The first presidential debate between Donald Trump and Corrupt Demented Imbecile Joe Biden is scheduled for Thursday June 27.  These thoughts are written earlier in the week, so I concentrated on the setting, the moderators and the participants, and have posted a day early.  So I present – FRANK ON THURSDAY

First of all, although they call it a debate, it’s not really a debate, at least not the type of presidential debate to which we have become accustomed.

No audience.  No questions from members of the public.  No opening statements from the candidates.   The two moderators will ask the questions, and the candidate’s mics will be shut off when the moderators decide that “time’s up.”  And most importantly, in a debate, the candidates normally oppose only one another. Not so in this charade, uh, “debate.”

The way this farce was designed, it wasn’t just Trump versus Biden, it was Trump versus Biden, and the two moderators, CNN’s Jake (as in Fake) Tapper and Dana Bash.  What we have here is a good old-fashioned Steel Cage Tag Team Death Match.

To continue the Biden Administration’s Deep Fake/Cheap Fake meme from last week, the “debate” features, in one corner, the Unfake candidate, former President Donald J. Trump, well rested from six weeks confinement in a freezing cold courtroom; and newly tanned, by training on massive rallies in Blue States.

In the other corner, we have Sleepy Joe Biden, a/k/a Creep Fake, the aide groping, child sniffer; who’s running on a ticket with Kamala Harris, a/k/a the VEEP Fake; well rested from having spent 40% of his presidency on vacation; and tirelessly training on dextroamphetamine to allow him to focus, along with physical therapy to keep him on his feet for 90 minutes.

Then, up on the podium, are Creep Fake’s tag team partners, CNN’s Jake the Fake Tapper, and Heep Big Fake Dana Bash.  These two are the costumed villains of the wrestling world, who masquerade as impartial journalists, but who really are itching hit Trump with a chair, and bounce his head off the turnbuckle.  What did you expect when Trump challenged Biden to debate “anytime, anywhere, with any rules?”  Be careful what you ask for.

Think I’m defaming the CNN hit squad?  Think again.  Fake Jake is an unabashed Trump hater.  Here are just a few of his greatest hits.  When Biden won in 2020 he said, “For tens of millions of our fellow Americans, their long national nightmare is over.”  He claimed Trump “continues to lie to the American people” about coronavirus testing.  He retweeted a post that called Trump “100% insane.”  He mocked Trump for being hospitalized for the Wuhan virus.  He has called Trump’s presidency a “disaster.”  Fake Jake denied the 2016 election by perpetrating the Russia collusion hoax.  He has claimed that Trump tried to kill democracy, and he ordered CNN’s control room not to cover Trump live, because “he lies so much” and is potentially dangerous.  Recently, Fake Jake criticized Trump for daring to complain about the legal colonoscopy he was getting in the Manhattan court.  And oh, I almost forgot, Fake Jake Tapper has compared former President Donald Trump to Adolf Hitler.  Like I said, an impartial journalist.

Heep Big Fake Dana Bash is no slouch either.  She has denounced Trump, who has Jewish grandchildren, as “anti-Semitic and incredibly dangerous.” She’s on record arguing that, “unfortunately for America,” the US Supreme Court decided to keep Trump on the Colorado ballot.  She also suggested that Trump incited “war” domestically during his first term.

Heep Big Fake Bash was the perfect choice for debate moderator.  She called the 2020 Trump/Biden debate a “shit show,” a “bad reality TV show” and said that Trump “took it too far” with his aggression.  She also attacked Trump’s complaint about being stuck in the Manhattan courtroom by yelling,“Fact Check,” and then claiming that Trump “doesn’t have to be there, there is no requirement, he’s not compelled legally to be there.”  Well, “Fact Check” back at you!  There was no requirement but for the crooked judge’s threat to throw Trump’s ass in jail if he didn’t attend every day.

And not to be outdone by Fake Jake, Heep Big Fake has compared Trump’s rhetoric to that of Nazi Germany.  Don’t you just love a fair “debate?”

