NATIONAL DRINK WINE DAY UPDATES
And You Just Might Toast The News In This Update!
-You probably read the ruling from NY Judge Arthur Engoron and the fine of $354M he assessed against Ex-President Trump (R-apist) XCI for the fraud Trump and others perpetrated while running The Trump Organization - but did you realize that the fine is WORSE than that? It is! You see, the fine comes with interest that will be assessed until and unless Trump ponies up the cash (which he will have to do if he wanted to dare appeal the decision). Cool, right?
-WAIT - IT GETS BETTER!
-The interest is not accrued from the start of the ruling - the interest is retroactive! It started on the date of the first charge in the case, which is somewhere in the 2010s, and will continue to roll and roll and roll just like compound interest does! So THAT means that the fine assessed Friday is not $354M - it is already over $450M AND COUNTING!
-BUT WAIT - THERE'S MORE!
-Suzanne Craig, the New York Times reporter whose stories on the Trump Organization won her a 2019 Pulitzer Prize that Trump sued to have rescinded and failed - adding another hundred thousand or so to his tab for frivolous legal fees, by the way - reports that Trump's taxes from those years are FINALLY being audited (for REAL this time!) by the IRS, and when THOSE fines are tallied, they could add upwards of $100M to his bill!
-SO, adding up the fines above, the $85M Trump still has to pay to E. Jean Carroll, the reported 2023 legal fees of around $50M, and as of this morning Trump is personally on the hook for fines and fees totaling somewhere in the neighborhood of $600 MILLION DOLLARS - and rising with interest and more legal fees and who knows how many more fines!
-Mary Trump, his cousin who has been reporting for years on the internal dynamics and psychology of the Trump brood, points out that the sheer humiliation of so many of those cases taking place in New York City (combined with the three-year ban of being able to do business in the city and a state-appointed official now in charge) will and is taking a massive toll on the psyche of Donny. It certainly makes him more dangerous and unstable (as if that's possible), but she points out that whatever happens with the money or other cases, this week was a watershed - the first true public accountability for Trump's decades of crimes and general a-hollery.
-As for the money, a few cynics will scoff at even the fine noted above, convinced Trump somehow will find fellow rich douches and evil billionaires (Putin, if you're listening ...) to help him out. And, truth be told, there is reportedly someone or some group of ‘investors’ ready to fund Trump's failing Truth Social microblogging site that could, in theory, raise a fair amount of capital if it passes regulatory examination. And other social media hawks noted that the private plane belonging to whackjob Elon Musk landed in Palm Beach on Friday, raising speculation as to what those two half-wits have in mind. And, there remains the potential that a number of Trump properties will need to be put on the market and sold for a loss if no more sugar daddies from China or the Middle East pop up (since in theory no money raised for Trump's Presidential "campaign" is supposed to be used for personal expenses, though there is plenty to suggest Alina Habba and company are getting something via those funds).
-Perhaps that is why, in the kind of Brand Geniusness that Trump has always, um, prided himself with, last night Trump debuted ... I kid you not ... TRUMP SNEAKERS! YES, Trump has decided to enter what some are reporting to be a cratering market in collector kicks, by debuting Trump Sneakers last night! They are every bit as hideous as you can imagine - think Chuck Taylor hightops, only with a massive "T" on the top of the shoe, glitter and gold plated material on top of soles that likely wouldn't last two mintues on an actual basketball court, and what appears in the photos to be gold lame shoelaces. They run for $399 a pair, and Trump decided it would be appropriate to debut them live at a shoe collectors convention in Philadelphia yesterday. And, you can imagine the kind of reception Trump got from The City That Booed Santa Claus ...
-So Trump then ran off to Michigan in order to display his Not-At-All-Bad-At-Cognition-From-The-Standpoint-of-Being-Cognitiveness in a 'speech' there. While wearing a set of black gloves (to hide more sores on his hand that would allow more wild speculation about having a venereal disease? to hide IV scars? to hide gold paint that rubbed off after handling his shoes?), Trump blarghed and bleated before a largely empty airplane hanger that mail-in voting continues to be corrupt (mail-in voting has now become a massive Democratic Party advantage), again attacked wind power for not producing power when the wind is not blowing (Trump may have never heard of what "batteries" are), again claimed he didn't know E. Jean Carroll (who stands ready to take him back to court if he mouths off at her again) and asked voters to help beat Joe Biden like he beat Joe Biden in 2016 (Biden beat Trump in MI in 2020) by voting on November 27 (the primary is presumably on February 27; Election Day 2024 is November 5).
