24 December 2025
It’s now over six years since I lost my mother and it’s about to be the seventh Christmas without her. Not that Christmas matters anymore. I barely acknowledge it, nor do I care about it. Same with birthdays. My mother was the most integral part of these events for my entire life. In recent decades, that was especially so, as they solely consisted of our small, core family. Without her, they are meaningless. They are over. In the years since, my only endeavour on Christmas Day is to visit her gravesite. The first year, my sister and I took pizza and ate there. For the second year, a secondary trip was visiting my grandparents’ gravesite and reunited them with a photo of my mother. I took my sister there for the third year. In the fourth year, we visited my mother’s birthplace of Rushworth – a small town about 2 hours drive north of Melbourne. That was a nice day.
Similarly over is the tale of one special little maneki-neko. In the latter years of my mother’s life, I took her, who we affectionately call Mumsey, on several overseas trips, including to Japan on three occasions. Mumsey loved Japan and we both got enamoured with maneki-neko culture. The most interesting of which was Gotokuji Temple, where porcelain cats are placed in the temple for luck. Ideally, they should be taken home, and if the wish or prayer comes true, they are brought back to the temple and placed there as a thank you. Mumsey, in her final few days, wanted me to return her cat. That cat had a wild adventure of its own as I took it on its own tour of Japan where it visited many of the places that I previously took my mother. Very early on it got damaged, I repaired it, and there was one moment, in Kobe, where I was overwhelmed with emotion thinking about our journey together that I wanted to bring it home. I simply couldn’t leave it in Japan. That feeling soon passed and I left it in the Gotokuji Temple as planned. You can read all about it here.
In the years since 2019, I often thought of the fate of that maneki-neko and always wanted to return to the temple to see if it’s still there. Given that a typhoon hit Japan late in 2019, and all that time with more and more cats placed in the temple, could it still be there? In September of 2025, I finally got the chance to find out.
Gotokuji Temple is quite small and sheltered, and the typhoon wasn’t that strong once it got close to Tokyo. New cats were the worry and how that was managed. Would staff gradually remove old ones to create space? When I heard about the explosion of tourism to Japan in recent years, the need to renew the space in the temple likely guaranteed the cat would not be there. There was one caveat to this. Given the damage and repair to my mother’s cat, it was distinctive. Staff might notice it and leave it. Then I had another dilemma: Would I leave it there or be compelled to bring it home? I wrestled with this, especially in the weeks prior to the trip. Before I left home for the trip, I decided I would bring the maneki-neko home while the replacement cat I bought in 2019 that has since lived in my mother’s bedroom and is taken to her gravesite on important occasions, that one I would leave in its place.
Upon landing in Tokyo, it was straight to Gotokuji Temple. On the way was a brief visit to Akihabara for a quick reminisce and lunch at the MOS Burger that we previously visited, probably a few times. Upon reaching Gotokuji Station, and during the train ride itself, there were more tourists around than normal. Not a crazy amount, because “normal” used to be no one else other than ourselves. This time, at least ten. I especially remember a girl stopping to look at her phone for directions. I just whizzed past because I knew the way. I hoped she would see that and just follow. She previously walked past me due to my casual ambling. The walk is actually fairly straight there from the station. The temple is within large grounds that also includes a cemetery, and once you see the white wall of the grounds, it’s a matter of walking around it until you reach the entrance. The girl was standing near the wall at the time when looking at her phone. Not that she would know that the temple was in there.
Once at the entrance of the temple grounds, and approaching the temple itself, I was in shock. Tourists everywhere. I would not say crazy or crowded, just noticeably busy. Where Mumsey and I would spend 20 minutes in the temple and might see just one or two other people, now you could go 20 minutes and never see it empty. Only on one occasion did it happen for the approximate one hour I was there, and just for a few seconds, where I managed to take a photo on my phone. When I tried again with my camera, there was always someone about.
Not only were there more people in the temple area, the temple itself and storage locations for cats had greatly expanded. The shelves of the primary temple had more depth, there was a new structure built where previously there were two small uncovered sections of three shelves each, the structure on the opposing wall was much larger, and around the side were long rows of new structures for even more cats. I was in shock. Gotokuji Temple is not the peaceful and serene place it once was. It’s for tourists to be annoying.
My mission, of course, was to find our maneki-neko. I looked in the spot I left it (using precise photos I took at the time), and it was nowhere to be seen. I began looking more broadly, for probably 20 minutes, before reaching the conclusion it would be impossible to find or it was gone. Perhaps I was never meant to find it. I was comfortable and content with that. I decided to then take some photos of the replacement cat in the temple. I made room for it in the approximate place where my mother’s maneki-neko once stood, placed the replacement in there, took a few photos, removed it, and bid farewell to Gotokuji Temple. Probably forever. Gotokuji Temple is not the same anymore. Too much has changed and there’s no reason to return. My journey is complete. With that concludes the tale of the maneki-neko.
The Rest of My Trip
Hong Kong
On the way to Tokyo, I stopped for 3 days in Hong Kong. That was my first time there and I enjoyed the experience.
I did the standard tourist things of visiting Victoria Peak, walked the West Kowloon Waterfront Promenade, saw the light show, took a ferry ride across the harbour, rode the cute double-decker trams (a real highlight!) and wandered around Hong Kong Island.
Tokyo
Despite my seventh trip to Japan and Tokyo, I managed to find plenty of new things to see and do. I was staying near Tokyo Skytree, so finally went to its observation deck. I also checked the one at the new Shibuya Sky, which is the most central observation deck in Toyko in terms of seeing everything, and without obstruction.
I rode Tokyo’s only remaining tram line. Probably the biggest highlight of the trip! There’s a small museum along the way (only open on weekends). There was also Rikugien Garden, Hie-jinja Shrine and its tunnel of red torii, a day trip to Kamakura, and a day trip to Lake Kawaguchi for a hopeful and different look at Mt Fuji (clouds mostly obscured it). I’ve seen Mt Fuji a few times over the years while riding the Shinkansen (bullet train), so visiting Lake Kawaguchi itself was a new experience and well worth the trip. Best to always be there in the morning, too. Even on clear days, clouds can descend on Mt Fuji later in the day.
One huge appeal of Japan is the food. I’m not talking about restaurants either. I’m talking about convenience stores! 7/11, Family Mart and Lawson – probably 60% of my meals came from these. Sandwiches, small bowls of prepared meals, and hot snacks like spicy chicken. It can’t be beat! Even their fast food options are superb, with Mr Donut the top of my favourites.
Food is so cheap, too. A bowl of chicken with egg and salad, a piece of spicy chicken, and a bottle of coke, from 7/11, we’re talking about 900 yen (about 9 AUD or 6 USD). Remarkable. Japan’s version of major chains like McDonald’s are also interesting due to local offerings like teriyaki burgers. I’m already looking forward to my next trip.
Gotokuji Temple – The Tale of the Maneki-Neko and Tribute to My Late Mother
15 April 2024
Today marks 5 years since my mother passed away. Our Mumsey would be 90 years old if she were around today. Every day I still think about her. While the thoughts are not as dominant as before, they are still recurrent, and the feeling of loss remains. A part of my fabric is missing, and it can never be restored. It’s a new reality, and as the world changes, that creates constant reminders. New experiences often feel tainted, because they cannot be shared as previously. Traditions feel meaningless. Things like birthdays, Christmas – it’s, whatever. Completely irrelevant when that one constant in your life is no longer part of it.
Three years ago I posted about the three main components of grief I was experiencing: physical, emotional and psychological. As time passes, the intensity of feelings has shifted through the three. Initially, the physical loss – the trauma of losing someone, the crying – was the most dominant. The last time tears were shed were a few weeks ago on Mumsey’s birthday. The last big cry was on a train from Los Angeles to Houston in September last year. I needed to clear space on my phone, and looking through photos, I broke down. Exacerbating the situation is that Mumsey would have loved the train ride. I had taken her on several trips in her later years, and all I could do was imagine seeing her opposite me in the cabin and looking out the window, just like she would do when she took us on train trips as children. I would have been sobbing for at least 20 minutes that day. It was good to get it out. I would cry again for similar reasons in Dallas about a week later.
Emotionally, the waves that grieving people experience still remain. The peaks and troughs are just not as high. The waves are much flatter and longer, so I might sometimes feel bad or down for hours, or days, and then I’m fine for hours, or days. While Mumsey once dominated my thoughts during all idle moments, now my mind will allow itself to wander elsewhere. I imagine, over the years, this emotional wave will flatten further, without ever being entirely flat. Birthdays, Christmas, memories resurfacing, and even the weather turning cold, will trigger a trough.
Psychologically is now the area that is the most difficult. Three years ago when I said it was only now just confronting me, today it’s loitering directly ahead and is something I cannot face. Anytime I do, tears begin to flow. I still can’t say the d-word about Mumsey, preferring terms like passed away. I still can’t accept that it actually happened to our Mumsey, and perhaps it will be that way forever. In that sense, I’ll never be the same again. I’m a different person, and my new OK will be a different OK.
Two years ago we finally organised a monument for our Mumsey. It was nice to finally get it done, not just as much for her, also for her “rabbits” (children). Eventually we’ll all be together again. That we lost her made us all consider our own finite time on this planet. In fact, these days, so many of my thoughts are in this direction, that nothing is forever. Obsessing over anything is futile, and a waste of energy. Everything will be gone eventually. That’s the big legacy of losing Mumsey. Life is transient. Make the best of it. Just like our Mumsey did.
Dealing With Grief After Losing Your Mother
Gotokuji Temple – The Tale of the Maneki-Neko and Tribute to My Late Mother
26 January 2026
The year 2025 will be forever known as the year of the Nintendo Switch 2. After 8 years of the hugely successful, original Switch, expectations were high for the successor and whether Nintendo could deliver. The Switch was showing its age for a few years, and only due to its rampant success that Nintendo kept supporting it, which prolonged the wait for its successor as a consequence. The Switch 2 was announced in January of 2025, primarily to end all the rumours, speculations and leaks. When it was finally revealed, in April 2025, suffice to say, it not only met expectations, it exceeded them.
The original Switch, launched in 2017, was primarily a device that ran games at 900p and sometimes at 60fps (frames per second). Or, 1080p and 30fps. Hopes were high for the Switch 2 to lock onto 1080p and 60fps, which it not only does, it also offers 4K at 60fps for some games, plus HDR (High Dynamic Range), and, in handheld mode, VRR (Variable Refresh Rate). Simply, mind blowing for something so small and for something that draws, on average, just 8 watts of power in handheld mode (about half of the average tablet) and 19 watts in docked mode (playing on TV). For added context, the PlayStation 5 generally draws around 200 watts. To define the performance levels in simple terms, the Switch was just above PlayStation 3 level and the Switch 2 is now just above PlayStation 4 Pro level. Or, a leap of 1.5 generations. Anyone calling it a minor upgrade or, laughably, a “Switch Pro”, is a moron. A “Pro” is a mid-cycle side model with a minor boost in performance and selling at a premium price. It would not compare anywhere to this completely new beast.
Any gripes with the Switch 2? Personally, the only real one is the internal storage. Just 256 gigabytes, which could only be described as sufficient. In the era of more downloading of games and key cards (physical game cards that require an initial download of game data), 512 gb should have been on offer. While there was disappointment upon hearing the Switch 2 would use an LCD screen instead of OLED, the truth is the LCD screen as used in the Switch 2 is not the LCD screen of the old days. It’s very vibrant (and significantly larger than even the Switch OLED), and seems to be the preferred technology for such devices now, like the ROG Xbox Ally, due to cost savings and less demand on the battery. Indeed, those reasons were exactly the ones that Nintendo provided for the decision to use LCD.