I’m nearly 700 words into this piece, and all I really had to say was “This is CNN.”  As this is written, the “debate” hasn’t happened yet, and already this past weekend, a CNN host named Hunt made it clear that the “debate” will be more about the CNN hosts than about the candidates.  The host shut off the microphone of Trump spokesperson Karoline Leavitt, who dared to suggest that Trump won’t get a fair shake in the “debate.”  When Leavitt tried to recount the history of anti-Trump statements of the moderators, CNN hustled her off the air, and the outraged CNN host chided, “You come on my show, you respect my colleagues.  Period.  I don’t care what side of the aisle you stand on, as my track record clearly shows.”

There was no need for Hunt to come to the aid of Tapper and Bash.  They had already announced that the fix was in.  Bash and Tapper have promised they “will use all tools at their disposal to enforce timing and ensure a civilized discussion, according to the network’s rules and guidelines released last week.”  Translation – “We’ll muzzle Trump every chance we get.  We’ll make sure we protect Biden by feeding him softball questions (it’s Monday, and I’m sure he’s already seen them), and by killing time correcting, arguing with and reprimanding Trump, and then shutting off his mic so he can’t reply.

Trump would do well to keep cool, ignore Biden and the CNN hit squad, and use his time to simply talk to the American people about the issues important to them.  All Trump needs to do is to dispel the false claims that he’s a rabid Nazi.  He’s ahead, and his base is solid.

Biden, on the other hand has a lot to prove.  I’ve heard suggestions that the “debate” was scheduled so early so the Dems can replace Biden if he fails to prove he can stay on his feet and handle the heat.  He’ll get plenty of help from his tag teammates.  But what the Hell?  3 against 1 is fair odds.  It’ll take more than three liars to cover up the Biden debacle.

All is not well in Leftist Land on the Potomac.  As George Lucas might say, “I feel a great disturbance in the Force.”  Democrats are sensing that their plan for keeping control of the White House may not be working.  As with all things Progressive, their plan is radical.

This was it, in a nutshell.  Get into office and undo everything that was done by President Trump because – “Orange Man bad!”  And then, simply decree all the Green, anti-American, anti-business, Marxist, Progressive bullshit that Congress never passed, and that Americans don’t want.  Simple, right?

The problem, of course, is that many of the Trump-era policies were beneficial.  If I have to say this again, Trump’s policies resulted in lower taxes, higher wages, full employment, secure borders, greatly improved trade agreements, a stronger military, a revitalized NATO alliance, no inflation, no foreign wars, and energy independence.

Corrupt Demented Imbecile Joe Biden reversed every one of those positives, replacing them with crippling inflation, high energy prices, no borders, a Woke military, and war and threat of war worldwide.  Oh, and he’s also sunk us trillions more in debt, and wants to spend much more, but he has a solution – raise all your taxes.

Over the years, I’ve pondered the wisdom of an Administration that seemingly goes out of its way to make life harder for American citizens.  Inflation is costing families an additional $900 a month just to keep pace.  Biden wants to take away your car, your gas stove, dryer, and furnace.  Meanwhile, he’s added 10 million illegal aliens to the welfare rolls.  He’s giving them housing, food, telephones and free transportation, but that’s alright.  You’ll just have to pay a little more.  Simply put, how can they piss off every voter, and then come back an say, “Give us four more years?”

Ah, they have a plan, you see.  Control the media, control the online platforms and censor dissent.  And then just lie about everything, and rely on the media to swear the lies are true.  Oh, and one more thing.  Indict your opponent four times so you can call him a convicted felon.  After all, the country’s polarized.  The independents will determine the election, and enough of them will believe the bullshit to drag Sleepy Joe over the finish line again.  Except it’s not working.

They convicted Trump in New York, and they’re lying their asses off, but Trump is ahead, even in the national polls.  It seems that, no matter how many times they swear that the economy is great, people still can’t pay their bills.  And then there’s the problem of Joe.

Joe Biden is deteriorating before our eyes.  He mumbles.  He stumbles.  He doesn’t know where he’s supposed to go.  He  shakes hands with nobody.  They’ve done their best to hide him in Delaware, but occasionally, he has to appear in public.  And his appearance is alarming.

First, there were media reports, from White House “insiders,” that Biden is “slipping behind closed doors.”  Anyone who ever saw him in public already knew that.  Then, three times in the last two weeks, video clips have shown Biden frozen in place, a blank stare on his confused face, being led away.

