What is incredible about Donald Trump is his unteachability. He truly is a sociopath. Sociopaths are the way they are because they can’t be taught, either. And in fact, true sociopaths are fairly rare. Most of us break the norms, whatever they may be, in our families, schools, places of work and we find out very quickly that there are consequences. After you get grounded a few times, or sent to the principal’s office, or find yourself either on probation or out of a job, you learn. We all learn where the boundaries are.
But not Trump. He lives in a boundary-less bubble world, insulated by his wealth and propped up by his cult, right-wing media, and the MAGAfied portion of the Republican party, who elevated him to heights he never earned and by any objective standard does not deserve. E. Jean Carroll, (one of the) women he’s raped, has taken him to task. Twice. And it looks like a third encounter may be needed.
Attorney for E. Jean Carroll @shawngcrowley: "We're watching. We had really hoped that, as the jury found, $83 million dollars would maybe be enough to convince him to keep E. Jean Carroll's name out of his mouth…He showed us this weekend that he really cannot control himself." pic.twitter.com/9eYryURgq5
— Inside with Jen Psaki (@InsideWithPsaki) February 20, 2024
It has been said about Trump that he should have been taken to the woodshed as an incorrigible child and that would have taken him off the path he was on and put him on the right path. Maybe. But even having a bowl of mashed potatoes poured on his head and being put in military school doesn’t seem to have achieved the desired effect. Maybe Trump is one of these “bad seed” children, where they simply are born sociopaths. I do not pretend to know.
What I do know is that E. Jean Carroll and her lawyers aren’t taking any of Trump’s abuse. Not one particle more. And they are watching. And if it is warranted, they very likely will take him to court a third time.
You would think that being hit in the pocketbook like he has been, twice now, egregiously so, in the past month, would serve as some kind of a lesson. And to most people it would. But Trump is evidently so stone, stick stupid that nothing sinks in.
And this is what the cult loves him for. Precisely this. First, he gets away with murder, then even when he gets called on his actions, sued, found liable, fined hellaciously, he just blows it all off and keeps doing the same thing over and over.
Many of Trump’s supporters have found out that they can’t do likewise. Aye, there’s the rub. Couy Griffin, founder of Cowboys For Trump, found out the hard way exactly how the 14th Amendment works. He was not permitted to carry on as a New Mexico County Commissioner, due to his participation in the insurrection.
Then there are the insurrectionists who are in jail. Trump may call them “political prisoners” or “hostages” but in fact they broke the law and suffered the consequences. Something that doesn’t seem to happen for him.
Then there is his fan, Jennifer Crumbley, mother of school shooter, Ethan. She was a terrible parent, as was Trump, only her son killed several people. She just got sentenced to 15 years in prison for manslaughter.
Everybody seems to have their comeuppance, their day in court and then their time in prison, or experiencing other sanctions in life, except Trump.
They who cannot learn from the past are doomed to repeat it, so we are told. And somewhere in that aphorism is the concept that eventually one will learn. I think most people will, but not Trump. He is severely unteachable, like nothing I have ever witnessed. Not even close.
If $83.3 million as a judgment is not enough of a tutorial, followed by $355 million, (he keeps disparaging Letitia James and Justice Engoron on Truth Social and Twitter/X) then maybe there is no amount of money that will teach him.
So maybe he needs to spend some time in prison. It will be interesting to see if he does get convicted. I don’t know if Joe Biden would do a Gerald Ford. We have a very different set of circumstances this time around. I guess we’ll find out when we get to that place.
Third time not the charm? What a dumb****.
Joe Biden will not do a Jerry Ford. Joe Biden is intelligent and well informed, not stupid.
Biden’s also NOT of the same political party (either Republican or MAGA). There may have been enough GOPers back in the 1970s who would’ve impeached and then removed Nixon* but once Nixon removed himself from office, I have a feeling that most GOPers would’ve been feeling less eager to pursue any post-resignation impeachment proceedings.