Of course, game systems ultimately are about the games. The Switch 2 launched with Mario Kart World – the much anticipated new game in the Mario Kart series. The previous new game, Mario Kart 8, was released 11 years ago. MKW excelled with a new structure of racing over an entire world, and added a superb new racing mode called Knockout Mode. It’s so much fun. As part of the world structure, Free Roam allows players to freely roam the world and complete missions.
Six weeks after the Switch 2 launch came Donkey Kong Bananza. It’s a fun platform game built on destroying the environment. It’s no exaggeration to say that if you can touch it, you can destroy it. Support from third parties was excellent, too, with Cyberpunk 2077 an unimaginable launch game for such a device, and later came another phenomenal port with Star Wars: Outlaws. In December, finally, the release of Metroid Prime 4: Beyond, which was originally announced almost 8.5 years ago. It’s classic Metroid Prime with a few novelties added (like psychic abilities) and an interesting new alien culture to learn about. Kirby Air Riders is a surprisingly fun and super fast racing game that arrived in late November. With those four excellent games by Nintendo at launch (MKW, DKB, KAR and MP4), that compares very well to the Switch’s first 6 months of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, Mario Kart 8 Deluxe (an updated port from the Wii U) and Super Mario Odyssey. The Switch 2 is easily ahead with third party support.
Onto my year of gaming in 2025!
2025 Switch & Switch 2 Activity
World of Tanks Blitz: 359 hours
F-Zero 99: 43
Mario Kart World: 17
Metroid Prime 4: Beyond: 6
Titles played for a few hours or less…
Tetris 99
Kirby Air Riders
Fast Fusion
Donkey Kong Bananza
Star Wars: Outlaws
Sonic Racing: Crossworlds
Horizon Chase 2
Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon 2
Street Fighter 6: Years 1-2 Edition
Streets of Rage 4
Huntdown
(in italics are Switch 2 games)
Highest All Time Switch & Switch 2 Activity
World of Tanks Blitz: 3765 hours
Tetris 99: 580
F-Zero 99: 210
Animal Crossing: New Horizons: 155
Mario Kart 8 Deluxe: 85
Horizon Chase Turbo: 85
Elsewhere
No PS4 activity for the second year straight, and on PC and tablet it was the usual WOTB (now played 2124 and 2238 total hours, respectively) and World of Warships Blitz (855 total hours on tablet). I did mess around with a silly matching game called Travel Town in 2025, and somehow accumulated 220 hours of play time there. With the play time on the Switch, WOTB has accumulated 8127 hours. That won’t all be actual play time. On tablet, it (and Warships Blitz and Travel Town) would include time watching ads for things like free gold or energy. Even the PC hours could be inflated by including time of the game sitting in the background while I do something else. I’m guessing the real playing time for WOTB is between 6000 and 7000 hours.
Games Bought and Not Played
Super Mario Galaxy 1 + 2
Bravely Default Flying Fairy HD Remaster
Cyberpunk 2077
In fairness, Cyberpunk was purchased quite late in the year. The other two suffered from the usual distraction of other games!
Historical Most Played Games Each Year
2025 WOTB – 359, F-Zero 99 – 43, Mario Kart World – 17
2024 WOTB – 450, F-Zero 99 -102, Tetris 99 – 22
2023 WOTB – 740, F-Zero 99 – 68, Tetris 99 – 26
2022 WOTB – 1050, Tetris 99 – 84, Double Dragon 4 – 18
2021 WOTB – 1015, Tetris 99 – 252, Super Mario Bros 35 – 72
2020 WOTB – 124, Tetris 99 – 195, Animal Crossing: New Horizons – 149
2019 Horizon Chase Turbo – 44, Fallout Shelter 24, Virtua Racing Sega Ages – 15
2018 Smash Bros Ultimate – 11, Starlink: Battle for Atlas – 7, Mario Tennis Aces – 6
2017 Mario Kart 8 Deluxe – 32, Fast RMX – 8, Blaster Master Zero – 6
As part of Nintendo providing a full year of data (which explains the lateness of this post), they also provided access to all our historical data since the Switch launched. These games are the top three most played for each year and the hours played. Note: WOTB=World of Tanks Blitz. World of Warships Blitz, which I exclusively play on tablet, would likely be in second spot for the years 2023 to 2025.
Game of the Year
Metroid Prime 4: Beyond
The obvious choice! I’m a fanatic of the Metroid Prime series and regard the original game as almost perfect. It was released almost 23 years ago! Metroid Prime 2: Echoes, which arrived two years later, wasn’t as good, while I boycotted the Wii and Wii U era so missed Metroid Prime 3: Corruption. The wait was long for another Metroid Prime, and the wait was worth it! Ignore the criticism about it too similar and, perhaps, archaic. Fans like myself wanted exactly this: another game in the series that follows the familiar formula! Experimentation can start with the next game, or even a new branch of Metroid. Also, the whinging over the interactions with a few computer characters, give me a break! Personally, they add some context to the Metroid universe, especially regarding the Galactic Federation and Samus’ actual role and reputation within it.
In second place for Game of the Year was Mario Kart World. Third, probably Donkey Kong Bananza.
Older Game of the Year
Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon 2
This was released six years ago and I waited all this time to get it at 50% off. Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon is a series that echoes the classic, old school Castlevania, and this second one does it just as well as the original that was released two years prior (which I bought immediately).
Hall of Fame
Mario Kart 8 Deluxe
This category was introduced last year to recognise a game from the past that still keeps kicking. While Mario Kart World is probably the default MK to play now, we can’t ever forget all those wonderful years with Mario Kart 8 Deluxe!
Previous Games of the Year
2024 Nintendo World Championships: NES Edition (Switch)
2023 F-Zero 99 (Switch)
2022 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder’s Revenge (Switch)
2021 Metroid Dread (Switch)
2020 Animal Crossing: New Horizons (Switch)
2019 Horizon Chase Turbo (Switch)
2018 Super Smash Bros Ultimate (Switch)
2017 Metroid: Samus Returns (3DS)
2016 Yoshi’s New Island (3DS)
2015 Pokemon Shuffle (3DS)
2014 Super Smash Bros (3DS)
2013 Fire Emblem Awakening (3DS)
Previous Older Games of the Year
2024 Slay the Spire
2023 World of Tanks Blitz
2022 Double Dragon 4 (Switch)
Previous Hall of Fame Inductees
2024 World of Tanks Blitz
6 January 2025
The Nintendo Switch just rolled on in 2024, and it seems the Switch 2, or the Switch Ultra, whatever the name of the successor might be, will be the system to finally supplant it in 2025. As to the release of the Switch 2, ignore the rumours and wild speculation, especially the so-called “leaks”, because most of these are hearsay from someone connected with a company connected with Nintendo. Any tangible “leaks” are likely of older prototypes or even complete fabrications, and even the recent “leak” of the motherboard might be a photo of a prototype motherboard, not the actual motherboard. The problem these days is just about anybody can fabricate an item using a 3D printer (referring specifically to the supposed “leak” of an actual Switch 2 several months ago). A leak should have some sort of direct and official source attached to it for it to be regarded as a genuine leak.
The other problem these days is people, especially the media, can’t read information, or deliberately misconstrue it for clicks and attention. The entire basis of a Switch 2 supposedly arriving early in 2025 was a comment in May of 2024 by the President of Nintendo, Shuntaro Furukawa. He said: “We will make an announcement about the successor to Nintendo Switch within this fiscal year.” The fiscal year ends on 31 March 2025, and note that he said nothing about a reveal, much less a release. In fact, the “announcement” could just be “The successor will be much like the Switch and we will provide more information in a few months”.
The biggest clue to the timing of a Switch 2 comes, again, directly from Nintendo. They recently added “coming soon” to the original vague “2025” release of Metroid Prime 4: Beyond. That tells me that the Nintendo Direct normally held around mid February (no, it won’t be early January as suggested by some loony rumours) and will likely showcase that game and reveal its release for March or April. At the end of the Direct will be a tease of the Switch 2 along with “more information coming soon”. That will leave Switch owners excited for the next few months and end the silly rumour mongering.
Nintendo also have other Switch games set for release in 2025 so it’s highly unlikely they will want to trample on the sales of those titles by overlapping them with the release of a new system. That’s the same reason rumours of a 2024 release for the Switch 2 were nonsense, and a 2023 release utterly absurd: the release schedule of games was packed, including extra content for Mario Kart 8 Deluxe. As it stands now, the second half of 2025 is quite barren for Switch games, so it looks like a reveal of a Switch 2 around June and a release around September.
Onto my year of gaming in 2024!
2024 Switch Activity
World of Tanks Blitz: 408 hours
F-Zero 99: 91
Tetris 99: 18
Vampire Survivors: 15
Slay the Spire: 10
Nintendo World Championships: NES Edition: 5
Top Racer Collection: 3
Now with almost 7000 hours of time logged, World of Tanks Blitz just keeps on blitzing! On Switch it’s 3385 hours, on PC it’s 1898 hours, and on tablet it’s 1600 hours. That WOTB only logged 408 hours on the Switch compared to 750 last year is due to playing it more on the tablet. The Switch is actually starting to struggle to handle the game, and I finally feel proficient enough to use the touch controls of the tablet.
The 91 hours for F-Zero 99 adds to the 62 hours of 2023 (first played on 6 October 2023). Nintendo continue to release new content, including the Ace League tracks, Mirror Mode tracks, and recently a World Tour. I managed to finally win my first regular race too, on Sand Storm 2 (one of the Ace League tracks).
Tetris 99 accumulated 18 hours due to the Maximus Cup events, in which themes based on other Nintendo games can be obtained.
Titles played for a few hours or less…
Super Nintendo Entertainment System
EA Sports FC 2024
Mario Kart 8 Deluxe
Nintendo Entertainment System
Airplane Flight Simulator
Tetris Effect Connected
Super Mario Odyssey
Ghosts ‘n Goblins Resurrection
Super Mario Bros Wonder
Sega Ages: Out Run
Highest All Time Switch Activity
World of Tanks Blitz: 3385 hours
Tetris 99: 575
F-Zero 99: 170
Animal Crossing: New Horizons: 155
Mario Kart 8 Deluxe: 85
Horizon Chase Turbo: 85
PC, Tablet and PS4
I never turned the PS4 on all year, while I’ve accrued 618 hours in World of Warships Blitz on the tablet since first playing it on 1 July 2023. Last year I complained about the terrible matchmaking that would put you on endless runs of bad teams, which stopped me playing for a few months. World of Tanks Blitz has this same problem too. An update was released for World of Warships Blitz that supposedly fixed it, and it is much better, to the point I was happy to spend a few dollars on the game. I think about $15 in total for a Star Trek themed ship and a particular Japanese ship called the ARP Haruna.
Games Bought and Not Played
Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door
Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown
The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom
Yes, we’re well into the era of buying games and not playing. All three of these could be contenders for the Game of the Year too. I just get distracted with other games.
Game of the Year
Nintendo World Championships: NES Edition
I only played two games in 2024 that were released in that year, and those were Nintendo WC and Top Racer Collection. Easy decision to go for a fun, original game over a compilation.