The videos sparked reports that Biden is suffering cognitive decline, and that he can’t perform as president.  Over 80% of voters believe Biden is physically and/or mentally incapable of completing a second term.  But fear not Democrats, Joe’s okay.  It’s all a clever ruse of those nasty MAGA extremists.  Don’t believe your lying eyes.

Biden spokes-liar Karine Jean-Pierre, a/k/a, Lying Orphan Annie, set things straight.  She said all these videos are either deep fakes, or cheap fakes.  Deep fakes are totally made up creations of artificial intelligence.  But since the White House Juneteenth party, the G7 Summit, and the California fundraiser featuring Il Duce Obama really happened, and were covered by myriad news agencies, they can’t be Deep.

Cheap fakes are edited videos that remove parts to change the context.  Karine says the clips were doctored to make Biden look bad.  But the video clips didn’t artificially make it appear that Biden was frozen in place and staring into oblivion.  That’s precisely what he did.  Moreover, how MAGA thugs managed to get outlets such as MSNBC and CNN to air the same clips is unclear.

Jean-Pierre shed light on this dilemma,”Instead of talking about the president’s performance in office, and what I mean by that is his legislative wins, what he’s been able to do for the American people across the country, we’re seeing these deepfakes, these manipulated videos. And it is, again, done in bad faith.”  That explains it.  The problem wasn’t the video, it was the commentary it provoked.

I’ll translate the Karine Jean-Pierre statement – “We’re all hard at work here lying about Joe Biden and his accomplishments.  Most of the media are on board, and are willing to swear that the lies are true.  How dare a political opponent suggest that there’s a problem.”

But there is a problem, and it’s name is Joe Biden.  According to his annual physical by his physician Kevin O’Connor, Biden  suffers from atrial fibrillation, peripheral neuropathy in his feet, and hyperlipidemia.  We’ve been treated to 3 1/2 years of
mumbling, stumbling Biden brain farts.  According to the American Heart Association’s publication Circulation, “Growing evidence suggests a consistent association between atrial fibrillation and cognitive impairment and dementia.”

Biden’s impairment is palpable.  Even the New York Times has commented on it, “If [Biden’s] unwillingness to face his own limitations now clears the way for Trump’s restoration, it will be not just a mistake but a tragedy.”

But no matter how dark it gets, the White House keeps pulling down the shades.  It’s not us, it’s MAGA, just talk about what we’ve done for the American people.  Somebody should.  What they’ve done is bankrupted the government and the American people.  They’ve catered to criminals and illegal aliens, and rendered Americans citizens second-class.

They’ve lied about inflation, the border, taxes, and energy policy.  They’ve hidden a decrepit president, who escaped indictment only because the prosecutor decided he’s “an elderly man with a poor memory.”

So the pertinent question is, “Is it deep fake, cheap fake, or is Biden just a fake?”  And who are the fakers?  How about the Democrats who swore Hunter’s laptop was fake, who perpetuated the Russian collusion hoax, and the Ukraine phone call hoax, and the impeachment hoaxes?  Or how about a president who’s ordered by the Supreme Court not to forgive student loans, but does it anyway?  The true fake is residing in the White House.

Joe Biden, ask not for whom the fake bell tolls.  It tolls for thee.  Since last June, I’ve been saying Biden will not be the candidate.  I suspect the June debate, the first ever before the conventions, is designed to showcase Biden’s deficits in time to replace him on the ticket.

As this is written, it’s a beautiful day in June.  The gentle breeze is wafting.  The birds are singing.  The sun is shining.  And five months away from another presidential election, mobs of anti-Semitic, violent rioters are assaulting law enforcement officers and defacing national monuments throughout America.  And while that would be shameful enough, the real disgrace is that the wild-eyed lunatics who are running the insane asylum formerly known as the United States of America, won’t lift a finger to stop it.

It’s said that you reap what you sow.  For decades, our educational system has sown the seeds of socialism, anarchy, and ignorance, graduating generations of students who historian David McCollough complained are historical illiterates.  For years, I’ve been saying that, if all you know about history is what you’ve been fed by your Marxist professor, or what Google decides to tell you, then you’re a victim of educational malpractice.  And in this case, ignorance isn’t bliss, it’s dangerous.

