TRUMP…
SAME NEIGHBORHOOD
DIFFERENT VIEWS
(PART 2)

 

Patrick, 60 plus years friends… starting with Catholic Central High School in 1957. Five years ago (this very month), I covered our divergent views of Donald Trump, Trump… Same Neighborhood, Different Views. Now, I update those differing views… again highlighting our fundamental disagreements of life, law and politics.

I
TRUMP IN ACTION
(NOT A FLATTERING PICTURE)

Trump (like an unruly teenager) ridiculously boasted in 2016 that he could “stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody” and he “wouldn’t lose any voters.” Little did we know then (2016) what we do know now (2024). Trump’s ridiculous boast was a prescient prediction (redundancy for emphasis). Trump predicted that his supporters would drink the cool aid and stay with him no matter what he did and no matter what a Jury said about what he did. And so it is.

• Trump guilty in multi-million, tax fraud scheme, and his CPA, Allen Weisselberg, jailed for perjury (two times) for lying under oath to protect Trump … doesn’t matter.
• Trump guilty of sexually molesting and slandering E. Jean Carroll and a Jury tells him to pay almost $100 million to her… doesn’t matter.
• Trump guilty of 32 felonies trying to “cover-up” his sexual tryst with Stormy Daniels right before the 2016 election… doesn’t matter.
• Trump trying to steal the Presidency (for a second term) with the Big Lie, falsely sowing doubt in the integrity of America’s elections… despite Trump losing 50 plus lawsuits nationwide (that found no fraud or irregularities that cost Trump the election), despite losing a Michigan, Republican, Senate investigation (that found no fraud or irregularities that cost Trump the election), and despite losing all re-counts and all audits… doesn’t matter.
• Trump inciting mayhem and insurrection on the Capitol grounds while his lawyer Giuliani shared a stage with him and shouted out for “Trial by Combat”… doesn’t matter.
• Trump associates’ guilty pleas admitting to their criminal actions on behalf of Trump in trying to overthrow the 2020 Presidential election of Joe Biden … doesn’t matter.

On the 80th anniversary of D Day, the Detroit Free Press carried a 6/6/2024 headline tribute to D Day soldiers… “8 decades later, Normandy vets regarded as ‘saviors’.” Now, Decades later, Trump tells us he is our Savior. And, as we all know from past experience, Trump is predisposed to call those D Day Heroes “losers” and “suckers” for getting shot (same thing he did with American Hero John McCain for getting shot down over the skies of Vietnam).

Our old-world order of D Day heroes… has now been turned on its head by Trump and his followers. The Republicans drank the cool aid and fell a long way from their prior “Law & Order” perch. And for what ??? Repeat for what ??? Answer. Because liberals are “woke” and they are trying to pull books out of libraries and burn them (oops, my mistake, that’s the “woke” Republicans doing that). Because liberals are “woke” and they are trying to make sure no one is allowed to teach the systemic history of institutional racism aka Critical Race Theory ??? (oops, my mistake, again… that’s the woke Republicans doing that).

II
WHAT A TRUMP APOLOGIST LOOKS LIKE

Patrick, I see you have now (shall I say) “adjusted” your public posture on Trump. In 2019, you wrote in your 7/18/2019 email to me that Trump was an Agent of Change for the better (Trump… Same Neighborhood, Different Views). Now you seem to back off and seek cover, sharing the view in your most recent 6/1/2024 email that Trump is “a complete moral degenerate, total scumbag and consummate a——hole…” (Your words, below… depicting a view of Trump you now claim to agree with).

Patrick, the reason I use the word “cover” with your (supposed) “change of heart” view on Trump is that (based on knowing you for 67 years and corresponding with you on Trump for seven or eight years)… I doubt you really see Trump in the light you now cast. Proof ??? You will vote for Trump again in 2024… your third such vote for Trump. Please tell me I’m wrong.

My measurement of a man has not changed since I first met you when I was 14. If I saw anyone with an “only I can save the World,” Prima Donna, narcissistic complex, who couldn’t care less about telling the truth, and who demanded loyalty, but gave none and who threw everyone under the bus when they were no longer of value to him… what do you think I would do ??? Embrace Trump (as you did) ??? Or, become a Trump apologist (as you now do) ???

