Today in Politics, Bulletin 45. 1/10/25

… Trump is now a convicted felon as he was adjudicated guilty today at his sentencing hearing before Judge Merchan. He did not receive any other sanctions besides the conviction and court costs, as a result of his election as the 47th president.

… This sentencing was only possible since Amy Coney-Barrett and John Roberts decided they would do the right thing and side with the sane members of the court against Thomas, Alito, Kavanaugh and Gorsuch. Many SCOTUS analysts believe that Judge Merchan taking the unusual step of stating ahead of time that he was going to enter an unconditional discharge is the only reason Coney-Barrett and Roberts joined the others. No way of knowing if that is the case, but it certainly made it a lot easier for them knowing that ahead of time.

… Dan Bongino melted down on his show after the decision: “Amy Coney Barrett has been a total failure! She has been a total failure. Whoever recommended her - I believe it was the Federalist Society. Coney Barrett is John Roberts, Junior. We DON’T have a 6-3 Court. Roberts is a hard core leftist! Coney Barrett has been a disastrous pick! Trump should haul in every single person who recommended her, and demand an explanation why.”

… Steve Bannon: “Coney Barrett - I think she ought to think about an early retirement. I mean that. And give President Trump an opportunity - if she had any class, she would IMMEDIATELY step down after President Trump takes the Oath of Office on the 20th. I mean this.”

… MAGA influencer and podcaster Philip Buchanan (Catturd): “ACB - Traitor, globalist plant, snake, backstabber, phony, sellout, leftist puppet, weasel, fake, plastic, loser.”

… Trump was allowed to appear remotely by Merchan since he is taking office in 10 days. Prosecutor Joshua Steinglass spoke first: “Instead of preserving and defending our Constitution, the defendant, the once and future president, has engaged in a coordinated campaign to undermine its legitimacy. The defendant has not shown remorse, and instead has shown disdain for our institutions and the rule of law, all for his own ends. Trump has said, ‘Corrupt, rigged, a witch hunt, and a sham’ too many times to count, and his rhetoric has only ratcheted up since the verdict.”

… More Steinglass: “Trump's actions constitute a direct attack on the rule of law. Moreover, the defendant has publicly threatened to retaliate against the prosecution. These threats are designed to have a chilling effect, to intimidate those who have the responsibility to enforce our laws in the hopes that they will ignore the defendant’s transgressions because they fear he is too powerful to be subjected to rule of law like the rest of us. This defendant has caused enduring damage to public perception of the criminal justice system.”

… Trump’s lawyer Todd Blanche was up next, and he complained again that the whole trial was a sham and they will win on appeal: “It's a sad day for Donald Trump and his family, and in his view (odd he would add that) a sad day for this country. This was a case, without a doubt, that was brought by a DA who promised to go after Trump if elected. And that's sad. And Trump shares his view that this will never happen again in this country.”

… Trump then gave a rambling shambolic statement: “Thank you, your Honor. This has been a terrible experience and setback for NY and the NY court system. This was a case Bragg did not want to bring. It was inappropriately handled. A gentleman from a law firm came in and acted as a DA, and he was criminal or almost criminal. The records were put down by accountants. They're called a legal expense and for this I got indicted. It's incredible actually.”

… More incoherent whining from Genghis Con: “The top legal experts, highly respected people, virtually every one I know of, these people are not exactly friends of mine, all said this case should not have been brought - Jonathan Turley, Judge Rifkin, Elie Honig, Alan Dershowitz. I got indicted for business records. It’s a witch hunt. I wasn't allowed to use the lawyer-client privilege, or use discrediting info against Michael Cohen - he's a man who has no standing and was disbarred. He was allowed to talk as though he's George Washington, but he's not George Washington!"

… Got it. Michael Cohen is not George Washington. Time for bed now, Grandpa.