How else to explain the mobs of anti-Israel protesters marching in the streets?  Most of them appear to be young, white, college educated drones, mindlessly chanting the anti-Semitic slogan of the day.  In other words, the wretched refuse of the Ivy League.  The bitter harvest of years of leftist indoctrination.  They’ve been told by rabble-rousing professors that it’s their duty to take to the streets to protest.  But they’ve been denied the ability to consider the wisdom of or the consequences of championing the cause that they’re marching for.

They’ve been indoctrinated by activists who once had true injustices to protest, but now advocate protest for protest’s sake.  In the 1960’s, civil rights and anti-war protesters were protesting real problems that affected every American.  The current protests pale by comparison.  The pro-Palestinian mobs are protesting the fact that, after Palestinian terrorists made an unprovoked invasion of Israel, killing thousands, the Israelis hit them back.

You have to wonder.  If these dolts understood anything about history, would they be marching and chanting on behalf of Islamic terrorists?  On Monday, in New York City, a mindless mob assaulted the site of a Manhattan exhibit of artifacts from the October 7th Hamas massacre in Israel, chanting “long live October 7th,” carrying banners, and calling for Intifada.

This is the equivalent of advocating a new genocide in front of the National Holocaust Museum.

That same day, in Washington, D.C., another mob of college educated morons assaulted National Park Service Rangers, and defaced statues, while conducting a pro-Hamas riot in front of the White House.

No arrests were made at either of the riots, further proof of the system of selective justice that prevails in Biden’s America. The law is enforced, not as written, but only upon those who offend Progressive sensibilities.  While the June 10th rioters, like the 2020 George Floyd rioters, were free to rampage without fear of arrest, two teenagers in Spokane are under arrest, and are facing 10 years in prison.  Their crime?  Leaving skid marks on a Pride Month mural painted on the street.  I don’t approve of what they did, but 10 years?  Really? (And by the way, Veterans Day and Pride Month?  What’s up with that?)

For  years, liberals lectured us about how things had to change.  They liked to tell us that the pendulum had swung one way, and now had to swing back the other way.  If that was true, then I think the pendulum has swung about as far left as possible.  It had better start swinging back toward sanity, or else we’re in trouble here.

The reason given for failing to permit law enforcement take action against the rioters was the right to free speech.  No one respects free speech more than I do, but simply invoking the First Amendment doesn’t excuse the conduct of the rioters.

The maxim that the Constitution is not a suicide pact has often been repeated.  However, few know where the saying comes from.  It’s from a dissenting opinion authored by Supreme Court Justice Robert Jackson in the 1949 case, Terminello v. Chicago.  Terminello was a defrocked priest who made an outrageous anti-Semitic speech that caused a riot.  Terminello was arrested and convicted, but the Supreme Court reversed the conviction on First Amendment grounds.

Justice Jackson dissented, pointing out that our constitutional civil liberties imply the existence of an organized society that maintains public order.  He wrote that the choice is not between order and liberty, but between liberty with order and anarchy without either.  In that vein, Jackson wrote, “The Bill of Rights is not a suicide pact.”

Free speech is a constitutional right.  But those who use the guarantee of free speech as an excuse to ignore blatantly illegal conduct which strikes at the core of American society, are confusing liberty with license.  The conduct of the pro-Palestinian, Jew hating, Hamas terrorist loving morons is despicable, it’s a call to violence, and it should not be tolerated.

Justice Jackson’s opinion contained a quote from Adolph Hitler to the effect that the way to power was to conduct mass demonstrations in the streets.  The leftist mobs that laughingly call themselves “anti-fascist” have learned that lesson well.  And if the pendulum of change doesn’t swing back towards sanity, law, and order soon, I fear we will be cast into the pit of anarchy which contains Third World shithole nations such as Haiti.  (See, Frank on Friday, January 19, 2018).

Left without the prospect of law enforcement to counter anti-American mobs, I fear that groups will take matters into their own hands.  It’s happened before.  I commend to you a book by Michael Benson, Gangsters vs. Nazis.  It’s the story of how a Jewish judge in 1940 New York City enlisted the help of mobster Meyer Lansky to break up meetings of the Nazi-supporting German-American Bund.  The Bund worshiped Hitler, and held massive rallies, even taking over Madison Square Garden.

