The Trump Arrest Thread!

[Pb]

Yes, that is a good point.

[gunsmith]

 there is a new guy at where I work ( metal fabrication )
 African American, voted for Obama/Hillary/Biden ... now he is totally a Trump voter.
Except for one angry white guy, everybody is backing Trump .

[WLJ]

"Everyman", as in if they can do it to Trump, a rich, famous ex-president, they'll have no trouble doing it to us nobodies. When you even have democrats calling this out, you know there is something to it. This is banana republic level stuff.

Don't let your hatred of Trump blind you to the injustice of what they're doing to him, and the precedent it sets.

About that

    Rep. @JasmineForUS (D-Texas): Republicans defending Trump "are getting dangerously close, in my opinion, to criminal culpability in and of themselves, as well" pic.twitter.com/wmRTbnV0qc
    — Tom Elliott (@tomselliott) August 5, 2023

https://twitchy.com/dougp/2023/08/05/dem-rep-says-the-quiet-part-out-loud-about-republicans-who-support-trump-n2386011

https://twitter.com/tomselliott/status/1687817054596849664?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw

Your gulag awaits

[Ron]

I do not see how Trump resembles "everyman."

David Brooks just wrote an article in the payblocked NewYowk Slimes that may give you insight into how Trump, who is not an everyman, became the figurehead for the everyman.

I ask you to try on a vantage point in which we anti-Trumpers are not the eternal good guys. In fact, we’re the bad guys.

This story begins in the 1960s, when high school grads had to go off to fight in Vietnam but the children of the educated class got college deferments. It continues in the 1970s, when the authorities imposed busing on working-class areas in Boston but not on the upscale communities like Wellesley where they themselves lived.

The ideal that we’re all in this together was replaced with the reality that the educated class lives in a world up here and everybody else is forced into a world down there. Members of our class are always publicly speaking out for the marginalized, but somehow we always end up building systems that serve ourselves.

The most important of those systems is the modern meritocracy. We built an entire social order that sorts and excludes people on the basis of the quality that we possess most: academic achievement. Highly educated parents go to elite schools, marry each other, work at high-paying professional jobs and pour enormous resources into our children, who get into the same elite schools, marry each other and pass their exclusive class privileges down from generation to generation.

Daniel Markovits summarized years of research in his book “The Meritocracy Trap”: “Today, middle-class children lose out to the rich children at school, and middle-class adults lose out to elite graduates at work. Meritocracy blocks the middle class from opportunity. Then it blames those who lose a competition for income and status that, even when everyone plays by the rules, only the rich can win.”

The meritocracy isn’t only a system of exclusion; it’s an ethos. During his presidency, Barack Obama used the word “smart” in the context of his policies over 900 times. The implication was that anybody who disagreed with his policies (and perhaps didn’t go to Harvard Law) must be stupid.

Over the last decades, we’ve taken over whole professions and locked everybody else out….

It’s easy to understand why people in less-educated classes would conclude that they are under economic, political, cultural and moral assault — and why they’ve rallied around Trump as their best warrior against the educated class. He understood that it’s not the entrepreneurs who seem most threatening to workers; it’s the professional class. Trump understood that there was great demand for a leader who would stick his thumb in our eyes on a daily basis and reject the whole epistemic regime that we rode in on.

If distrustful populism is your basic worldview, the Trump indictments seem like just another skirmish in the class war between the professionals and the workers, another assault by a bunch of coastal lawyers who want to take down the man who most aggressively stands up to them. Of course, the indictments don’t cause Trump supporters to abandon him. They cause them to become more fiercely loyal. That’s the polling story of the last six months…

But there’s a larger context here. As the sociologist E. Digby Baltzell wrote decades ago, “History is a graveyard of classes which have preferred caste privileges to leadership.” That is the destiny our class is now flirting with.

On Anti-Trumpers and the Modern Meritocracy, David Brooks, 3 August 2023

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/08/02/opinion/trump-meritocracy-educated.html

I saw it at Voxday
https://   voxday.net    /2023/08/05/you-are-the-bad-guys/

[JTHunter]

Good article Ron !

[Ben]

They're not even hiding the banana republic stuff. Besides the judge, they could have at least made the effort to use different deep state lawyers that don't already have documented bias.

https://twitchy.com/samj/2023/08/06/julie-kelly-two-n2386039

[Ben]

It appears a Georgia DA is now going to bring an indictment against him.

Banana.
Republic.

https://www.foxnews.com/media/trump-attorney-expects-georgia-indictment-weeks-corrupt-da-wants-moment

This guy is going to end up being president again. Even MSM polls are now showing him even to ahead of Biden. Every new indictment is going to increase his numbers.

[zxcvbob]

This guy is going to end up being president again.

Nope.  It's more banana republic than that.  He's going to be denied bail for something, put in a jail cell somewhere (w/o his Secret Service detail), and murdered by the guards.  Sure, that makes him a martyr, but there's no one to capitalize on it so it doesn't matter.

