Give Republicans Congress and Trump promises you $5,000. That extraordinary bargain raises a question America confronted nearly 90 years ago: how far can government power reach into the voting booth?
Add this to the list of impeachable offenses, even if there isn’t enough decent senators to convict. The corrupt senators who do not vote to oust this highly criminal president need to be outed so they can explain that record when another batch of them are up for election in 2028. And JD Vance violating the Hatch Act sounds like a two-fer indictment!
While reading this eye-opening article, this thought ran through my head: why aren't you in government Thom? It's people like you that should be running things!
The problem with the Hatch Act, or any of the hundreds of corruption laws on the books that Trump has violated, is that he rigged the system so that justice will not be inflicted on the MAGAs. Every law enforcement executive in the Federal government is a Trump lickspittle. The AG is not going to prosecute himself or his boss. If somehow convicted, Trump will appeal to his lickspittle Supremes who would almost surely let him and his underlings walk free. Trump would likely pardon the fictional Hannibal Lecter if bribed enough.
It is because the Democrats rarely follow through with draining the swamp that voters have low levels of faith that they will drain Trump's swamp. Trump likely still has a bathroom full of stolen government secret documents, and he was never held accountable. Now Trump is trying to jail his Biden-era prosecutors in revenge. Worse, he appointed two people (Hegseth and Gabbard) who were notorious for blabbing national secrets. When they did blab, nobody did anything about it.
If there is a Blue Wave, we wonder if any corrupt MAGA will be impeached, much less prosecuted for crimes.
Assuming Smitty did this (and he won't), it is my belief that his legal cover is that he did not "influence" votes. He, techinically, is not influencing votes because, as it is being framed, he is going to give this money away to everyone: Republican, Democrats, voters and non-voters. This idiocy would be further exacerbated by a logistical nightmare. Who is eligible? What are the caveats? It's just more distraction.
If that anal orifice really wanted to help Amerikans, he would take that money and put it into feeding the hungry and food insecure, provide housing for the hundreds of thousands that are homeless or, hell's bells, expand access to healthcare.
Brown v. Hartlage (supreme court case-1982). Because Trump’s "$5,000 dividend" proposal is framed as a universal policy change benefiting everyone equally, the Brown precedent shields it as protected political speech rather than an actionable transaction. It establishes that under American election law, promising a broad policy that puts money back into voters' pockets is fully legal, even if critics consider the policy itself unfeasible or irresponsible.
Perhaps the Repugnican’s greatest accomplishment has been the normalization of such stultifying corruption that we’re now ranking the varying levels of its criminality. Without uncharacteristically aggressive Democratic response, that could prove to be the most enduring. Has altruism breathed its last?
Some people buy lottery tickets for the slim chance they will win some money. Too bad MAGA don't realize their chances of Trump keeping his word are less than winning the lottery.
Besides, being illegal and immoral, how practical would it be to offer a bribe to vote Republican? Far more voters would be offended by such an offer than would respond to it. And common sense would tell anyone that no such payment would ever be made, considering Trump's history of reneging. How pathetic is it when a party has to stoop to bribery, yet still can't muster any kind policy platform that would appeal to voters' real needs.
My recollection is that SCOTUS extended presidential immunity only to "official acts". I question whether solicitation of bribes can be shoehorned into that category.
Once we again have an honest Department of Justice, the prosecutions you mention (plus, hopefully, that of Trump himself) will be decried as "lawfare". Republicans reflexively trot out that term even when actual evidence of criminal acts is at hand. Let them weep and wail all the way to prison.
The fact that Trumpet* (named such since he's always blowing his own horn) has promised to give every adult American $5,000, BUT only "IF" people vote for Republicans to retain control of the Congress, shows us that he's running scared; and scared enough to be willing to openly risk committing another felonious crime in order to remain in power so as to avoid another impeachment and a "probable" guilty verdict from the Senate should the Dems gain the Senate this time around. It's very obvious to anyone who's been watching Trumpet that his mental fitness has gotten to the point that it exceeds the mental fitness Trumpet ascribed to Biden, if not worse. Trumpet's propensity to fall asleep while attending meetings is well documented, which id something we never saw happen to Biden or Obama, the two ex-presidents who live rent-free in Trumpet's head.
