The Daily Show’s Jon Stewart cancels Trump schadenfreude party before it starts
No one reacts to news clips with more enthusiasm, anger, or sarcasm than Jon Stewart, and he had a lot to scream about on an all-new Daily Show
Aux News Jon Stewart
The Daily Show’s Jon Stewart was having a pretty good week until he wasn’t. One of his favorite artists, Gary Clark Jr., was a guest on his television show. He got a chance to sexually harass former President Donald Trump after America’s favorite large adult son owned the libs by winning two trophies at a sporting event that bears his name. Oh, and the deadline for Trump to pay the $355 million judgment handed down last month was coming due. With interest, that judgment totals more than $450 million. Unfortunately for Stewart, party time has been delayed.
Last month, Trump was given a guilty verdict in a massive fraud case and was ordered to pay a $355 million penalty. Former President Trump was found guilty of falsification of business records, issuing false financial statements, insurance fraud, and conspiracy. As Stewart put it, every time Trump needed money, he would inflate the value of his properties. To be clear, this is illegal. However, an entire class of people do this all day, every day, free from legal recourse: Real estate developers.
As he continued his Monday night madness, Stewart was in a rare form following a week off from his post. Punchy and exasperated, Stewart tore into the investor class’ protection of, perhaps, the world’s most famous realtor. But Stewart wouldn’t take the likes of Kevin O’Leary from Shark Tank calling fraud “victimless” lying down. He’s going to go to some clips! Aside from calling O’Leary an “asshole,” he pointed out the hypocrisy of not holding Trump accountable for a crime simply because “every real estate developer everywhere on Earth” does it and has never been prosecuted. That sounds more like a global problem needing fixing than a precedent that should be followed because world governments give developers a free pass to break the law. Of course, as Stewart notes, there are examples of conservatives being concerned about fraud: When people are accused of taking advantage of welfare, food stamps, and other social safety nets that barely meet the financial requirements of living in a world where real estate developers unashamedly commit fraud to inflate housing costs. Or when a contestant on Shark Tank does it. In those cases, committing fraud is “stinky poo poo.”
As is usually the case, Trump probably will skirt all accountability, either via postponement and appeals or through the billion-dollar public offering and merger from the owners of Truth Social, the social media apparatus he prefers for live tweeting Saturday Night Live, mocking Jimmy Kimmel, and defying gag orders. Ah! Well, nevertheless.
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I know folks love Jon Stewart, but he dedicates more of his monologue to jokes than Seth Meyers dedicates to A Closer Look and John Oliver dedicates to Last Week Tonight’s main topics. And the jokes meander.
Well, the media (and us, by extension) keep falling for it, don’t they? “Ooh, they’ve really got him now! He’s gonna have to face the music this time!” It’s what they were all saying after Muller, after the first impeachment, the second one, the insurrection hearings, each of the four insurrections, and now this latest bond hype.I’ve only seen one way to get him to face consequences: They way it happened back in 2020 (if you can remember back that far – nobody much seems able to these days). Get out and vote.
I would say the only way to make him face consequences is at the barrel of a gun.Voting seems a lot like eating healthy AFTER the cancer diagnosis. You still need to cut out the disease.
If Trump loses in November I’m like 70% sure his scheme will end with a missile fired from a F-22 somewhere over the Atlantic while he was fleeing to Russia, because there’s no way every three-letter government agency is going to let him escape with a brain full of state secrets.
That solution would make him stronger, even in death. It would be a terrible idea. There’s only ever been one way to defeat this guy: VOTE
Trump is not the disease… it’s merely a symptom of the actual disease..
You can’t say that, though. The NSA’ll get ya.
I said it way back in 2018 when Splinter News was still a thing and we just learned about the Daniels payments—-he’s never going to jail no matter what he does.Granted, this was just a massive money payment (no jail sentence), but when you can’t even force a bond on time, there was never any chance of him being sentenced and locked up in the other cases before the election got here.That ship sailed the moment we found out that none of those trials was going to start before 2024.
It doesn’t help that courts are bending over backwards to bail him out. They refuse to hold him accoutable. This constant enabling of his behavior is why he is such an asshole. He knows he will get away with it.
