Stresspoint 27 Jan 2024: 3 & 7
The E Jean Carroll damages award – Nikki Haley – Texas Border Standoff
And here we are, on January 27th, 11 full days since my last stress points post. I’ve thought about, and actually had the time and energy to assess my own stress levels on several days since then. But in truth, while it sill makes me squirm inside when I read something about how bad it would be if Trump were elected, I’ve actually been kind of sanguine about the opportunities for a Biden success.
So … today’s stresspoint on the 1-10 scale?
I’m really inclined, for reasons I’ll explain in a minute, to assign two different scores. For that reason, I’ll it a 3 on the Trumpstress scale … but an orange alert-level 7 on the Ultra-Nationalist threat level.
First the Trump scale
The biggest (and most heartening) news yesterday evening was the NYC Jury’s decision to award E. Jean Carroll $83 million dollars in her defamation suit against Donny. She was apparently awarded two different compensatory amounts for damages to her reputation, and a whopping $65 million for punitive damages … 6 times what was asked for by the plaintiff. The icing on this luscious cake of damages was that the nine jurors reached this judgment in just 3 hours. Essentially meaning that they walked into the deliberation room ready to give Trump a very hearty body blow … which after all is the point of punitive damages, right? To incentivize the defendant to stop doing what he’s doing?
I first heard the news at the top of the PBS Newshour, at 6:30 pm. My immediate and unthinking reaction was to bust out laughing. It simply struck me as very amusing without any analysis or thought, a really pleasant surprise that lifted my spirits throughout the evening. Now, some 15 hours later, it still warms my cockles, to think that once again a jury jabs a sharp stick into Trump’s eye.
In the subsequent punditry about the settlement, more very positive information came out about the protocol relating to ensuring that Trump actually pays the damages at the point that appeals are exhausted. It was pointed out that in the first E Jean Carroll settlement of $5.5 million, he was required to deposit that money into an escrow account held by the state. If and when his appeals go south, the settlement will be disbursed to Carroll.
That’s just New York law, about how legal settlements like this are to be handled … and presumably it pertains to the $80+ million bucks Carroll was awarded yesterday. There was speculation about whether Donny even has that kind of liquid cash on hand. Notably, I saw an interview with Suzanne Craig, the NYT reporter who won a Pulitzer for her coverage of how Donny defrauded his family, especially his niece, Mary Trump, out of millions of dollars of inheritance.
Craig stated the obvious, that it’s impossible to know how much cash he has on hand, but that it would be foolish to give any credence at all to his oft-replayed statement from a deposition in fall of 2023 in which he said he had $400 million in liquid assets. As Craig said, “he lies.” And he especially lies about money. But she also pointed out that he has done some fairly recent deals that should mean he has some amount of cash.
But will it be enough to put $83 million and change into an escrow account? Craig appeared to dougt that he has that much, but gave a shoulder shrugging “who knows?” kind of response.
The better news, though, is that Judge Engoron is expected to issue his decision about the amount of damages in the NY v Trump Organization case, in which AG Latitia James has sued for $370 million in cash and cancellation of the Trump Organization’s right to do business in New York.
Craig indicated a firm belief that the damages will indeed be more than $300 million. Meaning that Donny & Company will be forced to divest some property, or use some significant assets as collateral at interest rates that will likely reflect his growing financial risks.
So yay! Make him sweat!
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New Hampshire and Haley Fallout
Meanwhile, there’s the ongoing wholesome fallout from the New Hampshire primary, in which the GOP Malignites failed to deliver a knock-out punch to Haley. She came out of the fray swinging, apparently encouraged that she was only 11 points down from Trump, who only got 54% of the vote. She immediately started poking not only the bear himself, but his GOP cult, and hasn’t stopped since. My favorite comment, probably, was quoted in Heather Cox Richardson’s wonderful post last night about the happenings of the day.
Cox Richardson wrote, “The Republican National Committee has been considering simply deciding Trump is the nominee rather than letting the process play out. The Haley camp responded to that idea with a statement saying that if Ronna McDaniel, the RNC chair, ‘wants to be helpful she can organize a debate in South Carolina, unless she’s also worried that Trump can’t handle being on the stage for 90 minutes with Nikki Haley.’ Ouch.“
It's not clear what Haley sees as her endgame, but in a great dialogue about this question on PBS’s Washing Week in Review last night, Chuck Todd told the other panelists he believes she really is intent on being the presidential candidate … in 2028.
That makes a great deal of sense to me, that she’s setting herself as the sensible tough guy conservative for future campaigns. It struck me that a Haley-Cheney ticket would be interesting and a little frightening, if not titillating.
Anyway, there’s any number of commentators who are questioning the likelihood of Trump being successful in taking over the United States next January. Their comments are pretty much in line with my own instincts. And because of that, I’m feeling better, for the moment, about the possibility for Trump colliding with hard, factual reality either before or at the time of the election. Thus, my Jan 26/27 stresspoint of 3.
Still, it’s going to be a long, long general campaign season, and no doubt moments of high anxiety will continue to plague me.
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The New Confederacy Lines Up Against America
HOWEVER, there’s this other thing playing out that is beginning to look a lot like “soft Civil War” … as a Fox Entertainment talking head said yesterday. That’s a good line. I’ve been saying “Cold Civil War” for more than a year now. But at this point, the escalation is such that I think perhaps “soft” captures what’s happening better.
What I’m talking about, of course, is the stand-off at the Texas border where American traitors Abbot and Paxton are defying Supreme Court authority and refusing to remove, or allow federal agents to remove, the razor wire along the north bank of the Rio Grand River at a park in Eagle Pass,
One can hardly be surprised at their refusal to abide by the law. Their disdain for criminal, civil, and constitutional law has long been evident. But what is surprising, and vastly concerning to me, is that 25 other Republican governors are supporting Texas in this dissolution of the rule of law.
In my mind, this is the most frightening thing happening at the current time. Maybe I'll be proved wrong, but I don't see any easy, satisfactory way out of this. It seems clear to me that Biden is not going to send in the National Guard, which means conceding that Abbot has the right to ignore the Supreme Court.
In the long run, my instinct tells me that it will diminish respect and enthusiasm for extremist nationalism. But in the short and medium term, about the best I can see is that after some excruciating negotiations, Johnson and the ultra-nationalists will accede to a border agreement that is far more restrictive than I would like … which is saying something for me, because I'm generally in favor of stricter border control than most progressives want, because I think the current open border is destabilizing for developing countries in general and Guatemala in particular.
So … for this situation, which is undeniably linked to the election on the basis of immigration being Biden’s biggest weakness (even more than his age at this point) … I’m up to an orange alert 7 on own 0-10 stresspoint scale.
The Following Governors are Denying and/or Defying the Rule of Law
Kay Ivey, Alabama
Mike Dunleavy, Alaska
Sarah Sanders, Arkansas
Ron DeSantis, Florida
Brian Kemp, Georgia
Brad Little, Idaho
Eric Holcomb, Indiana
Kim Reynolds, Iowa
Jeff Landry, Louisiana
Tate Reeves, Mississippi
Mike Parson, Missouri
Greg Gianforte, Montana
Jim Pillen, Nebraska
Greg Abbot, Texas
Joe Lombardo, Nevada
Chris Sununu, New Hampshire
Doug Burgum, North Dakota
Mike DeWine, Ohio
Kevin Stitt, Oklahoma
Henry McMaster, South Carolina
Kristi Noem, South Dakota
Bill Lee, Tennessee
Spencer Cox, Utah
Glenn Youngkin, Virginia
Jim Justice, West Virginia
Mark Gordon, Wyoming