Below is an expanded version of my column in the New York Post on the start of the Trump trial and much awaited explanation of District Attorney Alvin Bragg on the underlying alleged criminal conduct. The curious aspect of the case is that the prosecutors are stressing that they will prove largely uncontested facts. Indeed, if all of these facts of payments, non-disclosure agreements, and affairs are proven many of us (including liberal legal experts) are doubtful that there is any cognizable crime.
Here is the column:
For many of us in the legal community, the case of Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg against former president Donald Trump borders on the legally obscene: an openly political prosecution based on a theory that even some liberal pundits have dismissed. Yet, this week the prosecution seemed like they were actually making a case for obscenity.
No, it was not the gratuitous introduction of an uncharged alleged tryst with a former Playboy bunny or planned details on the relationship with a former porn star. It was the criminal theory itself that seemed crafted around the standard for obscenity famously described by Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart in the case of Jacobellis v. Ohio, 378 U.S. 184 (1964): “I shall not today attempt further to define [it] … But I know it when I see it.”
After months of confusion of what crime they were alleging in the indictment, the prosecution offered a new theory that is so ambiguous and undefined that it would have made Justice Stewart blush.
New York prosecutor Joshua Steinglass told the jury that one of the crimes that Trump allegedly committed in listing the payments to Stormy Daniels as a “legal expense” was New York Law 17-152. This law states “Any two or more persons who conspire to promote or prevent the election of any person to a public office by unlawful means and which conspiracy is acted upon by one or more of the parties thereto, shall be guilty of a misdemeanor.”
So they are arguing that Trump committed a crime by conspiring to unlawfully promote his own candidacy. He did this by paying to quash a potentially embarrassing story and then reimbursing his lawyer with other legal expenses.
Confused? You are not alone.
It is not a crime to pay money for the nondisclosure of an alleged affair. Moreover, it is also not a federal election offense (which is the other crime alleged by Bragg) to pay such money as a personal or legal expense. It is not treated under federal law as a political contribution to yourself.
Yet, somehow the characterization of this payment as a legal expense is being treated as an illegal conspiracy to promote one’s own candidacy in New York.
The Trump cases have highlighted a couple of New York’s absurdly ambiguous laws. Under another law, New York Attorney General Letitia James secured an almost half of billion dollar judgment against Trump for loans where the alleged victims not only did not lose a dime but were eager for more business from his company. The law does not actually require any loss to a victim to impose a roughly $500 million penalty against a defendant that James pledged to bag in her campaign for office. While the over and under valuing of assets is common in the real estate area, James singled out Trump.
James declined to explain how this law could be used against other businesses since actual losses or injuries are not viewed as necessary. Businesses would just have to trust her and her judgment. In other words, the law could have sweeping applications, but we will know a violation under the civil law when we see it.
As with James, Bragg saw it in Trump. His predecessor did not see it. He declined charging on this basis. Bragg did to. He stopped the investigation. However, after a pressure campaign, Bragg might not be able to see the crime but he certainly saw the political consequences of not charging Trump.
In New York, prosecutors are expected to have extreme legal myopia: they can see no farther than Trump to the exclusion of any implication for the legal system or legal ethics.
Of course, neither he nor his office has never seen this type of criminal case in any other defendant. Ever.
We have never seen a case like this one where a dead misdemeanor from 2016 could be revived as a felony just before any election in 2024.
The misdemeanors in this case, including falsifying these payments, expired with the passage of the statute of limitations. But Bragg (with the help of Matthew Colangelo, a former top official in the Biden Justice Department) zapped it back into life by alleging a federal election crime that the Justice Department itself rejected as a basis for any criminal charge.
So now there is a second crime that is hard for most of us to see, at least outside of New York. Trump is accused of conspiring to promote his own candidacy by mislabeling this payment, even though it was part of a larger legal payment to his former counsel, Michael Cohen.
They do not see a crime in analogous mislabeling of payments by Democratic candidates. Take Hillary Clinton who served as senator from New York and ran for president against Trump. For months before the 2016 election, Hillary Clinton’s campaign denied that it had funded the infamous Steele dossier behind the debunked Russian collusion claims. That was untrue. When reporters tried to report on the funding story, one journalist said Elias that “pushed back vigorously, saying ‘You (or your sources) are wrong.’”
It was later discovered that the funding was hidden as legal expenses by then-Clinton campaign general counsel Marc Elias. (The FEC later sanctioned the campaign over its hiding of the funding.). Times reporter Maggie Haberman declared, “Folks involved in funding this lied about it, and with sanctimony, for a year.”
