They cut down the laws to get the devil

Classic reference:

Powerline presages the whirlwind that is coming:

What to do now? First, it is now absolutely essential that Trump be elected president. The Democrats cannot be allowed to get away with this effort to turn America into a banana republic.

Second, the Democrats understand nothing except the raw exercise of power. Therefore, Republican attorneys general and district attorneys should bring criminal charges against Democratic officeholders wherever possible. No Democratic officeholder should be allowed to retire, in any jurisdiction with Republican law enforcement, without facing criminal charges. There can’t be a single Democratic official in America against whom a criminal case can’t be brought that is better than this case against Trump. It should be open season on Democrats in the criminal courts.

Third, the criminal prosecutions should begin with Joe Biden. Unlike Trump, Biden is actually a criminal. He is already known to be guilty under the federal bribery statute, to the tune of at least $20 million. If Trump wins in November, his Department of Justice should immediately indict Biden, and Biden should be hounded until the day he dies or goes to prison, whichever happens first.

It's worth noting that - despite all his "lock her up" bluster, President Trump never sent his DOJ to pursue Hillary Clinton.  Hillary, who was actually guilty of campaign violations never faced any consequences for that crime, nor her wholesale hard drive wipe ("with a sponge") of classified information.

Now?  Now all the guardrails are off.  The laws are flat and the Orange Devil will have his due.

Related: Former federal prosecutor and CNN legal analyst Elie Honig: "Prosecutors Got Trump — But They Contorted the Law".  

But when you impose meaningful search parameters, the truth emerges: The charges against Trump are obscure, and nearly entirely unprecedented. In fact, no state prosecutor — in New York, or Wyoming, or anywhere — has ever charged federal election laws as a direct or predicate state crime, against anyone, for anything. None. Ever. Even putting aside the specifics of election law, the Manhattan DA itself almost never brings any case in which falsification of business records is the only charge.

It's going to take a week or so to see how this shakes out with the race but my guess is that the number of people put off by Trump's conviction will be equal to those eager to see him elected so that this legal perfidy does not prosper.

America turned into a banana republic to save democracy

I think this headline says it all: "In the least surprising verdict ever, 12 Manhattanites just found Donald Trump guilty." - "Of what is anyone’s guess." 

Here are some of the things we learned in this trial:

In reality the case depends on a raft of dubious propositions, including:

Companies shouldn’t classify payments to a lawyer as legal services;

Candidates illegally “influence” elections if they try to hide negative information;

Trump had no non-campaign-related reasons to keep Daniels from telling her story;

New York state can bring a prosecution that turns on federal election laws.

My biggest fear is that Dementia Joe Biden uses this verdict as an excuse to back out of the debates.

It was tiny

Red State: "What the Biden Campaign Doesn't Want You to Know About His Philly Audience."

To paraphrase Ian Faith: "I wouldn't worry about it, Philly isn't a big Democrat town."

In other news, North Carolina is not a battleground state.

Spoiler alert: Magical thinking required

NY Times: "Jamie Raskin: How to Force Justices Alito and Thomas to Recuse Themselves in the Jan. 6 Cases."

It involves asking the other seven justices to undermine their own colleagues in a co-equal branch of the government.  There is just no depth to the Left's madness and inability to cope when things don't go their way.  The election is going to be wild. 

Violating the Sixth Amendment, three times

After hearing the prosecution's closing argument in Trump's Kafka case, Andrew McCarthy confirms what we all knew: Alvin Bragg is leaning on federal crimes he has no authority to prosecute:

Listening to the prosecution summation by Joshua Steinglass, it is quite amazing how explicitly the state is relying on violations of FECA as the “other crime” that Donald Trump was allegedly concealing by causing his business records to be falsified.

It is impossible to draw any conclusion other than that Manhattan district attorney Alvin Bragg knew that, as a state prosecutor, his enforcement of federal law would be incredibly controversial since he has no such authority; the federal agencies that do have such authority investigated Trump and opted not to prosecute; and to get this prosecution done, Bragg is simply making up his own version of federal law.

Bragg had the collusion of Judge Merchan, who allowed the state to get away with not putting the “other crime” in the indictment, and rejected defense attempts to force him to provide explicit disclosure pretrial. Prosecutors hid in the tall grass until summation and are now emphatically describing Trump as having blatantly violated federal campaign law.

The completely biased judge helped the prosecution by ignoring the law again with his "Pick your own crime!" approach to the New Law when Trump  - and only Trump - is on trial.  "Judge Merchan Violates the Constitution Again, Instructs Jury That They Don't Need to be Unanimous About Which Mystery Crime Constitutes the Legal Predicate for the Trump Prosecution."

