Master-Debater131

Some key things coming out now. No Gag order in place, next time this will make news is in December. The next court date is December 4th where the Judge will rule on the motions delivered by the Attorneys. Soooooo theres a solid 8 months before anything happens again.

Not really. Their guidance for prosecutions may not matter but the underlying principal of weakling your case by splitting it up sure does. Bragg doesnt have a single strong case, he has 34 weak cases. Its a prosecution thats a mile wide and inch deep.

Its pretty common to pay people to shut up. NDAs are a thing, and they are heavily enforced. You do not want to see what happens to you if you break an NDA. Jerry Jones has a fund set aside for when a new illegitimate child shows up asking for money. They take a DNA test, sign an NDA, then get paid to go away forever. I think the last I heard was that he was up to 10 illegitimate kids now. Thats just how things work.

The problem with this is that it does confirm that all Bragg did was strip each payment and try and make it its own charge. That actually goes against DoJ guidance on what to do in these cases because it winds up weakening the overall case. It also does confirm that Bragg is trying to bootstrap minor charges that are past the statute of limitations to something bigger to get this case to proceed. Bragg is going to have to take a totally unproven strategy and prove it to a court now. Thats the first thing he will have to do before this can ever possibly go to a trial.

pee pee flag for pee pee tape? I'll see myself out now.

The thing is though is that even if Trump supporters are outnumbered 10 to 1, in a city with 8.5 Million people thats still a ton of Trump supporters. Just by the pure volume of people theres probably at least 100,000 Trump supporters in NYC. Theres also the fact that this date has been announced for a while. Any of the MAGA cultists that wanted to show up had plenty of time to make that happen. If anything, Im a little surprised at how small the crowds are.

Ive been watching Twitter for the "highlights". There are some, lets just say, colorful characters out there right now. And more and more keep showing up.

Fair enough on the charges, but all indications are that it has to do with the hush money and payments out of his campaign and business. I guess we will know for sure here in a few hours. The crime thing is more than low level stuff though. Violent crime is up, and he isnt prosecuting the offenders. Felony assault is up almost 15% according to the NYPD. Its one thing to not charge turnstile jumpers, its a whole other thing to not charge violent offenders or decrease the charges so they can post bail.

The problem with the by the book image is that it falls apart when put under scrutiny. The by the book take is that the charges here are Federal charges that fall under FEC jurisdiction. Thats how these cases are always handled, and they always result in fines being handed to candidates and it going away. Hell, thats what happened to Hillary just up the road from where this case is happening. She had a $113k fine to the FEC based on the debunked Steele dossier. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/mar/31/hillary-clinton-democrats-steele-dossier-settle-electoral-case So there is already precedent in this area that these cases are not criminal but civil, and led by the FEC not by local DAs. Thats absolutely going to be brought up in this case and helps a selective prosecution defense. Further than that, the DA dropped this case before when it became clear it wouldn't go anywhere. His election campaign got a massive infusion of left wing dark money and he took it up again. He openly campaigned on looking for any possible reason to indict Trump. So this has been a political vendetta from the start. https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/for-prosecutor-bragg-trump-indictment-is-campaign-promise-kept He had people resigning from his office because he knew he didnt have a case against Trump. Those people went on a massive PR campaign and put more pressure on Bragg to do something. Even further than that is his soft on crime approach to prosecutions within NYC. Crime, including violent crime, is up. He has a history of letting violent offenders go. https://www.nyc.gov/site/nypd/news/p00073/nypd-citywide-crime-statistics-january-2023 This will absolutely be brought up in any potential case as another sign that this is a political prosecution and not a legal one. Bragg will find himself on defense here just as much as Trump will. So yea, the idea that he is somehow a by the book DA falls apart under some pretty light scrutiny. Its nothing compared to whats coming if this ever actually makes it to trial. The Trump legal team is going to hammer on these, and many more, points to attack the credibility of the DA and the case itself.

If there was a way to sit far enough away and high enough to get a good vantage point then it might be good people watching. Theres going to be some "quality" out there to watch. Even with all the security though this just feels like one of those times when an idiot with a gun decides he wants to pretend to be John Wick and takes people with him.

Dont go. Its going to be a total shit show and theres decent enough odds that someone will do something extremely stupid that its not worth going.

Love it. Finland is now an official member of NATO.

