TREE OF LIFE SYNAGOGUE MASSACRE, ANTISEMITISM AND CONSPIRACY

 OTHER THAN THE INTRODUCTORY PARAGRAPH OF THIS BLOG EVERYTHING ELSE WAS DELETED I AM SORRY

Last week witnessed the judicial denouement of the 2018 terror attack at the Pittsburgh’s Tree of Life Synagogue, where eleven worshippers were killed. Predictably the closure was lost in the dramas of the Trump arraignment and the missing submersible Titanic observation capsule, The accused gunman was a confessed white supremacist antisemite, Robert Bowers.

This mass shooting, as was the fact that it was an anti semitic hate crime, was not an isolated event in America. The number of mass shootings, defined as incidents where at least four people are injured and/or killed, is on a path for a record number in 2023, 311 already having been recorded. Anti semitism hate crimes too are on the rise with a 35 percent increase between 2021 and 2022, from  2,721 to 3697. This year is on a path to keep up the tempo. 

Jews represent 2.4 percent of the American population yet are the victims of 63 percent of “religious” hate crimes. There is little doubt that the introduction of the internet has exponentially increased the scourge. The Anti Defamation League found that 85 percent of Americans believe in at least one anti semitic trope. In their 2020 study they learned  that 60 percent of Gen Z and millennials were unaware that 6 million Jews were killed in the Holocaust. 

As an example of a conspiracy, anti semitism is the original prototype and has been perpetrated for over two millennia. The establishment of Israel as a nation state has heralded an increase in the attacks. 

The question is why the Jews?.

TRUMP INDICTED FOR ESPIONAGE - WHAT NOW AND LATER?

In one way or another Trump keeps overwhelming the public space. The latest being the first American President to be indicted in a Federal Criminal Case. He turned his arraignment into a publicity circus which the media obliged by covering minute by minute from motorcade to court to motorcade to airplane to his fundraiser at his New Jersey summer residence.

He has defied the established political reality where a whiff of scandal or misstep doomed a career. Rather his success in life has followed the showbiz playbook that all publicity is good publicity. 

The recent bizarre twist to this larger than fiction drama is the former President unbelievably indicted and arraigned on espionage charges for flagrant, defiant, narcissistic, shameless, sociopathic and almost public, (that is to the high paying members of his club and at least three suspicious foreigners), retention and dissemination of top secret and sensitive documents that could well have compromised the security of America and its allies. 

The indictment has exacerbated the polarization of the country which probably is as divided as it was in1861. The whole happening galvanized his supporters claiming that this was a weaponizing by the Biden Justice Department to victimize his Presidential opponent.

 Passions are being whipped up by Trump who is in the fight for his life.This time round rioters cannot cause a change in government.- not even a minor rebellion. The militia leaders are locked up and two thousand militants have been charged for various crimes. Including seditious conspiracy, following the January 6 insurrection.

Trump is campaigning and fundraising on the basis of the forty nine page thirty seven charges indictment, claiming inter alia that he is innocent, that he was entitled to do what he did, that the indictment was election interference - generally changing his story from one day to the next. He reassures the faithful that regardless of “what happens”  he will never drop out of the Presidential race.The irony is that the riveting story that the indictment unfolds, as was in the case of the report of the January 6 Investigation Committee, is told by allies, in this instance, his employees, his lawyers and his good self, not by the Biden cabal.

Trump trots out the same old playbook. He is the victim of the “dark state”, the Marxist leftists, Biden and the fellow travelers.  The cult and the cowed following in the “GOP” accept that it is only he and he “alone” that stands between them suffering a similar fate. They agree with the “what aboutism” cry, mixing his conspiratorial bluff with his wild paranoia, that Hillary, Pence and Biden were allowed to do exactly what he did.  

But what now ?

FOR NOW

For now the con continues. His poll ratings are up and the small donor money rolls in. The faithful shout and cheer. There is little doubt that he has suffered naught politically with his base. While 80 percent of the American public believes that nuclear and military secrets should not be stored in ball and shower rooms only 38 percent of “Republicans” do and regardless of whether they agree on the indictment or not 80 percent of the population believe that “the action” was “political”.

In addition the "GOP" choir in the House of Representatives is singing loud and clear. The "GOP" Speaker, “My Kevin”, who is in desperate need to regain support from the MAGA cultists in his caucus, all of whom he has given key Committee positions, exclaims that “they are not going to stand for it”.  Jim Jordan the “GOP” Chairman of the House Judicial Committee maintains that the former President can do what he likes with secret documents. There is little doubt that the House “GOP” will run as much cover as they can by deflecting with Investigations of Hunter Biden, and why the FBI investigated the Russian interference in favor of Trump in 2016. The hard core are suggesting impeaching Attorney General Merrick Garland.

