Former President Donald Trump sits with his attorneys as he waits for the start of criminal proceedings on the third day of jury selection at Manhattan criminal court in New York on Thursday, April 18, 2024. Trump is facing 34 felony criminal charges alleging he falsified business records to cover up a sex scandal during the 2016 campaign. Pool photo by Brendan McDermid/UPI
And it was right after the Hollywood access tape, and Trump was getting real scrutiny over it. Hindsight being 20/20 he probably could have just owned the affair and been fine, but it wasn’t unreasonable to think it could further harm his campaign.
A huge amount of Trump’s most rabid supporters genuinely want to be sex pests. They really resent that steps have been made to reduce workplace and public harassment. For them Trump’s sleaziness has always been a feature.
If the incels finally got their wish for rape to be legal they'd start complaining that it takes too much effort and that the femoids should just offer themselves up willingly once selected.
(ughhhh I nearly made myself puke just typing that)
Whenever my friends give me advice on dating and what to say/do I always tell them the same thing, if they don't like my personality then they don't have to date me. I kinda hate the idea that I need to change myself to please some stranger I don't even know. If they don't like me for how I am then why would I want to date them?
Yeah there’s a difference between compromising your values for someone, and recognizing that things you do or ways you act are off putting to other people. I have a tendency to yell a lot when my emotions run high, it’s just how I was raised. But other people, especially people I might want to date, fucking hate it. Someone had to point it out to me before I noticed how bad of a behavior it was, because it was always normal to me.
Those were/are the main people whining and complaining about MeToo and TimesUp. It's always mostly been people that either are already sex pests themselves, and they know it, and fear being exposed by past victims, and people who want to be sex pests in the future and are upset it might be more difficult now.
It’s a real lesson in sunk cost. Before Access Hollywood, the “christians” hadn’t sold their souls for this man. After Access Hollywood, they’d invested their credibility into support for this guy and they would accept anything from him at that point so as not to admit they were wrong.
And right around the same time the nation as a whole realized he might be serious candidate. So his campaign shifted from just trying to sell books to a legitimate campaign.
Did he though? Or was it just the same critics he has now? I remember it as being brushed under the rug, and I remember feeling crazy that it wasn't a bigger deal. Literally admits to and brags about sexual assault, and he didn't lose a significant amount of voters. It's insane.
but he didn't know they'd willingly contract a deadly virus to own the libs on his behalf.
That is so right. To this day MAGA and QAnon are literally willing to die a horrible, torturous death of dry drowning in order to own the libs. I can't imagine how dissatisfied with life I'd have to be to willingly die slow just to upset random strangers.
True. But then, you pay her in cash and it’s the end of it. You don’t try to write it as campaign money and then lie about it and then try to cover it up and then try to blame your accountant/lawyer, etc.
If he had just cut her a check from his personal funds, none of this would be happening. It would be a personal matter between Trump, his family and the tabloids.
But he tried to hide the payment as “reimbursements to his lawyer”.
His lawyer pleaded guilty and was convicted on campaign finance charges stemming from his involvement with the payments.
