Trump's Manhattan criminal trial
by Irisharab (2024-03-02 15:42:48)
Cannot Reply Return to Political

As of today, the trial is supposed to start on March 25th. This is the trial that focuses on the hush money payments to Stormy Daniels.

Several months ago, I read that, even if Trump is found guilty, it's incredibly unlikely that he will face any jail time or house arrest. Far more likely that he will be given a six-figure fine and probation.

Suppose he is found guilty, but is not sentenced to any jail time. Will the fact that he is technically a convicted felon have any impact on likely Trump voters or the RNC? Or will they simply brush this felony conviction off?

They just write it off. *
by Kali4niaND  (2024-03-02 20:46:34)     cannot delete  |  Edit  |  Return to Board  |  Ignore Poster   |   Highlight Poster  |   Cannot reply

You don't even know what a write-off is *
by sprack  (2024-03-02 20:59:47)     cannot delete  |  Edit  |  Return to Board  |  Ignore Poster   |   Highlight Poster  |   Cannot reply

Fine, it’s a sculpture of limitations. *
by kormal  (2024-03-03 08:20:26)     cannot delete  |  Edit  |  Return to Board  |  Ignore Poster   |   Highlight Poster  |   Cannot reply

After almost 9 years of the Trump cult
by wearendhockey  (2024-03-02 16:39:18)     cannot delete  |  Edit  |  Return to Board  |  Ignore Poster   |   Highlight Poster  |   Cannot reply

I am really unable to understand why anyone asks, basically, is the other shoe ever going to drop with Trump fans and the MAGA movement.

I think people would have needed their heads examined if after 4 years of Jimmy Carter they thought he deserved 4 more, but a vote for Carter in 1980 made infinitely more sense than a vote for Trump, in 2016, 2020, or now. But that is not where this country is in 2024. Trump is going to get his 70-75,000,000 votes. He might win again too. But no, a conviction in the Stormy Daniels affair, or any or all of the other indictments he's facing are not going to keep those 70 million plus from voting for him.

The GOP has no balls right now.
by Brahms  (2024-03-02 22:37:23)     cannot delete  |  Edit  |  Return to Board  |  Ignore Poster   |   Highlight Poster  |   Cannot reply

Donnie’s got ‘Em bound up tight.

They're in denial. They think they can survive this.
by Barney68  (2024-03-03 16:44:04)     cannot delete  |  Edit  |  Return to Board  |  Ignore Poster   |   Highlight Poster  |   Cannot reply

They don't realize that Trump disappearing, which he eventually must, will only cut off the Hydra's head.

My view is that the MAGA Cult will only increase its power within a shrinking GOP. Denial and appeasement will continue until they are unsustainable.

And the nation and the world will pay the price for this.

You might need to stop catastrophizing and find something
by ACross  (2024-03-04 23:24:09)     cannot delete  |  Edit  |  Return to Board  |  Ignore Poster   |   Highlight Poster  |   Cannot reply

Else to do with your time.
MAGA Guiding Principles
by Brahms  (2024-03-04 08:24:03)     cannot delete  |  Edit  |  Return to Board  |  Ignore Poster   |   Highlight Poster  |   Cannot reply

Reactionary stuff - isolationism, anti-elitism (science, institutions), radically curtailing immigration, flipping China the bird, and smaller government (in some incoherent sense), with a fair dose of impulsivity, anti-wokism, and a belief in strong man / snap his fingers politics. The last gasp of many white, lower-income, Christian men.

Did I leave anything out?

Ultimately DJT is just as empty-headed as the Dem & GOP elites who drew us to this populist turn. And admittedly, the immigration thing is a complete mess and was shoved down people's throats and allowed to fester way too long.
They have been promised a return to "a time that never ...
by Barney68  (2024-03-04 10:36:58)     cannot delete  |  Edit  |  Return to Board  |  Ignore Poster   |   Highlight Poster  |   Cannot reply

was," a time of simplicity when John Wayne ruled benevolently, when things were good and nobody questioned the rightness of anything done so long as the flag flew high.

That is MAGA, 'tis true. And it's easy to believe in as it's the national myth that many of us grew up with. Sadly, it's far from a true story or a complete one.