Elias even went with John Podesta, Clinton’s campaign chairman, in speaking with congressional investigators and Podesta denied categorically any contractual agreement with Fusion GPS.
While the funds were part of the campaign budget, they were listed as legal expenses and the Clinton people continued to insist that such payments to a former intelligence figure to put together the dossier was a legal expenditure.
It is not clear if Trump even knew how this money was characterized on ledgers or records. He paid the money to his lawyer, who had put together this settlement over the nondisclosure agreement. Cohen will soon go on the stand and tell the jury that they should send his former client to jail for following his legal advice.
In addition to running for president, Trump was a married host of a hit television show. There were ample reasons to secure a NDA to bury the story. Even if money was paid to bury these stories with the election in mind, it is not unusual or illegal. There was generally no need to list such payments as a campaign contribution because they were not a campaign contribution in the view of the federal government.
It is not even clear how this matter was supposed to be noted in records. What if the Trump employee put “legal settlement in personal matter” or “nuisance payment”? Would those words be the difference
Again, it is not clear. But that does not appear to matter in New York. The crime may not be clear or even comprehensible. However, the identity of the defendant could not be more clear and the prosecutors are hoping that the jury, like themselves, will look no further.
“First, that Alvin Bragg’s office did not provide advanced notice of the precise allegations in order to enable former President Trump’s legal team to prepare an adequate defense,”
“Second, that the statutory code section cited by the lead prosecutor (New York Penal Code Section 17-152) prohibits a conspiracy ‘to promote or prevent the election of any person to a public office by unlawful means …,’ but Bragg has still not divulged what those ‘unlawful means’ were.”
“And third, and most shockingly, that penal code section is a misdemeanor, which means that Alvin Bragg is claiming that committing a misdemeanor (making a false business entry) in order to conceal the commission of another misdemeanor (conspiring to promote someone’s candidacy in an unlawful manner) can – like magic – be converted into 34 felony offenses,”
— Former deputy assistant attorney general in the DOJ’s Criminal Division John Malcolm
“The misdemeanor statute of limitations is expired on this offense, just as it is expired on the underlying offense, raising a significant legal question about the propriety of this approach,”
“One of the biggest issues in this case is that the prosecution has essentially withheld this theory [election interference] until trial has started,”
“The defense has complained about this the entire time, but the judge has refused to require identification of the felony escalator at an earlier stage. This amounts to another form of ‘trial by fire,” which is not how the American criminal justice system is supposed to work.”
— Former federal prosecutor Andrew Cherkasky
Thanks for these references. It is also very likely that 17-152 applies only to state and local elections not Federal ones.
Daniel,
Based off your comments, and others by John Say, JJC, Sam et al. the above comments make much more sense to me.
Thank you for your analysis!
When one of you experts gets a chance, why dont you explain how a business ledger entry made a year after the fact, was a conspiracy to alter the election.
It wasn’t, and no one says it was. The argument is that it was entered that way to conceal the crime of election interference defined by NY Law 17-152. There are a lot of problems with that argument, but that’s a separate question.
The election interference under the statute you cite requires an unlawful act, which was the conspiracy to hide the payment by specifying it as legal fees.
Hide the paryment from whom? This was not a public filiing.
If a lawyer’s bills are paid, does the entry in a business checking account need to detail the services which were provided?
Jonathan fails to consider the right of the voters to make a fully-informed decision — if “the consent of the governed” is to retain integrity, then it must be informed consent. That means that citizens have a legal interest at stake during elections that campaigns be conducted honestly, and media not be allowed to advance public frauds and cover-ups.
That said, criminalization of acts to dupe the electorate is a totally wrongheaded strategy. The 1st Amendment insists that sorting out fact from fiction remain a function widely dispersed throughout society, and never concentrated in the hands of govt. officials. That rules out prosecution.
The correct approach is civil torts. It should be possible for the public, acting as its own litigant, to sue any party that attempts to dupe it for political advantage, based on the fact that informed consent is the bedrock of legitimate elections. This would include cover-ups, and media orgs that join in deceptive infowarfare strategies to tilt an election outcome would be at risk of being sued for large sums.
Let’s not kid ourselves. In the last Presidential election, the pre-election Hunter Laptop Cover-up and Trump’s post-election Big Lie both adulterated the infospace in a dangerous manner — even if ballot cheating is not a serious issue, the losing candidate and supporters can question the legitimacy of the result if information was concealed that could have affected voters’ choices. Free and fair elections implies campaigning be conducted in an open, honest media environment, not descend into a contest of who is the most compelling liar.
