I managed to loose the original version of this post as published last night. Here is the slightly modified version as subsequently posted elsewhere:

The key questions for the coming week: Having stacked the deck, is Team FJB really devious and/or stupid enough to actually play out the dirty hand? Or will they balk and fold the hand (for now)?

Consider Andrew McCarthy via RedState:

Bragg is engaged in bare-naked politics. The case is not merely unworthy as a prosecution of Trump (which is why federal prosecutors walked away from it years ago, as did Bragg before he was pressured by progressive Democrats into reviving it); it is also a case that everyone knows Bragg would never bring against anyone other than Trump. Crime is rampant in New York, in part because Bragg’s default position is leniency and often non-prosecution when it comes to hardened criminals. Here, the case of falsifying business records against Trump…is, at best, a nonviolent misdemeanor that is stale and that could be inflated into a felony only by theories that are legally and factually dubious. This is a classic, invidious selective prosecution. It is being launched strictly for political purposes.

[Emphasis added]

I want to step back for a moment here…it is important to remember how, in late July 2016, the Obama inner circle knew (i.e., through official channels) within hours of it being put into motion exactly what the Clinton campaign (through their wholly owned subsidiary in the DNC) had put into motion to create the Russian Collusion Hoax. The reaction (or lack thereof) from the Oval Office was nothing less than Presidential approval to proceed. President Obama could have aborted the entire ugly episode of un-Americanism with little more than an honest frown to his staff. But sufficient character was lacking in that little twit. (Elections have consequences, you know.)

The point to this little side story is to draw the similarity to the events that are dealt into the cards for the coming week. This “legally and factually dubious” Royal Flush that has been arranged in the state of New York does not happen without the full support and approval of Team FJB. And that group of individuals and/or entities that now function as the President of the United States now sits primed to play the ill-gotten cards…or not. Make no mistake, the Code Red arrest does not happen if they do they do not order the Code Red arrest.

They stacked the deck. We know they stacked the deck. They know that we know that they stacked the deck. (Only the reliably incurious press and the fully anti-intellectual NT crowd may not know the obvious…but that is nothing new.) Considering the known tinderbox that American society now is, are they really stupid enough to play it out for all the world to see?

And, if so, how? An early morning raid of his home? The much desired perp walk? Does it get physical? How soon is the mugshot (with messed up hair, scraped cheek, blackening eye…must maximize the visual effect for news, twitters, and comment section trolls from sea to shining sea.) leaked to the media? How far does this spin into even darker places?

A small but growing part me sure hopes they do it…and I hope they go all-in (black eye and all)! [No, I do not really want any harm – even minor bruising like a black-eye – to come to the former and future President. I’m just talking about the FJB team demonstrating their embarrassing inability to read the country and vastly overplaying their hand in an irreversible and very public way.]  

Way back in 2015, before NOT voting for Trump in 2016, I wrote that “it is our duty to American posterity to either demand to stop the decline and turn back now or march on in with a deliberateness that intends on facing the worst as soon as possible and emerging on the other side.” Much of everything since has been a choreographed charade away from liberty by 95% of the two major political parties. The dance…to mix sports metaphors…has finely mimicked the classic prevent defense slowly giving way to sure defeat. Well, it is time to put the cards on the table…and it will be the reaction of We the People after watching this open and obvious con play out that will define how much or how little “American Liberty” means for now and several generations to come.

Oh, by the way, prepare yourself for a great silence. A great, deafening silence.

Into the abyss…

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AFTERWORD

For what it is worth, I just spent three and a half days in and around The Big Easy. There was great family time, great food, and significant relaxation but I did scan a lot of commentary on this subject…but dug no deeper. I did have several hours to think about a lot of things on the drive back to north Texas.

While there I had three meals with different individuals involved in aspects of local law enforcement. I also watched the local evening news that highlighted a fully corrupt and (evidently) extremely stupid person that is now mayor down there. Away from the day-to-day familiarity of my home base that tends to blend so much into the background noise, the depressing picture of just how dug in and dedicated the anti-liberty, anti-intellectual forces are across this land came through with more vivid clarity than ever before. Optimism is in short supply at this keyboard tonight.

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MARCH 20, 2023 UPDATE: Having now had a reasonable night’s sleep […], I recognize that maybe I should add some additional expert analysis of the case for those intent on not seeing the forest for the trees…enter Professor Jonathan Turley:

Although it may be politically popular, the case is legally pathetic. Bragg is struggling to twist state laws to effectively prosecute a federal case long ago rejected by the Justice Department against Trump over his payment of “hush money” to former stripper Stormy Daniels. In 2018 (yes, that is how long this theory has been around), I wrote how difficult such a federal case would be under existing election laws. Now, six years later, the same theory may be shoehorned into a state claim.

It is extremely difficult to show that paying money to cover up an embarrassing affair was done for election purposes as opposed to an array of obvious other reasons, from protecting a celebrity’s reputation to preserving a marriage. That was demonstrated by the failed federal prosecution of former presidential candidate John Edwards on a much stronger charge of using campaign funds to cover up an affair.

In this case, Trump reportedly paid Daniels $130,000 in the fall of 2016 to cut off or at least reduce any public scandal. The Southern District of New York’s U.S. Attorney’s office had no love lost for Trump, pursuing him and his associates in myriad investigations, but it ultimately rejected a prosecution based on the election law violations. It was not alone: The Federal Election Commission (FEC) chair also expressed doubts about the theory.

Prosecutors working under Bragg’s predecessor, Cyrus Vance Jr., also reportedly rejected the viability of using a New York law to effectively charge a federal offense.

[Emphasis added]