Ehh, I mean, while I think he’ll delay these cases so long that he’ll die of old age before they are finally all run through the Supreme Court, he will face the consequences eventually if he does not. While it does take forever, and no one is more pissed than me that there seem to be an endless amount of appeals and that the law takes this goddamn long, the government doesn’t forget and let things go. Especially A NY state attorney office that will hate him forever, or a federal government (as long as the DOJ remains in Democrat control). Assuming Biden wins reelection (which im fairly confident he will) we’ll see much of this shit come home to Trump before the end of that term. No, he won’t every be totally penniless, and no he won’t ever see a day behind bars, but he will lose a property, be barred from business in NY, and if we’re lucky (we’re not), Melania will divorce him, get a shit ton of his money, and then write a humiliating tell all memoir.
“the government doesn’t forget and let things go.”Except if the government is taken over by a vengeful clown again. And despite what people say, there is still a very real threat that happens. Most polls have Trump tied or really close. Which, even if Biden pulls out a squeaker, is a really disturbing portrait of a large swath of the American population right now.Also to further scare you, Biden would need a +5 or so in an accurate poll to assure an EC victory, IIRC. He isn’t close to that right now, meaning Trump would win.
Yeah that’s I said at the end of my comment that the DOJ would have to stay in Democrat control. As for the polls, don’t believe them now. It’s not going to be close. A lot of voters are “meh” on Biden right now, but as soon as the campaign gets fully into high gear, you’ll see a lot of people fucking running to him die to all the crazy shit Trump says. The general public just doesn’t remember how exhausting he is, if nothing else. Most polls do show that the more Trump behind to talk and campaign the more undecided or independent voters shift away from him. I’m worried, still, yeah. But I don’t think the polls right now are any real reason to panic.
The problem is that unless you decide to take the “this is a highly unusual situation” stance, the polls being the way they are right now, historically, would not result in a positive outcome for Biden in November.
I think I definitely do take to the “this is highly unusual” stance. The polls have never been normal around Trump, and his supporters are incredibly inflexible in their leanings, and they are incredibly loud in their support. My guess is that they are way over represented in polls at this point. But historically speaking not only are polls highly inaccurate at this point as compared to the final outcome, but it’s also very unlikely for an incumbent to lose reelection, the only exceptions of course being Bush (and this is truly Perot’s fault, third parties being highly unusual at that level) and Trump (again, highly unusual). I think ultimately, people may not be crazy enthused to vote for Biden, but damn people HATE Trump. It’s a totally different dynamic.
“but it’s also very unlikely for an incumbent to lose reelection”Which, if you took the tact of “this is highly unusual” would make this a very real possibility. I do realize the reverse is also true.HW lost because he was forced to do exactly what he publicly promised not to do and was not around to see the fruits of his fixes to the economy. Plus, he was running against a remarkably charismatic opponent while the economy was still in the nascent stages of recovery.Biden is not charismatic at all, and Trump has a pretty large cult following that will support him no matter what he does or is revealed about him in the coming months.Trump lost in 2020 by about 50,000 total votes thanks to the EC. And that was with about as bad an election year (crashed economy, racial unrest, failed pandemic response, impeachment) as an incumbent could possibly have.
All that is fair. I didn’t say I wasn’t worried, just that I feel a bit more confident than most at this point.
Which, even if Biden pulls out a squeaker, is a really disturbing
portrait of a large swath of the American population right now.Considering what happened last time Biden won was a trial run, I don’t see this election having a positive outcome under any circumstances. Trump was wailing yet again on Super Tuesday about the lack of integrity in an election he won, which he was doing back in 2016. His followers are so conditioned to believe that the outcome was rigged that I’m not even sure why they bother voting anymore except to counteract the flood of immigrants coming in with pre-filled ballots who strangely voted for Biden while simultaneously also voting for GOP candidates.
Trump wins, we basically end the democracy experiment. Biden wins, we get to see a rather large and motivated effort to end it by force.Or, to show the thinking from the other side:
Trump wins, we finally seize control of America and make sure the Commies never compete again. Biden wins, know it was rigged and it’s 2nd Amendment time.
Oh, I dunno. I’m not underplaying the danger but I also think a lot of 2A shit-stirrers are more bark than bite.
As we have seen, it doesn’t take a lot. If 1% of the 74M who voted for him think that Civil War Redux is the way to go, and 1% of them act on it, that’s still 7400 people taking up arms. Considering only 1,200 people were charged, and only a percentage of those people were actively engaged in trying to actually lynch members of Congress… that’s a lot of people.
