<Former President Trump asked a New York appeals court to put on hold the enforcement of the multimillion-dollar penalties he faces in his civil fraud case, suggesting he’d post a $100 million bond while the process plays out.

Judge Arthur Engoron ordered Trump to pay nearly $355 million, plus interest, in penalties after finding he conspired to alter his net worth to receive tax and insurance benefits. The total judgment against Trump, which climbs nearly $112,000 in interest each day he doesn’t pay it, now amounts to more than $454 million.

On top of that, Engoron ruled Trump, his business and top executives could not obtain loans from New York banks for three years.

Trump’s lawyers wrote in court filings Wednesday that the staggering judgment makes it “impossible” to secure a bond covering the full amount, which would have automatically put enforcement of the penalties on pause.

“The exorbitant and punitive amount of the Judgment coupled with an unlawful and unconstitutional blanket prohibition on lending transactions would make it impossible to secure and post a complete bond,” Trump’s lawyers wrote in a nearly 1,800-page court filing.

The lawyers also argued an independent monitor put in place by the judge would ensure Trump and his business pay up if they lose their appeal. Trump’s “vast ownership interests” in New York real estate — the many properties he owns there — “would alone be sufficient to adequately secure any judgment affirmed,” they said.

New York Attorney General Letitia James (D) has said she would seize some of Trump’s assets if he’s not able to cover the cost of the judgment.

In a letter to the appeals court responding to Trump’s effort to pause enforcement of the penalties, James’s office said it opposes any temporary pause — but especially if the former president doesn’t cough up all the cash on bond.

“There is no merit to defendants’ contention that a full bond or deposit is unnecessary because they are willing to post a partial undertaking of less than a quarter of the judgment amount,” state lawyer Dennis Fan wrote. “Defendants all but concede that Mr. Trump has insufficient liquid assets to satisfy the judgment; defendants would need ‘to raise capital’ to do so.”

Trump’s net worth is famously obscure, but estimators including Forbes and Bloomberg place his wealth between $2.6 billion and $3.1 billion. The former president previously told lawyers with the New York attorney general’s office that he has “substantially in excess of $400 million in cash.”

Trump filed his appeal on Monday with New York’s 1st Judicial Department Appellate Division. One of his lawyers, Alina Habba, said in a statement earlier this week that Trump’s team expects the court to “overturn this egregious fine and take the necessary steps to restore the public faith in New York’s legal system.”>

<Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) celebrated the news that Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.) is stepping down from his leadership post, recounting the recent shake-ups permeating across the Republican Party.

The Florida Republican said that McConnell, the current Republican National Committee (RNC) Chair Ronna McDaniel and former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) all got “86’d.”

McConnell announced Wednesday he would be vacating his Senate leadership post. McDaniel previously said in a statement that she would step down on March 8, while McCarthy was ousted from the Speakership last October after an effort led by Gaetz himself.

“We’ve now 86’d: McCarthy, McDaniel, McConnell,” Gaetz wrote in a Wednesday post on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter. “Better days are ahead for the Republican Party.”

The Florida congressman celebrated the development of all three Republican leaders leaving their positions, saying the GOP would be better off without them.

Gaetz has continued to throw barbs at McCarthy, proving their animosity has not settled since the former Republican leader left Congress. Gaetz has had issues with McCarthy for “breaking promises.”

Gaetz’s Wednesday reaction is similar to the one he had after the 2022 midterms, when his party failed to produce an anticipated “red wave” that would have given the Republican Party a bigger advantage in the lower chamber.

He mocked the three party leaders, writing “McCarthy, McConnell, McDaniel McFailure.”>

Maybe that ignorant twat should watch his back.

<Narcissists have a false self. They’re master illusionists. They behave like a little king or queen — whether bragging or sulking. Their whole personality is a charade crafted to deceive you into believing they are confident, superior, self-sufficient, likable, and caring. In studies, groups of people met with and liked a narcissist, but after 6 more interviews, they discerned the narcissist’s true nature and changed their mind.

Their personality is designed to impress and compensate for their hidden shame, exposed when their grandiosity doesn’t match reality. Most of the time, they will alter their perception of reality to protect their false self. An air of self-confidence and superiority inflates narcissists’ opinion of themselves, which shields them against unconscious feelings of inadequacy. It also shifts shame by projecting inferiority onto others. They distort, rationalize, twist facts, and delude themselves to avoid anything that may cause a chink in their armor.