Lansky sent gangs of baseball bat toting Jewish mobsters to Bund meetings.   The fascist zeal of the bundists was thereupon dampened by simple and compound fractures.  I hope history is not about to repeat itself.  The German-American Bund evaporated after December 7, 1941.  It took a World War back then to prove that the Jewish gangsters were fighting the right enemy.

The Biden Administration policies have the world on the brink of war once again.  There is a peaceful solution to the problem.  On November 5, remove Joe Biden and company from office, and thereafter enforce the law.  The puny, pale-faced pukes who are participating in the pro-Hamas protests will run home to Mommy.  To quote a contemporary of Justice Jackson, one Harry S. Truman, “What’s needed is a few swift kicks in the right asses.”

In February of 2009, fresh off of the inauguration of the Chosen One, Il Duce Obama, Newsweek magazine published an article entitled, We Are All Socialists Now.  The liberal Newsweek hacks therein proclaimed that Obama’s election, and his immediate support of a nearly $1 trillion “stimulus” bill, was proof that the limited government policies of Ronald Reagan had failed, and that henceforth, the government would assume more and more control over the economy, which the kooks at Newsweek considered a positive development.  They even took a shot at Bill Clinton, declaring that Slick Willie’s, “The era of big government is over” statement no longer applied.

Of course, the Reagan policies, which included reduction of the top tax rate from 70% to 28%, resulted in a doubling of federal revenue, and an unprecedented period of economic growth, but no matter, they claimed our 2009 woes were all the Gipper’s fault.  Since “the government” (i.e., Obama, Trump, and Biden) became more involved in managing the economy, the national debt has nearly tripled, from $12 trillion to $34 trillion.  Some might be tempted to conclude that the “Socialist” system is a failure.  But, we shouldn’t trouble Leftists with the facts, they’re already confused enough.  Anyhow, I digress.

The reason why the 2009 Newsweek article was, what that dolt Karine Jean-Pierre would call, “top of mind,” is because I saw an article by attorney Richard Dooling in The Wall Street Journal entitled, In America, Anyone Can Be a Felon.  The article lampooned the current mantra of the Left following the bogus New York conviction of Donald Trump of, “No one is above the law.”

That mantra, says Mr. Dooling, which is both inspirational and meaningless, says nothing useful about people or the law.  Amen brother.  Dooling warns that people who mouth, “No one is above the law,” should be careful what they wish for, because there are so many obscure crimes on the books that, with a little effort, the government can turn just about anyone into a felon.

There are more than 5,000 federal crimes alone.  Since law enforcement is supposed to be a State responsibility, that’s proof that federalism has failed.  Some of the crimes still on the books risk turning even the most careful of citizens into Public Enemy Number One.  If you drink a beer while riding a bike in a national park, you’re a criminal.   Running a restaurant, and you failed to serve triangular margarine pats that aren’t clearly labeled as margarine?  You’re a criminal.   And if your restaurant serves watery ketchup, that’s another felony count.  A federal inspector (I’m not making this up) may show up with his Bostwick consistometer.  If your “ketchup” runs downhill further than 14 centimeters in 30 seconds, it ain’t ketchup, and your guilty.

Another federal law regulates how many birds you may keep.  Oh, and by the way, if you’re not a certified falconer and someone has you birdsit his falcon for more than 45 days, you’re a felon.

A federal regulation prohibits exporting pennies or nickels from the United States without a special license from the U.S. Mint.  So, if you knowingly send 11 rolls of pennies overseas, you’re a felon, and you face up to five years in prison.

It’s a federal crime to skydive while drunk.  Too bad.  That’s the only way I’d do it.  It’s even a federal crime to attempt to change the weather without notifying the Secretary of Commerce.  Il Duce Obama and AOC could be charged with this one.  Obama and AOC claim they’ll reduce global temperatures, and reduce the level of the oceans, and all that Green shit.  J’Accuse! (As Emil Zola once wrote).  If no one is above the law, then those two should be convicted felons.

And don’t even get me started on the tax code.  As we know from the travails of First Son Hunter Biden, the Feds can make alleged tax violations felonies or misdemeanors, depending on the criminal target.

