Judge Rules Trump Is a Fraud and Footballers Are Dying from the Heat
Read More On My Take On These Subjects: DeSantis Cancels Schools he Claims have Ties to Chinese Communists, The Truth about Gladiators and Corinne Jacqueline Bailey Sings
What I’m Discussing Today:
Kareem’s Daily Quote: Thomas Jefferson says he prefers a free press to a government. Trump says he prefers to punish a free press.
Judge Confirms Trump Committed Fraud: A judge rules that there is no question Trump committed fraud when he inflated the value of his holdings.
American Football Players Are Dying from the Heat: As temperatures rise—and experts warn will keep rising—how will we stop the rash of heat-related deaths of football players, most of them kids?
DeSantis’ Crazy Claim that Florida Schools Are Under the Influence of the Chinese Communist Party. No proof. Still, poor kids will get defunded. What a leader!
Trump Wants a Glock: Looking for a photo op to promote his gunslinger image, Trump may have violated the same federal law that got Hunter Biden indicted.
The Truth about Gladiators: Social media polls say many American men think about Rome daily or at least weekly. These facts about gladiators will give them more to think about.
Kareem’s Video Break: A cute kid frolicking with adorable puppies. I want that!
Corinne Jacqueline Bailey Sings: She had a huge hit with “Put Your Records On.” Now she’s got a remarkable new album, Black Rainbows.
Kareem’s Quote of the Day
The basis of our governments being the opinion of the people, the very first object should be to keep that right; and were it left to me to decide whether we should have a government without newspapers or newspapers without a government, I should not hesitate a moment to prefer the latter.
I love this quote—and have referred to it in previous posts—because of how Jefferson comes across as quite the firebrand anarchist. But the statement is mostly hyperbole because he didn’t endure a brutal war of survival against England and the turmoil of starting a new country to be so cavalier as to toss it away in favor of newspapers. But his point is meant to be symbolic of what we Americans should cherish: a well-informed population served by a free press so that the public can make reasonable decisions about the future of the country. Without that, we have a dictatorship that tells people what to think and punishes them if they believe otherwise. I’d rather have a free press than that kind of government, too.
Why am I thinking about this quote today? Because Trump, the leading GOP presidential candidate, called for a “treason” investigation into Comcast, the parent company of NBC News. He’s particularly offended by MSNBC. This past Sunday, he posted: “Their endless coverage of the now fully debunked SCAM known as Russia, Russia, Russia, and much else, is one big Campaign Contribution to the Radical Left Democrat Party. I say up front, openly, and proudly, that when I WIN the Presidency of the United States, they and others of the LameStream Media will be thoroughly scrutinized for their knowingly dishonest and corrupt coverage of people, things, and events. Why should NBC, or any other of the corrupt & dishonest media companies, be entitled to use the very valuable Airwaves of the USA, FREE? They are a true threat to Democracy and are, in fact, THE ENEMY OF THE PEOPLE!”
Those of you supporting a well-informed public as the foundation of democracy might wince at Trump’s clearly unconstitutional rant. When you look closer, it’s even worse than you think. He wants to punish news organizations, not for the proven lies that Fox got caught doing, but just for covering news stories he doesn’t want the public to know about. He uses the word “coverage” twice to make the point that he can’t prove they did anything wrong or made false statements, just that they covered news stories Trump didn’t want to be covered. Kind of like when he chose to lie to the public about how bad COVID-19 was so he wouldn’t get blamed.
How is it that all those people so passionate about defending the Second Amendment are so dismissive when it comes to defending the First Amendment?
Judge Finds Trump Inflated Property Values, a Victory for New York A.G. (The New York Times)
SUMMARY: The New York attorney general won a major victory in her civil case against Donald J. Trump on Tuesday when a New York judge determined that the former president fraudulently inflated the value of his assets to obtain favorable loans and insurance deals.
The decision by Justice Arthur F. Engoron precedes a trial that is scheduled to begin Monday, and will considerably smooth Attorney General Letitia James’s path forward as she seeks a penalty of about $250 million.
Justice Engoron’s decision narrows the issues that will be heard, effectively deciding that the trial was not necessary to find that Mr. Trump was liable and that the core of Ms. James’s case was valid. It represents a major blow to Mr. Trump, whose lawyers had sought to persuade the judge to throw out many of the claims against the former president.
MY TAKE: I’m pretty sure the coverage of this story is exactly what Trump had in mind in his rant when he referred to the free press as the enemy of the people. When the story broke, I immediately went online to see which news organizations were covering this very important story. I saw AP, PBS, Forbes, WSJ, NYT, CNN, Reuters, NBC, ABC, CBS, The Washington Post, The Guardian, and many others.
I didn’t find Fox News. So, I went to their online site just to be sure.
Nothing.
The top story was about Biden nearly stumbling (not actually stumbling) (“Biden nearly stumbles exiting Air Force One, hours after exposed efforts by team to prevent more falls”). Their second most important story was that Sen. John Fetterman was outraging conservatives with how he dressed. Hard-hitting stuff, indeed. Trump-approved news coverage.
So, a judge confirms that a former president of the United States committed fraud—which Fox doesn’t cover—instead leading off with Biden almost stumbling. That’s just the kind of news organization vying to become the de facto state press under Trump. Clearly, they will have to eventually report the judge’s decision, but not until they’ve huddled together to come up with exactly how to spin this so it’s not that bad, or it’s part of a lizard people conspiracy, or it’s the weaponization of the judicial system against poor, poor, pitiful Trump. (They finally posted the story at 5:34 pm EST, long after everyone else.)
One judge ruled he committed fraud. Another judge determined he committed rape. Yet, Trump leads in the GOP polls. A grifter and a rapist—that’s who they want to be president. Meanwhile, Republicans are doing their best to shut down the government so millions, including the military—won’t receive their pay. They’re also blocking military appointments, which most military experts agree puts our country’s defenses at risk. (Remember that the next time you see them praising our military or pledging allegiance to the flag.)
Unable to defend Trump on the facts of his crimes, they instead have resorted to a logical fallacy sometimes called “whataboutism,” in which they acknowledge Trump is a criminal but then point the finger at Biden and say, “What about…” In this case, they want an impeachment investigation linking the president and his son that has not turned up any evidence in two years. They know there’s nothing there to find. But as long as they keep pointing the finger, Republican rank-and-file will nod and say, “Where there’s smoke, there’s fire.”
Except in this case, the GOP are the arsonists. Their campaign slogan ought to be: “Vote for us—or we burn it all down!”