[WLJ]

Nope.  It's more banana republic than that.  He's going to be denied bail for something, put in a jail cell somewhere (w/o his Secret Service detail), and murdered by the guards "commit suicide".  Sure, that makes him a martyr, but there's no one to capitalize on it so it doesn't matter.

[JTHunter]

Nope.  It's more banana republic than that.  He's going to be denied bail for something, put in a jail cell somewhere (w/o his Secret Service detail), and murdered by the guards.  Sure, that makes him a martyr, but there's no one to capitalize on it so it doesn't matter.

Nope.  He's going to go out like Epstein.     

[zxcvbob]

Nope.  He's going to go out like Epstein.     

That's what I said; murdered by the guards.

[dogmush]

Nope.  It's more banana republic than that.  He's going to be denied bail for something, put in a jail cell somewhere (w/o his Secret Service detail), and murdered by the guards.  Sure, that makes him a martyr, but there's no one to capitalize on it so it doesn't matter.

You better pray that's a joke.  If that happens it'll be open season on politicians for probably a million pissed off and/or disillusioned folks with rifles.

[Ben]

You better pray that's a joke.  If that happens it'll be open season on politicians for probably a million pissed off and/or disillusioned folks with rifles.

Yup. IMO, that would absolutely be "flipping the switch". I think there would be violence, perhaps not to the same extent, even if Trump were jailed (and alive) before the elections to keep him from running. That's dictator level *expletive deleted*it.

And again, not just because it's Trump, but because it happened in the first place.

[cordex]

You better pray that's a joke.  If that happens it'll be open season on politicians for probably a million pissed off and/or disillusioned folks with rifles.

I doubt it.

Despite the left's continual mischaracterization of the right, the people on the conservative side tend to be - by definition - the least likely to violate social norms.  Hard to believe a rich, New York liberal getting murdered would be the trigger for mass revolution on the right.  I know Trump has a cult of personality, but I think it'll take more than his death to get a bunch of gainfully employed dads and retired grandpas to load rifles and start killing politicians.

[WLJ]

I doubt it.

Despite the left's continual mischaracterization of the right, the people on the conservative side tend to be - by definition - the least likely to violate social norms. 

Trouble is the left keeps inventing new social norms on the fly.

[RocketMan]

I doubt it.

Despite the left's continual mischaracterization of the right, the people on the conservative side tend to be - by definition - the least likely to violate social norms.  Hard to believe a rich, New York liberal getting murdered would be the trigger for mass revolution on the right.  I know Trump has a cult of personality, but I think it'll take more than his death to get a bunch of gainfully employed dads and retired grandpas to load rifles and start killing politicians.

Honestly, I think that sort of thing has been pretty much bred out of the population.  You might have a few folks on the left do that with sufficient provocation.  But the right hand folks won't do it.  Sure, there would be a lot of talk, but not enough people with the stones to kick things off in a meaningful way that wouldn't peter out before it really got going.

[cordex]

Trouble is the left keeps inventing new social norms on the fly.

I'm not talking about leftist Social Norms of the Day.  Murdering bad politicians in the US has been against accepted social norms since long before any of us were alive.  That's not a new thing.

If it ever comes back into vogue it'll be unpleasant all around and more than just bad politicians will eat bullets.

[HankB]

Honestly, I think that sort of thing has been pretty much bred out of the population.  You might have a few folks on the left do that with sufficient provocation.  But the right hand folks won't do it.  Sure, there would be a lot of talk, but not enough people with the stones to kick things off in a meaningful way that wouldn't peter out before it really got going.

Just think about all the people in New Orleans in Hurricane Katrina's aftermath who opened fire on police - including out of state police - when they came to their doors and demanded they turn over their guns.

Oh, wait . . . 

[MechAg94]

Just think about all the people in New Orleans in Hurricane Katrina's aftermath who opened fire on police - including out of state police - when they came to their doors and demanded they turn over their guns.

Oh, wait . . . 

How many people was that?  The only one I remember was that old lady who was foolish enough to let them in her house.  I thought most of the guns seized were from unoccupied homes and such. 

[MechAg94]

David Brooks just wrote an article in the payblocked NewYowk Slimes that may give you insight into how Trump, who is not an everyman, became the figurehead for the everyman.

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/08/02/opinion/trump-meritocracy-educated.html

I saw it at Voxday
https://   voxday.net    /2023/08/05/you-are-the-bad-guys/

That is a good article.  I would modify one thing.  It isn't just educated classes.  I have an engineering degree.  I really don't think they would want me in their club.  It is the Ivy League schools that they are favoring plus a few more.  It is that "ruling class" mentality. 

On the violence stuff:  Yeah, a lot of people won't want to get violent, but it really doesn't take a whole lot of people for things to get messy.  And for it to work it only needs a decent percentage to turn a blind eye to things they may see.  And if you didn't notice, that is exactly the same as what the ruling elite types are taking advantage of right now.  Agreeable people in key positions who can harass and go after people and bankrupt them.   

