“Fools rush in where angels fear to tread.” — Proverb
I don’t know where Donald Trump finds these lawyers. The above proverb comes with an explanation, for those who never heard it before, “People without good sense or judgement will have no hesitation in tackling a situation which even the wisest would avoid.”
Alina Habba, Trump’s new lawyer, had no problem rushing right in to represent Donald Trump. She appeared on his behalf last Thursday arguing the motion to quash the subpoenas of Letitia James. This is also the same lawyer who Trump retained to represent him against the New York Times and his niece Mary Trump.
What are Habba’s qualifications to do such diverse things as arguing law and motion during the day and prepping for a heavy duty media trial against the venerable Grey Lady herself, and the niece of the 45th POTUS? Well, she worked as general counsel for a parking garage firm and wait a minute, now don’t walk away, just wait a minute, and she represented Siggy Flicker, a cast member of the “Real Housewives Of New Jersey.” That suit was against Facebook who disabled Flicker’s account after she posted a picture of Melania Trump to greet the former first lady on her birthday. Doesn’t sound like a disabling offense to me, but the ways of Facebook are admittedly strange and Newsmax saw it’s way clear to run this as hard news.
What’s that you say? What happened to Charles Harder, the guy who put Gawker out of business and got $2.9 Million for Melania from the Daily Mail? Why isn’t he suing the Times? Harder’s off radar these days, at least Trump world radar. The Washington Post asked him the very same thing and all he said was that he was “no longer working for Trump” and that was that.
Likewise Marc Kasowitz is nowhere to be found. Maybe making an ass of himself over that business with Jared and Ivanka’s Time Square billboard made him squeamish.
So now we have Alina Habba, who recently filed the aforementioned $100 Million dollar suit on Trump’s behalf against niece Mary and the New York Times. If her behavior in court on Thursday is any indication, the Times suit should be one goddamn laugh riot after another. Crooks & Liars:
Attorney Alina Habba was scolded by a judge on Thursday after she claimed that her client, former President Donald Trump, is part of a “protected class” because of his Republican ideology.
During a court hearing in New York, Trump attorneys tried to convince state Supreme Court Judge Arthur F. Engoron that members of the Trump family could not be subpoenaed in connection with allegations that their company illegally manipulated property valuations.
Habba told Engoron that Attorney General Letitia James is conducting an improper investigation into Trump because she does not like him.
“She has such disdain for this person because he was president, because he is Donald Trump and he could probably win again in ’24,” Habba said. “He has First Amendment rights. He’s allowed to be a Republican.”
The Trump attorney demanded to know if James is going to “go after” Hillary Clinton, citing claims that the former president was “spied” on.
“There’s no viewpoint discrimination,” Engoron said. “I’m just saying there is none.”
“He’s a protected class,” Habba insisted.
“Ah!” the judge reacted. “What protected class is he a member of?”
“His political speech,” Habba replied. “If he was not sitting as a Republican and was not a former president who might run again, this would not be happening. So she is discriminating against him for that.”
The judge’s clerk stopped Habba to point out that the term “protected class” is usually reserved for race, religion and sex discrimination.
“The traditional protected classes are race, religion, etc.,” Engoron agreed. “Donald Trump doesn’t fit that model. He’s not being discriminated against based on race, is he? Or religion, is he? He’s not a protected class. If Ms. James has a thing against him, OK, that’s not in my understanding unlawful discrimination. He’s just a bad guy she should go after as the chief law enforcement officer of the state.”
No, Republicans are not a protected class. They may be an endangered species, if they keep killing one another, and while at one time that thought would not have bothered me, the specter of a fascist party arising in its place bothers me a great deal.
Habba declines to state how she met up with Trump. Michael Cohen had a law office in a parking garage back in the day. I wonder if he made the introduction? Not that I can see him throwing another lawyer to the wolves, but parking garage law is a pretty limited area of specialization, from what I can gather. And law offices in parking garages are pretty rare as well. Whatever the details, I’m sure that they’re weirder than anything you can make up. Such is the way of Trump world.
Bad graphic there. King > King’s Knight 2 will get out of check – so it’s not checkmate (yet)
Mark you, he’d probably cheat
It’s common knowledge he cheats at golf, the game he’s best known for so it’s not a stretch to think he’d cheat at checkers and no I didn’t make a mistake there. He might, might perhaps be able to understand checkers but chess is way the fuck beyond his capabilities.
He probably thinks ‘check’ is something people pay him anyway (I doubt if he’s actually pay anyone if he could avoid it).
As for checkers (draughts over here) I think his skills don’t go past snakes and ladders
Snakes and ladders (what we call shoots and ladders) is a morality play. I think trump would play in reverse going up the snakes(shoots) and forcing others down the ladders for being honest or helpful.
if he knew how to move any of the pieces.
It suddenly occurs to me that one game you never hear of Ex-President Trump playing is poker.
I would have thought it wouldn’t be all that hard to persuade him that he would be a truly outstanding poker player, and that there was serious money to be made at the high-stakes tables.
I’m sure it would be possible to find him appropriate opponents . . .
I doubt it – can you see him refrain from boasting about what a great hand he has?
Nah. The only people that Trump could possibly beat in a game of poker aren’t the kind who’ll put up the kind of money Trump would want to play for because they actually expect the other players to HAVE the money with them–upfront. No IOUs, no promissory notes, no personal checks. Cash and tangible goods of value (jewelry, cars, yachts) only.
I can’t imagine Trump ever just playing poker on the level that the M*A*S*H “swamp rats” or Al Bundy and his NOMAAMers routinely played for (those games were mostly friendly but they could get pretty “high stakes” for military personnel in a wartime situation and lower middle- to middle-class folks).
Trump’s better off just “asking for donations” from his eminently fleeceable followers. He’s guaranteed to make money that way; poker requires something Trump actively dislikes–real risk. (He’ll risk “everything” when he’s pretty sure that he won’t lose anything. If there’s the slightest chance he might lose even a small amount–to him, not us normal people–he won’t chance it.)
Any game with rules are beyond him. I see him playing with slime. Slime seeks more slime. It’s a hellofamess to clean up, as we are finding out.