Unfortunately, the latter is the path we’re stumbling down. The worst case will be one where the voters find out they’ve been duped after the election but before the Inauguration. That would ignite a Constitutional crisis with dire consequences….there would be fierce resistance to swearing in a Deceiver-in-Chief.
To prevent this all-too-predictable calamity, it’s time to focus on the infospace rights of the electorate, and reasonable and rapid-response counter-measures to deceptive opinion-shaping. Lawsuits in Public Frauds Court would raise the costs of waging deceptive media practices. Whether it’s “catch and kill” deals, or getting 51 former intel-sector officials to push out a letter claiming “all the earmarks of Russian hacking”, or Trump’s bloviating “I won 2020 by a landslide”, being sued within 24 hours of an attempt to media-manipulate the public will have a quieting effect. There’s no pre-emptive censorship. There’s no jailtime. There’s just the counterforce of the public rearing up to say “We have rights to not be blindsided — we’re the ones having to make the biggest decisions — therefore, you have wronged us to withhold relevant facts or steer us with falsehoods”.
Mr Civil Torts back with his tired drivel.
The answer to everything. Civil torts. In an era of extreme partisan divisions, lets let judges like Merchan and engoron oversee the kinds of juries like the e jean carrol case, decide everything. What could go wrong?
Idiot
You didn’t like the way Nicholas Sandmann brought CNN and WaPo to heel for deliberate character assassination?
Was Nick’s lawsuit and favorable judgment a violation of the 1st Amendment?
1A only applies to GOVT. OFFICIALS using prior restraint or threat of punishment (jail, fines) to curtail press freedom (or exacting the same effect through intermediaries).
1A doesn’t limit the ability to citizen vs. citizen lawsuits, because the govt’s role is to provide a neutral judge, a courtroom, rules of evidence that block dishonesty, and a Jury as the deciders-of-fact. The Jury determines the outcome.
What other means do we have to still the deceitful infowarriors among us? Or, are you just willing to “take it in the behind” informatically-speaking? Or, maybe you want to defend the right to deceive for advancement of your political goals?
If we had Public Frauds law, think about how these outrageous con-jobs could have been confronted in realtime:
– going to war in Iraq based on fabricated intel (devised by clever Shiites in Baghdad)
– squashing Hillary’s “Russia collaboration” hoax in the 1st week Buzzfeed, Isakoff, Steele, and Marc Elias
were just starting to get attention to their cooked-up-narrative (suing the whole cabal)
– blunting Biden-Blinken-Morell whopper put out to cover-up Hunter’s laptop in the final days before
the 2020 election?
– Suing Jussie Smollett for a massive public fraud, when the Nigerians confessed to the cops
Lying to get your way is the definition of sleeze. It’s how corrupt dictators remain in power. The first step toward tyranny is accepting it as co-equal in status to truthful reporting. That’s emboldening to a wanna-be dictatorial regime.
You are a dunce. What you are advocating is in DIRECT opposition to the first amendment.
Lets litigate every goddam thing someone says, and lets do it within 24 hours.
Who the fvck is gonna pay for the rapid fire, round the click courts? The litigants? Think about that for 10 seconds and you look like a mouth foaming moron.
If media execs, producers and journalists knew they could be sued for deceptive reporting, they would be much more responsible with their power. The costs of lawsuits would limit lawsuits to big, important cases.
“the right of the voters to make a fully-informed decision “
Funny, I have scoured the Constitution and i dont see that right.
Unless your are like George, and believe the Declaration of Independence grants rights.
Every thing you said after that is equally false.
Also, our judicial system found OJ innocent of murder and Trump guilty of sexually assaulting a women who says she was wearing a dress that wasn’t even made yet.
Yea, lets do that.
They have the EXACT same “evidence” on Kavanaugh that they had on Trump.
See Arizona indictment news….
@mrddmia
Democrats rig and steal elections.
If you question them, they destroy you.
And Trump is the ‘Fascist’??
___________________________________________
@mrddmia
Judge Juan Merchan is threatening to gag President Trump so that Trump cannot discuss how Matthew Colangelo was deployed from the Biden Justice Department to work with Alvin Bragg.
Judge Merchan does not want President Trump publicly talking about his clear judicial bias and why he should recuse from this case because of the obvious financial stake from the judge’s daughter, Loren Merchan.
