Schadenfreude

[lexin]

Taking pleasure in the misfortune of others - though I'm not sure what's happened to Donald Trump can really be described as a misfortune as he rather seems to have brought it entirely on himself. I do hope he's convicted.

The BBC keep saying he's being accused of paying hush money to Stormy Daniels. I gather that isn't so. It's for some variation on false accounting.

Of course there are flies in the ointment. It would also bring me great joy if:
(1) Tony Blair was tried for war crimes,
(2) Boris Johnson lost his seat as an MP (better if he lost his wealth too),
(3) Rupert Murdoch ceased to exist.

So that's my thought for today.

Comments

[emrinalexander]

I'd also like Suella Braverman, Kevin McCarthy, and Marjorie Taylor Green to be magically transported to Mars.

[lexin]

Agreed! Definitely.

Indeed

[stranger]

I've been following this as little as possible, but since I live in the U.S., I haven't been able to avoid learning that your summary is quite accurate about how the legal case is being reported. The logic is Byzantine, but apparently no more so than many legal maneuvers.

Also, U.S. reporting being what it is, my current impression is that Larry the Cat is actually the PM in Downing Street. At least it's not Johnson, but what who?

Re: Indeed

[lexin]

Current Prime Minister is Rishi Sunak. He used to be Chancellor of the Exchequer, at least at one time.

He's horrible, but not as horrible as the Home Secretary, Suella Braverman, who is nicknamed "Cruella" for her sheer nastiness towards immigrants, black people, Roma and trans people.

Re: Indeed

[emrinalexander]

And she's even more horrible as she's the daughter of parents who emigrated to Britain in the 1960s from Mauritius and Kenya respectively. Ironic.

Re: Indeed

[lexin]

Absolutely. And she seems blind to the irony.

Re: Indeed

[watervole]

Ah well, she was born here, so it doesn't count.

And as for all those nasty trans people...

I loathe her.

Re: Indeed

[lexin]

I didn't know it was possible to hate someone more than I did Margaret Thatcher, but I really loathe the current government. All of them, but Braverman, Priti Patel, Boris and Ian Duncan Smith the most. At least today.

Re the charges against Trump

[catalenamara]

Here's a good description from the NY Times as to what this case is about:
Explaining the Charges Against Donald Trump
The former president faces 34 felony counts in connection with a hush-money payment to a porn star before the 2016 election. Donald J. Trump pleaded not guilty on Tuesday to 34 felony counts of falsifying business records in the first degree, all of which are tied to the former president’s role in a hush-money payment to a porn star, Stormy Daniels.
But prosecutors in the Manhattan district attorney’s office accused Mr. Trump of orchestrating a broader scheme to influence the 2016 presidential election by purchasing damaging stories about him to keep them under wraps.
“The defendant, Donald J. Trump, falsified New York business records in order to conceal an illegal conspiracy to undermine the integrity of the 2016 presidential election,” one of the prosecutors, Chris Conroy, said at Mr. Trump’s arraignment.
Here are answers to some key questions that have arisen from Tuesday’s events:
What Is Mr. Trump Accused of?
The charges trace back to a $130,000 hush-money payment that Mr. Trump’s fixer, Michael D. Cohen, made to the porn star, Stormy Daniels, in the final days of the 2016 campaign. The payment, which Mr. Cohen said he made at Mr. Trump’s direction, suppressed her story of a sexual liaison she says she had with Mr. Trump.
While serving as the commander in chief, Mr. Trump reimbursed Mr. Cohen, and that’s where the fraud kicked in, prosecutors say.
In internal records, Mr. Trump’s company classified the repayment to Mr. Cohen as legal expenses, citing a retainer agreement. Yet there were no such expenses, the prosecutors say, and the retainer agreement was fictional as well.
Those records underpin the 34 counts of falsifying business records: 11 counts involve the checks, 11 center on monthly invoices Mr. Cohen submitted to the company, and 12 involve entries in the general ledger for Mr. Trump’s trust.
(There's more, and there's another woman involved, Karen McDougal. IIRC, Trump's friend and owner of the tabloid paper National Enquirer paid McDougal a large sum of money for exclusive rights to her expose story about her sexual relationship with Trump, with no intention of ever publishing it, and as part of the contract she signed a non-disclosure agreement.)

Re: Re the charges against Trump

[lexin]

That's a useful precis, thank you.