On Thursday, there were protests in defense of voting rights on Capitol Hill, one of which was led by Rep. Joyce Beatty (D-OH), Chairwoman of the Congressional Black Caucus. Beatty and other black women were arrested for their protests, which they knew they likely would be. But they had brought attention to the need for voting rights legislation and made their point.
Afterwards, posted a strong, defiant message on Twitter to let the world know she and her fellow protesters won’t be silenced and won’t stop protesting until Congress passes comprehensive legislation to address the wave of voting restrictions being passed by GOP-controlled states across the country:
You can arrest me. You can’t stop me. You can’t silence me.
For some reason known only to him, Donald Trump Jr. decided he’d comment on Congresswoman Beatty’s tweets, but he did it in a way that’s typical for him: Like a moronic asshole:
This is terrible. I had no idea that Black Women couldn’t vote. How is this not a bigger story? https://t.co/CNxjcE8kS2
Yes, black women can indeed vote. But it seems Republicans consider them to be a threat to their electoral future, so they want to make it as difficult as possible for people of color to vote. Make no mistake: Voting restrictions are about suppressing the voices of black and brown Americans. They’re a modern-day form of Jim Crow.
Rep. Beatty, however, got the last word on the matter:
Since your Dad lost, got kicked off Facebook & Twitter for inciting an insurrection that killed 5, & keeps lying about the election, Govs. Kemp & Abbott and Republican states are working overtime to deny Americans' the right to vote. It's a big story. https://t.co/n2VxUcHf7S
Ain't it tragic that we've gotten to the point in America where an entire political party wants to prevent people from votin', but ensure everyone owns a gun?
If we valued the voice of the people we would have mail in ballots sent to every registered voter nationally, accurate voter records, or election day as a national holiday, same day registration, and a polling station for every 5k voters in logical places. But ok dog whistle
It’s beginning to look like failed, one-term, twice-impeached former President Donald Trump is turning his growing anger and self-loathing outward, and the person he’s ready to throw under the bus appears to be Don Jr’s girlfriend, former Fox News host Kimberly Guilfoyle.
According to Politico, the former president considers Guilfoyle to be “annoying” and is also furious that she’s working for a GOP Senate candidate who’s running in Missouri:
“It’s Donald Trump’s most frequent complaint: people profiting off his name. The latest offender? His son’s girlfriend, MAGA’s own Eva Perón, Kimberly Guilfoyle. Trump has been openly griping that Guilfoyle joined Eric Greitens’campaign for Senate in Missouri as national campaign chair, and he’s becoming increasingly short with Guilfoyle.”
A Trump insider said the ex-president doesn’t want Grietens to become the Republican nominee because he has a controversial past which includes having an extramarital affair (just like Donald and Don Jr. had) and blackmail, as the Washington Postnoted in March when Grietens announced his run for the Senate:
“As a charismatic young governor (of Missouri), he earned mentions as a future presidential contender — until a devastating report landed from a St. Louis TV station in January 2018 that he had carried on an affair with a local hairdresser and threatened to release nude photos he’d taken of her if she revealed their relationship. After the report, Greitens admitted to the affair but denied any blackmail attempt.
“The revelation soon became a criminal case when Democratic St. Louis Circuit Attorney Kim Gardner launched a probe that resulted in a felony invasion-of-privacy charge a month later.”
Greiten’s controversial past has led Trump to remark:
“Why the fuck is she working for him?”
Even worse is that Trump fears Guilfoyle’s involvement will give the appearance he’s also on board with the former governor:
“Multiple advisers said Trump has been concerned that attaching Guilfoyle’s name to Greitens will look like an implicit endorsement from him.”
The clues are everywhere regarding how the Donald is freezing out Guilfoyle:
“There’ve been signs that Guilfoyle is on the outs: She’d been nudging Trump’s team to join the Make America Great Again Action super PAC before finally being added to its roster late last month as national finance chair. NYT’s Maggie Haberman reported this week that both RUDY GIULIANI and his son ANDREW have also been pressuring Trump to support Greitens.”
For her part, Guilfoyle denies she’s at odds with her boyfriend’s father.
It’s so much fun watching as people who supposedly have everything — fame, power, money — go after each other like a pack of hyenas. Here’s hoping every last one of them winds up broke and in prison.
The indictment of the Trump Organization by Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr. was a disappointment to some because it didn’t include the names of the former president or any of his three eldest children, all of whom are top executives for the company.
But just because there were no charges against any of the Trumps, that doesn’t mean they’re in the clear, according to noted legal scholar Jennifer Taub, who has carefully dissected the indictment and predicts members of the Trump family are far from in the clear.
Writing in Washington Monthly, Taub lays her cards on the table in the very first paragraph:
“Subtle hints in and surrounding this document foreshadow future legal trouble for Mr. Trump himself. With the grand jury expected to meet three times per week for much of the year, we should expect a superseding indictment by fall, one that could include other executives in the Trump Organization including the president’s sons, Donald Trump, Jr., and Eric Trump, as well as the former president himself.”