You’re right, that it is still too close for comfort due to our archaic system that allows the candidate who loses by 3 million votes to still win. But, I’m not buying these polls. There is no way that Dummy is now capturing a plurality of the under 30 demo. That would fly in the face of all the actual data we have from the last two election cycles. So yes, stay vigilant, but I don’t buy that this is as close as the polling indicates.
What should really concern you is something that i’ve expected for a while—-the Dobbs decision didn’t cause anywhere near the backlash politicians feared for decades. It was long seen as “the road to ruin” for GOP/Conservatives to go after Roe v Wade, and here we are having to be very worried that a twice-impeached coup starter will regain power because it is a very real possibility.If going after RvW was anywheres near as bad as feared, the GOP would be taking a bloodbath at every level of elections in 2024, and so far there is no indication that is trending.I fear as a civilization we just don’t put forth the effort anymore. Sure, there were a few public protests after the decision in 2022, but when was the last time you saw a significant one?
I was wondering if some highly motivated person would realize that Dobbs could easily be reversed by a different Court and that such a thing can be created at the cost of their own life/freedom. Everyone knows how you recall SCOTUS Justices. And why? The same reason only one dumbass insurrectionist died on January 6th. No one believes in anything enough to die for it. Whether that’s good or bad remains to be seen.
Yeah, at this point I’m kind of steeling myself for a second Trump term, which I think may be much MUCH worse than a first (in his mind, all his worst impulses would be even more reinforced by the vote). I haven’t read anything that makes me optimistic for a Biden win. I really hope I’m wrong, but I’m emotionally preparing for the worst.
I mean, if the Dems cant win with the GOP having about as bad a 4 years as you can have with the scandals, the absolute circus act of a House, and their leading candidate being on trial for both TRYING a coup AND showing nuke secrets to foreigners, then they absolutely deserve the loss. And so do we as Americans.
This pity party shit really needs to disappear. Conservative billionaires have had their massive thumbs on the scale for over sixty years at this point. You’re living under minority rule by design, not because Americans are feckless idiots.
like last time? /s
Good, reasonable comment. My only quibble is that we will unfortunately never see a Melania tell-all because their marriage is a business agreement and she has signed mountains of NDA’s.
The legal system was never going to hold him accountable. It’s always been up to the voters. I am confident he will be defeated in November, but it is important to remind people that is ONLY up to us.
I don’t know anybody who actually believes he’ll face consequences. I bet even the prosecutors are like “fuck it, we’ll try anyway.” I think you’re right it’s just the media, and even they don’t really believe it. They’re trying to sell ads.
If I deliberately shoot at someone and miss, technically nobody has been harmed, but I’m still guilty of attempted murder. It’s insane that Republicans are trying to excuse fraud, an actual crime, because there’s “no victim.” That’s not how fraud works!If this is the GOP’s new legal standard, then I don’t ever want to hear about “the border crisis” ever again. Swimming across a river without papers or overstaying a visa is also victimless.
And as Jon pointed out to those who didn’t already know, there are plenty of victims. Whether it is the banks that have to pass on their losses to the rest of us or him cheating the government out of money, he has definitely taken money from the general public.So, that too is a lie.
Repuggers lie. That’s all they do.
And it seems to work.
Their “no victim” argument is totally a double-standard for Trump. I’m sure if every immigrant home-owner decided to re-assess and undervalue their property to avoid paying taxes, the GOP/Fox News crowd would lose their goddamn minds.
Trump is guilty and a POS, but your example is not really applicable to the defense he tried to make. Their argument is that he lied to the banks to get the loans, but he repaid the loans on time and in full, so the banks don’t really care and suffered no negative consequences from his fraud. you example is deliberately lying to cause another entity to not receive funds it is rightfully owed. Again, the POS is guilty of a million different things and I hope he ends up signing bankruptcy papers from inside a jail cell when all is said and done, but your example is just not at all relevant.
Attempted murder? Now honestly, what is that? Do they give a Nobel prize for attempted chemistry?
I know for a fact they do not, because I have received no such award after years of humiliating attempts at sparking romantic interest with hundreds of women.