“Oh yeah, BUT “… Apologist.

• “Oh yeah but”… you can trust Trump to uphold the Constitution… (a document he couldn’t care less about… unless it serves as a sound bite for his twisted, self-promotion).
• “Oh yeah but”… you can trust Trump to uphold the Bible, even turn a profit by selling a few… (another document he couldn’t care less about… unless it serves as a sound bite for his secular needs or a photo op at St. Johns Church for his campaign needs).
• “Oh yeah, but”… you can trust Trump to agonize over doing the right thing, to tell it like it is, and keep the needs of America, first and foremost… like his admitted lie (on tape) denying the seriousness of Covid.
• “Oh yeah, but”… Trump will straighten out Biden’s inflation.
• “Oh yeah, so”… give Trump the power over America’s war machine and over America’s nuclear codes.”

Versus
“Oh yeah, RIGHT “… Realist.

• “Oh yeah, right”… the King of Debt entrepreneur… who put six of his companies through Bankruptcy and stiffed the New York banks out of (just south of) a Billion dollars.
• “Oh yeah, right”… the King of Debt President who jacked the deficit up sky high… while taking care of his own Corporate interests (by reducing Corporate taxes by 40%) and ballooning the deficit. Donald Trump Built a National Debt So Big (Even Before …
• “Oh yeah, right”… the King of Debt, Presidential candidate who (like an 19th Century Pirate) now tells us (on the campaign trail) that, as our next President, he is going to kill America’s, Constitutional “Balance of Power” and commandeer Congress’ Constitutional authority over “Spending.” Won’t that be interesting.
• “Oh yeah, right”… Trump, the dead-beat, King of Debt… the one we can count on to navigate a “soft landing” economically.

A Trump apologist… you are Patrick. And, that’s wherein you and I part company, Patrick. I will not play along with Trump, MAGA or his weak-kneed sycophants who are known to march backwards to Mar a Lago with hat in hand and apologize to Trump for daring to think independently, and then tell Trump how great he is, condoning his criminal behavior, telling Trump he was cheated out of the 2020 election, and, finally, taking the loyalty oath, promising to drink the Trump cool aide— for life or until death do us part… which ever comes next.

Nothing good has come of this man, Trump, and nothing good will ever come of him. Nothing good will come of anything he touches. Take that to the bank, Patrick. He is a constant bully, in constant motion to destroy the trust and the belief of Americans in Democracy, in the vote and in the Judicial system, because… well, because… it serves his parochial purposes and, therefore pleases him.

You can have him, Patrick. You can be his apologist. I will pass. I remain comfortable when history comes to judge us both… as it surely will.

III
TARGETED PROSECUTIONS ???
Patrick, you say…

“but I do not believe that [Trump’s other bad acts] warrants his being subjected to targeted litigation.”

Targeted litigation ??? What is that ??? I am not sure, but your comments are confusing because there is always a “target” in an investigation, in a prosecution and in civil litigation.

Perhaps you mean (unconstitutional) “selective prosecution” ??? Trump has probably raised that defense in each of his criminal prosecutions, and (if so) it was obviously denied (if not… then it’s waived). So, we’ll see what future appeals bring, and see what happens. In the meantime, I am left to discuss your “targeting” concept.

Many of Trump’s, “Law and Order” Republican associates have served time for RICO type conspiracies and activities, including…

• Paul Manafort
• George Papadopoulos
• Rick Gates
• Roger Stone
• Republican Rep Chris Collins
• Sam Patten
• Michael Cohen
• Steve Bannon
• Allen Weisselberg
• Peter Navarro
• Jan. 6th Invaders of the Capitol
• Proud Boys and Oath Keepers… White Supremacists who helped strategize that 6th invasion

 

So much for “draining the swamp.” And, so much for your claim of “targeting.” There is a host of criminal law violators and criminal activities, circling around Trump and his campaigns… so it should come as no surprise to anyone that, when the underling lackeys are jailed and imprisoned, the leader of the gang (Trump) comes under the scrutiny of Law Enforcement. I don’t see any legitimate complaint in your claim of “targeting.” I don’t see that your word “targeted” has any factual or legal significance that helps Trump.