Democrats running this lawfare don’t care. Their entire point is to get a felony conviction of President Trump before the election.
Joe also delivered this gem
“I dont know why he—-we’re surprised by Trump. How many times does he have to prove we cant be trusted”
Now Joe is blaming the fact that he cant be trusted on Trump as well. Bout right.
Biden reading the teleprompter today, and I quote:
“Four more years…Pause…four more, oh”
When he realized he wasn’t supposed to say the word pause, he froze.
And this is our commander in chief while the world is burning
Buh buh but trump!
Waters,
Just read that one.
And people wonder why all our enemies, friendmies and even some allies are all taking advantage of the situation.
I expect them to ramp up their plans as the election gets closer.
Who do you think they want to see win the presidential election? Putin endorsed Biden.
You’re being a little bit thick Jonathan. The New York case against Trump is not about law, it’s not about evidence, it’s not about justice. There’s a very good chance it’ll all be thrown out on appeal somewhere down the line. Years from now. It doesn’t matter how flimsy the whole affair is or how absurd it is this case is designed to serve a specific purpose: To rig the 2024 presidential election. We called this practice lawfare.
Lawfare is is designed to remove a political candidate from campaigning, bankrupting him and hopefully throwing him into jail. Just like any other well run Banana Republic. This is what happened in Brazil with the former president Lula.
That’s what this is all about. You need to be frank and explicit so that everyone can be clear about what’s going on. This is election interference purely and simply. A blatant example of undermining any form of democratic process.
You are exactly right! There is no downside to these sham prosecutions for the Democrats, even if Trump wins. As long as the American Legacy Media is in their back pocket, there is no one to get thru the majority of Democrat voters. Today, even Tucker Carlson is under attack from Republicans for telling the truth about Ukraine.
This is a Banana Republic trial at best and a Stalinist show trial at worst. Maybe there never was a “democracy” but events such as this and the Ukraine money (to defend democracy?) is a pretty sad commentary. Unfortunately the direction elites have chosen in this country are not likely to end up in the best interests of the common majority.
Thank you for an interesting article
Very well stated Mike the analogies are quite apt.
Sarastro, are you talking to Mike or Floyd?
In what universe does the prosecution get to spring the crime being charged on the defendant at trial?
Do the DNC shills get this?
“For many of us in the legal community, the case of Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg against former president Donald Trump borders on the legally obscene:”
Turley is being pretty direct, and he seldom does that. I think that most Democrats “get it”, but as a Party, they have been trained (brainwashed) into “not seeing” what is obvious. From the failures on civil rights, to the evil castration of young boys, and the cutting off of the breasts of young girls – they have learned to pretend – to pretend they don’t see it, or pretend that it isn’t what it appears to be. They are taking one for the team.
They have been brainwashed in several ways. One, is by their minions/overlords chasing conservative speakers into Conservative Closets, and by denigrating them. Another way is the Katherine Maher, NPR CEO, approach, which is to simply pretend other voices do not exist, all while touting Diversity, Diversity, Diversity. And in other numerous ways.
The net result is, you have a slimy, evil group of people, who are as delusional as they come. Years ago, thy would have been burning people at the stake to save their souls. Why does anyone who is good and smart still vote for Democrats?
On this thread we find Floyd using his old Estovir handle, plus Upstate Farmer, Iowa2 and his frequent green anonymous. Interestingly they’re all complimenting each other!
This one thread is a good example of how one person warps the whole discussion by using multiple names and anonymouses.
It’s the cheater’s way of winning an argument. You overwhelm the others with the ‘appearance’ of a majority.
You’re an idiot. The fact you find it implausible that a moderate blog might be dominated by conservatives only proves what a whack-o far lefty you are. Anything even close to center looks alt-right to you.
The real question is, and the one that makes you look really insane is, who the fvck do you think your audience is??? You just said and have always said they are all the same person. So who the fvck are you talking to, ya retard? Gigi and Dennis?
What a shivering little kunt you are.
Why don’t you tell us what you really think???
Not too bright either i see
Floyd,
Well said.
Thank you Upstate! I always get a morale boost from your comments! And Estovirs! And the Green Anonymi! And others! 🙂
Yeah, Floyd, they’re all you!
All your bases are belong to us! 🙂
Floyd,
How do you tell the difference between Hamas and the DNC Paid Trolls?
The former uses physical violence and follows up on their threats while the latter are like the neighbors annoying chihuahua: yaps from afar but screams and turns when you reach for the yapping dog.