‘”Attempted murder? Now honestly, what is that?”’I believe that would be Assault regardless of if it connects with it’s intended target or not. So they’d be charged with the crime of Assault.* If it actually connects with any target then that becomes a Battery. So they’d also be charged with the crime of Battery. *To circle back around even if it was just the attempt alone, it would be considered a crime. They need to make some amendments to close those loopholes that allow Trump to attempt to stall (if not break) the law. Just the unjustified attempts should be crimes.
While I know that this doesn’t matter in the world of tech and people inflicting harm on themselves to protect Trump, I have yet to see a credible market analyst make sense of the estimated merger value for Truth social. Based on every metric it is actually doing continuously worse now than it was even six months ago. And even then it wasn’t doing great.
good
“I have yet to see a credible market analyst make sense of the estimated merger value for Truth social.”It’s a giant pump and dump scheme, that’s it. Once it floats and Trump has sold his shares the value will plummet and never recover. Trump will make out like a bandit and once again many will have been conned in to giving him their money.
so are they going to specifically exclude an IPO lock up period for any shares Trump owns?
Market performance is no longer connected to actual business performance. It hasn’t been for a long time. The markets became a place to gamble and anything outside of quarterly earnings reports is based on perception and supposition rather than actuals.
The estimated merger value of Truth Social is solely based on what everyone projects investor sentiment and behavior will be, rather than on actual business performance.
SPACs should all be banned.
Actually I like SPACs as cautionary tales. Who would EVER invest in a vehicle that has autonomy to make an acquisition that hasn’t yet been identified??
I don’t own tin foil let alone wear it as a hat, but two conspiracy-esque thoughts have troubled me since the weekend:1. Who (or what oligarchy) owns the company preparing to buy Truth Social?and2. Did NBC hire Pigface McDuff to curry favor if dDump somehow gets re-elected and makes good on his threat to destroy “enemy” press?
Digital World Acquisition Corp is the SPAC. Jeff Yass is a billionaire with a huge stake in it.
1. The Russians.
That’s the most likely scenario. If Trump suddenly ponies up the dough, you can bet it’s Russian cash, as part of their strategy to cut off Ukrainian support (among other things).
Likely shell companies owned by Trump family holdings or associates (ie Russian or other questionable owners).
They fired her!
It’s a massive bribe, and that’s it. It’s like Republican politicians selling $2 million dollar houses to Russian oligarchs for $20 million. It’s just a way to funnel money into politicians’ bank accounts.
It isn’t meant to make sense. It’s a meme stock, and a SPAC on top of it. Meme stocks have a cycle that always ends in tears. And SPACs always fail, because they’re used by companies that don’t have the product or the revenue or the structure (or, usually, all of those things) to go public otherwise.The stock is 100% going to dump, and like most SPACs will end up losing 95+% of its value in the next few months. The only question is how much of a market remains when the lockups for Trump et al expire and they can begin selling their shares (which they will dump). He’s going to make some money, but it’s not going to be a couple billion dollars – it will be a fraction of that, and most likely a very small fraction.
The big players don’t see it as buying shares in a business, they see it as buying a piece of a US President.The true mark is the one that thinks they are in on the con.
Only imbeciles thought Trump was in danger of consequences.I have little to zero sympathy foelr anyone who is going to be surprised at the ways he walks away from each judgement without having to pay.Only the dumbest cunt alive (or a enabler of facism) thought Trump would suffer any consequences for attempting a coup.
He’s the guy the GOP has been pining for since Tailgunner Joe got taken down, there’s absolutely no way he was going to face a single consequence.
Trump is still fully on the hook for all 454 million dummies.
You seem charming and super well-informed.
I get that it feels that way, the wheels of justice grind slow and all that but even what happened yesterday didn’t let him off the the hook. The $175 million is to post the bond simply for the right to appeal the $450 mill decision. As of right now he still owes the $450 mill unless he wins the appeal. Those banks weren’t willing to help him because he is unlikely to win that appeal. And while we can expect fuckery from the SCOTUS there is literally no way, even going back to the Magna Carta, to legally rationalize that a president has immunity from criminal prosecution even beyond their time in office. So maybe he won’t get a giant public comeuppance that we all hope for but they are getting to him.
“And while we can expect fuckery from the SCOTUS there is literally no way, even going back to the Magna Carta, to legally rationalize that a president has immunity from criminal prosecution even beyond their time in office.”