The Senate "GOP" is generally more mooted. Several of them acknowledged the seriousness of the charges. Defendant Trump’s longest newest best friend Lindsey Graham is out on the talk shows supporting swearing undying allegiance. Mike Pence, his Vice President and a chanceless Presidential opponent, whom Trump sicked the mob on because Pence refused to effect a coup d’ etat, doesn’t believe that Trump should face criminal charges and claimed that he had hoped that he and the Justice Department should have sorted it out!. Just in case you can’t believe the forgiveness of someone who stood idly by as the rioters roared, “Hang Mike Pence”, he did add that Trump is no longer fit to be President.

The line up of “GOP” Presidential hopefuls other than Chris Christie and Asa Hutchinson, both of whom are registering 1% in the polls, are condemning the indictment without commenting on guilt or not. Ron DeSantis who is a distant second in the polls, 22% was the most vigorous in his condemnation of the Biden Justice Department with Nikki Haley at 5% the next best in faux rage. (Secretly Jay H. Ell can confide that they are all hoping that the Justice Department can bring him down and they can tell his supporters that they stuck up for him).

It starts to become ugly with the calls for insurrection. Trump has put on Truth Social, “See you in Miami”. Kari Lake defeated “GOP” candidate for Governor in Arizona who, like Trump claims that she never lost her election, has called for “violence”. Representative Andy Biggs claimed that this was “war” and demanded “an eye for an eye”, while his fellow Congressman Higgins issued what was interpreted as military instructions. 

Right wing social media sites have never been more active all this with the background that 4.4 percent of Americans support political violence. Last time Trump made the same call in New York it was a total damp squib. The Miami crowd was sparse as well. They expected up to 50,000 and there were about 500. Trump's prophesy was if ever he was indicated the "country would rise up".

The Trump camp have taken solace from the appointment of  Trump appointee Justice Cannon who was castigated twice by a conservative Federal Appeals Court for blatant decisions favoring Trump during the documents investigation. There has been a wringing of the hands and a beating of the chests by the anti Trump media that she could delay or negate the Special Counsel legal theory or whatever. These fears have merit and there is a belief that she should recuse herself.

THE BAD NEWS FOR TRUMP

All of the aforementioned does not win Trump one new convert. All it does is consolidate the MAGA base that represent 30 percent of the electorate. He has open rebellion from a very eloquent and bulldog spokesperson Governor Chris Christie who claimed that the indictment was “damning”. A more refined Governor Asa Hutchinson felt Trump should quit the race.  CNN held a Christie Town Hall where he trashed Trump to kingdom come. His Damascus moment came apparently when he concluded that Trump behaved like a spoilt brat on election night in 2020. It took him a bit longer to share his sparkling insight. For the moment good luck to him but what tells it all is that his approval rating when he retired as Governor of New Jersey was 18 percent - details to follow if necessary. 

Perhaps Trump’s largest current liability is that he has lost his FoxNews echo chamber. Their first response was that this indictment was really serious. They gave Trump one last gasp with a friendly interview with his big mate Sean Hannity. Trump In spite of all the softballs served up to him he maintained that he could do what he liked. Just as he did in the CNN TownHall he hysterically argued that the Presidential Records Act gave him the authority.  

 FoxNews go to commentator on the issue is William Barr, literally Trump’s former Attorney General. Barr who has been vocal to anyone who will listen that Trump is “toast”. The indictment is not political he has voiced. Furthermore if Trump was guilty on just half the charges it was a disgrace. The former Attorney General concluded that his former boss was “totally wrong”. While establishment Mitt Romney’s condemnation was expected, Barr digs deep into the conservative wing of the “GOP”. 

Trump is thus without a major news channel behind him and CNN who were trying to be evenhanded by giving him a home town audience to spout his drivel in the end did him no favors as he merely made statements that were legally damning. There is NewsNation but that channel is only frequented by the committed base and hasn’t the clout to command big advert money let alone anybody who doesn’t wear a red MAGA hat to bed. No TV distributors are paying big bucks for the right to broadcast their channel like FoxNews has. 

Trump has become denuded of his lead legal team three resigning and one who has become a key witness against him in this trial. He has as yet been able to replace his counsel and it is being reported that several of the leading firms in Florida are declining the “honor” of representing the 45th President.

