A concern I have with men is their habit of rating women out of 10, based solely on the woman’s appearance. Then those same men cry when the women they choose solely based on appearance divorces them, take their kids and half their stuff. I have the same problem with Trump. He seems to choose people based on their appearance, and based on whether they say flattering things about him.

Trump was in court on Tuesday, and we’re getting reports about how his lawyer performed. So, do you think that Trump chose a lawyer based on education and demonstrated ability? Or do you think that he chose based on appearance – what he could see with his eyes?

Here is his lawyer Alina Habba:

Image source: Reddit

I solve problems in Information Technology by writing code. So, if I were hiring a lawyer, I would ask “where did the candidate go to law school?” and “how many years of legal experience does the candidate have” and “how many trials like this one has the candidate won in federal court?”. I’m concerned about hiring someone who can do the job. Not about how someone looks, or what someone wears.

Where did Alina go to school? “Widener University Commonwealth Law School”. I’ve never heard of Widener University. And it’s not ranked very highly as a law school. And Alina is very young, without a lot of experience.

So how did Alina Habba do in court, defending Trump?

Here’s an article from Newsweek, entitled “Alina Habba ‘Violated Court Order’ Within First 10 Seconds of Opening”:

Legal experts have suggested one of Donald Trump’s lawyers violated a gag order early on in a trial in New York.

Alina Habba is representing the former president in the civil defamation case brought in New York by columnist E. Jean Carroll. The trial in the case began with jury selection earlier this week.

Multiple news reports said Habba earned a stern comment from U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan, who is presiding over the case.

Making the judge angry doesn’t sound smart to me.

Another article from Newsweek, entitled “Alina Habba Blasted by Judge in Fiery Courtroom Exchange: ‘Sit Down'”:

Amid court proceedings on Wednesday in former President Donald Trump’s defamation trial brought by E. Jean Carroll, Trump’s lawyer, Alina Habba faced a “testy” courtroom exchange as Judge Lewis Kaplan told her to “sit down.”

[…]On Friday, lawyers for Trump requested that Kaplan, who is overseeing the trial, postpone the trial to the following week because of the sudden death of Trump’s mother-in-law, Amalija Knavs, as the former president will be traveling on Wednesday to attend the funeral scheduled for Thursday.

However, Kaplan denied the request and said that while the court “offers its condolences” to the Trump family, the trial would continue as scheduled.

On Wednesday, Habba, who is representing Trump in the case, had a tense courtroom exchange with Kaplan after she asked for an adjournment of the trial tomorrow so that Trump could attend his mother-in-law’s funeral.

In response to Habba’s request, Kaplan said her application had been denied and for Habba to sit down.

I should be happy about this, but actually, I’m furious. If Trump somehow becomes the nominee, then these courtroom antics are sure to land him in prison. And we know from polls that this will lose him 10-15% of his support, ensuring a Biden victory in 2024.

Here’s a 6-minute video from CNN summarizing the fiasco, featuring Former Trump White House lawyer Ty Cobb (!):

We are in a Republican primary. We don’t have to choose the weaker candidate. We have to pick the candidate who is best for the country, and best for us. We need to pick a candidate who can beat Joe Biden (or Michelle Obama) in November. We owe Trump nothing. He was an employee, and he did some things well, and other things poorly. Now we have a new position open. And we have to pick the best candidate available. Someone who is involved in 4 criminal trials, facing 91 felony indictments, who picks lawyers like Alina Habba, is not the right candidate for us.

It’s pretty late here, so I just have time to cut and paste an excerpt from a Life Site News story. I like to blog on these so that I have them handy in case it comes up in a debate. I often debate with atheists who assure me that they have a very strong, objective moral foundation for morality. Then I look at their voting, and they vote for laws to normalize this sort of behavior. And cheer for it.

Full text:

The longtime president of a British Columbia LGBT activist group has been arrested and charged with committing various sex crimes against children.

On January 1, North Peace Pride Society (NPPS) president Sean Gravells was arrested and charged with committing sexual crimes against children, according to the British Columbia Prosecution Service.

“The BC Prosecution Service can confirm that Sean Edward Leonard Gravells is charged with sexual interference, sexual exploitation, possession of child pornography and distribution of child pornography,” BC Prosecution Service Communications Counsel Daniel McLaughlin told LifeSiteNews.

“The first two offences are alleged to have occurred on December 29, 2023 and the child pornography offenses are alleged to have occurred on December 31, 2023,” he added. “All at or near Fort St. John, BC.”

According to McLaughlin, Gravells made his first appearance on January 1, 2024, before being released from custody on $2,000 bail. Gravells is expected to return to court on January 29 for an arraignment hearing.

The NPPS announced Gravells’ dismissal in a January 5 Facebook post, but their official statement notably neglected to mention the nature of his crimes or that it was their president of 18 years who had been charged.