Older Game of the Year
Slay the Spire
The category for older games that were first played during the year. The only other contender was Vampire Survivors. As good as that game is, it exhausted its appeal relatively quickly whereas Slay the Spire proved far more interesting and no doubt I will keep playing it for much longer. It’s a game where you battle a succession of random monsters by using cards from a deck that you build along the way. It requires a lot of thought and strategy.
Hall of Fame
World of Tanks Blitz
A new category to recognise a game from the past that still keeps kicking. World of Tanks Blitz was the obvious inaugural selection!
Previous Games of the Year
2023 F-Zero 99 (Switch)
2022 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder’s Revenge (Switch)
2021 Metroid Dread (Switch)
2020 Animal Crossing: New Horizons (Switch)
2019 Horizon Chase Turbo (Switch)
2018 Super Smash Bros Ultimate (Switch)
2017 Metroid: Samus Returns (3DS)
2016 Yoshi’s New Island (3DS)
2015 Pokemon Shuffle (3DS)
2014 Super Smash Bros (3DS)
2013 Fire Emblem Awakening (3DS)
Previous Older Games of the Year
2023 World of Tanks Blitz
2022 Double Dragon 4 (Switch)
03 November 2024
As much as Kamala Harris and the Democrats talk about saving and protecting democracy, they have proved to be the biggest threat to the actual democratic process, and are already deep into the process of undermining and subverting it. When Joe Biden became the 46th president of the United States, he ran on unity and bringing Americans together, and promised he “will fight for democracy with every fibre of my being”. As president, “Mr Unity” has been an abject failure at his core election promise, immediately dividing Americans further with incendiary hate speech and nasty rhetoric, while his Department of Justice launched legal action to put Donald Trump, his main political rival, in jail. The constant insults about “MAGA Republicans”, which are nearly all Republicans and therefore half the country, have been outrageous and unrelenting. All of it ably assisted by his party and media allies.
Rhetoric from the Democrats and their surrogates are only half the problem. The Democratic nominee for president, Kamala Harris, has done nothing to dampen the filth, like that from her choice for vice president, Tim Walz. He compared a Trump rally in New York to a Nazi one, therefore deriding all Trump supporters as Nazis and Trump as Hitler. Harris, herself, has called Trump a fascist. Billionaire and major Harris surrogate, Mark Cuban, said “you never see him [Trump] around strong, intelligent women, ever” in one of those demeaning and sexist insults ever. Joe Biden reached the nadir by calling Donald Trump supporters “garbage”. While Harris and Democrats tried to dismiss it as Biden not on the ballot or that he misspoke, no such liberties were afforded to Trump when it was a comedian early in the day at Trump’s New York rally that joked about Puerto Rico’s garbage problem that ultimately led to Biden’s clearly malicious insult. Of course, all this was in just the past week and in just this campaign. The vile insults and hate-fuelled attacks have actually lasted for years, and likely led to the two assassination attempts on Trump. It seems many Americans have finally had enough and see through the Democrats’ pretense of niceness, realising they are full of hate, division and rage, are contemptuous towards the everyday American, and only see people as voters.
The lying from the Democrats, protected and promulgated by most of the media, has been outrageous too. That Trump would ban abortions federally, end social security, enact a national sales tax and adopt a third-party project called Project 2025 as his agenda are blatant lies, to spreading or perpetuating hoaxes like: Trump calling soldiers that died in war “suckers and losers”; Trump said to “inject bleach” in case of a Covid infection; Trump called neo-Nazis at a public rally in Charlottesville in 2017 “very fine people”; Trump would be a “dictator on day 1 (Trump said “only on day 1”, and that related to executive orders for the border and drilling); Trump said there’d be a “bloodbath” if he lost the election (he was referring to an economic bloodbath for the car industry if Democrats succeeded with their electric vehicle mandates); Trump would use the military against “enemies within” and American citizens that disagreed with him (a conflation of separate topics: the enemies within are those that started the Russian Collusion Hoax and the phony impeachments; the national guard would be used to handle any rioting, if necessary, if he won the election). Even in recent days, claims he called for Liz Cheney to be shot (she’s the daughter of Dick Cheney, VP to George W Bush), when Trump was really saying that war hawks like her never face the consequences (facing a row of guns) of sending Americans to war.
It’s not only the rhetoric. Democrats have launched direct attacks on institutions designed to protect democracy. They’ve ignored Supreme Court rulings, notably Biden paying off student loans without approval from congress, and proudly stated about the court’s decision, “that didn’t stop me”. He lied about the Presidential Immunity decision when saying it meant “there are virtually no limits on what a president can do”. No, it was clear that immunity was only for official actions. Unofficial actions (like murdering someone) are not immune, while those actions not clear are decided by a court. Democrats have threatened to pack the Supreme Court with extra justices to ensure minimal hindrance to their radical and unconstitutional agenda. Kamala Harris, herself, said the 60-vote super majority requirement in the senate should be abolished for a simple majority.
Other Democratic dreams are to expand their power in the senate by making Washington DC and Puerto Rico states, which would add 4 more senators. Democrats want to abolish the electoral college that decides presidential elections and are even openly against the first amendment regarding free speech. The very first bill the Democratic House passed under Biden was to federalise the entire election system and loosen many rules that many states used to reduce cheating. When you understand that “Democracy” to the Democrats really means “Democrats in power” or “the Democratic regime”, then the motive behind their rhetoric and actions all becomes clear.
Then there’s the court cases against Donald Trump. They only emerged once Trump decided to run again and a week after Biden said at a press conference: “I’m making sure he, under legitimate efforts of our Constitution, does not become the next President again.” It must be noted that Trump was toxic after the January 6 riots of 2021 on the Capitol Building and it seemed there was no way back for him. That all changed once the court cases started to pile up in a coordinated fashion, and prior to that when the FBI raided his Florida home in August of 2022. It was obvious the intent was to keep Trump in a court room for all of 2024 and hopefully put him in jail. That all backfired in that not only did it fully revive Trump as a viable presidential candidate, it rallied the entire Republican Party, Republicans in general, and many neutrals, around him. Democrats at state level then began to remove Trump from the ballot altogether. That was soon halted by a unanimous decision from the Supreme Court.
Finally, the coup against Joe Biden as the 2024 Democratic nominee for president. Democrats and the media lied about his senility and mental decay for many, many months, if not his entire presidency, for the sole reason to subvert the democratic process. Even when Biden was running in 2019, he looked shaky, with Cory Booker, also a candidate, saying in September of that year: “We are at a tough point right now, because there’s a lot of people concerned about Joe Biden’s ability to carry the ball all the way across the end line without fumbling.” When Bernie Sanders looked like he could win the nomination and as Biden failed in the early primaries, the Democratic elite forced most of the candidates out of the race and got them to endorse Biden. He then ran away with it. The Democrats needed a pliable, seemingly harmless empty vessel to run against Trump, to ensure that election was solely about Trump. They forced him to take a black woman as VP (Kamala Harris, who flamed out before the first primary) with the long term plan to install her as their nominee for 2024.
Harris’ disastrous performance as VP was a major hiccup in the Democrats’ plan, so they hung onto Biden in hope they could manage him across the line and try eject him early in his second term. They weren’t fooling the public, and as the polls showed potentially big Democratic losses across the board, a ridiculously early debate, held in late June, was arranged to expose Biden and then force him out. Of course, the media were suddenly in full voice against Biden in clearly a concerted effort coordinated by the Democratic elite. Don’t forget, either, that Hillary Clinton was the anointed candidate in 2016 when serious candidates were dissuaded from running.
That’s three cycles where the Democratic elite have controlled the outcome of their primaries, with 2024 the worst because Biden did win the democratic process via the primaries. Since his usefulness to the Democratic regime was over, the voice of the voters were dismissed, and Biden was pushed aside. Democrats don’t care about democracy. They only care about power and control.
The only way to stop these true threats against democracy, and stop the current attacks against democracy, basic freedoms, and obviously to reverse the damage done to the United States by Democratic policies in the last 4 years, is to teach these disgusting people a lesson and send Donald Trump back to the White House.
Can Donald Trump Win?
The polling and all the indicators suggest it’s likely that Trump will win. He’s level or leading slightly in all the key swing states, placed much better in the polls compared to his previous two elections, and he’s running against a party that made a mess of the country and installed a moron as their nominee. The conditions are simply that much more favourable for Trump than in 2020 where he narrowly lost. Key issues like inflation, the border, gas prices, foreign wars, and crime, all favour him too. There’s no Covid that derailed him in 2020, whereas 74% of Americans say the country is on the wrong track. Enthusiasm is much higher for Trump than it is for Harris, and he’s even cool. Trump has far more relevant and significant endorsements like Elon Musk, Tulsi Gabbard and Robert F Kennedy Jr, whereas Harris is relying on the Democrats’ penchant for sanctimonious, elitist celebrities. If it wasn’t for his undisciplined mouth, there’d be very little ammunition the Democrats could muster against him.
If Kamala Harris loses, the strategy of only making this election about Trump, trying to put him jail, the rampant lying, and the ridiculous fear campaign, all backfired. That she can’t form articulate sentences or think for herself, hasn’t helped. Her decision to pick a compulsive liar of a clown show, Tim Walz, as her VP choice, was also a monumental error. It’s hard to imagine too many independents approving of these tactics, or motivated by them to vote, so the Democrats’ strategy is likely just to get as much as their base out to vote as possible.
If Donald Trump loses, part of the problem will be not countering the Democrats’ campaign of fear mongering and threats better. Notably to say that he’s not the cause of the chaos, it’s the feral Democrats and the hostile media that causes it all, so don’t let them get away with it. There also needed more specific details about life under Harris that she’s clearly trying to hide. Specifically, don’t believe a word she says. We know her policies. You’ve been living under them for 4 years. Harris even says her values haven’t change and she would not have changed anything that Biden did. So she will be Biden on steroids and another puppet president controlled by the radical left-wing. The border will be wide open again and massive spending bills will see inflation surge. Gas prices will increase while housing affordability will get worse. Trump calling her weak, a San Francisco radical, a Marxist and low IQ, isn’t enough. As much as Trump likes to poke fun and be boisterous about his own performance, it is at a detriment to the overall message.
Regardless of the outcome on Tuesday, it will be a historic day. The United States of America will elect either the first female president or only the second comeback president. Grover Cleveland was the first person to win the presidency, lose it, and win it again. If Donald Trump became the second, it would be the comeback of epic proportions.
Who will be Donald Trump’s Vice President Nominee for 2024?
Fact Checking The CNN Fact Checkers Following The Presidential Debate
How Hunter Biden Became A Convicted Felon – An Explanation For Dummies
How Donald Trump Became A Convicted Felon – An Explanation For Dummies
Donald Trump Acquitted Again – Why Impeachment Failed Again – The Facts
15 July 2024
On the eve of the 2024 Republican National Convention, presumptive nominee and former president Donald Trump is still to announce his nominee for vice president. He plans to do that during the convention. The question is: Who will it be? With all the talk of short lists and long lists, more pertinent is the rationale behind Trump’s selection.
There’s two main criteria for Trump: the selection helps him win the presidency and the selection continues his agenda if president. The latter is relevant as Trump, after serving as president between 2017 and 2021, can only serve one term. The VP will likely run as his successor in 2028, and Trump is realistic that an unforeseen situation could see the VP become president during his term. Any option would need to be a excellent advocate for Trump’s America First agenda and an excellent prosecutor against President Joe Biden and the Democrats.
With that in mind, there’s really only two options.