They star in their grandiose fantasies of perfection and greatness, where they’re the most attractive, talented, powerful, smartest, strongest, and wealthiest. All this is to convince themselves and others that they’re superior, not inferior.

They’re not independent at all, but very dependent on what other people think of them or at least that people DO think about them. If you like or admire them, it inflates their ego and more powerful. They manipulate and try to control what others think in order to feel better about themselves, making narcissists codependent on recognition from others.

They’re hypervigilant and extremely sensitive to threats to their image and vigilantly attend to cues that could affect it in the eyes of others. To this end, they’ve refined their display of charm and utilize impression management. They constantly scan their environment to ensure that they have the most attention and power.

They appear friendly and likable, but this ruse is to make you like them and doesn’t mean that they care about you. Beware of dating a narcissist. Some play games and may love bomb you. They may even feign empathy and concern, but you can see through this in the way they treat and talk about others. In fact, research shows that all types of narcissists share the core trait of disagreeableness. Their needs come first and they will provoke arguments to have more power.

When charm fails to work, they use domination. Because they’re insecure and fearful, having power is their primary preoccupation. If you don’t like them, they’re satisfied that you envy or fear them. This strategy requires constant effort.

Thus they prefer hierarchical relationships, workplaces, and groups, like the military, politics, and corporate environment. They avoid egalitarian, intimate, or unfamiliar environments, where they feel insecure, become socially awkward, and often are inappropriate.

When they want to impress, they can act caring, but when it doesn’t suit their personal aims, their self-centered nature becomes evident. Other people’s needs or misfortunes are felt as burdens or inconveniences. Relationships are like business transactions. Their agenda is, “What’s in it for me?”

Although they may create the impression that they don’t need anyone or care about their relationships, in fact, they are extremely needy to receive their “narcissistic supply.” They make endless demands for attention, praise, and accommodations to ensure their comfort. When denied, they feel wounded and often lash out in rage and narcissistic abuse. In intimate relationships, as their abuse escalates, partners and coworkers become passive and submissive to avoid coming under attack and to maintain the relationship. By assuming a submissive role, you establish an unhealthy dynamic in relationships with a narcissist.

Don’t fall for their charade. Talk to supportive friends and professionals. Trust your instincts and get more information on narcissism.>

Recognise yerselves, do ya?

G'ahead: start whingeing Over There.

<“That government is best which governs least.”

That famous aphorism delightfully — and somewhat snarkily — illuminates what animated the Founders to form a democratic republic and break with the oppressive rule of the monarchy.

Practically since the day America was born, there’s been a national debate over government’s role.

Historically, on the right there’s been a push toward smaller government — “starve the beast” economic policy, fewer regulations, states’ rights, lower taxes, a leaner social welfare system.

And on the left, there’s typically been more optimism about what government can accomplish if unleashed — more public spending, income and wealth redistribution, more regulation, expanded social safety nets. Today, we find ourselves in an odd position, where one side isn’t advocating for bigger government or smaller government — but no government at all. That is, a government that is marked less by its size and entirely by its inability to do anything.

Whether we call it intransigence or obstructionism — and neither term is new to Washington — today’s Republicans seem utterly convinced that among their many expectations as members of Congress, solving problems isn’t one of them.

How else can we explain their inability to govern even themselves let alone the country?

The Republican Party writ large, as represented by chaos agents like Reps. Matt Gaetz and Marjorie Taylor Greene, has prioritized everything BUT solving problems over the past few years.

Division, purity tests, owning the libs, keeping their base angry and afraid, prostrating to Donald Trump, unleashing culture wars, and getting reelected are just some of the things that Republicans have decided are far more important than governing.

On immigration, Republicans infamously just rejected a bipartisan deal that would have given them more than they’ve ever gotten on border security, including things they’ve insisted are an urgent matter of national security.

Instead, they focused on getting Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas impeached — before their two week vacation.

And now, as a government shutdown looms, House Speaker Mike Johnson is still refusing to bring an aid package for Ukraine and Israel to the floor, insisting Congress must secure the border first — something, remember, it just punted on.

Johnson has also pushed to move the shutdown deadlines AGAIN, rather than sign any long-term funding bills.