• What I do see (in and around Trump) are…obsequious followers who don’t have the strength, energy or self-respect to stand on their own two feet, and walk out from under the shadow of Trump… a man who leads his friends and associates into temptation, gets them convicted, bankrupted, socially ridiculed and imprisoned… a man who ruins the lives he touches, a man who demands unquestioned loyalty from everyone, and then, eventually, throws everyone under the bus after they have outlived their usefulness.
• What I do see is… what there is to be seen. What I do see is a Trump base… indoctrinated as they were in childhood on “unprovable” Right-wing, fundamentalist religious beliefs. What I do see is a Trump base… that has shifted seamlessly from the indoctrinated, “unprovable” religious beliefs of their childhood to indoctrinated, “unprovable,” political beliefs of adulthood… all based on the Trump’s “Lie a Minute” propaganda machine (e.g. Trump won the 2020 election, etc, etc).
• What I do see is weak, Trump sycophants who hang on to his every word, parrot back his words and cower lest the Donald show displeasure and ban them from the World (according to Trump).
• What I do see is an entire political party of Trump lackeys and “curry-favoring” phonies of the Right… including the sanctimonious, Republican House members who showed up in New York City during the recent, Stormy Daniels’ fraud, cover-up trial. They were at the Courthouse on “prime time” television to influence the proceedings, and to express their angst by falsely claiming their Puppeteer, the Donald, was being deprived of his right to speak out (the very same Trump who had a “standing invitation” to take the Witness stand and speak out, but who then (in usual Trump fashion) chickened out and took a pass).
• What I did see is a group of U.S. House Reps who (in Fox Entertainment fashion) were purposely and knowingly misleading the American public. And, let us not forget that these are the same Republican House Reps who “targeted” Joe Biden with an investigation, only to find out the charges were false… as their “Star Witness,” Alexander Smirnov (who collaborated with the Republican House Reps) fell down the Republican rabbit hole ending the Biden investigation. Smirnov has been charged with perjury, and his House handler, tough-talking Jim Jordan… now looks sheepishly through the “egg on his face,” with the investigation of Joe Biden dead on arrival, along with Jordan’s credibility.

Patrick, your word “targeted” shows more about your Authoritarian, political leanings than any sense of logic or law. Did those who sued and collected $25 million from Trump for fraud related to Trump University “target” Trump. Hell yes, and with good reason. That’s what you do to thieves and con men. You target them. Did E. Jean Carroll “target” Trump when she sued him, and won almost a hundred million for libel, slander and sexual abuse ??? Hell yes. That’s what you do to sexual predators and big mouth defamers who don’t understand when it’s time to throw in the towel and shut up. You target them. Same issue re Trump’s star accountant, Allen Weisselberg, who was convicted of perjury twice and jailed twice for lying under oath to protect Trump ??? Was he “targeted” ??? Hell yes. That’s what you do to perjurers.

Patrick, I was once a Prosecutor. I was also a Trial Lawyer for 40 plus years. Targeting is what Prosecutors and Trial Lawyers do… target members of gangs, criminal syndicates and those who deprive our citizens of their Civil Rights, like Allstate Insurance company that I have been targeting and exposing for the last 10 months… as a criminal syndicate, and like others also targeted by Trial Lawyers… G.M. (for its Covair), and Big Tobacco (for cancer-causing tobacco products), and the NFL (for their CTE, brain injury cover-up)… all of whom were “targeted” for being bad actors… who covered up their unjust, bad actions.

Patrick, you accountants have a cozy deal where you work and get paid by the hour (or you don’t work at all), while Trial Lawyers (the Capitalists they are) take on the rich and powerful while deferring payment on a contingency… hoping (repeat, hoping) that they eventually get a pay day before they go broke (all the while facing the criticisms of guys like you, John Engler, George W. Bush and Trump… who say the Trial Lawyers (who risk it all for the betterment of Society) get paid too much.

