The Deviant

[H2O Man]

Last night, I was remembering the night that Richard Nixon resigned. My brother and I were mighty happy. My father found it depressing. This, despite being a life-long Democrat, a first-generation American from a large extended family of Democrats. It wasn't that he liked Nixon in any way -- he often repeated the line, "You wouldn't buy a used car from that man." Rather, it was that Nixon had so corrupted the Office of the President, to a degree that he thought no president ever would.

Being of a different generation, I've come to accept that a number of post-Nixon republican presidents in a manner that had one gentleman on the news bring up Senator Moynihan's quote about "defining deviancy down" regarding the defendent. On one hand, I can understand how my father felt ..... it is depressing to consider that a deviant like Trump ever was president. But I the other hand, I welcome the cleansing, difficult as it may be.

I keep in mind that, when anticipating the unknown, human beings often go to the worst case scenario. This holds true not only in medical appointments, but in politics and legal cases. Last night, but for one example, I remembered I had to get up early today for a 1 pm medical appointment. "What if she tells me I'm going to die soon ?" I thought. Yet I only had to stop in to have them copy my new insurance card.

There will be bumps in the road ahead, as the defendent faces prosecution. These likely come from three sources: the defendent's calling for violence, the judge currently assigned to hear the case, and the half-wits and shit stains that worship the defendent in what they are convinced is a holy war. Yet, I consider Jack Smith and his team to be our insurance card. I am certain that, despite the bumps in the road, we will reach our destination. More, the defendent will reach his, and it is not as pleasant as where we will be.

Keep in mind a few things. The indictment likely touched on betwen 20 and 25% of the evidence that Mr.Smith's team has. And this does not include the possibility that the fellow being charged with him may come to understand that the defendent will try to lay the blame on him, as well as others who have been turned. Mr. Smith recognized that there was a possibility that Cannon would be picked to hear the case, and are fully prepared for this. She will cause bumps in the road, but not a road block.

Also, there is not only the possibility of other charges in other states, but there is still the investigation of January 6 being conducted.

[livetohike]

1. Trump's mishmash of defense attorneys are no match

for Jack Smith and his team. It will be interesting to see what b.s. tactics they pathetically will use since they all know their client is guilty as hell. I like our insurance 🙂.

[H2O Man]

5. From what I have seen,

the defendent is down to two lawyers on this case. The one is a former federal prosecutor, who knows what he is up against. It sounds like he plans to concentrate on claiming there was misconduct on the part of one or more of the prosecutors investigating the case. That's a fairly common tactic to get someone removed, and specific evidence kept out of the trial. It is a rather steep uphill battle, when one considers the evidence he is most concerned about had already reached the appellate level.

The other fellow's talents are in the area of appeals. That's always good if it is part of a large legal team, "just in case." But that puts most of the trial duties on the other guy.

[3Hotdogs]

2. I fear jury nullification more than I fear the judge.

[H2O Man]

6. Thanks!

That should have been the 4th thing I raised as a possible probem, and so I thank you for mentioning it. For it has the potential to actually be the most serious issue in the trial. It only takes one person that Cannon has seated. I do think that, as that potential is more likely in Florida than, say, DV, that it is something that Mr. Smith and his team are prepared to deal with as the jury is selected. But you raise a valid concern.

[wnylib]

16. If there is a hung jury, I want to see DOJ retry the case.

I do not want Trump to get off just because there might be one or two holdouts.

[H2O Man]

18. Definitely!

At this point, I think he will be convicted. His defense team has to try to counter evidence -- including his own words and actions -- about his state of mind. But that would require the defendent to take the witness stand. I wish he would. Oh, do I wish he would!

[wnylib]

21. I would LOVE to see Trump on the witness stand.

[H2O Man]

23. Yes.

It would be delightful.

[Saoirse9]

3. Very impressed with Jack Smith

He strikes me as detached at the same time as he is thorough and . . . a bit ruthless. He is confident. He is watchful.

What I have been able to observe of Jack Smith gives me courage and some measure of peace.

We will all rest easy when the orange shitgibbon is in prison. But I feel easier knowing that someone who excels in his field is taking care of our country's interests.

All hail Jack Smith!

An enjoyable essay as always dear H.

[H2O Man]

8. I've been thinking

about an issue that you raised last week, and that I failed to address. I have no good excuse, so I will try to blame it on the anciety I've dealt with during the last week, regarding my insurance card and death. This, despite the fact that the doctor's office only called me yesterday.