1) Tim Scott (Senator for South Carolina)
A very likable and attractive guy, and with an inspiring story of an African American whose family went from the cotton fields to congress in one lifetime. Scott is a tremendous advocate and promoter of Trump. He could actually be too effusive in that regard, and needs to become a stronger prosecutor against the Democrats. Of course, Trump does that well himself.
2) Glenn Youngkin (Governor of Virginia)
A popular governor and would be in the final year of his solitartary term, Youngkin presents as a younger, mild mannered version of Trump. He’s a tremendous prosecutor of many of Trump’s positions, looks a natural successor. If the Republicans can swing Virginia into their column (not won since 2004), that really boosts Trump’s chance to win the presidency overall.
The Rest
Nikki Haley
The former Ambassador to the United Nations under Trump and a governor of South Carolina, Haley sunk her chances when stooping to attack Trump’s age and cognitive abilities during the primaries, as if they were anywhere near close, much less analogous, to Joe Biden’s mental deterioration. That alienated many Republicans and infuriated Trump. Haley would have been the pick if not for that, as she speaks well, is attractive, provides an excellent contrast, is well credentialled, and polled highest versus Biden of all the Republican candidates. She’s already been given a slot to speak at the convention, which automatically rules her out as VP.
Vivek Ramaswamy
While the entrepreneur and former candidate for president is a great prosecutor and fiercely loyal to Trump, he’s too much of a firebrand like Trump. Trump needs a calming contrast.
Tulsi Gabbard
My personal favourite, and the favourite of many others, Gabbard is a former representative for the Democrats from Hawaii. Despite quite young at 43 years old, she’s mature, poised, calming and articulate. She’s devastating in her case against Joe Biden and his administration, especially on free speech, their anti-democracy positions, the criminal targeting of political opponents, and the insanity of male transgender people in female sport. As a former Democrat, her words carry extra significance as she’s the classic example of someone leaving the Democratic Party because it went nuts. Her issue is she’s still technically an independent and there would be doubts that she follows the exact Trump blueprint if she were president. Gabbard would likely get a position in the Trump cabinet as Secretary of Defence or State, as their respective foreign policies are so well aligned.
J.D. Vance
The new senator in Ohio, he’s too young, and the beard is ugly. Otherwise, articulate and strongly aligned with Trump’s agenda. He would be more valuable in the senate anyway, and will have plenty of chances to run for president in the future.
Doug Burgum
North Dakota governor and businessman. Too similar to Trump himself, especially that there’s no great visible contrast. A VP from ND would add nothing electorally either. He will likely get a position in Trump’s cabinet if he wants one.
Marco Rubio
A popular senator from Florida, he’s a great prosecutor and highly articulate, and with a Cuban heritage and speaking Spanish, would help boost the Hispanic vote. The big problem is he’s from Florida like Trump, and electors cannot vote for both president and VP from the same state. If Trump wins the election big, it would not matter losing the 30 electoral votes from Florida for VP. It’s a risk, that’s all, and is why Dick Cheney, originally from Texas like George W. Bush, moved to Wyoming before the 2000 election.
Elise Stefanik
A representative from New York state, probably does not have the exact political cachet for the VP job. Otherwise, recently has impressed in prosecuting the case against Joe Biden and the Democrats, and is strongly aligned with Trump. She would be more valuable as House Speaker one day.
Most of the other names floating around are just too young or new, or don’t add much to the ticket.
Trump will go with Tim Scott. Scott has been such a strong and loyal supporter, and never attacked Trump during primary process when a candidate. While Glenn Youngkin can help win a state not won by the Republicans for 20 years, Scott can elevate the African American vote sufficiently that it helps win several states.
Scott will also offset the likely attacks about race from the Democrats about two white men on the Republican ticket. Those attacks would increase exponentially and could become quite potent if Joe Biden is pushed out and vice president Kamala Harris becomes their presidential nominee. This could all happen quite late – into September – where the Democrats entire platform could simply be about electing the first ever black woman. The process would see Biden accept the nomination in August with Harris his VP as normal. With no change in Biden’s fortunes in the polls over the subsequent weeks, he then resigns for health reasons, while pardoning his convicted felon son, Hunter Biden, on the way out.
Trump, ideally, wants to reveal his nominee for vice president on the day of their speech at the convention, if not in the introduction to the speech. That’s scheduled for Wednesday, 17 July 2024.
Fact Checking The CNN Fact Checkers Following The Presidential Debate
How Donald Trump Became A Convicted Felon – An Explanation For Dummies
3 July 2024
Fact checkers sound great in theory. Who doesn’t want to know when a politician is lying and the specific nature of the lie? In practice, these so-called fact checkers are often as biased as anyone in the media, especially if they are part of a notoriously biased media outlet already, that they need fact checking themselves. Often they check exaggerations or hyperbole or even jokes. At other times they ignore clear lies by one side. Worst of all, they can be wrong themselves. So it was in the case in the 2024 CNN presidential debate between Joe Biden and Donald Trump
According to CNN’s own checking of this CNN presidential debate, Joe Biden lied only 9 times compared to over 30 times by Donald Trump. On perusal of the supposed lies, quickly you notice a theme that many, especially Trump’s, were hyperbole, exaggerations and bluster – most of which the viewer would immediately realise – or were partially true, and that many of Joe Biden’s, even if you accept the CNN lie tally, were blatantly worse than anything that came from Donald Trump.
To keep this streamlined, I’ll list all the hyperbole and obvious exaggerations in one section, and then follow with the false fact checks, and then the correct fact checks. Each fact check will show the claim, CNN’s “Facts First” check and supporting information (not always all of it, so check the article for the rest), then the actual facts. I’ll add anything CNN missed about Biden at the end.
HYPERBOLE AND OBVIOUS EXAGGERATIONS
Trump on abortion policy after Roe vs Wade
Trump repeated his frequent claim that “everybody” wanted Roe vs Wade overturned and the power to set abortion policy returned to individual states. He said: “Everybody wanted to get it back to the states, everybody, without exception: Democrats, Republicans, liberals, conservatives. Everybody wanted it back. Religious leaders.” He also added: “Every legal scholar wanted it that way.”
Facts First: Trump’s claims are false. Poll after poll has shown that most Americans – two-thirds or nearly two-thirds of respondents in multiple polls – wish Roe would have been preserved. And multiple legal scholars have told CNN that they had wanted Roe preserved.
Actual Fact: Polling is irrelevant. The only relevant fact is Trump’s claim about “everybody” is clearly wrong, which, of course he is. It’s an obvious exaggeration, as he is prone to do, and the “everybody” most likely refers to everyone around him or advising him. As to those polls, many people don’t even know what Roe vs Wade means, believing abolishing it means abortion is immediately banned. Wrong, it would default to state law, and in many states, abortion law exceeded the limit of the constitutionally protected abortion limits.
Trump on Biden and the term “super predators”
Trump claimed that Biden called Black people “super predators” for a decade in the 1990s.
“What he’s done to the Black population is horrible, including the fact that for 10 years he called them ‘super predators’ – in the 1990s – we can’t forget that,” Trump said.
Facts First: Trump’s claim is false. Biden never publicly deployed the phrase “super predators” or endorsed the criminological theory behind it.
Actual Fact: Biden used the term “predators” about a 1994 crime bill. That Trump added “super” is again exaggeration or even confusion. This fact check seems more about being pedantic so to pad the numbers against Trump.
Trump on the National Guard in Minneapolis
Trump said that he deployed the National Guard to Minneapolis in 2020 during the unrest that followed the murder of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer.
“When they ripped down Portland, when they ripped down many other cities. You go to Minnesota, Minneapolis, what they’ve done there with the fires all over the city – if I didn’t bring in the National Guard, that city would have been destroyed.”
Facts First: This is false. Minnesota Democratic Gov. Tim Walz, not Trump, deployed the Minnesota National Guard during the 2020 unrest; Walz first activated the Guard more than seven hours before Trump publicly threatened to deploy the Guard himself.
Actual Facts: CNN refers to “publicly”. Privately (which could be Trump’s reference), we don’t know, and publicly, in general, Trump was offering the National Guard to many jurisdictions to quell the violence. His point is that he’s much stronger on public safety than the Democrats.
Trump on the European Union’s trade practices
Trump, complaining about the European Union’s trade practices, claimed that the EU doesn’t accept US products, including American cars. “They don’t want anything that we have,” Trump said Thursday. “But we’re supposed to take their cars, their food, their everything, their agriculture.”
Facts First: It’s not true that the European Union won’t take American products, including American cars, though some US exports do face EU trade barriers and though US automakers have often had a hard time gaining popularity with European consumers.
Actual Fact: Again, taking Trump too literally. He’s clearly referring to trade barriers and the unfair trade deals, not zero trade that direction.
Trump on job growth during Biden’s presidency
Trump said of President Biden, “The only jobs he created were for illegal immigrants and ‘bounce-back jobs,’ a bounce-back from the Covid.”
Facts First: Trump’s claims that the job growth during Biden’s presidency has been all “bounce-back” gains where people went back to their old jobs is not fully correct.
Actual Fact: Another case of taking Trump too literally, especially when he’s responding to Biden’s constant claim (lie) of creating 15 million jobs without ever mentioning the rebound from Covid, which is never challenged by CNN. Biden is even beginning to lie in interviews that inflation was 9% when he took office, not the actual 1.4%, which, again, is never challenged by CNN or anybody else.
Trump on the Paris Climate Accord
Trump claimed that the Paris climate accord would have cost the USA $1 trillion, that it was the only country that had to pay, and that China, India and Russia weren’t paying. Trump called the accord “a rip-off of the United States.”
Facts First: Trump’s claim that the US would alone have had to pay $1 trillion as part of the Paris climate accord is wildly inflated.
Actual Fact: Over time, it could well be $1 trillion! Trump’s broader point is the Paris Accord required the USA to commit vast amounts of money, which is unfair, and a scam.
Trump on other countries doing business with Iran during his presidency
Trump claimed that China, among other countries, “passed” on doing business with Iran during his presidency after he vowed that the US would not do business with any country that does so.
“Iran was broke. Anybody that did business with Iran, including China, they couldn’t do business with the United States. They all passed,” Trump said.
Facts First: This is false.
Actual Fact: As CNN admit in the article, oil imports from Iran did plummet under Trump’s presidency in 2019. This is a clear case of exaggeration by Trump. No one even half conscious would take Trump’s claim literally. Again, he’s trying to highlight he is much tougher stance on Iran.
Trump on the impact of immigration on Medicare and Social Security
Trump said at least twice during the debate that Biden will destroy Social Security and Medicare by putting migrants entering the US on the benefits.
“These millions and millions of people coming in, they’re trying to put them on Social Security. He will wipe out Social Security. He will wipe out Medicare,” Trump said.
Facts First: Trump is wrong. In fact, the opposite is true, particularly in the near term, multiple experts say. Many undocumented immigrants work, which means they pay much-needed payroll taxes, and this bolsters the Social Security and Medicare trust funds and extends their solvency.
Actual Fact: No one knows for sure, and CNN only cites the near term. Nor does CNN mention the many illegal immigrants that flooded in under Biden, that are on welfare, and living in hotels. Trump’s statement is more about long term fear about more strain on systems already under strain, not that these systems would literally be “wiped out”.
Trump on the 2020 election
Trump reiterated election lies, claiming that he didn’t accept the results of the 2020 election because of voter fraud.
“I would’ve much rather accepted these, but the fraud and everything else was ridiculous,” Trump said.
Facts First: Trump’s election claims remain false.