Hamas severed the hand of 23-year-old Hersh Goldberg-Polin, an Israeli-American kidnapped on Oct 7. This video was just released, his parents in Chicago have commented, but the Hamas and their militant supporters continue to portray themselves as victims. Their self-immolation would not be enough to save the world of what awaits all of us like Hersh Goldberg-Polin.
Estovir,
Funny! Very funny!
That was ghastly.
I predict it will not be long until you see Hamas-like terrorists committing mayhem in this country, on a much, much larger scale than the old Weathermen radicals of the 1960s. You know that Hamas and Isis and others had to take advantage of the open borders to slip in a ton of their people, and those dudes do not mind dying for their cause. Thankfully, I suspect that NYC and DC will come in for the lion’s share of problems. The people there deserve it.
Religions are like rappers. They all claim to be the best and the more they rape, the more popular they get.
I am not surprised about Bragg. What I am surprised about is the judge. The judge should have dismissed this case at the outset. How can anybody have any faith in the legal system when Judge’s allow nonsense cases like this to proceed. The same is true for the $454 million case with no victim. Even if you hate Donald Trump and think he is the scum of the earth, you need to be concerned about corruption by Judges as you might be in court some day and hoping for a neutral person to judge your case.
Poor Anon,
This is NYC where like Engoron these Judges are ‘respected’ and members of ‘the polite society’.
They would lose social standing w their peers if they didn’t find Trump guilty of anything just to keep him from running.
If they do anything less, like follow the law… they would be ostracized.
As it is … Engoron is forced to potentially find another gym because he was caught creeping on a female gym goer.
(Or at least keep a low profile until things die down.)
The corruption is w the NY Bar and beyond because they allow this to continue and turn a blind eye.
To them winning at all costs is ethical.
-G
The judge and his family Biden campaign contributors
Question: Trump said and showed he has a document Stormy signed where she admits in no uncertain terms that there was never a physical anything between them. If this is true, why isn’t it playing a bigger role in the case? Is it a crime to pay someone off to keep their mouth shut about something you didn’t even do?
NO.
The document says she denied having an affair with Trump, and that by “affair” she meant an ongoing relationship.
She clarified that the only interaction between them was a 2 minute quickie in a hotel room.
If this is true, why isn’t it playing a bigger role in the case?
Because it in no way affects the facts concerning the indictment
@Iowan2
Uhm then why did the judge deny Trump’s bid to subpoena Stormy?
They don’t want the facts or the truth.
Thats easy.
Because the Judge is corrupt and is going to abuse the law to get a conviction.
As Trump said, ALL legal scholars agree this case is no case. ALL of them. ALL three shills for Trump, LOL.
Trump was indicted for 34 counts of falsifying business records in the first degree. For prosecutors to secure a criminal conviction, they must convince the jury that Trump committed the crime of falsifying business records in “furtherance of another crime.” New York prosecutor Joshua Steinglass on Tuesday said the other crime was a violation of a New York law called “conspiracy to promote or prevent election.” The business records were falisified by misrepresenting the bribe to Stormy Daniels as “legal fees” for the purpose of promoting Trump’s candidacy–to hide his misconduct.
That is laughable. What these prosecutors, corrupt DAs and judges are doing to Trump *is* the criminal conspiracy!
Talk about a “conspiracy to prevent election”….wow that’s coming straight out of Biden’s White House, Garland’s DOJ, colluding and coordinating timing of cases from DC to NYC, to Georgia, to Florida….all to damage Trump, and blatantly interfere and influence the election to benefit Biden.
The Democrat “conspiracy” is crystal clear.
Stop treating any of these prosecutions as legitmate – they are not.
Will someone please stand up and put a stop to this? My god the silence is defeaning.
“conspiracy to promote or prevent election.
The last Presidential campaign saw $2 total spent by both campaigns . . . to promote an election.
You are an idiot to repeat talking points you can’t understand.
Gigi the douche. First of all it is new york election law and applies only to new york elections.
Second, the paying of hush money occurs in personal matters. As such it qualified as person expense, and not a campaign contribution.
“Trump was indicted for . . .”
Those are *misdemeanors* with expired statutes of limitations.
“. . . the other crime was a violation of a New York law . . .”
It was a *federal* election. Further, since the statue of limitations on those state crimes *expired*, there is no underlying crime to allege a “conspiracy.”
This is the spaghetti school of criminal prosecution. Throw a bowl of spaghetti on the wall and hope something sticks.