During our current communications, I mentioned that I had been talking with the grandson of one of our party's most powerful leaders of the 1960s. My friend is very politically active, and happens to share an interest in boxing and Irish history. Our conversation involved talking about Dr. Bandy Lee, reminding me of what you have been saying.

Rather than using Freud's model of id, ego, and super ego, I think the image of a deep dark lake works better here. Not that the defendent is deep, for he is rather shallow. He inhabits the top one of two inches in the lake of consciousness, and that explains the vast majority of his behaviors. These can be lumped together in Fromm's "malignant narcissist," or as I prefer, sociopath.

Thus, there are patterns that suggest that in the deep, dark waters of his unconscious mind, there is at very least something closely connected to his impulsive risk taking. As Bandy said, there appears to be a part of him that actually wants to get caught. In his mind, he can only focus consciously on being a victim, of Mr. Smith being a "thug," and on this opportunity to fund-raise. He is unaware of the compulsive risk-taking almost insuring that he gets convicted. Thus, despite his legal teams telling him to remain quiet about the case (as with previous ones), he simply cannot keep his mouth shut.

[Saoirse9]

12. Well that makes sense

He's so unaware of himself and how he really appears to others, because he deals on a superficial level most of the time. But I think sometimes reality creeps in he knows he's behaving like an idiot though he simply can't stop. He's like a machine that can only have a narrow set of mechanical responses to shame.

Here's the quote by Bandy Lee I was referring to:

There was one multiple murderer in Chicago, many years ago, who killed several women and wrote on the wall of one of them, "Stop me before I kill more."

There's sometimes a kind of awareness where one is almost begging for external control by
behaving in such an outrageous way. And what I have found, is that they are almost panicked by
their own lack of self-control. They feel utterly out of control and, in a sense, are begging to have somebody place external controls on them, even though they can't admit this to themselves because they would lose face. So they protect their pride by saying, "Oh, I'm big and tough." Whereas actually they are begging us to put external controls on them. I think that's true of Donald Trump.

You can find that quote on page 26 of the document linked here:

https://worldmhc.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/A-Primer-for-the-Increasingly-Dangerous-Case-of-Donald-Trump-.pdf

trump is not complicated. He's wired to make himself look better by making others look bad. It just isn't working anymore.

[H2O Man]

14. You may recall

a politician named Rob Telles, who murdered a journalist who was exposing him as a creep. Since getting arrested, Telles began accusing everyone -- the police, prosecutors, the judge, the media, etc -- of being enhahed in a huge conspiracy to "get him." This, despite film of him going from his house to the victim's lawn, where the murderer hid before killing the man when he left his house.

We are seeing shades of that level of paranoid thinking being expressed by the defendent.

[Saoirse9]

28. My personal opinion is he's not really paranoid

He's just deflecting, badly, from the huge crime he is guilty of. He always does this.

[H2O Man]

30. I think that

both are true. He is paranoid on the surface, and vpnflicted in the deep dark waters.

[Saoirse9]

31. This hot mess of a man

was in the White House. I have no idea how we all lived through it. Worst American president in history and it happened in my life time.

Certifiably insane and here we are picking his mind apart.

At this point, do you believe he knows he will go to jail?

[Mr.Bill]

4. The bottom line is,

every day this court comes to order, Jack Smith will be the smartest person in the room. By a long shot.

[H2O Man]

9. I agree 100%

Back when Mr. Smith was appointed, I think a large percent of the DU community wondered why the Attorney General made such an appointment, and why Jack Smith? I think it is good to question everything the government does, including these things. However, though Mr. Smith was less than a household name, I suggested that those of us familiar with him knew why the AG decided to do what he did.

It's worth repeating here -- at risk of sounding like a broken clock -- that the documents case involves more than US intelligence. There are, of course, other federal prosecutors with experience on cases that touch on other countries. Mr. Smith was not the only option. But AG Garland thought he was the best option. I have great confidence in both of these men, and I say that as someone who questions everything.

[malaise]

7. Down he goes

That is all

[H2O Man]

10. It is surely

my pleasure to be watching this go down with you on this forum! No where I'd rather be!

[malaise]

11. Same here bro

All our systems have flaws but cons and buffoons parading as a genius like the Slobfather are always brought down - he is no match for the system.

[H2O Man]

15. For a long time,

people have noted that the defendent was his own worst enemy. In ways, he still is. But Jack Smith is even more of a dangerous opponent.

[wnylib]

20. One thing that concerns me is what will happen

as more charges are brought against Trump. Georgia and J6 charges are still pending. Each time more charges are brought, Trump will get more frantic and so will all of the Magaverse.