Finally, the "adults are back in charge" Biden campaign apparently violated the law again with their little stunt with Robert DeNiro: "Yet Another Violation of Trump’s Constitutional Rights in the Bragg Case"

No sooner did I write this morning’s post on a violation of Donald Trump’s rights under the Sixth Amendment than we had a second violation of another of Trump’s rights under the Sixth Amendment.

------

This is a nationally known celebrity acting as a representative of the president of the United States, at the very site of the trial, on the day before the jury will begin to deliberate, declaring that “everybody in the world” knows that the defendant is guilty and that he has previously gotten out of too many things. Sure, Trump has had his surrogates out there (including the speaker of the House), but the prosecution doesn’t have a constitutional right to an impartial jury; the defendant does. If this isn’t over the line, what is?

As usual, the Babylon Bee nails it: "Judge Instructs Jurors They Need Not Believe Trump Is Guilty To Convict Him"

And here's Ben Shapiro on the Biden campaign and their silly demonstration:

This is the move of a losing campaign https://t.co/pqEXG8bqAE

— Ben Shapiro (@benshapiro) May 28, 2024

Not shocking at all

Twitchy: "Shocker! Biden WH Reportedly Asking European Allies to Back Off Iran Until the US Election." 

Also: we gotta tap the SPR again for a national emergency the election.

Don't listen to this guy

He's crazy.  Breitbart: "Carville: 'Democrat messaging is full of s--t', stop ignoring the economy."

More student loan forgiveness, says Carville.  Harvard grads need help.

What happened to the magic?

NY Post: "Disney World’s ‘Star Wars’ experience closed after just 18 months — this travel influencer reveals why."

I watched this four-hour deep-dive video yesterday and it should be taught in business schools on how theme parks need to manage people, entertainment, queues, etc.  When the core of your "immersive experience" is having guests run around scanning QR codes with their cellphones, you've miscalculated somewhere.

As one of those Disney people, I need to say that I still love the cruise line but I don't think I'll ever go back to the parks mainly because of the price-gouging built into their Genie system.  So many changes that Disney World added are just meant to squeeze one more buck out of you. 

Oh no. Anyway.

Hot Air: "Washington Post Publisher: 'We Are In a Hole, and We Have Been for Some Time'."

I don't know who the Post wants to be but as a subscriber who looks at the paper at least 6 days a week I can tell you who they are. They are the voice of the Democratic Party in print. They cater almost exclusively to the left and there are rarely any surprises in the partisan outlook of their daily output with the exception of the editorial board which isn't bad. Apart from that, the paper is downright dour most of the time and attracts nothing but left-wing commenters who have clearly honed their skills shouting down opposing viewpoints on social media. The Post is an unpleasant place and I'm not surprised they are having a hard time selling it to subscribers.

All the major newspapers are essentially carbon-copies of the NPR model where there are exactly zero opposing voices to the preferred narrative.  You would think that at some point these media sources would create a scatter chart of profits vs. trust in the media polls and notice a correlation.  But no.

The ongoing gaslighting

Here's Krugman...again...with the same article again: "America Is Still Having a ‘Vibecession’."

Let me be honest: I didn’t want to write about this subject yet again.

You and me both, Paul!  Do they pay you the same amount for re-runs?

Krugman and the Democrats and the mainstream media (I repeat myself) are the meme of Homer Simpson insisting the economy is "still good!" as it's systematically destroyed.

Community notes for the win

Outkick: "Iranian Dictator Gets Destroyed On Social Media After President Dies In Helicopter Crash."

MMFA lied, staffers learn to code

Twitchy: "Media Matters for America Layoffs Brings Schadenfreudelciousness to X." 

Let me, um, disagree with you there

Here's Mona Charon: "Biden Can’t Blow the Debates - They may be his only chances to change people’s minds."

Trump and his allies have way oversold the Biden-is-senile message. A fair share of voters have come to think that he is not just old, but drooling and unable to function. The truth is that, though his voice is getting croaky, he messes up words and names sometimes, and he walks quite stiffly, he is very much compos mentis.

No. 

Charon boggles at scripted appearances like the State of the Union but the fact is that every unscripted moment for Biden - especially over this past year - has been an absolute train wreck.  And he's even struggling at scripted events with a teleprompter telling him what to say.  The CNN interview was a prime example of outright lies, denial, and delusion with zero pushback from a friendly host.  Trump won't be so accommodating during a live debate way past Dementia Joe's bedtime.

Of course, that point is moot since Biden won't debate.

These videos are wild

See them here: "KJP Says We're Talking About People Who Are 'LITERALLY Being Crushed' by Student Debt."

This question has been asked thousands of times since student loan forgiveness has been raised and still we can't get a straight answer as to why certain people are entitled to a $35K check while others are not.  Remember this classic?