Organizations of Prosecutors and Trial Lawyers… like the Attorney General’s office, the NAACP, the Southern Poverty Law Center, the ACLU (and others) “target” Criminal Gangs (like the KKK and urban drug gangs) and criminal syndicates from South America, Russia and America… including Italian, Russian and Irish gangsters from New York, Chicago and Detroit, and including computer hacker gangs. Lawyers for the Prosecution also target those other lawless, violent hooligans who invaded the Capitol Building on January 6, 2021 (or, as your side calls it, an everyday, Mom & Pop tour of the Capitol).

And, I am not sure you have come across the phrase that grants the cops and prosecutors wide “Prosecutorial Discretion” in “who and what” to charge… AFTER WHICH… all those charged are presumed to be innocent and the Prosecutor is required to prove guilt beyond all reasonable doubt (the heaviest burden known in the Law). We have the greatest Criminal Justice in the world. Not flawless… which led America’s first Black Justice, Thurgood Marshall, to proclaim, “Ah, America the greatest country that never was, but hopefully always will be.”

IV
NEEDLESSLY SLANDER AMERICA’S JUDICIAL
SYSTEM…

Patrick, I didn’t go to Law School so I could stand by or idly sit on my hands while you, Sam and MAGA tell our uninformed citizens that the election apparatus of America is a corrupt, third world, voting tally that cheated Trump out of the 2020, Presidential election (a bold-face lie that any rational person knows is a lie). Nor, will I stand by idly while you tell me (and the “Fox-News, uninformed of America”) that the Judicial system is the equivalent of the Court system in Russia. Yes, we continue to pursue and improve on elections, and yes we have occasional, corrupt judges… but that does not justify you and your side relying on the demagoguery of fear, exaggeration and lies to invite the rest of America to blindly play into the usual “go to” paradigm of wannabe Dictators like Trump… “It’s all Corrupt, and I am persecuted like Jesus, but I will save you from those damn liberals who claim ‘Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness’”.

How dare this draft dodging, lightweight, criminal insurrectionist, Donald Trump, undermine the confidence of the American citizens in the Vote or in the Judicial System (not perfect, but still the best Judicial System in the world). So says me… a self-employed, sole practitioner, Trial Lawyer for over 40 years trying one case after another against the Establishment (Government, Law Enforcement, Corporate America, the Insurance Industry, etc.) challenging the Judges and the entire system to be fairer to the Common Man and the Forgotten Woman.

V
HILLARY…

Patrick, you say…

 

“BTW, where is the pursuit of Hillary and the left related to their Russian Conspiracy bullshit ?”

You tell me, Patrick. Trump had five aces and both houses in his hands in his first two years of his Presidency and appointed his own Attorney General for four years. So, Patrick, you tell me why no prosecution. I am not a Hillary fan, but the reason why Hillary was not prosecuted is obvious. The investigation did not show enough proof of a crime to convict.

VI
OUR REPUTATION PRECEDES US ALL…

Patrick, you say…

“You [meaning me, Fred Lauck] are making the same argument to Sam. Since Trump is such a complete moral degenerate, total scumbag and consummate a—-hole, somehow he ‘deserves’ his treatment.”

Patrick, you miss the point, entirely. Perhaps, I could have spelled it out a little clearer. I wrote… “Trump’s problem is not lack of due process. Trump’s problem is… rational minds see him for the thief and unadorned liar he is, Donald ‘Pinocchio’ Trump.” What I was referring to were New Yorkers in general (and millions of others across the globe)… those poignantly aware of who Trump is, who Michael Cohen is, who star witness, Robert Costello, is, who Rudy Giuliani is, who Stormy Daniels is, who Alvin Bragg is, etc.

Trump ran his financial empire from New York City for many decades. In his latest, Stormy Daniels trial for financial fraud, Trump put New York Lawyer Robert Costello on the stand to testify about the lack of character of Michael Cohen, and it backfired (predictably so)… because Costello’s testimony not only showed that Michael Cohen was the Greatest Liar of All Time (which the Jury already knew before the trial began) but it also showed… that’s why Trump hired him. The Jury didn’t need any character evidence on Michael Cohen because they knew the character of Michael Cohen from his guilty plea… Trumps hand-picked, liar, lawyer-fixer. They also knew, first hand, Trump’s character and the character of Trump’s former lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, and even the character of Trump’s lawyer from days gone bye, Roy Cohn.