… Cheetoh Von Gropeonstuff then wrapped things up with, you guessed it, more whining: “I was the first president in history to be under a gag order. I'm totally innocent. I did nothing wrong. They talk about business records but they were extremely accurate and I had nothing to do with them. One of our largest and most important cities is burning to the ground. With all of the wars and horrible things going on, I got indicted for calling a legal expense a legal expense. I’ve been treated very unfairly.”

… This thing is about to be in charge of our country.

… Merchan then made it clear that the only reason why Trump wasn’t going to prison is because he won the election: “While one can argue the trial was somewhat ordinary, same cannot be said about sentencing because of the office you once occupied and will soon occupy once again. It is because of the legal protection afforded to the office. Protections afforded to the executive is a factor that overrides all others. This Court has determined that the only lawful sentence that permits entry of judgment and conviction without encroaching on the highest office in the land is that of unconditional discharge.”

… Republicans weren’t happy after court about Trump becoming a convicted felon. Rep. Clay Higgins: “We the People hereby sentence the elitist oppressor Juan Merchan to a life of shame. Where this man is encountered in public, Patriots shall turn our back to his visage.” I think Merchan would be fine with that last part.

… Charlie Kirk: “The people who went after Trump should be investigated and charged. All of them. Justice is coming.”

… Lindsey Graham: “They have singled out Trump for prosecution for offenses that either never existed before or were cobbled together to get a result and make him a felon. The judge in this case rushed to sentencing so that he could tell the world, ‘I made Trump a convicted felon!’ I am sure he will be in great demand on the Manhattan party circuit.”

… I know certain party circuits where Lindsey is also in great demand.

… Alan Dershowitz: “I will never call Trump a convicted felon. He is a convicted, innocent man! A convicted, framed up man. Nobody should call him a convicted felon!”

… Lauren Boebert: “President Trump has been totally exonerated. Those who brought these fake political charges need to be held accountable!”

… Next we turn to the man who is always the voice of reason when things get crazy, Ronny Jackson: “A SHAM TRIAL AND A HOAX SENTENCING! It should come as no surprise that this corrupt judge is bringing this just a few days before President Trump’s inauguration. Trump will win in the end and America wins in 10 days when we get Trump back!”

… Sen. Marsha Blackburn: “This lawfare against President Trump is toxic to our republic and is a tremendous setback for the American court system.”

… Nancy Mace made about 100 posts in two hours.

… Trump later posted a long deranged rant on Truth Social with lots of random capitals, exclamation points, and misspelled words: “Today’s event was a despicable charade!”

… A new jobs report was released this morning which showed another robust month of growth. The economy added more than 256,000 jobs in December, and unemployment dipped from 4.2% to 4.1%. The economy added more than 2.2 million jobs in 2024. Economists expected the unemployment rate to stay at 4.2% and for the economy to add about 153,000 new jobs, but both expectations were surpassed substantially.

… Just like 2017, Cantaloupe Caligula inherits a strong economy from his Democratic predecessor. Strong economic growth, stock market setting records, low inflation, and low unemployment. It is 2017 all over again for Trump as he takes office - somewhat similar to how he entered life - born on 3rd base while claiming he made a triple.

… Hopefully, Trump will not hand off another disaster to his (hopefully Democratic) successor in 2029 like he did in 2021, but I’m not optimistic based on his track record and plans.

… Mark Zuckerberg went on Joe Rogan’s podcast and made it clear why he has gotten into bed with Trump like so many others in his industry. He thinks that the US should put tariffs on the EU because of how many times the EU has fined US big tech companies for violations: “This is an EU policy for how they want to deal with American tech. It’s almost like a tariff. And the US government gets to decide how they want to deal with that. It’s one of the reasons I’m optimistic with President Trump. I think he just wants America to win.”

… He then complained about how he was treated by the Biden Admin: “They pushed us super hard to take down things that were true about vaccines - like that they have side effects. These people from the Biden Admin would call up our team and scream at them and curse. They wanted us to take down memes - humor and satire. And then Biden said, ‘these guys are killing people.’ And then there was all these investigations of our company. It was brutal.”

