The Cognitive Gap in Trump's Finances

A-Block (1:44) BULLETIN: Trump indicted and the lone true surprise is the six unindicted co-conspirators and for once Donald Trump is not alone on the stage of infamy. And it may yet prove that the Trump Six are as important to this case as anything else because they can only BE unindicted because the Special Prosecutor is holding out hope he can make them into witnesses by deferring indicting them, and implicitly threatening to do so. Plus we all think we can figure out with virtual certainty who at least five of them are.

As for Trump, he is in the worst position he has been on any of his indictment days because flatly, the narrative presented by Jack Smith in the 45-page four-count indictment really offers him only one defense: Abject Stupidity.

“Despite having lost,” it begins, “the defendant was determined to remain in power. So for more than two months following election day on November 3, 2020, the defendant spread lies that there had been outcome-determinative fraud in the election and that he had actually won. These claims, and the Defendant knew that they were false. But the defendant repeated and widely disseminated them anyway – to make his knowingly false claims appear legitimate, create an intense national atmosphere of mistrust and anger, and erode public faith in the administration of the election.”

Smith has indicted Trump not merely for trying to overthrow the 2020 election and stop the peaceful transfer of power and savage American democracy, but of doing it while he knew, every moment of every day, that he was lying as he did so. Again and again prosecutors quote Trump advisers, lawyers, counselors as telling him he lost. And at least once Smith quotes Trump acknowledging it. Acknowledging he lost. Acknowledging on January 3rd that Joe Biden would be president on January 20th. And then immediately going back to trying to stop it from happening, and lying about it. Paragraph 83: “On the evening of January 3, the Defendant met for a briefing on an overseas national security issue with the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and other senior national security advisors. The Chairman briefed the Defendant on the issue-which had previously arisen in December- as well as possible ways the Defendant could handle it. When the Chairman and another advisor recommended that the Defendant take no action because Inauguration Day was only seventeen days away and any course of action could trigger something unhelpful, the Defendant calmly agreed, stating, "Yeah, you're right, it's too late for us. We're going to give that to the next guy."

Yet he did NOT give it to the next guy. Paragraph 84: “The Defendant moved immediately from this national security briefing to the meeting that the Acting Attorney General had requested earlier that day…The Defendant expressed frustration with the Acting Attorney General for failing to do anything to overturn the election results, and the group discussed Co-Conspirator 4's plans to investigate purported election fraud and to send his proposed letter to state officials-a copy of which was provided to the Defendant during the meeting.”

There are only two explanations anyone could offer for that kind of behavior: to acknowledge you have lost the election and are leaving office, and then conduct a meeting over how to stay in office. Either you are stupid to the point of mental incompetence, or you are engaged in a conspiracy to knowingly defraud the people of the United States of America by any and all means available.

And in this country when you are arraigned you must plead Guilty or Not Guilty. You may not plead "STUPID."

THE REMAINDER OF THIS PODCAST IS FROM TUESDAY'S ORIGINAL EDITION

B-Block (16:02) SPECIAL COMMENT: Indictment foreshadowing. “This is really bad news for Biden,” Trump wrote last night, though – not really, no, “which means I will probably be indicted again, soon.” Do you like THAT foreshadowing? Or how about this one? Fani Willis sends an e-mail to county commissioners asking them to make sure they keep themselves and their staff safe. And orange security barriers have gone up around the Fulton County Courthouse. And yesterday was the first of ten days before August 18th when she ordered 70 percent of her staff to work remotely. Willis also gave a TV interview: “The work is accomplished. We’ve been working for two and a half years. We’re ready to go,” unquote.

Meanwhile back at the DC Ranch: there is still that January 6th Target Letter from Jack Smith hanging like the sword of Damacles over Trump’s head and the fact that if Smith sticks to a timeline that matches the document case, he’s indicting today or Thursday at the latest and the fact that his Trump January 6th Grand Jury was expected to convene today and while Trump’s latest self-pitying post – that would be number Three Million, 447 thousand 237, collect the whole set – is not necessarily time-sensitive it sure is funny if he already knew from his attorneys that the indictments are coming this week and instead of just revealing it like he did last time, he’s milking it this way, in order to feed the fascists’ story line that the entire prosecution of Trump is being made up as they go along, and in a matter of hours, for one reason only. Namely – as Trump also posted last night – “in order to kill the news cycle!!!"

Also: why does Trump treat his cultists like idiots? Because they're idiots. New polling: 91 percent of Republicans who trust Fox News don't believe he has committed any real crime and 85 percent of them say Republicans have to support him regardless. And there is a guess or a theory or a thesis beginning to form that Trump is cash-poor, has been drained by the failure of Trump Social, and his ability to pay for those lawyers AND this campaign may be severely constrained - and it's all because of Elon Musk!

C-Block (33:30) POSTSCRIPTS TO THE NEWS: Whatever actually happened with Congressman Ronny Jackson and the 15-year old girl and the cops at the rodeo, his office felt compelled to issue a press release insisting he WASN'T drinking. The X-sign is gone. Tommy Tuberville is all ears after he loses Space Command for Alabama. RFK Jr's PAC is literally half-funded by an 81-year old Republican. (36:30) THE WORST PERSONS IN THE WORLD: Musk. Again. Threatening to sue to prevent free speech and protect hate speech. DeSantis fanboy Pedro Gonzalez and MORE antisemitic texts including one against Nancy Pelosi whom he doesn't know isn't Jewish. And the U.S. Congressman who believes that a soldier is buried under the floor of the Capitol rotunda.

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