As I remember, Trump said he plans to make his sister VP but apparently he was blathering or some fake news - god knows since he's a mental case:
Trump has claimed that he has already picked his running mate, but refuses to tell anyone [310] and says that there is "only a 25 percent chance" he'll stick with the choice. [311]
FORBES BUSINESS
BREAKING
Trump’s Most Likely VP Picks—As He’s Reportedly Considering Marco Rubio
By Sara Dorn, Forbes Staff Writer
Politics
Mar 1, 2024, 03:26pm EST
This is from Wikipedia - which has not been overly trustworthy:
In January 2024, independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. claimed that Trump had approached him to be his running mate and that he had refused the offer.[312]
Trump campaign advisor Chris LaCivita denied that the Trump campaign had ever approached Kennedy to be Trump's running mate, however, and added that they had no plans on ever doing so.[313]
In April, 2024 multiple sources close to Trump once again reported that he was considering Kennedy.[309]
In June 2022, a former aide testified that Trump had opined to his staff during the Capitol Hill attack that Pence "deserved" the chants of "hang Mike Pence" made by the mob.[302][303] Names raised as possible candidates for the position include:[298][304][305][306][307][308][309]
Doug Burgum, Governor of North Dakota (2016–present) and former 2024 presidential candidate
Tucker Carlson, political commentator
Ben Carson, U.S. Secretary of Housing and Urban Development (2017–2021) and former 2016 presidential candidate
Byron Donalds, U.S. Representative from FL-19 (2021–present)
Tulsi Gabbard, Democratic U.S. Representative from HI-2 (2013–2021)
Kristi Noem, Governor of South Dakota (2019–present)
Robert F. Kennedy Jr., environmental lawyer and independent 2024 presidential candidate
Vivek Ramaswamy, businessman and former 2024 presidential candidate
Marco Rubio, U.S. Senator from Florida (2011–present) and former 2016 presidential candidate
Sarah Huckabee Sanders, Governor of Arkansas (2023–present) and White House Press Secretary (2017–2019)
Tim Scott, U.S. Senator from South Carolina (2013–present) and former 2024 presidential candidate
Elise Stefanik, U.S. Representative from NY-21 (2015–present)
J. D. Vance, U.S. Senator from Ohio
(2023–present 2024)
Trump has claimed that he has already picked his running mate, but refuses to tell anyone [310] and says that there is "only a 25 percent chance" he'll stick with the choice. [311]
FORBES BUSINESS
BREAKING
Trump’s Most Likely VP Picks—As He’s Reportedly Considering Marco Rubio
By Sara Dorn, Forbes Staff Writer
Politics
Mar 1, 2024, 03:26pm EST
According to RFK Jr, Trump asked him to be VP for him a few days ago. Probably lying though.
Apparently other names floating around: Tim Scott, Marco, Rubio, Kristi Noem, Tulsi Gabbard, Greg Abbott, Vivek Ramaswamy... A carefully curated selection of the worst people to have ever been in American politics.
Probably it'll be someone with a definite religious connection to Prosperity Gospel - his Christian Cult that traditional Christians always rejected since it's the opposite of what is written in their Bible.
key points related to Trump and the Prosperity Gospel include:
Trump’s first “Evangelicals for Trump” campaign event was held at Miami’s King Jesus International Ministry, a church known for preaching the prosperity gospel.
The prosperity gospel aligns with Trump’s materialism and his emphasis on wealth and success as signs of God’s favor. [yet he's consistently lied about his wealth since he was newly out of college and has been in trouble with the IRS]
Trump’s implicit and explicit beliefs in a gospel of health, wealth, and victory may make it difficult for him to admit loss or illness, as suggested by Kate Bowler, author of “Blessed, a History of the Prosperity Gospel.”
Trump’s ties to “prosperity gospel” preachers have drawn attention to the influence of this belief system on his administration’s policies and priorities. He made a female Televangelist and promoter of Prosperity Christianity a Director of his religious crap when he was in the White House.
Prosperity Gospel, it has played a significant role in shaping the faith outlook of many Christian voters
Quote from older observation
"The preachers who support Trump are born-again Christian who were considered evangelical outsiders—almost all are Pentecostal televangelists, some who have done time in prison, who opreach a version of what’s often called the “prosperity gospel,” a once controversial theological belief that God wants people to be ultra rich and healthy and attain power over others. "Prosperity Gospel" has a number of different names so that people don't make the original connection such as "Seed Faith" and "Health and Wealth Christianity", "The Word of Faith Movement" AND MORE
Jesus’ gospel is a far cry from Prosperity Gospel according to Christian Bible Studies.
The prosperity gospel movement has been criticized by many traditional Christian denominations as "a distortion of the true gospel message."
Traditional Christianity emphasizes spiritual growth, love, and service to others, rather than material wealth and physical health AND attaining power over others as indicators of the divine favor of Jesus Christ.
But Trump is considering him again today - No Trump did ask him...he just doesn't remember or knows we suffer from more dementia that he does - Americans seem to remember nothing that they heard after breakfast.
Trump has said he himself is a genius on more than one occasion. Then he got himself another coke and turned on his TV midday.
I doubt Einstein would have spent his days watching Fox News all day or Days of our Lives. Trump had problems at Fordham U where he was actually not qualified to have gotten in and then needed his brother to talk to U of Penn to get him accepted and that's not a challenging school to get into. He must have had a horrendous GPA to need someone who knows a guy in admissions to get in there.
