I’m truly, honestly scared.
Donald Trump himself told the world, or at least the few who actually subscribe to Truth Social, and then the countless websites that somehow justify amplifying his ranting texts as legitimate news, that tomorrow he will become the first former president to be arrested. As Hugo Lowell of The Guardian reported yesterday:
Donald Trump is bracing for his most legally perilous week since he left the White House, with the Manhattan district attorney likely to bring criminal charges against him over his role in paying hush money to adult film star Stormy Daniels, as he huddled this weekend to strategize his legal and political responses.
The former US president has posted in all-caps on his Truth Social platform that he expected to be “ARRESTED ON TUESDAY OF NEXT WEEK” and called for his supporters to engage in protests – an ominous echo of his tweets urging protests in the lead-up to the January 6 US Capitol attack.
Now, to be fair, there’s a lot of reassurance out there that tomorrow may indeed be just another normal day. Lowell continued:
Trump’s post was nothing more than guesswork about when Alvin Bragg might bring charges, sources close to Trump said, after he saw media reporting that the district attorney’s office had contacted the US secret service about security in the event of an indictment.
Trump’s post was nothing more than guesswork about when Alvin Bragg might bring charges, sources close to Trump said, after he saw media reporting that the district attorney’s office had contacted the US secret service about security in the event of an indictment. The grand jury in New York hearing evidence in the resurrected 2016 hush money case is now expected to hear from one more witness on Monday, making it unlikely that an arrest would come the following day because it could take additional hours to draft charging papers.
That said, even though he is a legal resident of Florida, the same man who once boldly proclaimed he could shoot someone dead on Fifth Avenue and get away with it actually appears poised to put that theory to the test:
Trump has expressed interest in appearing in person at the Manhattan criminal court, where he believes he can turn proceedings into a spectacle before a gaggle of reporters, sources said, and raised the prospect on Saturday afternoon as he travelled to Oklahoma for an NCAA wrestling championship.
Many influential Republicans, including Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy and his puppeteer Marjorie Taylor Greene have urged “peaceful protests” at most. They are already championing investigations of Bragg for potentially being guilty of misappropriation of public funds, essentially the same crime that Trump may be charged with. Only in his case, it was the allegation of whether $130,000 paid to one Stephanie Gregory, a.k.a. Stormy Daniels, came from his personal funds or not. Trump vehemently denies any categorization of their dalliance as an “affair”, and does his absolute best to insult her looks at the same time he denies these allegations.
So all of this ultimately goes back to a situation involving a woman. And that’s what worries me. Wars have been fought throughout history because of women. Quora cites four examples:
Disrobing of Draupadi is one of the main reason for Kurukshetra War(Mahabharata)
2.The Battle between Rama and Ravana was fought over Sita.
3.The Trojan war was waged against the city of Troy by the Achaeans (Greeks) after Paris of Troy took Helen from her husband Menelaus king of Sparta
4.In the history of the Indo-Pak Sub continent, there was a war in Sindh in the years, 1298-1300 A.D at a place “ Thar Bhanghar “ near Soomra Capital “ Muhammed Tur “ between the Armies of Sultan Allauddin of Dehli Sultnate and the Valiant King of Sindh, Asad-al-Millat Dodo Soomro. In this battle, thousands of soldiers were martyred on either side. The superior forces of Sultan Allauddin under the command of General Zaffar Khan won the battle and Sultan Asad-al-Millat Dodo was martyred.
The main cause of this war and consequent war was Princess Bilqees Bhaghi, the sister of the Asad-ul-Millat Dodo Soomro the king of Sindh.
In more modern times, politicians have been willing to risk their careers for women. Gary Hart lost his chance for a winnable Presidential race largely in part to his dalliances with Donna Rice. Bill Clinton was nearly impeached because of one with Monica Lewinsky.
But, even more dauntingly, there are thousands of Trump zealots who are motivated enough to want to go to war for him, and since he never actually served in any military (those damn bad feet, probably out of sync with other anatomical parts which Daniels, in her memoir, described in vivid detail and bestowed upon him the nickname “Tiny”), all the more the likelihood that that Fifth Avenue murder attempt need not be taken by him. Because even though great Americans like McCarthy and Greene doth protest, his most ardent supporters answer to higher authorities. As Spencer McDaniel wrote in 2019, Trump is not a mere mortal, but, in fact, a “modern-day Cyrus”:
As early as September 2016, Lance Wallnau, an evangelical leader, published an entire book titled God’s Chaos Candidate: Donald J. Trump and the American Unraveling in which he argued that Donald Trump is the modern-day equivalent of Cyrus the Great, handpicked by God as a new kind of candidate to lead the United States to greatness.