Actual Facts: Trump will always believe the 2020 election was ridiculous, and it was rigged due to so many unusual measures that took place, which likely did increase voter fraud. The Trump campaign had thousands of affidavits from people that could not because their vote was supposedly already cast. The real question is whether the fraud was sufficient to flip the election result, which is highly unlikely. There was also election interference by media, social media and the infamous letter from 51 former intelligence officials that stated Hunter Biden’s laptop, which implicated Joe Biden in various illicit schemes, was Russian disinformation. This issue is really one about accepting there was strange behaviour and some fraud and genuine concerns about that election, not to pretend the election was 100% fair or Trump would have won without it.
Trump on his tax cuts
Trump once again claimed that the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act was the biggest tax cut ever.
“I gave you the largest tax cut in history,” Trump said.
Facts First: Trump is wrong. Analyses have found that the act was not the largest in history either in percentage of gross domestic product or inflation-adjusted dollars.
Actual Facts: Clearly an exaggeration. Everyone knows he’s really referring to recent times, or simply means his tax cuts were large.
Trump on abortion medication
Trump claimed, “The Supreme Court just approved the abortion pill.”
Facts First: Trump’s claim about the abortion drug is false. The Supreme Court did not rule on the merits of the case and approve mifepristone, one of the pills used in a medication abortion. It sent the case back to the lower courts for additional proceedings.
Actual Facts: Clear misinterpretation or a misstatement by Trump. CNN neglects to mention that the Supreme Court unanimously rejected the effort to ban the pill, and were very skeptical about the testimony from the plaintiffs alleging the drug caused injury. Without that, they don’t have the legal right to sue and attempt to ban the drug.
Trump on migrants and crime
Trump claimed that migrants were entering the United States and killing women, saying that “these killers are coming into our country, and they are raping and killing women.”
Facts First: This needs context.
Actual Facts: It actually doesn’t need context. Trump means what he means. These women and girls would be alive if not for Biden’s open border policy that’s allowed in millions of illegal immigrants whose backgrounds can never be properly vetted.
Trump on the US share of NATO funding
During a dispute over who would do a better job countering Russia’s war in Ukraine, Trump criticized the North Atlantic Treaty Organization and how it is funded by its members, claiming he had learned after taking office that “almost 100% of the money was paid by us.”
Facts First: Trump’s claim is false.
Actual Facts: CNN admits it is lot at 71%, and could that mean “almost 100%” to Trump? Perhaps, especially if he’s not aware of the correct percentage. No one would believe the USA pays the entire bill. The point is, the USA pays the vast bulk of it and other members should pay more.
Trump on the cost of food
Trump claimed that Biden caused inflation and that it’s “killing” Americans, who “can’t buy groceries anymore” because the cost of food has “doubled and tripled and quadrupled.”
Facts First: Trump’s claims of food prices doubling, tripling and quadrupling are not entirely factual and could use some context.
Actual Facts: Some food, like eggs, did double, if not triple at times. Overall, clearly hyperbole to describe the harsh impact of Biden’s inflation.
Trump on the Veterans Choice program
Trump took credit for the passage of the Veterans Choice health care law, referring to “Choice, that I got through Congress.”
Facts First: Trump’s claim is false. The Veterans Choice program was actually signed into law in 2014 by his predecessor, President Barack Obama. Trump signed a law in 2018, the VA MISSION Act, that expanded and modified the program established under Obama, and, as Trump has said, made the initiative permanent.
Actual Facts: Trump is likely referring to getting it through congress as a permanent program, as CNN notes he did. His other point is he’s done more for the program whereas Biden has done less.
Trump on funding HBCUs
Trump made a claim during the debate that he “funded” historically Black colleges and universities.
“When they see what I did for criminal justice reform and for the historically Black colleges and universities where I funded them and got them all funded,” Trump said.
Facts First: Trump is exaggerating here and his claims need context.
Actual Facts: Yes, an exaggeration. Trump is being boastful.
Hyperbole and Exaggerations – Total: Trump 16, Biden 0
FALSE FACT CHECKS
Trump on Democrats and abortion
Trump repeated his frequent claim that Democrats will kill babies in the “eighth month, the ninth month of pregnancy, or even after birth.” After Biden said that he would “restore Roe vs Wade” if reelected, Trump said, “So that means he can take the life of the baby in the ninth month and even after birth, because some states – Democrat-run – take it after birth.” Trump pointed to the former Virginia governor’s support of a bill that would loosen restrictions on late-term abortions as an example.
Trump also said later in the debate that some “Democrat-run” states allow babies to be killed after birth.
Facts First: Trump’s claim about Democrats killing babies after birth is nonsense; that is infanticide and illegal in all 50 states. A very small percentage of abortions happen at or after 21 weeks of pregnancy.
Actual Fact: Donald Trump specifically referred to a situation in North Carolina where the previous governor, Ralph Northam, did, indeed, talk about post-birth abortion – that the baby, if it inadvertently was born, would be made comfortable before a decision is made. Trump also cited other states that allowed similar situations. The Fact Check does not even address this, digressing about infanticide.
Trump on the ‘suckers’ and ‘losers’ controversy
Trump denied that he had used the words “suckers” or “losers” to describe members of the US military who had been killed in action, after Biden pointed to the remarks to criticize his predecessor’s record on supporting veterans. And he claimed that the idea he had made these remarks was “made up by him,” Biden.
Facts First: Trump’s claim that Biden made up this story is false. The story was initially reported by The Atlantic.
Actual Fact: It’s actually a Biden lie. It’s a story that’s also been debunked countless times, yet Biden still repeats the lie. Trump also first said the story came from a “third rate magazine” before bemoaning that Biden knows this, before then saying it was “made up by him”. Likely Trump meant this continuing hoax is made up by Biden, which it is. Biden is keeping it alive, along with the “injecting bleach” hoax.
Trump on Iran’s funding for Hamas and Hezbollah
Trump claimed that when he was president, Iran “had no money for Hamas” and no money “for terror.”
Facts First: Trump’s claims that Iran had “no money for Hamas,” “no money for terror” and no money for Hezbollah during his presidency is false.
Actual Fact: Trump saying “no” is taken too literally. He means insufficient or severely diminished or “broke” due to the sanctions during his presidency, which Joe Biden then eased. Trump’s claim is really about him being much tougher on Iran, which is true.
Trump on Biden and a Ukrainian prosecutor
Trump brought up an anti-Biden lie about Ukraine that has been a mainstay of both the 2020 and 2024 presidential cycles, plus Trump’s 2019 impeachment.
Trump slammed Biden for supposedly “telling the Ukrainian people” to “change the prosecutor, otherwise, you’re not getting $1 billion,” referring to Biden’s efforts to remove Ukraine’s top prosecutor in 2016
Facts First: Trump’s claims are false.
Actual Fact: Trump is correct. While CNN later cited that removing the prosecutor was bipartisan American policy and favoured among the USA’s European allies, that is irrelevant. The fact remains that Biden did tell the Ukrainians to sack the prosecutor or they are not getting the $1 billion. This was at a time when Biden’s son, Hunter, was on the board of Burisma, the Ukrainian gas company that was under investigation.
Trump on his criminal cases
Trump repeated his frequent claims that Biden and his Justice Department were behind Trump’s four indictments, including the Manhattan hush money case in which Trump was convicted on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records.
“He indicted me because I was his opponent,” Trump said of Biden.
Of the Manhattan conviction, Trump said: “That was a case that was started and moved. They moved a high-ranking official at DOJ into the Manhattan DA’s office to start that case.”
Facts First: There is no evidence supporting either of Trump’s claims.
Actual Facts: Two cases are being prosecuted by Biden’s DOJ (Department of Justice). That’s a fact. The Manhattan case saw Matthew Colangelo, the third ranked official at Biden’s DOJ, quit that position to move to New York to resurrect the Manhattan case. There’s also the Georgia case, where one of the prosecutors, Nathan Wade, met lawyers at the White House for 8 hours. All this activity occurred roughly at the same time, after Trump had recently announced his run for the 2024 presidency, and not long after Biden said at a press conference: “Well, we just have to demonstrate that he will not take power by – if we – if he does run. I’m making sure he, under legitimate efforts of our Constitution, does not become the next President again.”
Read more here: How Donald Trump Became A Convicted Felon – An Explanation For Dummies
Trump on his own comments after 2017 Charlottesville march
Biden denounced Trump for saying in August 2017 that “very fine people” were among the participants in a hateful “Unite the Right” event days prior in Charlottesville, Virginia. The event was organized by White nationalists after the city decided to remove a statue of Confederate general Robert E. Lee from a park. The participants included neo-Nazis, one of whom murdered a counter-protester, and prominent public racists.
But Trump claimed that Biden’s recall of his remark was “made up” and a “nonsense story.”
Facts First: Trump’s claim that Biden’s description of his comments is a “nonsense story” is itself false. Biden fairly characterized Trump’s comments about the events in Charlottesville.
Actual Facts: Biden is lying. Not only is the transcript widely available that shows Trump clearly referring to the “fine people” as the peaceful protesters on both sides, he explicitly condemned the violent ones. Just a few days prior to the debate, the left-wing publication Snopes specifically debunked it in an article titled “No, Trump Did Not Call Neo-Nazis and White Supremacists ‘Very Fine People'”.
Trump on terror attacks during his administration
In discussing the Middle East and Hamas’ October 7 attack on Israel, Trump claimed that there was “no terror at all during my administration.”
Facts First: Trump’s claim is false, and it remains false even if he was referring specifically to attacks by Islamic extremists. There were various terrorist attacks during the Trump presidency. In fact, in his State of the Union address in 2018, Trump blamed immigration policies for “two terrorist attacks in New York” in “recent weeks.”
Actual Facts: Trump was referring to Islamic extremists. Trump is incorrectly categorising, for obvious political reasons about the insecure border, that the attacks in New York were terrorism.
Trump on his own comments on January 6
In response to a question about his actions – and inaction – on January 6, 2021, while his supporters stormed the US Capitol, Trump defended the incendiary speech he delivered before the attack.
“I said, ‘Peacefully and patriotically,’” Trump said.
Facts First: This is highly misleading. He did say those words during his speech on the Ellipse on January 6, but he also told his supporters that they “wouldn’t have a country anymore” if they didn’t march to the US Capitol and “fight like hell” against a “rigged” election.
Actual Facts: Trump is highly accurate. he is so accurate that the Democrats and the phony January 6 Committee always edit out those words. Why? Because they are accurate and destroy the Democrats’ narrative. Note that CNN is adding other quotes completely out of context. Why?
Trump on Pelosi and January 6
Trump once again tried to blame former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi for the January 6, 2021, attack on the US Capitol, saying that the California Democrat had turned down his offer of 10,000 National Guard troops to protect the Capitol that day and had admitted this in video taken by her own daughter.
“Nancy Pelosi, if you just watched the news from two days ago, on tape to her daughter, who is a documentary filmmaker … but she’s saying, ‘Oh, no, it’s my responsibility, I was responsible for this,’ because I offered her 10,000 soldiers, or National Guard, and she turned them down,” Trump said.
He added, “And I offered it to her. And she now admits that she turned it down.”
Facts First: Trump’s claims about Pelosi’s role in Capitol security and in the deployment of the National Guard are false.
Actual Facts: Trump is correct. Pelosi was on a tape, as part of a documentary by her daughter, admitting responsibility for not acting on security: “I take responsibility for not having them just prepare for more.” Furthermore, Trump did offer the National Guard, which Pelosi rejected. While CNN quibbles over who actually can accept these offers of the National Guard (Trump also said the DC mayor rejected the offer), fact is Trump offered it and Pelosi admits responsibility.