The Democratic PArty reaps what is sows
by ACross  (2024-03-05 12:00:44)     cannot delete  |  Edit  |  Return to Board  |  Ignore Poster   |   Highlight Poster  |   Cannot reply

It puts up Hillary Clinton in 2016 and Joe Biden in 2024.

It abandons Afghanistan in 2021.

It makes voting for a Democrat a non starter for people like me and the Bonger and Beijing and Cash and millions and millions of voters. Understand that next time you want your wife to flip somebody off.
Are you trolling or is this your actual opinion?
by BigBadBrewer  (2024-03-06 21:38:43)     cannot delete  |  Edit  |  Return to Board  |  Ignore Poster   |   Highlight Poster  |   Cannot reply

Because... holy smokes dude, the problems is that the Dems put up standard oliticians with long tenures for POTUS?

Afghanistan ended up as a disaster. Should we have pulled out 10 years earlier? Stayed another 10 years? Do you believe Trump would have handled the exit better? I think Hillary would have done it better. Romney and Huntsman as well. Most of the GOP field?

Now, which side coddles and supports people who don't support the peaceful, legal transition of power? That's an acceptable risk when the alternative is a... conventional democrat?

He wasn’t kidding with the shoot someone on 5th Ave comment.
by ndroman21  (2024-03-02 21:50:13)     cannot delete  |  Edit  |  Return to Board  |  Ignore Poster   |   Highlight Poster  |   Cannot reply

Why people can’t seem to understand that after everything that has happened, I have no idea.
Or that this case is one of the more flimsy of the cases
by krudler  (2024-03-03 12:02:56)     cannot delete  |  Edit  |  Return to Board  |  Ignore Poster   |   Highlight Poster  |   Cannot reply

against Trump and distracts from some of the "teethier" cases, thus giving Trump the ammunition he wants to claim he's the victim. Alvin Bragg is a disgrace for helping Trump here.

I think you are correct.
by IrishApache  (2024-03-03 21:50:51)     cannot delete  |  Edit  |  Return to Board  |  Ignore Poster   |   Highlight Poster  |   Cannot reply

I wish the Florida case was more on the forefront of the national conscience.

I think that is the case that best exposes a heinous wrongdoing that is:

A) harder to refute.

B) features repugnant transgressions that are easily understood.
Is that the documents case? If so I agree,
by krudler  (2024-03-04 09:56:35)     cannot delete  |  Edit  |  Return to Board  |  Ignore Poster   |   Highlight Poster  |   Cannot reply

but he'll of course muddy the waters (and has) with improper comparisons to the Biden case (who also seemingly willingly took and held classified documents, but seems to have cooperated with authorities as opposed to Trump).
It’s far beyond this particular case.
by ndroman21  (2024-03-03 12:29:32)     cannot delete  |  Edit  |  Return to Board  |  Ignore Poster   |   Highlight Poster  |   Cannot reply

Examples are legion.

“Patriots” participating in and overlooking an assault on the US Capitol building.

Voters espousing family values overlooking lewd comments and, put kindly, association with a literal pornstar, while married to his second wife.

Those touting fiscal conservatism perfectly ok with nepotism in appointments and grift in spending at his own properties.

I do not believe there is anything Trump can do that will turn his core of support against him.

Clearly, neither does the mainstream GOP.
I thought the topic of this thread was about this
by krudler  (2024-03-03 12:37:06)     cannot delete  |  Edit  |  Return to Board  |  Ignore Poster   |   Highlight Poster  |   Cannot reply

particular case, but may have lost the thread.
Did you read the post that I responded to? *
by ndroman21  (2024-03-03 15:11:30)     cannot delete  |  Edit  |  Return to Board  |  Ignore Poster   |   Highlight Poster  |   Cannot reply

What difference at this point does it make? * *
by krudler  (2024-03-03 18:01:10)     cannot delete  |  Edit  |  Return to Board  |  Ignore Poster   |   Highlight Poster  |   Cannot reply