While the immigration shenanigans are a perfect example of this Republican Party’s total indifference to governing, it’s hardly the only issue they’ve been unmoved to fix....>

<....After Trump’s Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, Republicans had no plan for addressing reproductive health concerns of millions of women and families. The sudden upheaval after 50 years of settled law left many in the crosshairs, from a 10-year-old Ohio rape victim to a Texas mom who required a life-saving abortion. And now, as that ruling also threatens to throw IVF access into limbo, Republicans still have no answers other than “fend for yourselves.”

On gun violence, Republicans have blamed everything BUT guns to avoid bringing any real solutions to the table. After yet another horrific school shooting in Nashville, Greene blamed “hormones like testosterone and medication for mental illness.”

Rep. Tim Burchett admitted candidly, “there’s not a whole heck of a lot you can do about it.”

And just last month, Trump told an Iowa audience to “get over it,” after a school shooting in the state a day earlier.

On climate change, an issue which many younger Republican voters are worried about, GOP lawmakers are more interested in removing the issue from federal oversight, rather than on any solutions that the public sector might be able to offer.

We can blame Trump for a lot of this — he was simply uninterested in policy, and doubly uninterested in solving problems unless it directly benefited him. But the party is now responding to voters who just want their grievances amplified, but not necessarily addressed in any meaningful way, like through policy or legislative solutions.

Being angry at the problem — and explicitly not solving it — is the Republican Party platform.

It’s a strategy that hasn’t resulted in many electoral wins over the past few years. But in running Trump again and digging in their heels, it seems the No Solutions GOP is tripling down on its commitment to do nothing.

I miss the days when we used to argue over how to solve problems, and criticize opponents for merely having the “wrong” solutions. Now, solutions are absent entirely.

To be sure, voters are disappointed in Democrats as well. On the border, crime, and the economy practical solutions have been few and far between.

Unless our parties can turn away from self-preservation and embrace a radical commitment to problem solving, our government — big or small — will remain ineffectual, unproductive, and deeply distrusted.>

<In a late Wednesday motion supporting reconsideration of a key ruling, the Special Counsel’s Office reiterated that attorneys for Donald Trump are playing a dangerous game by insisting on naming all witnesses in his Mar-a-Lago prosecution.

Special Counsel Jack Smith called on U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon to correct her “clear error” and to prevent “a manifest injustice,” writing that there is an “acutely palpable” risk that “harassment and retaliation that would likely follow from the public dissemination” of government witness names and their testimony in the case.

According to Smith, Trump lawyers’ motion to compel discovery led Cannon astray in early February, when she ruled that the Special Counsel’s Office “has not set forth a sufficient factual or legal basis warranting deviation from the strong presumption in favor of public access to the records at issue.”

While Cannon acknowledged that “witness safety and intimidation concerns can form a valid basis for overriding the strong presumption in favor of public access,” Smith has followed up by saying those concerns “more than satisfy the ‘good cause’ standard, and would satisfy even the heightened standard that the Court applied.”

The special counsel said that the heightened standard put forth by the Trump team — that “discovery material subject to a protective order cannot be shielded from public disclosure absent a heightened First Amendment showing of a compelling interest and narrow tailoring” — was “wrong both procedurally and substantively.”

“Those procedural and substantive missteps contributed to the Court’s conclusion that the Government was required, but failed, to satisfy a heightened First Amendment standard to safeguard from public disclosure materials under a protective order,” Smith wrote. “Regardless of how the Court arrived here, that conclusion was clear error, and nothing in the defendants’ response demonstrates otherwise.”

Smith added that U.S. Magistrate Judge Bruce Reinhart got the applicable standard right in the earliest days of the Trump prosecution when he wrote the “public and the media have a qualified right of access to judicial proceedings that can be overcome by a showing of good cause.”

Urging the judge not to “needlessly expose” the identities of “numerous witnesses, agents, and third parties,” the special counsel said the First Amendment does not demand “such an outcome.”

The special counsel ended by saying he intends to appeal if Cannon refuses to allow his “proposed redactions and sealing.”

Earlier Wednesday, Smith requested the “redaction and/or sealing of certain information” in defense filings and exhibits asserted the Trump lawyers were devoid of sympathy and concern for the well-being and safety of witnesses should they be identified publicly as the defense seeks.>

Time for Aileen QAnon to get another public slap-down.