Keep in mind that these are only federal crimes. The vast majority of criminal prosecutions take place at the State level.  Mr. Dooling found 575 New York State crimes.  Even that wasn’t enough when it came to Trump, as Alvin Bragg was required to improperly import federal crimes, and undergo a Frankenstein-like reconstruction project to create the shit he brought against Trump.

Here in New Jersey, we have a like number of criminal offenses.  There are acts that reasonable people may or may not know are serious crimes that can turn them into instant felons.  Some of them are very serious.  Let’s say you have the misfortune to come upon a dead body.  Not a homicide victim, mind you, it could be a natural death.  If you agree to help someone move the remains from one spot to another, that’s a second degree crime that could get you 10 years.

Some State crimes involve less serious acts, but are equally felonious.  Did your grandmother ever push her shopping cart off the grounds of the supermarket?  Everybody does it right?  That’s considered shoplifting, and can get you 5 years.  Grandma is a felon.  Have you ever given a friend in need a single valium tablet?  You’re a felon.  Think marijuana is legal now in NJ and you can’t get into trouble with it?  Think again.  Passing around joints is still considered distribution.  Do it once, you get a warning.  Do it again – felon!

The point of all this is that the power to criminalize and label otherwise well-meaning citizens as felons permits an unscrupulous government (the Biden Administration comes readily to mind) to silence, remove, and stifle the political opposition.  When someone the likes of CNN’s Fareed Zakaria is forced to admit that no one other than Donald Trump would be charged with the crap they threw at him in Manhattan, that proves I’m right.

If you’re a criminal, you’re under the control of the government, and maybe in its custody.  They then can tell you what you can and cannot do or say, take away your right to vote, and I don’t know, maybe even lock up a presidential candidate in the months before an election, or force him to make weekly (televised on CNN) visits to his probation officer.  Turning citizens into felons also prevents them from owning a gun, permitting the Left to once more get around the Second Amendment.  Once we’re all felons, we’re all wards of the State, and personal freedom is a thing of the past.  Hillary Clinton was wrong.  It doesn’t take a village, it takes a cell block.

Wednesday May 29, 2024 –

We’re now six weeks into the travesty and mockery of justice which is the Manhattan trial of Donald Trump.  The indictment charges 34 counts of making fraudulent business record entries.  Not that the evidence means anything to prosecutor Alvin Bragg, Judge of the Kangaroo Court Merchan, and a jury of Manhattan Trump haters, but the evidence that was presented at trial proved no crime whatsoever.

In any honest court, the judge would have entered judgments of acquittal on all counts at the end of the State’s case.  But Judge Merchan isn’t running an honest court.  He and the prosecutors are hard at work railroading the former president to prevent his reelection.  The judge, the prosecutors and the lap dog media have been work’in on this railroad all the live long day.  The 34 counts all relate to payments to former Trump attorney Michael Cohen, now a disbarred, convicted perjurer.  The payments were made in 2017, more than 5 years before the indictment was returned, so the case should have been barred by the statute of limitations.

There were monthly payments.  They charged one count for each invoice from Cohen, each payment voucher generated by the Trump company, and each check sent to Cohen.  However, Cohen created the invoices himself, Trump had no involvement in generating payment vouchers, and when the payments were made, Trump was president, and witnesses testified that he simply signed whatever checks were put before him.  In order to be guilty, Bragg must prove that Trump specifically intended to create false entries to commit another crime.

There are two tracks on the Bragg-Merchan Railroad.  First, the business record entries must be proven to be false or fraudulent.  The entries at issue are listed as “legal expenses.”  To be false, the money would have to have been paid for some other purpose.  Explain this to me.  If you use your lawyer to draft legal documents (non-disclosure agreements), and to finance the payments therefor, and then compensate him for his legal services and for the financing, in what perverted world are the payments not for legal expenses?  In order to be fraudulent, the payments must have damaged, or prejudiced someone else.  There was no evidence of any fraud.  But so much for the first track.

If the jury buys the false entry bullshit, then it switches to the second track.  The State must prove that the false entries were made in order to commit or cover up some other crime.  Chief Engineer Bragg neglected to disclose that second offense in the indictment or in the opening statement.  Sometime last week, he seems to have decided that the second crime is a federal campaign finance violation (over which neither the Manhattan D.A. nor the New York courts have jurisdiction), or a nebulous tax offense of some kind, or if not a campaign law violation, a fictional fraud on 2016 voters.  Exactly how someone could defraud 2016 voters by paying money to a lawyer in 2017 is unclear to me.