Roy Cohn… who, before representing Trump, was the attorney for the late and much reviled Senator Joe McCarthy, during the McCarthy Senate witch hunts. Roy Cohn’s footnote in the trash bin of history ??? “He was a braggart of a tax cheat, and the Internal Revenue Service closed in; he was an incorrigibly unethical attorney, and he finally was disbarred; and only six weeks after that professional disgrace, six months shy of 60 years old, Cohn was dead of AIDS.” See The Final Lesson Donald Trump Never Learned From Roy Cohn (Soon to be Trump’s obituary.) Patrick, we really do spend a lifetime writing our own obituary, don’t we ???

Trump’s Stormy Daniels’ Jury was told they were required to acquit if they had any reasonable doubt. I assume and hope the Jury followed those Jury instructions. And, unless there is some reliable evidence that the Jurors didn’t follow the Jury instructions, we all live with the verdict of the Jury… whether you like it or not (as I lived with the Rittenhouse verdict The Ironies of Kyle Rittenhouse’s Acquittal whether I liked it or not). I lived with that Rittenhouse verdict and moved on… whether I like it or not. I did not undermine the principles of American Courtroom Justice and compare it to Russian Courts and Russian justice, (like you and Sam did) simply because neither of you like the recent, Trump Jury verdict. Such is (to be kind) the “shortsightedness” I see in both you and Sam.

My point, Patrick ??? Reputation always catches up with a person. You can cut an onion in the Courtroom and the Judge can tell the Jury to disregard the smell, but the odor lingers. So, the Jury knew that Trump was lying when he said he never had sex with Stormy Daniels. And, they knew he was lying when he said E. Jean Carroll was not his type… while also saying she looked like one of his ex-wives. And, the rest of the rational minds knew he was lying when he gave his daily press conferences at the Courthouse, and the rest of the rational minds knew the House Majority leader, Mike Johnson, and other Republican Reps were lying when they stated at a press conference in New York City that Trump was being denied his constitutional right to speak up. Bull shit.

Trump never lost his right to speak up and address America outside the Courtroom. He did so several times a day during the trial… with his (uncross-examined) Press Conferences. Trump never lost his Constitutional right to take the witness stand, and address America and the Jury inside the Courtroom (during his trial). Trump just did his usual dodge. He talked big, shot off his rambling mouth, and when the time came to take the stand and face cross examination, he wimped out… just as he did when it came time to raise his right hand during the Vietnam war. He wimped out then too… because he had a doctor’s note describing his debilitating bunions.

Fred Lauck
Your liberal, Anti-Semite acquaintance
(as you describe me below)

 

On Jun 1, 2024, at 2:05 PM, Pat Mcdonnell
<pat@TheMcdonnellCompany.com> wrote:

Fred,

Aren’t you being a little rough on your pal, Sam?

Sam is raising the same question that many of us are asking – in the world of rule of law, is the Trump situation a sterling example or a travesty? When you cut to the chase, your argument basically is what I have inferred from the left all along. You are making the same argument to Sam. Since Trump is such a complete moral degenerate, total scumbag and consummate a—-hole, somehow he “deserves” his treatment. I happen to agree with your assessment of Trump, but I do not believe that warrants his being subjected to targeted litigation. Do you honestly believe that if was anyone else, he would have been subjected to this? BTW, where is the pursuit of Hillary and the left related to their Russian Conspiracy bullshit? Am I to believe that somehow that had nothing to do with trying to influence an election?

In fact, if Trump was an honest, moral member of the downtrodden proletariat being pursued by an aggressive, political DA, you would be the first guy to defend him. Did you ever not defend an amoral scumbag who you thought was being unfairly prosecuted?

In referring to Beria’s views, I think Sam’s point is well taken. We may not be the Soviet Union yet, but we may be on the slippery slope. What is the difference between the New York DA and Beria? Go back and reread The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich. Very scary stuff. The threat is not from the right, it is from the left. It is the left promulgating show trials and antisemitism. They are the ones tolerating mob rule and packing the Supreme Court. The last guy who tried that was FDR.

Hang in there, Sam.

Pat