Exclusive: Trump to be charged Tuesday with 34 felony counts, but spared handcuffs and mug shot https://news.yahoo.com/exclusive-trump-to-be-charged-tuesday-with-34-felony-counts-but-spared-handcuffs-and-mug-shot-001241750.html "But, the source said, Trump will not be put in handcuffs, placed in a jail cell or subjected to a mug shot — typical procedures even for white-collar defendants until a judge has weighed in on pretrial conditions. Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s office, which has been consulting with the Secret Service and New York City court officials, concluded there was no reason to subject the former president to handcuffs or a mug shot." That would be the first smart thing that has happened in this case. No mugshot means no new marketing materials. From the sounds of things today will be pretty scripted. He will show up, be finger printed, enter a plea, they will file a bunch of standard motions, then he will fly back to Florida this evening. No jail time, no perp walk, no mug shot, nothing big. Just a few formal things then back to Mar a Lago where he is scheduled to speak tonight. The charges themselves look even weaker now than before. If Bragg really is trying to get these charges all the way up to felony then he is absolutely reaching for anything he can. There's a rumor that some of the charges are potentially for a second womans hush money thats even further outside of the statute of limitations than the original claims are. It sure sounds like Bragg is going to try and take two cases that are already past the statute of limitations, and amount to a misdemeanor at best, and bump them up to felony charges. This is going to end in disaster and anyone who takes a step back for half a second can see it coming. The rush to get bad orange man is going to backfire spectacularly.

Something else on that strategy is that Dems dont really need to do it. MTG, bobo the Clown, and that idiot in NY all got to the general on their own. Dems should just sit back and let the GOP implode on its own. Promoting people like those three is like playing with fire. It might work for a bit, but its also how we ended up with MTG on some pretty important committees in the House.

I agree to a point. PA and GA Senate are prime examples of how the MAGA type candidates blew what should have been easily winnable races because of how horrible the candidates were. The problem is that Dems have been pushing this strategy further and further into Red areas of the country. It works when you have a true tossup or even light-red-purple districts, but it was pushed into much more friendly GOP districts. That's a huge risk because a lot of the GOP base in those districts doesn't care who the candidate is, they just want the person with the R next to their name to win. The idea itself makes a lot of sense, elevate the most insane people possible to both hurt local chances as well as build a national image of a party thats lost its mind. But in practice it has huge potential to backfire. Even with everything that has happened theres a sizeable portion of this country that will never vote for a Democrat, no matter how insane the GOP candidate might be. Its the same the other way to, just less prevalent thanks to all of the oxygen being sucked up by the MAGA people.

That feels like such a bad idea. They did this in the midterms as well and it backfired in a lot of House races. Dems also wanted Trump in 2016 and we all know how that turned out. America has the attention span of a goldfish. Propping up Trump seems like it has just massive backfire potential.

https://i.imgur.com/D1A1uHy.gifv I dont know why it wont embed, but this is great.

First on CNN: CDC team studying health impacts of Ohio train derailment fell ill during investigation https://www.cnn.com/2023/03/31/health/ohio-train-derailment-cdc-team-symptoms/index.html "Seven US government investigators briefly fell ill in early March while studying the possible health impacts of a toxic train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention confirmed to CNN on Thursday. The investigators’ symptoms included sore throats, headaches, coughing and nausea – consistent with what some residents experienced after the February 3 train derailment that released a cocktail of hazardous chemicals into the air, water and soil." But its totally OK for everyone to stay there. Im sure that there is no chance of long term health problems due to exposure of any of these chemicals. Nope. Everything will be just fine.

Chinese spy balloon gathered intelligence from sensitive U.S. military sites, despite U.S. efforts to block it https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/national-security/china-spy-balloon-collected-intelligence-us-military-bases-rcna77155 The Chinese spy balloon that flew across the U.S. was able to gather intelligence from several sensitive American military sites, despite the Biden administration’s efforts to block it from doing so, according to two current senior U.S. officials and one former senior administration official. China was able to control the balloon so it could make multiple passes over some of the sites (at times flying figure-eight formations) and transmit the information it collected back to Beijing in real time, the three officials said. The intelligence China collected was mostly from electronic signals, which can be picked up from weapons systems or include communications from base personnel, rather than images, the officials said. The three officials said China could have gathered much more intelligence from sensitive sites if not for the administration’s efforts to move around potential targets and obscure the balloon’s ability to pick up their electronic signals by stopping them from broadcasting or emitting signals.

There's not going to be any deal. If there was a deal it would have been worked out already. This thing is going full speed ahead until it bogs down in the court process.