That Trumpet would even contemplate bribing voters fro their votes demonstrates total lack of respect for the rule of law. He's being allowed to ignore laws and codes of conduct he finds disagreeable to his wants and wishes has has given him a sense of security that norther president has ever had. The Republicans in Congress and those sitting on the SCOTUS bench have formed a protective shell around him that would cause our founding fathers to spin sin their graves. The authors of the Federalists Papers have been turned into liars through the efforts of the last 90+ years of illegal and often-times treasonous activities of The Republican Party to gain and maintain political and fiscal power, that you have documented so well.
And even worse, we have millions of 'drain bramaged' people who have consciously decided to accept the lies and illegalities that come from Trumpet and his minions as the truth and openly overlook their crimes, saying that Trumpet and his minions are doing these things fro the benefit of all Americans. They accept the lies and illegalities even when they realize their own acceptances are wrong. They're simply too emabattased to admit they've been been worshipping a false god, in spite of what all he promises them.
I can only pray, that come November, the results of the 2026 mid-term elections will result in the Dems taking control of both houses of Congress. That way, investigations into all of the illegal actions perpetuated by Trumpet and his cronies can be brought to light, and the perpetrators brought to justice. Of course, the magnitude of the crimes brought to light will astound the vast majority of people since only a small percentage of the major networks even talk about the crimes Trumpet and his cronies have committed.
Maybe the Raper of Kiddies, oF his 1st Wife, and of a gaggle of unlucky Women will get his $5K bribes from Putin and Rupert Murdoch, since Jeffy Boy was hit in jail.
I'm glad that any number of our stalwarts legal eagles, at least (given the supine behavior of too many in Congress is a national disgrace) are all over this, and that we have solid legal precedents and means of enforcing our existing laws. Trump appears to have lost a few more of his marbles (I don't say morals as he hasn't any) based on this unfolding scandal.
Bottom line. Trump is a failure and no one respects him,except Natalie Harp and two other stupid females, who, for whatever reason, adore the feces laden, diaper wearing stumble bum.
Trump is a bully, that uses the super power of the American economy, as a cudgel to beat people and nations into submission.
If you are willing to wear a hair shirt and suffer inconvenience, a sure fire way of disarming Trump, is via a full blown depression.
Since His superpower is American consumption, if we are unable to consume he loses power..
Americans who believe Cheeto would dole out $5K checks if Republicans win are the ones who voted for him in 2024 because he would end forever wars and inflation and end the Ukraine war on Day 1. At that time Cheeto would say anything to stay out of jail and now he makes a statement that he knows he will never have to follow through on, so he says it hoping that some will bite on it. Hey it worked last time, why not try it again?
The problem is that the electorate is so angry with the fascists that there's not a snowballs chance that they would vote for Republicans no matter how many $$ are waved in front of them. Cheeto's desperate and like in 2024 he'll say anything to coax people to vote Republican but trust has run out on this pathological liar. Voters now know that the chump is just trying to bait them again.
Like the "COVID will be gone by summer" bullshit, this whole $ for votes gambit is another made up fantasy that the scumbag is making up because he's a totally incompetent moronic leader.
No, Trump still believes, and probably, justifiably, that all of the MAGA, his sycophants and the wealthy who benefit by his largesse, will support his $ for votes gambit, and that HIS SCOTUS will approve it.
The message being sent is that crime is okay if it pays, you aren't caught or you are immune. A lot of MAGAts would love to slide through life the way the felon in chief, his family and cronies and puppet masters are doing. Very little actual work, none productive, all influence peddling and grifting and graft. We need to reinstill a sense of civic morality, which goes beyond enforcing the Hatch Act, but certainly embraces that. It needs to start in our homes and schools. Americans need to learn that all the felon in chief represents is obscene and un-American, whatever their votes may have been. If they don't get that, they don't get what the foundations of this country were and aspirationally remain for true Americans. And let me be clear--the morbidly rich in their unbridled and insatiable greed, the arrogantly ignorant, the proudly bigoted and intolerant, are NOT Americans. They are a curse on this nation, a stain that is growing daily, and one we will now never be able entirely to eradicate. If at all. It hinges on November as a start. What happens then will tell us whether we have any hope, and whether we are worth trying to save. It is that stark.
Add this to the list of impeachable offenses, even if there isn’t enough decent senators to convict. The corrupt senators who do not vote to oust this highly criminal president need to be outed so they can explain that record when another batch of them are up for election in 2028. And JD Vance violating the Hatch Act sounds like a two-fer indictment!