In the dark halls of justice in Gotham City, where morality often takes a backseat to ambition, there existed a prosecutor so disgraced, so morally bankrupt, that even the devil would have hesitated to shake his hand. Meet Al Bragsalot, a 5’4″, 260#, sleazy lawyer with a 6 shoe size and a résumé as plagiarized as a Harvard president and tarnished as the reputation of Columbia University.
Al Bragsalot had a knack for contorting the truth and changing the meanings of words, like a Clinton speaking about #MeToo. But rather than rooting out the rot within the justice system, he wallowed in it like a Hamas supporter inciting violence against Jews, relishing every distortion of immorality that came his way.
On a day that will live in infamy, a politician, who alleged his uncle was eaten by cannibals in the Pacific Islands, whom we will call Brandon, approached Al Bragsalot with a proposition so scummy that it made Al’s tiny feet dance a jig. Brandon had a political opponent—a thorn in his side, an opponent with a “get er done” bravado so as to Make America Great Again, contrasted to Brandon’s cacophony of lies and sniffing the hair of little girls. Brandon needed Al Bragsalot’s particular brand of legal legerdemain “to rule them all”.
With a twinkle in his eye, a bouncing fat belly and dollar signs dancing in his imagination, Al Bragsalot’s eagerly accepted the politician’s offer on bended knee. He set to work concocting a web of falsehoods so intricate, even the most seasoned of liars would have been impressed. He fabricated evidence, twisted testimonies, and greased palms with such finesse that Machiavelli himself would have taken notes.
The trial was a farce from the outset, a twisted spectacle of justice perverted beyond recognition. Al Bragsalot’s played his role with the finesse of a seasoned actor, all righteous indignation and moral outrage, while behind closed doors, he laughed and clinked glasses with the politician, celebrating each new low in their descent into depravity. Dante’s 9th Circle of Hades would be their Club Med vacation.
As the gavel fell and Brandon’s political opponent was gagged by the equally corrupt judge, Al proved to be a slave as if working for his Mistuh on a plantation, so that Brandon could keep profiting from his plantation workers like Lyndon B. Johnson.
And so, with swollen ankles, sweaty forehead, acid indigestion and a bitter taste from the greasy pork rinds Al Bragsalot’s consumed, Brandon slunk back into the basement from whence he lived, a cautionary tale of corruption run amok in the halls of power. For in the end, it is not the crimes we commit that define us, but the choices we make in the face of our own moral decay, like Brandon’s uncle eaten by cannibals
/ sarc
Any semblance to real life individuals is pure fabrication just like the Presidency of Joseph R. Biden.
Estovir,
That was great!
Very well done!
Upstate Farmer: how typical of a Trumpster–ad hominem attacks instead of logic or reason, which is the reason people like me cannot respect people like you. There is no rationality to your counter arguments to Trump’s misconduct. Every judge who is involved in Trump cases, other than that clueless dimbulb in Florida, is called “corrupt”. Prosecutors and their families are attacked–and why? Because it’s all you have. You KNOW Trump did the deed wtih Stormy Daniels. Melania knows it, too because she’s seen what Stormy Daniels has described as Trump’s unusually small “commander in chief”. You KNOW that he misrepresented the payoff as “legal fees” because of the election–not to spare Melania, Ivanka and Tiffany from embarrassment, because he tried to delay payment until after the election, in case he lost, at which point it didn’t matter to him if the accusations came out. I can’t help but harken back to other men who have served–like Eisenhower, FDR, JFK–patriots–and wonder how or why anyone would believe that someone like Trump belongs in their company.
Jfk???? How many women did he fvck while he in office, you douche??
That was great!
Thanks Farmer!
Tell me the Rucker brand style backpack you are using for rucking.
Ive been looking at different brands and styles but wonder how comfortable they are on the shoulders
This is the one I am leaning towards for the reasons this guy states. I also like the option of adding weights front and back. However it doesnt look durable nor comfortable for the shoulders. Thoughts?
Have you ever done a true ruck run?
Not fun… and comfort is the least of your worries.
Focus on your knees and ankles not your shoulders.
-G
Estovir,
I have seen those weight vest before. Did consider getting one.
But, I went old school, used a old backpack I have laying around. Then I bought a 50lbs bag of clean play sand from a big box store for $6, dumped out 10lbs, kept the rest in the thick plastic bag the sand came in and put it in the backpack.