Republicans in Congress will go berserk. But it's the MAGA voters that concern me most. They will explode as things get worse for their leader. I expect to see some attacks on infrastructure.

That possibility should not deter DOJ or Fani Willis from pursuing charges and trials. I am only pointing out that we should be prepared for rough and rocky times ahead.

[H2O Man]

24. True.

It would not surprise me to see some idiots acting out violently. It would be more surprising if this doesn't happen.

[twogunsid]

29. +1

[Martin Eden]

13. I was in high school when Nixon resigned

The phrase I remember was Dick Nixon before he dicks you.

Without a doubt I felt satisfaction when Tricky Dick resigned, but I understand why your father found it depressing that a president of the United States would engage in such deceitful illegal condut. Shouldn't integrity and honor be an absolute requirement for the highest office in our land?

Which brings us to the case of Donald Trump. That such an egregiously unfit creature could be elected president in the first place is depressing, appalling, and alarming.

His crimes and brazen hubris are unsurprising, but as much as I have long despised the Republican Party it breaks my heart that it and roughly 40% of my fellow citizens have morphed into a cult worshipping at the feet of a malignant narcissist whose incessant lies are obvious to any person capable of critical thought.

Our Constitutional democracy is in an existential crisis, with no end in sight.

[H2O Man]

17. Right.

It was terrible that Nixon subjected the country to that amount of corruption. Now, my Dad had a high opinion of LBJ, who wasn't always the most honest of men. But my father wanted him to be an updated version of FDR, and he might have been, if not for Vietnam.

But it is far worse that a large segment of the population subjected the country to the defendent and his obscene level of corruption.

I agree that there is no end in sight to the threats. But I keep in mind that when there is a huge project, it is good to break it into smaller, less overwhelming segments. In this time, I think that means electing as mant Democrats at every level next year.

[Hekate]

19. Thank you. About a week and a half ago I realized that something in the zeitgeist reminded me...

… of the Nixon Death Watch. Then as now it was all out of my hands —I was relieved when he quit — the System worked.

Then when Ford pardoned Nixon I got really angry — Ford tried to smooth things over by saying “our long national nightmare” was over — but that was not true.

Beschloss is correct, imo, in saying there is a through-line from that pardon to where we are this day. Nixon got off — that set a dangerous precedent — and here we are today.

There MUST be consequences — being POTUS and ex-POTUS must never be a get out of jail free card, or our democracy fails.

[H2O Man]

25. Nixon could have

been charged, but for the pardon. And really should have. But, despite the massive amount of evidence, convictions were not a sure thing. Nixon was a wily man -- at least when sober, which was rare when he was under great pressure. And he actually had a good legal team, and some of the important laws were different. They planned to use a "national security" defense, demanding that classified documents that suggested the nation was at risk of a revolution was why he okayed the operations known as Watergate.

He would have been at risk of conviction on the cover-up, of course. His earlier plan to blame it entirely on John Dean and/or John Mitchell had evaporated. And while the cover-up was of huge significance, history has shown it was the tip of the ice cube of the extensive series of crime known collectively as Watergate.

Yet the most likely outcome, in my opinion, was that Nixon would have died during the pre-trial phases. Stress was taking a severe toll on his health. Indeed, it wasn't until after the pardon, that his health began to slowly improve. Now, there are stories about an intoxicated Nixon wandering the halls of the White House, carrying on conversations with the potraits of past presidents. There is reason to believe he was hearing voices that he did not recognize. My theory is that this was his conscience, something he had never encountered before. (grin)

He should have been charged. As should Reafan, Bush the Elder, Bush the Idiot, and Dick Cheney.

[yardwork]

22. I'm taking an even longer view.

I don't have much hope that this indictment (or the previous one in NYC) will lead to a conviction or prison for Trump. I'll be pleasantly surprised if they do.

However, I see this and other developments - including likely future indictments- as important milestones on the road to ruin for Trump. And I hope they cause a serious reckoning for the GOP.

In other words, I'm not banking on Trump going to prison because of these charges. I'm hoping that this is the beginning of the end of the Republican Party as we know it

[H2O Man]

26. Interesting!

You may be right -- the current indictments may not result in convictions. And even if they do, it is unlikely -- in my opinion -- that convictions would result in incarceration.

My hope is that a severely damaged defendent (perhaps convict) is the 2024 republican presidential nominee, resulting in severe damage for the party's candidates up and down the ballot. A poll I recently saw indicated that 20% of republican voters would not vote for the defendent if he is their party's candidate. Of course, that is merely one poll, seventeen months before the election. But it is a positive sign!

[yardwork]

27. Yes!