*In 1974, the House had enough Democrats to impeach Nixon but, even if the impeachment could be rushed through before the mid-term elections, the Senate only had 56 Democrats and 40 Republicans (there was also 1 member from New York’s Conservative Party and 1 Independent–former Democrat Harry Byrd, Jr). Even after the mid-terms, the Dems managed to get an outright 2/3 majority in the House but only 60 members in the Senate; the Conservative and Independent members remained as well and only 37 GOPers (there was some MAJOR political drama involving that 1 extra seat–it involved a senator resigning early to allow his replacement to take office but the election results were challenged so the seat remained unfilled for 7 months before being officially declared vacant pending a special election a month later). So, again, had Nixon not resigned, the Senate could probably have removed him from office (and, that presumes the mid-term elections went the same way as they did in our reality) with complete bipartisan (or would that be quadripartisan?) support.
About that military prep school Trump went to, well not all are created equal. Or operate the same way might be a better way to put it. It’s my understanding that the one Trump was sent to had a sort of rep as a place for spoiled rich boys like Trump that needed a little discipline with the emphasis being on “little.” Some structure and routine but NOT the kind of immersion one thinks of with such places.
We stopped being close a long time ago but my best pal from my hometown in the years before I went into the Marines did more to prepare me I think for what I’d face than anyone else. He’d become a lawyer because he was smarter than hell but mostly because of congentital health problems. By his mid teens it was apparent living on and one day taking over the family farm simply wasn’t in the cards. He spent his first two years of high school at an elite military prep school – Culver over in Indiana. I’d love to hear his take on the difference between that and where Trump went.
In fact, Trump wound up not having to live in the regular setting. Like some of the other really rich kids he got some special treatment where a role was created that allowed him not to have to be part of the stuff the average cadet had to deal with. Trump wouldn’t have made it otherwise. I laugh when I think about him with a Marine Drill Instructor in his face. Hell, even an Army Drill Sgt. would reduce him to nothing in a matter of minutes. He wouldn’t have lasted a week with the Navy or Air Force either. His spoiled ass would have been (because he had a rich dad) processed out with an administrative discharge in no time.
But don’t go thinking he at least had some military “schooling” and discipline. Not hardly. Not where HE went. Kids like him were how the place stayed afloat. Figure out a way to slide them through by giving them just enough that they’d complain to daddy who’d keep paying premium tuition to keep them there, but not enough real treatment that they’d run away. Being a natural born con man Trump figured out the game quickly enough. I’m sure later on Fred realized both his son and the school had conned him but there wasn’t anything he could do at that point. Roy Cohn would gladly have sued them but that kind of scandal is something Fred Trump wouldn’t have wanted.
I.student taught at an elite Catholic military school run by Jesuits
There were u two types of kids there
1)/really bright polite young men whose public schools were not challenging enough;
2) kids who had been expelled from their
public high school whose parents had enough money to send them.here rather than instead of being in juvie.
Yup. Well-to- do entitled basturds. Exactly b like Trump. They couldn’t keep.their mouths shut or their fists in their pockets.o
I know, given the 83, and the later, hundreds of millions, it’s easy to forget he originally got dinged for 5 million. Three strikes and you sit your ass down in baseball!
I think jail time is the only thing that shut him up, simply because he can’t access a phone.
“If $83.3 million as a judgment is not enough of a tutorial, followed by $355 million, (he keeps disparaging Letitia James and Justice Engoron on Truth Social and Twitter/X) then maybe there is no amount of money that will teach him.”
Not really sure why the mention of James or Engoron is necessary. They’re both public figures and “disparagement’ (as long as there’s nothing that could be deemed threatening speech) literally comes with the territory. I mean, none of the gag orders that came up during the various trials ever applied to the elected officials or judges, only the court personnel who were just doing their (non-elected) jobs. Yes, the families of the officials would’ve been covered by any gag orders but, again, elected and appointed officials are not typically covered against disparagement. We do it here all the time, whether directed at Trump or Thomas or Alito or Greene or Jordan or McConnell. It’s only when our language takes a “violent” turn (even in a Trumpian “joke”) that we would get in trouble–obviously, our own loving Powers That Be would never allow such language to remain on this site; I’m sure Ursula would be the first one to direct law enforcement in the offender’s direction (even if she might personally feel the same way in her heart of hearts).