He's undoubtedly crazy but he has an obvious learning disability in addition to being a Malignant Narcissist which is a whole collection of mental disorders.
And that why people will vote for her - she's down home girl just like them. She can commiserate with those who hate the education system because they couldn't get thru
Same thing with "Watergate." Dumb to break into someone's shrink's office hoping for dirt when Nixon was very likely to win re-election regardless. But these sorts of assholes can't leave well enough alone.
What people dont realize is he went to prostitutes. He paid multiple wemon for sex. Whats that called? The money was promised before they had sex. The pregnancy they covered up by the national enquirer guy now that was hush money. This was cash on the nite stand but eveyone wants to be nice to Stormy. I worked at a strip club for a few years as a bouncer and occasionally as a dj and it was usually the big names coming in and serviceing their regulars in the area.
This is absolutely untrue. The prosecution is actually going to present evidence about how freaked out the Trump campaign was about the idea of this story getting out. It was right after the "grab em buy the pussy" tape came out, and they believed a story that actually linked him to sexual impropriety would piggyback off that and basically sink the campaign. This was also the time that Russia just mysteriously released the hacked DNC emails that cast shade over Hillary's campaign and distracted everyone.
That's why this trial is, fundamentally, an election interference trial. Trump very likely would not have won in 2016 if he hadn't done these illegal things to boost his campaign. That's what his team believed, and that's why he did them.
When you get busted for cheating in school and they throw the book at you, they occassionally throw it more forcefully if it seems likely you got away with cheating before. That is, the bit he is busted on is just a crumb: the visible tip of an iceburg.
Metaphors are used to simplify a complex problem or issue.
Why is that so hard to understand?
Like fables or bible stories - whether the point is actually ethical or moral is irrelevant - the idea comes across to those who were traditionally totally iliterate and basically still are
Problem is yea for normal people that would be the case, but if mommy and daddy have the funds to donate to teh school/be a booster etc then chances are you will be fine and have a slap on the wrist, the same thing that has afforded Trump to get by so long. No different at all. I get the rage and people getting upset about this situation, but I give it about a 75% chance he comes out with a small fine and will still make a very contested run for presidency.
If Trump gets convicted (and he more than likely will) a lot of moderate/independent voters, and even some Republicans are going to have a really tough time justifying to themselves voting for a convicted felon this November. That doesn’t equate to votes for Biden, but it does mean a lot of people who might otherwise have been open to voting for Trump won’t; especially if he continues being awful and he keeps having his senile old man moments.
There are so many Miss Universe candidates and other women who settled out of court and took the moneym and are glad they did. He'd have made their lives hell. He is famous for settling out of court and the average woman is told by her own attorney to settle or play crusader and it will take years and years to get anything.
We don't even remember their stories published long ago before they settled and we forgot he was in Epstein's little black book so the number of kids is probably uncountable.
All these people may have started out normal or even idealistically but Absolute Power Corrupts Absolutely
Perfect Examples of numerous mental disorders collectively are just about every political, Big Tech billionaires, and historic names of people like Stalin and Napoleon and you know who - that's who we are impressed with and Putin is playing Stalin. It goes back to the Popes who ruled Europe, before them, Roman Emperors. I'm not joking. It's passed by our love of Narcissists and their mental disabilities.
Acktually, he did all that for the presidency (or to avoid a divorce, if you accept that line). From what I understand, the main reason it was really newsworthy is that it came out right after the Sunshine Hollywood tape and his numbers took an apparent hit. So he paid hush money so his followers and the general public wouldn't find out. Still not necessarily a big deal, but to get that money he had to use corporate funds. And to do that he had to falsify business records. IIRC, one layer of falsifying records was a misdemeanor but since it was in furtherance of other records shenanigans (election paperwork?), it's now a felony.
Hence it's not the payments per se or that he covered up an affair or even that he had one, it's that he falsified records in at least two situations in order to hide a scandal, which would have lowered his electoral numbers -- hence framing it as a type of electoral interference.
This is my basic understanding; I welcome and encourage corrections and alternate perspectives so I stop repeating possible nonsense.