Trump on funding for Ukraine
Trump claimed that the US has given more in aid to Ukraine than European countries put together.
“The European nations together have spent $100 billion, or maybe more than that, less than us,” Trump said.
Facts First: Trump’s claim is false. From just before Russia’s invasion in early 2022 through April 2024, European countries contributed more aid to Ukraine than the US, according to data from the Kiel Institute for the World Economy in Germany. European countries had committed a total of about $190 billion to Ukraine in military, financial and humanitarian assistance, compared with about $106 billion committed by the USA.
Actual Facts: Many people would be surprised that the American contributions only $106 billion, and therefore lower than Europe’s. I suspected it was $100 billion a year, so $200 billion by now. More an innocent error than a lie by Trump.
Trump on lowering the cost of insulin
Trump again tried to take full credit for lowering the cost of insulin for older Americans.
“I’m the one that got the insulin down for the seniors,” Trump said.
Facts First: Trump’s claim that he was the one who reduced the cost of insulin for seniors is exaggerated. The former president did get a $35-per-month out-of-pocket cap on insulin for some seniors… while Biden ensured that all 3.4 million-plus insulin users on Medicare got $35-per-month insulin, which covers more people than initially under Trump.
Actual Facts: Technically, Trump is correct. He got the price in. In truth, an exaggeration, as Biden expanded it.
False Fact Checks – Total: Trump 11, Biden 0
CORRECT FACT CHECKS
Biden on his record as commander-in-chief
Biden claimed that he is the only president this decade “that doesn’t have any … troops dying anywhere in the world, like he did,” referring to Trump.
“Truth is, I’m the only president this century, that doesn’t have any, this decade, that doesn’t have any troops dying anywhere in the world, like he did,” Biden said.
Facts First: Biden is wrong. US service members have died abroad during his presidency, including 13 troops killed in a suicide bombing during the US withdrawal from Afghanistan.
Actual Facts: Could be the worst lie ever, and just adds to his other lies that the Afghanistan withdrawal was a monumental success. It was a disaster, and it was from this point on in his presidency that the lies of his administration began to backfire and his approval numbers collapse. Along with the 13 killed in Afghanistan, 3 more were killed by Iranian attacks on bases in Jordan.
Biden on drug prices
Biden touted two measures that his administration and congressional Democrats have enacted to reduce drug prices.
“We brought down the price of prescription drugs, which is a major issue for many people, to $15 for a insulin shot as opposed to $400. No senior has to pay more than $200 for any drug … beginning next year,” Biden said.
Facts First: Biden is wrong. He incorrectly described two key provisions of the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act that aim to reduce prescription drug costs for Medicare beneficiaries.
Actual Facts: $35 is the price for each insulin prescription and $2000 is the limit for out of pocket expenses.
Biden on border crossings dropping during his administration
Biden said border crossings had dropped 40% since he took executive action to tighten the border in early June, arguing that the numbers are better than when Trump left office.
“What I’ve done since I changed the law, what’s happened? I’ve changed it in a way that now you’re in situation where there are 40% fewer people coming across the border illegally,” Biden said.
Facts First: This is misleading.
Actual Facts: More than misleading. Completely deceptive and wrong. Any reduced numbers of illegal immigration is the usual drop in the peak of summer because it’s too hot and dangerous to be wandering through the desert. Clearly the executive order was merely issued to coincide with the usual reduction, to create a false cause and effect. Of course, total numbers remain far worse than under Trump.
Biden on support from the Border Patrol union
Biden said the Border Patrol union endorsed him, and then appeared to clarify and said the group “endorsed (his) position.”
Facts First: This is misleading. The National Border Patrol Council, the union that represents Border Patrol agents, backed a bipartisan border deal reached by senators that included some of the toughest security measures in recent memory, but didn’t endorse Biden. The deal failed in the Senate.
Actual Fact. Completely false. While Biden did add to his comment about the border deal, the Border Patrol only approved of it in that it offered more personnel. It did nothing for security and, in fact, waved through 5000 people every day before attempting to closing the border. Even them, there were so many loopholes to get in. Of course, the NBPC does not endorse at all, and posted on X that it never has and never will.
Biden on Black unemployment
Biden attempted to contrast himself with Trump on the economy. He said, “Black unemployment is the lowest level it’s been in a long, long time.”
Facts First: This is false. While the Black or African American unemployment rate hit a record low under Biden in April 2023, 4.8%, the rate was up to 6.1% in May 2024 – higher than in eight months of the Trump presidency.
Actual Facts: Yes, Biden lying. Trump had the rate much lower.
Trump on tariffs
Trump claimed that his proposal to impose a 10% tariff on all goods coming into the US would not raise prices on Americans and instead cost other countries.
“It’s just going to cost countries that have been ripping us off for years, like China, and many others,” Trump said.
Facts First: This is false. Study after study including one from the federal government’s bipartisan US International Trade Commission (USITC), have shown that American consumers and industries bear almost the entire cost of US tariffs, including those duties previously imposed by Trump.
Actual Facts: Yes, higher tariffs typically means the consumer pays more.
Trump on the United States’ trade deficit with China
Trump claimed that under Biden, “We have the largest deficit with China.”
Facts First: This is false. Even if you only count trade in goods and ignore the services trade – in which the US traditionally runs a surplus with China – the deficit with China fell to about $279 billion in 2023, the lowest since 2010.
Actual Facts: While the numbers are impossible to argue, it would be nice to know any influence by Covid that caused a lot of Chinese manufacturing to be shut down. Has it fully recovered?
Biden on taxing billionaires
Biden claimed that there are a thousand billionaires in the country who are “in a situation where they, in fact, pay 8.2% in taxes.”
Facts First: Biden used this figure in a way that was misleading.
Actual Facts: Biden also mentioned that raising the tax on billionaires to 25% would raise $500 billion over 10 years (probably correct), which would wipe out all of Trump’s debt and pay for various social programs. That’s completely wrong given the deficit for 2020 alone (due to Covid) was over $3 trillion, or $3,000 billion. Since then, Biden added $2,772 billion for 2021 and $1,376 billion for 2022. For 2019, it was $984 billion.
Biden on unemployment when he took office
In defending his record on the economy, Biden said that when he took office, “the economy was flat on its back. Fifteen percent unemployment. (Trump) decimated the economy. … That’s why there was not inflation at the time. There were no jobs.”
Facts First: Biden’s claim that the US unemployment rate was 15% when he took office is incorrect. It was 6.4%.
Actual Facts: One of Biden’s worst lies.
Trump on Biden’s tax plans
Trump claimed that Biden is proposing to multiply Americans’ taxes by four times.
“He wants to raise everybody’s taxes by four times,” Trump said.
Facts First: This is false, just as it was when Trump made the same claim during the 2020 election campaign and in early 2024.
Actual Facts: Clearly nonsense.
Correct Fact Checks – Total: Trump 3, Biden 7
MISSED FACT CHECKS AGAINST BIDEN BY CNN
Biden on climate change
Biden said, “The only existential threat to humanity is climate change”.
Actual Facts: Clear nonsense. If climate change was really such a threat, the world would have rushed to nuclear energy decades ago to forestall it. Earlier in the debate, Trump was talking about the threat of nuclear war, which is easily the more immediate threat to humanity.
Biden about the 2024 election
Biden claimed Trump said there would be a “bloodbath” if Trump loses.
Actual Facts: The bloodbath comment is another hoax, as Trump was referring to the auto industry and tariffs, saying “Biden’s policies will create an economic bloodbath for the auto industry and autoworkers.” There’s also the “dictator from day one” hoax, where Trump explicitly said he would not be dictator “except for day one” and that would be to sign executive orders to secure the border and expand drilling. “After that, I’m not a dictator”, Trump reiterated. Executive orders are a tool every president uses. Biden signed 77 of them just in his first year, including 17 on day one.
Biden about late term abortions under Roe vs Wade
When Trump said restoring Roe would mean that Biden “can take the life of the baby in the ninth month and even after birth”, Biden responded, “That is simply not true. That Roe v Wade does not provide for that.”
Actual Facts: Roe vs Wade only blocked states from banning abortions prior to fetal viability, or approximately 24 weeks. Beyond that, state law came into effect. If it allowed late-term or full-term abortions, then Roe offered no impediment there. The case that overturned Roe (Dobbs vs Jackson Women’s Health Organization) was about a 2018 Mississippi state law that limited abortions to 15 weeks. The court decided there’s no constitutional protection to abortion, much less a power to pseudo legislate a number of weeks (one of the original criticisms with Roe), so returned power back to the states.
Overall total of actual, clear lies: Trump 3, Biden 10
This overall total excludes false fact checks against Trump, which are actually lies against Biden, notably the Charlottesville “fine people” lie and the military “suckers and losers” lie.
How Donald Trump Became A Convicted Felon – An Explanation For Dummies
How Hunter Biden Became A Convicted Felon – An Explanation For Dummies
26 June 2024
In the wake of former president Donald Trump becoming a convicted felon, we now have Hunter Biden, the son of President Joe Biden, becoming a convicted felon. These events mark the first time a former president of the United States and the first time a child of a current serving president have been convicted of a crime. In contrast to the Trump business records case in Manhattan, New York, there actually isn’t a great deal of mystery surrounding Biden’s federal gun charges. Where Trump’s was a multi-layered concoction in order to revive a misdemeanor with an expired statute of limitations regarding business records, Biden’s is very straight forward and simple to understand about gun obtainment and possession. Therefore, this exercise is not so much for dummies, it’s more for illumination and contrast.
As with the post about Trump, I will look at everything from the initial activity and the charge, to the case for and against Hunter Biden, and the verdict. While a straight forward case, this one is just as steeped in politics, especially its background and in comparison to the cases against Trump, and the likely eventuality that President Joe Biden will pardon his son.
The Activity
On 12 October 2018, Hunter Biden bought a gun from a gun shop in Wilmington, Delaware, and, on a mandatory federal background check form, stated that he was not a user of illegal drugs. He possessed the gun for 11 days before it was discovered by girlfriend Hallie Biden, who was the widow of Hunter’s brother Beau, and she threw it in a thrash can out the front of a grocery store near their home in Wilmington. Later that day when telling Hunter Biden she dumped the gun, he asked her to retrieve the gun and she noticed it was gone. Hallie spoke to the store manager, who then informed police. Edward Banner, an 80 year old man who liked to scavenge through trash cans, found the gun and was eventually tracked down by police using security footage.
The Charges
Two counts of making false statements and one count of illegal gun possession.
The Prosecution
Prosecutors had text messages and other material, include the words of Hunter Biden himself from his own memoir written in 2021, that showed he was not only clearly using illegal drugs at the time (specifically crack cocaine), he was a rampant addict. The day after the purchase, one specific text message with Hallie Biden, Hunter mentioned he was on his way to meet a drug dealer named Mookie. Various witnesses, including former girlfriends, corroborated Hunter Biden’s drug addiction at the time. The audio version of Hunter Biden’s memoir was most damning of all, with his very voice detailing his addiction of “up twenty-four hours a day, smoking every 15 minutes, seven days a week” and “All my energy revolved around smoking drugs and making arrangements to buy drugs – feeding the beast“.
There was also Hunter Biden’s notorious laptop, which contained all the messages and images of him on drugs at the time of the offence. FBI agent Erika Jensen testified the laptop was fully authentic and never tampered with.