Great ideas.
While reading this eye-opening article, this thought ran through my head: why aren't you in government Thom? It's people like you that should be running things!
Hatch Act? We don't need no stinking Hatch Act!
The problem with the Hatch Act, or any of the hundreds of corruption laws on the books that Trump has violated, is that he rigged the system so that justice will not be inflicted on the MAGAs. Every law enforcement executive in the Federal government is a Trump lickspittle. The AG is not going to prosecute himself or his boss. If somehow convicted, Trump will appeal to his lickspittle Supremes who would almost surely let him and his underlings walk free. Trump would likely pardon the fictional Hannibal Lecter if bribed enough.
It is because the Democrats rarely follow through with draining the swamp that voters have low levels of faith that they will drain Trump's swamp. Trump likely still has a bathroom full of stolen government secret documents, and he was never held accountable. Now Trump is trying to jail his Biden-era prosecutors in revenge. Worse, he appointed two people (Hegseth and Gabbard) who were notorious for blabbing national secrets. When they did blab, nobody did anything about it.
If there is a Blue Wave, we wonder if any corrupt MAGA will be impeached, much less prosecuted for crimes.
Too many Democrats have at least one foot in the swamp. They also need to come clean.
Assuming Smitty did this (and he won't), it is my belief that his legal cover is that he did not "influence" votes. He, techinically, is not influencing votes because, as it is being framed, he is going to give this money away to everyone: Republican, Democrats, voters and non-voters. This idiocy would be further exacerbated by a logistical nightmare. Who is eligible? What are the caveats? It's just more distraction.
If that anal orifice really wanted to help Amerikans, he would take that money and put it into feeding the hungry and food insecure, provide housing for the hundreds of thousands that are homeless or, hell's bells, expand access to healthcare.
Brown v. Hartlage (supreme court case-1982). Because Trump’s "$5,000 dividend" proposal is framed as a universal policy change benefiting everyone equally, the Brown precedent shields it as protected political speech rather than an actionable transaction. It establishes that under American election law, promising a broad policy that puts money back into voters' pockets is fully legal, even if critics consider the policy itself unfeasible or irresponsible.
Perhaps the Repugnican’s greatest accomplishment has been the normalization of such stultifying corruption that we’re now ranking the varying levels of its criminality. Without uncharacteristically aggressive Democratic response, that could prove to be the most enduring. Has altruism breathed its last?
Trump’s promise is real. We’ve all heard it. It is a violation of the Hatch Act period.
Does anyone seriously believe he will follow through? If we are so effing stupid as to believe he will, we deserve whatever happens…
Some people buy lottery tickets for the slim chance they will win some money. Too bad MAGA don't realize their chances of Trump keeping his word are less than winning the lottery.
Sure he'll follow through...as soon as Mexico pays for the wall.
Besides, being illegal and immoral, how practical would it be to offer a bribe to vote Republican? Far more voters would be offended by such an offer than would respond to it. And common sense would tell anyone that no such payment would ever be made, considering Trump's history of reneging. How pathetic is it when a party has to stoop to bribery, yet still can't muster any kind policy platform that would appeal to voters' real needs.
My recollection is that SCOTUS extended presidential immunity only to "official acts". I question whether solicitation of bribes can be shoehorned into that category.
Once we again have an honest Department of Justice, the prosecutions you mention (plus, hopefully, that of Trump himself) will be decried as "lawfare". Republicans reflexively trot out that term even when actual evidence of criminal acts is at hand. Let them weep and wail all the way to prison.
Thom,
The fact that Trumpet* (named such since he's always blowing his own horn) has promised to give every adult American $5,000, BUT only "IF" people vote for Republicans to retain control of the Congress, shows us that he's running scared; and scared enough to be willing to openly risk committing another felonious crime in order to remain in power so as to avoid another impeachment and a "probable" guilty verdict from the Senate should the Dems gain the Senate this time around. It's very obvious to anyone who's been watching Trumpet that his mental fitness has gotten to the point that it exceeds the mental fitness Trumpet ascribed to Biden, if not worse. Trumpet's propensity to fall asleep while attending meetings is well documented, which id something we never saw happen to Biden or Obama, the two ex-presidents who live rent-free in Trumpet's head.
