Trump’s madness and method work for him

Chuck Otey's Pro Bono Barrister

August 6, 2018 By Charles F. Otey, Esq. Brooklyn Daily Eagle

Donald Trump. AP photo

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Hollywood: The Russians Are Coming! The Russians Are Coming!

Trump’s Security Team: The Russians Are Here! The Russians Are Here!

It seems to be a fair guess that many Americans open a newspaper every morning praying for a headline reading something like this: Mueller Report Charges Trump With “High Crimes & Misdemeanors.”

This would be a tough day for FOX News and it would present all kinds of challenges for diehard President Donald Trump backers like U.S. Sen. Mitch McConnell and U.S. Rep. Paul Ryan.

From a prosecutor’s view, Trump’s fate is probably already sealed given the amount of evidence Mueller’s team has amassed. Yet we pose the following question: Why does Trump score OK in polls and scare the bejeebies out of Republicans who live in deathly fear that their fate in the November election depends upon Trump’s survival, no matter the cost to our democracy and our way of life?

Actually, Trump’s key to his own day-to-day survival stares us in the face every six hours or so, but the pundits fail — or refuse to see — his “winning” modus operandi. So do most of us.

Trump’s Madness and Method Work for Him

Trump’s scheme is to dominate every six-hour news cycle with the kind of gibberish being uttered by “spokesmen” like Rudy Giuliani, plus mindless mocking of Robert Mueller and threats to “send back” all the Muslims. It is more than an ego run wild; it is part and parcel of a calculated method to force us to respond to every such idiotic utterance. It’s a trap into which the pundits are lured every day.

An ancient thinker once said, “Those whom the gods would destroy they first make mad!”

While we (many of us) are mad as hell and won’t take it anymore, it seems that this man’s contempt for lawyers, judges and the rule of law grows and grows.

His successful formula involves skirting the public’s focus away from his own crimes and instead to create continual “he said, she said” dustups on cable television.

His poll numbers go up because of high, heavy and unending exposure. It’s a longstanding media axiom: Repeat a lie a thousand times in a thousand ways and it becomes the truth.

At least it’s enough of a truth to keep skittish Republican leaders at bay and maintain the base Trump that recruited through five years of anti-Muslim race-baiting about President Barack Obama’s birth certificate.

No President has fawned so totally over a murderous dictator or bent over backward when a soulless tyrant so clearly, obviously and shamelessly placed his felonious hands at the throat of our democracy.

Trump’s Security Team: The Russians Are (Really) Coming!

A not-so-recent movie proclaiming “The Russians Are Coming! The Russians Are Coming” was a spoof and actually played off rising good feelings between this country and the USSR.

The other day, five of our top security officials — in direct opposition to the bromancing president — came out charging against Russia’s continuing assaults on our system, in effect warning, “The Russians Are Here! The Russians Are Here!”

The Mueller probe is doing very well. Count the indictments and pleas. But as soon another indictment has been lodged against one of Trump’s cohorts, the “Tweeter-in-Chief” changes the topic with another incredible claim or charge (e.g. Mueller, James Comey and The New York Times are conspiring to bring him down).

This charge — no matter how ridiculous and false — will run rampant on FOX News and will tempt more liberal pundits to lose focus on important issues and instead clog cable TV with arguments rebutting nonsense!

Despite appearances, polls and what the twit tweets, experienced lawyers know that Mueller has the goods on Trump. “The wheels of justice move slowly, but they move exceedingly fine,” the saying goes.

Notable Barristers Doing Notable Things

Plaudits to colleague Brooklyn Bar Association (BBA) President David M. Chidekel, who has been named to the Board of Directors of the very successful Brooklyn Volunteers Lawyers Project; he is a former president of the Kings County Inn of Court and a highly respected member of the criminal bar … Highly respected attorney Sara Gozo is lending a talented hand in the formation of the BBA’s Young Lawyers Committee, which is co-chaired by Frank Francis and Adam Kalish; they say the goal of the committee is to prepare young attorneys to be better leaders … Attorney Lizanne Fontaine was recently named chair of the Brooklyn Hospital Center’s Board of Trustees … Members of the Brooklyn Women’s Bar Association, including Justices Genine Edwards, Marsha Steinhardt and Joanne Quinones and attorney Susan Ianelli, were among those taking part in a novel “Paint and Sip” networking event, guided by Honeybee Arts owner Avilda Whittmore-Walker (“Each budding artist painted her own iteration of Lady Justice,” reported Brooklyn Eagle Legal Editor Rob Abruzzese … Attorney Joseph Vasile is taking the leadership of the Bay Ridge Lawyers Association (BRLA) — the most successful such neighborhood organization in the city — and will be assisted by Vice President Mary Ann Stathopoulos, Recording Secretary William Gillen, Treasurer Dominic Famulari and Corresponding Secretary Adam Kalish; outgoing BRLA president is Margaret Stanton.