The Defence
The main defence was Biden, at least in his mind, was not addicted to drugs on the day of the offence and the quality of the evidence was in doubt. The defence also portrayed Biden as a sympathetic character due to his former addiction and now recovered in hope for jury nullification (return not guilty even if guilty) by the local Delaware jury.
The Verdict
The evidence was overwhelming against Biden. The nullification tactic, which included first lady Jill Biden in court most days, even during jury selection, to intimidate the jurors, failed. It’s likely those tactics, along with some of the preposterous claims from the defence, fortified the jurors into returning the obvious verdict of guilty on all counts. One juror spoke to the media afterwards and said they all looked at the case and evidence on its merits, leaving politics aside. The Biden name is synonymous with Delaware after Joe Biden served 36 years as a United States senator for Delaware, 8 years as vice president, and now almost 4 years as president, so there were fears the nullification tactic by the defence might work.
The Sentence
While 25 years is the maximum, as a first time offender, Biden won’t get anywhere near that, or perhaps no prison sentence at all. Even if he gets prison time, any appeal means he won’t be immediately behind bars. The sentencing date is expected to be within four months of the verdict date. No specific date is yet set.
The Politics
These gun charges are the lowest level of the potential federal crimes Hunter Biden committed. They only came into effect when a plea deal on 26 July 2023 over tax charges fell apart. Biden would plead guilty to two misdemeanor counts of not paying $100,000 in taxes on income over 2017 and 2018 that would also grant him broad immunity to any further charges and a pretrial diversion (case is handled outside the court to avoid a conviction) on the felony gun charges. Judge Maryellen Noreika questioned the constitutionality of it, and whether both sides fully understood the deal. Prosecutors were asked if Biden was still under investigation, potentially for a FARA (Foreign Agents Registration Act) crime, and they said Yes. When asked if there was ever a precedent for such a plea deal, they said No. Hunter Biden ultimately scuttled the plea deal by pleading not guilty to the charges.
The potential Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) crimes related to Hunter Biden’s time travelling with his father, Joe Biden and Vice President at the time, around the world in various influence peddling schemes, which has resulted in accusations of bribery, money laundering and racketeering involving himself, his father and other members of the Biden family. Ignoring those accusations themselves, it’s the income from the schemes in which Hunter might have been subjected to pay tax that, if investigated, could have revealed a substantial web of crimes by the Biden family. According to IRS whistleblowers Gary Shapley and Joe Ziegler, these investigations were deliberately stonewalled by the office of Delaware District Attorney, David Weiss, to the point that the statute of limitations expired on the most serious of potential crimes. Embarrassed at the double standard and perception of favourable treatment compared to the cases against Donald Trump, United States Attorney General Merrick Garland, in August of 2023, would appoint Weiss as special counsel to investigate Hunter Biden. Weiss brought these gun charges, while also indicting Hunter Biden on nine tax charges in California (three felonies and six misdemeanors), with that case set to be heard on 5 September 2024.
Hunter Biden’s laptop. It went from supposedly Russian disinformation to a critical component and key evidence in Hunter Biden’s trial. The FBI, who possessed it since 2019, always knew it was authentic, and when warning social media companies of a potential Russian disinformation campaign, failed to say the laptop would not be part of it. Instead, a mass censorship campaign started when the story, broken by the New York Post, could not be posted or shared on social media networks, even by direct message, while the NYP’s Twitter account was locked for 16 days. Just prior to the second presidential debate, at the instigation of now Secretary of State Antony Blinken, 51 former intelligence (note: news today is several were current contractors with the CIA) signed a letter for Joe Biden to use in the debate that the laptop was fake and Russian disinformation when Biden knew all along, like his son, that it wasn’t. You then wonder why Donald Trump will always think the 2020 election was rigged.
While much of the media has lauded Hunter Biden for accepting the verdict compared to Donald Trump’s defiance in his case, there are fundamental differences. Biden was in a friendly environment for jurors, faced clear, direct charges, the evidence was damning, and the witnesses were credible and reliable. Trump was in a hostile environment, with a biased judge, faced concocted charges, the evidence was mostly flimsy and circumstantial, and a convicted liar and renown Trump hater was the key witness.
Separate to the Hunter Biden case, Joe Biden was investigated for illegally handling classified documents and found to have “willfully retained and disclosed classified materials after his vice presidency when he was a private citizen”. While it’s full steam ahead on similar charges against Donald Trump, Biden escaped charges partly because “he would likely present himself to a jury, as he did during our [Special Counsel’s] interview of him, as a sympathetic, well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory”. Again, you wonder why Donald Trump thinks the system is rigged against him, and that his cases are just political persecution and election interference.
The Appeal
There seems limited grounds for appeal. One avenue is the second amendment of the constitution, the right to bear arms, so Hunter Biden had every right to buy a gun. This seems a stretch as the charges relate to making false statements on a federal form, not simple possession of a gun. Just recently, Biden’s lawyers have requested a new trial over a technicality regarding jurisdiction.
Hunter Biden’s best hope lies with his father, President Joe Biden. While Joe Biden has said he would not pardon his son or commute the sentence, there’s absolutely no way he would allow his son to serve time in jail. Much will depend on the sentence and the result of the tax trial in September. There’s also the presidential election on 5 November 2024 where, regardless of the result, Biden won’t face accountability by the electorate anymore. If Biden wins, he would have some leeway (four years) in his final term whether to pardon or commute. If he loses, as a lame duck president, meaning he only has until 20 January 2025 to act, he would likely pardon Hunter, especially if there’s still sentencing hanging over his son’s head. As Joe Biden was once caught saying, “No one f*cks with a Biden.”
How Donald Trump Became A Convicted Felon – An Explanation For Dummies
10 June 2024
It’s been over a week since Donald Trump was found guilty on 34 counts of falsifying business records, and still there’s much confusion as to what the 45th President of the United States of America specifically did wrong. Paying so-called hush money is not illegal, and surely using political campaign finances to pay such money would be illegal, yet somehow this has been flipped around to make Trump the first ever former president to be a convicted felon. That he’s running for president again and the guilty verdict has made no impact on his prospects, creates further mystery.
As a dummy myself, at least in the legal sense, I can make some sense of it after watching and reading so much about the case. I will break down the process from the initial activity and the charge, to the case for and against, the verdict, the politics behind it, and, finally, the appeal.
The Activity
In October 2016, a month before the presidential election, Michael Cohen, Donald Trump’s lawyer and “fixer” at the time, paid porn actress Story Daniels $130,000 in a non-disclosure agreement (NDA) to stay quiet about an alleged sexual encounter with Trump in 2006. While not relevant to the case, Trump denies the sexual encounter.
In August 2018, Cohen pleaded guilty to an excessive campaign finance contribution in relation to $150,000 paid to Playboy model Karen McDougal and $130,000 to Stormy Daniels for their respective NDAs. The campaign finance limit for individuals then was $2700 per election. This plea was on top of more serious charges of criminal tax invasion (concealing more than $4 million in income and giving false statements to a bank). Cohen was sentenced to 3 years in prison.
The Charges
Trump was charged with “falsifying business records in the first degree” when Cohen was reimbursed for the NDA, other legal services, a bonus, and to cover taxes, for a total of $420,000, and they were recorded as legal expenses by Trump’s bookkeeper.
Ordinarily a misdemenour with a statute of limitation of 2 years, to revive them to a felony to escape the statute of limitations, it was alleged the records were falsified “with intent to defraud and intent to commit another crime and aid and conceal the commission thereof”. The 34 individual counts relate to 11 invoices and 11 cheques, and 12 ledger entries. These payments were made between 14 February 2017 and 5 December 2017.
The second crime was never detailed on the charge sheet, which is allowed under New York law.
Only during the court case was the second crime revealed to be violating New York election law, specifically “any two or more persons to conspire to promote or prevent the election of any person to a public office by unlawful means”.
The Prosecution – Key Elements
Cohen testified that he was ordered by Trump to pay the NDA to Daniels, and it was agreed to try conceal the payment.
David Pecker, publisher of National Enquirer (a tabloid newspaper), detailed a “catch and kill” scheme following a meeting with Cohen and Trump at Trump Tower in 2015. This confirms a pattern of behaviour by Trump. Note that “catch and kill” is buying stories and never publishing them. One of these arrangements involved McDougal and “limited life rights” about a relationship with “any then-married man”.
That the payments were described as a legal retainer, not a reimbursement, showed further intent to conceal them.
Cohen’s guilty plea in 2018 to campaign finance violations relating to the Daniels NDA implicated Trump as well.
In essence: falsified business records, to hide an illegal NDA, which unlawfully influenced the election.
The Defence – Key Elements
An NDA is not illegal, nor is a “catch and kill” scheme.
Cohen acted alone with the Daniels NDA. He also created the invoices and cheques, not Trump. Trump just signed them.
Reimbursing his lawyer could only be a legal expense, which would nullify the entire case.
The agreement to reimburse Cohen and the actual payments came after the election, so Trump could not be guilty of something that occurred in the past (influencing an election) by doing something in the future (falsifying records).
The difference between a legal retainer and a reimbursement is just words.
Cohen could not be trusted. He was a convicted liar, was motivated to lie because of his hatred of Trump, was caught lying during the trial, and is “the human embodiment of reasonable doubt”.
Pecker’s non-prosecution agreement with the federal government meant the parent company of National Enquirer was pressured into agreeing that Trump was directly involved in paying McDougal to remain silent about an alleged affair in 2006. Catch and kill schemes are not illegal anyway.
Similarly with Cohen’s 2018 guilty plea for an excessive campaign contribution, that was to get a shorter sentence on the main charges and potentially use Cohen’s conviction to get Trump.
Every election campaign is a conspiracy to promote a candidate. It’s normal to only want and promote positive stories. With the National Enquirer in particular, it was a very low circulation newspaper so had minimal influence.
Several witnesses were not called, notably Allen Weisselberg (Chief Financial Officer of the Trump Organisation) and Keith Schiller (Trump bodyguard). Prosecutors claim Weisselberg was in the same room with Trump and Cohen on or about 17 January 2017 when Trump and Cohen agreed to the $420,000 reimbursement. That the prosecution did not call Weisselberg infers he could completely scuttle Cohen’s claim of a conspiracy. Weisselberg is currently in jail over unrelated perjury matters, which complicated either side calling him. Schiller would have corroborated that Cohen lied to him.
Failed to prove beyond a reasonable doubt any elements of the alleged crime.
The Verdict
While no jury member has spoken yet, most likely they accepted Trump and Cohen were engaged in some sort of conspiracy to hide information from the voters to influence the election. This was further validated by Pecker’s testimony about the National Enquirer’s catch and kill scheme. Pecker’s non-prosecution agreement inferred further illegal activity in which Trump was involved. That Cohen pleaded guilty to a campaign finance law violation relating to his payment to Daniels meant that activity was unlawful, and it incriminated Trump.
The Sentence
As a low grade felony, a non-violent crime, a first time offender, and given Trump’s age of 78 at sentencing time, it should be no worse than probation or a suspended sentence. Of course, given the hostility the judge showed towards Trump, a short period jail, or home confinement, would not surprise. Trump will be sentenced on 11 July 2024, the week before the Republican National Convention to confirm Trump as the Republican Party’s nominee for the 2024 presidential election.
2 July 2024 – Update
Following a decision by the United States Supreme Court that a former president has absolute immunity against criminal prosecution for core presidential powers, is entitled to at least presumptive immunity for official acts, and no immunity for unofficial acts, sentencing has been delayed until 18 September 2024.
