The Donald Trump Score Card

Judge McFadden --A Trump Appointee-- has ruled against Trump and declared Trumps Taxes must go to The House Ways and Means Committe.

 

Good. Goooood……!!!!

 

Judge dismisses Trump suit to block Congress from getting tax returns

excerpt:

"A federal judge on Tuesday dismissed an effort from former President Trump to prevent the Treasury Department and IRS from providing House Democrats with his tax returns.

Judge Trevor McFadden, a federal district court judge in Washington, D.C., who was appointed by Trump, said that "facially valid" congressional inquiries should not be impeded.

"A long line of Supreme Court cases requires great deference to facially valid congressional inquiries. Even the special solicitude accorded former Presidents does not alter the outcome," McFadden wrote in a 45-page opinion. "The Court will therefore dismiss this case."

While the ruling is a win for House Democrats, it could still be a while before they receive Trump's tax returns.

McFadden stayed execution of his ruling for 14 days to allow the parties in the case to discuss next steps, and instructed the executive branch to not provide House Democrats with the tax returns during that time period.

If the parties in the case don't reach an agreement on next steps within 14 days, Trump can seek relief from an appeals court."

 

The DOJ didn't side with Trump in July 2021.


https://www.cnbc.com/2021/07/30/trump-tax-returns-can-be-released-to-congress-doj-says.html

excerpt:

"While those committees cannot force the executive branch of the government to compel disclosure of that information, the opinion noted that tax returns should be denied to the committees “only in exceptional circumstances,” and when that request “lacks a legitimate legislative purpose.”

The opinion said that the OLC “went astray” in 2019 by suggesting that the executive branch should “closely scrutinize the Committee’s stated justifications for its requests” in a way that failed to give due respect and deference to the legislative branch of government.

The decision comes more than a year after the U.S. Supreme Court said that Trump’s tax returns and other financial records had to be turned over by his longtime accountants to Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr., because of a subpoena issued as part of criminal probe."

 

Add two more.

Two of Trump's rioters arrested for assaulting police officers.


Two DFW Men Arrested, Accused of Assaulting Officers During Jan. 6 U.S. Capitol Attack

excerpt:

"Two North Texas men were arrested by the FBI on Tuesday and accused of dressing in tactical gear and assaulting officers during the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol.

Donald Hazard, 43, of Hurst, and Lucas Denney, 44, of Mansfield, face multiple charges in connection with the attack on Congress. A judge ordered them both to remain jailed.

Denney used social media to recruit members to join his militia group, the Patriot Boys of North Texas, and travel with him to Washington, according to court documents.

Denney and Hazard joined other rioters in yelling at police officers and assaulting them, prosecutors said."

 

Two DFW Men Arrested, Accused of Assaulting Officers During Jan. 6 U.S. Capitol Attack

excerpt:

"Hazard briefly entered the Parliamentarian’s office and then fought with an officer as they were both falling down some stairs under scaffolding, the FBI said.

The officer was knocked unconscious and injured his head, foot and arm.

Another officer overheard Hazard yelling to the crowd, "Get the gun!" according to the complaint.

"We are storming our nation's capitol," Hazard said in a Facebook video, according to prosecutors. "This is America.. Look at all these patriots."

"It's a sad day when Patriots have to fight law enforcement but they turned on us so they get what they got," Hazard wrote on Facebook, according to the complaint."

 

Two DFW Men Arrested, Accused of Assaulting Officers During Jan. 6 U.S. Capitol Attack

excerpt:

"Outside, Denney picked up a metal pole and swung it at an officer, then grabbed a large tube and launched it toward a line of law enforcement officers on the west side of the Capitol, agents said.

Denney also participated in “heave-ho” efforts to get inside the building and swung his fist at an officer, according to a criminal complaint.

Video showed Denney approach a police officer and asked, "Who are you all protecting?" the FBI said. He then reached out and grabbed a metal barricade and attempted to pull it away.

Denney and Hazard are the 34th and 35th people arrested in the Jan. 6 assault by the Dallas FBI office."

 

Man whose wife won a court battle to treat his COVID-19 with ivermectin has died
Mike Argento, York Daily Record
Tue, December 14, 2021, 9:06 AM

Man whose wife won a court battle to treat his COVID-19 with ivermectin has died

excerpt:

"Keith Smith, whose wife had gone to court to have his COVID-19 infection treated with ivermectin, died Sunday evening, a week after he received his first dose of the controversial drug.

He was 52.

Smith had been in UMPC Memorial for nearly three weeks and had been in the hospital’s intensive care unit in a medically induced coma on a ventilator since Nov. 21. He had been diagnosed with the virus on Nov. 10.

His wife of 24 years, Darla, had gone to court to compel UPMC to treat her husband with ivermectin, an anti-parasitic drug that has not been approved for treatment of COVID-19.