I would refer you to Bush v Gore, SCOTUS has put itself into impossible Moebius Strips of partisan legal fuckery before.
They’ve been ‘getting to him’ for nigh on 10 years now. He’s not going anywhere, and you are completely daft if you believe otherwise.
You okay, man?
He’s probably not. Is anybody okay after seeing this asshole get within a hair’s breadth of the presidency again despite everything he’s done? I can understand the OP being at the end of his rope.
I get that, too, but I’m not going to be an asshole to people who are generally in agreement with me about the bigger picture.
OP seems way more annoyed at people opposed to Trump and optimistic enough to think he’d face consequences than he is at Trump.While decidedly not one myself, I think it’s good to have optimists around. Otherwise people like me would kill ourselves with much greater frequency.
Hey, friend? Aim that invective at the people who deserve it. You’re being kind of an antagonistic fuckwit.
So it was about $450 million bond to pay, but now is $175 million with longer to pay. Did anyone say why? Asking for a friend.
Because the laws don’t apply to rich people.
I think an appeals court bought the argument that it was unduly difficult to secure a bond of that size from an insurer, so it was reduced in order to ensure compliance. He only has 10 more days though. And technically, he still owes the full 450mil+, this smaller amount is just so he can appeal the ruling, which obviously he will take to the Supreme Court
I did bond administration for the RE company I used to work for, I knew there wasn’t a bond/insurance company on the planet that would give him a bond for that amount, no matter what he tried to use as collateral. He doesn’t have the cash to secure it, and his properties are so over valued, which everyone is aware of, that they couldn’t trust they’d recoup the loss if he defaults. As far as “victimless crime”, didn’t we hear that from the companies that wrote bad mortgages back in 2007/08? Except for the people who lost their homes because they didn’t understand what they were getting into, because builders lied to them about how a mortgage works, and when a bunch of bad mortgages are sold to some foreign entity and no one knows who owns the mortgage or what the interest is. And then people can’t get a mortgage because banks are closing and not writing home loans. Victimless? Yeah I don’t think so. The mortgage industry is as fucked up as the student loan industry.
I don’t think he can take it to the Supreme Court, that’s only for federal laws. The best he can do is the NY State Supreme Court.
He is still fully on the hook for all 454 million, but with a longer timeline. The internet is ignorant or lying to you about what happened yesterday.
They changed the immediate amount and the due date.
People can understand the general gist of that.
It was assessed that he literally does not have 454 million, or any unleveraged assets.
It was assessed that you can’t get bond insurance for 454 million.
But that’s ok, I’m sure he can sell $175 million of bibles in the next week. 😀
Trump is definitely the leader of a still on going coup against the United States and is probably guilty of espionage for Putin’s Russia and other hostile foreign powers like Saudi Arabia and China. Why he hasn’t been executed for these heinous crimes is proof positive of our failure as a nation to have equal justice.Merrick Garland’s cowardice is the same as complicity.
I don’t know why Donny had trouble raising that money. I’m sure he’s got a 1 BR in Queens that is worth $300M.
You joke, but given the rents in NYC…..
He doesn’t want to risk having the real value of any of his properties known. He infamously subdivided (on paper) one of his golf courses into housing lots, then assessed the whole courses value based on the housing land prices in the area, which is more expensive……even though the land the course is on is not zoned for housing.
Stewart really showed he is in the liberal dimm hate orange man bubble of not knowing what he is talking about this time . He always used to have an edge on the truth this time fully in the idiot zone . Facts are no longer a friend apparently . Banks assess what they will loan you on your property and the Government tells you the tax you have to pay , THEY DO NOT TAKE YOUR WORD FOR IT ! Using law in ways to get your political enemies is real banana republic shit ,Boo James has shown what a partisan hack she really is .Accusing Justice Thomas of being corrupt with no facts or hints of corruption is blatant racism and is beneath him .Stewart has lost it .
Accusing Justice Thomas of being corrupt with no facts or hints of corruption is blatant racism and is beneath him .Thomas’ conflicts of interest are well-known and have been covered. Trying to play the racism card for Clarence fucking Thomas is absurd.
Yeah, that dude isn’t terribly bright or intellectually consistent.