The Politics
Trump always claimed the trial was a witch-hunt and he had no chance to win. Trump notoriously cited the judge, Juan Merchan, as incredibly biased, notably that he donated to Joe Biden’s 2016 election campaign and to an action group called Stop Republicans, which is “dedicated to resisting the Republican Party and Donald Trump’s radical right-wing legacy”. While the donations were small ($15 and $10, respectively), it’s the signal that counts. Merchan’s daughter works for a Democrat political consulting firm that has raised millions of dollars off the case already. Trump believed the judge should have recused himself, if not be forced out, much like a judge donating to something called “Trump 2020 MAGA Forever” would never be allowed to preside over such a case. Somehow Merchan also presided over the conviction of Allen Weisselberg on tax fraud and, in September, will preside over fraud and money-laundering charges against Trump ally and former White House chief strategist, Steven Bannon. Judges are supposedly randomly selected.
Manhattan District Attorney, Alvin Bragg, campaigned on getting Trump, and concocted the entire case. The previous DA examined and rejected any need for charges against Trump relating to this matter, as did Bragg himself initially, as did the federal authorities.
This case is one of four against Trump, which magically started only after he announced, on 15 November 2022, he was running for president and a week later Joe Biden, in response to a question about reassuring G7 leaders about Trump potentially taking power again, said: “Well, we just have to demonstrate that he will not take power by – if we – if he does run. I’m making sure he, under legitimate efforts of our Constitution, does not become the next President again.” Matthew Colangelo, who worked as the third highest ranked official in President Joe Biden’s Department of Justice, then moved to New York and a position of much less stature in early 2023 to lead the prosecution against Trump. Biden’s DOJ is responsible for two of the other cases, with the fourth one a local case in Georgia, saw one of the prosecutors, Nathan Wade, meet lawyers at the White House for 8 hours. Trump maintains if there’s anything genuine behind these cases, they would have been brought much earlier. Instead, they are designed solely to interfere with the 2024 presidential election.
Manhattan overwhelming voted against Donald Trump so it was impossible to get a fair trial at this venue.
Any attempts to get a different judge or shift the venue were rejected.
The Appeal
Trump’s defence claims there’s many examples of “reversible error” with the process.
The salacious testimony from Stormy Daniels was irrelevant and prejudicial.
The prosecution mentioning Cohen’s 2018 guilty plea and Pecker’s non-prosecution agreement was prejudicial and unfairly connected Trump. Cases involving witnesses are not allowed to be mentioned for such reasons, yet the judge let the prosecution repeatedly break the rules.
Cohen, as someone already convicted of giving false statements, should not have been allowed to testify.
Merchan’s gag order on Trump was unconstitutional, especially as Cohen had no such restrictions and could influence the jury.
The judge did not allow Bradley Smith of the Federal Election Commission to testify. He would have stated that a campaign finance expense is an objective measure, and it must exclusively relate to a campaign, like polling, advertising or a campaign office. Expenses that could be for anything else, like an NDA, are excluded. In fact, using campaign finances to pay an NDA would be illegal. The law also states disclosure of expenses are not required until after an election. Therefore, to influence an election by falsifying records, that must occur before the election.
The prosecution never mentioned the underlying crime of influencing an election by unlawful means, nor the specific unlawful means, in due time.
There was no specific unlawful means to the underlying crime, with the prosecution simply offering three theories: a campaign finance violation (Cohen’s payment to Daniels was a campaign contribution to Trump), a tax law violation (false entry of the payment on a tax return) or to falsify another record (Cohen paid Daniels via a fake shell company that he set up). The former two are federal crimes so are out of the jurisdiction of New York County to prosecute. Both were already examined and declined by the relevant federal authorities.
The judge gave misleading jury instructions that could only create a guilty conviction, notably not striking statements from the prosecution (specifically Cohen’s 2018 guilty plea), using the term “accomplice” to describe Cohen, and telling the jury they did not need to unanimously agree a specific underlying crime was committed, only to agree that Trump had intent to commit or conceal another crime.
Trump, as a former president, could never get a fair trial in a jurisdiction like Manhattan where the people overwhelmingly voted against him.
The novel nature of the alleged crime itself: an expired misdemeamour of falsifying business records elevated to a felony by an unknown/spurious underlying crime and to which the specific unlawful means of the underlying crime were never specified nor required unanimous agreement from the jury.
06 January 2024
The year 2023 was effectively one of exclusive play on the Nintendo Switch. I barely turned on the PlayStation 4 while the PC was used for a game I mostly play on the Switch, as was the tablet I bought during the year. That game that got so much attention was, as per recent years, World of Tanks Blitz. While the tablet was not bought for games, it became quite invaluable when overseas in September and able to play some WOTB at the hotel or when waiting at a train station. On the PC, the WOTB account is a separate account from the Switch one, and I started it when working from home got quiet. These days, the tablet is occasionally used for both accounts. The Switch account remains the primary one in use.
2023 Activity
World of Tanks Blitz: 750 hours
F-Zero 99: 62 (first played 2023-10-06)
Tetris 99: 23
Advance Wars 1+2: Re-Boot Camp: 16 (2023-04-21)
Vampire Survivors: 13 (2023-08-17)
Mario Kart 8 Deluxe: 14
N64: 9
Metroid Prime Remaster: 5 (2023-03-03)
Super Mario Bros Wonder: 5 (2023-10-20)
Gameboy Advance: 4 (2023-02-19)
EA Sports FC 24: 3 (2023-11-18)
Anime Sexy Girl Puzzle – Hentai Game History: 3 (2023-09-30)
Animal Crossing: New Horizons: 1
Hot Wheels Unleashed: 1 (2023-06-30)
Note that the figures from Nintendo don’t include the full year so some games like World of Tanks Blitz, F-Zero 99 and Tetris 99 were adjusted.
Of those games released in 2023 (in bold), EA Sports FC 24 is the most surprising. These FIFA games are notoriously fiddly games with dodgy AI, and finally we get one that plays really well. Passes hit, teammates run into space, and shooting is instant. Who’d figure that’s the key to make a good football game?
Vampire Survivors, while released earlier on other platforms, was new to Switch in 2023 and was a welcome addition. It was so addictive trying to survive, and once you did, that’s sort of when the game quickly becomes stale. The 30 minute battles suddenly feel 15 minutes too long. It’s just going through the motions for the first half. An expedited mode should be added. Hot Wheels Unleashed is another older game that I only acquired in 2023. It was on sale and only played it once so far. It’s fine. The Anime Sexy Girl Puzzle game is self-explanatory, and fun. No nudity, by the way! It’s wholesome puzzle action.
Metroid Prime is in my top 3 favourite games ever, and the remaster was stunning. I even set the controls to the GameCube setup to relive the authentic feel! The modern setup for first person shooters not only feels odd in Metroid Prime, it makes it too easy. The GC setup actually feels more natural! Sadly I got distracted by other games and haven’t returned since that first week. Similarly with Advance Wars 1+2, an excellent package of these classic titles originally on the Gameboy Advance. Unfortunately I got distracted there, too.
Super Mario Bros Wonder is a wonderful and often innovative update of the classic series. I’ve completed about 10 levels so far, and its advantage is I can play it here and there in short bursts. Whereas Metroid Prime requires a time commitment, and so I often turn to other things for a quick fix.
F-Zero 99 is a surprising and addictive update of the classic Super NES game. Featuring 99 vehicles on the track at once, the game helps weaker players with the Skyway and extra golden orbs to hit the Skyway more often to keep them in the race. The leaders are also confronted with red and grey bumper cars to navigate, with the red ones exploding upon touch, so there’s always a feel of progression and a buzz when achieving a new best result. Of course, skill is required to actually win a race, and while I’ve finished second a few times and got exploded on the line in another race, I’m yet to win. Don’t worry, I’ll keep fighting! The game offers various modes, including pro tracks, various grand prix modes, and now a classic mode. Currently there’s a themed snow event to keep players interested. Vehicles can also be customised as you progress through the game. It is so well designed and really provides that classic and most purest racing thrill that only F-Zero games can provide.
All Time Activity
World of Tanks Blitz: 2935 hours
Tetris 99: 555
Animal Crossing: New Horizons: 155
Mario Kart 8 Deluxe: 80
F-Zero 99: 62
Those are the games that were played during the year. Others with big total hours…
Horizon Chase Turbo: 85 hours
Super Smash Bros Ultimate: 40*
Fast RMX: 25*
Super NES: 25 hours
Hotshot Racing: 25*
Doom: 20*
FIFA 18: 15
Double Dragon 4: 15 hours
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder’s Revenge: 10 hours
*Estimates because the Switch activity log seems to only remember more recent games played.
PC, Tablet & PS4
Probably add another 300 hours and 200 hours, respectively, for World of Tanks Blitz on PC and tablet for the year. Total time playing WOTB for all devices would be around 4500 hours since I started playing the game on 2020-08-30.
The only other game played on tablet was World of Warships Blitz for about 50 hours. That would be during the latter half of the year, as that’s when I bought the device. I got annoyed at that game due to the rigged matchmaking. Constantly put onto bad teams saps any incentive to play, with the one particular session that really stopped me playing was something like losing 7, winning 3, then losing another 9 before finally getting a win. The teams just fall apart, losing 2 ships out of your team of 7 within the first 30 seconds simply makes it impossible to win. It’s ridiculous. Considering I’m still at the lower ship tiers where most of the teammates are bots, the rigged nature is even more glaring and brazen. The game could easily assign good bots, not suicide ones, to restore some semblance of balanced and fair matchmaking. The nerve of the developer to then keep pushing items to buy. Yeah, right! Never would I spend a cent on garbage like that. I still check into the game daily to get the little gold rewards. That’s mostly it.
All I recall playing on PlayStation 4 was Everspace. It was primarily to check if the joy-stick controls could be flipped around because I remembered the game was so difficult to control. I noted this in Star Wars: Squadrons when I bought that in late 2020, then spontaneously figured during 2023 if that was the problem with Everspace and if I could flip them around as I could in Star Wars. Thankfully I could. Basically, the default setup is move with the right stick and look with the left, when in the history of gaming, characters and vehicles always move with the left stick. Peculiar that these two games flipped the setup.
I did buy Gran Turismo 7 and Street Fighter 6 late in 2023. Yet to play them.
Game of the Year
F-Zero 99
While my heart wanted to say Metroid Prime Remastered, the hard reality is I can’t award a game in which I only played 5 hours versus one of over 60 yours. In terms of the game itself, the game is a wonder, an excellent remaster, and an outstanding revitalisation of the Super NES classic.
Older Game of the Year
World of Tanks Blitz
This is the category for games released prior to 2023 that were first played in 2023. While WOTB was actually first played in 2020, this award wasn’t around then, and the game keeps on giving. It deserves the recognition and there really is no better candidate. Blitz on!
Previous Games of the Year
2022 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder’s Revenge (Switch)
2021 Metroid Dread (Switch)
2020 Animal Crossing: New Horizons (Switch)
2019 Horizon Chase Turbo (Switch)
2018 Super Smash Bros Ultimate (Switch)
2017 Metroid: Samus Returns (3DS)
2016 Yoshi’s New Island (3DS)
2015 Pokemon Shuffle (3DS)
2014 Super Smash Bros (3DS)
2013 Fire Emblem Awakening (3DS)
Previous Older Games of the Year
2022 Double Dragon 4 (Switch)
The Warrior Factor 