much misinformation on him based on his policies that it could do more damage (i.e in terms of polarization). I personally do believe that Bernie has nothing to hide.....

@jeanne-mayell

But it's the label "Socialist" I voted for him in 2016, but I don't think he can stand against trump with socialist on his back. I was talking to a guy at Walmart, and he said he had a heart attack, and I said Bernie had a heart attack and he was OK. Then he went on about Bernie wanting to give away all our money, and the Democrats allowing a run on the border. It's not fun in Oklahoma.

Not only do they want to divide us, but they want us to worry.  They understand the Dem psychology -- the hand-wringing, the self-doubt.   DO NOT WORRY.  DO NOT PANIC.  That will only cause confusion and weaken us.  Yes, be proactive and do what feels right to you (e.g. speak the truth, pray, send light energy, send donations, work for whichever candidate you support etc.), but let this thing play out.  If Bernie gets the nomination, it's fine.  If Bloomberg gets it (doubtful, but who knows?), it's fine.  Any one of the Dem candidates can win.  I believe that in the core of my being.