He is doing other exercises with the vest, which I would not do with my pack. But I walk for an hour in my fields which are not level, and have some degree of incline and decline. I have no proof to back this up, but it seems to me, my body muscles making thousands of tiny adjustments with each step to maintain my balance not only burns calories but also builds my core. Again, no proof.
Is my posture perfect? Nope. But it is constantly changing as I am walking, especially on a incline or decline.
After an hour of rucking, I then drop the bag, and power walk over the same area for about 30 to 40 minutes.
Another exercise I have done in the past, is take a padded weight bar, about 4ft long and while walking, do various exercises with it till the targeted muscle group feels the burn. Then stop and do X amount of push ups or sit ups, leg lifts, planks etc. Try carrying a 18lbs weight bar at “port arms” for a hundred yards or so. You will feel all kinds of muscles burning!
Oooorrrahhh! Youre our GI Joe of the forum! Your working the fields consumes more calories than my 30 mins of treadmill, elliptical or stairmaster machine. Im interested in the rucking but likely for biking then hiking in my area.
As you know I enjoy bodybuilding. Im as big as the guy in the video which is why I picked it. I have bigger legs though – thanks to those Muslims invading Spain centuries ago, for which I thank them. I adopted a bulking phase recently, eating about 4000 calories per day. I eat oatmeal at 3 am with protein bar, train heavy at gym by 4:30 am, switch to cardio at 5:45 am for 30 mins, and eat when I get home with the family. Im getting bigger, so the family tells me, but I am also gaining fat. I need to burn more calories hence the rucking idea you suggested
You are probably a lean machine. The multidirectional movements you do daily burns tons of calories. My treadmill is boring and inefficient. Stairmaster is a killer but my noon my BMR has slowed, hence rucking after work would crank it back up.
The weather is getting gorgeous, biking helps me burn stress, plus Vitamin D, but I am deaf so balance is challenging. I suspect the rucking will challenge my balance. OTOH, YOLO!!!
Thanks for the feedback. Im going for the weighted vest
Estovir,
Bro! Dang! Your caloric intake is crazy! But you are going for mass, which makes sense.
Yeah, I am going the other direction, lean and mean. Low to medium weight or resistance, lots of reps.
With ya on the cycling. Got another week or so before I can get the road bike out. My route is only 13.5 miles, it is just about all hill work!
On the vest, seeing as how you are going for mass, you might want to pick a vest that will allow more than 40lbs. And if your legs are that big, 40lbs might not even be a challenge for you!
Estovir,
Oh! I also wear hiking boots with good ankle support. I would recommend that even if I was rucking on flat pavement to prevent an accidental ankle roll. Good thick socks to prevent blisters too. I wear medium weight Merino wool socks.
its presently 3:38 am, Ive already consumed my oatmeal, protein bar, preworkout beverage and creatine ATP capsules. Will say my devitional prayers, head to gym, arrive by 4:15 am, do 5 mins cardio warmup then hit the weights. Today is chest and triceps day, 4 exerxises per muscle group, 4 sets each, train to failure every single set, 10 reps min, shoot for 20 reps every set. Rest 3 mins between sets to allow glycogen stores to catabolize and replenish glucose stores exhausted from previous set. When done, hit cardio 30 mins. I’m usually shot by the 3rd exercise because training to failure does that. So i look forward to incorporating biking and hiking later today and order my weighted vest this weekend
War is coming. Train like your life depends on it.
And always have hope
Good on ya, bro!
My joints hurt just from reading you two. Thanks for that!
“Alvin Bragg has his Trump trial, All he Needs Now is a Crime”
– Professor Turley
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You don’t need a crime when you have sufficient ubiquitous racism.
And you do.
Did you say Alvin Bragg, Leticia James, Fani Willis, Tanya Chutkan et al.?
_____________________________________________________________________________
“IT’S OK TO BE WHITE.”
– Rasmussen
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47% of blacks disagree while only 53% agree.
__________________________________________________
“Blacks are a hate group.”
“As you know, I’ve been identifying as Black for a while – years now – because I like – you know, I like to be on the winning team.”
“The best advice I would give to white people is to get the hell away from Black people.”
“Just get the f*** away.”
“Wherever you have to go, just get away because there’s no fixing this.”
“You just have to escape, so that’s what I did.”
– Scott Adams, “Dilbert”
__________________________
Even for the deranged, hysterical, incoherent, bleeding-heart, liberal, progressive, socialist, democrat, RINO, AINO communists, “…THERE’S NO FIXING THIS!”
Racist Prosecution
130 comments into the topic.