-Now, while all of that was going on, multiple news outlets started to report on a potential nugget for 2024: that Trump privately agrees with, and may publicly advocate for, a national 16-week abortion ban if he returns to power in 2025. The move would clearly be designed to try to energize a base that has not turned out in overwhelming numbers in the primaries and caucuses and rallies to date, though it will also likely continue to exacerbate the growing gap with women voters and suburban voters like the ones that flipped the "George Santos" seat in NY last week.
-And through all the Trump tribulations and posts and statements since Friday, one person's name has conspicuously not been mentioned by Trump: Alexei Navalny. The dissident Russian leader was reported to have died while on a walk according to Russian officials, and after several days of attempting to get corroboration and his body, Navalny's body has finally appeared in a morgue in northern Russia. Worldwide leaders are calling Navalny's death a murder made at the behest of Vladimir Putin, whom of course is the one world leader Trump has never once said anything bad about - and some even wonder if Trump's threat to NATO that any country that doesn't "pay up" to the U.S. (NATO does not work like a goddamned strip club in Jersey) Trump would let Putin do "whatever the Hell (he) wanted!" may have given Putin the nerve to do something against Navalny (if, in fact, he did, as there is no evidence of anything, it must be said).
-All this has taken Biden-be-OLD! stories off the front pages, though liberal social media is grinding their teeth at a column by progressive columnist Ezra Klein, who last night 'changed his mind' and called for Biden to step aside and let someone else who is not as old as Biden run on a platform of at least not being as old as Biden, or ... something ...
-We'll undoubtedly be talking more about waiting for SCOTUS to rule on Trump's Everything-I-Do-As-Long-As-I-Use-The-Word-President-Is-Perfect-When-Doing-It-Since-I-Was-The-President appeal and the GA hearing on whether Fani Willis will need to remove herself from the Fulton County vote stealing RICO scheme this week, so let's just luxuriate in the hope Trump Tower New York City becomes the biggest Halloween City outlet in the world soon ...
-On this date in 1856, the Know-Nothing Party - a party whose anti-slavery remnants would ultimately join the then-Republican, now Democratic Party - was formed. On this date in 1861, Jefferson Davis became 'President' of the losing Confederacy. On this date in 1930, astronomers discovered Pluto (though debate continues on whether it is an actual planet or not). On this date in 2006, Shani Davis became the first Black athlete to win a Gold Medal in the Winter Olympics (1000M long-track speed skating).
-Debuts on this date: PILGRIM'S PROGRESS (1678), THE ADVENTURES OF HUCKLEBERRY FINN (1885), the Academy Awards (1929 - first Best Picture: WINGS), Wikileaks (2010).
-Happy Birthday to Alessandro Volta, Wendell Wilkie, George Gipp, Andre Breton, Enzo Ferrari, Bill Cullen, Jack Palance, Helen Gurley Brown, George Kennedy, Len Ford, John Warner, Tom Jones (THE FANTASTICKS), Gahan Wilson, Johnny Hart, Toni Morrison, Milos Forman, Yoko Ono, Audre Lorde, Manny Mota, Bobby Hart, Homer Jones, Irma Thomas, Cybill Shepherd, John Hughes, Juice Newton, Robbie Bachman, John Travolta, Kevin Tapani, Matt Dillon, Dr. Dre, Molly Ringwald, Dwight Freeney, Regina Spektor, Andre Kirilenko, and J-Hope.
-Rest in Peace/Rest in Power to Kublai Khan, Martin Luther, Michelangelo, Charles Lewis Tiffany, George Dayton, J. Robert Oppenheimer, Andy Devine, Kerry Von Erich, Bob Stinson, Harry Caray, Dale Earnhardt Sr., Eddie Matthews, Norma McCorvey, and Barbara Bosson.
-Feed the Worms: outlaw Frank James and mobster Frank Costello bought it on this date.
-Styx lead singer and founder Dennis DeYoung was born on this date. You decide if he gets a Happy Birthday or if he Feeds the Worms.
-The Number One Album in America on this date ... in 2024, 35 BIGGEST HITS by Toby Keith ... in 2014, the FROZEN Original Motion Picture Soundtrack ... in 2004, KAMIKAZE by Twista ... in 1994, KICKIN' IT UP by John Michael Montgomery ... in 1984, THRILLER by Michael Jackson ... and in 1974, PLANET WAVES by Bob Dylan with The Band.