Will Donald Trump’s mug shot become a defining image of the 21st Century? https://www.marketwatch.com/story/why-a-donald-trump-mug-shot-could-become-the-culture-icon-of-our-time-7297ed0e "It could become the cultural icon of our time,” says Craig Agranoff, a Florida-based marketing executive. Certainly, in the short term, Peter W. Cross, a former newspaper photo director turned freelance photographer, says there’s no question the image would be widely distributed. “It will be in every mainstream newspaper in the country and probably around the world,” Cross says, adding that he’d devote an entire front page to it if he was still in the business of making such decisions. It goes beyond just that. The photo could be seen on T-shirts, posters, coffee mugs and just about every form of merchandise that you can imagine, experts say. Agranoff says it would also likely inspire Halloween costumes. And further boosting the image’s profile is that it will hold meaning to those who are both pro-Trump and anti-Trump, Agranoff adds: “The (pro-Trump) people who will be disgusted by it will use it for mobilization, and the people who are against Trump will use it to mock him.”" Damn I'm good. Even some on the Left are starting to realize that this screams backfire and that it would be a very bad idea to release the mug shot. The tweet itself is stupid as hell and reminds me of that old Jon Stewart video where he laughs at overly bombastic news headlines, but the video from CNN is key. They realize that Trump is absolutely going to capitalize on any mug shot that is released. People are expecting some sort of disheveled image of Trump but that wont be how it goes. He likely has been practicing or being coached on what to do to have an image that provides maximum benefit for him. He knows hes going to market the hell out of that image, so its going to look the way he wants it to look. In NYC they changed the rules in 2020 and don't have to release any mug shots if they don't want to. The odds that Bragg doesn't release the mug shot is practically zero because he wants to be the first to do it, but he does have an option not to feed the troll.

Trump indictment pulls DeSantis-leaning Republicans back to MAGA fold https://news.yahoo.com/trump-indictment-pulls-desantis-leaning-100251746.html "Until the indictment, a majority of the 35 Republicans Reuters interviewed had been willing to turn their backs on Trump and go with a different candidate for the 2024 election, believing he was too flawed and bombastic to win the general election for Republicans next year. The criminal charges in New York changed all that, upending the Republican primary contest and potentially giving Trump and his "Make America Great Again" movement a major boost in his quest to re-enter the White House. A trial is more than a year away, legal experts say, meaning that Trump may face a jury trial as he campaigns. All 35 Republican activists and voters Reuters spoke to say they will be voting in the nominating contest to choose their 2024 White House candidate. Every one of them decried the indictment as a meritless, politically motivated persecution of Trump. The charges against Trump are not yet clear, though legal analysts say he may be prosecuted for falsifying business records on charges of hiding the true nature of the payments. Of the 35, 20 said they had been thinking of moving on from Trump and backing DeSantis. Of those, 14 said the indictment was changing their thinking and leading them back to supporting Trump again." Called it. Trump is becoming a Martyr thanks to these charges. Its now established that any future charges are political thanks to this one. So no matter what happens next his base is going to only solidify. Theres a chance people peel off, but thats decreasing by the day. I havent seen any new polls since they announced the indictment, but when they hit I wouldnt be surprised at all to see Trumps numbers increasing.

I literally forgot he even existed.

I read that the Secret Service has put some restrictions on what they will allow to happen when he shows up. He wont be Handcuffed and he will have relatively freedom of movement. They wont let him be put in any sort of isolated cell, but they wont let him be in a cell with others either. They have to be able to move him at a moments notice due to standard Secret Service policies. Hes still the former President so they have to make special precautions, and the local DA doesnt really have a choice in that matter. If the Secret Service needs to move him, they will move him. The key moment will be the mugshot. It will be the single most viral image ever, and it will be on Trump merchandise within hours of it being released. Trump is going to make so much money off of that mugshot. He knows how to market and merchandise, and this isn't going to be an exception. I'm expecting shirts, hats, flags, and even mugs for the irony to be made and shipped out quickly. Its going to turn into a massive windfall for him.

Damn I'm good. It doesnt beat his own personal record, but thats a huge chunk of cash to pull in in a short time, and a large chunk of it is from first time donors as well. His support may truly be growing. Trump raises $4 million toward presidential campaign in 24 hours after indictment https://nypost.com/2023/03/31/trump-raises-4-million-in-the-24-hours-after-indictment/ Former President Donald Trump raised more than $4 million toward his presidential run in the 24 hours since he was indicted by a Manhattan grand jury, his campaign announced Friday. “This incredible surge of grassroots contributions confirms that the American people see the indictment of President Trump as a disgraceful weaponization of our justice system by a Soros-funded prosecutor,” a press release from the former president’s campaign read. The campaign noted that more than 25% of the donations came from first-time Trump donors, and the average contribution was $34.