[HankB]

How many people was that?  The only one I remember was that old lady who was foolish enough to let them in her house.  I thought most of the guns seized were from unoccupied homes and such.

There were several people interviewed on TV who, when told to hand over any guns they had in their homes, simply did so. Eventually this came to light, some people ratcheted up the rhetoric, and the practice stopped.

Lots of stories about it on line - here's just one of them:  https://dailycaller.com/2015/08/24/a-decade-later-remember-new-orleans-gun-confiscation-can-and-has-happened-in-america/

[MechAg94]

There were several people interviewed on TV who, when told to hand over any guns they had in their homes, simply did so. Eventually this came to light, some people ratcheted up the rhetoric, and the practice stopped.

Lots of stories about it on line - here's just one of them:  https://dailycaller.com/2015/08/24/a-decade-later-remember-new-orleans-gun-confiscation-can-and-has-happened-in-america/

The problem is there are never any numbers to go by with stuff like that.  How many people turned them over?  I know they had a warehouse full of guns, but New Orleans is a big town.  I have my doubts about how high the percentage was.  We have always known there would be a certain number of people who will go along with the BigGov. 

[Northwoods]

That is a good article.  I would modify one thing.  It isn't just educated classes.  I have an engineering degree.  I really don't think they would want me in their club.  It is the Ivy League schools that they are favoring plus a few more.  It is that "ruling class" mentality. 

On the violence stuff:  Yeah, a lot of people won't want to get violent, but it really doesn't take a whole lot of people for things to get messy.  And for it to work it only needs a decent percentage to turn a blind eye to things they may see.  And if you didn't notice, that is exactly the same as what the ruling elite types are taking advantage of right now.  Agreeable people in key positions who can harass and go after people and bankrupt them.   

At PACCAR if you really want to move up the ranks of management you get an MBA or go through an “executive management” course at Stanford.  At other places it’s a degree from MIT, or as mentioned an Ivy.  My BS from Embry Riddle and my MBA from Western Washington University isn’t going to get me ANY consideration from the ruling class.

All it takes is maybe a couple dozen more or less independent people to really kick things off.  I’m sure there are 20-30 skilled riflemen in the country with terminal cancer, or an ex-wife that won’t let him see the kids that also got fired from their job, or has no family/money to put at risk, etc.

[dogmush]

I doubt it.

Despite the left's continual mischaracterization of the right, the people on the conservative side tend to be - by definition - the least likely to violate social norms.  Hard to believe a rich, New York liberal getting murdered would be the trigger for mass revolution on the right.  I know Trump has a cult of personality, but I think it'll take more than his death to get a bunch of gainfully employed dads and retired grandpas to load rifles and start killing politicians.

Disagree.  Or more correctly think you're missing how disaffected lot of late 20's to late 30's men are in parts of the country.  You're correct that a bunch of gainfully employed dads and retired grandpas are unlikely to go hot over Trump.  But an a OEF vet, whose wife left him and took the kids, and who is currently working as a bouncer for $16/hr, or one of the coal miners that has been out of work for a couple years, never had a steady girl and whose Dad is dead and Mom is strung out on Oxy?  Those guys will look at a "suicide" in jail as the left firing the first shot, and making Politicians fair game again.

74,000,000 people voted for Trump in 2020.  If 1/8th of 1% of them think Trump's murder is the start of the Boogaloo, then you'll have damn near 100,000 potential Oswalds.  Not to mention McVeighs.  Enough to form regiments and fight the Army?  Probably not, but enough to make it pretty damn dangerous to be a Dem standing in a clear sightline.

And Honestly?  If the Uniparty killed a former president?  I doubt I would join them over Trump, but I'm not sure I'd help stop them either.  If we're really at the point that our politicians are offing each other with Epstein levels of brazenness, it's probably time they were culled a bit to remember their place.

hence:

You better pray that's a joke. 

[WLJ]

Babylon Bee warning

Trump Indicted For Mocking US Women’s Soccer
https://babylonbee.com/news/trump-indicted-for-us-womens-soccer-defeat

Trump Charged With Questioning Election Results While Not Being A Democrat
https://babylonbee.com/news/trump-charged-with-questioning-election-results-while-not-being-a-democrat

"We must be clear: no one who is a Republican is above the law."

The former President has also been charged with 6 other counts, including:

Removing a USB drive without ejecting it first
Going to McDonald's and getting a cup for water but filling it with Sprite
Wearing a National Park Junior Ranger badge without finishing the activity booklet
Pressing the 'credit' button on a card reader even though he was using a debit card
Clicking the box saying he had read the Terms Of Service when he really just scrolled through it
High treason against the media
At publishing time, Trump had pleaded "not guilty" on all charges on the grounds that he is actually a Democrat.