Name one conflict ,one case he heard his friend was involved with ,fact is you can’t because there is none. Singling him out is Bullshit you got NOTHING and it stick of racism You guys always forget the 3 million dollar book deal Sotomayor had and still she heard the case ,but that is no conflict there because she is liberal leaning and goes with feelings over the law ,right ?
https://www.propublica.org/article/harlan-crow-slashed-tax-bill-clarence-thomas-superyachtYou are so weird.We were talking about Clarence Thomas, why would I bring up Sotomayor?
What is weird is that the article alleges nothing Thomas did other than get gifts from a friend . Yet you seem to think it does .So who cares?Biden takes his whole klan [except navy] to his rich donors home in St Croix every year does he report it on his taxes ?But your logic it is obvious he is doing his pal ‘s bidding right ?Sotomyor well Duh that is a clear conflict ..I hear your case and you paid me in advance
So which is it? We should care about conflicts of interest or we shouldn’t?
Start when it clear
Start what?
I can’t believe that the Democrats aren’t running wall-to-wall ads with these GOP pols and talking heads defending criminals and calling them “soft on crime.”
The GOP has been using that line for nearly 50 years to dominate the message, and Dems still haven’t figured that shit out.
I absolutely agree. I don’t think the Democratic party hits as hard as the GOP does and I don’t get it! Its RIGHT THERE to run with!
They have been chasing the message since the Reagan era while the GOP has been following Lee Atwater’s playbook to a T. “In politics, you can never worry too much about your own image. Just worry about how to define your opponent’s.” We know more about the Democratic Party’s platform because of what the GOP has told us than we do because of what Democrats have told us.
You’re spot on!
“We know more about the Democratic Party’s platform”I’d say we know more about what I WISH was the Democratic Party Platform. According to the GOP, Biden is a radical left-winger that makes Bernie look like Reagan.
theyre all beholden to pootie.
No, that’s my point. Democrats have a shit platform, and the GOP has managed to paint it as an amazing vision and sell the public on the idea it’s terrible and the Democrats can’t even get people to understand their actual agenda, which is basically Reaganomics Lite.They should just lean into what the GOP is painting them as. “Yeah, we’re for universal healthcare. Our proposals have like 70% approval and have been proven by most other developed nations, and these clowns want you to think that’s a bad thing? Maybe ask who’s pocket they’re in. They haven’t come up with a policy that’s not just ‘not whatever they say’ in 40 years. You want to vote for that?”
I can see why they think that considering Biden actually manages to get legislation passed
I think a fair bit of it is respectability politics. Which I’m not always inherently against but it makes no sense at all given the GOP’s total disregard for respectability.
They still think that the voting public is just looking for a genteel politician despite four decades of overwhelming evidence telling them the opposite.
“Yeah, but Chicago!”It’s a dumb response to your point. But tens of millions of GOP and moderate voters will find it a compelling response to ‘soft on crime’ attacks.
I think too many people throw up their hands and say “he will never face consequences” simply because he has not to-date. Even the original “Teflon Don” (John Gotti) was Teflon until he wasn’t. John Gotti died in prison. That doesn’t mean we should just count on the justice system doing the work for the voters, but I also think the attitude of “he will never face consequences” has helped bolster his electoral prospects- it certainly assisted his primary win as even Republican voters might have had second thoughts if they believed he would not be a free man for most of election season. The media simply won’t countenance the fact that he has a very realistic chance of having a felony conviction come early May, and the presiding judge would be well within their rights to sentence him to prison without letting him stay free pending appeals. That’s probably not the most likely outcome (the NYS is the weakest case with the lowest possible sentence), but it’s not some remote possibility either.
This is shitty Repugger conservatards in a nutshell: stealing is only stealing when the little guy commits it. When a (supposedly, anyway) Richie Rich commits it, it’s a “victimless crime”, which “nobody ever has been prosecuted for”.People say “eat the rich”. I say, rich people are gross. Instead, just put them on a fucking rocket and shoot them into the sun and be done with it.