… Cry me a river. Uber-wealthy tech bro whining to uber-wealthy talk show host that some WH staffers were mean to some Facebook staffers to stop disinformation while over a million Americans were dying during the middle of a global pandemic. Poor guy. The best we can hope for is that Zuck throws his platforms wide open to become an even worse hellscape, but he keeps his thumb off the scale to amplify right-wingers by rigging the algorithm. Like Musk does every day.

… But Zuck recently met with Charlie Kirk and has also been engaging with Russian asset Benny Johnson on Instagram, so I’m not overly optimistic.

… Actor Mel Gibson was on Rogan’s show the day before Zuckerberg. He claimed that he had 3 friends with Stage 4 cancer that were all cured after taking ivermectin. His house also burned down while he was on the show.

… Rudy Giuliani was found in contempt of court today for continuing to violate court orders while also refusing to participate in discovery. Rudy during a break while waiting for the judge’s ruling: “Judge Beryl Howell is so bloodthirsty. This decision was already obvious from her earlier opinion and her overall pathological hatred of all things Trump. The hearing was a hypocritical waste of time and a disgusting example of Biden lawfare. Soon I will reveal my real feelings about this systematic destruction of the American system of justice.”

… Can’t wait!

… Per Politico, after finding him in contempt, Judge Howell then told Rudy “it is outrageous and shameful that Mr. Giuliani suggests that he is the one being treated unfairly” given the fact that Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss lost their jobs, received many credible death threats, and were forced to move. “This takes real chutzpah, Mr. Giuliani.”

… The judge then ordered Rudy to sign a declaration acknowledging he was provided an opportunity to cross examine witnesses in deposition and at trial, that he's reviewed all trial evidence and sworn testimony, and that no testimony or government report has ever contradicted Moss or Freeman. Judge Howell said if he violates this order by publicly stating anything to to contrary from this point forward, she will put him in jail.

… Which is exactly what UK racist hooligan Tommy Robinson is in jail for. Violating a contempt order on a defamation judgment. The case that Musk has been railing about nonstop for two weeks.

… We will we watching Rudy’s podcasts very closely on this one. We caught Trump multiple times violating his gag order which resulted in national news and sanctions from Engoron. We would love to help put Rudy in jail since he continues to get very stern warnings. We will be watching you, Rudy!

… Joe Scarborough got into heated exchange with Michael Steele on Morning Joe after Joe mocked people who are upset that some Democrats are being too civil with Trump. Steele: “I’ll take your civility argument - you like to say 78 million people voted for Trump. Well, 82 million people voted for Joe Biden, and he didn’t get that civility you’re talking about from Donald Trump for the last 4 years. So now the expectation is, because he won again and got 78 million votes we all got to be civil to Donald Trump!”

… After Joe kept trying to interrupt, Steele continued: “You’re looking at it from a one-way perspective - how we need to approach Donald Trump. How the hell is he approaching us? (Mika tries to interrupt) The man wants to lock up citizens! (Mika tries to interrupt again) The man wants to turn the govt against us. How are we supposed to respond to that? Are we supposed to be civil!?!

… Scarborough responded: “You’re twisting my words! You will play very well today on Bluesky, Threads, and X. Congratulations!”

… I guess what Joe is saying is that all of us who happen to be on one of those platforms are a bunch of dopes and/or lunatics. We aren’t smart enough or civilized enough to get him. They wonder why they are losing viewers.

… I’m off tomorrow for a day of snow tubing in Maine. It certainly was quite a week of jam-packed updates. I was hoping that after Congress recessed we were going to get a little break on the manic news cycle. That is what normally happens. But we are back entering another four years of Trump, where there will be no breaks because the madness never ends.

Thank you for supporting my work and remember, even though most of this is all infuriating, if we didn’t laugh at some of this stuff sometimes we probably would lose our minds. I may lose mine anyway!

… Rep. Warren Davidson (R-OH) says that he will only vote to grant disaster relief to CA if they first agree to adopt Republican policies on things: "If they want the money