As the weeks roll by and the indictments increase some of the defenders will start distancing themselves from Trump. More significantly the big donors are looking for another candidate.

It is only going to get much worse later on.

FOR LATER

All this wailing about Justice Canon and that the jury pool in South Florida will find someone who will acquit Trump is not warranted. Special Counsel shrewdly scheduled the curtain raiser of his investigation in home territory for Trump with the local referee in charge. It also has not to be forgotten that it was from the same jury pool that a Grand Jury unanimously voted to indict Trump. But the Special Counsel’s main event has to be his January 6 investigation into whether Trump committed seditious conspiracy or whatever. And that has to be imminent. 

Special Counsel Jack Smith has demonstrated remarkable skill in no time putting together a compelling narrative of espionage committed by Trump. He also runs an incredibly tight shop. None of the revelations leaked. The media was unaware even that there was a Grand Jury in Florida. So where can he be in relation to January 6?

With regard to the January 6 insurrection he has a mountain of evidence from the bipartisan Committees’s probe. There are a number of missing links to make Trump really “toast”. Smith needs to link the war room in Willard Hotel run by Bannon, Stone et al with the militia on the ground, Proud Boys, Oath Keepers and One Percenters and then with the WhiteHouse. There is one person that is central to all of that and that is Mark Meadows, 

Trump’s former Chief of Staff. Mark Meadows provided the January 6 Investigating Committee with a documentary road map for their investigation which they acknowledged was the basis for their devastating expose. He then refused a subpoena to testify and the Justice Department inexplicably did not prosecute him. Now nobody has heard from Mark for the past year much to the chagrin of Trump and his former lawyers who think he may be cooperating with the enemy. Meadows can link the WhiteHouse to the war room as Cassidy Hutchinson testified. She persuaded Meadows not to go to the Willard Hotel so he joined the conspirators by phone.

 It is either that Meadows is cooperating or he is being charged as a co conspirator. If it was the latter his legal team would be coordinating with his co conspirator Trump.  There is one person that Meadows has spoken to and that is the Special Counsel.

There is so much more that is unknown. What, if any, cooperation is Smith obtaining from the convicted leaders of the militia in the insurrection? Fourteen have been sentenced to long terms for seditious conspiracy and most argued either in mitigation or as a defense that Trump sent them there. Surely there has to be some in the militia who want to mitigate their massive sentences. 

Jay H. Ell would guess that it will not be too long before Jack Smith releases indictment two which really is the main event. The venue will be Washington DC where the Federal Judges there, regardless of who appointed them, have a deep knowledge of constitutional issues. So watch this space. And of course there is the Georgia announcement due at the end of July beginning of August. If the stars are aligned the Special Counsel will get in first.

AT THE END OF THE DAY

Literally at the end of the day Trump held a fundraiser for his major donors at his summer club home in Bedminster New Jersey. He needs other peoples’ money for his best possible defense and his 2024 Presidential run. The bad news is that as of now the big donors aren’t committing and the Koch crowd, massive givers, are already running anti Trump ads.

Which ever way this is sliced and diced it is a dark sad day for America that the leading Presidential candidate of one of the two major political parties is facing multiple legal jeopardies. The ponderous legal process may not stop him from being a Presidential candidate with the terrifying prospect that .......

DOES THE RULE OF LAW APPLY TO TRUMP?

The rule of law is considered one of the central pillars of a liberal democracy. The latter requires a free and independent judiciary and that every citizen is equal before the law. Donald Trump, (as has Ron DeSantis by the way), has made it abundantly clear that he does not believe in the concept. Trump is of the opinion that all is transactional and that the current pending litigation against him is a “witch hunt”. If he was in power then the Justice Department would be his Justice Department answerable to him and these circumstances would be unthinkable. He is on track to get back into the WhiteHouse where all his legal problems would go away.

The burning question in America at this point in time is whether Trump is above the law as his gross behavior in every sphere of life to this very day it appears to go unchecked. Currently he has been indicted for business fraud in the State of New York, about to be indicted under what could be racketeering charges, as used against the mob, in Georgia and is the target of two Federal Special Counsel probes, one for “stealing” classified documents and obstructing justice in the investigations and secondly for seditious conspiracy in the January 6 insurrection. None of this is weakening his leadership as the Republican nominee for the 2024 Presidential election. His main contender being an uninspiring sickening clone trying to outflank him from the right. 

But Jay H. Ell digresses so before we begin, what is “The Rule of Law”?