Oh won’t someone please think of all those poor banksters who were defrauded out of their hard-earned money!First things first. DT is a lying, cheating POS . But, in order for there to be fraud there has to be an injured party. There is no injured party here. The bank got their money. There was no loss. In fact, they said they would do business with him again. Additionally, banks don’t take claims from borrowers at face value. They have whole teams of lawyers and adjusters that verify the value of an asset. If I say my house is worth 20 million to get a loan you can be damn sure that they’re not going to just believe that. They’ll do their due diligence and come back with a loan rate and amount based on the value that they assess. Which is what happened here. Again, no injured party.Aside from that, I think we all agree, and the author has stated as much, that banks, real estate developers, and private sellers do this literally all the time. If you want to argue that every instance of overstating the value of your assets or bank fraud should be prosecuted, than I’m with you. But no one is making that argument. Letitia James ran for office explicitly on the promise to go after Trump. How many other New York developers is she going after? None. Tell me how this isn’t nakedly political.It is possible to do the right thing for the wrong reason. DT should be prosecuted for his myriad financial crimes. But so should every other scumbag developer and banker. But that won’t happen. The governor of NY even came out and said they wouldn’t go after other developers and this is just for DT. Selective prosecution is not justice. Vengeance is not justice. You all want to know why DT’s poll numbers keep going up? It’s because anyone looking at this objectively, and I’m not talking about his die-hard supporters, can see all of these prosecutions and lawsuits for the lawfare they are. This will backfire spectacularly.
I see what you’re getting at, and I largely agree – BUT shouldn’t the holder of the highest office be held to the highest account? Otherwise, all this right-wing hand-wringing about morality is complete bullshit. What sort of precedent does this set? “We all know he’s a fraud, but it’s okay because everyone in this industry is a fraud; oh well, c’est la vie. Everything is fine.”Also – he devalued his properties to avoid taxes. If that lie is not a middle-finger to the working class, I don’t know what is.
The holder of the highest office should be held to the same account as the lowest street-level criminal when a crime is committed. He should also be held to the same account as people who commit similar crimes. I don’t believe in selective prosecutions. If you’re going to prosecute him then you need to prosecute everyone and vice-versa. Selective prosecutions are not justice. If you want justice then everyone needs to receive the same treatment. I know you all hate DT with the intensity of 1,000 supernovas. I don’t so my judgement isn’t clouded by hate. He’s just a man, an awful man, but a man nonetheless. He’s not the Anti-Christ, he’s not evil incarnate. He’s not Thanos.
How do Trump’s balls taste?If bad faith arguing could be converted to energy you could power a small office complex for 6 months with this comment.
“This will backfire spectacularly.”How? Why? You say “I’m not talking about his die-hard supporters”. But who else gives a tin shit about the supposed “lawfare”? If you haven’t already drunk this fuckknuckle’s KoolAid are you really going to be swayed to vote for him because of this case? What undecided voter is waiting to see how fairly this fraud case treats Trump? This is an imaginary human being.
There is no injured party here. The bank got their money. There was no loss.First, no loss is required for lots of crimes. You’re thinking about civil suits. There’s no loss in attempted murder, but it’s still a crime. Second, lying about your assets to obtain funds puts the lender at risk, even if they didn’t know it, even if you paid in full, even if you don’t like banks. It’s still a crime, regardless, and one 99% of people would be prosecuted for without the kind of breaks this dipshit has been allowed.
Aside from that, I think we all agree, and the author has stated as
much, that banks, real estate developers, and private sellers do this
literally all the time.
Yes, prosecute them all. Just because it doesn’t happen doesn’t mean it shouldn’t. To all of them.
It is possible to do the right thing for the wrong reason. DT should be
prosecuted for his myriad financial crimes. But so should every other
scumbag developer and banker. But that won’t happen.
Your argument boils down to DJT shouldn’t be prosecuted because – according to you – not everyone who does what he does is prosecuted. So, not that it’s not a crime, but that we shouldn’t prosecute because somehow it’s unfair. To the billionaire whose gotten away with everything his entire life. Not fair to that guy. Well how about this. Let’s rectify this by prosecuting everyone who does this, and we just started with Diaper Don. Fair enough?
That wasn’t my argument at all. You seem to have missed the part where I said I would be ok with ALL fraudsters being prosecuted. You also missed that part where I said DT should be prosecuted for financial crimes. Curious. Let me state this plainly. If you prosecute DT, which I would be in favor of, you must also prosecute everyone else who does the same thing. They are not doing that and the NY governor specifically stated that they aren’t. If you don’t prosecute EVERYONE that’s selective prosecution. Selective prosecution is not justice. You all want vengeance. You want DT’s head on a spike. Don’t set that precedent. It will backfire.
anyone looking at this objectively, and I’m not talking about his die-hard supporters, can see all of these prosecutions and lawsuits for the lawfare they are.At his rallies, he talks about locking up his political opponents for supposed crimes all of the time. Even if you allow that he’s being selectively prosecuted for fraud, how are his other cases lawfare? He’s running on a platform of “tough on crime.” But he’s too precious to hold accountable for his own crimes?