The idea of Trump as a modern-day Cyrus has also been promoted by other prominent evangelical leaders. When asked about Donald Trump, Ken Ham, a very prominent evangelical apologist, the founder and CEO of Answers in Genesis, and founder of the Creation Museum, told the Mormon-affiliated news outlet Deseret News in January 2017:
God is in total control. He makes that very clear in the Bible where he tells us that he raises up kings and destroys kingdoms. He even calls a pagan king, Cyrus, his anointed, or his servant to do the things that he wants him to do.”
If people were motivated to “peaceful protest” by the sight of him leading one such in Washington, D.C. on a cold January morning, looking as strong and Cyrus-like as any seventy-something KFC addict can, I shudder to think what a perp walk could incite.
And, in the case of Ms. Daniels, there’s already evidence that she’s a proven sore spot among his supporters. Witness the account of what happened to her in the wake of the testimonies and eventual conviction of Trump’s former attorney Michael Cohen, per Wikipedia:
On July 12, 2018, Daniels was arrested in Columbus, Ohio, by undercover vice cops in a sting operation.[71] Authorities accused her of “fondling” patrons and police officers in violation of Ohio strip club law.[72] While Daniels was booked into the county jail, two other female adult entertainers who were arrested at the club for the same alleged violations were given summonses to appear in court and (unlike Daniels) did not have their mugshots taken.[73] Daniels retained Columbus defense lawyer Chase Mallory,[74] who worked with prosecutors to dismiss the charges less than 12 hours later, saying that the law did not apply to out-of-town performers.[75]
A day after the arrest, the Columbus police chief declared that “a mistake was made” during the arrest, as “one element of the law was missed in error.”[80] In January 2019, Daniels filed suit in federal court against the City of Columbus, alleging police were politically motivated when they arrested her and seeking $2 million in damages.[81] In March 2019, an internal police investigation found that Daniels’ arrest by the four undercover officers was improper, but not premeditated or political in nature.[82] In August 2019, Columbus Division of Police interim chief Tom Quinlan announced that five Columbus police officers faced departmental punishment for their roles in the arrest for violating rules of conduct.[83] In September 2019, the parties agreed to settle the federal lawsuit, with Daniels receiving $450,000 in compensation.[81]
So she came away from that financially better, and as Trump whines his way into political sympatico she’s feeling her oats. as Aditi Bharade of THE INSIDER reported yesterday:
Adult film actress Stormy Daniels tweeted up a storm on Sunday night, slamming former President Donald Trump in a series of snarky tweets. “He probably watches my movies on repeat which may be why he has so many typos. (Slippery fingers from lube and KFC),” read one tweet from Daniels on Sunday.
Daniels’ zinger was in response to a tweet from one of her detractors, asking her why she was “so obsessed” with Trump.
“I only respond when he posts about me or talks about me on TV,” she wrote.
I can’t help but wonder if there are other enforcement officers, even in New York, who might have similar feelings as those in Columbus, Ohio. And I’m fairly certain they would have friends with access to the same headlines like the ones that have me as scared as I am. Only they, too, are capable of shooting someone dead on Fifth Avenue in broad daylight. A perp walk could provoke anyone, particularly if they’re somehow seeing King Cyrus in handcuffs.
If tomorrow comes and goes without March 21st becoming January 6th 2.0, I’ll be somewhat relieved. And I’m actually a tad ashamed to admit that what I wish most fervently is for Bragg and others to simply stop focusing on this issue as what they see as THE smoking gun. Al Capone got sent to prison for tax evasion, though he was allegedly responsible for far worse crimes. Capone never had the power of social media or evangelical zealots with good aim to defend him. I truly wonder if there might have been a second St. Valentine’s Day Massacre if he did.
There are other, more serious charges against Trump that are pending. That whole Georgia thing, for one. That one didn’t involve a crime that directly involved a woman, so I’m a tad less concerned that peaceful protests could escalate into something greater. The combustability of the subject, the allegation and the triviality, not to mention evangelical saber-rattling, is what really scares me.
Eventually, this will come to a head. Eventually, there will be an election. Whether Trump runs or not is still up in the air, though there’s clear support for him to do so. And if somehow, inexplicably, enough people do vote for him to return, whether or not they think it was pre-ordained, somehow, some way, we will have to accept that verdict. Call me naive, but isn’t that what all of this actually IS about?
I admit I’m on edge anyway. Over the weekend, I received what many might consider a threatening voicemail message and a snarky allegation on that link that I often post here. I’ve checked it out; it doesn’t seem to be evident anywhere. I’m adding it here for you to peruse, not to mention the fact that I’m in one of those overly nervous mindsets where I can’t help but remind y’all I’ve got bigger things to be concerned about than whether or not Cyrus remains free.
I think I’ll a bite now to calm down. Rest assured, it won’t be KFC.
Until next time….
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