That Trumpet would even contemplate bribing voters fro their votes demonstrates total lack of respect for the rule of law. He's being allowed to ignore laws and codes of conduct he finds disagreeable to his wants and wishes has has given him a sense of security that norther president has ever had. The Republicans in Congress and those sitting on the SCOTUS bench have formed a protective shell around him that would cause our founding fathers to spin sin their graves. The authors of the Federalists Papers have been turned into liars through the efforts of the last 90+ years of illegal and often-times treasonous activities of The Republican Party to gain and maintain political and fiscal power, that you have documented so well.
And even worse, we have millions of 'drain bramaged' people who have consciously decided to accept the lies and illegalities that come from Trumpet and his minions as the truth and openly overlook their crimes, saying that Trumpet and his minions are doing these things fro the benefit of all Americans. They accept the lies and illegalities even when they realize their own acceptances are wrong. They're simply too emabattased to admit they've been been worshipping a false god, in spite of what all he promises them.
I can only pray, that come November, the results of the 2026 mid-term elections will result in the Dems taking control of both houses of Congress. That way, investigations into all of the illegal actions perpetuated by Trumpet and his cronies can be brought to light, and the perpetrators brought to justice. Of course, the magnitude of the crimes brought to light will astound the vast majority of people since only a small percentage of the major networks even talk about the crimes Trumpet and his cronies have committed.
Maybe the Raper of Kiddies, oF his 1st Wife, and of a gaggle of unlucky Women will get his $5K bribes from Putin and Rupert Murdoch, since Jeffy Boy was hit in jail.
#VOTE for Truth, Justice, and the American Way
I'm glad that any number of our stalwarts legal eagles, at least (given the supine behavior of too many in Congress is a national disgrace) are all over this, and that we have solid legal precedents and means of enforcing our existing laws. Trump appears to have lost a few more of his marbles (I don't say morals as he hasn't any) based on this unfolding scandal.
Bottom line. Trump is a failure and no one respects him,except Natalie Harp and two other stupid females, who, for whatever reason, adore the feces laden, diaper wearing stumble bum.
Trump is a bully, that uses the super power of the American economy, as a cudgel to beat people and nations into submission.
If you are willing to wear a hair shirt and suffer inconvenience, a sure fire way of disarming Trump, is via a full blown depression.
Since His superpower is American consumption, if we are unable to consume he loses power..
Depression is his kryptonite.
Americans who believe Cheeto would dole out $5K checks if Republicans win are the ones who voted for him in 2024 because he would end forever wars and inflation and end the Ukraine war on Day 1. At that time Cheeto would say anything to stay out of jail and now he makes a statement that he knows he will never have to follow through on, so he says it hoping that some will bite on it. Hey it worked last time, why not try it again?
The problem is that the electorate is so angry with the fascists that there's not a snowballs chance that they would vote for Republicans no matter how many $$ are waved in front of them. Cheeto's desperate and like in 2024 he'll say anything to coax people to vote Republican but trust has run out on this pathological liar. Voters now know that the chump is just trying to bait them again.
Like the "COVID will be gone by summer" bullshit, this whole $ for votes gambit is another made up fantasy that the scumbag is making up because he's a totally incompetent moronic leader.
No, Trump still believes, and probably, justifiably, that all of the MAGA, his sycophants and the wealthy who benefit by his largesse, will support his $ for votes gambit, and that HIS SCOTUS will approve it.
The message being sent is that crime is okay if it pays, you aren't caught or you are immune. A lot of MAGAts would love to slide through life the way the felon in chief, his family and cronies and puppet masters are doing. Very little actual work, none productive, all influence peddling and grifting and graft. We need to reinstill a sense of civic morality, which goes beyond enforcing the Hatch Act, but certainly embraces that. It needs to start in our homes and schools. Americans need to learn that all the felon in chief represents is obscene and un-American, whatever their votes may have been. If they don't get that, they don't get what the foundations of this country were and aspirationally remain for true Americans. And let me be clear--the morbidly rich in their unbridled and insatiable greed, the arrogantly ignorant, the proudly bigoted and intolerant, are NOT Americans. They are a curse on this nation, a stain that is growing daily, and one we will now never be able entirely to eradicate. If at all. It hinges on November as a start. What happens then will tell us whether we have any hope, and whether we are worth trying to save. It is that stark.