Yes he does talk about it. I thought we all understood at this point that that’s just red meat for the base. I seem to have missed the part where Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, and other Dem politicians were sentenced to lengthy prison sentences. Let’s start with the classified documents case. Hillary Clinton and Joe Biden mishandled classified documents but neither of them will be charged. Intent doesn’t matter for charges under the Espionage Act. So even if you want to argue that DT was refusing to turn over the documents and Biden was cooperative, it’s irrelevant. The Alvin Bragg case in NY where he’s taking a misdemeanor and applying some novel and convoluted legal theory to make it into a felony.The Georgia case. Election fraud is a federal crime not a state crime. Which is why the Fulton County DA’s office indicted him under a state RICO law. This isn’t a RICO case. The attempts to remove him from the ballot in multiple states that failed. DT has neither been charged nor convicted of insurrection, a federal crime. Yet individual states felt they had the authority to interpret the law through very flimsy legal justifications.I don’t like Trump. I’m not a Trump supporter. But you don’t have to be one to see what’s going on.
Trump hasn’t been sentenced to prison either, lengthy or otherwise (yet), but if your point is that Obama, Biden, and Clinton weren’t charged, point taken. I would also point out that Romney, Bush, and McCain weren’t charged or imprisoned either.I don’t know how a reasonable voter could look at the cumulative scandals and shady dealings that Trump is mired in and think he’s being targeted unfairly. The “everyone does it” argument isn’t particularly convincing to me. Remember Martin Shkreli, the pharma bro who raised the price of cancer drugs? He pointed out that pharma companies do what he did regularly, but he was investigated by the SEC and convicted for securities fraud unrelated to the price hike. Would they have investigated him if he hadn’t painted such a huge target on his back? Probably not! Unfortunately, that’s how our justice system works, not because it was designed to work that way, but because the DOJ and other agencies have limited resources, and prioritize cases accordingly.FWIW, I do dislike Trump and thought the efforts to remove him from the ballot were a waste of time. I don’t care about his hush money case. Regardless of how you feel about the Espionage Act is being selectively prosecuted, his refusal to return them and the reasons he gave both for why he refused to hand them over and why he took them in the first place are so non-sensical, the most charitable reason I can think of is he purposely held on to them to bait the government into raiding his home and prosecuting him to play the victim card, which is would just be childish. I’m still upset at the Fulton County DA for opening herself up to any criticism given the spotlight she was under.The whole “not being charged and convicted of insurrection” thing also doesn’t sway me because the body in charge of doing that is political. Even if Congress had successfully impeached him, people would defend him on the basis of “representatives only voted to convict him because they don’t like him.” He has created an alternate reality where he is always the victim and can do no wrong.
Trump will not lose the election. He might not win, but there is no way that he, or his followers, will lose.
It’s worth noting that Trump can’t sell his shares in his social media site for another 6 months, so he’s not getting immediate relief.
“Ah, nevertheless.”Sigh.
Agree with his take on O’Leary. On a side note, it drives me crazy people collectively have given him a cute nickname. How about we just call rich people by their names and stop it with the monikers like Mr. Wonderful and The Donald?
I used to have a grudging respect for O’Leary back when he was on Dragon’s Den (earlier Canadian version of Shark Tank, which Robert Herjavek was also on), just because sometimes people need to be genuinely eviscerated out of bad ideas that are bankrupting their families and life savings before they’ll finally stop pursuing them. And even then, when the guests had the grace to say thank you after said evisceration, he would always respond with “What are you thanking me for?”So yes, he was always a dick, and I shouldn’t be surprised that he’s become some MAGA talking-head asshat, which he likely would have been then as well. But his dick-headishness at least seemed to have some practical use back then.(Separately, while Kevin may be pompous and arrogant, I also found Robert to be the sadistic one. Many times in the series where it seems he genuinely enjoys seeing people embarrassed while smiling at them.)