THE RULE OF LAW IS ASPIRATIONAL AND NOT A REALITY

The rule of law that maintains that justice applies equally and to all is an aspirational concept rather than a reality. There is virtually no one who hasn’t a story of how the system failed them. Notwithstanding the latter reality, America has a love affair with the rule of law with interminable TV series and movies. All of these celluloid dramas fantasize how justice always triumphs. Very rarely does the entertainment medium reveal the incredibly high cost of litigation or that contingency lawyers take on cases that they can win not to right injustices. The imperfect legal system can be manipulated in favor of the powerful, rich and politically well connected. Trump is a living example of this distortion of this essential pillar of a liberal democracy.

TRUMP AND THE RULE OF LAW

 Trump has weaponized the process of the law while utilizing his money and power to ensure that he is not subject to it. The Forty Fifth President is facing far reaching indictments of his disregard not only of the rule of law but another pillar of democracy - free and fair elections. Trump is exhibiting every behavior to subvert the consequences of breaking the law to the extent that even if convicted he could circumvent Federal Convictions since if elected President he could pardon himself. Currently his objective is prolonging the current litigation against him till he is President and then that would be presumably stopped. 

The very fact that every TV host is reminding their viewers that that prosecutors have to have a watertight case before proceeding is implicit acceptance that the blindfold in all those depictions of justice has been taken off.

IT ALL GOES WAY BACK

Donald J. Trump has a life long history of weaponizing the legal system to further his business and political career. His initial mentor was the infamous lawyer Roy Cohn who advised doubling down, delaying, attacking, deflecting, evading and lying when confronted with litigation of any sort. Cohn has been characterized as an “intimidator and a bluffer”. He taught Trump to counter sue and never concede defeat. All this has added up to Trump, according to USA Today, being involved in over 4000 litigations either as a defendant or as a plaintiff. Trump with his army of lawyers has forced employees, contractors and those he has been involved within business to bow out as litigation is a very expensive business. When in an impossible situation he “settles” as he did with his fake University to the tune of 25 million dollars. He then bragged what a bargain that was.

Where Trump has finally run up against his own legal interests is when they have clashed with his political objectives. Also the magnifying glass that the Presidency has brought him under has resulted in scrutiny that has made it more and more difficult to escape his proclivities to ride roughshod over the normal parameters of morality and the law. 

TRUMP THE RULE OF LAW AND HIS PRESIDENCY

One of the key clashes Trump had as President was that he demanded that the Attorney General and lawyers that represented the White House per se represent him and not their respective offices. The most public of his early clashes was with his Attorney General Jeff Sessions. The latter had to recuse himself from the investigation initiated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation into the Russian influence on Trump’s behalf in the 2016 Presidential election. Sessions had had contact with Russian operatives and had been advised by the Ethical Division to recuse himself from the Mueller probe. The latter produced thirty four convictions all of whom had connection to Trump including members of his administration. Trump subsequently pardoned several of his allies including Michael Flynn and Roger Stone both of whom played a role in his attempt to overthrow the Biden election.

So Sessions was axed as a result of the fact that he refused to close the Mueller probe. His successor Attorney General Bill Barr then rubbished the Mueller report that produced evidence that Trump had at the very least obstructed justice. Barr did what he had promised, having literally auditioned for the job, thereby letting Trump off the hook. 

Mueller had followed the Justice Department dictum not to indict a sitting President. The latter raises the question as to who the hell gave the Justice Department the right to decide that a sitting President was above the law? What happens if he kills his wife  live on TV? The rationale supposedly being that any Presidential illegality has to be decided by the political process of impeachment.  But that is by the way. Barr accepted his role as being the servant of the President. He instituted a Special Counsel to investigate why, who and how the FBI probed the Russian involvement in the 2016 Presidential election  Barr finally called it quits finding it a bar too high to lie that there had been fraud on the 2020 Presidential Election after having investigated the charge at Trump’s request. (Incidentally candidate DeSantis has made it quite clear that in the event  of his elevation to the Presidency the Attorney General will report directly to him and he will not hesitate to fire him or her should they not carry out his orders). 

One of the ironies of Trump’s total disregard of the rule of law is the manner he uses the institutions and the officers of the court, namely lawyers, to spearhead his political aims. In so doing he creates an aura of legality in addition to an illusion of authenticity. His attack on the integrity of the 2020 Presidential election involved sixty - one legal challenges. Only one, which was reversed on appeal, succeeded. However he used another set of lawyers to perpetuate the illusion that the election had been stolen from him with bizarre conspiratorial theories. The four lead counsel in this latter effort have faced disbarring or sanctions from their professional bodies. Also they are the targets of criminal investigations for their trouble. 

FLOODGATES OPEN AFTER TRUMP EXITS THE WHITE HOUSE

Trump continued his crusade against the rule of law after leaving the WhiteHouse and added yet another attack on the liberal democracy - the very core of it -  free and fair elections. To this day he claims that he won the 2020 Presidential election.   

The gloves however were off as out of office the Forty Fifth President was subject to the rule of law both civil and criminal. As he had done all his life with his army of lawyers he attempted to delay, appeal and generally jam up the ponderous process of the judicial system.

A long awaited civil case where Trump was found culpable of sexually battering a woman and defaming her inter alia calling her a “whack job” was finally concluded. Damages were awarded against him to the extent of five million dollars, a decision he immediately appealed. He then proceeded to defame her again on national TV resulting in him being sued again for double the amount.

He has been indicted by the New York State attorney for falsifying business records and faces 34 felony charges. He allegedly committed these crimes in the payment of hush money to a porn star with whom he had an affair with. The judge held a separate hearing to warn Trump about what evidence he was not to discuss prior to the trial. The hearing is scheduled for March next year which is in the middle of the Primary Season. Trump made it quite clear to observers that he was angered about this directive, This ia a State case where the President couldn’t pardon himself as is in the far more serious Georgian charges which are shaping up to be a doozie.

The Fulton County AG in Georgia has announced to the world to clear the decks for next September. She has even warned law agencies for possible violence. She is expected to announce blockbuster charges against a number of defendants including Trump for attempting to overturn the result of the Georgia Presidential election. She is rumored to be using a racketeering charge which was commonly used against the mob to charge the ex President. Trump has several motions to delay or deflect this threat including a motion to remove AG Fani Willis from the case.

However the most publicized threat to Trump is emerging from the Special Counsel's investigation into Trump’s purloining of  classified documents and the obstruction of justice that followed. Trump has conducted open warfare on the Special Counsel’s probe. In so doing he has incriminated himself to the extent that a first year law student could successfully prosecute him for obstruction of justice. This has thrown his legal representation which is the size of a medium sized law firm into chaos.

TRUMP AND HIS LAWYERS

Trump’s manipulation of the legal fraternity in addition to conducting his own defense in the court of public opinion has created pandemonium on a scale rarely witnessed before. He has compromised his defense counsel to the extent that nine of them have appeared before Justice Department investigations.. A lead counsel in the investigation of obstruction of justice in Trump’s retention of classified documents was forced by a judge to break attorney client privilege because the Special Counsel had enough evidence that the lawyer may have been lied to by his client and as a result had provided false information to the investigators. 

Trump’s different teams of lawyers are at loggerheads because Trump by not playing with an open deck of cards is playing one off against the other. Because of the paranoia he engenders there is the fear that there is a snitch among them. They are all up in arms against Trump’s coordinating, “in house” lawyer, Boris Ephstyn, who has never practiced law, but calls all the shots. A key member of the team defending Trump in the documents’ probe resigned as a result of Ephstyn’s control. 

Just to keep some sense of the Trump world about all of this. Trump has a history of not paying his lawyers. So some publicly demanded payments before starting. In addition all his legal bills prior to him declaring his candidacy for the 2024 Presidency were paid for by the National Republic Party. There is also widespread speculation that the tab since then has been picked up by online small donations. 

The system is always being gamed. In the first criminal indictment where trial date is set for March 2024 he has filed a motion for the judge to recuse himself. In the civil case which the jury found that he had caused 5 million dollars in damages he merely repeated the defamation on national TV and damages were filed for ten million dollars. Appeals were duly lodged.

MEANWHILE BACK ON THE PRESIDENTIAL TRAIL

Trump thrives on this chaos. He campaigns against the “witch hunt” and is favorite to win the Republican Presidential nomination. The best one of them can hope for is that his legal woes will force him out of the race. With each revelation he raises money for “his defense” and his woes to date have not resulted in any slow down of electioneering pace. 

The burning question is what will happen if he is sentenced to jail time? He can’t physically go to prison as he has a large security detail. He can still run for office unless he is found guilty of an insurrection. What can stop him from being President if convicted wherever his physical location may be?

AT THE END OF THE DAY

Donald J. Trump is a law unto himself!

If Trump wins the nomination the other “Republican” candidates should not have to sign a pledge to support him rather they should pledge to back Biden.