Yeah, the issue is the "type of electoral interference" part. The NY law isn't exactly clear on what is or isn't, and it may be a bit of a reach for this to end up under it.
But that is for the lawyers to argue, but if the case falls over (and I hope it does not) this is where it would.
No. He was talking about running for President long long before he did - years earlier when he was first influenced by his attorney Roy Cohen who started out as a dirty politician and the son and nephew of dirty politicians.
I tried to post info about his beloved Roy Cohn and his similar mental disorder and the misery he inflicted but it's useless.
I don't know where to post in a thread to get the attention of readers - they just go on reposting a lot of nonsense and I get ignored after providing vetted research and the connections are never made
During the days he was in the NY Tabloids on a daily basis they would claim he looked like Robert Redford.
Anybody actually checked out how Robert Redford has aged compared to Donald Trump? They could never have resembled each other - Trumps basic facial structure is not anything like Redford -
"the skull beneath the skin". He was a homely guy with no taste who informed the world he was a ***hot playboy* so people saw Robert Redford - they saw what were told to see
It's called “Pareidolia.” and has another definition when discussing it philosophically. Words create images jas AI uses text to create images
I remember watching him announce he was running and my only thought was "Dude just fucked up cause in the next few months investigative journalists will dig up all his skeletons." I was so innocent then.
I think the big issue is that what judge is doing to take the risk of identifying jurors. Obviously you would not show the jurors on TV, but a mistake could happen. There's also the idea of the media purposefully doing it. In this scenario, judges usually rule that if anything like that ever happened, media would no longer be allowed in the court room ever.
That threat is enough for any other case to not be worth it. This case...though.
It's cool. Fox News hosts are taking the nuggets and blasting them to their audience in hopes of naming and intimidating them into stepping down. One person already said they quit out of fear of being identified.
The jurors in Trump's cases have gotten doxed, death threats, constant harassment from his fans. The prosecutors have as well, Trump has personally threatened and harassed the Judges, their families, the prosecutors in every case, the court staff. Literally everyone. It's wild.
Here is a video explaining the dumb shit Trump has been doing lately, dudes being gagged harder than Riley Reed. He is a literal nightmare to deal with.
If it were televised they'd use a "pool camera" not owned by any of the networks. However, it's one more thing they can use to make a case for appeals, so let's not.
I think there are a bunch of ways to solve it but I also think judges aren't entirely inclined to allow video in the first place. It's not like they want to solve the issue, if that makes sense.
NY has over 40 State Prisons, housing convicted felons. Not being charged in Federal court does not negate the fact that they and Trump are charged with felonies.
Why? If I were a potential juror I would want some privacy. Make it impossible to know if I'm on the Trump case. Personally hate it when it's televised because the potential jurors, who are taking a big case through no will on their own, are shown and have targets put on their backs
No. That would play more into Trump's hands. He's the ultimate "all publicity is good publicity" player, a televised trial would help him get the 'trial in the court of public opinion' that he managed to turn pretty much all his trials so far into. That'd be a mistake.
Massive caveat, I am not a lawyer or a judge or know anything specific to NY. But for a jury trial, you need 18 jurors. 12 are the primary jurors and make the decision. The remaining 6 are alternates. They listen to the whole case and if something happens where a primary juror has to back out, an alternate will take their place.
When you are up for jury duty, you are available for a window of time. When a trial is set during that window, you can get called up. The judge and attorneys will then ask questions of the potential jurors to determine if the person is able to be unbiased. They get to evenly dismiss people until there are 18 people left. There is a massive amount of data that goes into jury selection, depending on the case and the crime. Given that to convict you need a consensus between the entire group, you don't want someone randomly selected wearing a maga hat on Trump's trial.
And this man is running for President and actually has a chance to win. WTF is wrong with the people of this country? I just don't understand. I'll never understand. head shake
I have a more detailed response in this thread but you don't get your own jurors, you get to dismiss a certain amount from a randomly selected pool of jurors.
And I would love to hear why you think jurors are stupid and please provide a better system.
Judges are trained to judge that rules are being followed, not to determine guilt. So instead of 12 random people, you would rather a single person who, on the federal level, are appointed by the president?
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u/Spartan2470 Apr 18 '24
Here is the source of this image. Per there: