Michael Cohen, Phony

Like Vladimir Putin and Elon Musk before him, Michael Cohen has been giving people two faces for the price of one.

When Cohen testified before Congress in 2019 after pleading guilty to helping Trump, as his fixer, commit all sorts of crimes - like intimidating Trump's mistresses from coming forward about their relationships with Trump and intimidating Trump's detractors to prevent them from speaking out about him (like former Republican operative Cheri Jacobus), he expressed anger and regret for ever having gotten involved with the business mogul.  He described with great passion how his misdeeds cost him so much because he believed in what Trump was doing (whatever that was) and how he felt he had been taken like so many Trump "University" graduates stuck with diplomas that had all the validity of a certificate from Ace Obedience School.  After serving time in prison for his violations of the law, he went full tilt boogie on bashing Trump, going on all sorts of media outlets and doing his own podcast on the MeidasTouch Network.  This not-so-nice Jewish boy became a symbol of a widely-held belief among Roman Catholics, the power of redemption.

Then the roof caved in. 

When investigative reporter Tara Palmeri, digging more deeply into the case of noted sex criminal Jeffrey Epstein, asked Cohen about his and Trump's connections to the late financier, he got bitterly defensive and lashed out at her as if she had just asked him to pull down his pants.  And Palmeri wasn't the only reporter Cohen blew up at over the Epstein question.  He'd done that with at least three other reporters.  Soon and sure enough, Cohen all but recanted his testimony to New York State Attorney General Letitia James and Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, saying he had been "coerced" to provide selective information relevant to their cases against Trump. 

Cohen didn't find redemption because he converted to Catholicism (for the record, he didn't) or because he suddenly saw the light in a manner reminiscent of the end of a sitcom episode (guest starring Joyce Bulifant).  He found redemption because he was caught.

And this phony redemption allowed Cohen to make lots of money going after Trump like the attack dog people wish Chuck Schumer or Hakeem Jeffries were.  He was embraced by a bunch of white bourgeois liberals who should have known better.  And it was all a lie.  He didn't publicly turn against Trump because of conviction.  He publicly turned against Trump because he was convicted.   But playing the wronged Mafia lawyer who's since gone straight is a lucrative business.

Or, rather, it was.  Cohen was fine so long as someone didn't ask him about Jeffrey Epstein, because it's becoming more obvious by the nanosecond that he knows a lot more about Epstein than he's willing to admit, and what he knows likely involves personal dealings with both Epstein and Trump.  By insisting that Letitia James and Alvin Bragg coerced him into giving selectively parsed testimony, Cohen not only revealed himself as an unrepentant grifter (sorry - not sorry), he revealed himself as someone who wanted to get back into Trump's good graces.  And he apparently did.  Trump has pledged to investigate James and Bragg and place them where Cohen used to be - behind bars.

I listened to some of Cohen's podcast rants when I started relying on podcasts for news in place of the bankrupt legacy media, but his schtick wore very thin very quickly, and I stopped listening to him because I was tired of his loud-mouthed Long Island accent.  I stopped listening to him for all the wrong reasons; it never occurred to me that he had knowledge about Jeffrey Epstein that he likely never would have divulged, or that until someone thought to ask him about it, he was safe from having to divulge it and could make bakeries full of dough for as long as no one did.  It never occurred to the Meiselas brothers at MeidasTouch, either, until they dropped Cohen once his statement about James and Bragg came out.  They did not explain why they dropped Cohen.  They didn't need to.

But then, it never occurred to a lot of people, particularly people in the New York or Washington social scenes, that Cohen had privileged information about Epstein he was prepared to take to his grave - something an intelligent primary school student in the north of England could have figured out.

Michael Cohen did, though, ultimately see the error of his ways.  Except that the error was dissociating himself from Trump.      

This, That, and a Whole Lot Less

The worst thing about 2025 coming to an end is the knowledge that 2026 will be worse.  But not as bad as 2027.

As 2025 lurches to a close, I ought to tend to some unfinished business . . ..

First, the inevitable update on two folks named James - a woman named by her father and a man named by his mother.  Letitia James and James Comey were both indicted by the Injustice Department as part of Donald Trump's retribution campaign, but both cases were dismissed in court.  The details of their indictments are moot, so I won't bother with them here.   John Bolton, Trump's former national security adviser, is still under indictment on eighteen counts related to the mishandling of classified documents, and as much as liberals would love to see Bolton go to the slammer (liberals are against the chair), he's clearly being indicted for all the wrong reasons. 

Meanwhile, Jennifer Welch (above), co-host of IHIP, the I've Had It Podcast, seems to have had a change of heart about Roman Catholics.  She recently told fellow podcaster Tara Palmeri that she actually admires Catholics for their devotion to their faith and their constant study of their faith and the Gospels, adding that if she were believer of God, which she is not, she could never be a Catholic not because of a patriarchal priesthood but because of all of the constant study involved.  She also says that Catholics are nice people who, unlike evangelicals in her home state of Oklahoma, don't try to convert anyone so aggressively.  So, I guess that means I ought to go back to listening to her and Angie Sullivan's podcast.

I write this blog post, meanwhile, with the knowledge that Brigitte Bardot just died at the age of 91.  Social media has gotten to the point that you don't even need to check news sites online or television news programs to find out that someone has died.  When Facebook friends who don't know each other from Adam and Eve simultaneously post pictures of a French actress and sex symbol who hasn't been culturally relevant since Renault stopped making the Dauphine, you can put two and two together.  No, those were not pictures of Claudia Schiffer.  The death of the woman her fans famously called B.B. fellows the death of another European movie star and glamour icon known as C.C., Italian actress Claudia Cardinale.  (Note: For those who have started following my blog just recently, no, my girl cat Claudia is not named for either Claudia Cardinale or Claudia Schiffer.)  I hope both of them are remembered for their earlier films, and hopefully not the spaghetti western they did together in the early seventies.  (I saw about five minutes of that movie; that was all I could take.  Both actresses were celebrated as icons, but you'd never have known it from this particular movie.)  

I was never incredibly enamored with Bardot or Cardinale, but their respective passings this year is still a bitter reminder that the era of European cinema and culture that they represented died long before they did.  And going into 2026, it makes me fear for the health and well-being of France's Catherine Deneuve, 82, and Italy's Sophia Loren, 91.  The European Union ought to seriously consider some protective measures for both actresses - put fences around them, maybe, declare them Continental treasures, perhaps get UNESCO to grant them World Heritage status - just so we can at least keep them around a little longer. 

Funny Money

You know, all of this news about the election is wearing me down . . .

It looks like Monday (March 25) will be a red-letter day for the American justice system as far as Donald Trump is concerned.  New York State Attorney General Letitia James has demanded that pay a bond penalty totalling the nearly half a billion dollars that he owes the state and he had until Monday to pay it.  Trump has indicated that he has the cash, even though there's no evidence that he has that sort of cash available to him. While it won't happen overnight, James could start the process as early as then to seize some of Trump's properties.

It's nice to think that a possible seizure of buildings like Trump Tower (above) and other real estate holdings could start happening very,very soon, but in fact it could take awhile.  And if that weren't enough, Trump may end up having a white knight - possibly a Saudi or Russian interest - that bails him out literally and figuratively and then demands a quid pro quo from Trump should he end up backing the WHite House.   And I think the laws are such that Trump doesn't have to disclose where he gets his sudden cash infusion.    

I hope Attorney General James gets hold of Trump Tower, because, as with Hitler's Chancellery, I would have to see it demolished, the ground underneath salted, and the plot never to be developed. again.

If the Suit Fits . . .

 I want to kiss Letitia James.

And it's not because I'm an interracially inclined white male (which I am), or because I have a thing for Brooklyn women (I have a thing for all sorts of women, where they're from Brooklyn or not).  No, I want to kiss the New York State Attorney General because she just sued Donald Trump and three of his four adult children (Tiffany, honey, you're the smartest of the lot!) for committing real estate fraud by inflating the values of the Trump Organization's properties to get more favorable loan and insurance deals and get tax breaks for the government.  Trump Organization chief financial officer Allen Weisselberg is also named in the suit.

James demanded in her civil suit on behalf of the State of New York that Trump pay $250 million, a quarter of a billion (which he can afford; I mean, he's billionaire, right? 😉) to the state, and she hopes to bar Trump from acquiring New York real estate, bar the Trumps from serving as corporate officers of any established company in New York, and permanently ban the Donald's companies from doing business in New York State.

An example of Trump inflating the value of his properties is 40 Wall Street in Lower Manhattan (below), which was worth $220 million in 2013 but was claimed by the Trump Organization to be worth $530 million.  This is one of many facts James and her office found out over an investigation lasting three years.

Trump, his family, and his supporters will claim that this is all political, given that James is a Democrat holding elective office and that Trump is deeply unpopular in his native state.  And if New Jersey attorney General Matthew Platkin, who is not elected by serves at the pleasure of Governor Murphy, were to file a similar suit, Trump would dismiss that as political because Murphy is a Democrat.  But maybe the state of New Jersey should look into Trump's dealings in a state he obviously considers New York City's sixth borough.  Trump has a record of activity going back decades that, in addition to his Bedminster golf course, includes foul play involving his casinos in Atlantic City and a high-rise senior apartment in East Orange, perpetrated not just by Donald but his father Fred and his siblings.  You can read all about it here.

I'm sure Donald Trump will want to kiss Letitia James, too - if he gets COVID again.  And he'll just say it's the flu. 😠 

Trump: The Hunted

The U.S. House of Representatives select committee investigating the January 6 attack on the Capitol is really getting into high gear now.  The panel requested records from four key witnesses and demanded their testimony by the middle of October.  They are former Trump chief of staff Mark Meadows, former top White House strategist Steve Bannon, former Trump deputy chief of staff and director of social media Dan Scavino, and former Pentagon official and Trump loyalist Kashyap Patel.  Meadows and Bannon are wanted for their direct communications with Trump and with state and local pro-Trump officials plotting to undermine election results throughout the country to stop Joe Biden's installation in the Presidency.  Scavino is wanted for having been present "during a discussion of how to convince members of Congress not to certify the election for Joe Biden," while Patel is a person of interest regarding his participation in "discussions among senior Pentagon officials prior to and on January 6, 2021, regarding 'security at the Capitol.'" 

The select committee isn't working its way to the top in investigating the effort to stop a Biden Presidency and stage a coup; it's starting there.  Going after the four most important players in this attempted coup is the fastest way to get to the truth and the surest way to prevent Bannon, Meadows, Scavino and Patel from stalling. The sooner the mostly Democratic committee, which includes two Republicans, Illinois congressman Adam Kinzinger (below) and Wyoming congresswoman Liz Cheney, gets to the bottom of this, the better, because it could save our democracy in the absence of federal voting-rights legislation by retarding Trumpism.

And while the January 6 committee goes after Trumpism, New York State Attorney General Letitia James is going after Trump.  James has warned that Trump Organization must hand over relevant documents subpoenaed by her office in its case against Trump's company.  A judge has followed suit and demanded that the company comply by this Thursday.    
While James may have the luxury of her time in her pursuit - for now, at least - the January 6 committee in the House has an expiration date of January 3, 2023, with no chance of a renewal thanks to the all-but-inevitable Republican takeover of the House expected in the 2022 midterms, infrastructure legislation. or no infrastructure legislation.  Once Kevin McCarthy is sworn in as House Speaker, the committee will be gone, and so will Kinzinger and Cheney. 

Trump: The Criminal

Many people fear that Donald Trump could pull a Grover Cleveland and get re-elected to a second nonconsecutive presidential term in 2024, thanks to voter suppression and electoral rigging, but his path back to the White House just got a wee bit more complicated.

New York State Attorney General Letitia James (above) is now conducting a criminal investigation parallel to the criminal investigation led by Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance, Jr. into "potential financial crimes" at Trump's business, including tax fraud and banking fraud. Vance's office is looking into charges as to whether the Trump Organization inflated the value of his properties to get good loans but then artificially lowered said property values to evade taxes. Vance has Trump's tax returns for the past eight years and is now connecting the dots to see whether all that in fact is the case, but he will be leaving office soon.  Ms. James' announcement means that prosecutors are going to go full tilt boogie to push this investigation to the end.  It could not only being down Trump but also his family. 

MSNBC's Zerlina Maxwell has suggested on occasion that it's ultimately up to black women to save America from itself.  Letitia James seems to be proof positive of that. 

Show Trial

When Trump finally left the White House, I thought Republicans would react to Trump's departure the way the Wicked Witch of the West's soldiers in The Wizard of Oz reacted when the Wicked Witch melted after Dorothy accidentally spilled water on her while trying to put out a fire.  When they told Dorothy she killed her, Dorothy grew very sacred . . . until the witch's soldiers started cheering and celebrating, knowing they didn't have to deal with the mean old broom-rider anymore.

Nothing could have prepared me for how loyal the GOP has remained to Trump since President Biden began his term last week.  With the article of impeachment against Trump for inciting an insurrection having been delivered to the Senate, only five Senate Republicans voted to accept and allow the trial to go forward.  Mitch McConnell, who has made no secret of wanting to find a way to get rid of Trump for good, was not one of them.  The 45 Republican Senators who voted against having a trial said that a trial was unnecessary because Trump is no longer in the White House (not true!), and Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL) even called the trial a "stupid" idea.

Trump still scares Republicans who fear a possible Trump comeback in 2024 or, if they vote to convict Trump and then allow a vote to bar him from holding office again, fear being primaried by QAnon/Trumpist candidates in Congress in 2022.  Trump doesn't have access to Twitter any more, but all he has to do is stick his thumb up or down like Nero to send a signal to have his base go after those who cross him.  Even if all of the Republicans in the Senate vote against barring Trump from holding public office again after he's been convicted and let the ban be passed by Democratic votes only, the fact they let it get that far in the first place by enough of them voting to convict would destroy them.  Someone had better figure out how to destroy Trump, or he'll destroy the country.

So the U.S. Senate chamber (below) is going to be the scene of a show trial - nay, a mock trial - that will be all sound and fury but will result in nothing.  Root for the success of New York State Attorney General Letitia James and Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance, Jr. in their efforts to prosecute Trump in court.    

One day, someone will pull the curtain back on Senate Republicans and realize there's nothing there.