The Bishop and the Butterfly: Murder, Politics, and the End of the Jazz Age

    Trump Shoots Federal Judge on Pearl Avenue NYC

    As court sessions at the Southern District of New York City concluded today, President Trump was seen driving from Trump Tower with a fleet of Secret Service personnel to a street outside the courthouse where he jumped out of his limousine and shot a judge. He was said to be accompanied by Acting White House Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney. Police have not identified the wounded judge, who is expected to survive, but they said the judge was not involved in any cases involving the President.

    Before that incident transpired, President Trump's lawyer William S. Consovoy made a statement today in a tax records case in that same federal court in New York City. He said that President Trump could legally shoot someone on Fifth Avenue, or anywhere, and be exempt from arrest, investigation or trial, because Mr. Trump won the election.  Consovoy said the President is too busy to answer for any crimes he has committed, up to and including murder, and cannot be held accountable except by impeachment. Congress is holding an inquiry on impeachment at this time, which President Trump has called "unfair", a "witch hunt" and like a "lynching".

    Senator Graham of South Carolina immediately stood up for the President, and expressed his condolences to the judge, wishing him a speedy recovery. Senator Graham said the President is naturally frustrated because the legal system is not allowing him to "confront the accusers."

    Senator Tim Scott also of South Carolina, and the only black Republican senator, concurred with Senator Graham saying “There’s no question that the impeachment process is the closest thing of a political death row trial...". He seemed to imply that it was understandable that President Trump would react in an aggressive self defense posture, as it was a life or death situation for the President.

    Meanwhile Republican Congress members stormed a secured room where sworn testimony was being given on the abuse of power by President Trump. A Republican senator present said of the day's events, which ended in gunfire on a street in Manhattan "it’s pretty hard to draw any hard and fast conclusions” about what is going on and where it will end..        (quotes are true, incidents added for sarcastic impact)

    Comments

    You had to spoil it with your disclaimer - shoulda added a Reuters or AP tagline. Besides, today's absurdity is tomorrow's same-old.


    I just hope Trump doesn't read this and get an idea to grab the news cycle for a day or two. He's enough of a reader to make it through the first sentence anyway.


    PICTURES, NO WORDS! You didn't read the memo, did you, fess up. But if you write this in Cyrillic, some of his aides will undoubtedly pick it up.


    YUGE RATINGS!!!



    P.S. Along the lines of great minds thinking alike, searching cartoons for those posted above, I ran across that a cartoonist did another version of your report a year ago for "Daily Shouts" @ The New Yorker, in a cartoon strip. But with more emphasis on the variety of GOP reaction.

    If Trump Shot Someone on Fifth Avenue by  September 5, 2018

    But his reactions are imagined, yours are real.


    Thanks for the link.

    Why shoot just anybody? And why 5th Avenue?

    The opportunity for Trump "going further rogue" may cross private discussions among those who have dealings with him.  While the more shocking possibilities, under current circumstances, will not make it into the New York Times or the Atlantic.


    It's happening:

    House Republicans Just Voted To Allow Severely Mentally Ill People To Buy Guns

    So Trump really might be able to get a gun to shoot someone on 5th Avenue. Not that Park Ave's too shabby to pop someone off either, but definitely not Broadway - way too pedestrian clientele, hardly any prestige in that.


    Trump could legally, and without consequences outside of impeachment by Democrats (which is by definition an illegitimate unfair unAmerican commie witch hunt by scum)  pull the switch to drop a GBU-31 on a federal courthouse. 

    It would be a strong statement by the President on the consequences of disloyalty.  The body count wouldn't matter, according to President Trump's lawyer William S. Consovoy's courtroom argument.


    Trump threatens witness live as she testifies to Congress and the American people:

    Everywhere Marie Yovanovitch went turned bad. She started off in Somalia, how did that go? Then fast forward to Ukraine, where the new Ukrainian President spoke unfavorably about her in my second phone call with him. It is a U.S. President’s absolute right to appoint ambassadors. BTW, You're lucky I didn't come down there with a gun, because I can shoot people too!".

    — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 15, 2019

    Jim Jordan Republican of Ohio sympathized with Trump's statement:

    “Look, the President has been frustrated with this relentless attack on him by the Democrats that started even before he was president. I think the American people can relate to the frustration,” 

    US Code 18 section 1512, Tampering with a Witness, Victim or Informant

    ...(b) Whoever knowingly uses intimidation, threatens, or corruptly persuades another person, or attempts to do so, or engages in misleading conduct toward another person, with intent to—

    (1)  influence, delay, or prevent the testimony of any person in an official proceeding; ....