The Bad and the Ugly. There's nothing Good about these criminals.
Destroying the Lives of Ordinary Citizens
It is also the tale of a frame-up, a grotesque travesty of justice in which the power of government was used to traduce and attempt to destroy an innocent and defenseless citizen.
— Fintan O’Toole, New York Review of Books, August 17, 2023
Not as Smooth as the Mafia
Fintan O’Toole reminds us in the New York Review of Books what the Georgia case against Trump, Rudy, and their gang of misguided loyalists is all about. At its core — in addition to the many and detailed indictment charges detailed by District Attorney Fani Willis this past Monday night — it is about power corrupting the powerful that drives them to delusional thinking and illegal acts unworthy of a great democracy. Lest anyone forgets, the primary purpose of elected officials is not only to protect the nation but also to serve the citizenry and help improve their daily lives.
Using enormous powers of the federal government to intimidate and destroy the lives of ordinary American citizens just doing their civic duty is not something anyone should tolerate or condone. Forcefully condemning misuse of federal power is a time-honored American tradition that elected officials of the modern-day Republican Party have either forgotten or conveniently chosen to ignore. Clinging on to Trumpism — and seeing it as their political salvation — is their current political strategy. For better or for worse, the GOP’s political fortunes are inextricably linked to a twice-impeached, 4 times-indicted rapist, and sorry excuse for a human being named Donald Trump.
Will it pay political dividends in the 2024 Elections? Highly unlikely.
Defending the Indefensible
At certain points in history, political parties have to ditch their unsavory past and start anew. Now is such a time and the moment of truth for Republicans to seek a fresh start. Pretending that Trump’s behavior over many years has been normal and no changes are either desirable or necessary, is a surefire recipe for political disaster. One doesn’t need to be a professional political analyst to reach that conclusion.
Americans like Ruby Freeman and her daughter Shaye Moss do not deserve such cruel treatment at the hands of lawless hordes masquerading as supposedly responsible citizens.
Where he belongs. Attribution: DakotaGirl495.
By launching a campaign of lies and harassment against an innocent Georgia election worker, the Trump team proved how much cruelty it was willing to inflict on ordinary people who stood in its way
If the ninety-eight-page indictment by Fani T. Willis, district attorney for Fulton County, Georgia, of Donald Trump, Rudolph Giuliani, and seventeen other people is ever made into a movie, it should be called The Framing of Ruby Freeman. Willis gives names to, and levels charges at, some of the people who appear anonymously in Jack Smith’s federal indictment of Trump. She brings more characters into her cast of racketeers. But her plot follows the same contours. The methods used to try to overturn the election of Joe Biden as president of the United States in November 2020 are by now familiar: making claims of electoral fraud that were themselves knowingly fraudulent, leaning on election officials to “find” votes for Trump, creating fake electors, pressuring the vice president Mike Pence not to certify the results.
What makes the Willis indictment different is that its story is not only a grand narrative of what Smith characterizes as an attempt to defraud the United States. It is also the tale of a frame-up, a grotesque travesty of justice in which the power of government was used to traduce and attempt to destroy an innocent and defenseless citizen.
As such, it tells us not just what Trump did to try to hold onto power, but also what he will do if he ever gets hold of it again. There are big constitutional, political, and policy matters at stake in his campaign to return to the White House. But the kind of authoritarian rule he is trying to establish always comes down in the end to what happens to small, inconvenient people, those who become what Freeman was called in the Trump campaign against her: “a loose end.” They are lied about, criminalized, terrorized, threatened, and smeared—not by private gangs but by a gangsterized government. These are the things that happened to Ruby Freeman. What is at stake in the Georgia indictment is whether those who inflicted these intimate cruelties can get away with it and, therefore, be free to do it again.
Entirely Predictable MAGA Reaction
Read more and see videos about how Trevian Kutti threatened Ruby Freeman and her daughter, Shaye Moss, here, here, and here. Also see this picture of Shaye Moss and her mother Ruby Freeman testifying before the House January 6th Select Committee in Washington, D.C., on June 21, 2022.
A Change of Heart?
Even ET Can’t Miss All the Action
Are You Gonna Argue With Bluto???
The Bitter Deadenders
Manual Updates Posted Here
I’ll do so as soon as more editorial cartoons go online this evening.
Editorial Cartoonists Are Working Overtime to Keep Up With Trump’s Crimes
I will post additional editorial cartoons either as updates to the diary or in the comments section.
Here are the links to my other diaries posted earlier during this busy week.
Thanks for supporting these diaries and editorial cartoonists everywhere. Three Pulitzer Prize-winning editorial cartoonists — Jack Ohman, Joel Pett, and Kevin Siers — were recently laid off. Compared to 2009-2011 when I first did this diary series on Daily Kos, their numbers have dwindled and shrunk a great deal.
Such is the reality of the corporate-driven world we live in today.
Few would argue that editorial cartoonists contribute a great deal and are essential to a democracy’s health. Without them, this would be a rather boring world.
Trump Losing Support?
Rudy Melting Down
The Trump Trial
Gullible, But Loyal
Indeed, It Did!
Yes, Mate
The Long Summer of My Discontent
Yes, Indeed!
Rudy and His Master
Trump Does Have Some Great Lawyers… Like Rudy ;)
The Case Against Trump, Rudy, et al
Who’ll Be the First to Flip?
As Lindsay Graham Said Back in 1999
Actually, More is Better for My Future
Coming Attractions
No Way the Government Can Win Against These Guys!
Good Luck, Guys
Attribution for the above cartoon: Ed Wexler @EandPCartoons
They Key to Winning This Case
This Should Be Really Easy
Whatever the Hell Happened to “America’s Mayor?”
We’re Both Drunks
Guilt By Association
He’s “Faster Than a Speeding Bullet, More Powerful Than a Locomotive…“ Nah!
Whataboutism and Trump’s Future Home
1
I Need to Know… Pronto!
Driving Mr. Trump
“You're Simply the Best, Better Than All the Rest”
Diary Poll
In coming month and years, which case poses the greatest legal danger to Donald Trump? If you're unfamiliar with some of these cases, Business Insider has an updated list.
The ex-president — who is the front-runner for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination — now is indicted in four separate prosecutions, the first former White House occupant to ever be charged. He faces 91 criminal counts overall…
The lawsuits and prosecutions involving Donald Trump are piling up.
The ex-president — who is the front-runner for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination — now is indicted in four separate prosecutions, the first former White House occupant to ever be charged. He faces 91 criminal counts overall.
Meanwhile, Trump is set to face a second defamation trial brought by E. Jean Carroll — the magazine writer who won a civil trial against Trump for sexual assault and defamation this past May.
Remember to take the diary poll.