I don’t think this, or any other conviction, will matter. *
by ndroman21  (2024-03-03 22:19:41)     cannot delete  |  Edit  |  Return to Board  |  Ignore Poster   |   Highlight Poster  |   Cannot reply

Is it a felony charge? *
by ufl  (2024-03-02 15:56:22)     cannot delete  |  Edit  |  Return to Board  |  Ignore Poster   |   Highlight Poster  |   Cannot reply

Yes
by Irisharab  (2024-03-02 16:04:17)     cannot delete  |  Edit  |  Return to Board  |  Ignore Poster   |   Highlight Poster  |   Cannot reply

Here's an excerpt from an Associated Press article in mid-February:

Trump is charged with 34 counts of falsifying business records. The charge is a Class E felony in New York, the lowest tier of felony charges in the state. It is punishable by up to four years in prison, though there is no guarantee that a conviction would result in jail time.

Because it is a state case, Trump would not be able to pardon himself if he were to become president again. Presidential pardons only apply to federal crimes.

To convict Trump of a felony, prosecutors must show he not only falsified or caused business records to be entered falsely, which would be a misdemeanor, but that he did so to conceal another crime.

Prosecutors did not specify the other crime in Trump’s indictment, but have since said that evidence shows his actions were meant to conceal campaign finance crimes.
So what's the underlying cime in the penultimate paragraph?
by gozer  (2024-03-02 16:46:42)     cannot delete  |  Edit  |  Return to Board  |  Ignore Poster   |   Highlight Poster  |   Cannot reply

As to the original question, if someone's voting for him, a felony at this point isn't going to change their mind. The whole thing will just be further proof that they're just out to get him (and to be honest, as bad as he is as a president, a leader, and a man, I can't honestly say they're completely wrong. The entirety of the print and broadcast news establishment(yeah, I know, "but Fox news!") has been hell-bent on "get him!" since the 2016 Republican convention. That they've kept missing him this long is frankly a bit comical.)
Campaign finance violations
by ratinatux  (2024-03-02 20:12:49)     cannot delete  |  Edit  |  Return to Board  |  Ignore Poster   |   Highlight Poster  |   Cannot reply

On the theory that the hush money payment was made to help his campaign. Note these are campaign finance violations that the FEC specifically investigated and decided not to charge. This case is stupid and undermines the credibility of the real (Jack Smith charged) crimes, much like Fani’s affair.

Agreed entirely but disagree in part
by airborneirish  (2024-03-02 20:40:49)     cannot delete  |  Edit  |  Return to Board  |  Ignore Poster   |   Highlight Poster  |   Cannot reply

I read the entire filing a year ago and it did not specifically mention the campaign finance “crime”. The entire thing is a joke. I would refuse to appear.

It was not in the indictment but DA office stated that is
by ratinatux  (2024-03-03 08:52:08)     cannot delete  |  Edit  |  Return to Board  |  Ignore Poster   |   Highlight Poster  |   Cannot reply

What they intend to pursue
Like I said. Wait until march 25. *
by airborneirish  (2024-03-03 17:14:57)     cannot delete  |  Edit  |  Return to Board  |  Ignore Poster   |   Highlight Poster  |   Cannot reply

No one knows. We have to wait until march 25 *
by airborneirish  (2024-03-02 18:16:32)     cannot delete  |  Edit  |  Return to Board  |  Ignore Poster   |   Highlight Poster  |   Cannot reply

I think with the "double haters"
by AquinasDomer  (2024-03-02 17:24:31)     cannot delete  |  Edit  |  Return to Board  |  Ignore Poster   |   Highlight Poster  |   Cannot reply

Or wavering Biden 2020/WSJ soft Trump voters it could matter.

For the vast majority of adults it won't matter at all.
What an utterly depressing statement.
by IAND75  (2024-03-02 18:24:33)     cannot delete  |  Edit  |  Return to Board  |  Ignore Poster   |   Highlight Poster  |   Cannot reply

“For the vast majority of adults it won't matter at all.”

And very likely true.
Wait won that make him ineligible to vote in FL? *
by vermin05  (2024-03-02 16:14:04)     cannot delete  |  Edit  |  Return to Board  |  Ignore Poster   |   Highlight Poster  |   Cannot reply