Instead, the LGBT organization merely referred to the charges as “severe charges inconsistent with the North Peace Pride Society’s mission and code of conduct.”

Additionally, Gravells was referred to as “one of our board members,” not as the group’s president.

The group’s neglect to recount the details of the situation comes as the LGBT movement is increasingly encouraging children to attend LGBT “pride” parades and promoting the LGBT agenda in schools.

For example, the Toronto “pride” parade this past June featured nudist men and performers dressed in grotesquely sexual costumes, causing many to question why police did not prevent the public displays of indecency, especially since many children were in attendance.

I’m sure that some atheists reading will say “this is wonderful, I’m proud of him!” and “that’s some solid objective morality right there, rationally-grounded!” and “this is why I vote for the Democrat party!” and “I told you that pride, diversity, and tolerance were better than nasty Christian morality and judging!” I hope the atheists will understand that I am a bit skeptical of their ability to rationally ground objective morality.

I watched Iowa voting results last night. It was disappointing. I wondered, “do Trump voters know that he is facing 4 criminal investigations, with 91 separate indictments?” So, I asked my Dad, who is very old and retired, and watches Fox News all day and all night. And he said “Yes, but they are all politically motivated, and they will all be dismissed”. So, let’s take a look.

This is from the far-left New York Times, updated January 9th, 2024:

State and federal prosecutors are pursuing multiple investigations into Donald J. Trump’s business and political activities, with the cases expected to play out over the coming months. Here is a guide to the major criminal cases involving the former president.

January 6th riot:

Related to Mr. Trump’s efforts to retain power after the 2020 election and the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol. A federal special counsel’s sprawling inquiry has been examining the various ways in which Mr. Trump sought to stay in power despite losing to Joseph R. Biden Jr., culminating in the attack on the Capitol by a mob of Mr. Trump’s supporters.

On Aug. 1, Mr. Trump was indicted on four charges: one count of conspiracy to violate rights, one count of conspiracy to defraud the government, and one count each of obstructing an official proceeding and conspiring to do so.

That one has a trial date set for March 2024.

Election interference in Georgia:

Related to efforts to reverse Mr. Trump’s 2020 election loss in Georgia. Mr. Trump and 18 of his associates were indicted in Fulton County, Ga., in August. All of them face conspiracy charges related to attempts to overturn the state’s results and subvert the will of voters. Three have already pleaded guilty.

The charges have been filed on this one, but no trial date has been set.

Handling of classified documents:

Related to Mr. Trump’s handling of sensitive government documents he took with him when he left office. ​​In June, a federal grand jury in Florida charged Mr. Trump with 37 criminal counts, including unauthorized retention of national security secrets and obstruction of efforts by the government to retrieve the files. One of his aides, Walt Nauta, was also named in the indictment.

On July 27, three more charges against Mr. Trump were added, and prosecutors unsealed charges against a third defendant, Carlos De Oliveira, a property manager at Mr. Trump’s Florida residence.

The trial date on this one is set for May 2024.

Porn star hush money payments:

Related to hush-money payments to cover up a sex scandal during the 2016 presidential campaign. Mr. Trump was charged in April with 34 counts of falsifying Trump Organization business records related to reimbursing Michael D. Cohen, his lawyer and fixer, for payments made to Stormy Daniels, an adult film actress.

The trial date for this one is set for March 2024.

According the New York Post, the amount of jail time Trump would get if convicted on all 91 felony charges is “up to 712 years and six months”.

So, the chance that Trump supporters are taking is that Trump will be found not guilty of all of these 91 criminal charges, even though some of these trials are going to happen in very blue states.

Have you ever heard the phrase “tarbaby”? It’s a metaphor for a sticky situation that gets worse, the more effort you commit to it. Right now, Republican voters are committing a lot of delegates to a man who I think will be behind bars on election day. And polls – yes, the polls that Trump voters love so much – clearly show that Trump loses a ton of support if he is convicted of a felony.

The Hill puts the number at “almost a quarter”:

Nearly a quarter of former President Trump’s supporters say he should not be the Republican nominee for president in 2024 if he is convicted of a crime, according to a survey released Tuesday.

The New York Times/Siena College poll found 24 percent of respondents who said they would vote for Trump in the upcoming election also say he should not be the nominee if found guilty in one of his legal trials, “even if he has won the most votes.”

Now it’s time to ask one of my favorite questions to Trump supporters: What did you hope to achieve in the long-term by doing what felt good to you in the short-term? I would really like an answer from Trump supporters. What is the evidence that Trump will not get convicted of at least some of these charges, and then lose tons of votes in the general election, especially the trials taking place in blue states, with blue state juries? What is the evidence that a felony conviction will not cause Republicans to lose the general election in November?