After repeated questions, not a soul has named “the crime”
I don’t find it curious that Trump fanatics fail to read. Even Jonathan Turley has now found it’s unnecessary to do his home work when concocting commentaries for Trumpsters, who believe at face value everything Trump says.
So, I did what you and Turley utterly failed to do… I read the indictments. “Trump, along with others, engaged in a “catch and kill” operation to conceal stories that could harm his electoral prospects.”
If this is true, this is a crime. Trump is presumed innocent. Until the evidence is weighed and the jury decides, Trump did not do it.
There are 33 other felonies submitted in the document, of which it seems would be news to you and Turley.
Catch and kill operations to conceal stories are not crimes.
You are absolutely correct!!!
Trump is not charged with committing a “catch and kill operation”. That is not a crime.
He is charged with falsifying business records to hide the payment, which is a crime.
He is also charged that the falsification crime was in furtherance of the crime of election interference, which is a felony.
And like the other case… this one is pure BS.
What is the proper category for payments to lawyers?
“legal expense” and that’s what anybody calls it. if it’s a settlement over a category of business expenses you might have a different category for it, like if it was a sale of goods beef you might put it under “suppplies” but to settle purported defamation? “legal expense” is legit and trust me they will have experts on the stand aplenty before the end to confirm the “reasonable doubt” about that
if the judge allows it….
Sal Sar
If you mean 17-152, (a) it appears to apply only to state and local elections and (b) if it does apply, what is the “unlawful means” here?
The payment in question was to cohen. Not pecker.
Get a clue
Any thoughts on how so many political operatives who committed actual crimes while orchestrating their Russia collusion coup are not serving prison time? They gave a gentle slap on the wrist to only one low level attorney who never went to prison, nor was he disbarred. How is that possible?
The scoundrels committing crimes are in charge of the DOJ now that’s how.
Garland is a capo in their mafia, has been since he helped torch the Branch Dravidians. He’s a cur
Yeah, right Alvin…have another cheeseburger, fat boy.
What statute does catch and kill violate? It is a variation on a settlement to respond to extortion attempts. You might be able to allege fraud in the inducement on the agreement, but even then, it’s not a crime to meet the prosecutions charge, and caveat emptor.
Iowan2,
Yes, there is that.
Daniel, John Say, JJC and others have offered up some very good comments on the topic.
FALSIFYING BUSINESS RECORDS IN THE FIRST DEGREE,in violation of Penal Law §175.10
Misdemeanor beyond the
SOL
Next, deputy desperate douche?
The Woman Who Won’t Go Away
Haley Scores 16% In Pennsylvania
In Georgia and Wisconsin, Nikki Haley won the support of about 13% of Republican primary voters despite no longer being in the race. In Arizona, another key swing state, she won nearly 18% — more than 110,000 votes.
None of those states has as much sway in presidential elections as Pennsylvania. The vote count Tuesday night seemed to indicate the commonwealth would land somewhere between those swing states. With 82% of the expected vote in, more than 16% of Republican votes had gone to Ms. Haley, according to the Associated Press.
https://www.post-gazette.com/news/election-2024/2024/04/23/pennsylvania-primary-biden-trump-haley-uncommitted/stories/202404230080
……………………………….
Nikki Haley is now what’s known as a ‘zombie candidate’. And she continues stalking Trump like the zombie who won’t die. Too bad Trump can’t buy her off!
YAWN
Turdrunner getting desperate now. Cant blame him. His world ends Nov 5
T%here is a problem with all this nonsense highlightes by this obscure law that Coangello is citing.
It is actually a requirement of the law that it must be possible for the person allegedly committing the crime to KNOW that what they were doing is a crime.
Even if the courts ultimately decide that using personal funds to pay for someone’s silence in a political campaign was a crime.
The FEC has repeatedly found that it was not even a violation of the law warranting a slap on the wrist – that it was perfectly legal.
When the law has been publicly understood to be one thing – for decades. People are entitled to rely on that when deciding about their own conduct.
If you beleive that what you are doing is legal. If you have good reason to beleive that – because those responsible for enforcing the law have repeatedly said so. And you act accordingly and a court later says “NO that was wrong, this is a crime” – you still are Not guilty.
This is true with respect to this Federal election law nonsense.
It is also true with respect to the Florida Documents case.
This case is not about federal law. It’s state law which is why it’s considered a felony under NY campaign laws. That’s why your argument is not relevant to the case.
Are you talking about the the NY state election law? Because that cannot apply to elections of federal offices.
George please, STFU before you say something really stupid.