York County Court Judge Clyde Vedder’s Dec. 3 decision did not compel the hospital to treat Keith with the drug, but it did allow Darla to have an independent physician administer it. He received two doses before Keith’s condition grew worse, and the doctor halted the treatment."

 

The weird spiral of declining Christianity in America

excerpt:

"Still, Trumpism might be both the beneficiary and accelerant of Christianity's loosening grip on the culture.

On the one hand, a 2018 study suggested Trump's victory in 2016 was driven by a cohort — white Christian men — who feared they were losing their cultural dominance: Support for Trump was linked to a belief that "high status" groups actually faced more discrimination than "low status" groups like minorities and Muslims. "This sense of ownership of America just runs so deep in white evangelical circles," Robert P. Jones of the Public Religion Research Institute told columnist Michelle Goldberg earlier this year. As president, Trump cemented the loyalty of this group by fashioning his administration as a champion of "religious liberty," which was mainly a project to preserve the declining cultural power of conservative Christians. It worked: Some 85 percent of white evangelicals who attend services at least once a month voted for Trump in 2020.

Yet Pew's report suggests evangelicals are continuing to lose ground, albeit more slowly than Christianity at large, dropping from 30 percent of the population in 2007 to 24 percent in the new report. (Pew previously reported some conservatives have flocked to evangelical churches in recent years.) But many pastors report their churches have been riven by political conflict as never before, and there's anecdotal evidence that some young people are fleeing their churches rather than be seen as aligning with Trump's toxicity. Some researchers believe the decline in churchgoing is a repudiation of that brand of Republican politics."

 

Capitol Rioter Who Used Fire Extinguisher On Cops Says He Realizes 'Tyrannical' Trump Lied

excerpt:

“They kept spitting out the false narrative about a stolen election and how it was ‘our duty’ to stand up to tyranny,” Palmer wrote. “Little did I realize that they were the tyrannical ones desperate to hold on to power at any cost even by creating the chaos they knew would happen with such rhetoric.” Palmer wrote that he offered his “most sincere and deepest apologies” for believing in Trump’s lies.

 

Capitol Rioter Who Used Fire Extinguisher On Cops Says He Realizes 'Tyrannical' Trump Lied

excerpt:

"Palmer’s words in many ways echo the statements of Danny Rodriguez, the Trump supporter who drove a stun gun into the neck of D.C. Metropolitan Police Officer Michael Fanone on Jan. 6. Rodriguez, after being arrested by the FBI, called himself a “fucking piece of shit” for attacking Fanone and “so stupid” for believing he and other Trump supporters would take over the U.S. Capitol and ensure Trump remained president."

 

House votes to hold Meadows in contempt.

Meadows seems to be a focal point for many of the facets of Trump's insurrection.


Live Updates: House votes to hold Mark Meadows in contempt of Congress

 

You can be certain Trump will appeal, he'll lose, but he'll appeal because that's what he does.

 

It can be argued that the type of approach Trump uses is causing an overall decline of GOP power in the various groups he targets due to his alienating a significant percentage of the group while trying to solidify support from a subset of them which was relatively secure already. It applies not just to the religious right but to other groups, such as white suburban housewives and the younger multicultural populace.

Trump likely would have been better off if he had tried a more encompassing approach in 2020 instead of digging his hole deeper with his adherents. He was afraid of alienating them while appealing to a broader group. It would have helped him in the swing states he lost, particularly AZ and GA with their rapidly changing urban and suburban demographics.

His approach in 2016 as a political newcomer was just able to eke him a win while losing the popular vote when people hadn't yet fully seen his uglier facets.

 

In addition......................

 

Maybe Trump and Bannon and Meadows will become room-mates? Maybe they will mate with each other to pass the time?

 

Meadows is also today's most prominent example of people that ignore a subpoena in today's mess of government . Apparently, his strategy is to not show up because he doesn't feel the cause for the subpoena is valid.

Naturally, the way it should be is to come forth to answer the subpoena and then to argue it's merits. To totally disregard the summons goes against the crux of what democracy is. All Trump supporters know is that they want their hero "re-installed" as president; they're not thinking about what ignoring a subpoena could do to the American system of justice.

After all, if a Democrat refused to answer a subpoena, Republicans would scream bloody murder. Yet, why does a Democrat have to show up if a Republican doesn't? A total breakdown of American justice would ensue if matters continue in this fashion.

How did things get so backward? Trump is surely a huge part of it but there's nothing surprising in his behavior as POTUS; he was what he has always been; a con man.

The part that continually takes me by surprise is that tens of millions of people believe in him.

 

So, we just beg and cajole him into showing up for the subpoena, give him air time and a pulpit, or do we send in a crew to arrest and jail him, as they would you and I?