Taub also explains how she arrived at her prediction of charges being just months away and carrying the name “Trump” without “corporation” immediately following it:
“The very first overt act that seems to indicate the ex-president’s involvement was Donald Trump on behalf of the corporation entering into a lease around March 31, 2005 for an apartment in Manhattan on Riverside Boulevard (the Trump Place building). That lease had a rider that permitted only Allen Weisselberg and his wife to occupy the apartment and to use it as their primary residence.
“Why is this lease rider important? Well, it communicates that the grand jury knows that Donald Trump knew Weisselberg was living in the apartment on the company’s dime.”
In other words, there was a conspiracy. Two or more people were involved in a scheme to break the law. That makes it a conspiracy. If they even planned to commit a crime, that alone is a conspiracy. And Thursday’s indictment makes it clear that the failed, one-term for president would have known all about the tax avoidance schemes Weisselberg was charged for.
The Trump children, as top corporate officers, are also part of a criminal conspiracy, meaning they can expect to see their names emblazoned on future indictments.
All of this, Taub concludes, means that we need to sit tight and wait a while longer, because the “big fish” are about to get their share of karmic justice, too:
“It might be a huge psychological hurdle to ask the men and women of a grand jury to indict a former president. Perhaps the first step of charging his businesses will make them comfortable when they are later given evidence of Trump’s connection to the same or similar fraudulent schemes.
“Who knows for sure? But, what I am certain of is this. For Trump, the worst is yet to come.”
Remember how Weisselberg was shown being marched into the DA’s office in handcuffs yesterday? Trump was reportedly apoplectic when he saw that. Just imagine how upset he’ll be when the cuffs are on his own wrists.
After Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr. indicted the Trump Organization and its Chief Financial Officer, Allen Weisselberg, members of the Trump family were making a full-court press on right-wing media to try and downplay the seriousness of the charges against their company.
On Fox News, Eric Trump — who has the title of Executive Vice President of Trump Org. — sounded outraged that prosecutors would dare to indict anyone for such a paltry sum of money:
“Crime is rampant, people are leaving the city in record numbers, it’s dirty, it’s disgusting — New York is no longer what it is. And they have an entire district attorney’s office and attorney general’s office that’s focused on $3.5 million to take down a political opponent?
“I mean, this is what they do, this is New York state for you. This is worse than a banana republic. “It’s truly horrible.”
Eric Trump's defense of his company is that $3.5 million is really nbd. Also, Hunter Biden. pic.twitter.com/YOXHkdin5N
Eric also made an appearance on Newsmax, where he seemed to suggest that he and his family were so “clean” that to indict their family business was just flat-out wrong:
“We’ve always led amazingly clean lives and believe me if they could have, they already would of right? That’s what they wanted, that was their own goal.”
And then he pivoted to Hunter Biden:
“The difference is that I’m not Hunter Biden. I’m not selling paintings to undisclosed people for a half a million dollars apiece. I’m not doing drugs in shady hotels. I’m not going out and soliciting prostitution and I’m not going out and selling influence to Ukraine and China and having lavish trips paid for while my father’s commander in chief, no I’m not doing that.”
Alexi Navalny was poisoned with nerve gas and is currently serving time in a Russian gulag. Yeah, that’s totally the same thing as what the Trump family is going through.
Puh-lease!
However, it is interesting to noted that Junior referenced a Russian opposition leader. Seems Russia is never far from the mind of any Trump. That must be part of the deal they made with Putin: To talk about the Kremlin as often as possible in exchange for lots of money.
When you’re defense is “But we only stole a few million,” you know you’re screwed. And it couldn’t possibly happen to more deserving grifters.
In the surest sign yet that something MONUMENTAL is about to break regarding the legal case against the Trump Organization, a video Donald Trump Jr. posted on Monday is drawing calls for him to be placed in rehab immediately.
In the video, Junior goes on an extended rant about Russian hackers, President Joe Biden, and Hunter Biden. In other words, it’s a replaying of the greatest hits from the Trump family: They project their own crimes and insecurities onto everyone else, which is so transparently confessional that it should be allowed into evidence.
Oh, there’s also the fact that Don Jr. sounds buzzed on something. He slurs his words at times, which suggests alcohol, but his glazed eyes and manic energy point to Bolivian marching powder.
Even people who despise the Trump spawn and what they stand for began suggesting that Junior’s family stage an intervention, which of course they won’t do:
This incoherent spew has ceased to be amusing. It's not even remotely intelligible. Don Jr is desperately in need of an intervention. But not one member of that misbegotten family will do anything about it.
— Kimberley Johnson (@AuthorKimberley) June 28, 2021
In all seriousness, anyone who cares about this person, even a little bit, needs to hold an intervention now. Politics aside, He is in trouble. pic.twitter.com/7tTrCAjhBK
When the indictments are handed down, someone had better lock Junior in a room and make him detox cold turkey. Yes, for his health, but also because he deserves it.