To properly instruct the jury, Railroad Conductor Merchan should have instructed that the State must prove each and every element of both tracks of the alleged crimes beyond a reasonable doubt, which would require all jurors to be unanimous as to which of the State theories as to the second offense they found to be proven.  In other words, a specific verdict of guilt both as to: 1) the entries were false; and 2) they were done for the purpose of committing the crime of either a) campaign finance violation; or b) tax offense; or c) defrauding voters.  However, Merchan instructed them that, although a unanimous verdict is required by the Constitution, they need not agree on which of the bogus theories they have found.  According to the law, when the crime may be proven by one of several theories, the jury is required to unanimously agree as to which one they found.   Merchan’s instructions permit what is known as a fragmented verdict.  Trump may be convicted if 4 jurors decide the second crime was a campaign violation, 4 say tax, and 4 say defrauding voters.  That is totally unconstitutional, and is just one more reason to reverse any conviction.

No matter how much the prosecutors tried to deny it, the State’s case depends on the credibility of Michael Cohen.  Hope Hicks testified that the motivation for the NDA’s was to prevent harm to Trump’s family, not for purposes of the election.  It really doesn’t matter anyway, because the Federal Election Commission says, if a payment for a non-disclosure agreement would have been made regardless of a pending election, you can’t use campaign funds to pay for it.  Of course, the jury never heard this, because Choo Choo Charlie Merchan prevented Trump’s witness from testifying as to how the campaign laws work, and the court’s instructions failed to explain what a federal campaign violation is and is not.

Then there’s the little problem of Cohen’s chronic and habitual lying to anyone he’s ever spoken to.  He admitted that he’s biased against Trump, he lied to prosecutors, courts, Congress and even to the jury in this trial; and that he stole $60,000 from Trump.  He now claims Trump orchestrated the entries and payments.  Cohen’s word is the only evidence that supports such a claim, and other witnesses, including Cohen’s own former lawyer testified that he swore he alone was responsible for the entries and payments, at a time when turning on Trump might have kept him out of prison.

The consensus among legal commentators was that the best Trump could hope for was that at least one of the jurors would see the State’s case as the steaming turd that it is and hang up the jury, causing a mistrial.  We’ll see.  Hope springs eternal.

The prosecutors know they have a weak case, because Tuesday they trotted out their secret weapon.  Under educated, over-paid, foul mouthed cafone, Robert DeNiro, to stand in front of the courthouse and defame Trump – again.  DeNiro, surrounded by a bunch of muscle-bound Goombah bodyguards, was greeted with jeers, to which he responded in true low-life fashion, “Fuck you.”  That’s telling them Bobby.

Thursday May 30, 2024 –

As this is written, the woefully misled and misinstructed jury has convicted Trump on all counts.  The fact that this bogus conviction ultimately will be reversed is no comfort.  That won’t happen till 2025 or 2026, long after the presidential election.  I guess I had more faith in the attorneys on the jury than they had in themselves.  After 44 years, I’m embarrassed for my profession, and I’m afraid for the future of my country.

For weeks, I’ve been getting 20 texts and emails a day from Trump and his associates soliciting political contributions.  Until now I had dismissed every one of them.  After the verdict came in I sat down and wrote  a check to Trump.  I’m not alone.  Once the verdict was announced, the Trump contribution website got so much traffic that it crashed.  It’s a sad day.  If they get away with this then the Democrats will prove themselves right.  America isn’t exceptional.  It’s run by the same nest of vipers that control every other Third World shithole on the face of the Earth.

The sentencing is scheduled for July 11.  You don’t have to wait for that.  Having seen this partisan, crooked prick, poor excuse for a judge, or a human being, in action, I can predict the sentence now.  Four months of house arrest, taking Trump off the election campaign till after the election on November 5.

Toot!  Toot!  The Merchan Express is coming into the station.  Justice has been derailed.  We’ve departed America, and have come to the end of the line – and the end of our Republic.  God help us.